Quote:
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Originally Posted by jrc
"...I never realized that the dive flag was attached to the diver. I guess it makes sense when you think about, given the 75' rule.
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And 75 X 2 = the distance a boat must keep from the flag.
When I last dove Winnipesaukee, I had a yellow tank with a scalloped bottom. Date stamped 1949, I never needed weights in
any kind of water, it was so heavy.
I filled it in Laconia (an hour's drive back then), and dove solo -- no flag -- until it came time to throw the unmarked reserve lever atop my DiveAir regulator ("J" or "K" valve -- I didn't know the difference back then) towards what should have been "Reserve".
There was about 30 seconds of "Reserve" air. I was ¼-mile from land and had to swim dragging the empty, but still very heavy, tank below the surface.
I used it again in "Little Blue Springs", Florida. (Nobody seems to know where that is nowadays). What probably saved my life was that I could never clear one ear, and could only dive to about 30 feet.
Today, I always give the diver's flag a wide berth but -- against a low sun -- you can't make out those little flags.
Anyway, isn't the biggest danger to Winnipesaukee divers...
lightning?
'Seems a dive boat was shocked into activity two seasons ago in Wolfeboro Bay.