Do you always dive with a Whistle?

[Divin'Papaw]

I use the Fox 40 and take it with me on every dive. I attach it to my left chest d-ring using a double ended bolt snap. Not sure if it works underwater. Never thought to try. I have it just in case I have an emergency on the surface and need to alert others. Heck of alot better than shouting. I typically dive quarries or freshwater lakes and there are always other divers around. The sound of a whistle is universally known as a signal for help, so I'm sure I'd get other's attention pretty quickly.

 

[brutus_scuba]

Funny enough the university I attend which shall remain un-named is very strict about gear in the pools not being used outside the pools and the gear we really dive with not being used in the pools, and the bcds for the pools have whistles attached but the real bcds don't.
Go Buckeyes....(bet you can't guess what school I"m talking about)

 

[Doc]

As far as ditching gear goes...if you had a whistle attached to your BC and you ditched the BC, yeah, you'd be out of luck. A couple of options would be:

1) Take the whistle off the BC before you ditch the rest of your gear and keep it with you. You could possibly stuff in down the front of your wetsuit or up your sleeve.

Ain't gonna happen. Too much manipulation under stress, too easy to lose. Why fight the obvious simple solution? Neck loop.

2) Ditch just the tank and reg. (and weights, of course) and keep the BC for floatation. It would be pretty handy to have even without SCUBA attached. You could float for hours with it and always inflate orally if needed.

Absolutely correct. Good pre-visualization. But.... "ditch the weights" maybe! You might need weights to cause a face-up floating orientation for you or a stranded buddy. Discard what is hurting you, not what you don't need at that instant. Even an empty tank floats.

If you're floating with others, that's where an additional use for the 25'+ of line on your sausage comes in. Good to "rope" everyone together with.

 

[octotat]

I carry a Storm whistle, and have actually used it once. On a drift dive in Belize, our group popped up a 1/4 from the boat. The DM blew a police whistle till he was blue and the folks in the boat didn't hear it. It was windy as hell and we were drifting farther and farther from the dive boat. I had JUST gotten my Storm whistle. I blew one hard long burst on that thing and the folks in the boat immediately turned and saw us. I can now vouch for their claim of being 10 x louder than a police whistle. That thing nearly made me deaf, but it was sure nice to see the boat coming to pick us up. I also carry a safety sausage and a line. I always inflate my sausage below the surface and surface with it extended above my head when there is a chance of boat traffic.

 

[Guba]

Sorry for the big delay in replying....

Yup, the line is so the sausage can be deployed from the safety stop. In open water, the line simply makes it easier to monitor a consistent depth and gives me more opportunity to look around instead of gluing my eyes to my depth gauge. It also makes a great reference point for divers to congregate during the safety stop. Finally, the float signals the boat to start heading our way before we actually surface.

 

[paperdesk]

Has anyone compared the Fox 40 whistle or LP's "Jet Scream" whistle. Either of these better than the "Storm" whistle? I'm not currently interested in an air horn or anything like that, just a little piece of plastic that makes a bunch of noise

 

[CrateCookie]

Hmmm. Has anyone else tried the Storm whistles underwater?

Someone above mentioned that Fox 40 whistles work underwater - which model?
http://www.fox40whistle.com/

Thanks, trig

All I could get out of mine was a puny warble. It makes a sound but not much of one.

 

[paperdesk]

This taken from "stormwhistles.com"

"This whistle performs in all conditions, in any weather or safety situation: blown and heard on land, up to 1/2 mile, and even underwater, up to 50 feet. A high-impact, non-corroding thermoplastic protective housing is easy to grasp, and the patented double chamber design allows it to be blown when held right side up or upside down, forcing all water to be purged when the whistle is blown."

Maybe if you turn the whistle upside down underwater it will work better?

This place http://www.bestglide.com/Storm_Whistle_Info.html claims the storm whistle is much louder than the fox40 and they sell both of them.

 

[Paco]

Yes, I do.

 

[ClayJar]

Maybe if you turn the whistle upside down underwater it will work better?

Which orientation are you calling "upside-down"? What I would call "right side up" puts the output hole from the resonance chamber below the whistling aperture (which is itself below the blow tube). The resonance chamber keeps the whistling aperture in an airspace, which is necessary for proper operation.

I forgot to blow the whistle underwater on my last dive trip... maybe next time...