How to ignore a dive flag?

[SeaJay]

A boater's license should be mandatory. IMHO, it should be an endorsement on your driver's license, not unlike what they do for motorcycles.

With motorcycles, in order to get your endorsement, you either have to pass the driving course the first time (not likely) or you have to take an MSF course... A heavy course that teaches you how to stay alive on two wheels. I'm a big supporter of the MSF standards.

IMHO, there should be an identical agency for boating... And getting your boating license should include a similar heavy course designed to keep the boaters from causing too many accidents.

Finally, I believe that a boat is a motor vehicle, and that operating it while under the influence should be looked at identically. Sure, it's illegal here and in many places to operate a boat while intoxicated... But the enforcement of this law is pretty lax on the water. You can't drive a car with an open container of beer in it... Why is it that so many people associate beer and boats together? Why is it okay to drink on a boat?

Just seems like a really volitile concoction to me. Stupid!

 

[mars2u]

SeaJay once bubbled...
A boater's license should be mandatory. IMHO, it should be an endorsement on your driver's license, not unlike what they do for motorcycles.

With motorcycles, in order to get your endorsement, you either have to pass the driving course the first time (not likely) or you have to take an MSF course... A heavy course that teaches you how to stay alive on two wheels. I'm a big supporter of the MSF standards.

IMHO, there should be an identical agency for boating... And getting your boating license should include a similar heavy course designed to keep the boaters from causing too many accidents.

Finally, I believe that a boat is a motor vehicle, and that operating it while under the influence should be looked at identically. Sure, it's illegal here and in many places to operate a boat while intoxicated... But the enforcement of this law is pretty lax on the water. You can't drive a car with an open container of beer in it... Why is it that so many people associate beer and boats together? Why is it okay to drink on a boat?

Just seems like a really volitile concoction to me. Stupid!

Amen brother.
I also ride a bike and wholeheartedly concur. I live about 2 miles from the lake and one good note (at least here in Missouri) is that last year they gave quite a few (thinking over 100) tickets last year in just ONE WEEKEND. They basically took peoples drivers licenses away that had open continers on their boats. They then suspended their driving priveleges.
Yep, the crackdown has begun and it is now mandated (at least in Missouri) that you could lose your drivers license.
Honestly, I was surprised it took them this long. As much drinking goes on while boating on lakes you would have figured the law enforcement agencies would have realized the monetary benefits of ticketing these folks.

 

[Genesis]

Be careful what you wish for gentlemen.

Recasting the right to travel (which IS in our Constitution) to a "privilege", and one that requires licensing at that, is just one more step down the road to a police state.

The correct answer to people violating safe practices is to arrest and prosecute those responsible. It is not to treat these rights as privileges.

I rode a motorcycle for close to 10 years. I am a staunch supporter of the right of a motorcyclist to ride without a helmet if he or she chooses. And, by the way, I passed the "road test" on the first try and have a cycle endorsement on my driver's license to this day - another document that, IMHO, has reduced what is a right (the right to travel again) to a "privilege".

 

[bwerb]

Genesis once bubbled...
[
I am a staunch supporter of the right of a motorcyclist to ride without a helmet if he or she chooses.

Yeah, me too...keeps the gene pool a little cleaner if you can knock out the stupid ones before they breed.ut:

 

[watersprite]

Thanks for all your funny stories! I had a good laugh!!

Sad to hear about the diver that got killed though.... Fortunately I don't know yet how it is to have a water ski above your head! Hope I'll never experience it either!

Look forward to more stories!

Watersprite

 

[SeaJay]

Genesis once bubbled...
Be careful what you wish for gentlemen.

I rode a motorcycle for close to 10 years. I am a staunch supporter of the right of a motorcyclist to ride without a helmet if he or she chooses. And, by the way, I passed the "road test" on the first try and have a cycle endorsement on my driver's license to this day - another document that, IMHO, has reduced what is a right (the right to travel again) to a "privilege".

Hmmmm...

Good point about the helmet law. I'm also a supporter of "pro choice." I feel that if the motorcyclist wants to wear a helmet or not, it's his choice. I feel that the government has overstepped it's bounds on that one, where it's required to wear a helmet.

That said, every time I've ridden without a helmet (and it's been a half dozen times or so), I've gotten pinged in the face with rocks, windblown, and generally had an uncomfortable ride. At just 60 mph, my eyes watered uncontrollably, and the sound of the wind rushing by my ears was deafening. My ears rang for hours afterward, telling me that the activity of riding without some sort of hearing protection can be damaging.

For those of you who don't ride... Imagine hanging your head out of your car at 60 mph. That's what it feels like.

