A friend and myself have decided to pick up spearfishing. When we are at the local lake visibility averages maybe 5 feet, more or less. We probably dive anywhere from five to fifteen meters. When diving in this low visibility condition, what can a safety diver do to be, well, safe seeing how you can't really see your buddy 95% of the dive.
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Practices for lake diving.
- Thread starterSmartpart
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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I found an interesting document of Czech freedivers who often dive in similar conditions. They created a protocol for acoustic communication underwater - they have signals of different pitch for different situations - reaching the bottom / going up / are you OK? / OK / not so OK / distress / ...
The document is in Czech only, but you may understand something from the diagrams: http://www.volny.cz/potapky/dokument/zvuky.doc
You can also try using an online translation tool, such as at Free Online English to Czech Translators
The document is in Czech only, but you may understand something from the diagrams: http://www.volny.cz/potapky/dokument/zvuky.doc
You can also try using an online translation tool, such as at Free Online English to Czech Translators
If you both use float lines to a float (a good idea), then you can watch the float move and have some idea where your buddy is. If you use bottomtimers, agree on a maximum dive time based on your abilities (ie: you-1:30, your buddy-1:00). That way, if your buddy doesn't surface, you can head down his float line and try to retrieve him. I dive in brutal vis all the time. Buddy-spearing is not foolproof, especially in bad vis, but there you go.
Either to the speargun at the hilt or to your belt. Tied to the gun is good in case you have to drop the gun ie: if the spear gets stuck in the bottom of the lake, but tied to the diver is safer for the possibility of retrieving a lost diver. But tied to the belt is annoying I find, and you could get tangled too.
First I'd say make sure it's an actual spearo floatline- even a cheap one, as opposed to using rope to tie to your float- ropes tangle and you end up with a big cluster###k haha.
Heavy Duty Floatline $73.80 -$82.80: Spearfishing Gear
Tie that from your gun to the float is the standard procedure.
Omer Atoll Float: Spearfishing Gear
Another thing you could do is to have a weight at the end of the line, drop the weight to the bottom and agree to stay within the visibility distance of the line, taking turns diving.
Personally, I tie to the gun, and my buddies and I usually head in different directions... not my best advice, but diving in bad vis means that the other guy is kicking up the silt/goo and scaring MY fish away or worse yet- shooting them lol.
Heavy Duty Floatline $73.80 -$82.80: Spearfishing Gear
Tie that from your gun to the float is the standard procedure.
Omer Atoll Float: Spearfishing Gear
Another thing you could do is to have a weight at the end of the line, drop the weight to the bottom and agree to stay within the visibility distance of the line, taking turns diving.
Personally, I tie to the gun, and my buddies and I usually head in different directions... not my best advice, but diving in bad vis means that the other guy is kicking up the silt/goo and scaring MY fish away or worse yet- shooting them lol.