Is the Scuba Sign Over-rated?

[ReefHound]

And how many of us know someone that has the diver down flag on their vehicle and haven't dove in 20 years....I know of at least three.

That's OK, it just shows that once a diver always a diver. They still hold onto it even though circumstances have changed.

 

[serambin]

So true, Tamas !!!
It would be nice if EVERY boater/jet skier knew that there is a diver/s below that little flag floating out there on the water.

One of my dive buddies was using my SMB with the "diver down" flag on it and "DIVER BELOW" emblazoned on the thing. Some yahoo piloting a pontoon boat comes along side of it and one of his passengers tried to "recover" it.

Geeeesssshhhhh !!!!

the K

I drive a pontoon boat . . . and I only occassionally run over a scuba diver. ( However I must tell you, that a few years ago a diver surfaced near a duck blind in Caddo Lake, and a hunter shot him ( he died ) because he thought he was a 'Sea Monster'. WHOA!

Stan

 

[divezero]

Woah, that is crazy, where is Caddo Lake? Somewhere in a hicktown?

 

[Barracuda2]

and those scuba-flag pinky rings and sunglasses. ...ugh.

I beg your pardon----just last week, my wife presented me with a very nice scuba-flag (sterling silver and red coral) ring for our 41st wedding anniversary. She had the waiter put it in the bottom of my/our favorite drink, a Singapore Sling. I didn't know it was there until I was half finished and stirred the ice. It was a very nice surprise and I will wear it for the next 41 years. it's not a pinky ring either. Now the sunglasses-----ugh!

 

[Melicertes]

I drive a pontoon boat . . . and I only occassionally run over a scuba diver.

My wife and I were doing our Rescue course in Sodwana Bay, South Africa, a few years ago. We were doing fitness drills at the swimmers beach section where we'd swim out about 200 yards in full gear and take turns in each buddy pair group to then tow our acting unconscious buddy diver with no heart beat or breathing back to the beach where we each then egressed our victims and continued to demonstrate proper CPR techniques until our instructor was happy. Then we'd do it again, and again, and... These were our routine exercises for the afternoons while we spent a 7-day week diving holiday at "Sordies".

For those of you who know Sodwana Bay surf in the afternoon, you'd know that hauling a supposed unconscious diver out of the water onto the beach after having successfully dealt with that pesky little rip current on the farth north side of swim beach and then towed them through that less that than friendly, pounding surf is nothing short of an extremely tiring exercise, good for the butt but tiring overall, especially after the third time you've done it for that afternoon.
On our fourth tow back a pontoon boat skipper barely missed my wife and I as she came speeding back to the beach to beach her boat without paying any attention to the buoys demarcating the swimmers area. She then had the audacity to swear at me as if we were in her way and almost caused her to almost run over us on the passing by. She missed us with a mere 10-13ft.
I was so livid at the incident that I had a good mind to walk up to her when we got to the beach and introduce her forehead to her boat's mounted dive gear frame nose first. I was luckily pursuaded otherwise by our instructor friend whom we've know for a long time, realizing that engaging in a swearing match is not going to help anyone anything.
The sheer ignorance *some* boat skippers sometimes display on the water just simply boggles my mind. I hope your comment about occasionaly running over a diver was a sarcastic one. :shakehead