What's the hand signal for "you all" or "we all"

[xmass-Eve]

Maybe the US should start using the bar system.That would already help lots... Everyone speaking bar instead of psi...

RSTC vs Tech
Bar vs psi
And then aaallllll the different versions of signing...

Logical it goes a bit up in the wind, no?

 

[Storker]

Maybe the US should start using the bar system.

Uh-oh.

 

[admikar]

Since this thread seems to be near the end of its natural life

Haha, good one.....(refer one post up)

 

[sea_ledford]

We do. If I get the "pressure?" sign and have 170 bar left, my buddy will get "17" as an answer. And up here, that will normally be "fist up, then down" three times, followed by two fingers.

Wait... so to signal "17" you put your fist up, then down, then up, then down, then up, then down, then two fingers???

I have taken 10's of thousands of people diving and I have seen just about every hand signal for air remaining, but that one would have left me looking like a confused Labrador Retriever thinking you were doing the Macarena. Then I would have looked at your gauge myself because you clearly can't be trusted to give me something approximately accurate.

Divers with digital gauges were the worst. They can't just signal "17" or even 1,7,0,0, the have to give you 1684. And half the time would get confused in the middle of it. It would be 1,5,1,5,2,4,3...frantic waiving of the hand back and forth to erase the previous answer, 1,5,2,3,5,2,1...3,5,2. Followed by a look of triumph.

WTF? Just show me. Oh you can't, because you have an Oceanic data mask.

Ahhhh, guiding dives. So much fun!

 

[Storker]

Wait... so to signal "17" you put your fist up, then down, then up, then down, then up, then down, then two fingers???

I have taken 10's of thousands of people diving and I have seen just about every hand signal for air remaining, but that one would have left me looking like a confused Labrador Retriever thinking you were doing the Macarena. Then I would have looked at your gauge myself because you clearly can't be trusted to give me something approximately accurate.

Divers with digital gauges were the worst. They can't just signal "17" or even 1,7,0,0, the have to give you 1684. And half the time would get confused in the middle of it. It would be 1,5,1,5,2,4,3...frantic waiving of the hand back and forth to erase the previous answer, 1,5,2,3,5,2,1...3,5,2. Followed by a look of triumph.

WTF? Just show me. Oh you can't, because you have an Oceanic data mask.

Ahhhh, guiding dives. So much fun!

Well, if you were guiding me, I'd use whatever hand signal you want me to. So on vacation, I would probably have done *hang camera rig awkwardly in left elbow crook*, "time-out", "open hand with splayed fingers", "V sign", *grab camera rig*

But as I've mentioned upthread, it's a mite difficult to splay your fingers properly if you're wearing three-finger gloves. Thus the fist for five. And since I can't remember to have seen the two-handed "T" up here and everyone gives their pressure in increments of 10 bar, it works pretty well. You just add the numbers. Particularly since my buddies are able to check their gauges regularly and no-one dives with a DM to babysit them, so we seldom nag each other about tank pressures.

And any increment smaller than 10 bar or 100 psi is just stupid.

 

[admikar]

Storker's fist up and down left me confused initially, but it makes sense with mittens. Point is, there are a lot of variations, just do a predive briefing. OP was about: how do you people do it?
@Storker, how do you do 90? All "fingers" up?

 

[Storker]

how do you do 90? All "fingers" up?

Depends. I may round up to 100 (5-5) or I may give 5-2-2. Since I usually carry a camera rig, I really don't like two-handed gestures.

3 and 4 are complicated in 3-fingers, so I try to avoid having to use those.

 

[sea_ledford]

Ahh, that make way more sense! I was picturing you moving your arm at the elbow, not the wrist, for some reason. Flashing a fist three times is totally different than a giant windshield wiper motion I was thinking!

 

[TMHeimer]

We're moving so I have no time to read all posts. Tell your buddy (or everyone that may be in group) what the signals will be. Jeez.

Actually, there is no sign for "you all, we all" here. You have to be South of the Mason Dixon line.

 

[Samuel Self]

I'm new to diving and I've been poking around to see what folks think about ASL (american sign language) use in diving. I prefer ASL because that's what I'm good at and because it's designed for efficiency and usability. Scuba has some good signs that I'm betting either are, or could be, adopted in to the formal ASL dictionary. There are some scuba signs that are, from an ASL perspective, completely backwards and/or needlessly complicated. The whole "you follow me" or "I will follow you" sign sequence is tedious and grating.

ASL is not entirely positional dependent. Yes, technically/formally it is ... but in practical use it is not, at least not in a purist sort of way. The whole point of sign language is learning the pattern, in which ever position, so that you can recognize it quickly and easily. MOST of the work is done by the receiving end of the communication, IMHO, but I think that could be debated.

It's like speaking a word; you're not hearing every letter. You're hearing the pattern it makes when said together as a whole. Finger spelling is very much the same and sign language sentences are very much the same. Signs can be mushed together and the meaning can remain crystal clear. Two handed signs can easily be done with one hand and the meaning remain intact. The key here is fluency in the form of communication. Context is another HUGE piece of the communication.

One thing I know is that scuba divers could learn A LOT from the grammar and sentence structure of ASL even if they want to ignore the signs themselves. After all, languages are just sets of made up sounds and sequences that everyone else uses too.