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

[paolov]

this thread is getting dangerous....

next perhaps would be attaching a bit of semtex to the underneath of the boat...

 

[Brewone0to]

See, this just proves the liberals are right. Had "DIVER BELOW" been written in all known languages you would not have had a problem.

Know you understand... it was not their fault, it was yours!

Go figure.................

To all those people I say "One country, One language"
Here in Fla that tends to bring out their English(and piss them off)
but why should we as divers drag around a billboard with all languages(When no writing is required)
Perhaps should have had blue/white flag and red/white stripe(as those cover world wide)
Just my thoughts

Brewone0to
Just Anonther Florida Diver

PS: Perhaps usage of some tact may have produced someone the could/would have spoken in English

 

[toodive4]

Don't want to be overly critical, but it is obvious that the person on the surface was a moron - then again, so would be the diver who allowed his/herself to be pulled to the surface instead of letting go of... or in the case of being hooked to - cutting the line of the surface float. Even though I use a surface float with big DIVER BELOW letters written on it, I still consider myself a moron. After all these years of diving, I still do it - even though I know all it does is attract surface morons as dumb as I am to come closer. Surface morons are interested in seeing what that thing is - seeing if it's valuable, seeing if they can "recover" it from the surface. Personally I believe it is safer to dive without a surface float... unless you're in under 20 feet of water with heavy powerboat traffic. You're less likely to lose your float and less likely to be bothered by the surface morons.
Happy Diving

Hey everybody.
I just wanted to relate something potentially dangerous that happened to me last week while diving in the Pamlico sound near Buxton S.C.
The event happened while I was doing a pretty shallow shore dive, 17 feet/32 minutes with my son, and another dive buddy (both on their 2nd open water dive since OW cert.).
After having a relatively nice (calm) dive with only minimal entanglements from the leader to the float, we were on our return heading when I noticed that the tension in the leader line was feeling odd. At first it felt like there was a pretty stong wind blowing it around. But then it became more violent. It was kind of like you're fishing and you hook 20lbs "bubba" bass.
I started wondering if a sailboat boat had made contact with the float because I hadn't heard any motor noises, but the force on the line was now keeping me from maintaining contact with my dive buddies. So I began to let out more slack from my reel until I could get them to wait while I find the problem.
I had barely gotten my buddies to stop and wait when I was out of line slack and was being pulled towards the surface. Since I hadn't gone deeeper than 17 feet, I didn't have a deco requirement or safety stop. I still didn't hear any boat or other motorized traffic and couldn't see any floating vehicle on my unintended ascent. Basically, though it was a more rapid ascent than I like, it was still manageable.
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!
This is no small float either. It's one similar to this link
which is clearly marked in BIG READ LETTERS...... "DIVER BELOW"...

The sound side of the Outer Banks is relatively shallow. Because of the sand build up from the Hatteras Inlet, in just a few feet of distance you can go from 15 feet depth to less than 1 foot. Which is why they were able to come in contact with my float. They were swimming on a shallow sand bar.

Anyway. The potential problem is probably obvious to most of you. For those who dont see the danger: If I had been doing a required deco stop or safety stop from a deep dive, these attempted theives could have cause me to get DCS or worse (depending on the type of diving I was doing and the gas I was using).

When I surfaced and discovered that there were PEOPLE responsible for the problem, I was pretty PISSED! I asked the moron, who's hands were still on the float AND the leader line, what Hel* he was doing? I think it came out more like this "Hey! Dumb As*! Can't you freakin' read? What the hel* are you doing? You trying to kill someone?" His buddies began to laugh and snicker and he let go of the float and rope. Appearantly this was funny to them somehow. At least one of them realized their mistake and attempted to utter a broken english appology. Which was a small consolation. I really wanted to kick his as*. But since there was so many of them, the odds weren't good on that one....lol To make matters even worse, my favorite baseball hat was in the float which was now flooded and soaked!

My buddies surfaced while I was in the middle of chewing the butt-head out. They just as surprised as I was when they found out what was going on.

