-
Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:
- Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
- Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
- Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
- Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
- All this and much more...
You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
Diving Watch
- Thread starterMurat
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
of all the spearfishing equipment thats out there, i'm sure that in terms of compensation for manly inadequacies, a dive watch must be way down the list. 
miles, do you dive with a flasher? when i'm diving bluewater, as in you cant see the bottom, the flasher gives some sort of reference point, if you know how long it is.
miles, do you dive with a flasher? when i'm diving bluewater, as in you cant see the bottom, the flasher gives some sort of reference point, if you know how long it is.
Hiya
No, i don't use a flasher at struisbaai. We generally do drifts over wrecks. Normally a very strong current. Flasher would get lost after one shoots a fish, and the 'tail are normally quite easy to find. Diving in clean, clear, warm water definitely confuses this cape spearo with regards to depth and distance a fish is from you. Shot at a 5-6kg 'tail a couple of weeks back, only to have my spear fall short. Was a 15kg+ 'tail that seemed to be closer in that clean water . Ah well, sometimes you learn the hard way !!!
On another note, have you noticed that bronzies just love a RA flasher. I've had mine chomped twice already!!!!
Regards
miles
No, i don't use a flasher at struisbaai. We generally do drifts over wrecks. Normally a very strong current. Flasher would get lost after one shoots a fish, and the 'tail are normally quite easy to find. Diving in clean, clear, warm water definitely confuses this cape spearo with regards to depth and distance a fish is from you. Shot at a 5-6kg 'tail a couple of weeks back, only to have my spear fall short. Was a 15kg+ 'tail that seemed to be closer in that clean water
. Ah well, sometimes you learn the hard way !!! On another note, have you noticed that bronzies just love a RA flasher. I've had mine chomped twice already!!!!
Regards
miles
What Im trying to say here is that we should all learn our limits and focus on what we are doing, if we cant tell when we need to surface from 20 metres then we shouldnt be there in the first place, here in the gulf I regularly get down to 20 M but Im able to go deeper down to 30 but I dont because firstly I have no need and secondly because it is unfamiliar "terror"tory. If you feel the need to go to your limits its your life not mine but for me at least I would rather get experience in shallower water and "LEARN" my own body's requierments and limits irrespective of depth and time! OK a depth gauge is a nice piece of kit I'll grant you that but dont put your life on it, we all like to know how deep we've been sometimes but its better (in my view) to get the experience that will allow us to be safe slowly, so we know what we are doing without relying on a gadget on your wrist. A watch for me tells me when I have to head back before the tide makes that difficult for me! Not to tell me that Ive just done a 1.30 dive and 1.30 rest! Dive when your ready, surface when you need to and only dive again when your body tells you its safe to do so, if you need to train like that do it in the pool.
I wasnt trying to say they were a waste of money, far from it Im sure they have a use but not for me. Maybe this is just a girl thing!! But dont be a Bobby Butt head and put your life on it because that aint covered in the guarantee!! :naughty
I wasnt trying to say they were a waste of money, far from it Im sure they have a use but not for me. Maybe this is just a girl thing!! But dont be a Bobby Butt head and put your life on it because that aint covered in the guarantee!! :naughty
First of all if your on the bottom at 80 to 100 feet then its a little hard to guage when to come up. When you dive in 40 to 60 feet you can stay on the bottom for a while but when you reach 100 you cant stay down as long as you do at 60. If you wait till you feel the urge to breath then your dead at a 100 feet. You may be able to do it at 60 but deffinately not 100. There are some divers in hawaii who constantly dive in 100 feet and use a watch alarm to beep at one minute or so to guage there time.
Me.
And I'm with Kumu on this one. There will be times, when you get better and know what you're doing, Allison, where you will be very glad for equipment and features that remind you of things that will almost always take a back seat to that fish that is juuuuust out of reach.
Dive with a Rolex????
I don't believe it. I also don't know anyone who dives with a fancy watch and actually uses it- they're for impressing chicks in the hot tub apres' dive.
For tech diving everyone I dive with uses a simple bottom-timer, and we back them up with cheap digital watches- I wear a timex ironman. THese watches can take a lot of abuse and have really nice count down features for those deep stops. The newbies all wear fancy dive computers.
