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HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT JET-BIKES?
STEVE WEINMAN, EDITOR
READING THROUGH THE COMMENTS on our latest Big Question online survey, I was struck by the unusual degree of unanimity among the respondents.
OK, we had posed a leading question: Is enough done to educate other water-users about their behaviour when divers are down? (and thanks for the suggestion that they buy them beer, Mr Armour).
But what was noticeable was how many of you had suffered from other water-users behaving badly - and how often. Unnerving experiences had occurred not just a year or two ago but last week, yesterday, or simply on a regular basis.
This month DIVER visits many dive sites all over Britain. Our tour was inspired partly by the new BBC series Coast, which follows a clockwise route around our shores and takes in plenty of the underwater world with our cover star and regular contributor Miranda Krestovnikoff.
One aspect of coastal life I suspect the TV series will not cover is the uneasy relationship between divers and dive-boat skippers on one hand, and weekend yachtsfolk, powerboat-users, anglers and jet-bikers/skiers on the other. How many of these people actually know what an A-flag looks like, and what they should do if they see one?
I've been minding a RIB with divers down when jet-skiers have decided to use that particular part of an otherwise empty bay to perform their pointless antics. My yelling over the noise of their motors and the wind seemed only to amuse them - or did they think it was a greeting I was shouting? I'm sure they couldn't have mistaken my hand gestures.
I tried a jet-bike once, and, having done so, felt no need to do it again. It was fun for 10 minutes, but not exactly challenging. I admit to regarding jet-bikers at best with suspicion, so I was impressed by the degree of restraint and thoughtfulness in many of your answers (Mr Davy, you are the exception, and guns are really not the answer).
Many of you seem to regard the thoughtless behaviour you encounter at sea more with sorrow than with anger. You clearly feel that somebody needs to educate those who insist on using our SMBs as turning markers - but who, and how?
We need your constructive ideas, because there is a serious point here. Something needs to be done before Kirsty MacColl-type fatalities start occurring around Britain, and we're left wondering why nobody addressed the problem earlier.
Divers require training, but weekend speed-freaks need no licence to drive powerful motorised vehicles over the sea. What they like is to be near people - to have an audience. What they need is training.
I did find a few lines at the end of the Coastguard's rules of the road, though I don't know how many people ever read them. Avoid diving vessels flying a blue and white A-flag, it says, and be aware of SMBs.
It's not rocket science, but perhaps it will take a rocket fired across their bows to wake up the ignorant.
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