(6/15/05) Someone tried to steal my float while I was under!

[DennisW]

Never, never loop the flag holder over your arm, wrist, or tie it to you in any manner. People operating boats and jet skis close to shore are usually either stupid, drunk or both.

Sorry if I offended any boat operators out there, but I didn't say all people.

 

[airsix]

This stuff happens a lot. My first instructor held up a dive flag to the class and said "This is a dive marker. To the rest of the world it's a target."

-Ben

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

My dive flag has a name. It is Spot.

 

[DiveGolfSki]

All kidding aside, when do you need a floating dive flag versus having the dive flag on your boat or shooting a bag to indicate your position once your on your way up? Should you need to tow a floating dive flag when underwater? I can see it's use in shallow waters (rivers, certain lakes, etc.) but not in open water.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

In Florida a diver must display a diver down flag. If the boat is anchored, the diver needs to stay within 300 ft (will be corrected if I am wrong), otherwise must have a flag. So, any beach or drift diving we carry a flag. You can have up to 6 folks to one flag, but I have found groups of 4 or less is better.

 

[Tom Smedley]

We were diving as a group at Kowaliga on Lake Martin Alabama and the flag person felt a tug on his line and he jerked it away. One of the guy's spouse who was on the beach said that the Water Patrol did it.

There is no legislating common sense no matter what level of education or authority that you possess.

 

[StSomewhere]

All kidding aside, when do you need a floating dive flag versus having the dive flag on your boat or shooting a bag to indicate your position once your on your way up? Should you need to tow a floating dive flag when underwater? I can see it's use in shallow waters (rivers, certain lakes, etc.) but not in open water.

As Jenny says, its the law. For shore dives or drift dives in the FLL, Pompano area they write real tickets if they catch you diving without one, and they are actively looking. Which is assanine when you consider most boat operators don't have a frickin' clue what a dive flag is used for.

But I'm not bitter or anything...

 

[DiveGolfSki]

In Florida a diver must display a diver down flag. If the boat is anchored, the diver needs to stay within 300 ft (will be corrected if I am wrong), otherwise must have a flag. So, any beach or drift diving we carry a flag. You can have up to 6 folks to one flag, but I have found groups of 4 or less is better.

Thanks Scuba_Jenny, didn't know about Florida laws. So if your on a boat that's anchored and beach diving, you need a flag but drift diving? Is that drift diving from shore (ergo the need for a flag)?

 

[simbrooks]

In Florida a diver must display a diver down flag. If the boat is anchored, the diver needs to stay within 300 ft (will be corrected if I am wrong), otherwise must have a flag. So, any beach or drift diving we carry a flag. You can have up to 6 folks to one flag, but I have found groups of 4 or less is better.

I thought it was the 100/200ft rule, divers within 100ft and boaters more than 200ft away?

Thanks Scuba_Jenny, didn't know about Florida laws. So if your on a boat that's anchored and beach diving, you need a flag but drift diving? Is that drift diving from shore (ergo the need for a flag)?

You need a flag anytime you are in a navagable waterway, such as the ocean or a river or a lake (where boats go) that includes drifting or diving from an anchored boat - although if diving under anchor you can leave the flag raised on the boat as long as you ascend/descend the anchor line (such as wreck diving).

 

[darylm74]

I grew up on Tims Ford Lake back in Tennessee and my instructor that I had there told us of a Game / Wildlife Commissioner picking up his flag. He thought it was a bunch of kids so after he reached about 5ft of water he did a really hard kick and came up out of the water enough to grab side of the boat. He said the commissioner was a guy of about 300lbs and he fell over. My instructor had scared the crap out of him. He started questioning my instructor and after an explanation of the laws (something the commissioner should have known), the commissioner sat back in a cove close to where my instuctor was diving and anyone that came within 300 feet of the dive flag was being pulled over.