Amen to that. When I used to live in North Carolina, I used to dive a lot around the Beaufort area. On one dive, myself and my dive buddy were surfacing from a wreck site and could not find our dive boat. We dove in less than ideal conditions that day (windy, choppy waves, overcast), got confused and ended up surfacing about a 1/4 mile away from our boat. The waves that day were around 4 feet, and everytime we went up with the crest, we could see the boat. We whistled for about 30 minutes but no one heard us. We were finally picked up by a passing boat, but I'll have to tell you it was a LLOOONNNNGGG 30 minutes. From then on, I carried flares, whistle and a strobe on all dives. Granted I wasn't alone in the water for 5 hours like Mr. Carlock, but scary enough to me.

--Chris