A pre-dive safety checklist
Explainer · Last reviewed 2026-08-19
A structured run through the things whose failure is discovered at the worst possible moment — built from the safety family rather than invented, and short enough to actually be used.
Safety: drowning and immersion — can cause serious injury or death. 4 more points apply here.
Never dive alone, dive one up one down, and never extend a dive for a fish.
A checklist works because the items on it are the ones people forget, not the ones they think about. This one is assembled from the failures the rest of this vertical documents.
THE PLAN, agreed on land. Who is diving first and how the rotation works. Where the exit is, and whether it will still be an exit in two hours. What would end the session. Who ashore knows where you are and when you are due back.
THE CONDITIONS, assessed before changing. Swell and how it is behaving at the entry and the exit. Current direction and strength, and whether it is building. Visibility. Wind. Boat traffic. Anything forecast to change.
THE EQUIPMENT, checked physically. Bands and wishbone — cracking, nicks, abrasion. Shaft — straight, notch sound, tip secure. Shooting line — no abrasion at the muzzle. Float — inflated, visible, flag if used. Float line — no damage, correctly attached. WEIGHT BELT — releases with one hand, worn over everything. KNIFE — present, sharp, reachable with either hand, comes out of its sheath. Mask, fins, suit.
THE BUDDY CHECK. Each diver checks the other's belt release and knife. Agree the signals. Agree the rotation. Confirm both are fit to dive — no congestion, no illness, no alcohol, not exhausted.
And the last question, asked out loud: is there any reason not to get in?
Why the belt and the knife are checked by somebody else
Both are items whose purpose is to be used by, or on, a person who is in trouble.
A weight belt exists to be released — potentially by a buddy, on an unconscious diver, in water, with cold hands. The only way to know that it will is for the buddy to have put their hand on it and felt the release work. A belt buried under a float line or a catch bag will not release, and the person wearing it is the least likely to notice.
A knife exists to be reached in seconds by somebody whose other arm may be caught. Whether it can be is a question about position and about whether it will actually come out of the sheath after a season of salt.
That is the whole argument for a buddy check rather than a self-check: these two items are used in situations where the wearer cannot verify anything, and a check by the person who might have to use them is a different check.
Official guidance — why, and the sources (2)
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on pre-dive checks, buddy checks and equipment verification.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving training standards on buddy procedure and pre-dive preparation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
And the after-dive check
Shorter, and it is what makes the next pre-dive check meaningful.
Rinse everything in fresh water, with the gun unloaded and the trigger worked under the water so the mechanism flushes. Dry out of direct sunlight. Store the gun unloaded so the bands are at rest.
Look at what has been damaged: a bent shaft, an abraded shooting line, a nicked band, a float line dragged over rock. The point of noticing now is that it can be replaced before the next session rather than discovered during it.
And note anything about the site — how the exit behaved on the state of tide you left on, where the current ran, what the visibility did — because that is the local knowledge that makes the next conditions assessment better, and nobody else can write it down for you.
Safety
Never dive alone, dive one up one down, and never extend a dive for a fish. The full set of breath-hold essentials — training, the buddy system, conditions, equipment and visibility — is on the spearfishing safety page.
Drowning and immersion — Can cause serious injury or death
The specific failure of a pre-dive check is that it becomes a ritual: the same items in the same order, performed while thinking about the fishing, producing confidence rather than information. The items whose failure kills — quick release, cutting tool, float, buddy arrangement — are the ones most easily skimmed because they are almost always fine.
What reduces it: Operate rather than look at the quick release. Touch rather than glance at the cutting tool. Agree the buddy arrangement out loud, including who watches whom and what the abort signal is. And treat the check as separate from the decision to dive, which is made in front of the conditions.
Precautions that always apply here
- Never spearfish or freedive alone.
- Dive one up, one down: one diver down, one on the surface actively watching, every single dive.
- Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be back.
- Carry a charged phone in a waterproof case, or another means of calling for help.
Where to go next
Where it matters
Related reading
How this compares
- Planning a dive sessionOne covers the equipment in the ten minutes before entry; the other covers where, when, how long and with whom.
- Reading underwater conditionsConditions are assessed before changing, including whether the exit will still be an exit in two hours.
- The spearfishing buddy systemThe belt release and the knife are checked by the buddy, because they are used on a person who cannot check anything.
- Which equipment failures end a dive, and which end a sessionOne reduces how often equipment fails; the other decides what to do when it has. Neither substitutes for the other.
Sources and evidence
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on pre-dive and post-dive procedure.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 6 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Where it matters
Official guidance — 1 connection
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Spearfishing
A membership assertion rather than a topical one: this page teaches the discipline or its equipment, so the discipline's mandatory safety posture applies to it.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving and breath-hold spearfishing safety practice, including the supervision requirement that applies across the discipline rather than to particular equipment.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold diving safety practice and discipline definition set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Related reading
Official guidance — 1 connection
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Wetsuits, fins and masks for spearfishing
The list is assembled from documented failures.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on pre-dive checks, buddy checks and equipment verification.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How this compares
Official guidance — 3 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Planning a dive session
Two halves of preparation that are frequently confused for each other.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on planning, conditions assessment, buddy protocol, entanglement and equipment handling.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Reading underwater conditions
The conditions half of the check.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on pre-dive checks, buddy checks and equipment verification.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The spearfishing buddy system
Why a buddy check differs from a self-check.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on pre-dive checks, buddy checks and equipment verification.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Which equipment failures end a dive, and which end a session
A comparison a diver is genuinely choosing between, joining two records that resolve one another.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving and breath-hold spearfishing safety practice, including the supervision requirement that applies across the discipline rather than to particular equipment.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold diving safety practice and discipline definition set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.