No thanks... Just for the comfort factor alone, I'll stick with a full face Arai. That's not even mentioning the safety aspects, which are obvious enough.

But to have the government tell me that I MUST wear one... Well, I don't think it's any of their damn business. Likewise with seat belts. Why do they feel the need to protect me from me?

 

[Boogie711]

I'm as conservative as conservative gets. I hate Government interference as much as the next guy. BUT...

You have the right to travel anywhere you want, within reason. But you do NOT have the right to travel in any MANNER you want. You need a license to drive a vehicle, which prevents stupid 12 year olds from driving into little old ladies. Obviously, you do not have the right to fly a jet without a license, because allowing unlicensed pilots is asking people to crash into buildings- and we've all seen what can happen then. I don't think you have the RIGHT to drive a boat - you have a privilege. You do have the RIGHT to swim.

In my opinion, if you are behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle, you have the ability to cause harm to others. Therefore, I (as in, the 'others') expect you to operate that vehicle in a manner which does not impact upon my wellbeing. A licensing system is obviously not perfect, but is the only reasonable alternative.

Bikes without helmets is stupid, but as long as you pay your own hospital bills, go nuts. Same with seatbelt laws. But I can't agree that people have the right to vehicular operation.

 

[Scubaroo]

SeaJay once bubbled...


Hmmmm...

Good point about the helmet law. I'm also a supporter of "pro choice." I feel that if the motorcyclist wants to wear a helmet or not, it's his choice. I feel that the government has overstepped it's bounds on that one, where it's required to wear a helmet.

<snip>

But to have the government tell me that I MUST wear one... Well, I don't think it's any of their damn business. Likewise with seat belts. Why do they feel the need to protect me from me?

What if the helmet (or seatbelt) made the difference between someone surviving an accident they didn't cause, or dying? Accidently causing the death of another human being can weigh heavy on the conscience of the other party involved... to the point of it affecting the remainder of their life, especially if the death had been preventable by something as simple as clicking a seatbelt closed. The helmetless rider has then not only shortened their own life, but ruined the life of another.

I knew a guy who is blind for life after a *bicycle* accident a couple of years ago - he wasn't wearing a helmet, which is against the law where it happened. The "it will never happen to me" mentality just doesn't hold water. Now the driver who clipped his bike has to live with the fact he's permanently blinded another human being, instead of just breaking his arm.

As a government minister said in South Australia once, when passing a law that made it an offence to approach a dead whale at sea after a nightly news crew filmed people taking charter boats out to a blue whale carcass, AND JUMPING OUT OF THE BOAT ONTO THE ROTTEN CARCASS TO GET A CLOSER LOOK AT GREAT WHITE SHARKS FEEDING ON IT!!!!, "Sometimes you need laws to protect people too stupid to protect themselves".

One of the guys jumping onto the rotting carcass had his three year old daughter in his arms to show her the sharks...

Anyone who doubts the value of a helmet should go to a certain "rotten" website (if you don't know the link don't ask, it's not appropriate for ScubaBoard), and look up the photos titled "Why we don't ride motorbikes". It is nightmarish stuff - the guy missing his lower jaw sitting on the hospital bed looking at the camera with his tongue hanging down the outside of his throat should do it for ya.

 

[mars2u]

SeaJay once bubbled...


Hmmmm...

Good point about the helmet law. I'm also a supporter of "pro choice." I feel that if the motorcyclist wants to wear a helmet or not, it's his choice. I feel that the government has overstepped it's bounds on that one, where it's required to wear a helmet.

These are two totally different things. You not wearing a helmet on your noggin is your own choice and you alone will suffer the consequences of your choice. What were talking about here is the fact that these morons are endangering other innocent people and should be regulated. If you wanted to argue whether you should have the choice of wearing a safety jacket on a boat that's one thing and I concur, as I do the helmet issue (I ride also). Would I still wear a helmet or wear a safety belt in my car..you bet you, the belt saved my life last year

 

[metridium]

Scubaroo wrote...
As a government minister said in South Australia once, when passing a law that made it an offence to approach a dead whale at sea after a nightly news crew filmed people taking charter boats out to a blue whale carcass, AND JUMPING OUT OF THE BOAT ONTO THE ROTTEN CARCASS TO GET A CLOSER LOOK AT GREAT WHITE SHARKS FEEDING ON IT!!!!, "Sometimes you need laws to protect people too stupid to protect themselves".

No offense, but expecting someone who is not put off by frenzied Great Whites feeding only a few feet away to be brought up short by some silly law isn't grounded in reality. You might stop the charter boats, but not the genius owners.

As long as they don't take someone along unwillingly (e.g. the 3 year old), who cares if they live or die? One less stupid person in the world...