Love all your videos, great work for the community around the world - An update: Divewatch with both data and compass showing at the same time - Suunto D5 and Shearwater Teric to name 2 here in 2023.
I dive NorCal, 10 dives a month. Viz is at best 12ft often. We target groups of fish and particular headings to make it back to the beach and or anchor to our craft without wasted time. every 4 hours swells change and we are ever being pushed in a multitude of directions. I use a dive compass every dive to be sure I am heading to shore and not out to sea, where the swim would exhaust us and have an emergency situation.
Compasses can also be mounted with bungee straps which are easy to adjust from everything between heavy drysuit right down to bare arm if diving in the tropics. Two separate bungee loops can be used so in the unlikely event one breaks you still won't lose the compass. Finally some divers set up the bungee mount so the compass sits on the back of the hand rather than the wrist. On the back of the hand it is very easy to get the compass level and in front of you due to the available range of motion from the joints. Personally I take my compass on more or less every dive. When dives can be dark and with very poor visibility it is useful tool to have along with dead reckoning, topology and following known features.
Alec,I just found you on UA-cam,so sorry if the issue has been brought earlier.My instructor was always saying-computer on right compass on the left.Had a very bad experience(with computer on my left).If anyone interested-i can explain it personally. In any case-would you show your way of using a compass.For OW as it is straight line back and forth-isn't it just easier to understand that N becomes S and one can come back,rather,than turning the basel?
If you need a compass for shore dives or low vis water, get an inexpensive compass and tie it on with a 16" cord to your BC. Drop it in the BC pocket. In my experience, you need a compass in 1 out every 25 dives at the most, probably closer to 50 dives, so why have it big, bulky and in your face? It'd be like keeping your car spare tire in the back seat. This way you can pull it out if needed and hold it straight out in front of you with 2 hands - the best way. Some instructors get so uptight about equipment deployment it almost ruins the diving. They insist you have the compass on the right arm, the computer on the left side, the weight belt bucket facing left - or is it right? They'd have a field day if they saw my wife and I geared up. We have a combined diving experience of 92 years!! and in every ocean of the world too. Our gear is set up so that we can instantly find and use every item we need and we know each other's gear too. That is the end goal. Sometime I think that scuba instructors are like school teachers from the 50's and 60's who tried to get left-handed people to write with their right hand - lots of psychological problems there!! and you can't read their writing either! Re using the compass, if the shore line is to the north of where you are diving, all you need to do is swim north at the end of the dive. You'll hit the shore. Simple. If you want to swim back to the exact spot where you entered, it becomes more involved. That's hard to do what with currents and such but you can get close with practice. Sometimes that may be necessary but not usually so why get bent (pardon the pun) out of shape with gear deployment when all you want to do is get back to shore safely. So you may have to walk a 100 yards. Big deal. The dive was great! Good luck. Thanks for watching. Alec
Every computer setup is different. That would be a 2-hour video. Really, you have no choice but to sit down with the manual and go through it step-by-step. Good luck. Alec
Are wrist mount compasses good in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere ? Or would I need to by a compass for each hemisphere? I ask because my land based compass is only good in the northern hemisphere.
As an almost exclusive shore diver I find it unbelievable that people don't use their compass on every dive. The way I have been trained is you take a heading of where you're going and also how to get back and that is what you use to navigate during the entire dive.
As a kid, I learned and used compass navigation in cubs & scouts. For me, a compass is easy and accurate when done right but today's divers only have a brief introduction and skill training. Some day, u/w GPS will happen and the compass will fade away like two hose snorkels. Glad your skills are sharp and hope others do learn how important a compass is when shore diving. Take care. A
Alec, I got an dive slate with a compass on it, it's old and I think something is missing on it. It is a "Odysseus Navigator" On the front slate it has a grid with a small pin in the middle. There should be something round on it.. but what? Do you know what's missing on it? I have a picture but I can't put it here.
