Dear divers,

throughout my long carrier as an active dive instructor I have been asked by many of my students if a book about hand signals for diving was available. They did not only mean the few signals learned during the course, but, for example, signals for marine life.

Such questions also came from beginning divers after their first dive holiday – Didn’t anybody wonder about the guide’s outstretched hand resting on his forehead? After the dive, every one was excited about having seen those sharks, except for a couple of unfortunate divers who couldn’t understand the guide’s hand signals and therefore didn’t pay attention.

Many hand signals are standard. Some others, on the contrary, are not found in any dive manual, but are nevertheless, known all around the world and passed on from diver to diver.

But: equal to your citizenship divers could understand each other! The divers language is international!

This is how I came up with the idea of creating some kind of manual with the most varied hand signals which can serve as a reference or simply as a fun book to look at. The realisation of this project was made possible with the dedicated help of my friends Sonja, Sabine and Jürgen.

We acknowledge that not every existing hand signal has been included in this book. Through the active imagination of the diving community, new signals are constantly coming up. We would like to offer you this first edition as a glimpse into the diversity of underwater communication.

However, should you find any hand signals have been left out or not included, feel free to enter your suggestions in our ok2dive-Blog under “Join in”.

They might be included in upcoming editions. Help to develop and grow the divers language!

So, what are you waiting for?

Just order your own booklet, have lots of fun viewing, learning and using the hand signals for diving and: look which hand signal you are missing and send your suggestion to takepart@ok2dive.de.

Help to let the divers language grow!

Yours,