REVIEW: Poseidon navigation board

Here you can see something that you don't normally get to see easily: a rare daytime photo of a German combat swimmer with his navigation board. The image shows him on the surface "shooting" a course, marking the beginning of each diving mission.

He is dressed in a wet suit and diving mask (Poseidon), diving rescue collar, and Dräger LAR V. The navigation board used is also from the company Poseidon. We present it to you today.

This is a device carrier made of HTP plastic (see detail shots), equipped with a compass from BEN MARINE. In this case, the board is equipped with a French depth gauge and a Luminox Evo Navy SEAL Series 6601 Titanium watch. Normally the official diving watches from the company Poseidon are used there, but in this case the Traser system with outstanding luminosity seems to be the "choice of the hour." The paracord secures the board in the water to prevent loss.

The navigation board - above you can see the back side of the compass and the markings on it - sets standards in terms of ergonomics and user-friendliness. This allows you to rotate the depth gauge to align the hands with the desired compass course. A technique also used in cockpits to facilitate visualization. The shape of the board also makes it easier to handle and prevents hand fatigue.

The diving board shown has been used by combat swimmers since 2010. It is produced and distributed by the company Poseidon Military. A combat swimmer team is thus able to find buoys with only a few centimeters of surface area at night and in currents. After the combat swimmer pre-training (indoor training), combat swimmer students in the twelve-week operational training (open water training) often see nothing but a depth gauge, watch, and compass course for hours and sometimes nights on end. Missions with a pure diving distance of three hours are not uncommon.

CONCLUSION: An excellent navigation board, unfortunately not available for civilian use. It is part of the basic equipment for German combat swimmers.

Special THX to Neptun 459 for this review!