Scuba Techniques - Communicating with the buddies

The buddy system is possibly the biggest single safety factor in scuba diving, and the lone wolf in this sport is gambling with his life. Each of the pair of buddies is responsible for the other’s safety throughout a dive. The system calls for you to keep continuous contact with your buddy. Where visibility is good, keep him in sight at short range. Where visibility is poor, use a short buddy line to link each other together. Know the standard diving signals and any special signals. Watch for any signal from your buddy. Acknowledge it promptly. Be as alert to help him as he is to help you! If he shows any sign of distress, whether he signals or not, get to him at once. Find out what the trouble is and take action as necessary.

Never separate from your buddy unless he is hopelessly entangled and you must leave him in order to get help.

Visual Signals

Communication between buddies and among scuba divers, is by a series of visual signals, although an underwater walky-talky is being developed that will provide diver-to-diver voice communication under water. The following are the standard visual signals for scuba divers (see drawings on pages 80 and 81) :

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