Dive Flag Laws

[SCUBA Dog]

Max,

I know nothing about your respect for law enforcement agencies, as I have never met or spoke with you (unless I know you and am unaware of your true identity). However, I appreciate you saying that and had no reason to believe otherwise. Someone tipped off Deano and blew my cover (the investigation continues) or I would not have mentioned my line of work, unless it was relevant to a specific topic. Doesn't really matter to me if it is known or not. I just don't want people thinking that they can or can't, should or shouldn't post something because of it. Enough of that.

I don't know that boaters signing a piece of paper would resolve the problem. A piece of paper doesn't generally prevent people from doing anything. However, I think you are on the right track. I think an active campaign to educate boaters certainly would be a step in the right direction. After all, with the exception of youth operators, there really is no required education or license required to be a recreational boater. All you need is a boat and a set of keys. I would venture to guess that there are a fair number of people who buy a boat or use a friend's boat and never even crack open the boating guide or statutes. So they are not familiar with the "rules of the road" for boat operation, let alone the SCUBA related issues that apply.

As stated in my earlier post, I couldn't agree more with the single flag issue, if the group is diving as a group. If they dive as a group and the split into smaller subgroups, there could be an argument for more than one flag. The shops that tie multiple flags together for a large group really don't accomplish anything (other than compliance with the law - and I applaud their efforts to do that) that couldn't be done with one flag (in my opinion). I think your idea to have dive shop owners get together to discuss and come up potential law changes (and the justifications for the changes) has got merit. They could then have petitions in their shops for divers to review and sign. After that, present them and lobby for change. I am sure there are specific protocols for this, but that is outside my area of expertise.

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