live boating

[Cazador Submarino]

hey can you guys give me some tips and pointers on live boating??

[wkyongae]

I'm assuming you are referring to drift diving. Never done this myself as I only free dive. But, would work more or less. Anyway start up current of dive site, drop to depth of dive or profile, person on boat follows divers by watching bubbles or better fish finder. And then picks up divers when they surface. WALA easy enough huh

[Bill McIntyre]

The Florida East Coast guys are the experts on doing it with scuba, but we do it with freedivers quite a bit in So Cal, especially around kelp paddies floating offshore in the open ocean. Some things that come to mind-

Don't have too many guys in the water so that its hard to keep them all in sight. If the surface is rough, have fewer or just one in the water.

Its nice if you can keep one guy in the boat with you to help keep track of them

Big floats and float lines help keep the divers in sight. And bright orange or yellow float lines are much easier to see than black or blue. When its rough and overcast, I often can't see the dark floatline as I approach the divers, but I can see an orange one, as in this photo. Orange or lime green snorkel tips help a lot too. If your favorite brand of snorkel doesn't have a bright tip, spray paint as I did with my Riffe Stable.

Have a clear signal for when divers want to be picked up. Often a diver will swim toward my boat, and I move to get out of his way. On my boat, a gun or arm extended straight up means you want to be picked up, and a gun or arm waving in the air means you want to be picked up fast.

If you weren't asking about freediving, then disregard.

[Cazador Submarino]

im talking about scuba in canada with pretty heavy current

thanks guys.

[wkyongae]

Refer to the Victoria, BC thread I think I saw something on this.