These devices were very common years ago and were intended to make underwater navigation easy. To some extent they worked but were so cumbersome themselves that they didn't really solve the problem. If one understands how to use a compass, these work. If you don't understand how to use a compass, they don't help. This particular model was sold by several companies including Scubapro I think and was promoted by NASDS and PADI in their manuals. I can't recall what was in the center hole, perhaps a pointer. I'll send out a query to my vintage friends at see if one of them has one and can shed some light on it. Take care. Alec
My first scuba compass was a retractable model. On the compass use portion of my OW certification class I was getting results that didn't match the instructor's. Upon examination we found that the retract mechanism was throwing the compass out of whack, and the degree by which it was off varied with how far out the lanyard was pulled. I got my money back, and the dive shop quit carrying that brand. My replacement compass, a Suunto model also on a retractor, worked fine. Unlike the first one, which had a metal cord, the Suunto has a woven nylon cord...anti-magnetic by nature.
I've seen this many times. Generally compasses work well. Heck, it's just a magnetic needle balanced on a pin. It is influenced by any magnets or ferrous (iron based) metals that are close to it. Years ago there was a great company called Farallon that made leading-edge stuff. They had one of the first truly integrated consoles with SPG, Depth Gauge, Compass, slate and nice little dive knife all in one small compact rubber console. Do I need to explain why the compass wasn't accurate? Take care. Alec
The side window shows the heading you have set the compas to. So, if you want to swim north you set the compass to north and the side window shows 0 degrees (north). The reciprocal is the 180 degree opposite so in this case you would set the compass to south and the side window shows south. There is no automatic reciprocal setting. The purpose of the side window is just to simplify moving (walking, swimming, etc) using the compass. It allows you to hold the compass at eye level and see the heading as you move rather than having to look down at the top of the compass and then back up to see your direction.Thanks for watching Jason. Alec
+Jason Dark -- It may seem like it's showing the reciprocal, because -- for example -- the "0" reading on the side is under the "S" marker on the top, rather than under the "N" -- but that's not really a reciprocal. When you're looking at the top of the compass, you read your direction from the mark on the far side of the dial; but when you read through the side window, you're reading the side closest to you. So when the "N" on the top is farthest from you, and when the "0" on the side is closest to you, both indicate that you're swimming northbound.
Quite right Jason. The addition of the side window (called a Direct Reading Compass) has made navigation with a compass much simpler. You really don't have to do anything. Hold the compass up in front of you and look into the window. What you see is the direction you are facing and swimming. Look through the window - if it says North or 0 degrees, you are looking North or 0 degrees. Looking down at the top of the compass as we did for many years can be confusing unless you've had compass use training. Alec
let's say I jumped into the ocean for a boat dive, and I start to descend. So the only way to NOT get lost is by paying a lot of attention to distinguishable objects while I'm swimming along, but what happened if I do get lost but I don't have a compass. How am I suppose to get back on the boat? because I can't really ascend and looking for the boat on the surface, that will be kinda silly and dangerous due to the decompression.
