Carl M. Brashear, the first black U.S. Navy diver who was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the 2000 film "Men of Honor," died Tuesday. He was 75.  Brashear died at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (Virginia) of respiratory and heart failure.

   ... was made out of a stop sign?

   but first, in the odd chance that some people haven't heard of a

backplate:    Say, what is a backplate?

   good question!  a backplate is a piece of metal that a diver straps to

his or her back with a harness:

     the backplate then serves as the platform upon which a wing

(really an  inflatable bladder or bladders, so named because they

look like wings when deployed under water) and the tank(s) are

mounted.  thus:

    the backplate/wings combination (abbreviated BP/W) is the basis of

the Hogarthian and DIR systems (discussed in my previous entry),

and has been adopted by the cave diving community and 

wreck/technical diving folk all over the world.

   the backplate has many advantages over conventional BC's, mainly,

less drag, more streamlined, better distribution of weight over your

back, and a better "center of trim" for lack of a better word, making

maintaining vertical trim much easier than with a conventional BC.

also, they are truly infinitely adjustable, making a BP/W about the

"best fit" for each and every diver (this is because the harness can

be adjusted precisely to fit the specific diver).

   so who invented the backplate?  none other than Greg Flanagan

as a college junior at the University of Florida, Gainesville

(my alma mater, if i may say so myself), way back in 1979.

  actually, he did make that first backplate out of a road sign,

but i don't know if it was a stop sign or not:

I made my first back plate in early 1979 from a surplus aluminum road sign

of unknown alloy. I traced the outline from the solid center section of the Scuba

Pro BCP onto a paper stencil and transferred this onto the aluminum. I next cut out

the aluminum and had a single parallel set of bends, about 2" apart, made in the center

of the plate, running from top to bottom, forming a sort of flat bottomed "V", into

which I drilled two holes (one top/one bottom), which were used to bolt the plate to

extended studs on a set of bands on double 72s. I then proceeded to beat the aluminum

around the curvature of the tanks with a sledge hammer, soon discovering that aluminum

alloy is pretty tough material, taking several hours to conform the aluminum to the tanks.

The webbing off a Navy harness was then attached through a series of slots cut in the metal

and the first back plate was born. I used this first back plate on both Double 72s and Double

80s throughout the rest of Sheck's cave course with awesome results. Balance was so easy

and my cave diving technique was so improved that I became the envy of my classmates who

continued to struggle with their belly-bags.

Source

   Flanagan went on to make backplates for a number of cave divers,

including Sheck Exley and Bill "Hogarth" Main, who, particulalry

Main, helped standarize the backplate for cave diving.

   Flanagan's design has been virtually unchanged to this day, including

the position of the harness slots.  However, Flanagan never got

around to getting a patent for the backplate.  And the rest, as they

say, is history.

     first, let me say that taking the DIR-F class was the single-best

decision i made after learning how to dive.  DIR-F re-introduced me

to some basic skills i wasn't doing so well, and gave me a "complete

picture" to shoot for.

    nevertheless, i do not consider myself DIR (short for "Doing it Right").

i dive their system; i share 90% of their diving philosophy.  and yet,

i have always drawn the line at calling myself a "DIR diver."

    why?  that's another topic.  but today, i wanted to talk about DIR

for those who are not too familiar with it.

     it all starts with the  Wakulla Karst Plain Project (well, not really,

but we gotta start somewhere).  basically, divers had been trying to

explore the demanding Wakulla Springs cave system in Florida,

including the famed Sheck Exley.  However, due to lack of central

leadership and planning, the exploration sort of had reached its

maximum momentum by the early 90's.

based on minimalist, cave-diving principles, the DIR style emphasises bouyancy and trim control

picture taken by ScubaBoard's Melfox26

     at that point, George Irvine and Jarrod Jablonski took over the

exploration (through the WKPP) and developed the concept of DIR:

a holistic system of diving emphasising similar equipment, training,

and procedure.  In theory, someone who is DIR from Alaska can meet

up with a DIR person from Japan and the two will know exactly what the

other person's equipment is,  what their dive procedures will be, and

rather importantly, what the other person is trained to do in case of an emergency.

    the DIR equipment configuration is basically an application of the

Hogarthian concepts of "less is more" and "uniformity."  Named after

William Hogarth Main, the Hogartian (fairly called minimalist) system

was the basis for the DIR system as developed by Irvine and Jablonski

for WKKP exploration.  again, the need for centralized protocol,

uniformity, and predictability was their impetus.

     sometime later, someone had the (great) idea to export the DIR

Wakulla diving method and philosophy to the general population of

divers. I believe that someone was Jarrod Jablonski.  He certainly

wrote the book on DIR for the non-Wakulla diver, DIR: The

Fundamentals of Better Diving.

    now, because DIR is a holistic system, it requires that you

accept the entire "package."  the argument is that since the

entire "package" is designed to work together, adopting only

bits and pieces will not work (and can be downright dangerous).

i'm not sure i buy this argument, particularly since the DIR

equipment configuration alone can be so beneficial to divers.