I guess if I learned anything usefull from this event, I'd say that there's good reason to have someone acting as surface support while your doing shore dives in any vacinity that might be accessible to other people.
If this had happened when we were doing that same dive at night the day before, it would have really freaked me out!

Thanks for reading.

Now I really am a MAD_DIVER!


BTW.... Vacationing the Outer Banks rules~!

 

[toodive4]

Does the law require surface morons to know what they're looking at? Because if it doesn't, the law requiring you to have a surface marker is useless. My experience with surface markers is that it attracts boats to comein closer for a look. Most recreational boaters have no idea what the flag / float means and they find it to be of interest - which puts you the diver at a substantially greater risk of being run over... Do a test... go down to the local marina, show them a blue/white dive flag, then show them a red/white diver down flag - each time asking what the flag means... about 1 in 10 will recognize the blue/white flag and 4 in 10 will recognize the red/white flag...

This may vary by state and the number of USCG licensed Captains you run into, but most recreational boaters are clueless.

K

In Mass, its a requirement. Not just any marker. The Diver Down flag of a certain diminsion, floating a certain height above the water. You must surface within 100 ft (i think) of it. So in this murk its pretty much a requirement to carry it with you.

And if you'd think its easy to get entangled in your own flag line, you're right...

 

[ScubaSixString]

Does the law require surface morons to know what they're looking at? Because if it doesn't, the law requiring you to have a surface marker is useless. My experience with surface markers is that it attracts boats to comein closer for a look. Most recreational boaters have no idea what the flag / float means and they find it to be of interest - which puts you the diver at a substantially greater risk of being run over... Do a test... go down to the local marina, show them a blue/white dive flag, then show them a red/white diver down flag - each time asking what the flag means... about 1 in 10 will recognize the blue/white flag and 4 in 10 will recognize the red/white flag...

This may vary by state and the number of USCG licensed Captains you run into, but most recreational boaters are clueless.

K

The law states boaters are to stay a certain distance from a diver's down flag, BUT, i've never heard of anyone being ticketed for not doing so. I HAVE heard of divers being ticketed for not using/surfacing close enough to said flag, however.

 

[countryboy]

In Connecticut, you are required to get a license to operate a boat / PWC... The "diver down flag" is one of the questions on the test... and was definitely covered in my Coast Guard class....

No excuse around here for not knowing..

 

[rottielover]

Just wanted to put in another State doing Rec. Boater Lic. Missouri now requires anyone born after Jan 1 1984 to take and pass a Rec. boater course (which gives them basically a c-card to operate boats). I looked at the online test and four of the questions covered the Diver Down flags, and how far away you MUST stay from a diver down flag.

Personally, I'm pretty happy with that, but I know that there are an awful lot of "older morons" out there...

 

[gert7to3]

Maybe we should work out an ISO symbol illustrating that a diver is below. Innocent people might get the idea.

In Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, divers are required to have a boat, with a person in it and displaying a dive flag. One of my friends was fished up by DNR for trying to dive with a float/flag.

There are lots of local ordinances to be aware of, some only pertaining to a specific body of water.

 

[pushtin]

Getting the jet skiers away from your float is easy...

Go get a waterski rope 100ft minimum (Black colored) and simply snake it around your flag float for about a 30 to 50 ft radius. The first time one passes over it, the rope will get sucked up into the impeller grate and wrap around the shaft stopping the engine instantly. They'll have to paddle to shore and cut the line off ( which is very time consuming, trust me ).. If confronted, quote the state law regarding diver down flag distances, and say you simply use it to tow your float along with you as you dive..

Then tell them they need to replace it...

 

[Mad_diver]

Getting the jet skiers away from your float is easy...

Go get a waterski rope 100ft minimum (Black colored) and simply snake it around your flag float for about a 30 to 50 ft radius. The first time one passes over it, the rope will get sucked up into the impeller grate and wrap around the shaft stopping the engine instantly. They'll have to paddle to shore and cut the line off ( which is very time consuming, trust me ).. If confronted, quote the state law regarding diver down flag distances, and say you simply use it to tow your float along with you as you dive..

Then tell them they need to replace it...

No here's an idea I LIKE!