Slates - ten reasons why we don't use them

[under water]

My writing is bad. Under water, it is apparently really bad.

The one time I thought I needed to use it, I wrote. "Your Tank is loose".
My wife thought I wrote "Your Frank is loose".
I obviously did not get the response I was expecting!

 

[Doc]

Magnadoodles are good, but this saves a lot of time...

<- El Clicko este thumbnalio para magnificacion

It is a military biased version, but use your imagination and go visit Kinkos to have it laminated.

This one shows compass (with 1/4 point reminders) and reciprocals (the very small table to the left), and an actual ruler in Metric and English SAE.

Change it up to recreational words, and if nothing else, the "typewriter" proved to be extremely effective in testing of communication of complex ideas.

 

[psychocabbage]

we have slates and have customized them.
With perm marker we added a Y / N to the corner so you can just point to those if needed.
We added tables for recording your tank start and end pressure for later adding to the computers log so it can show us our sac.

We mainly use it to decide things as we encounter them. We will do shore dives and often not have anyone to guide us but ourselves and we are typically in locations where no one else is around and we had not dove before. So its good to make suggestions or to get info from the team on the next course of action..

 

[Hoomi]

You forgot the el clicko para Spanglish translacion.

My wife and I, being Noobs, both have slates that are small enough to fit in the pockets of our BCs. I suspect the more experienced we get, the more we'll refine our hand-signals and gestures into something we both understand for most circumstances, but for now, we'll carry the slates for those things that I have a hard time either conveying or understanding.

 

[Rhone Man]

we have slates and have customized them.
With perm marker we added a Y / N to the corner so you can just point to those if needed.

At first I thought that this was a great idea, but then I wondered, why wouldn't you just shake or nod your head instead of pointing to the relevant section on your slate?

 

[Guba]

I would like to be able to write down fish and critter names on a dive, since we're both into that, but still haven't found it worth carrying them.


Highdesert, you might want to invest in a REEF style, pre-printed slate for recording critters you encounter on your dive. You may have already taken a REEF course, but if you haven't, we use waterproof pages with a LOT of marine life forms already listed, and they're locale specific. Beside each critter name, there are four categories: single, few, many, abundant (too many to count). One simply checks the appropriate column for each type of fish/organism. There is space on the back for listing those not already printed on the front, as well as diagrams to help record markings of fish you want to try to identify later. One could even print up their own using fish they might encounter in their own locales (freshwater, etc...) for ease of identification.
Makes things easy if fish ID is something you're really interested in.

 

[MartianBeerPig]

One lives in my BCD pocket, but I've only ever used it once for a search and recovery exercise. Drew a map to try and find a lost chain and ended up descending right on top of it anyway.

 

[fisheyeview]

Ummm I love my slate. I write all sorts of things on it. Mostly navigational but also things I want to remember or take note of for later.

Things like?
Milk, Eggs, Butter, T.P..........

Or?
Dear Diary,
Today I dove with a new buddy. I wonder if they like me?

 

[Buoyant1]

I use mine locally usually to make a smart a$$ comment.

I use it when I'm in the Keys to white balance my camera!

 

[fisheyeview]

You forgot the el clicko para Spanglish translacion.

My wife and I, being Noobs, both have slates that are small enough to fit in the pockets of our BCs. I suspect the more experienced we get, the more we'll refine our hand-signals and gestures into something we both understand for most circumstances, but for now, we'll carry the slates for those things that I have a hard time either conveying or understanding.

After you have been married a while you will learn that the simple hand gestures work best.

I don't use a slate because it really annoys my wife if she can't understand what I am trying to get accross. I live for the simple things.