Flag line getting fouled on fins - rope float idea

[johndiver999]

An apt analogy, If ones flag or flag line i) gets fouled by a boat's prop ii) stolen by a boater iii)played chicken with by boaters iv) pulled up by boaters v) hit by lightning or vi) any of the other often repeated anecdotes, once every 6 or 8 outings (your chances at Russian roulette).

But we know that is not the case.

There are a handful or maybe a score of these stories in 100's of thousands of dives over the same period.

Sure, it can happen. A helicopter may crash into a plane - but that does not stop anyone from getting into a plane as it is much more efficient than driving. Same here, having both of your hands free is much more efficient than hanging a reel off one of them.

Honestly, I believe that, when weighted for the probability of occurring, the safety risk of the flag line fouling your fins is much greater than a boat fouling the line.

I have had my float snagged by a boat several times. Generally it is an accident caused by an inattentive/distracted dive boat driver. I have also embarrassed myself several times, on several different boats by doing the same thing when driving. Getting the float snagged or wrapped around a fishing boat anchor line or snagged by a fisherman is not that rare of a situation. Generally it is not that big of a deal, primarily because nobody has the rope tied behind their neck. I've done considerably less than hundreds of thousands of dives.

 

[Jollymon32]

I am using old, weaker scooters.. Dacor.

If you are diving in 100 feet of water with 150 ft of line, you are doing it wrong. You probably want around 300 feet of line out for those conditions, unless there is no current and/or you are not scootering anywhere fast.

The whole reason I use a line stiffener is because I screw up and get the floatline wrapped on my tank valve, Then when I stop, I have an uncontrolled float pulling me through the water (from the back of my neck) - how someone would view this as a desirable situation is a mystery to me. Usually I am alone and have to take the entire tank off just to free myself from the entanglement.

As for swell causing you problems, some of the solutions are: more line, or using an elastic section for the last few feet of the line where the float attaches and/or using 2 or more smaller floats in series,

A 3-4 foot bungi section between smaller floats works really well to insulate you from rough surface conditions. My buddy use to have that and it was nice, but I never bothered to make that sort of configuration, probably because we use much more scope than you seem to do.

Johndiver99
Here are some images of the attachment point on the tank valve, visible as well is the other attachment point at the bottom edge of my bp/w. I think you have an excellent point about not being able to easily get to the floating rope when it is attached to the valve stem. On my next dive tomorrow, I’m gonna attach it to the bottom of the bp/w because it is much easier to reach back and not only detach the snap ring, but also grab the rope to let out more line on the reel.

On the picture below, the pressure at this depth had compressed the float and it was no longer able to lift the reel. This was most apparent when we would stop moving at depth. While moving the line was tight and the reel would tend to gravitate upwards.

I like the solution of putting another float or two for depth. I’m gonna work on making this modular with snap rings so when we are diving shallow, we can take the additional floats off.