   DIR training can be obtained through Global Underwater Explorers.

    this is a revisiting of the entry on the diver's down flag.

    that is, when are they mandatory?  it depends on state law.

you need to check your statutes to determine if/when/how

to deploy the diver's down flag.  here is a great collection of

state law sites by Chris Whitten.

    some confusion arises over the use of the Alpha flag in the

United States.  the Alpha flag is the international navigational

flag used to indicate there are divers in the water and for other

vessels to stay clear.

the Alpha Flag

     there are two sources of possible laws that could mandate use of

the Alpha flag.  they are the federal navigation regulations enforced

by the U.S. Coast Guard, and the laws of the 50 states.

    the states:  some states mandate use of the alpha flag in addition or

in lieu of the diver's down flag (for example, under certain

circumstances, Wisconsin and Maine).  so make sure to (again) check

the laws of your state regarding the alpha flag. 

    federal law:  the U.S. Coast Guard's Navigation Rules and

Regulations  covers use of dive flags in navigable federal waters

both inland and off-shore.  the easy answer is that federal law does

not require a diver to deploy either the diver's down or the alpha flag.

                diver's down flag:  the familiar red and white flag is not

                addressed

                 alpha flag:  the flag is to be flown under certain

                 circumstances from a vesel, but it is not required

                 for divers to deploy it.

    thus, the easy answer to "how do i know which flag to tow and when

to do it" is to check your state statutes.

(so when does the federal regulations mandate that a vessel fly the

alpha flag when divers are in the water?  Rules 20 and 27 provide

the answer.  if a vessel can not display three shapes (a ball,

a diamond, and another ball) in a vertical line during the day, it

must then fly the alpha flag to indicate divers are in the water.

again, keep in mind that the federal regulations do not require

divers in the water to tow the flag.  rather, the flag is displayed

from the vessel from which they are diving).

     Q:  How do you make sure every boat within a mile radius

           comes speeding at you just as you emerge from a dive? 

       A:  Tow a dive flag on a float above you.

      Seriously, though, and no pun intended, this is a serious issue,

at least down here in Florida.  I have two friends who have come

close to being run down by boats despite their dive flags.  Also,

it seems some boaters are attracted to the flags because they don't

know what they are, and speed over to take a closer look... exactly

the opposite of what the dive flag is supposed to accomplish.

    Earlier this month, 26-year-old Ghaleb Tayfour was killed

by a boat near Dania Beach Pier, Hollywood, Florida, while

he was snorkeling.  He was towing a diver-down flag, as

mandated by Florida Law for both divers and snorkelers.

The boat didn't even stop to help after the accident.

    This is a terrible tragedy, and we as divers need to do

more to educate the public about what it means when

a diver down flag is being towed in the water (basically,

divers are nearby, stay the heck away from it).

     As an aside, and as a bit of history, the current

diver down flag was created by Denzel James "Doc" Dockery,

sometime after 1953.

Denzel "Doc" Dockery, creator of the diver down flag later in his life

      Dockery was discharged from the Navy in the late 40's and in 1953,

he built a scuba unit from instructions published in Popular Science

magazine. In no time at all, Dockery realized that he needed a warning

flag to keep boaters at a safe distance.  Unfortunately, no such flag existed. 

    Dockery started with the all red "Bravo" flag familiar to him in the

Navy (meaning danger, or dangerous cargo onboard), and added a

white stripe to make it distinctive.  His first flag looked something

like this:

     Unfortunately, as he later discovered, that flag was already taken as

the national flag of Austria.   He thought of running the white stripe

down the middle, but that was identical to the Navy flag for the numeral

seven.  Instead, he ran the stripe diagonally, and the rest, as they say,

is history:

   Like a good entrepeneur,  Dockery started promoting his flag,

giving them away at first.  In what seems record time, the flag

became very popular, and Dockery started making them and selling

them in his garage.

   In 1956, Dockery's flag got a major boost. Ted Nixon from U.S. Divers

started buying them from him and distributing them nationally. Nixon

became so instrumental in the flag's widespread adoption that many

people mistakenly credit Nixon with inventing the flag.

  Eventually, Dockery and his wife, Ruth, bought the land around

Vortex Springs,  Florida, and created a good place for scuba classes

and just fun diving.  This was in 1972, and they ran the place

for about 30 years.  I am not sure if they still own the property.

(In 1969, Dockery started his own company, Vortex Innerspace

Products, which manufactures aquarium filters, and is now run

by his son, Daryl)

  For additional information, see Chris Whitten's excellent site.