Lake Pleasant Dive Flag Issue

[RAWalker]

What would be a suggested way to get MCSO or Game & Fish to take a more active stance in enforcing this law? Should we be documenting violations with cameras and then take our case to Sheriff Joe asking why the law isn't being enforced? We all know how our Sheriff like the media do we alert the media to the dangerous conditions that exist?

This open discussion is a good thing we should take a active role and this can get the ball rolling. We are not going to fix the problem by sitting around just complaining to each other.
We need to develope a course of action and set it in motion.

 

[AzAtty]

Video footage of violations (zoom in on the registration numbers) would be a good start. You can report any criminal violation to the Sheriff's office, and they'll at least look into it.

Another thing is the volume of violations. If it is profitable to issue tickets for dive flag violations, you better believe Uncle Joe will start writing the tickets. Right now, the "boating while intoxicated" citations are the revenue producer, so they get more deputy time.

 

[stnichols]

By state law the only violation would be not flying the flag while diving. That is all it states. How do you ticket a boat or jet skier for coming too close if its only a recomendtion and not a law?

I hate to say it but someone is going to have to be seriously hurt or killed before something will happen

Stephen

 

[RAWalker]

By state law the only violation would be not flying the flag while diving. That is all it states. How do you ticket a boat or jet skier for coming too close if its only a recomendtion and not a law?

I hate to say it but someone is going to have to be seriously hurt or killed before something will happen

Stephen

That is explained in post #30 of this thread. AzAtty pointed out how the existing law could be used. This law isn't about the flag itself but about wreckless boating and how ignoring the suggestion made under the dive flag law could be considered wreckless endangerment of the divers by the boaters.

 

[ScubaDubaDo]

This thread has been going on for a while. Has anybody thought about contacting their congress person to begin asking for a law change and explaining the reason? Perhaps someone putting together a standardized form letter that could be passed around to the SCUBA community and each diver could send it to their representative...

I will look into some of this, but it may take me some time, unless someone has more time available to do this...

 

[deepdivered]

By state law the only violation would be not flying the flag while diving. That is all it states. How do you ticket a boat or jet skier for coming too close if its only a recomendtion and not a law?

I hate to say it but someone is going to have to be seriously hurt or killed before something will happen

Stephen

lol i was at bismer point Saturday to plot out my map project for my dm. i forgot my darn flag once again so i decided to use my red safety sausage which has a diver down symbol at the top and says in white letters diver below. well as i was entering the water the sherif yelling at under age jet skiers with no life jacket asked me where my flag is i said right here and pointed to my rolled up sausage. he said what rank or leval are you guys. my friends responded open water, i said dm sens i am nearly done. he said then you should know isent that for signalling for distress. and a boater wouldn't even know that because he is not a diver but i am so i know. i was thinken to my self actualy i use it as an assent marker lol. i said it has a diver down flag on it. he said unroll it let me see. so i did and there it was red square and diagonal white strip and big white letters down the rest diver below. i said wouldn't this work. he said i would rather you go to a less populated area then i wont care. so i had to go a cove over and could not map out that road. lol is there realy any guidelines to what is qualified as a diver down flag?

edit: o and he asked me how i would use it as a marker. i pointed to my reel and said atach it to this and tow it tell i found a good rock to secure it to.

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

Sounds like Steve Nichols is right. At least you had the SMB. I'll bet that the deputy could have still given you a ticket but he decided to cut you a break instead. Must have been your winning smile.
The most telling thing he said was when he told you to go to a less populated area. Might be the future of lake diving in AZ.

 

[ScubaDubaDo]

By state law the only violation would be not flying the flag while diving. That is all it states. How do you ticket a boat or jet skier for coming too close if its only a recomendtion and not a law?

I hate to say it but someone is going to have to be seriously hurt or killed before something will happen

Stephen

What is the statute in the ARS that this can be found at?

 

[AzAtty]

Statute is A.R.S. 5-362.

 

[Rudebob]

Jeeeez! Can’t this subject just die!? What do hope to accomplish here?

You can disagree with me but I see any major effort on the part of divers to pursue this action as having no place to go but bad for the sport at our local lakes. Even if you could rattle enough cages to precipitate some action (keep in mind I don’t believe Sheriff Joe, the media, or even myself would consider this a worthwhile pursuit with everything else going on in this world) I am trying to figure what kind of positive action do you actually think will occur out of it?

All I can see them doing is either eliminating diving altogether, restrict it to a specific and "safe" location they deem best, charge an extra user fee (ie. Tax) to divers to provide additional law enforcement (this has already happened in other sports), or require every diver to tether in tow a personal flag like they require shore divers in Florida. Even at the very least, if the Leo’s are demanded to add an additional enforcement burden to all the garbage they have to deal with each day, human nature tells me they will take it out on the divers before they ticket the boaters. ScubaEd’s encounter with the LEO last week is a subtle reminder as to how this could easily happen.

Lets face it. The law is vague and not really that enforceable. That is good because to be honest I have not dove with anyone at Pleasant yet, that as a diver, has remained within the recommended distance of their dive flag. We are all guilty. So what part of enforcement do you want to change.

IMO the best approach is to do like you should do in every other aspect in life: Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Select dive sites remote to boat traffic, practice good buoyancy and navigation skills and most importantly, be thankful that right now we can dive anywhere we want to in our lakes. Because I am afraid some of you are committed to screwing up the good thing we got going right now. If that ends up happening you will have to watch out for more than just than boaters at that point.

Fire away...

mg