Dive Flag Violations

[schuylerclark]

And I've always been told, "it's not like there are scuba police"

 

[CT-Rich]

Hmmm. You should have told him you had a flag and it was stolen by a boater and why the F*** didn't he go after them?

I know a guy that would take the flag in the water for night dives and anchor it and retrieve it at the end of the dive. One night he forgot it in the water and went home. They spent the next day looking for the body that went with the flag. He was too embarrassed to call up and let them know them know it was his and he was fine.

I know people that have used a float on a buoyant line. When they go deep enough, the flag gets pulled under. Have you thought about a crappy pool-noodle style of float that goes negative at 10'? Go out, pull it down and stow it behind your BP while you dive and when you head in, put it back together and release back to the surface... You were within 100' of the flag at all times...

 

[grantmac]

For sure. The law only states the flag must be 12" X 12" and ridged or diagonal wire supported to stay unfurled. Could roll it up. And the float can be anything at all.

If you spend the whole time scooting you could even fit some "dive planes" and a keep weight to make it dive as soon as you're moving. That should keep it right behind you and less likely to get pulled into some boaters prop.

I'm thinking the small rigid fishing floats designed for a line to pass through them. Maybe include a breakaway connection for if a boat snags it then using a very strong line for maximum prop entanglement.

 

[admikar]

Hmmm. You should have told him you had a flag and it was stolen by a boater and why the F*** didn't he go after them?

Officer would probably threw a fit.

 

[SlugLife]

What happened if you mark not guilty,
For personal safety reasons.

Judges usually don't care.

It was at the beach on exit. I had a 133cf tank and a DPV. So, I was out for 3 hours. The FWC officer was sick of waiting for me. He actually told sunbathers to call him IF I ever came back in. The offending officer told me "No diver stays out over 3 hours. We thought you were dead and a recovery operation, without a dive flag, was going to make for a long day".

Waiting 3 hours to write a ticket for a minor infraction? You'd think he had something better to do.

---


On an unrelated note, my dive-buddy and I accidentally left our dive-flag on back at the cars, when we were using a rental-boat. We were about to dive, and some police stopped by and hassled us about the dive-flag, though since we weren't in the water yet, there wasn't really anything they could ticket. We decided to move on to a quieter spot after the police left to hassle someone else.

That said, I looked up the dive-flag laws for Texas, and it doesn't appear they're actually required (to the best of my reading of relevant laws). Instead, the regulations mostly apply to what boaters are or aren't allowed to do near a dive-flag.

 

[2airishuman]

It's obviously both the "nanny state" thing and a money grab.

It's a mistake made by the dive community in the early days. To make it easier to pass legislation requiring boaters to respect dive flags, the strategy was to propose legislation that posed a burden on both divers and boaters: divers must use the flag, boaters must respect the flag. It is like this in most states.

What has happened is that there is effectively zero boater understanding and respect for the flags and zero enforcement of the requirement that boaters stay away. Meanwhile divers get ticketed and in some cases shore divers -- even snorkelers -- are required to have a flag in their possession to get access to the water.

 

[VikingDives]

And then there's this:


IIRC he wasn't on scuba, but freediving.

I think flags are the 1970s version of a DSMB, and perhaps common sense should prevail. If I were the OP, I'd have asked for a court date. Most judges are going to give you the benefit of the doubt the first time you get nailed on some weird violation...

 

[TMHeimer]

It's a mistake made by the dive community in the early days. To make it easier to pass legislation requiring boaters to respect dive flags, the strategy was to propose legislation that posed a burden on both divers and boaters: divers must use the flag, boaters must respect the flag. It is like this in most states.

What has happened is that there is effectively zero boater understanding and respect for the flags and zero enforcement of the requirement that boaters stay away. Meanwhile divers get ticketed and in some cases shore divers -- even snorkelers -- are required to have a flag in their possession to get access to the water.

Understood. So what you are saying is that the legislation was passed, just not enforced on the boaters, only on the divers. So what is the mistake by the dive community?--Not pressing the issue/protesting the governments to fix this?

 

[Bert van den Berg]

I stopped using dive flags due to the reasons you mentioned ( entanglements, ignorant/inquisitive people driving up to the float).

Perhaps you might be able to get away with popping up a DSMB on your way back to the beach or just before surfacing. Boaters are probably less likely to investigate a moving target.

 

[SlugLife]

I'm fairly certain the vast majority of ScubaBoard considers towed dive-flags to be a major hazard, and even non-towed ones to be ineffective.

What would the next steps be? Also get the training agencies on board? Publish articles? Writing state legislators isn't a bad idea, though it might take some effort from a lot of people to convince them it's an issue worth their time.