Diving regulations and such....

[richerso]

In the events you guys witness a boat coming within the 150' radius, do you go to the trouble of taking down their boat numbers and turning them in? Do you say anything to the boaters? Does it make any difference?

I have learned my lesson. One time, timeliner, zzzking, me and others were diving at Broken Bow. I finished my dive early and was doffing my gear on the shore when a bubba came motoring up to investigate that "goofy looking flag object floating in the water".

I have a nice camera. I had the wrong lens on it. I will never make that mistake again. In the future, I will put a telephoto lens on my camera. I will take photos of this flag violation. I will turn them over to the local police and I will insist that tickets/charges be filed. I will have my camera at the ready.

I haven't read the complete thread. I may have other things to say.

 

[Kunk35]

Have't seen anything yet about towing the dive flag. Anyone do this? Is it a good idea or a bad idea? I know part of the bad would be entanglement hazard, but that's a whole other issue. Would it really make a safety difference if the flag was with you at all times? It seems like it would.

 

[Zinc]

I don't trust boater awareness to honor the dive flag restrictions, period. But I am glad there are some laws, rules, and regs for those responsible enough to learn and obey them. If only there were more of those people...

I do feel safer when boat diving, b/c there's always a captain up top who can ward off traffic. This includes drift diving w/ tow flag in the ocean, not sure how practical or safe this is in a lake, but good topic for discussion. The only time I've used a tow-flag is for drift diving at night in the ocean. Only one flag per group of divers to avoid entanglement and the flag makes it possible for the captain to keep track of the group.

Regardless, I always dive w/ a safety sausage and finger spool, in case I have to surface away from shore (or boat), but that only adds a small margin of safety and I hate when I have to do it at an unplanned location/situation, but it's better than surfacing in the open w/out one. As Robert mentioned, get a safety sausage and learn how to safely deploy it.

If I'm shore diving and concerned about overhead traffic, I either: 1) use stealth as Shawn mentioned and then deploy a safety sausage or SMB as close to shore as possible (boaters don't like rocks ) w/ reasonable depth (10-15 feet), or 2) deploy the marker at the beginning of my dive and leave it there for my return. The key here is making sure you can get back to that marker at the end of your dive via compass, visual navigation, or line. Note: a marker w/out a flag, renders the laws & regulations unenforceable. There are of course floating dive flag buoy's, but alas I don't carry one on me reguarly and just use what I've always got.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

I was warned a couple years ago that divers were required to have a flag in Canyon Lake and it was enforced. This was due to some fights between divers and boaters. This is the only lake that I have heard this about.

 

[NadMat]

I was warned a couple years ago that divers were required to have a flag in Canyon Lake and it was enforced. This was due to some fights between divers and boaters. This is the only lake that I have heard this about.

Any corps of engineer lake (such as lake georgetown and canyon lake) will require you to use dive flag, I know it is true for lake georgetown from personal experience and was told it is true on all COE lakes where diving is permitted.

I have tried dive flags here on Travis, I built a big DIY float from orange noodles to fly a big 24" dive flag 4-5' above water so that boaters could at least see it before they got there. I did find that when using it last summer it did get noticed and that boaters/jetskiers that did not respond appropriately were corrected by other boaters/jetskiers and informed of meaning for and rules pertaining to dive flag, so some of them are not idiots.

My procedure for using flag are to anchor it stationairy to protect entry/exit point and navigate back to that point to exit or to pop an smb otherwise. I listen/watch for boats at surface interval and try to surface ready to get negative again if necessary.

I think that many of the commercially available units are to small to be seen well until you are right up on them. At least that is comment from some of boating friends. Sometimes I use one and sometimes I don't, but I always carry the smb. And there are certain times the percentage of drunken idiot boaters out on lake is just too high and I dive the 'protected' areas at mansfield or wp and hope it is not yet my time.

 

[NadMat]

...
I do feel safer when boat diving, b/c there's always a captain up top who can ward off traffic. This includes drift diving w/ tow flag in the ocean, not sure how practical or safe this is in a lake, but good topic for discussion.

...

I have dove busy lake weekends on Travis with Robert at LTS and it is nice to know he is up there watching out for you and warning encroaching boaters. He will follow your bubbles as you work along a wall just like the captains on a Coz' drift dive. It makes it worth the $'s for me(when I have them)

 

[k-valve]

It seems to me that putting up a dive flag only creates a target. I don't see boaters avoiding the flags by 50', much less 150'. The same goes for windsurfers. I've seen plenty of boaters...power and paddle...inside marker buoys restricting their access. I've seen windsurfers use buoys like they were raceway obstacles, aiming for and turning quickly around them.

In fact, last Saturday when Zinc and I were diving off Windy Point (the public side) there were lots of windsurfers. We picked a point to enter away from where they were entering and exiting. Zinc floated a marker buoy to show where we were. However, it didn't stop at least one person from coming within just a few feet of the marker Zinc floated just 5' offshore. The worst thing is that the guy who did it was just talking to us about how we would mark our entry/exit point before we even entered the water. I was already out and Zinc was not far behind when the guy zoomed right up to the marker buoy.

I do have a question about your drift flag idea... What are you hoping to accomplish, safety-wise, by hauling the dive flag around? Unless you are concerned that you may have to surface out where the boaters are then I don't think I'd do it. I'd stay low in the water column and would only surface beside a boat (one that was expecting me, or course) or if I was at the shore where the boats don't go anyway. Popping your head up where the boats are is going to be very dangerous...dive flag or not.

 

[agdiver75]

IMHO - Anyone diving the lake should carry and deploy a surface marker buoy before surfacing so that boaters have a chance to avoid you during ascent. QUOTE]

And then come up somewhere else since boaters use those things as targets.

 

[Kunk35]

What are you hoping to accomplish, safety-wise, by hauling the dive flag around?

Under normal circumstances you would try to make it back to the flag and not surface out in the middle of the lake where boats would be. However, I have been in a couple of situations when we had to surface due to a malfunction or other problem. Like surfacing when you lose your buddy. Unfortunately at the time, we didn't have smb with us. If you were to tow the flag around, you would always have your radius with you. I was just wondering if anyone ever did this. Boaters just barely recognize the dive flag, let alone an smb which most I'm sure have never seen. I think if they saw an smb, it would really attract them since it's something they don't expect and have never seen.

 

[k-valve]

There are buoys you can tow around, but I don't think I'd do that...too much of a PIA just for the possibility that you might have to surface in traffic.

If you are concerned that someone is going to run over a standard smb, but believe they'd be more careful if there was a dive flag then take a look at this: Carter Personal Float. You can roll it up and carry it with you and shoot it only if you need to. You'll have your dive flag visible in the event you need to surface without having to tow a buoy/flag on the surface.