Warning--Close call in Pompano Beach

[boulderjohn]

We arrived at the parking area next to the Pompano Beach Dive Center and backed into a temporary parking space directly across from the last slip, where two small boats were housed next to the two Odyssey Charter boats. Three young men, perhaps early teens, were in or next to one of the boats. They were well tanned and shirtless, and I assume they were locals. We barely paid any attention to them as we began to unpack the back of the SUV. With three divers, there was a lot to unpack.

I was off to the side with my back turned when I heard the commotion. A spear had slammed into the concrete parking stop by our back tires, barely missing the legs of one of our divers in its flight. The young man who was in the boat got out to retrieve it, explaining that he had fired it from his speargun accidentally. The three trotted off in the direction of the ScubaTyme boat. We did not follow where they went and did nothing more than issue a stern warning when we gave the spear back.

Any lessons are obvious. I just thought I would issue a warning in case anyone else in the vicinity sees three unsupervised boys playing with spearguns. Keep your eyes open!

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Wow! Glad no one was hurt!

 

[sheeper]

children with (spear) guns....bad choices abound. can't fix stupid

 

[Johnoly]

.... The young man who was in the boat got out to retrieve it

Pretty scary,,Just wanted to check,,,,were there tanks on his boat or no tanks indicating freedivers ? Helps us spearo's narrow it down, but loaded landside is frown upon.. It's a small community, not alot of secrets.

 

[boulderjohn]

Pretty scary,,Just wanted to check,,,,were there tanks on his boat or no tanks indicating freedivers ? Helps us spearo's narrow it down, but loaded landside is frown upon.. It's a small community, not alot of secrets.

There was nothing on the boat but the kids and their spearguns. They took off immediately after the incident.

 

[sheeper]

speargun handling is something too many divers overlook. I've taken guns from people who clearly did not know how to use...and respect them.

 

[Wookie]

Glad you are OK. What I really want to know is did you get out for some tech diving. IIRC you've been goose-egged here for the past many years.

 

[letterboy]

speargun handling is something too many divers overlook. I've taken guns from people who clearly did not know how to use...and respect them.

But bro it was just a spear gun, they aren't even dangerous. They don't have bullet or nothing,bro.

/sarc

 

[Sam Miller III]

John -- every thing seems to happen to you .. I will keep my distance

In 1956 a local less than desirable citizen shot and killed anther local less than desirable citizen in a drunken brawl using the then state of the art spear gun the US Divers "Arbalete"

I was a consultant to the case -- Bob Reutherford was the "Expert witness"
(see... wwwportagequarry.com Sea Sabre's signaling system)

The resulting litigation determined that a Spear gun was a dangerous and very lethal weapon and the act of pointing it at or firing the a spear gun constitutes an act of aggression-- At least in California and I would also suspect in Florida.

What IF YOU HAD BEEN SHOT ? What would have been your selected course of action?

SDM

 

[reefrat]

I did a few dives at Pompano recently, first time there and I was surprised to see quite a few scuba divers exiting the charter boat with spearguns- ilegal where I come from and regarded as most unsporting most places!