How do you personalize your markers?

[flymolo]

I write my name in black sharpie

 

[The Chairman]

I 3D print mine in two different colors.

The white is glow in the dark. These are just PLA, but I'll be printing the next ones ASA. I add a small steel plate on the back and then a magnate turns it into a name badge.

 

[halocline]

I've found a sharpie w/ my last name and initials to be good enough. The likelihood of a complete 0 viz where you need to 'feel' your marker is largely blown out of proportion. I'm sure I'll get screamed at but so be it. No many people use bread clips like I do in the caves I dive. I save arts and crafts day for my kids school projects, not bedazzling my cave markers.

I did the same thing until I had a dive with someone whose intials were similar to mine, and we both had white markers. So I decided to make my markers obviously identifiable from some distance and difficult to mistake by touch. I used silver and black sharpies to mark a nice pattern in San Antonio Spurs colors (an added benefit) and made really obvious shape mods. Now I see them right away even if there’s 5 other teams on the same tie in.

 

[InWay2Deep]

I did the same thing until I had a dive with someone whose intials were similar to mine, and we both had white markers. So I decided to make my markers obviously identifiable from some distance and difficult to mistake by touch. I used silver and black sharpies to mark a nice pattern in San Antonio Spurs colors (an added benefit) and made really obvious shape mods. Now I see them right away even if there’s 5 other teams on the same tie in.

Funny you mention that. For the first time ever last week I dove w/ a guy w/ the same initials as me. A few weeks prior I had gone though all my cookies and written my last name in full on them in addition to my initials.

 

[inquis]

I go with initials with a silver sharpie on red REMs, so that's somewhat less common. I just do tourist caves and no wiggly-tight restrictions where a total silt-out is likely at the jump.

 

[kensuf]

I've found a sharpie w/ my last name and initials to be good enough. The likelihood of a complete 0 viz where you need to 'feel' your marker is largely blown out of proportion. I'm sure I'll get screamed at but so be it. No many people use bread clips like I do in the caves I dive. I save arts and crafts day for my kids school projects, not bedazzling my cave markers.

This.

 

[kensuf]

I did the same thing until I had a dive with someone whose intials were similar to mine, and we both had white markers. So I decided to make my markers obviously identifiable from some distance and difficult to mistake by touch. I used silver and black sharpies to mark a nice pattern in San Antonio Spurs colors (an added benefit) and made really obvious shape mods. Now I see them right away even if there’s 5 other teams on the same tie in.

I use my last name. Thankfully I don't know many other Sallots that cave dive.

But lord, I can name at least four Ken's that live in the area...

 

[halocline]

I go with initials with a silver sharpie on red REMs, so that's somewhat less common. I just do tourist caves and no wiggly-tight restrictions where a total silt-out is likely at the jump.

Regardless, I was taught that personal markers had to be identifiable by touch, which is easy to do, and so in my mind there’s no reason not to. Here are mine:

 

[caveandreas]

I mark my NDMs with my initials and a running number, and my DMs with a random unique word, team name, and year, so they are uniquely identifiable. I don’t do any crazy customization to my NDMs because I think the problem they are intended to solve is more of an internet problem than a real-world issue.

The people I see using heavily customized NDMs are usually not the ones spending half their dives in zero visibility, even if they might be experienced instructors. I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on the importance of feeling your unique style of NDM. The scenario where this would matter involves two teams dropping cookies on both sides of a DM in absolutely zero visibility. That’s not really a realistic situation to optimize your diving around. Almost zero visibility isn’t uncommon, but complete blackout conditions are quite rare. Now multiply that rarity by navigation that can be approached from two directions, two teams arriving at the same spot from opposite directions, and the second team deciding to continue, knowing another team is already there, things start to get a bit silly.

That said, the best way I’ve found to mark them is by using a metal punch and then coloring over it with a sharpie. This way, the markings stay visible even after years in the cave.

 

[LFMarm]

Thanks all for the thoughtful recommendations. For the record, I decided to do the following:

• Name and progressive number with a permanent marker for ease of note taking
• Drilling holes for 0 viz identification
• Adding some reflective tape to increase visibility from a distance in good visibility

While I agree that 0 viz is unlikely in the kind of diving I do, it doesn't take much effort to drill holes and it doesn't take functionality away from the markers (e.g., I don't like adding zip ties because it may make staking markers more tricky).