Hand Signal Communication Training

[quietlife4me]

As a example…One sign I can’t seem to find is for “platform”. As in all the various training quarry and lakes have a platform or two and they are usually numbered, but I can’t seem to find any agreed signs for it. Anybody know?

Like: “follow me to platform 1”

 

[seattle_sailor]

Below you will find two free resources on underwater communication.

 

[Doc]

My fave

 

[Kendall Raine]

https://members.caves.org/store/viewproduct.aspx?id=11306031

+1

 

[Kendall Raine]

Hello all,

It occurs to me that I've never seen, or heard discussed, any formalized training for underwater hand signal communication. I know that some guides and instructors are much better at it than others, and I've even met guides who can seemingly transmit complete sentences directly into my cerebral cortex though a combination of hand signals, gestures, and timing. It is an art form, those who do it well.

So why isn't there any formalized training?

I'd love to get better at it, and I do work at it, and I have improved over time, but just as you can get somewhere faster with expert coaching than self-learning in many cases, it would be great to see people teaching this. I figured it would be a no-brainer for a YouTube channel, but if it already is, I haven't been able to find it.

Any thoughts, or can anyone point me in the direction where this is already happening?

Thanks!

Don’t forget wet notes. Hand signals are fine until they’re not. There’s always someone who doesn’t get it or speaks a different signal language.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Anyway, I am looking for instruction in better delivering the signals that I already know.

It's easy to ask a simple question and get a simple answer. I'm wanting to get better at having more complex conversations, and sometimes situations arise where there isn't a gesture for something. I know a slate is a possible workaround, but again, having dove in the past with guides who were incredibly conversational underwater, I want to develop such skills myself.

As to the first point, it's almost impossible to deliver TOO slowly. In a stressed situation, or maybe you're diving deep and a little woozy (narc'd, as they say), it's amazing how difficult it can be to interpret someone else's hand signals. But you knew that.

As to the question of how to be more, uh, fluent, I would keep in mind that some of those divemasters/guides have developed a specialized vocabulary for the type of dive they are leading, such as signs for specific types of marine life. When my wife and I were doing training dives together, we developed a specialized vocabulary for the things we were doing. As an example, someone in a post above mentioned "platform." You and your buddy just have to agree on a vocabulary. The guides are good at communicating certain things they need to communicate every day on the type of dives they lead. They may not be as "conversational" when faced with a novel concept to convey.

A slate (or wetnotes booklet) should not be considered a "workaround." Cave divers and tech divers use these tools frequently, and it's not because they are poorly practiced with the conventional hand signals. If something may be too complex to convey with the hand signals listed in all the links that others in this thread have posted, then maybe it isn't worth attempting to convey it with hand signals. That is a classic use case for the slate (or wetnotes). In some of my classes my instructors pulled out the wetnotes and wrote something to me on numerous occasions, because that was the most efficient and unambiguous way of communicating it. It may be more efficient to spend 30 seconds pulling out the wetnotes, writing a message, and showing it to your buddy, than to spend 10 seconds attempting to convey something with uncommon hand signals, seeing your buddy return a question mark signal (assuming he knows that one) to indicate he didn't understand, and then trying again, and then maybe after fully a couple of minutes the buddy finally returning an okay sign, indicating he understood, and after all that effort it turns out he really did not understand.

I believe the key in communicating is to use the right tool to convey the concept, whether it's a hand signal or a written note, and to take whatever time it takes to clearly convey it so that it's likely to be understood on the first try. There is no need to rush.

 

[Dann-Oh]

As a example…One sign I can’t seem to find is for “platform”. As in all the various training quarry and lakes have a platform or two and they are usually numbered, but I can’t seem to find any agreed signs for it. Anybody know?

Like: “follow me to platform 1”

Not to sounds like an ass but what are you discussing in your pre dive brief? If I'm diving with a new dive buddy (if I haven't dove with this person in the last 4 weeks, you are a new buddy) I will discuss hand signals with them. You can make up your own signal or repurpose a signal if you discuss it with your buddy ahead of time. Its best not to over think it.

Example:
Phrase: follow me to platform #1

Hand signal sequence:
#1: I (point to yourself)
#2: navigate (open hand, rotate it like a compass needle)
#3: platform (repurpose the hover hand signal from the open water class)
#4: Platform # (signal #1)

Phots of Sequence:
#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

I also always wear a wrist slate incase hand signals are an issue.

 

[Yellowdog]

I have this app on my iphone and review it before diving. My children have it as well so that we are on the same page. ‎Scuba Dive Signals

 

[tursiops]

I have this app on my iphone and review it before diving. My children have it as well so that we are on the same page. ‎Scuba Dive Signals

The PADI App also has hand signs.

 

[quietlife4me]

Not to sounds like an ass but what are you discussing in your pre dive brief?

You’re not being an ass - the point is there doesn’t seem to be a standard. “Hover” is as good as any.