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On Fri, 3 Nov 1995, Richard Pyle wrote:

> I've use two methods to verbally communicate with people
> underwater - both with fairly good success. One involves
> talking into a collapsable bag of some sort (a glove is 
> handy); the other is by forming an air space by cupping
> your hands around your mouth on top of another diver's 
> head and talking straight into them.  They hear it
> through > bone conduction through the skull.  Works
> better than you might think. 

Richard,

Yesterday, while hanging on the deco line, I began to
think about your ideas on vocal communication under
water. It ocurred to me that I was in the perfect
position to try a short experiment. Quietly, I drifted
across to my buddy who was peacefully meditating at the
end of his jon line. He's a film cameraman - not
normally a person of nervous disposition. Hovering
close, slightly above and behind him, I took a large
breath, took out my 2nd stage, cupped my hands around
my mouth as you instructed, placed them lightly against
the back of his wetsuit hood, and screamed (quite loudly)
"CAN YOU HEAR ME JAMIE?!?!"

The result wasn't exactly what I expected. After we got
back down to our deco stop level and sorted ourselves
out, I tried to figure out what had gone wrong.

I think, Richard, I should have had my hands cupped more
firmly. Then when he reared back in shock and terror his
head wouldn't have smacked me so hard in the mouth.

Another observation I should make is that no matter how big
your buddy, he or she can, when horribly surprised from the
rear, spin round faster than you can dodge away. Which 
brings me to another couple of points to watch out for:

Elbows. He brought his up reflexively. They acted, during
the spin, like huge propeller blades, one delivering a 
solid blow to the side of my head, the other dislodging
my mask.

I think the need to keep the 2nd stage in your hand or at
least bungeed round your neck should be stressed. And
on the subject of stress, imagine mine on finding that I
had in the act of screaming, emptied my lungs completely,
was now without mask or second stage, and was being
alternately shaken and hit by an extremely irate diving
partner.

Wondering why I could not escape the vicious assault I
was surprised to find I was stuck fast to my buddy's right
side as, in the fracas, one of the empty D-rings on my
harness had snagged the clip on his reel. (Now I know why
the training agencies say that if you find an unused D-ring
on your harness before a dive you should go back to the dive
shop immediately and buy some more equipment to hang off it
to prevent it from snagging on something).

But here's my real problem Richard. After we had boarded the
boat and my buddy was speaking to me again, I asked him to
repeat what I had called out to him underwater. He said it
sounded like "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blahblah".

I think I'm doing something wrong. Can you tell me what?


rgrds              billyW


PS. I am planning to try talking into his glove next week. I 
will let you know how it goes.

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