great fun seeing the surprized look on the boaters faces when they pull u up! and the chargrined look when u tell u are not in season , please catch and release with NO KNOTS IN THE LINE lol
Dive flag and shore diving
- Thread starter Blackbeard 69
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SteveC
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I also agree with fdog. He is completely correct. Most boaters do not know what a dive flag is, and are drawn to the flag just to check it out. I try my best not surface in the middle of a boating lane. If you come up near your boat or near the shore, there shouldn't be a problem.
In most of the places in Colorado where we are allowed to dive, we are in areas where power boating is restricted or forbidden altogether. This summer I did several dives in an area that had no such restrictions because a group of us were searching for something that had been lost when a boat capsized. We brought several flags to be safe, but we were positively scared to death by the water skiers powering by at high speed.
Experience can be a hard task master! In 40 years of diving I've been been around only one diver hit by a boat. . . and the boat driver was a diver, on drugs. Many times I've had boaters run over my dive flag (required by Oklahoma Law). Did the boaters know what the red and white flag meant, of course. Their attitude like the boat in your picture, They have the most expensive boat, and we have to move out or their way. $80,000 bass boat, they own the lake. . . ask them.
I always fly a dive flag. . . I always surface some distance away. . . always.
I generally fly the flag whenever I'm diving in navigable waters here in Texas. My favorite was when I came back to the surface to find a bass boat tied off to my float. When we came up, the guy looked at me with a confused expression and asked what we were doing? All I said was "Here's your sign." Don't think he got it, but my students about drowned laughing. The best part was when the park ranger called him over and wrote him several very expensive tickets!!!
Mike
Mike
tight rope walker
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I can only speak from experience. I distinctly remember a situation when I was a kid, diving with my dad, when a boater pulled up to our boat and asked my dad what the flag meant. Thank god that we were both on the boat at the time.
I always tow a flag because it's the law up here. Sometimes if I have to surface to get my bearings, it's nice to have that line there.
The only thing that scares me though is sail boats.....silent death.
I always tow a flag because it's the law up here. Sometimes if I have to surface to get my bearings, it's nice to have that line there.
The only thing that scares me though is sail boats.....silent death.
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Recently, boating licenses became a requirement even in Northern Manitoba, where few boats exist. Seems everywhere requires a license--so is not recognizing dive flags part of the tests? When I was a kid in the 60s I knew what a dive flag was. They're all over the place in populated coastal areas. How do boaters NOT know what they are?
When shore diving from the Jetties in Oregon, I almost always throw out a dive flag on an anchor. The main reason is to let jetty fishermen know I'm down there - most of the time they stay away. However, I've had an idiot pulling up with his boat to my dive flag with me screaming at them to stay away, as there were 2 divers down. Later that day I found an "new" anchor and line jammed in the Jetty and I fantasized that it belonged to him.
Another instance was a guy in a boat zooming over to me & my flag (with a diver down) to tell me that he was a diver and he wanted to talk to me! ??????????
I have never pulled a diver flag around with me. Too dangerous of an attraction, and too much of an entanglement hazard around the jetties. However, I try my best to go down and up at the rocks.
Another instance was a guy in a boat zooming over to me & my flag (with a diver down) to tell me that he was a diver and he wanted to talk to me! ??????????
I have never pulled a diver flag around with me. Too dangerous of an attraction, and too much of an entanglement hazard around the jetties. However, I try my best to go down and up at the rocks.
Chugwhump
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Florida law requires a flag.
See link below.
http://floridamarineguide.com/florida_diving.html
I have never had anyone pull on my flag other than a truly arrogant Grouper Trooper wanting to check my fishing/bug license, but I have had several boats get entirely too close when I was submerged.
You can hear the boats coming pretty easily.
If I get uncomfortable I just drop the flag and move away for a few moments or three.
I also have a very tall flag staff, and use a boat sized flag instead of the puny snorkle flag that is legal, but ill advised.
Chug
Does lotsa' beach dives
See link below.
http://floridamarineguide.com/florida_diving.html
I have never had anyone pull on my flag other than a truly arrogant Grouper Trooper wanting to check my fishing/bug license, but I have had several boats get entirely too close when I was submerged.
You can hear the boats coming pretty easily.
If I get uncomfortable I just drop the flag and move away for a few moments or three.
I also have a very tall flag staff, and use a boat sized flag instead of the puny snorkle flag that is legal, but ill advised.
Chug
Does lotsa' beach dives
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