Basic Scuba Hand Signals | Dive Brief | @simplyscuba

[Music] hi everybody welcome to the dive roof today a quick brief on basic scuba diving hand signals do bear in mind that not all hand signals are universal all the way around the world so if your hand signals are slightly different to mine that's perfectly fine but remember that when you're traveling around the world this is why it's important to do a quick run through through your basic hand signals with your diving buddy and the entire dive team right before a dive so that you're all on the same page so the most fundamental hand signal is of course a symbol of our scuba diving community um i know that a few horrible people have tried to make it mean something else but for us scuba divers the okay sand sign is a question and an answer to ask if everything is all right with your buddy and then the answer to that is yes everything is okay with me because of this it becomes a bit of a reflex when someone throws up the okay you go you know of course i'm okay some divers will actually show the okay and then a number um and then expect that number plus one or two so you'd come back with okay four or whatever um as the reply so that they know that you're actually paying attention and that you actually are okay not just mirroring them so sometimes they'll go okay too and you'll come up with okay three whatever it is that you work out with your buddy it's just something to make yourself pay attention basically if everything is not all right and okay then there is something wrong tell your buddy that there's something wrong but remember that they're not mind readers point to what's wrong if someone says that something's wrong it could be that they're cold um they have cramp in their legs their regulator is malfunctioning so do your buddy a favor and point to what's wrong and they can probably help you out your buddy is a useful hand signal that's quite often a very useful signal that you can ask where is your buddy uh or if you need to switch buddies you kind of pull two divers together and tell them to buddy up boat as well is another useful hand signal to ask kind of which way is our boat or that is our boat just to help navigate and really identify that is our boat up and down are fairly self-explanatory but if you're new to scuba diving it can take a little while to reprogram the thumbs up good instead of okay reflex you ask a lot of brand new divers if everything's okay and they give you the thumbs up they don't mean that they want to ascend it's just okay good is what we're kind of taught but there's more to just a simple thumbs up thumbs down if there's current which is that a closed fist into one of your palms one of the best ways to get out of the worst of current is to stick close to the seabed so thumbs down into a bottom or stick close to a wall as well so that kind of thumb is always basically pointing you which way you're going to go and it's a good idea to move away from the reef towards the end of the dive so that a boat doesn't have to get too close to that reef to pick you up so a thumb is basically pointing in which way you're going if you ever run out of air nice big and obvious but don't hesitate or be polite or picky um or keep repeating it um just get to the nearest diver and secure something to breathe from don't worry too much about giving your hand signal uh another reason why your pre-dive check is essential so you know which second stage to grab hold of where it's located on your buddy's body um but the hand signal is is this sticking with air supply uh this is the question for how much air do you have left supposed to look like a little needle on a pressure gauge uh they're expecting a number in reply not an okay i'm sure you hopefully have enough air but a number is actually much more useful and numbers can be complicated or regional as well i prefer the precise one-handed one two three four five six seven eight nine and then zero uh one through five are upright six through nine are sideways and zero is just a circle shorthand numbers though at mean 100 bar closed fist for 50 bar and then each individual finger after that is 10 bars so 170 bar would be 150 60 70. um normally it would just be um but personally i prefer the one seven zero um because a closed fist uh can actually mean a few things including danger so it can be quite confusing and it came quite regional as well so you could turn to your dive master or dive guide and give them the one of those and they don't understand it so personally i prefer those those one-handed numbers towards the end of the dive you might see this which is the suggestion of a safety stop of three minutes at five meters and when your stop has ended and your computer says that it's good for you to ascend you kind of wipe over it to say that your your computer is clear to your buddy on the surface we have a couple of different signals because you're usually communicating over a greater distance to boats and other divers on the surface so the signals are usually a lot larger um but a bit more succinct we only have a handful of signals uh on the surface so okay the little okay becomes a big okay either by touching your head with one hand a bit like one half of the m from the ymca or by making a big circle above your head with both hands that's the okay because a boat won't be able to see your individual fingers from any great distance and if there's something wrong the universal just waving of your hands means that there's something wrong and you probably need some help and those were some basic hand signals for scuba diving in the coming weeks i'm gonna make another video for more advanced hand signals and maybe some themed ones on like different fish or species or or something but if you want any in particular let me know down in the description below remember to head over to our instagram by searching for at simply scuba and of course our website which is just simply scuba.com thank you very much for watching everybody and of course [Music] [Laughter] so [Music] you

Channel: Simply Scuba

Views: 15,324

Keywords: simplyscuba, scuba, diving, advice, snorkelling, snorkeling, equipment, gear, unboxing

Id: FtP_t4Teazo

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Sun May 08 2022