Turn the dive...

[Tegg]

what does it mean when you see your buddy turn into a twirling dervish?

[Aotus]

this has come up before, which has lead me to confirm we agree on the signals in predive, though so far I haven't met anyone who wasn't on the same page (twirly-woo to turn, thumbs up to get out without delay).

[FW]

this has come up before, which has lead me to confirm we agree on the signals in predive, though so far I haven't met anyone who wasn't on the same page (twirly-woo to turn, thumbs up to get out without delay).

Depends on when they were trained. I didn't know about the twirly finger, until a few years ago. I also had never seen the pinky finger deco question signal.

I dove with someone that was trained many years ago, but hadn't dove recently. She didn't know what the twirly finger was, what goldline was, or what line arrows were. She also didn't know what the thumb up, and index finger pointing out meant. I convinced her that she should either go back for updated training, or quit diving. She chose the latter.

[Win brown]

I like to turn the dive with my middle finger

[cmint]

I like to turn the dive with my middle finger

Not kidding, my regular dive buddy and I use that for "Let's leave the reel in place" ..

We had a slight disagreement under water about that issue that ended with that sign. So we agreed in the future a middle finger means just that.

[Garth]

My buddy and I use the twirly finger to turn and the thumb to indicate that we are turning and exiting without exploring.

two twirly fingers means "recalculating."

[johnj]

Thanks everyone, it seems that we are all on the same page, more or less.
Forrest nailed it though, my buddy discussed this with the instructor who advised him that:


"that's some b@#$s%$t new guys are teaching"


I'm glad my instructor is a "new guy" with less than 20 years as a cave instructor

Depends on when they were trained. I didn't know about the twirly finger, until a few years ago. I also had never seen the pinky finger deco question signal.

I dove with someone that was trained many years ago, but hadn't dove recently. She didn't know what the twirly finger was, what goldline was, or what line arrows were. She also didn't know what the thumb up, and index finger pointing out meant. I convinced her that she should either go back for updated training, or quit diving. She chose the latter.

[Sludge]

I dived once with a hardheaded guy who insisted a thumb should be given on EVERY dive. We did a lollygagging dive and got to the point where he hit thirds. He gave me the thumb so I returned a thumb and then made a beeline to the exit, setting an underwater speed record in the process.

Upon surfacing, he asked me why I exited so fast. I told him a thumb means EXIT NOW. So we did.

[curtschu]

I guess I'm the Old side of things, but I've heard of the Urgent "We Gotta Go" being the Thumb. I was trained (in 1991) the thumb means we are exiting the cave Exploration is over there is no lollygagging. If there is a more urgent Lets get out NOW issue I guess the thumb is more animated. The twirled fingers is let turn around

[whodunit68]

I'm with Mac, a 30 second conversation pre-dive solves this. If/when I dive with a new buddy, it's virtually universal that this conversation occurs. In one of my classes, I remember being taught the thumb is the universal "it's time to go." There was no twirly-whirly. However, it's becoming increasingly common to see twirly-finger to do-whatever-the-context-turn-around-thing-would-be, essentially as AJ described above. Thumb always means let's go home.