Shore diving safety?

As an added measure of safety, would you bring a small inflatable raft to tow along with your dive flag so boaters could easily spot your location, and avoid you?
You would obviously connect the raft and dive flag

Or is this just unnecessary?

That's a whole lot to be towing about with you.

If they are going to not see (or intentionally buzz) a dive flag, sausage or rescue ring combo... why would anything else save you?

Look up, ascend slowly directly under your marker. Sharpen your awareness and use your sense of hearing to listen for a boat's audio signature.

Just do what I did. Get an old contact mine from a surplus store, paint it white with a red stripe, put a dive flag on the top.

I guarantee at least 150'.

You could take an inner tube and paint it some garish color. I think that would work and not produce the towing problem. Around here in FL with the number drunken boaters out there, I don't think they would even notice a mine.

Have you ever pulled a flag before? The flag itself can be a pain in the water, I couldn't imagine a raft attached to it.

Towing a "diver down" flag/marker is entirely site- and situation-dependent. If local rules stipulate that divers must tow some sort of inflatable surface marker, then that's what you should do.

In areas where towing a "diver down" flag/marker is mandatory, I suppose one could strive to make the marker more visible at the surface. Best thing to do is see what the locals do and ask them a few questions about their equipment choices. If the site is known for heavy boat traffic, proceed with caution and mitigate the risk of getting run-over by a careless boater...or avoid the site altogether. Personally, I'd be reluctant to attach a "raft" to the marker, since it would increase drag significantly and may increase the likelihood of entanglement. YMMV.

We do a lot of shore diving here in SoCal. I've never had to tow a dive flag/marker on any of the shore dives I've conducted in the San Diego area. Towable dive markers can easily get hung up on kelp. My dive buddies and I have also done shore dives in Cozumel and Bonaire. Neither location required shore divers to tow a flag. The only time I've had to tow one is in Florida.

I've seen a lot of groups affix the line to something at the beginning of their dive --some landmark or rock-- and leave it behind during the dive.

I have attached a flag to a kayak I am towing but I am also diving surface supplied so the tank is in the kayak too, this cuts down on the drag of wearing the tank underwater. But the bottom line is most boaters have no clue and do not care neither do the authorities. In 40 years of diving I have never seen a boater fined for coming too close to a dive flag.

Yes i've pulled a dive flag before
IDT it'd be that bad

RoatanMan:

That's a whole lot to be towing about with you.

If they are going to not see (or intentionally buzz) a dive flag, sausage or rescue ring combo... why would anything else save you?

Look up, ascend slowly directly under your marker. Sharpen your awareness and use your sense of hearing to listen for a boat's audio signature.

Click to expand...

The purpose of the raft would be to increase your visibility to boaters and jet skiers, as there are many jet skiers in So Florida

It's not about them not