How do you communicate pressure?

[String]

Or just use metric. Far easier

Closed fist == 50 bar
T shape with hands = 100 bar
then fingers for each 10 bar over

So never more than 3 "moves" to communicate gas.

Thirds is overkill for open water no stop diving and artificially limits dive time.


Showing the SPG is another possibly better option - it eliminates somone mis-signalling or misreading the signal. Also provides a sanity check in the even of narcosis etc.

 

[James Bond boat entry]

I taught my students to give 1, 2 or three fingers (thousands) with right hand and touch left upper arm at the same time, the hundreds just fingers palm out

During my DSAT tec course, we where taugh to finger 0-5 palm out and 6-9 palm facing your own body and indicate all the characters (1-5-0-0psi)

In the future, I will probably teach it the tec way, better to get them into the DIR habit

 

[bill-da-ho]

Show my buddy my pressure gauge. Seems pretty simple to me.

This is what we do to, quick and simple, no guessing

 

[Blackwood]

We use the hand signals standardized in NACD's publication Hand Signals for Scuba Diving. Counting is done as described by Do-It-Easy in Post 5.

In this case we wouldn't spell out each digit. If I'm at 26 hundred PSI, I'll show two - six. Since we're discussing remaining gas, it's understood that I don't mean 260 or 26.

 

[jsado]

We have no communication issues whatsoever because we speak fluently in conversation using sign language...... no we don't. BUT that would be awesome.

 

[John_B]

Eighteen hundred PSI is: right index finger on my left forearm (one thousand) and then with my right hand I flash five, then three (eight hundred). Twenty six hundred PSI is: right index and middle fingers on my left forearm (two thousand) and then with my right hand I flash five, then one (six hundred).

I use the "timeout" T for turn pressure and then thumb the dive with my thumb. If I thumb the dive without the "timeout" T it means I'm thumbing the dive for some other reason than gas.

If my buddy for whatever reason doesn't seem to get it, I'll show my pressure gauge. Since its only a pressure gauge and not a computer or attached to a compass or whatever, it is very easy to read.

The important thing is to cover this with a new buddy on the boat or at the surface before descending. With an instabuddy I personally do this on the boat when talking about primary and backup regs, releases, weights etc. since I don't use the same jacket BC and octo reg that they might have rented from the dive op.

 

[Charlie99]

I use what I've agreed upon before the dive with my buddy.

With insta-buddies, typically repeated groups of "1 finger per 100psi" using just one hand.

With someone with either GUE or cave training, 1 handed signals where hand horizontal is 6 to 9.

I want air pressure information above and beyond turn pressure notification, since this allows me to tailor the dive route according to the consumption rate of my buddy.

 

[friscuba]

I completely agree with Spectrum...

Full hand flashed for each 500psi, then 1-4 fingers for the additional. Just about anyone who is not challenged can learn this system in 8 seconds.

Keep it simple. This method only gets confusing if you have 2500 psi or greater left and either you or your buddy can't count beyond "4".

The signals involving changing hand angles just aren't widely enough taught to be recognizeable by many. The ones that involve slapping your arm or hand don't take in to account that a lot of people wear dark wetsuits and matching gloves... tough to even see the fingers in most lighting conditions. Anything involving two hands or body parts involves too much for some people to keep track of. Signals involving one's, ten's and thousands and zeros get bad enough that I've seen people giving the signals completely foul up (I've seen 2000 psi as both 200 and 20,000 by people using this method).

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

If a diver looked at the spg and flashed a one handed 2 when my air was between 2600 and 1800, I am smart enough to know he has 2000 psi. If his eyes are the size of half dollars, I am smart enough to know he is at 200 psi. If a shark swims up behind you while you are flashing 5's at me, I might wonder if it was 1500, 2000, or 2500. I like the earlier post where three signals is enough. If it takes four hand signals, I might already be chasing down some other noob. I tell everyone I dive with that I am multi-lingual with regard to pressure, and if I'm confused I will just come look at your gauge. I also don't see what the prob would be with both hands showing a 5 and a 2, meaning 7 or 17 if a single digit was thrown first. That's what I really like; throw each number.

 

[Colliam7]

How do you communicate your pressure numbers to your buddy underwater?

The recurring theme across the comments, both here and in other links such as the one Halemano cited, is that there are a variety of methods, and the most critical element is for buddies to agree on a mutually acceptable, AND IMMEDIATELY UNDERSTANDABLE, method before the start of a dive.