How to Communicate Air Level

[do it easy]

Okay, so how do I signal 4500 for that tank the PSI instructor showed us a sell sheet for? Neither he not any of us have ever seen one, and they probably don't make them anymore (or any less?), but still, it's *technically* a valid question.

I would flash four fingers sideways with the knuckles facing away 9 with one hand

 

[Rainer]

All this talk... it's quite simple.

Um, 9 is "ok" and 10 is "we're out of here".

 

[yukoneer]

Most people would be able to distinguish the difference and timing of signs.

 

[SkullDeformity]

Rainer, you're just fighting it because it makes too much sense. You can easily differentiate between thumbing a dive and 10, and ok and a 9. Instead of a 90 degree angle between thumb and hand, make it a fist with thumb slightly extended, not to mention its a different motion entirely. 9, you angle your hand differently and have no circle created.

 

[do it easy]

I think there is one hand sign that we can all agree on

 

[diver 85]

Hehe... I *knew* I should've used a prime number...

Oh, wait...

Okay, so how do I signal 4500 for that tank the PSI instructor showed us a sell sheet for? Neither he not any of us have ever seen one, and they probably don't make them anymore (or any less?), but still, it's *technically* a valid question.

Anyway, that doesn't work well for stops, and having a arbitrary bases for pressure, depth, stop time, etc. would be quite... well, fun, actually, but that's beside the point.

As long as all out gauges, timers, computers, and all are made for base 10, it makes sense to signal in base 10, as transliterations require no counting.


(Incidentally, be careful using your five fingers as bits to signal in binary. People tend to get upset around the number four. )

.........4500 would be.......index, middle, ring, & pinky from your right hand laid out flat on your left forearm(that's 4000 psi) then all 5 fingers pointing straight up(that's 500) so 4000 +500 = 4500 psi........You can add 2 quick ok (fingers forming a circle for the 2 zeros in 4500) signs but it's not necessary .....

OR if he/she gives you the question mark, pull he/she by the yoke toward you & show he/she your fricking SPG,-----now, hopefully they're not an uncorrected presbyope making a dive(& can't see jack **** without their Rx)...........

 

[Rainer]

It's both a logical system (1 finger = 100psi) [how you don't understand that is beyond me.] and there's nothing ambiguous about five fingers equals 500 PSI. Please explain how that's ambiguous. If you mean you could miss a sign, sure, that's true for ANY system. In this case, you'd be off by 500 PSI. I'd never accept a response that far off from what should be expected and I'd have my buddy sign again.

 

[ClayJar]

yukoneer: I can't make 6, 7, or 8 well in dry gloves. As Rainer noted, 9 is OK, and 10 is thumbing the dive. (If you're wondering, for a one-handed three [or eight] in dry gloves, we use thumb and first two fingers spread wide, which avoids the fact that pinky and ring fingers are often not completely independent -- when I try to do ASL numeral six, my ring finger is almost perpendicular to my palm.)

Rainer: Basically, as I touched on earlier, I and my buddies appreciate generalizing where possible. Having one set of digits that are usable for everything is philosophically preferred, even if things like "five two" would save a digit from "seven, zero, zero". We also tend to exchange information much more often than many people, apparently, which may mean we're all obsessive-compulsive to a point, but we consider that a good thing. Whether it's our dive sites and profiles (which lend themselves to an early dive consumption check and branching-possibility dive plans) or that we dive with less-experienced people (who *definitely* lend themselves to consumption checking), we'd have four or even five flashed fives.

(If I'm leading a dive with several fairly inexperienced buddy teams, being able to read digits is a lot easier than counting over and over... I don't know why, but my symbolic math brain doesn't fatigue as quickly as my counting fingers brain.)

 

[Rainer]

With new divers, I'd just have them show me the gauge.

yukoneer: I can't make 6, 7, or 8 well in dry gloves. As Rainer noted, 9 is OK, and 10 is thumbing the dive. (If you're wondering, for a one-handed three [or eight] in dry gloves, we use thumb and first two fingers spread wide, which avoids the fact that pinky and ring fingers are often not completely independent -- when I try to do ASL numeral six, my ring finger is almost perpendicular to my palm.)

Rainer: Basically, as I touched on earlier, I and my buddies appreciate generalizing where possible. Having one set of digits that are usable for everything is philosophically preferred, even if things like "five two" would save a digit from "seven, zero, zero". We also tend to exchange information much more often than many people, apparently, which may mean we're all obsessive-compulsive to a point, but we consider that a good thing. Whether it's our dive sites and profiles (which lend themselves to an early dive consumption check and branching-possibility dive plans) or that we dive with less-experienced people (who *definitely* lend themselves to consumption checking), we'd have four or even five flashed fives.

(If I'm leading a dive with several fairly inexperienced buddy teams, being able to read digits is a lot easier than counting over and over... I don't know why, but my symbolic math brain doesn't fatigue as quickly as my counting fingers brain.)

 

[Robert Phillips]

you do know what the word means, correct?

What he is so ambiguously stating is that if you flash 5's on a dive out here, we'll laugh at you and you'll look like a dork!