Dive Flag Towing

[NJDiverMark]

This is not a boating area. It is a bridge that hass a rr track on it and the place is actually marked for diving.

 

[Doc Harry]

I've been harrassed for towing a dive flag.

Apparently in this state the dive flag has to be anchored and not towed.....

 

[RIDiver60]

I know many people feel it is unsafe to tow a flag since should it get wrapped around a passing boat's prop or keel of a sailboat you could be launched to the surface. I always tow mine clipped at the shoulder ring (I hated retrieving it at the end of the dive the few times I anchored it). For a while a tied a small piece of buoy to the line a few feet above me to reduce entanglement (works if depth of the dive is fairly consistent). I now use polyproplyene line and rarely get tangled up.

 

[AfterDark]

A LDS here sells a SMB with a dive flag minus the wire, sewn to it and a small weight at the bottom of the SMB. With 15'-20' of line the whole thing can be kept rolled up and stowed until it's time to surface. Many of us deploy a SMB at the time anyway so with this rig you get an instant dive flag!

 

[Dive-aholic]

I know many people feel it is unsafe to tow a flag since should it get wrapped around a passing boat's prop or keel of a sailboat you could be launched to the surface. I always tow mine clipped at the shoulder ring (I hated retrieving it at the end of the dive the few times I anchored it). For a while a tied a small piece of buoy to the line a few feet above me to reduce entanglement (works if depth of the dive is fairly consistent). I now use polyproplyene line and rarely get tangled up.

An easy way to keep from being launched to the surface is to not clip it to yourself. I don't know who taught you that, but that is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Hold the reel/spool/line loosely in your hand so if it gets pulled up you can just release it.

 

[danvolker]

Here in Palm Beach Florida, we have 3 to 5 mph currents where gulfstream intrusion accellerates the water flow of drift diving, on the deeper divesites at technical depths. One of the ways we could ensure that the dive boat could track us on a 3 mile scooter dive, as we ran 260 foot deep reef lines, was to drag a torpedo float. Unlike the non-hydrodynamic floats 99% of divers tow, these spearfishing floats have essentially no drag in the water. Imagine being on the dive boat and tossing YOUR present float off the back with the boat going 20mph...with most, the line would go taught and something bad would happen With the torpedo float, the pull on a cave line is negligable, even at this speed.
In diving with these, the only trick is to fashion a towing harness where the line going down is about 1/3 of the way back from the front of the torpedo---if you just use the very front rings to clip your line to, you can cause the torpedo float to nose dive if it gets pulled straight down too hard...with the right placing of where the line pulls down, the torpedo just runs fast on the surface, and tracks with the diver.

Riffe Floats and Omer floats have dive flags built in to them.
Obviously, they work great in shallow diving to, and we would always use them on the 60 foot stuff or less--where you can run very short lines if you want.
For the conditions discussed in the OP, we have a jetty dive at the Palm Beach inlet, with eddies and rocks and big current galore, and the torpedo works phenomenally well here.
If the local marine law enforcement wants to give you a hard time, you might have to raise the flag a bit higher than these torpedo flags are--I don't know the local law on this...The high end Riffe model torpedo actually has a keel weight, so even a very long flag would be fine...some of the cheaper omer floats could turtle if you had too long a flag staff.
Hope this helps.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

MAKO Spearguns offers two very high quality dive floats which can be equipped with dive flags that will work great for scuba divers.

As the previous poster mentioned, these types of floats are much, much easier to tow than a typical dive flag mounted on a long rod and float or a large dive ball. The typical dive flag/float often used by scuba divers needs to sit vertically and presents considerable drag when moving through the water and is also subject to submergence when the current velocity is too high. A circular (or spherical) dive float provides considerable more buoyancy but is anything less than streamlined and therefore can be difficult to tow, especially in a current.

A streamlined torpedo float is really a much better solution. The MAKO inflatable float is extremely rugged, has internal lead shot ballast and an optional dive flag assembly. This float has over 75 lbs of lift, yet is easy to tow.

MAKO Professional Inflatable Float


MAKO also offers a hard float, which has an optional dive flag assembly which allows the attachment of a two pound dive weight for ballast that keeps the float upright even in strong currents. This float has several handles which might allow a diver to rest on the surface as well. If the diver is going to be towing a float around sharp rocks, barnacles etc. then this is the float (rather than an inflatable).

MAKO Hawaiian Hard Float

 

[NJDiverMark]

Its not a matter of the float its self. Its the matter of the line that needs to be towed. You can't plant it, you can't clip it to yourself, or do any variation of the sort besides hold it in your hand. It thus eliminates one of your hands. How is one to spearfish with one hand? What about taking photos? What if a situation arises and you need to help your buddy? What if you get tangled in mono or surge/ current causes you to become entangled in the line?

Its plain unsafe to me.

 

[Rich Keller]

I only use a flag where it is required. In my experience the flag attracts more boaters and jet skiers then it deters. In 40 years of diving I have never seen a boater fined for coming too close to a dive flag.

 

[danvolker]

Its not a matter of the float its self. Its the matter of the line that needs to be towed. You can't plant it, you can't clip it to yourself, or do any variation of the sort besides hold it in your hand. It thus eliminates one of your hands. How is one to spearfish with one hand? What about taking photos? What if a situation arises and you need to help your buddy? What if you get tangled in mono or surge/ current causes you to become entangled in the line?

Its plain unsafe to me.

why not buy one of the hooks they make to anchor dive flags with....carry it till you find something you wAnt to grab or shoot, then hook off....you could put a 2 pound weight with the hook so you you could quickly drop it if the "opportunity" demanded it -
You grab it again though before actually going very far...there is no way the marine patrol is going to swim down and ticket you for not having your hand on the hook at all times-- they just won't be able to catch you.