Okay, who moved my flag?

[Guba]

My dive buddy and I got in a quick dive at Lake Elmer Thomas (OK) today. We tied off our dive flag, toured the north wall, crossed the lake (well, went across to the south side...not the ENTIRE lake), headed along the south wall to the old dam, then crossed over to the north side again. By the way, the vis was a little ragged on the north side, probably because there was a pretty large group there earlier, though they were leaving as we arrived. However, the vis was great on the south side, particularly at about 30 feet...vis was probably 15 in most places and maybe up to about 20 feet.
However, as we ended the dive, we started looking for our flag. Nowhere to be found. Oh, we found the rocks we had tied it to, but the reel and float were just not there. We made our ascent to find two kids snorkeling around at the put in point. Hmmmm. Oh, THERE is our flag...about 25 yards away over by the dam! Wonder how it got way over there???

Next time, I'm going to use my best Boy Scout knots and find a 500 pound boulder to tie to.

 

[NadMat]

Any jet skiers out? They would be my first suspects, repositioning it either to make a better slalom target for them or just to be messing with something. Jet skiers consistently do the most ignorant things and show little or no respect for others property or well being.

Glad you had a good day diving, stay safe!

 

[IslandFrog]

Jet Skiers (or Jest Skiers?) and other motorized vehicles are not allowed on Elmer Thomas, so I would say they are innocent on this one.

Guba, I am jealous that I missed the dives, but I just got back from Japan today. I leave for Hawaii on Wed. I will try to give you a shout in the next day or two.

-Brad

 

[deepexplorer]

We dove table rock lake dam last year, same, tied off the flag about 30 ft from the bank and we dropped down to about 20-30 feet on some rocks to mess around with bream and look for zebra mussels.

we surfaced about 90 minutes later to find, guess what? some adults had our flag sitting at the shore and had it pushed underwater, we started looking around and i started going towards them and up pops our flag, well howd that get there? hmmmmmmmmm, they had to swam and got our flag. the rope and all was there and i know a five pound lead dive weight would not have drifted.

so i definately know what you mean

 

[asymmetries]

Just a quick point of order. Boats and jet skis are allowed on Lake Elmer Thomas. However, swimming outside the designated swimming area, which the dam area certainly is, without scuba gear (ie only snorkels) is forbidden.

 

[IslandFrog]

Sorry, I was thinking of this website (link below) where Elmer Thomas is described as a "No Wake" lake. Usually that keeps the Jet Skies and most motorized boats off, although trolling motors may be common.

Elmer Thomas Lake Oklahoma

Regards,
Brad