Pixelator
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If your in an area that's a "very popular fishing and recreational boating location" where you cant float a flag your playing Russian roulette with your life.
Anchor Almost Dropped on Head - What Would You Do?
- Thread starter clownfishsydney
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clownfishsydney
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Very interesting comments but which totally misunderstand the situation. Perhaps I should have explained a bit more.
First, there is no law that requires dive flags for shore diving. Fact.
Second, at this location there are about 5 different dives that can be done, all of which start or finish in different spots and which at one spot or another, the routes will cross over. This will mean that divers towing flags/buoys etc will inevitably get tangled up with another group. As I mentioned, at any one time there can be dozens of groups diving here. Therefore, the likelihood is that all we would end up with is a tangled mess of lines and bouys.
Third, while the deeper section of the dive is in water where boats regularly travel (it is not a channel), the spot where the anchor came down is not. The only place this section of water leads is to the bridge which is so low that nothing apart from a very small boat (eg a small tender or aluminium one without a steering wheel) can pass under. Once you get into this area, the divers entering and exiting the water on the island and mainland is very, very obvious.
Fourth, yesterday the seas were totally flat and blue, so that any bubbles from divers was very obvious. Unless they are totally blind, they must have seen all the evidence of divers around them.
Fifth, I stand corrected, I have once seen and used a float (SMB) when diving, this was on a drift dive in southern England. However, the reason was so that the boat could keep track of us, not to warn off other boats.
Sixth, I have had fishing boats drop anchors near my own boat when we were diving, even though we had a very large dive flag flying. As a lot of diving boaters will know, many boaters have no idea of what a dive flag represents. So even if we had a flag, it still does not mean we would not have had the same thing happen.
Finally, I think that people need to accept that divers dive differently in various parts of the world. For example, DrBill has stated that they do not use flags when diving in California. The fact is the only people who use flags when shore diving in NSW are dive schools and they do not tow them around either. Likewise, in Sydney we do not use SMBs for ascending, we go down and come back up an anchor line.
Just because people dive one way in the USA does not make it right for me. Just because I do it one way does not make it right for you. There is a saying, "horses for courses".
First, there is no law that requires dive flags for shore diving. Fact.
Second, at this location there are about 5 different dives that can be done, all of which start or finish in different spots and which at one spot or another, the routes will cross over. This will mean that divers towing flags/buoys etc will inevitably get tangled up with another group. As I mentioned, at any one time there can be dozens of groups diving here. Therefore, the likelihood is that all we would end up with is a tangled mess of lines and bouys.
Third, while the deeper section of the dive is in water where boats regularly travel (it is not a channel), the spot where the anchor came down is not. The only place this section of water leads is to the bridge which is so low that nothing apart from a very small boat (eg a small tender or aluminium one without a steering wheel) can pass under. Once you get into this area, the divers entering and exiting the water on the island and mainland is very, very obvious.
Fourth, yesterday the seas were totally flat and blue, so that any bubbles from divers was very obvious. Unless they are totally blind, they must have seen all the evidence of divers around them.
Fifth, I stand corrected, I have once seen and used a float (SMB) when diving, this was on a drift dive in southern England. However, the reason was so that the boat could keep track of us, not to warn off other boats.
Sixth, I have had fishing boats drop anchors near my own boat when we were diving, even though we had a very large dive flag flying. As a lot of diving boaters will know, many boaters have no idea of what a dive flag represents. So even if we had a flag, it still does not mean we would not have had the same thing happen.
Finally, I think that people need to accept that divers dive differently in various parts of the world. For example, DrBill has stated that they do not use flags when diving in California. The fact is the only people who use flags when shore diving in NSW are dive schools and they do not tow them around either. Likewise, in Sydney we do not use SMBs for ascending, we go down and come back up an anchor line.
Just because people dive one way in the USA does not make it right for me. Just because I do it one way does not make it right for you. There is a saying, "horses for courses".
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So what did you do...??
A few years ago I was tying in to the Stolt Dagali. While doing so I heard a second boat come overhead. Just as I was finished hooking our chain up, a shiny new grapnel anchor on brand new line landed right next to me.
It's amazing how quickly an EZ cut can go through even brand-new line.
He came here and stamped his virtual feet...
It's amazing how quickly an EZ cut can go through even brand-new line.
He came here and stamped his virtual feet...
I cant agree. If you are driving, not by but on the school yard, you cant say you didnt notice the kid as a defence for hitting one.
I missed the part in the OP where a diver was hit by a boat.
I do think it's unreasonable for a diver to expect that a likely non-diver boater would consider that there could be a diver under their boat when there's no flag, no dive boat, no posted notice, etc that divers are in the water... based solely on the assumption that the boater can see their bubbles.
It sort of sounds like you are saying is that you have done this a lot (dived in an area where boats travel without a flag) and there has never been an accident so if there was one today then it wasn't your fault?
So, you feel that it should have been obvious to any boater based on your bubbles that there were divers below, but you also assume that they wouldn't see or understand what a dive flag meant?
Maybe our recommendations regarding safe diving in an active boating area don't apply to you because you do things differently there. I'm not sure what sort of answer you expect from the board, but I guess it's something along the lines of "wow, that boater was an idiot!"
The fact that you were almost seriously injured by a boat anchor might make you try to see what you can do to solve that problem. I can think of three possible solutions - lobby the local government to make this popular dive area a no boating zone, somehow train every boater to look for bubbles, or carry a flag. The first and second ones sound difficult. But if you have other solutions, I would be interested in hearing them too!
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