There is Danger Involved in the Mild Drift
Certain dive sites can only be got to with the thrill of a drift dive. Although exciting and with an element of risk involved these dives need to be planned out to the last second and everyone needs to fully understand and stay fully within the plan or they could be bringing on unnecessary risks to the dive team. Alas there are a great number of divers and dive organizers that take part in mild drift dives that would disagree with this statement and do not see these as needing to be planned as much as they do. In a number of cases these are the ones that make the news headlines and give scuba divers a bad reputation when they do not have the right scuba equipment to ensure their safety.
As the name would suggest a mild drift is an underwater current that can easily lure divers into areas unknown. The reason they are so dangerous is due to the fact that they require very little effort on the part of the diver to move a fair distance from where they should be. Mostly caused by surface wind the mild current can be the main cause for a diver to require a form of signaling device to get seen by the dive boat.
The Red Sea has been the location for some of the most stunning dives I have done where more than once I have been involved in incidents with fast flowing surface currents and the mild drift below. Ensuring that my customers were safe by using a surface signaling device which made sure that we were all picked up safe. A few minutes in a drift heading away from a small RIB can be a worrying experience for even the most experienced divers.
Sometimes the problem is exacerbated by a lackadaisical boat operator or hampered by a change in weather conditions. Carrying a portable yet highly visible yellow flag seems to be one of the best precautions a diver can take to ensure that they make it back to the boat quickly. In times of emergency the safety flag is one of the best ways that I know to get attention fast.
In the past many experienced divers made their own emergency dive flags but they tended to be a rather awkward addition to the kit that was needed (most of us strapped them to our tanks) and they were not always the easiest things to deploy quickly. Fortunately this market niche has been filled by a collapsible dive flag that thought it can extend to over 1.5 meters in length will also fold down to such a small size that it will fit in a BC pocket. With a high visibility yellow flag it is a perfect and vital piece of kit that all divers should carry.
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