Breaking...Emerald Loses Divers off Jupiter 6/21

[sportxlh]

Rred: I suspect you've not dove in northern Palm Beach County. Virtually all diving is drift diving.... it's the closest place the gulf stream comes to the USA. The current can be ripping. Mooring balls would be worthless unless you're super close to shore, like the Breakers mooring balls.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Rred: I suspect you've not dove in northern Palm Beach County. Virtually all diving is drift diving.... it's the closest place the gulf stream comes to the USA. The current can be ripping. Mooring balls would be worthless unless you're super close to shore, like the Breakers mooring balls.

Not just that - if a diver gets swept off, you would then have to decide whether or not to leave your divers who are still on the site, start up the engine, unhook, grab the drifting divers, then come back to the folks who are hanging off a mooring ball.

Having a float is an extra assist for tracking, but it's not foolproof. The same day Emerald had their first incident, another boat farther south had their float break loose and the boat followed it rather than the bubbles. Fortunately the boat was able to spot the divers when they surfaced a mile south of where the float was. One also has to consider that the float will create drag for whoever is carrying it and is a potential entanglement hazard; I dive with a guy who clips a float line off to his scooter and he's damn near clotheslined me more than a few times. That doesn't necessarily outweigh its value as a safety item, but those are considerations depending on what kind of diving you're doing.

 

[jndiver]

Drift diving is not for individuals that have little to no training in the system. First timers should hire a guide or better yet take a speciality class. When done safely its really fun and safe. Veterans in the area are a source of information and will usually let visitors buddy up with them. Not all but most love to show off when we locals cherish on the Treasure Coast.

 

[jndiver]

Forgot to note to only dive with an experienced operator that has years of experience in the area. Get a really big service marker at the very least.

 

[kelemvor]

Drift diving is not for individuals that have little to no training in the system. First timers should hire a guide or better yet take a speciality class. When done safely its really fun and safe. Veterans in the area are a source of information and will usually let visitors buddy up with them. Not all but most love to show off when we locals cherish on the Treasure Coast.

I assume you are saying that some agencies or instructors do not sufficiently cover the subject in open water class? When I did my first drift dive, it worked just like the OW manual (and instructor) said it would. Nothing to it, really... There are some minor differences based on location. In Florida, every op I've used has required buddy pairs to carry a flag. In Mexico, buddy pairs were to inflate SMB during safety stops. In Honduras it was neither. In all cases, they provided these things if you didn't have one. It's the sort of thing that they tell you about during the ride out to the dive site.

Personally I think it's the easiest kind of diving.. You jump off the boat and you surface when you're done. The boat follows you so you don't even have to navigate.

 

[jndiver]

I agree thst is is really easy once you have experienced it a time or 2. I have observed many inland based divers with the training and certification get unnerved in a 2 k current with the boat looking small and not that close by. Add a a sea that can pick up at a moment's notice and I tend to error on the safety first side. This is why I am recommending the practical aspects of ocean drift dives. With the proper equipment and training it can be enjoyed by divers of all skill levels.

 

[luscioman]

I assume you are saying that some agencies or instructors do not sufficiently cover the subject in open water class? When I did my first drift dive, it worked just like the OW manual (and instructor) said it would. Nothing to it, really... There are some minor differences based on location. In Florida, every op I've used has required buddy pairs to carry a flag. In Mexico, buddy pairs were to inflate SMB during safety stops. In Honduras it was neither. In all cases, they provided these things if you didn't have one. It's the sort of thing that they tell you about during the ride out to the dive site.

Personally I think it's the easiest kind of diving.. You jump off the boat and you surface when you're done. The boat follows you so you don't even have to navigate.

I have never been on a boat in Florida that they required us to tow a flag on a drift dive. More often they put a DM in the water with a bouy that the group loosely stays close to.

Also to clarify something on the drifts diving in Florida. This basically occurs from Ft Lauderdale to the north. Miami ( for the most part) and the Keys do not have the same type of conditions that result in drift dives. Though i have been on the Spiegel Grove and it could have been a drift dive with the current.

 

[sportxlh]

luscioman: practices differ with drift diving a bit between northern Palm Beach County, southern Palm Beach County and Broward. In my experience, northern Palm Beach County is exactly as you describe. An in-water guide tows a dive flag: individual paying divers do not. Individual divers are free to venture off on their own to hunt, take pictures or drift faster/slower than the guide. Anybody that does, is expected to know how to deploy a safety sausage from depth. In Boynton, my experience is mixed.... most operators don't use in-water guides, rather groups of paying divers (2-6 divers) are given a flag to tow. The diver groups are expected to stay together and surface together when the first diver in the group hits low gas or NDL. I can only think of a couple of Boynton operators that use in-water guides with a flag: in those cases, divers generally stay with the guide. South of Boynton and into Broward, almost no operator puts in-water guides in the water on drift dives: groups of paying divers tow the flag and are expected to stick together.

I've done drift dives in the keys on the deep reefs like Conch Wall and its been mixed. Sometimes the operator provides a guide that tows a dive flag and other times the paying divers group up and tow the flag.

 

[scubadada]

I have hundreds of dives in SE Fl. I use 5 main operators. Out of Boynton Beach, I use Underwater Explorers, Loggerhead, and Starfish. None of these operators put a DM in the water, you, or your group carry a flag. I use Narcosis out of West Palm, they put a DM in the water with a float and flag. You can stay with the DM or surface on your own with a DSMB. In Juptier, I use Jupiter Dive Center. They also put a DM in the water with a float and flag. Again, you follow the flag or ascend on you own with a DSMB. Drift diving in SE FL and be very easy for anyone. or, it can be very challenging. I have covered nearly all of the Boynton Beach Reef in 2 dives, this is about 3 miles.

 

[scubadada]

From the July Undercurrent Newsletter. Dates are not quite right, but they have all 3 recent events

Emerald Charters in the News Again

Things haven’t been going well for Emerald Charters of Jupiter, FL. In late May, seven divers went missing, separated from the dive boat off the Jupiter Inlet and had to be rescued, two of which were recovered by the marine unit of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. In June, Randy Jordan, the company’s principal, was brought ashore and hospitalized after being bitten by ‘a sea creature,’ most likely during a shark feed dive (Undercurrent June) and in early July, six Emerald Charters divers went missing five miles east of the Jupiter Inlet before being located by on-water assistance vessel Sea Tow. If you want to dive out of Jupiter, look for a professional dive operator who won’t set you adrift.