A 65 year old diver is suffering from leg and internal injuries after being hit by a boat while diving on Flinders Reef on 29th June. His condition is described as serious but stable. There’s a story in the Brisbane Times.
We get quite a lot of boat traffic near the sites we dive in Hong Kong, and many of them are very cavalier about driving fast around dive boats. It seems that a lot of them don’t know what an ‘A’ Flag is. In fact there was an incident a couple of years ago where a diver was found dead with serious head injuries and there was speculation that he had been struck by a boat when surfacing.
It shows the importance of deploying a dSMB before you surface in areas where there are boats, but it’s not the easiest skill to master. The first time I tried was on a dive off Komodo and the reel jammed. Remembering my training, I let it go and started cursing myself. When it got to the surface, the tension came off the line and somehow the reel must have unjammed itself. The first thing I knew about it was when the reel came back down and hit me on the head! Deploying a dSMB is a vital skill that needs regular practice.
