Dive Knife and Wrist Compass

[nubediver]

Hello Friends,
Wanted to know if a dive knife and wrist compass are really useful tools in diving. I am going for my AOW and it seems that they are mandatory for AOW. What is a recommended dive light since I will be doing some night diving. I am thinking of buying a UK SL4 Dive Light

 

[Troutmaster]

A knife (or other cutting tool) is a peice of safety equipment and I am shocked you don't have one now. Your open water training did not require a knife? Knife or shears preferably both. Knife should not be a huge "pig sticker" but something with a smaller blade and a good handle. Depending on where you are diving and what you entanglement hazards are you can pick a good cutting tool.

You need a compass. Mine is on my console and that is not really ideal, wrist is better, but on my console I can't forget it. So yes, you need a wrist compass as well.

As far as what light to do night diving, there are a lot of factors there, I would need alot more information about the type of diving you are doing to make a recomendation.

 

[cmburch]

I guess it depends on the situation. My first few years of diving, I used my dive knife once while in the water. I have AOW NAUI and PADI. They did not require a knife for the classes my wife and I took. For night diving, it may be best to carry 2 lights. I use eLED's. A C4 as my primary and Q40 strapped to my gun as a backup. I use to use an SL4 as my nightdive backup and normal daytime light. A compass is necessary for navigation underwater and when it is foggy. I carry a knife now for spearfishing.

 

[idocsteve]

You need a compass for AOW because you are taught and you need to be able to demonstrate, more advanced navigation techniques, namely walking, and then swimming a square course using your compass. Even if you never intend to navigate your way around a dive site, it's nice to be ABLE to if you need to, and having a general idea of where you are and where you need to go makes the dive more enjoyable, and safer. As compared to blindly swimming around and hoping someone else will get you back to the anchor line...or just staying close enough to it that you don't get lost.

The compass does not need to be wrist mounted. Mine is on a retractable slate, which I feel is a nice way to combine two pieces of gear. I don't use gauges as I have an AI wrist mounted dive computer.

Regarding a knife, to dive without one is foolish because if you ever dive a wreck there's a good chance you'll come in contact with monofilament line from fisherman who...fish on wrecks because that's where the fish are. Get a knife that has a hook on it so you can snag the line and slice it, better yet would be a backup pair of shears that can cut through just about anything.

 

[Crowley]

location location location.

In some areas a dive knife would not be required and indeed in some areas they are prohibited by local regulations. On the other hand, if you're diving in an area frequented by fishermen, or in kelp forests where entanglement is a possibility, then a dive knife is an essential piece of safety apparatus. Knives with a flat bladed end that can act as a screwdriver / prying device are probably better than a full on underwater samurai sword.

At many of the dive sites in which I work, a compass is also not required. the fringe reefs go up, the dropoff goes down, so as long as you can tell the difference in 30metre visibilty, a compass is a nice thing to have but if you get lost on that type of reef you have other things you need to worry about! Again, on the other hand, in poor visibility or in flat locations, it is an essential piece of equipment.

I would advise you own them, and certainly carry them until you know for sure you won't need them.

As for lights, UK SL4s are okay; I found a great little torch from Intova which suits my purposes and isn't tooooo bright; I used to carry both my backup and primary as the same model, until some theiving b*****d stole them. I recommend LED over bulbs, as they are often brighter, less likely to fail, and require fewer batteries in the long run.

Hope that helps,

C.

 

[Troutmaster]

In some areas a dive knife would not be required and indeed in some areas they are prohibited by local regulations. On the other hand, if you're diving in an area frequented by fishermen, or in kelp forests where entanglement is a possibility, then a dive knife is an essential piece of safety apparatus. C.

Would you recommend shears in areas where knives are prohibited? I am not picking a fight, you obviously have more experiance than I do and I want your opinion.

I can not fathom a case where the weight of a cutting device of some kind would outweigh the risk of entanglement, no matter how slight. I have never has to cut myself loose, but almost everwhere I dive has some fishermen, just seems like really good insurance no matter where you are.

 

[njedrn]

I once had an issue while descending onto a deep wreck with poor visibility, where I got vertigo. I had momentarily lost all orientation - I didn't know up from down, I couldn't even tell if I was upside down or not. I was on the verge of panic. I purposely slowed my breathing, watched my bubbles, then once I saw them rise, I checked my compass. I then knew east/west, north/south. This was enough information for me to regain my composure, relieve the vertigo, and continue the rest of the dive without incident. Although my compass was not the only factor in my salvage @ 85ft... it certainly gave my mind some direction to focus on while abating the panic.

I will never dive without one.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

As I often do, I agree with Crowley's post above.

In all my dives (hundreds off Key Largo, thousands in Hawaiian waters) I have never needed a knife from an emergency/safety standpoint. I have used dive knifes as tools working on dive gear, but not on a dive. I have cut fishing line wrapped around reef, on reef cleaning dives; shears work better for that. Not carrying a knife is probably at the top of the "standard of training most often violated" list.

A wrist compass is not required by any standard I know of. Most of my employers have lost so many compasses during OW & AOW training dives that they are all compass Nazi's now, so I just take my compass out of my console and give it to the students for the compass skills; then immediately put it back in my console when compass skills are done. There are many ways to take a compass on a dive; all satisfy standards, even a hose mount.

hose mount



Oceanic 3-gauge console​

 

[Crowley]

Would you recommend shears in areas where knives are prohibited? I am not picking a fight, you obviously have more experiance than I do and I want your opinion.

I can not fathom a case where the weight of a cutting device of some kind would outweigh the risk of entanglement, no matter how slight. I have never has to cut myself loose, but almost everwhere I dive has some fishermen, just seems like really good insurance no matter where you are.

Yeah for sure - shears are a good alternative. In my current location fishing is entirely prohibited and rather well enforced so the risk really is slim to nil. We also have, on average, 30 metre vis, and no giant kelp to risk entangling in. The most use I get from my knife is as a tank banger! If I'm diving one of the local wrecks then I always take both a knife and a compass... just in case.

I think both cutting tools and compasses are essential pieces of equipment for a diver, just in many locations they are not really necessary.

Cheers,

C.

 

[SandyRobinson]

I view a cutting device whether it is a knife, Z-knife, or shears as a safety device for reasons mentioned above and always carry at least one depending on the dive.

I do not always carry a compass on a wreck but I do on a reef. I would suggest a wrist bungeemount over a console.

All of my night dives are in the Keys with pretty good conditions. In my opinion, you do not need a bright light with those conditions. I use a less powerful light so I do not blind everything. Make sure you get a backup light. A C4 and Q40 would be great for good conditions IMO. If you are making night dives in other locations, I would get opinions of local divers,