Scuba Hand Signal Inflation
Underwater, you can’t speak. Well, in fact you can, and someone who is skilled at it can be understood just fine. But generally, scuba divers communicate by using hand signals.
There are a number of basic hand signals for basic and important events: descend, ascend, I’m ok, how much breathing gas do you have, problem, the boat is there, slow down, and a few more. It’s important that divers can clearly signal and identify them. The fewer hand signals there are (as few as possible, but no less), the better.
Many Critter Signs
When you go on a dive in a commercial dive shop somewhere in SE Asia, you’ll typically dive with a guide. Generally that’s a good idea, for safety/local knowledge/critter spotting reasons. But, sometimes the DM would review the basic signals and add a wealth of ones specific to critters/marine life. There will be hand signals for nudibranch, frog fish, ray, turtle, crocodile fish (arms opening and closing like a crocodile mouth)… The DMs who want to entertain their diving guests sometimes turn their signal review into a bit of a comedy show.
When this happens I am generally annoyed by a DM delaying the beginning of the dive AND, more importantly, these supposedly funny signals cause hand signal inflation. Now that there is one signal for every animal possibly encountered during the dive, now so many signals that the important ones (let’s ascend, slow down, ect) can get drowned out in signal space. I might want to ask another diver how much breathing gas he has left, but he will think I am signaling “fingered dragonet” or “pointy spider crab” … Confusion ensues. This is less frivolous than it sounds at first, everything gets harder once you are underwater, and divers are often sloppy in the way they use hand signals. A diver might not move his or her hands just in the right way, and might not face his dive buddy whom he or she wants to communicate with. Confusing signals is a real possibility, and the more signals there are, the more likely confusion happens.
Flasher Wrasse
As a parody of this odd trend my mate Matt, the John Belushi of the Coral Reef, and I made a video about the hand signal for “flasher wrasse”:
I Don’t Feel Well
I teach scuba according to PADI (edit as of 2024: I taught according to PADI). I like the PADI courses, when taken seriously and not cutting any corners (which I don’t!) these are quality courses, which produce competent divers.
That doesn’t mean that I agree with everything PADI does. Just recently they developed a new hand signal which means “I don’t feel well“.
The signal contributes further to signal inflation. It’s one more signal which can potentially be confused with other, more basic and well-established signals. The previous signal “Something is wrong” (tilting your hand sideways) plus pointing to where something is wrong (ear, stomach, head…) fulfills completely the same function, as far as I understand the situation.
I won’t be using this signal outside of PADI courses where I am required to teach it.
