Why You Should Have an Underwater Strobe for EmergenciesFor those of you who haven’t seen an underwater strobe yet, it’s a device approximately the size of a can of soda that emits intermittent flashes of light that make the sun look like mood lighting. Underwater Strobe – Annoying or Life Saving?While annoying other divers may sound like fun, the real use for emergency underwater strobes is to save your life.Though most new divers are worried about what could happen to them beneath the waves, the truth is that most accidents happen on the surface. It’s a good idea to have several different signaling devices to alert your dive boat that you need help in case of an emergency. And nothing works better than an emergency strobe for alerting a boat at night. “But wait!” you say. “My buoyancy compensator already comes with a pathetic looking whistle. Couldn’t I use that to signal the boat instead of a $25 emergency strobe?” And my answer is “Yes - if you want to die.” The problem with dive whistles, even the expensive ones, is that it’s hard to tell where they’re coming from. During the day the captain could pull out some binoculars and scan the horizon for the source of the whistling, but at night finding you won’t be easy. Why use a Underwater Strobe when I have a WhistleIn addition; those dive whistles, even the expensive ones, are unbelievably difficult to hear.For example, my buddy and I were doing our surface interval on his boat while our friends we doing their dive. It was a clear day and there were no waves. There were no boats around us and my buddy and I weren’t even talking. We were just fishing quietly and drinking some water and munching on sandwiches. “Did you hear something?” I asked “No.” “There it is again!” I exclaim. “I don’t hear anything. Are you sure you didn’t use ‘special mushrooms’ for your sandwich?” My friend quips. “Shhh!” And then I heard it. It almost sounded like the little whistling that comes from a child’s nose when they have a cold. After scanning the horizon for several minutes, we finally see our friend 50 yards (45m) from the boat. Had our friend had a strobe, we would have seen him instantly – even in broad daylight. Other uses for Underwater StrobesUnderwater strobes are great to mark where the anchor is on a night dive or on a deep dive where the visibility maybe challenging.Attach the strobe where the trailing chain of the anchor line meets the rope, for here it will be off the bottom of the ocean and give a clear flash. Now you will be able to find the anchor line and your dive boat with ease. Good emergency strobes can last over 8 hours when they’re set to flash once per second and up to 80 hours if you set them to strobe slower. They should be insanely bright (around 300,000 candle power or so) and of course, they should be waterproof. Underwater strobes are a vital piece of signaling equipment that every diver should carry. Day or night, these things make you easy to find in the vast oceanic expanse. And if you should ever find yourself leading a night dive, you can have countless hours of fun annoying other divers by using your emergency strobe instead of the traditional glow sticks. Have a look here for morte information on dive light Return to Underwater Diving Equipment Home Page.
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