Does anyone else give the okay sign?

[Cacia]

we get nervous when tourist divers jump and sink right away unless they obviously have experience.

If an instructor is already in the water ...or DM...then he is watching them underwater. If the dive guide is on the boat, he likes to know they survived the entry., and is free to turn his attention back to the divers striding off the boat and gear checks, etc.

Here, we consider it poor form to put divers we have never seen in the ocean without a staff person in the water in case they have a problem....of course once you have dove with them (we don't do check out dives, really) then it is a bit different. But the first dive in a few years, or new gear for Christmas, straight off the Chicago flight...most operators here prefer a staff in the water and at the very least an okay sign.

Honestly, I think our surface conditions exceed anyplace else I have ever been...which is a recipe for problems because, no offense, but we get the most unfit divers on the Honolulu junkets....hey I LIKE the diving here but we have a different clientele, it is a fact. Conventions...cheap packages, give us many who are weak, weak, weak on the surface. And it is not a swimming pool out there like Coz. I am surprised we don't lose more struggling on the surface.

Discover scuba? OW #1, 2 or three? yes...we like the okay sign. We also use it every time we dive for the boat mooring to signal that the captain can now approach us as we are holding the line and ready to clip off.

 

[fairybasslet]

You *are* aware that there have been no documented cases of anyone successfully arguing with Walter, eh?

(Note that while I concede the point that one *should* be okay on an entry, even if something happens, I consider it a sign of respect to honor the boat operator's wishes. If it pleases them to have me give an okay, so be it, necessary or not.)

Exactly. It's a matter of good manners. Besides, not every diving situation allows you to descend right away. In the Flower Gardens, for example, we were told to give the ok, swim to the line, wait for your buddy, then go together to the mooring line to descend.
I guess giving the ok after an entry is easy for me to do because I normally don't jump in with my camera and swim back to the platform to retrieve it from the one of the crew.

 

[Canadian.Diver]

Everytime! Its a reflex. If you don't do it there certainly is something wrong, either you don't remember your training or you don't care, either way theres something wrong with that.

 

[Walter]

In the Flower Gardens, I swam to the down line underwater.

we get nervous when tourist divers jump and sink right away unless they obviously have experience.

Unfortunately, with the current situation, we all have to assume unknown divers can't dive. It shouldn't be that way. Damned low standards anyway.

 

[xiSkiGuy]

It think it depends on the individual boat operators and they should make their procedures known to you in the pre-dive briefing. The op I use in Morehead City requests negative entries and wants you to meet up/solve any issues on the hang line.

 

[Tigerman]

You are aware that you should be holding your mask and regulator in place during an entry? You are aware you shouldn't be diving unless you've mastered no mask breathing? You are aware there are two easy methods of recovering your regulator and that you have a spare in case you don't get it as quickly as you should?

How would those on shore even know your knife needed to be reattached? Why would they come after you?

Yeah, I am. I am also aware that even experienced divers get into problems from time to time, regardless of what they should and shouldnt do. Its not like your HP hose is supposed to blow, but it happens..
How much time do you really save by NOT giving the ok when you are in the water? 10 secons? Oooh, I can use those 10 seconds for work later in the day! YAY!

If you start moving around grabbing your feet and messing around with things in the water without people knowing *** youre doing, people CAN get the impression something is wrong.. But never mind, if you dont want to know whats going on and save 10 seconds for going to work in the evening, go right ahead..

 

[Lloyd Jones]

I am a high school teacher (Marine Studies) in Queensland, Australia - we also teach snorkeling and scuba - I insist all my students (about 200 per year) give the OK signal on entering the water and surfacing, even in the pool when snorkeling.

Students are given a Skills Mark at the end of each semester and the OK signal is one of the criteria.

 

[UWupnorth]

I dive a lot with people who have many hundreds of dives and we all always signal OK after entry from anything other than a sloping bank you wade down.

 

[Canadian.Diver]

What do turn signals when driving have to do with this discussion?

This discussion is not about the OK signal underwater, but we can start one of those if you'd like. It is about giving the OK signal (with both arms or one arm touching the hand to the head, not the hand signal) to those on the boat in two situations. In one of those situations, the signal makes sense. In the other, it's ridiculous, if you aren't OK, don't get in the water. When I get in the water, I'm ready to descend, If I wasn't ready to descend, I'd stay on the boat and get ready. My entry is my signal that I'm OK.

:shakehead Wow, I am amazed that someone with your experience would have such a strange prespective on this topic. I know for a fact that people on this board could post thousands of stories of things that happened to them only upon entry into the water. The thought that the OK signal is a one way street is rather short sighted. It is just as often a question as it is a reponse. You may very well enter the water and think that your OK and give the OK sign , but others may noticed that your tank became dislodged from the entry and is ready to dive on its own , or that new piece of expensive gear is now floating off into the sunset. I have both witness and experienced such situations many times and the problems were adverted because the 2 seconds it took to give the OK sign they were made aware from others of something they didn't / couldn't see.

 

[runamonk]

I do everytime, it's a good habit to keep up. Just in case someone is paying attention.