Well Price, you've described a situation that a diver should try to avoid - but it can happen so here goes. Having said that, it's clearly a situation that increases the risk to a diver. You really have few choices. If there's no chance that you can find an underwater feature to help you orient, surfacing is the only option. Let's assume you're not a complete klutz and have decent buoyancy control skills. You can slowly ascent to 15' and commence a free decom stop (a free stop is one with nothing to stabilize you). In this case, the stop is not so much for decom protection as it is to allow you to hopefully determine where you are. Perhaps at 15' you will see something to help. I really can't imagine what, but it is your only choice. At the least, while sitting there, you can watch and listen for boat traffic to see the frequency and direction of boats, if any. Having accomplished the stop, the decom concern is gone. Quite frankly, decom ought not to be a concern. If your dive required decompression stops or even being close to decom, you MUST have a line. No line for decom does not mean you will get decom sickness but, it's a good bet! Having determined that you are completely lost and with an eye to any boat traffic, you can only safely and slowly rise to the surface watching and listening carefully for any danger. Your hand should be straight up so it appears out of the water well before your head and you should rotate slowly so as to watch in all directions for danger. If you have an inflatable surface float of some sort, send it up first for a few minutes. When your head breaks the surface, keep your hand up and quickly spin around to check for danger; stay ready to dive, reg in mouth at this time. If you see something coming, do a fast duck dive and get down 10' (a Duck Dive is a headfirst dive, a tuck and dive). If you are safe, look for the shore, your boat or anything that will orient you, take close note of its location, and then decide whether to make a surface swim or to go down 10' and try to swim in that direction. If boat diving, I'm assuming the boat is anchored. The anchor line for a dive boat ought to be larger than normal, bright white in color and, if diving in deep water or in current where the likelihood of becoming disoriented is a possibility, with a strobe light attached at about 15', whether day or night. Also, there ought to be someone on the boat, hopefully watching for you. Your waving and/or diver whistle and/or surface float should alert them. There's a lot of 'ifs' here Price but essentially it comes down to being prepared. I don't think that Lord Baden Powell was a scuba diver but he would have been a good one. Boy Scouts will understand. Take care. Alec
What about the compass that slides out into a slate?? I thought about getting that one but it's $70😑 but I like the convenience of having 2 in 1 and you can use it whenever it's needed.
I like simplicity. I have found that devices with 2 or more functions built in usually don't do any of those jobs well. If you need a slate on a dive, get a small (4X6") and tie it to your BC with a 16" cord. Tuck it into the BC pocket until your need it. $10 total investment. Now, again if you need it for shore dives or low vis water, get an inexpensive compass and again tie it on and drop it in the BC pocket. In my experience, you need a compass in 1 out every 25 dives at the most, probably closer to 50 dives, so why have it big, bulky and in your face? It'd be like keeping your car spare tire in the back seat. This way you can pull it out if needed and hold it straight out in front of you with 2 hands - the best way. Some instructors get so uptight about equipment deployment it almost ruins the diving. They insist you have the compass on the right arm, the computer on the left side, the weight belt bucket facing left - or is it right? They'd have a field day if they saw my wife and I geared up. We have a combined diving experience of 92 years!! and in every ocean of the world too. Our gear is set up so that we can instantly find and use every item we need and we know each other's gear too. That is the end goal. Sometime I think that scuba instructors are like school teachers from the 50's and 60's who tried to get left handed people to write with their right hand - lots of psychological problems there!! and you can't read their writing either! Good luck. Thanks for watching. Alec
On shore diving, like is common on Bonaire, I've actually rarely needed my compass. I went there 2 years ago and don't think I've used my compass once. The slope of the seabed will most often give you enough sense of direction. I've needed compasses mostly on boat dives, for example when diving between pinnacles, to find my way back to the boat.
No problem. It happens all the time. It's a weird spelling but it wasn't my idea. Interesting story - my grandfather was Charles Henry Peirce; he married Rose Hannah Pierce; already we have a problem! When my dad and his brother were shipped to Canada in the 20's (they were Barnardo children), the ship manifest typed in their names as Pierce but when they each signed at the bottom, they signed Peirce! Thanks for watching. Alec
Love all your videos, great work for the community around the world - An update: Divewatch with both data and compass showing at the same time - Suunto D5 and Shearwater Teric to name 2 here in 2023.
Thanks for the idea!
A
Mr. Pierce, great job, love your videos, have learned much. Simple, clear and concise. Thank you.
Great stuff Alex...a video reminder on how to use a compass in the most basic way would be a nice follow on . Thanks again
You got it!
That's easy.
Keep watching.
Alec
I could listen to you all day , many thanks
I dive NorCal, 10 dives a month. Viz is at best 12ft often. We target groups of fish and particular headings to make it back to the beach and or anchor to our craft without wasted time. every 4 hours swells change and we are ever being pushed in a multitude of directions. I use a dive compass every dive to be sure I am heading to shore and not out to sea, where the swim would exhaust us and have an emergency situation.
