Shaka Doug
Contributor
I always tow my flag except on short occassions while practicing ascents or entering caves. Then I just tie it off for a while until I move on. It's a pain sometimes but so is a head wound!
Honoring the Dive Flag
- Thread starter justleesa
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 63,269
- Reaction score
- 16,551
thanks for the warning/tip. In all my years of diving there, 4 time a year/ 7 years (not that many) ...I have never taken or seen a flag. I bet they are enforcing it more lately though...the North Shore has really change the past 2 years.
MeiLing
Contributor
catherine96821:
That's what I'm getting from the folks I've been out with. Have seen DLNR officers at Sharks Cove every time I've been there in the last two months (since I got back in). But then again, I think every time I've been there, there's been someone with a speargun. I think the DLNR officers got called out because of them. Of course, there's a million snorklers there too. I think technically, they should have dive flag too! Not sure.
Snorkeling, no. Freediving, yes.
So, the moment you do a quick surface dive to check out something on the bottom... you're now a diver and fall under the dive-flag law. As long as your snorkel is sticking out of the water, you don't need a flag.
MeiLing
Contributor
Silly law! Like a snorkes is all that visible! And it really is a moot point if even the Coast Guard licensed commercial operations don't honor it!
Like someone said on another thread a while back, "What's that flag thingee over there? Here hold my beer while I motor over there to check it out!":shakehead
Like someone said on another thread a while back, "What's that flag thingee over there? Here hold my beer while I motor over there to check it out!":shakehead
MeiLing
Contributor
catherine96821:
They definitely look the other way on some things. There was a bunch of our group camping at Pray for Sex over Memorial Day weekend. Big campsite, lots of tents and canopies, huge pile of wood for a bonfire and coolers full of beer and of course, no camping permit. They came by the first afternoon and told us, "no drinking, no structures (tents or canopies), no overnight camping since no permit, no bonfires, no poaching lobster, etc. Of course, the only rule we obeyed was the poaching rule! The next day, the same guy drives by and waves!
I'm not sure how much they look the other way on the dive flag issue. Since the folks that I hang out with, tend to be big rule breakers, and they seem to be pretty big lately on using a flag, I think it has to do with DLNR cracking down at those sites. I think they've said as much as well!
We fly both the red-and-white diver down and the blue-and-white Alfa (or Alpha) flag. It doesn't seem to stop too many boaters or jet skiiers from going right over our heads, or at least trying to until they are waved off by the dive boat DM. I'm thinking of arming myself with limpet mines and the boat with torpedos.
MeiLing
Contributor
drbill:
There you go! Problem solved!
If you see a boat/ship not observing the dive flag and you have a camera, snap a pic, if at all possible of the name and register number. Call the Coast Guard 842-2601 (Honolulu Sector Office), need location info and boat/ship name.
Similar threads
