Hi Guys,

Sorry just got back from a camping trip up at North West Island (Capricorn-Bunker Group) and just catching up.

I appreciate the feed back and all of these replies will be of great use!

From the AUF's point of view a flag is required on your float during competition, now I use an International flag and have had no problem at all with the governing body (which I'm part of might I add)

As you may or may not know I have been lobbying the NSW Waterways & the NMSC (National Marine Safety Committee) about this and have had a lukewarm response to say the least. I have done a presention to the Board of the NSW waterways and received an enthusiastic response but the emails and phone calls I have sent were either unanswered or just fobbed off.

Now while I was away one of the blokes with me was an ex labour minister under Neville Wran and he said to me "Lee, if you want anything to happen in the Government don't start at the bottom, go to the top. Shit runs down hill much easier than it runs up!"

So I'll be getting the contact (through John) for the Minister in charge of the National Waterways and lobbying him direct.

Will keep you all updated.

MF

Thats great to hear! Hopefully we will see some strong progress in the next few months at most!

Hi,

Also just to let you all know the NMSC is conducting a National Conference in Adelaide next year.

I am submitting a paper for discussion and hopefully I will be picked for submission.

Looks to be a good way in.

Cheers

MF

Good Shit!

White Cliffs 1/12/07 almost got mowed down by 3 lunatics on jet ski's came within 20m travelling at approximately 70km/h. Might I add that I had a large blue & white dive flag (720mm x 600mm) mounted on top of the boat in clear vision plus smaller flag on float adjascent to me I was within 15m of both flags.

I have asked Paul Worsteling from the fishing show "Ifish" who has been asked to do a fishing report on the channel ten news, to put a segment in about dive flags and boater awareness. hopefully he agrees to do it!

I am a regular user of fishnet.com.au and thought after reading this topic it may be worth while for a Moderator of this site to maybe put a posting on their site. I am not sure weather it may just start a heated debate or not but it will sure make people aware of the rules and regulations regarding dive flags

Me, drew and ryan (not rhino) were coming back from a dive today, and as we were driving past portsea pier in the boat, we saw one of the most distressing things i have seen whilst diving!

As we past the pier, we saw a couple of divers off the point, one in close a second one out further. As we approached closer we noticed another boat doing around 20knots heading straight for one of the divers! We were still about 100m away so nothing we could do at this stage to alert the boat driver about the divers.. Both of which had floats and reasonable size alpha flags.

The diver swam to get out of the way, and was lucky enough for the boat to miss him by about a foot. We caught up to the boat, 100m further up, on which was an old bloke and his family totally oblivious to the fact he almost killed a diver.. Drew had a few choice words, nothing too over the top because the bloke obviously didn't do it on purpose. We then proceeded back to the diver, and it was the great blue water hunter himself (Joseph)! His floatline had been cut by the prop and he was pretty distressed at how close the boat had come.

I personally was shaken up at watching one of our mates almost getting smashed by a boat and not being able to do anything about it!


Now i know that Southern Freedivers was knocked back on for funding to erect diver awareness signs at popular boat ramps. But is there anything we can do to re-apply for funding OR can we self fund these signs as a club? I know it may be expensive, but in my mind boats pose the single greatest safety issue to Victorian divers. Saying this i know signs are only a band aid fix to the larger problem that boat drivers aren't held accountable for how they drive around dive flags.

PhilMebeer i think its a great idea posting something on the fishnet forum. Spearos and lineos are never going to be best mates, but if educates one boat driver it will be worth the effort!


Lethal

Thats frightening!



Yep, they will offer more funding this year. We will make sure we are more organised than we were last year.

Went for a dive with Tinnee this arvo and had a similar experience. He came over to where I was anchored about 50mts away so I could get some footage of him hitting some snapper and he left his float anchored where it was. Heard a boat and both stuck our heads up to see a speedboat hurtling towards his float. The kid sitting on the bow pointed out the float to his dad and he didn't back off at all. Passed the float within at the very most 2mts doing all but flat out in a boat that was made for speed. We just looked at each other sppechless at the fact that he didn't even swerve knowing that the float was there! Lucky he didn't swerve as the knob probably would've swerved into us but all the same Farrkkk! I'm off to add a few words to the fishnet forum!

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Like a farken underwater ninja!

The fish were blinded by overexposure to his pure awesomeness!

Guys

These recent incidents are quite concerning, to say the least, and close calls are very serious matters. In such a case, could you please report these people to the Water Police whether it was intentional or not. If you are asked to provide a statement, so be it. It is much better than having to deal with one of your mates being seriously injured or killed.

In terms of putting posts up on fishing forums, I am all for greater awareness. What I would ask though, is that we keep the comments and suggestions constructive, with a view to educating. Please do not inflame situations or start slanging matches, as it doesn't really achieve much and can set the cause back.

South's suggestion regarding submitting another application with more preparation has my full backing.

Let's see what we can do.

Keep safe

Gig

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RIDE THE BULL!!!!!

All good gig, was gonna post just some info on what we do, what the floats mean, distances etc and try get some constructive discussion going on some of the popular threads, maybe even offer a link to out site so they can check out our fish reports and maybe get them thinking about us more but despite my best efforts I can't log in? I reckon someone should definately get on there and try get some discussion going (lethal?) as I'm sick of nearly having my head taken off. We need to get it out there now so we don't end up saying what if!

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Like a farken underwater ninja!



The fish were blinded by overexposure to his pure awesomeness!

i would put it up but im shocking at writing up that kind of thing if some one wants to wright it up illpost it no problems just let me know

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A Balanced diet is a bundy in both hands
R.I.P Slim Dusty 1927-2003

South, yes it was a very frightening experience to say the least! Imagine watching a fellow diver being within a few inches of being smashed by a boat and not being able to stop it.. (Drew also informed me today that Joes gun was damaged in the incident when the prop hit his speargun handle)

Gig, i have no problems reporting the incident to the water police if i felt it was going to have any effect. As such i'll leave it to Joesph if he wants to report the boat. I took a mental note of the rego and i'm 95% sure i can remember it. So if Joesph wants it he can call or PM me.


I am a member on the fishnet forums and am happy to put a post up regarding the situation. But i thought it might be more accepted from a regular member on the forum, eg PhilMebeer.. I think if a post is going to be posted it should at least contain the regulations regarding dive flags, a photo of float and flag in water (demonstrating that they can be hard to see at the best of times), and other related info. So PhilMebeer, if you want to do it let me know, or i'll post something before the end of the week!

South how far away is the re-application for this funding? And being the Vic seat for the AUF is there anything the AUF can do to promote this issue.

Alternatively is there something we can do as a club? E.g Boat Driver Awareness flyers at boat shops, (Eg JV Marine). To increase awareness? I would hate to think we'll have to lose a diver before something gets acted on.


Lethal

Not trying to out do you dude, but I've had a mate hit while I was with him. Not much fun! 6 years down the track he is still on 20+ tablets a day!



Not sure, but there are other means of getting the mesage across. I think I can talk about this openly now that we have had the official go-ahead, but we have got a TV show approved that will be going to air later this year. Don't want to give too much away until the broadcast dates have been set but we wil include a segment of dive flags awareness.



NSW are trying to change the flag to the International flag. Makes sence cos its red and white! But more needs to be dome to educate boaties.


I would like to send out a pamphlet with every boat registration of licence renual. Just need to squeeze more time into each days! Problem is when you try to do something, lots of people think its a good idea, not many people actually volunteer to do something!