Dive flag awareness?

[tedshark]

I think every diver knows what a dive flag is, funny how there is a dedicated forum about a dive flag, yet you go on a boating forum, and you can't find a thread with the word DIVE FLAG in the tittle.
I guess I am one of the guilty, I am a member of some of the boating forums and have never had a discussion about dive flags, come to think of it, I bet a lot of fisherman that own boats probably hate divers for scaring the fish, so they thing.
Whats you taught on this?

 

[scuberd]

I know most people don't know what the dive flag represents. I see divers everyday who ask "why do you put those flags up?"

Pop quiz: What is the proper flag to fly while diving? hint: it isn't red and white

 

[Darkforeboding]

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that it wasn't much use. Having witness a boater use a dive flag as a target and nail it dead center and skiers use a dive flag for a slalom. On my ex-wife's OW dive I had to shoo a bass boat out of the dive area who were trying to lay a trotline.

Generally I threaten to turn in their registration number to lake patrol.

DFB

 

[swimmer_spe]

I know most people don't know what the dive flag represents. I see divers everyday who ask "why do you put those flags up?"

Pop quiz: What is the proper flag to fly while diving? hint: it isn't red and white

Alpha flag. (I am in the navy....)

 

[underH2Oman]

I try and have a few posters in my truck to post at boat launches when I am out diving. DEMA has a good dive flag awareness campaign but it is still up to us to spread the word. You can download a copy of the poster at Dive Flag Awareness

 

[Kharon]

Pop quiz: What is the proper flag to fly while diving? hint: it isn't red and white

I thought the Alpha was for international and the red & white was for USA waters - not true?

 

[Rich Keller]

I thought the Alpha was for international and the red & white was for USA waters - not true?

The Alpha flag is to be flown by any vessel that is conducting diving operations. It is to let other vessels know that they can not maneuver and that other vessels should stay clear of the area. This is an international marine navigation standard. This is not the flag that a diver tows while diving but I have seen it done, usually they are flying both flags

 

[iluvtheocean]

i forgot to take a picture of it but the marina i was at last weekend had a sign up covering 2 topics --- 1 part about the manatee wake zone & the other part is staying away from the dive flags.. it also had a warning sign to stay off the part of the dock that was chained off unless you wanted to be arrested on the spot (that side was the PB Sheriff's marine division)

 

[Redshift]

I think every diver knows what a dive flag is, funny how there is a dedicated forum about a dive flag, yet you go on a boating forum, and you can't find a thread with the word DIVE FLAG in the tittle.
I guess I am one of the guilty, I am a member of some of the boating forums and have never had a discussion about dive flags, come to think of it, I bet a lot of fisherman that own boats probably hate divers for scaring the fish, so they thing.
Whats you taught on this?

Maybe you could start the topic on those boating forums Bridge the gap.

 

[Sam Miller III]

A very short history

The red and white dive flag was proposed by Ted Nixon in the September 1957 issue of Skin Diver magazine as a warning symbol of recreational diving activities. After much discussion by respondents from through out the US and the world it was universally accepted as the symbol of recreational diving about a year later. The divers flag first appeared in the upper right hand corner of the cover of SDM March 1959 issue.

Almost immediately dive flag posters began appearing on boat docks, and divers began displaying the "flag" while diving.
All went well until approximately four years later on September 22, 1962 when Darrell Toso was struck and injured while displaying the flag from his boat while engaged in diving at Long Point Catalina Island.

I was picked from the small but diving active SoCal SCUBA Instructional world and anointed as an "Expert witness" for the prosecution. It was an awesome responsibility, the legality of the flag had never been tested in a court of law; If the case was lost the flag had no legality, but the prosecution prevailed and this one case in a Long Beach court established the legality of the red and white flag and identified the responsibilities for divers who displayed the flag from that time forward.

I documented the proceeding of the Toso/Burns trial in a two part article titled "Diving accident leads to legal action." in the now defunct LA County Underwater News

Almost immediately I and others recognized the impact of the trial was national or even international in scope rather than local and I should have published the article in Skin Diver magazine (SDM.) I was contacted by Jim Auxier, the founder of SDM and asked if I would consider being SDM's first guest editor and write an editorial on the diver's flag. It was a huge honor and of course I accepted. My guest editorial "Sign post to safety" appeared in the February 1966 issued of SDM.

Perhaps it was the timing perhaps it was the impact of the article but the manufacture of dive flags and dive jewelry suddenly appeared. As I suggested in the editorial displaying of dive flags on about every flat surface became popular.

About a year later I was contacted by Chapman's to authored a description and suggested use of the flag for incorporation in to Chapman's Small boat handling book. Any resemblance to my submission and the published article is purely coincidental
.
It is once again time for dive flag posters to appear on boat docks to educate the boating enthusiast.

The life you save my be your own

SDM