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

[ScubaMarine]

When I reached the surface, I couldn't believe what I found there! A group of about 15 non-diving, non ENGLISH speaking, non ENGLISH READING, ignorant foreign morons were tugging at, playing with, letting air out of, trying to sink, untie and steal MY DIVE FLOAT! While I was USING IT!

I didnt bother to read the many responses to this message so if im repeating someone forgive me. I think this would be a great situation to break out that 9inch rambo stile diving knife and swim towards them as fast as possible with a crazy look in your eye.

 

[jeffreyd]

I didnt bother to read the many responses to this message so if im repeating someone forgive me. I think this would be a great situation to break out that 9inch rambo stile diving knife and swim towards them as fast as possible with a crazy look in your eye.

Heh, I like that one.


What about getting a couple ziplock sandwich bags and put some nice gunk/sand/mud/rocks from the bottom then ascend to about a foot under the surface. Then throw the bags into/onto the boat or at the boater. That'd be a nice mess to clean up.

 

[Mad_diver]

Gee......... So you're all saying I was too nice to those SOB's?
Being that it happened on the Outer Banks, calling the police would have only served to cause about 2 or 3 hours wait for them to show up... I think there's like 3 police cars on the whole chain of islands.
I was worried mostly about the fact that my son was involved with the dive. I didn't want to teach him the "wrong" message. And I didn't want him to see his old man get tossed in the slammer for assult. Plus, there were about 15 of the theives, so it may have been a case where the ambulance would have been needed....lol We wouldn't want my son to see THAT... Now would we?
I wonder if a bang stick would have had sufficiant impact??????

 

[SeanQ]

I've had people on a nearby fishing pier "casting for bubbles" before ... it doesn't bother me much, as I've gotten rather adept at cutting the line if it gets close enough. It does bother me when they do this as we're doing maintenance work on the boundary rope that's down there to keep the divers away from the pier, however.

It also bothers me to see a 10-lb downrigger ball on 30 feet of steel leader heading my way ... :11: ... fortunately, trollers move fairly slow and it's not that difficult to get out of the way ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Next time you should rip off a page from your wetnotes and write "Go away. Signed - The Fish." Stick that on their hook and see what happens...

 

[simbrooks]

Gee......... So you're all saying I was too nice to those SOB's?
Being that it happened on the Outer Banks, calling the police would have only served to cause about 2 or 3 hours wait for them to show up... I think there's like 3 police cars on the whole chain of islands.
I was worried mostly about the fact that my son was involved with the dive. I didn't want to teach him the "wrong" message. And I didn't want him to see his old man get tossed in the slammer for assult. Plus, there were about 15 of the theives, so it may have been a case where the ambulance would have been needed....lol We wouldn't want my son to see THAT... Now would we?
I wonder if a bang stick would have had sufficiant impact??????

I think you did the right thing, but most of us like to dream/scheme how we can get back at the dumbass boaters thats all. I should think that the boaters being a far better protected group of water users (the police and government love them) that such schemes as have been thought up here might well get you charged with assault - except the line in the prop thing, but bottle rockets and such are just asking for trouble and are just as bad as the cherry bombs, fighting fire with fire gets both of you burned.

 

[FreeFloat]

here's one .

we were on a "dive boat" getting ready to dive when another boat with "tourists" on it went straight over a Dive Balloon. it gave me some quivers to think a diver may be surfacing anytime at that point and at the speed he was running, a cracked skull was the least that could happen.

There have definitely been fatalities from boaters running over divers who are surfacing under their flags - see http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=67188 for a thread about one that happened last year in my area.

 

[Rookie_J]

i've always thought if anything like this were to happen, a copy of their their hull ID # placed into the proper hands (local law/game warden/DNR) would probably be the best action.

the law clearly states the boaters responsibility to maintain a safe distance.

our DNR doesn't mess around and are more than happy to issue citations for watercraft violations..

 

[simbrooks]

Getting the ID is a nice idea, but when they are buzing your flag or speeding away its a bit tough. I understand what you mean though, but if they are close enough to read the number i am sure you might want to say a few words too

 

[CBulla]

i've always thought if anything like this were to happen, a copy of their their hull ID # placed into the proper hands (local law/game warden/DNR) would probably be the best action.

the law clearly states the boaters responsibility to maintain a safe distance.

our DNR doesn't mess around and are more than happy to issue citations for watercraft violations..

Yup, I was all about reading that hull ID on the 35-40 twin screw boat that buzzed my dive flag 3 times trying to hit it while I was on the bottom, 16' at the sand, holding the flag line basically in my finger tips watching this fat head doing circles trying to hit the float. I only knew what kind of boat it was by surfacing after the noise went away and saw this same vessel buzzing 3 dive flags clustered together 1/2 mile north of me.. the capper was watching the flag that was farthest out get hit and wipped out by the boat..

Actually, what was going through my mind was "Give me 3 water mines and 3 dive flags on floats... turn a few of these cross eyed booger pickers and their boats of death into a REEF and watch how quickly the rest start avoiding dive flags like the plague!"

 

[TooTall]

Too bad you didn't have a spear gun. That would have fixed his as*. lol