FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- There was plenty of cool, new diving and spearfishing gear at The Blue Wild Ocean Adventure Expo last month, but two of the most essential pieces of equipment for divers are a flashlight and a mirror.

That's according to the members of a U.S. Coast Guard rescue team that is dispatched to find divers who drift away from their boats as well as boaters who are stranded in the ocean when their vessels sink.

A small mirror can be used to reflect the sun during the daytime, which is easy for a rescue crew, whether in an airplane or helicopter, to see from a distance.

A flashlight will lead to a quick rescue at night because it's easy to see with night-vision goggles. A red glow stick also stands out at night. Tying a string to the glow stick and twirling it makes it even more effective. At the very least, put a piece of reflective tape on your BC or snorkel so it shows up in a Coast Guard searchlight.

The Coast Guardsmen, who conducted one of many interesting seminars at the expo, said inflatable safety sausages also help them locate divers. Yet out of about 30 missing diver cases in the last four years out of Miami, only two divers had sausages and both divers were found quickly.

Wearing a colorful wetsuit also is helpful. Black and camouflage wetsuits are hard to see. As one of the rescuers said, looking for a diver from a plane is like looking for a coconut floating two football fields away while going 150 mph.

If you're stranded and ill-equipped, splashing works better than waving your arms, especially on calm days and moonlit nights, because it can be seen by rescuers and also picked up on radar.

The rescue team told of an experienced diver who went out St. Lucie Inlet, got separated from his boat and was in the water for 22 hours. He was found the following day wearing a black wetsuit six miles north of where he got in the water.

Then there were the two divers who got separated from their dive boat in Key West late in the afternoon. They had a flashlight that they'd just put fresh batteries in and were found in 2 1/2 hours.

There was lots of spearfishing gear at the expo, including custom spearguns costing $1,500 and more. There were also much more affordable options.

Koah Spearguns are hand-built in Jupiter, Fla., by John Ippolito and Ron Dolman and sell for $500-$700. Ippolito, a serious spearfishermen, went through about 20 spearguns and always tried to alter them to meet his needs.

After a dive in which he missed numerous shots at a bunch of gag groupers with a gun that he had tweaked for more power, he decided to build his own gun.

"I probably spent $5,000 on wood I screwed up," Ippolito said. "Once I built one and shot it, I said, 'This is it!' It looked terrible, like a chewed up dog bone, but it worked."

He would lend his gun to his spearfishing buddies, who would then ask Ippolito to make guns for them. That's how Koah (koahspearguns.com), which has been selling its guns for about five years, got its start. Now Dolman, a high-end custom builder, makes the laminated wood guns look beautiful. A poured track makes them shoot consistently straight.

Mares (pureinstinct.mares.com) had its band spearguns on display as well as its pneumatic spearguns, which start at about $350. Ludovico Mares built his first speargun in Italy 64 years ago. Mares now makes everything from BCs and computers to masks and fins.

The new Cyrano Evo HF has a more hydrodynamic aluminum tube so it tracks better in the water. Having an internal barrel and a raised sight makes it easier for new spearfishers to hit their targets. The gun, which comes in a variety of lengths, will be available this summer.

• Read more articles by STEVE WATERS

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