For freediving, especially when I use my scooter to freedive the wrecks, I use the surface timer to make sure I stay up long enough to avoid the bends. I feel refreshed enough to dive again after only a couple of breaths on the surface, but I use my watch to time my dives- there are freediving deco talbes out there if you look for them hard enough.
My freediving watch, a D-3, is also helpfull because of the built in depth guage. There are certain underwater structures that we look for when diving around here, like that underwater habitiat that sits in 50' of somtimes murky water. By swimming out to the 50' line and then going back and forth along it I know I can find it- try doing that with a TAG.
Jon
I don't believe it. I also don't know anyone who dives with a fancy watch and actually uses it- they're for impressing chicks in the hot tub apres' dive.
For tech diving everyone I dive with uses a simple bottom-timer, and we back them up with cheap digital watches- I wear a timex ironman. THese watches can take a lot of abuse and have really nice count down features for those deep stops. The newbies all wear fancy dive computers.
For freediving, especially when I use my scooter to freedive the wrecks, I use the surface timer to make sure I stay up long enough to avoid the bends. I feel refreshed enough to dive again after only a couple of breaths on the surface, but I use my watch to time my dives- there are freediving deco talbes out there if you look for them hard enough.
My freediving watch, a D-3, is also helpfull because of the built in depth guage. There are certain underwater structures that we look for when diving around here, like that underwater habitiat that sits in 50' of somtimes murky water. By swimming out to the 50' line and then going back and forth along it I know I can find it- try doing that with a TAG.
Jon
miles, when you say bronzie you mean the toothy 10gill type, right? for a sec i thought that you were talking about bronze bream, which i find to be a very shy fish, so i was a bit confused to say the least
i dont think i've ever seen a bronzie. they follow the sards up here, but i havent dived the run yet (last year was a non-event)
i have had a rather large zambi circling my home made flasher out on aliwal. then you're in a catch 22. do you wind up to remove the interest, but at the same time bring the shark up with the flasher.
i've never dived with anyone who uses a RA flasher, everyone has their homemade artwork. maybe us natal guys are just cheap but i would love to try one out sometime. it realy looks the buissiness
on the watch issue, if you want an inexpensive timekeeping option, then get a cheap digital, 50m waterproof, and tie it to the float. that way you also avoid scratching your expensive watch if youre pulling bugs.
i dont think i've ever seen a bronzie. they follow the sards up here, but i havent dived the run yet (last year was a non-event)
i have had a rather large zambi circling my home made flasher out on aliwal. then you're in a catch 22. do you wind up to remove the interest, but at the same time bring the shark up with the flasher.
i've never dived with anyone who uses a RA flasher, everyone has their homemade artwork. maybe us natal guys are just cheap
but i would love to try one out sometime. it realy looks the buissinesson the watch issue, if you want an inexpensive timekeeping option, then get a cheap digital, 50m waterproof, and tie it to the float. that way you also avoid scratching your expensive watch if youre pulling bugs.
Alison,
Maybe you need to back up and take a look at the questions Murat asked when he started this thread. He wanted a watch with freediving features. You are the only one suggesting having these features is going to make a diver reliant on them and put themselves in danger. More accomplished divers know that completely relying on body feeling (in touch with your body) is not a safer way to dive than to have the additional information of time, depth, etc., because body feelings can and do lie. Ask people who have experienced a black out and most of them will say they thought they were okay, before it.
Even if you don’t use the watch to look at or hear the alarm for depth or time while in a dive, the ability to look at it later maybe just what you need to recognize how distracting fish and other things were to your senses and make you better prepared to gauge your depth and time in the future.
If you want to start a thread on good deals on expensive European mechanical watches that can tell time under the water, go ahead, but there is no reason for you to answer a thread where people want a watch with freediving features with a watch that doesn’t come close, and then get bent out of shape when someone corrects you on what is being discussed in the thread.
Bob
Maybe you need to back up and take a look at the questions Murat asked when he started this thread. He wanted a watch with freediving features. You are the only one suggesting having these features is going to make a diver reliant on them and put themselves in danger. More accomplished divers know that completely relying on body feeling (in touch with your body) is not a safer way to dive than to have the additional information of time, depth, etc., because body feelings can and do lie. Ask people who have experienced a black out and most of them will say they thought they were okay, before it.
