Insane hand signals Thumbs Up = Bad

[PerroneFord]

theskull, that signal you described sounds a lot like the cave signal for line entanglement. I'm trying to picture it...

 

[String]

I've had to rethink a few hand signals lately when wearing 3 finger mitts as some arent possible.

I do use a signal for gas switch but as far as im aware its not a standard and just one the people ive dive with agree on.
In my club we have a few "custom" signals too that tend to cause confusion outside of it.

 

[Colliam7]

First, thumbs up does not mean bad. It means ascend. It does not mean anything else in diving. It does not mean end the dive, it does not mean surface.

Interesting comment. It was my impression that thumbs up in technical diving, at least as taught in the PADI Tec level 1 and Tec Deep courses, meant 'End the dive'. I agree that the opportunity exists for a bit of confusion.

 

[Thalassamania]

Hand signal story

 

[String]

Ive seen thumbs up used to ascend to next stop depth or leave the bottom with technical style diving, i've certainly never been taught it means surface. Having said that i tend to use a custom signal to go shallower. Personal preference though, not aware of any strict standard that holds true for all or even most agencies.

 

[mrjimboalaska]

I was always taught thumb up was "end the dive" anyone can thumb the dive anytime...waving the pinky finger was to ascend to next stop depth. I've always used the horizontal palm in an upward motion in order to show moving to a shallower depth when fun diving if I have a buddy along.
I guess it all depends on the teams agreed to hand signals......

 

[ClayJar]

Hand signal story

I love that story!

Oh, and if anyone's not too familiar with ScubaBoard, you click the thread name in the upper left to get to the thread to get the second half, or just go directly to the second half of Thalassamania's hand signal story. Trust me, you don't want to miss it!

 

[Archangel]

No worries, you'll learn.

I'll stick to wetnotes, thank you very much.

I second that, and add, just dive with your buddy enough that the "sixth sense" between you grows. Then you can just feel the needs of each other.

And, oh yes, work on neutral horizontal buoyancy and trim.

Tevis

 

[Sam Miller III]

Actually I do (you, me and Jim are probably the only ones who remember) that was why that sheet stuck in my mind. Could one of the SS folks have been involved in one of the early Scripps courses?

BTW: I think Connie died in 1960. "CDO" is another term I haven't heard for many decades, its "DSO" now.

___________________________________________________

We all southern California friends and played in the same sand box at that time.

Connie and Andy were well known in the SoCal community and associated with LA County program as occasional lecturers to the UICCs. Bob was a very early LA County instructor. Bob was certainly an opportunist "who could and often snatched sucess from the jaws of failure and just as often vise a versa." It is possible he may have taken the ball and ran with it to create the first published UW signaling system, aka the Sea Sabre signaling system which was published in the 1955 Water World.

Any way since no other documents are avaliable other that dim memories, history will record his efforts as being the father of UW signaling system..

However, it is of no importance for the posters of this board who have little knowledge of diving history and apparently rewrite it or attempt to rewrite it at every opportunity.

Re: Connie... Yes it was in 1960--the month was March I was returning from Baja when I heard the terrible news on the San Diego radio station ( I am still always returning or leaving for Baja-even today)

I recall the events well--he was with a French diver, they dove to the entrance to the cave, the French divers light went out..he motioned for Connie to remain put and surfaced for another light. When he returned Connie was gone. His body was recovered several days later 320 feet in the cave upside down with scratches on the ceiling--Terrible!

So ended the life of a great diver, a great man, who started organized diving instruction in the US--

Jan, Connie's wife remarried and moved to the snow in the mid west or west several years later.

I was CDO/DSO for several organizations during my early active days in diving...

FYI of the uninformed:
CDO = Cheif Diving Officer
DSO = Diving Saftey Officer

Who is Jim?

Cheers from California --- where it all began!!

SDM

 

[Colliam7]

Ive seen thumbs up used to ascend to next stop depth or leave the bottom with technical style diving, i've certainly never been taught it means surface. Having said that i tend to use a custom signal to go shallower. Personal preference though, not aware of any strict standard that holds true for all or even most agencies.

Very good point! The lack of standardization, across agencies, and across courses within agencies, emphasizes the need to establish a clear system of signals with a buddy before hitting the water, particularly at a resort / on a dive boat if you pair up with a new buddy. This is not a criticism of any agency or course, certainly, just a statement of the situation.

I looked at the hand signals displayed in my (c 1999) PADI OW manual to refresh my memory and there was no signal displayed for 'End the dive', nor was the thumbs up signal even pictured. When we demonstrate 5-point ascent in the OW class, we use the thumbs up to indicate 'ascend', but that may be somewhat local. In contrast, for PADI tec, thumbs up means 'end the dive' - not ascend, not turn the dive, but end it, and is specified and pictured in the manual as such. I don't know what the signal is for tec folks trained through other programs. After our tec course, I suggested to the director that he think about a separate short course in both hand AND light signals, as some of our experiences at depth, sigaling each other in very dark water with our lights, evoked images of Strother Martin ('What we have here is a failure to communicate!')