Compass ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

Compass

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A compass is the most basic and inexpensive piece of navigational equipment and should be bought at the same time as the rest of your gauges.

In a beach or inlet dive your compass is your single most important tool - it tells you which direction is the shore. When wreck diving, a compass is useless if you don't look at it until you're lost. Take a bearing as soon as you hit the bottom, just in case. In a boat dive, directions such as "turn right from the anchor" can often steer you in the opposite direction, if the current reverses and pulls the boat around to the other side. Compass bearings are much more reliable.

Unfortunately, using a compass is not quite a no-brainer, and should be practiced until you are proficient.

Navigational Aids

Here are a few pieces of gear to help you find your way around in the deep blue, or green, brown, or black, as the case may be. When diving, it is important to remember that you need to navigate both horizontally, and vertically. The vertical component is usually taken care of by the dive boat anchor, but emergencies do occur, and you should be prepared.

2016 Update

Nothing much has changed in twenty years. The Tektite strobe is exactly the same, and you can still get good big dive reels, although enclosed models have disappeared. Compasses still point north, and flags are still a bother.

More: Navigational Aids ...

Compass

Navigational Aids

2016 Update

Delaware Bay Artificial Reef