Today's Dive Flag fun

[boulderjohn]

It was a drift dive--flags are essential.

There was nearly no current. Our skipper guessed it was going north, if at all. When we reached the bottom, I hovered long enough to see that it was going south, and we set out at an extremely slow pace in that direction, staying at the edge of the reef. I later learned that two of the other groups from our boat had done the same, but one group had accepted the skipper's guess and gone north. That gave us a bigger spread than you would expect.

Not long into the dive, we were passed by a hunter heading north. He appeared to be on a mission, swimming pretty hard with his spear gun. He was not pulling a flag. I would guess that this was the diver from the other boat who popped up in the middle of our spread. I would further guess that he had hooked his dive flag off and gone hunting. This would put him in violation of the flag law, since he was now nowhere near it. It would also explain why they were not surprised to find resistance when they tried to pull up the flag later on. They expected a connection they could break off with a enough effort.

 

[CajunDiva]

On so many levels...just wrong!

 

[tarponchik]

Were you diving off a boat, moored to a buoy? Drift diving is different

Florida Dive Flags

I do not remember, this was back in like 2010. But when I did drift diving from boats, there was always one flag per group.

 

[boulderjohn]

I do not remember, this was back in like 2010. But when I did drift diving from boats, there was always one flag per group.

Correct. I was carrying the flag for our group.

 

[tarponchik]

Correct. I was carrying the flag for our group.

Sorry, I got confused by " the flags drift slowly..." So there were just 2 flags total?

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is what I wrote in the first post.

The professional dive boat had four groups in the water and was watching the flags drift slowly on completely flat seas with almost no current. In the middle of the group a diver popped up without a flag. He was not one of theirs. He belonged to what was apparently a private boat well south of there, and that boat was carefully watching his flag, unaware that he was not even remotely close to it. That boat was also watching another flag in the area.

Our boat had four groups, each group with a flag. We had ( think) 11 total divers divided among those four groups/flags. The other boat had (I believe) two flags. My guess is that their two flags represented two hunters, with each one of them anchoring the flags and then going off hunting with the intention of ascending somewhere near their flags.

 

[tarponchik]

Here is what I wrote in the first post.

Our boat had four groups, each group with a flag. We had ( think) 11 total divers divided among those four groups/flags. The other boat had (I believe) two flags. My guess is that their two flags represented two hunters, with each one of them anchoring the flags and then going off hunting with the intention of ascending somewhere near their flags.

OK, got it.

 

[Littlerayray]

This is why I don't dive with a float and flag

 

[scubadada]

This is why I don't dive with a float and flag

It's the law in FL

 

[Littlerayray]

And that's why I don't dive in FL or if I did I still wouldn't I do launch an smb

It's only illegal if you get caught