communication.htm

Southeastern Divers, Inc.

2720 Governors Drive SW, Huntsville Alabama 35805 - Phone: 256-536-8404

"Training the best divers in North Alabama since 1980."

Max Gilbert PADI IDC Staff Instructor

Hi Divers!

Since we're launching this new news letter to communicate with you better, I thought I'd start off with a first letter about the importance of diver communication. Being sure that your buddy is getting the message you want him to get is vital to avoiding (potentially dangerous) misunderstandings. Divers need to communicate both on the surface and while submerged. This story will show what can happen when there's not enough of the right kind of dialog.

My first experience with poor communications happened about four years ago while doing a night dive on the Hilma Hooker in Bonaire. The Hilma Hooker is an old tramp freighter sunk about 200 feet offshore on the south end of the island. She's at about 100 feet at the base of a nice reef separated from the shore by a wide sandy flat. Navigation across the flat is important because making a mistake can cause you to exit the water a long way away from your entry point, meaning a long walk back to the truck. Carrying gear and wearing tropical booties, this walk is no fun... as we learned on this dive!

On this particular dive, my buddy and I did a surface swim until we were above the wreck and then descended on one of the three mooring lines permanently attached to her hull. Just before we released the air from our BCDs, I took a quick compass heading to our rental truck on the shore. After about 20 minutes exploring the wreck, we made our way up the reef to head back toward shallow water. When we got to the top of the reef, my buddy asked "Which way"? by tapping his (small and cheap) watchband compass. I pointed him in the right direction using the heading I had taken earlier, and he took off in the right direction using his own compass. After a few kicks, I could tell that he was veering off to the north, so I flashed my light to get his attention and then drew a line on the bottom with the beam from him to me, which I meant to mean "Come here." He completely misunderstood and thought I meant "Go that way," which he did. This time I didn't follow. I just hovered in place since I KNEW I'd be able to get him to come back with my excellent signals and then we could take off again, this time in the right direction.

By the time I got his attention again, he was about 50 feet away from me. We repeated the miscommunication and he took off again in the same wrong direction. By the second time I got his attention, he was about 75 feet away from me and swimming north, parallel to the shore. I decided that sticking with my buddy and going the wrong direction was a better idea than abandoning him, so I gave chase. Every time I saw him turn around, I gave him the "Come here" signal. Every time I gave that signal, he got the message, "Go that way," which he did at a high rate of speed. Eventually, it dawned on my beloved buddy that he'd gone way too far and he slowed enough for me to catch him. I gave him a very aggravated signal to ascend and we surfaced about 100 feet off shore and about a quarter mile up the beach from where we should have been. We had to walk back over sharp coral rubble to the truck. Even though we were wearing booties, our feet were sore by the time we got there.

As we walked, we talked about what went wrong on this dive. I took the compass heading with a good diver's compass, so I should have been the diver leading the way back to the truck from the reef. My buddy had reached the top of the reef before me, so he took the lead. The watchband compass was not accurate enough to dive a precise heading and perhaps should have been left in the truck. Finally, and most importantly, my buddy and I didn't have a clear signal between us that meant "come here." Fortunately, the only price we paid for our mistake on this dive was bruised feet!

Want to dive a shipwreck at night? Want to know where you're going? Consider the PADI Night Diver and the PADI Wreck Diver specialty courses. The PADI Underwater Navigation course will get you where you want to go. Get those courses and others while on the SDI trip to Roatan, Honduras in July!

"Sea" you ~underwater~ !!!

max

The Hilma Hooker sinking

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