Compasses can also be mounted with bungee straps which are easy to adjust from everything between heavy drysuit right down to bare arm if diving in the tropics. Two separate bungee loops can be used so in the unlikely event one breaks you still won't lose the compass. Finally some divers set up the bungee mount so the compass sits on the back of the hand rather than the wrist. On the back of the hand it is very easy to get the compass level and in front of you due to the available range of motion from the joints.
Personally I take my compass on more or less every dive. When dives can be dark and with very poor visibility it is useful tool to have along with dead reckoning, topology and following known features.
Great video thanks I learned a lot.
Well done!
Thanks a million.
Alec,I just found you on UA-cam,so sorry if the issue has been brought earlier.My instructor was always saying-computer on right compass on the left.Had a very bad experience(with computer on my left).If anyone interested-i can explain it personally. In any case-would you show your way of using a compass.For OW as it is straight line back and forth-isn't it just easier to understand that N becomes S and one can come back,rather,than turning the basel?
If you need a compass for shore dives or low vis water, get an inexpensive compass and tie it on with a 16" cord to your BC. Drop it in the BC pocket. In my experience, you need a compass in 1 out every 25 dives at the most, probably closer to 50 dives, so why have it big, bulky and in your face? It'd be like keeping your car spare tire in the back seat. This way you can pull it out if needed and hold it straight out in front of you with 2 hands - the best way.
Some instructors get so uptight about equipment deployment it almost ruins the diving. They insist you have the compass on the right arm, the computer on the left side, the weight belt bucket facing left - or is it right?
They'd have a field day if they saw my wife and I geared up. We have a combined diving experience of 92 years!! and in every ocean of the world too. Our gear is set up so that we can instantly find and use every item we need and we know each other's gear too. That is the end goal. Sometime I think that scuba instructors are like school teachers from the 50's and 60's who tried to get left-handed people to write with their right hand - lots of psychological problems there!! and you can't read their writing either!
Re using the compass, if the shore line is to the north of where you are diving, all you need to do is swim north at the end of the dive. You'll hit the shore. Simple.
If you want to swim back to the exact spot where you entered, it becomes more involved. That's hard to do what with currents and such but you can get close with practice. Sometimes that may be necessary but not usually so why get bent (pardon the pun) out of shape with gear deployment when all you want to do is get back to shore safely. So you may have to walk a 100 yards. Big deal. The dive was great!
Good luck. Thanks for watching.
Alec
Thank you
Can you please make a video on setting up a dive computer before a dive
Every computer setup is different. That would be a 2-hour video.
Really, you have no choice but to sit down with the manual and go through it step-by-step.
Good luck.
Alec
Are wrist mount compasses good in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere ? Or would I need to by a compass for each hemisphere? I ask because my land based compass is only good in the northern hemisphere.
Just as with a land based compass, a dive compass for the northern hemispere will not work well in the southern hemsiphere. Thank fr watching. Alec
As an almost exclusive shore diver I find it unbelievable that people don't use their compass on every dive. The way I have been trained is you take a heading of where you're going and also how to get back and that is what you use to navigate during the entire dive.
As a kid, I learned and used compass navigation in cubs & scouts. For me, a compass is easy and accurate when done right but today's divers only have a brief introduction and skill training. Some day, u/w GPS will happen and the compass will fade away like two hose snorkels. Glad your skills are sharp and hope others do learn how important a compass is when shore diving. Take care.
A
Alec, I got an dive slate with a compass on it, it's old and I think something is missing on it.
It is a "Odysseus Navigator"
On the front slate it has a grid with a small pin in the middle. There should be something round on it.. but what?
Do you know what's missing on it?
I have a picture but I can't put it here.