Even if you don’t use the watch to look at or hear the alarm for depth or time while in a dive, the ability to look at it later maybe just what you need to recognize how distracting fish and other things were to your senses and make you better prepared to gauge your depth and time in the future.
If you want to start a thread on good deals on expensive European mechanical watches that can tell time under the water, go ahead, but there is no reason for you to answer a thread where people want a watch with freediving features with a watch that doesn’t come close, and then get bent out of shape when someone corrects you on what is being discussed in the thread.
Bob
Last edited:
Sorry I got cut short cause I lost track of time and had to get to class. anyway some peopel just dont feel the need to breath. which makes it hard for them to guage how long they have been under. I always leave the bottom before I feel the need to breath. The watch enables me to guage how long ive been down. Before I got the D3 I would always come up really early when I couldve stayed down for a minute longer. But I always came up becuase I didnt know how long I was down. Sometimes it feel like ive down for a long time when it has only been 40 seconds or a minute. so I come up thinking Ive been down way to long. Now I am able to dive and know exactly how long Ive been under. Dont get me wrong I mean I know my body and I know when I need air. but as you go deeper you need something else to help. maybe not to rely on but something to give some assistance. Otherwise youll be stuck at the same level for a long time.
I always have my partner near me when I am trying a new depth.
I always have my partner near me when I am trying a new depth.
one TAG, 50' line one empty plastic bottle
I bet my D-3's still cheaper.
Oh, and instead of the 50' of line, I carry a cave diving safety reel that has knots, and marks, on it every 10' so I can see how much line I let out when tying off my kakyak.
Jon
I bet my D-3's still cheaper.
Oh, and instead of the 50' of line, I carry a cave diving safety reel that has knots, and marks, on it every 10' so I can see how much line I let out when tying off my kakyak.
Jon
I made that suggestion in good faith and yes I may be "only" a girl in a mans world but I can read and responded to some concerns over reliability with an option of a watch that in general doesnt break down. Now if you read like I do Bob! You will have completely missed the fact that I DID say it doesnt make the coffee, or was that over your head? As for expensive! Did you actually read what I suggested? NO! So I suggest you too read what people say in their posts and act a little more like a gentleman instead of that thing you keep in your shorts!
Gender aside, some people just aren’t worth communicating with.
Bob
Bob
Alison,
Even though there are obviously more men than women in freediving it is one of the only sports that women have a chance to out do some of the best male freedivers on a very high level (world records)- and several do! I think that's fantastic and I also think that the majority on this board also feel the same way. It's not so much a man's world from where I stand and I find it inspiring.
Adrian
Even though there are obviously more men than women in freediving it is one of the only sports that women have a chance to out do some of the best male freedivers on a very high level (world records)- and several do! I think that's fantastic and I also think that the majority on this board also feel the same way. It's not so much a man's world from where I stand and I find it inspiring.
Adrian
World records! Hell have you seen that thread on the 300lb Tuna? Jeez H! I think not lol I got pulled halfway round the bay after a bad long shot to a 12 lb Bass damn thing shot off like a bull with a firework up its arse! OK an exaggeration but it pulled me for a good 50 yards before it got to tired :ko
I wear a "SEIKO Automatic Diver's 200m"
this thing is a big heavy chunk of stainless but has a silky smooth motion and is damn near bombproof.
when I need depth indicator I use a D3 (freediving) or a D3 & Viper (scuba)
there is only your body. ONLY. never use a watch/gauge/ whatever to tell you that you're diving "short" that day. everyone has good and bad days - pushing yourself on an off day can be fatal. Yeah, having a buddy near by is all fine and dandy but buddies are NEVER 100%. listen to your body. if you're only getting short down times on a day take it as it is, an off day and roll with it.
this thing is a big heavy chunk of stainless but has a silky smooth motion and is damn near bombproof.
when I need depth indicator I use a D3 (freediving) or a D3 & Viper (scuba)
there is only your body. ONLY. never use a watch/gauge/ whatever to tell you that you're diving "short" that day. everyone has good and bad days - pushing yourself on an off day can be fatal. Yeah, having a buddy near by is all fine and dandy but buddies are NEVER 100%. listen to your body. if you're only getting short down times on a day take it as it is, an off day and roll with it.