Your amigo

Your amigo is a navigational aid for recreational SCUBA divers. Unlike other navigation devices the amigo is primarily designed to operate between dive buddies to assist in maintaining buddy contact, particularly in low visibility. However it also provides utility in other aspects of diving such as return path navigation and missing diver search.
A review of dive accidents shows that buddy separation is the most frequent contributor to diving accidents, injuries and fatalities. Diving in buddy pairs is a fundamental dive skill essential to ensuring the availability of an alternative air supply and someone to assist with identifying problems and resolving these (equipment problems, cramp, entanglement, etc). And of course sharing a dive with others is one of the best ways of enhancing your dive experience and provides a social aspect to the sport.
Maintaining buddy contact can be difficult, particularly in moderate to poor visibility or in adverse lighting conditions. This can be compounded by currents, the limited field of view provided by your mask, any restriction of movement due to your wetsuit, hood and cylinder, and a change in the perception of sound under water. Even just a few seconds of distraction in poor visibility can result in inadvertent diver separation.
At some time you will find yourself buddied up with a diver that has a different level of experience and a different understanding of what constitutes buddy diving. They may also have a different goal for their dive such as hunting while you are keen to do some photography. Buddy separation is almost inevitable in these circumstances unless one diver remains focused on the location of their ‘buddy’, very much removing recreational from recreational SCUBA diving.
Your amigo can overcome these difficulties by providing you with a fast, clear visual indication of the direction and range to your dive buddy with just a single press of the mode switch and a simple 360 search. The amigo is so easy to use that a child can use it effectively (in air) with less than a minute of instruction!
Click here to find answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the amigo.
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