not into inventing a wheel, pretty sure there are some compasses designed for underwater swimming. Something I could have in front of me while finning, continuous directional reference of sorts. Anybody uses anything like that?
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compass or goin' in circles in a muddy waters
- Thread starterAndrew the fish
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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never mind... I am thinking something like navboard, cannot find anything other then hollis, darn insanely outrageously priced. So, whats in it? kydex, ball compass, not even very well made...
How deep? These ones can be bought in any camping shop and are fluid filled. Be interesting to see how it copes with depth
Budget Map Compass, Surplus and Adventure,
Budget Map Compass, Surplus and Adventure,
There are loads of compasses that you can use, but none which you can free dive with easily as you need to keep it horizontal.
dive compas will definitely work, seem to work on P3M navboard. Mounting it on speargun is good idea, but for now I am set to make some kind of navboard, since I do not spearfish yet
how about those small round ball fluid filled ones?
Brunton Compasses, Ball Compass; Pin-on Luminescent | eBay
Ah yea, like those found on rambo knives back in the 80's. :duh
Not sure how good they ever were?
to be honest I think more practice will straighten you up without a compass.
I posted a few years ago about finding it hard to go straight down in murky waters, and got some great replies. I think Eric Fattah said "imagine the water surface is a trampoline and you are jumping straight down from it" (very bad approximation of what he wrote) but it helped me.
After a while some 6th sense develops that seems to help you know where you are. Not very scientific on my part, but trust me, it happens.
I posted a few years ago about finding it hard to go straight down in murky waters, and got some great replies. I think Eric Fattah said "imagine the water surface is a trampoline and you are jumping straight down from it" (very bad approximation of what he wrote) but it helped me.
After a while some 6th sense develops that seems to help you know where you are. Not very scientific on my part, but trust me, it happens.
azapa you probably are right and I may develope that directional sense eventually. But, I am using monofin and I suspect my one leg is tad shorter and the whole body geometry is a bit out of axial alignment.
Chris from NZ, wrist-mounted compasses are not very convenient, they king of facing the wrong way. And, most of them are restrictive to tilt, 30 degrees max tilt. I am thinking more of a liquid-filled ball, like boaters use. Those also give reference to an angle of tilt, kind of hope it will help in orientation generally. I never thought I would need it until I strated diving in this hot chocolate, sometimes I unsure if I am descending or just swimming sideways.
Rambo knife ones have very weak magnetic needle, it takes them forever to stabilize - I won't use them for anything.
Chris from NZ, wrist-mounted compasses are not very convenient, they king of facing the wrong way. And, most of them are restrictive to tilt, 30 degrees max tilt. I am thinking more of a liquid-filled ball, like boaters use. Those also give reference to an angle of tilt, kind of hope it will help in orientation generally. I never thought I would need it until I strated diving in this hot chocolate, sometimes I unsure if I am descending or just swimming sideways.
Rambo knife ones have very weak magnetic needle, it takes them forever to stabilize - I won't use them for anything.
Go to a pool, get a buddy so you don't hit anything and close your eyes will swimming, you will judge how much you go off line. Adjust and practice as necessary to straighten up.
Find somewhere with no tide and good easily usable topography like a sandy beach and swim perpendicular or along the sand ripples formed to get a sense of a straight line or lay a rope weighted on the floor.
Practice until you get a feel of what straight is.
Lets face it you have to come up for a breath every now and again how lost can you get
The new Head up display scuba masks are about $1000 so save up and by the time you do they will have a compass built in if one hasn't already
Find somewhere with no tide and good easily usable topography like a sandy beach and swim perpendicular or along the sand ripples formed to get a sense of a straight line or lay a rope weighted on the floor.
Practice until you get a feel of what straight is.
Lets face it you have to come up for a breath every now and again how lost can you get
The new Head up display scuba masks are about $1000 so save up and by the time you do they will have a compass built in if one hasn't already