These devices were very common years ago and were intended to make underwater navigation easy. To some extent they worked but were so cumbersome themselves that they didn't really solve the problem. If one understands how to use a compass, these work. If you don't understand how to use a compass, they don't help.
This particular model was sold by several companies including Scubapro I think and was promoted by NASDS and PADI in their manuals.
I can't recall what was in the center hole, perhaps a pointer.
I'll send out a query to my vintage friends at see if one of them has one and can shed some light on it.
Take care.
Alec
Really great insight, thank you for sharing. I know exactly which compass to buy now I've watched this tic tep :o)
+Caroline Carr
Thanks for watching.
I'm glad I was able to help.
Alec
My first scuba compass was a retractable model. On the compass use portion of my OW certification class I was getting results that didn't match the instructor's. Upon examination we found that the retract mechanism was throwing the compass out of whack, and the degree by which it was off varied with how far out the lanyard was pulled. I got my money back, and the dive shop quit carrying that brand. My replacement compass, a Suunto model also on a retractor, worked fine. Unlike the first one, which had a metal cord, the Suunto has a woven nylon cord...anti-magnetic by nature.
I've seen this many times. Generally compasses work well. Heck, it's just a magnetic needle balanced on a pin. It is influenced by any magnets or ferrous (iron based) metals that are close to it. Years ago there was a great company called Farallon that made leading-edge stuff. They had one of the first truly integrated consoles with SPG, Depth Gauge, Compass, slate and nice little dive knife all in one small compact rubber console.
Do I need to explain why the compass wasn't accurate?
Take care.
Alec
doesn't the side window show the reciprocal heading?
The side window shows the heading you have set the compas to. So, if you want to swim north you set the compass to north and the side window shows 0 degrees (north). The reciprocal is the 180 degree opposite so in this case you would set the compass to south and the side window shows south. There is no automatic reciprocal setting. The purpose of the side window is just to simplify moving (walking, swimming, etc) using the compass. It allows you to hold the compass at eye level and see the heading as you move rather than having to look down at the top of the compass and then back up to see your direction.Thanks for watching Jason.
Alec
+Jason Dark -- It may seem like it's showing the reciprocal, because -- for example -- the "0" reading on the side is under the "S" marker on the top, rather than under the "N" -- but that's not really a reciprocal. When you're looking at the top of the compass, you read your direction from the mark on the far side of the dial; but when you read through the side window, you're reading the side closest to you. So when the "N" on the top is farthest from you, and when the "0" on the side is closest to you, both indicate that you're swimming northbound.
Quite right Jason. The addition of the side window (called a Direct Reading Compass) has made navigation with a compass much simpler. You really don't have to do anything. Hold the compass up in front of you and look into the window. What you see is the direction you are facing and swimming. Look through the window - if it says North or 0 degrees, you are looking North or 0 degrees. Looking down at the top of the compass as we did for many years can be confusing unless you've had compass use training. Alec
let's say I jumped into the ocean for a boat dive, and I start to descend. So the only way to NOT get lost is by paying a lot of attention to distinguishable objects while I'm swimming along, but what happened if I do get lost but I don't have a compass. How am I suppose to get back on the boat? because I can't really ascend and looking for the boat on the surface, that will be kinda silly and dangerous due to the decompression.
Well Price, you've described a situation that a diver should try to avoid - but it can happen so here goes.
Having said that, it's clearly a situation that increases the risk to a diver.
You really have few choices. If there's no chance that you can find an underwater feature to help you orient, surfacing is the only option.
Let's assume you're not a complete klutz and have decent buoyancy control skills. You can slowly ascent to 15' and commence a free decom stop (a free stop is one with nothing to stabilize you). In this case, the stop is not so much for decom protection as it is to allow you to hopefully determine where you are. Perhaps at 15' you will see something to help. I really can't imagine what, but it is your only choice.
At the least, while sitting there, you can watch and listen for boat traffic to see the frequency and direction of boats, if any.
