Dive Story

[divedude]

We all know that diving in Kingston is great.......
Most of you know that I do dive charters here in Kingston....
I am also the guy that looks after all the POW moorings.
I do the mooring as a volunteer, my house and yard is full of lines, chain, shackles and buoys.......

Here's the story..........

I'm standing on the bow of my boat watching the water and bubbles of the divers in my charge as I often do.
I hear a motor at high speed approaching and suddenly a small boat about 20 feet long comes right up along side and a guy and 3 of his Buddy's puts a line around my side cleat and turn to put on dive gear.............with his engine still running and divers all around in the water

I lose it......... He never ask permission if he could come up or if he could tie up to me. I'm flying a dive flag and an alpha flag, I also have a anchour ball at my bow.

I ask what the HeII he was doing.......... He just turned his back on me!!!

So I untied them and dropped the line and told them about dive flags and dive etiquette and asking permission to tie to another persons boat..........There was a few of them 4 letter words mixed in with all my polite explaining......

I was then told that anyone could tie up to a mooring, that I didn't own them............. Which I don't,but......... We do have laws and rules

Now I'm really pi$$ed and so are they and it's 4 against 1 so seeing the odds not being real great for them.... I let them go with more of them 4 letter words following them.

Here's the funny part:
We have a few commercial fishermen around this area and when they put out nets they use a flag at one end of the net and a jug at the other. The jug looks a lot like the jugs we use to mark our wrecks that don't have a proper mooring buoy on them.

As I watch the "sport divers" speed off over the wrecksite with no regard to my divers safety, I see that they are headed toward a "jug" which I had passed on the way out to the wreck site.

Now, I know the location of "most" of the wrecks in this area I know that this "jug" is no shipwreck that I know of and I also know that it's a fishing net......

Yes sports fans they did tie up to this "jug" and all got ready to dive the great dive site they had tied up to!

About 20 minutes later I spotted gear being flung back into the boat.

In my experince I have met a lot of divers and they are great people, but some are a-holes, these guys are right up there with the bunch that stole the plaque off the Munson.

If you are reading this and you are the dummies that did all this I have a message for you..............
Try another sport jerks, we don't want you in this one

Oh Yea...... I gave your boat numbers to the OPP marine unit.

 

[JamesP]

I lose it......... He never ask permission if he could come up or if he could tie up to me. I'm flying a dive flag and an alpha flag, I also have a anchour ball at my bow.


Oh Yea...... I gave your boat numbers to the OPP marine unit.

And that's why we call you the CHAMP

 

[JJ1]

They didn't get near what they deserved Jim......

 

[DI_Guy]

very well done divedude.... I tip my hat to you.....

Maybe next time bring a camera with you and snap a pic of them. They are giving scuba a bad rep.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Now I'm really pi$$ed and so are they and it's 4 against 1 so seeing the odds not being real great for them....

You are the best

Good job, and thanks for sharing.

 

[CDN ff]

very well done divedude.... I tip my hat to you.....

Maybe next time bring a camera with you and snap a pic of them. They are giving scuba a bad rep.

That's a great idea. Throw a disposable camera in your dive bag. Anytime something like that happens, snap a pic and post it in here. That way EVERYONE will know who they are.....

 

[StatusMaker]

I dont own a huge boat myself, I own a zodiac (woohoo). I also know most of the charter boat captains in Kingston as I used to run tons of charters in the early years when I helped run the Dolfin Divers out of Oshawa.

I TOTALLY agree with what Jim did, I have never just pulled up and assumed that I could tie to someone elses boat. I have always asked permission and rarely has it ever been turned away (usually for safety reasons when we are). The captains are generally friendly and would be more than happy to allow someone tie off to their boats.

I wish the OPP marine unit would take more of an active stance in policing this type of abuse. If its reported, then take action.

Darryl Koster

 

[bubblelogist]

If I'm not mistaken I think that the moorings are property of the charter association... It's the case in Brockville. One of my friends that have a boat came on a mooring and someone yelled at him that's it's private property and he should be a member of the charter association. So he got to the marina, got the membership (100 $) then get back to the dive site... Is it the same in Kingston ???
By the way I would pay a good price to see their face coming back from the fishing net dive ;0)

 

[StatusMaker]

They probably are the property of POW, I am pretty sure though that POW would rather you tie off to their marker than drop anchor onto their beautiful ships.

I am kinda suprised that the Brockville charter group doesn't do the same thing. I would rather have people tying up to the marker bouy than risk them dropping anchor, wouldn't you?

Darryl Koster

 

[JimC]

If I'm not mistaken I think that the moorings are property of the charter association... It's the case in Brockville.

There are 2 types of moorings in Brockville.

There are SOS moorings and Charter Assoc moorings. The SOS balls, are white and orange with flash lights are free for anyone to use. The Charter Assoc moorings are property of the charter association. They are ususaly just a milk jug or some such.