Useless Dive Flag in Rainbow River, Florida!

[redacted]

I was bringing up the rear of a group (6-8 divers) in Rainbow in March. Another instructor was leading and carrying the flag for all of us. We briefed the group about staying together and I was very conscious about keeping an eye on our flag and our group together, as we always do in RR.

We had a private boat pull up and drop anchor on top of us as well. I surfaced and (politely) asked the owner if he knew about the flag. He said he did and then proceeded to chew us out, saying that we weren't staying close enough to our flag and that he did nothing wrong.

I kept cool and basically asked him--Isn't avoiding running over and hurting someone more important that being right? He was belligerent and still said we weren't within 100' of our flag that we were wrong and he was right.

The attitude of people these days amazes me. It was like if he had killed someone his logic would have been, "Tough $h!?, it's not my fault the guy was away from his flag... I didn't do anything wrong. It's all his fault."

We were within the 100' range of our flag, but for future dives, I will always bring a second flag for the rear of the group. Still though, a dive flag is not a suit of protective armor or a bullet proof vest--it is just a communication tool to notify that there are divers below.

Education of the boating public is the key to that communication being effective.

Too bad you could not find something substantial to secure his anchor so he could not drift away.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Too bad you could not find something substantial to secure his anchor so he could not drift away.

Why not just help him drift by cutting the anchor line? Bad idea, I know, but tempting.

 

[redacted]

Why not just help him drift by cutting the anchor line? Bad idea, I know, but tempting.

That would just be so wrong. If you cut the anchor line, it would be quite clear what happened and he could follow you and be a problem.

 

[Gilldiver]

If someone drops a anchor on me, they will find that all that is at the end of the line is a cut line or that they are now tied to something that doesn't move. Either way they will not have an anchor any longer.

 

[DanishM1Garand]

I HATE Jetskis due to the TOOLS that drive them. They have no knowledge of the rules of the road and don't seem to even care. At my marina there were guests with jetskis and one guy was having problems with floating grass and he decided to do a 360 at wide open throttle in the Marina. He threw up a 4 foot wake with that stunt just feet from boats tied up to the docks. AUGHHHHH.

I have heard of divers sending up sunken beer bottles by putting a bit of air in them. The bottle bangs into the bottom of the boat.

 

[Oki Dirt Diver]

If someone drops a anchor on me, they will find that all that is at the end of the line is a cut line or that they are now tied to something that doesn't move. Either way they will not have an anchor any longer.

What he said!

 

[deepstops]

Why not just help him drift by cutting the anchor line? Bad idea, I know, but tempting.

That would just be so wrong. If you cut the anchor line, it would be quite clear what happened and he could follow you and be a problem.

You could always unscrew the shackle pin

 

[sibermike7]

You could always unscrew the shackle pin

Last year during a Project Aware harbor clean-up, we got permission to close a section of the harbor. This section contained NO private slips, so there was no reason for any boat to "have to" enter. We floated "diver down" buoys with ropes between them to clearly mark where we were diving. One moron decided to enter anyway. He motored up to the buoy line, walked to the bow, had a look, then gunned the engine to cross the line (once he had established momentum, he cut the motor to keep from being snared). He then proceeded to motor right through the divers!

I was SO TEMPTED to sneak over and come up under the boat and pull the bilge plug as he stopped the boat only about 40' from me!

 

[tstormdiver]

Last week My wife, daughter, and I were in central Florida diving the springs and decided to do a drift dive down Rainbow River. I called up Birds Underwater and they were kind enough to set us up with a guy who lives on the river and runs a pontoon taxi there. He took us up river and dropped us off and along the way briefed us on some of the features we should try too see on the drift back down river. So far so good.

We get in the water with dive flag in tow and begin our dive. Now the fun begins. I'm almost certain the boats were chasing our flag. I realize this is a busy waterway but good grief nobody even tried to stay within 100 feet!

On one of the deeper holes we had stopped on the bottom and was doing a little exploring. This boat pulls up and throws their anchor literally right on top of us. They nearly tangled our flag and line in their prop positioning the boat! At this point I had to go to the surface to see what kind of bonehead this was and I was in shock! It was actually a dive shop with what appeared to be a open water class. I pointed the flag out to the captain and his response was "Sorry, didn't see it." I just shook my head and continued the dive.

Rainbow River was a cool dive but I don't think I'll ever try it again.

Now you see JP, why I'm so reluctant to dive the public waterways of KY. If you think FL is bad, where most have at least some inkling of the rules,..... now imagine some drunk red neck in a boat doing his bass fishin'. you get the picture. Boaters in KY have absolutely no clue what a "diver down" flag is. Many don't even know what a scuba diver is.

 

[jpsexton]

Now you see JP, why I'm so reluctant to dive the public waterways of KY. If you think FL is bad, where most have at least some inkling of the rules,..... now imagine some drunk red neck in a boat doing his bass fishin'. you get the picture. Boaters in KY have absolutely no clue what a "diver down" flag is. Many don't even know what a scuba diver is.

I hear ya, I've dove Laurel Lake a few times and you definitely have to be careful when coming to the surface...