Having accomplished the stop, the decom concern is gone.
Quite frankly, decom ought not to be a concern. If your dive required decompression stops or even being close to decom, you MUST have a line. No line for decom does not mean you will get decom sickness but, it's a good bet!
Having determined that you are completely lost and with an eye to any boat traffic, you can only safely and slowly rise to the surface watching and listening carefully for any danger. Your hand should be straight up so it appears out of the water well before your head and you should rotate slowly so as to watch in all directions for danger. If you have an inflatable surface float of some sort, send it up first for a few minutes.
When your head breaks the surface, keep your hand up and quickly spin around to check for danger; stay ready to dive, reg in mouth at this time. If you see something coming, do a fast duck dive and get down 10' (a Duck Dive is a headfirst dive, a tuck and dive).
If you are safe, look for the shore, your boat or anything that will orient you, take close note of its location, and then decide whether to make a surface swim or to go down 10' and try to swim in that direction.
If boat diving, I'm assuming the boat is anchored. The anchor line for a dive boat ought to be larger than normal, bright white in color and, if diving in deep water or in current where the likelihood of becoming disoriented is a possibility, with a strobe light attached at about 15', whether day or night.
Also, there ought to be someone on the boat, hopefully watching for you. Your waving and/or diver whistle and/or surface float should alert them.
There's a lot of 'ifs' here Price but essentially it comes down to being prepared.
I don't think that Lord Baden Powell was a scuba diver but he would have been a good one. Boy Scouts will understand.
Take care.
Alec
@@AlecPeirceScuba_SeaHunter Thank you so much!! It helped a lot.
What about the compass that slides out into a slate?? I thought about getting that one but it's $70😑 but I like the convenience of having 2 in 1 and you can use it whenever it's needed.
I'm not sure which compass you mean Morena. Can you give us a brand or model so we can look at it?
I like simplicity. I have found that devices with 2 or more functions built in usually don't do any of those jobs well.
If you need a slate on a dive, get a small (4X6") and tie it to your BC with a 16" cord. Tuck it into the BC pocket until your need it. $10 total investment.
Now, again if you need it for shore dives or low vis water, get an inexpensive compass and again tie it on and drop it in the BC pocket. In my experience, you need a compass in 1 out every 25 dives at the most, probably closer to 50 dives, so why have it big, bulky and in your face? It'd be like keeping your car spare tire in the back seat. This way you can pull it out if needed and hold it straight out in front of you with 2 hands - the best way.
Some instructors get so uptight about equipment deployment it almost ruins the diving. They insist you have the compass on the right arm, the computer on the left side, the weight belt bucket facing left - or is it right?
They'd have a field day if they saw my wife and I geared up. We have a combined diving experience of 92 years!! and in every ocean of the world too. Our gear is set up so that we can instantly find and use every item we need and we know each other's gear too. That is the end goal. Sometime I think that scuba instructors are like school teachers from the 50's and 60's who tried to get left handed people to write with their right hand - lots of psychological problems there!! and you can't read their writing either!
Good luck. Thanks for watching.
Alec
👍🇬🇧🏴
Your welcome.
A
Go on a trip to Bonair or do shore diving and you will use it in all of your dives
On shore diving, like is common on Bonaire, I've actually rarely needed my compass. I went there 2 years ago and don't think I've used my compass once. The slope of the seabed will most often give you enough sense of direction. I've needed compasses mostly on boat dives, for example when diving between pinnacles, to find my way back to the boat.
I spelled "concise" correctly but not your name. Sorry Mr. Peirce!
No problem. It happens all the time. It's a weird spelling but it wasn't my idea.
Interesting story - my grandfather was Charles Henry Peirce; he married Rose Hannah Pierce; already we have a problem!
When my dad and his brother were shipped to Canada in the 20's (they were Barnardo children), the ship manifest typed in their names as Pierce but when they each signed at the bottom, they signed Peirce!
Thanks for watching. Alec