Using hands while diving

[okinawascuba]

In certain situations, isn't it advisable to use hands? I'm not very experienced yet (22 dives/~16 hours), but I've found that when I am near the bottom looking at something on the reef, I tend to use my hands to "pushoff" (with sweeping motion, not actually touching antyhing) without disrupting the sand/silt/whatever. I could also move on by using my fins, but the likelihood is that I'd kick up some sand in the process and possibly disrupt visibility. I have been diving with people that do that, and it annoys me so I figure I'll avoid being the cause. I prefer swimming close to the coral to see the "little stuff", and I like the extra control of my hands for fine adjustments so I don't actually blunder into anything.

Nevertheless, I have seen many posts making offhand remarks about poor divers "using their hands". Is there something I'm missing?

 

[archman]

Most experienced divers (especially tech divers) will frown on hand use, and they will post with very valid reasons. A lot of these assume you have horizontal trim.

That said, I teach field science with relatively new divers. Our needs don't always desire horizontal trim, or it's unrealistic to establish with the group. So we hover about on the reefs with feet still and make adjustments with little hand flutters (like a pufferfish!). It works out very well.

But if you want true horizontal trim and can enable it with some skill, you don't need those stinking hands anymore.

 

[Snowbear]

What Arch said. Besides the rule 6 (Always Look Cool) violation, hand fluttering uses more energy, which translates to higher SAC rates, which translates further to shorter bottom times

 

[pt40fathoms]

When staying completely motionless, and you want to move to the side a little, using your hands in a slow gentle sweeping motion is just fine.

However, I have seen some divers who use their hands constantly, and then complain about using too much air. When you try to tell them that they should not use their hands, some look at you with a strange look on their face and say "well, it's just how I swim, I couldn't do it any other way". Those are the divers that I avoid and will never give the time of day too. They are set in their ways, and see your suggestion as a threat. The ones who respond with "I was using my hands? I never really gave it much thought. I'll try not to next time." will get all the free advice they want, as well as a buddy who will work with them on perfecting skills.

Hands burn air, and give at best minimal added propulsion. In most cases the use of hands while diving slows you by adding drag.

 

[CAPT HOOK]

So tired of hearing "use your hands use more air" I do 60min @ 60' with an AL80; my wife swims with her hands and does as well or better. All generalizations are not always true. Do what's comfortable for you.

 

[Mo2vation]

What Arch said. Besides the rule 6 (Always Look Cool) violation, hand fluttering uses more energy, which translates to higher SAC rates, which translates further to shorter bottom times

I dunno about the whole use hands = more gas usage. Maybe if you're going all Mark Spitz down there complete with flailing arms. I mean, a little hand jive isn't going to produce noticable consumption increase, and stopping said hand jive while you're still diving vertical like a roto-tiller won't make an inpact.

However - there is a level of precision that you want to achieve. Put aside the "cool factor" of slowly dropping to your planned depth and stopping on a dime at precicesly your intended depth - like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible (the first one...in the vault)... well, its just very cool. However, there is rub off as you get there.

To achieve precision you need to practice. You need to focus. You need to work on it - which means you're diving more. Which means you're getting more comfortable in the water. Which means you're paying closer attention to your depth (and by this time have probably traded in that useless tethered brick you never looked at until it beeped for wrist mount gauges so you can monitor depth better, you know, as you dive.)

To stop using your hands you've probably moved away from the egg-beater trim you left your OW class with, and have dropped your head, gently arched your back, gotten horizontal in the water and are diving and not bobbing along.

Now, all of this stuff will impact your SAC significantly. As you move away from using your hands, you may even try to work on a back kick. Mine is still a work in progress, so I will sometimes use a finger to push off. But the rest of the dive, the hands are clasped in front of my grill - compass on the left, depth and timer on the right.

Losing jazz hands alone will not make a measurable impact on your SAC, but all the other stuff that leads to that level of control (experience, focus, relaxation, better trim, better buoyancy, better awareness) surely will.

K

 

[Boogie711]

So tired of hearing "use your hands use more air" I do 60min @ 60' with an AL80; my wife swims with her hands and does as well or better. All generalizations are not always true. Do what's comfortable for you.

Hook - not to be argumentative, but don't you think this is due in large part that it's because she's female and therefore automatically going to have better air consumption?

I've got pretty good consumption - not great, but I'm 6'4" and 225. But I know some women who could double up a pair of spare airs to dive the Andrea Doria. So imagine how much better her air consumption would be if she was in good trim and form!!!

It's probably because they're women - you know, little lungs and no hearts.*




(*Note - KIDDING! )

 

[boomx5]

Do what's comfortable for you.

Do what's right for the particular environment your diving in. You think about using your hands while hovering 5' above the bottom out at the local lake and you've just silted everything out. I know people with hundreds of dives who can't backup without pushing off or waving their hands and they are constantly ruining the vis and making the dive a miserable experience. I would work on a backwards kick, that way you don't have to rely on only using your hands to back up.

 

[String]

MY hands are normally far too cold to be of any use to anyway, fingers wont bend. No chance of touching or damaging anything as hands just folded in front of me totally useless

 

[DennisS]

Think of them as pectoral fins