Troubles on a drift dive.

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From the reading of that Google excerpt, it sounds as though a live boat dive with a flag ON the boat and the boat following divers, would not necessarily have to have a float in the water during the entire dive.

I do understand the rationale about recreational divers not having time to deploy an SMB, but if the divers are beginners enough to be likely to end up on the surface precipitously, it seems as though the boat ought to be following them rather closely.

Not criticizing. Just seems like a setup for difficulties if you have a stiff breeze and a diver below trying to manage a flag on the surface. (We have dive sites here that have truly ferocious surface current that literally dies below 20 feet. Trying to hang onto a float under those conditions would be a bear!)
 
...this was my first ocean experience...I just wanted to enjoy my first ocean dive... Plus, my 16 year old son was with us, and I wanted to keep very close tabs on him.

Pauly,

It was a shame that your first ocean experience was boggled down with other inconsiderate divers. Between being that ever-so watchful parent and trying to deal with the buoy and absent minded divers I am sure your experience left a lot to be desired.
I have done drift diving in both the Caribbean and Thailand on several occasions and it is a blast. I hope that you don’t let this experience sour you on the idea of drift diving…it sounds like there are better places to partake in drift diving than what you experienced.

Thanks for sharing...

~Michael~
 
The op is indicative of Boynton protocols where the DM remains on the vessel. Jupiter and West Palm ops usually put a DM in the water with a float. Surface vessel (with flag) follows the float. Surface conditions are not always conducive to bubble watching. Unlike some places, the divers don't surface as a group when the first diver reaches his turn time. The divers rather surface on their own trying to stay close to the float line. Because of the difference between surface and bottom currents, most Jupiter divers will opt to shoot their own DSMB's instead of strunggling to remain in proximity to the float.

Some of the spear ops put hunters in with no flag or float. I've heard of cases where the boat lost divers for hours.
 
From the reading of that Google excerpt, it sounds as though a live boat dive with a flag ON the boat and the boat following divers, would not necessarily have to have a float in the water during the entire dive.

I do understand the rationale about recreational divers not having time to deploy an SMB, but if the divers are beginners enough to be likely to end up on the surface precipitously, it seems as though the boat ought to be following them rather closely.

Not criticizing. Just seems like a setup for difficulties if you have a stiff breeze and a diver below trying to manage a flag on the surface. (We have dive sites here that have truly ferocious surface current that literally dies below 20 feet. Trying to hang onto a float under those conditions would be a bear!)


These are good questions, but in Florida it is the law to stay close to a flag. Cozumel often has crystal clear water and the divemasters kinda make the people stay in one group, the bubble plume from 10-12 divers is pretty obvious. I did a few trips to cozumel and people talked about the currents and for the most part I never saw much more than a mild current. In south Florida we can have 2-3 kt currents on the surface. Also, in my diving in cozumel, you are diving a wall or a relatively narrow reef line, so the operator knows the divers should be popping up somewhere on a certain LINE.

An operator in Florida who drops 10-12 20 people on one spot has no way to track all the divers. Without floats, the divers can be spread all over the area. Do the math.. 45 minutes in the water 2-3 kt current, the dive will cover over 1 mile of reef. If some divers stop and do macro and only move 150 yards and others actively swim in the water column chasing fish etc. There is no way for the boat operator to track all the divers they can easily be spread way out.

If he has at least a few float carriers within the group, he has a decent idea of where the people are, assuming that the slow group has a float and the fast group has a float. People can also swim across the current and pop up hundreds of yards inshore or offshore; they may not be located along a well described linear feature (as in say cozumel). Also, in south Florida, there are fisherman all over the place, having a float over your head provides some protection.

Yesterday, I did a drift dive with a surface current of about 3.5 kts in 185 feet, with 30 feet visibility trying to find a small plane wreck. In these conditions, it would be impractical to try to tow a float. The only practical way, is to drift into the wreck and stay on it, when you are done diving it, you then send up a marker buoy and then drift off the wreck and hope the boat is watching as you drift a mile or two on your deco. If you are drifting into a relatively small location and the operator knows where that is, he can hold station and try to notice when the surface marker hits the surface and then follow that. It also helps if he knows when to expect the float to hit the surface and if it doesn't show up when he thinks it should then he can decide to look around longer or can assume he missed the float and then begin sweeps downcurrent. There are many ways this simple system can get screwed up and sometime we kinda loose a diver for a while.

This is a little video I shot yesterday, it is kinda boring, because I was looking to document a small feature of the wreck, but the deployment of the float (around 3:15) into the current might be somewhat relevant.

12-30-11 Helldiver Wreck Jupiter.wmv - YouTube
 
There is also a very good reason not to have a float in Cozumel. With the towering and complex reef structures, a float being carried by a diver at 85 feet has a very good chance of tearing up the reef and/or getting stuck 30 feet above. The Florida reefs are not nearly as tall or complex, so it is easy to keep the line off the reef.
 
There is also a very good reason not to have a float in Cozumel. With the towering and complex reef structures, a float being carried by a diver at 85 feet has a very good chance of tearing up the reef and/or getting stuck 30 feet above. The Florida reefs are not nearly as tall or complex, so it is easy to keep the line off the reef.
Another thing to consider...
In Cozumel, someone would have to hang onto the float line while others did the swim-throughs. Not an insurmountable challenge but slightly annoying perhaps.
 
Pauly, your post reminded me of my first experience towing the flag. It was a distraction from the dive which I did not appreciate, but it was an additional experience that ultimately made me a better diver.

Getting back to the point of your post, I have had my fair share of dives that did not go very well. In retrospect, I realize that my "problems" tended to occurr when a dive presented multiple new challenges that I did not yet have the experience to efficiently address. In fact, one such experience almost put an end to my diving. I now have enough experience to understand why my OW instructor always said to avoid taking on more than one new variable at a time.  realize that no amount of planning will always make this possible, but it is good advice that I now repeat often. My two cents for what its worth.....happy diving and new year.
 
There is also a very good reason not to have a float in Cozumel. With the towering and complex reef structures, a float being carried by a diver at 85 feet has a very good chance of tearing up the reef and/or getting stuck 30 feet above. The Florida reefs are not nearly as tall or complex, so it is easy to keep the line off the reef.

Yes, vertical relief presents challenges when towing a float. If you know where the vertical snags are located you can take some evasive action to try avoid them and most importantly, use a reel that allows you to wind in slack and keep the floatline as vertical as possible when drifting past the obstruction
 
DD. What reel are you using in the video? Nice btw. Thanks for posting.
 
Another thing about SE Florida is that there is a lot of high speed boat traffic running pretty much on top of the reef that parallels the shore.

And bubble watching / surface cover by a boat doesn't work well with several groups in the water -- with some of them quite a ways apart because some are dropped on the inside reef edge and others on the deeper edge.

There are generally good reasons why different areas evolve different ways of doing things.

Charlie
 

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