Dear Oren and Bob,
Thanks for taking the discussion to such an adult level. Care to get back on topic?
R
No, not really but because you asked nicely, I'll try again to spell it slowly for the simple minded.
I politely explained my point of view couple of times and the only thing I've got in return was: "Stay down there...blah, blah, blah...don't come up here, we don't need it....blah, blah, blah....I'm doing this since 20 years....blah, blah, blah"
Bob doesn't know me, where I dive, what I do or my skill levels.
He doesn't know anything about the conditions that were existent at that particular dive when the boat went above us but he's full of assumptions, baseless conclusions, accusations and mostly, of himself.
It baffles me how someone, who is saying that a collision between a diver and a boat is only a question of time at BBP, can be supportive of conducting basic courses with inexperienced divers at a location where the students are subjected to elevated levels of risk.
Apparently, it's always easier to demand common sense from other people...
Let's face it as it is.
IMO, the flag issue is only a pretext to prohibit diving altogether not because they are concerned about our safety or dive flags but because of the level of disruption of the daily lives and weekends of the local residents.
A hint would be that the councilman that brought it up lives only 4 houses down the road.
Heck, I wouldn't want that circus in my backyard every weekend either.
So, maybe by not running basic courses at this location, the risk levels for the inexperienced students/divers could be reduced,
the impact of the dive community on the local residents could also be reduced and an overall improvement in the relationship between the two communities (divers and local residents) could be achieved.
Who knows, maybe the whole problem could be solved this way.
It definitely would be worth trying in an attempt to keep this location open for the dive community because if everyone just digs in their heels and insists that the other side is wrong, I can see this location being closed altogether and the whole dive community will be the loser.
Reality is that the boaters and the local residents aren't going to go away and their lobby is much stronger so we better come up with some compromise.
I hope, I was able to express myself clearly and with this, I'll conclude my participation in this thread.