Low Vis?

[konasdad]

I use a 10W HID to help people locate me UW, and my buddies tell me it helps. Unfortunately most of my buddies do not have this type of light, so I have issues finding them if we get separated.

Ok, I've only been is water with great visibility where losing your buddy is difficult. I've been taught that if you are separated you wait 1 min. and then surface. In good visibility it may take a 1 min. or so to come to the conclusion that you were separated and you aren't going find them soon. What is your procedure and timing low viz. Do you try to find them for 1 min. and then surface?

-Mark-

 

[Goose75]

If I can stretch my hand out in front of me and actually see it I call it 3ft+. If I have to stick the computer against my mask to read it, I call it <1ft. In between is 1-3ft. It doesn't really matter, as long as I know what it means.

 

[RonFrank]

Ok, I've only been is water with great visibility where losing your buddy is difficult. I've been taught that if you are separated you wait 1 min. and then surface. In good visibility it may take a 1 min. or so to come to the conclusion that you were separated and you aren't going find them soon. What is your procedure and timing low viz. Do you try to find them for 1 min. and then surface?

-Mark-

I don't think there are hard or fast rules about what to do when separated. It's really up to the buddy team to decide on how to handle separation, and is also based on the dive profile.

When we are diving shallow, we use the 1 minute rule, and when I get separated I may immediately go to the surface, find the bubbles, and then drop back down on the diver. This would not be practical on an 80' dive!

 

[Goose75]

Ok, I've only been is water with great visibility where losing your buddy is difficult. I've been taught that if you are separated you wait 1 min. and then surface. In good visibility it may take a 1 min. or so to come to the conclusion that you were separated and you aren't going find them soon. What is your procedure and timing low viz. Do you try to find them for 1 min. and then surface?

-Mark-

Waiting any longer is pointless. Better to take measures to rpevent seperation.

I've had to hold my buddies BC before to keep from getting seperated. My hand just extended into nothingness and disappeared. We were doing searches for a rescue class. If we had become seperated I would have surfaced and tracked bubbles. Friends of mine who work for the local fire department hold wrists in a line to look for victims. Usually they find them when they bump into it. Not pleasant.

 

[ArcticDiver]

How far can you see? It all depends. One place I occasionally dive I can see the bottom from the surface. But, once in the water if I look at my feet I can't see my fins.

It loses its fun quotient when one of two things happen: I can't see what I want to see. Or, surface temperatures or precipitation make the immediate post-dive miserable.

 

[Vegas]

There is something about low visibility diving that attracts me. I guess it's the eeriness of it.

I feel the same way ~
Of course I love a beautiful day in the ocean when I can see for what seems like forever --

however, low vis is the norm for the lake this time of year and I really love diving in that too. It is its own kind of adventure - not bad, just different! If I can only see 3 feet in front of me, then I like to glide slowly along just that far from the bottom and see everything I can see in those 3 feet. If I'd have been moving faster I'd miss all the cute little critters I find nestled in between the rocks and hiding in little "caves" in the mud, that I would never notice if I hadn't been looking so close!

I also LOVE night diving -- and when you get out there with no moon, 8' vis or less, everyone with their flashlights sweeping the bottom, in the subtle 'green' of the lake in summer, I always feel like I'm in an old episode of the X-files. Makes you want hum "Ride of the Valkyries" as you move along! (as we've been known to do!)

 

[ArcticDiver]

How little visibility is too little for safety?

Well, my rule is that if visibility is so restricted I can't comfortably complete the dive it is time to abort.

To see what I mean do a complete dive with your eyes closed, or a blanked out mask. Can you safely do what you went to do and return to the surface?

Most people don't fully appreciate how much sight, even a little, is involved in everything they do.

Try no eyes. Bet you reevaluate your minimum visibility standards.

 

[WVDiver]

Everyone has their own idea of what 5' viz means. As some have mentioned it may just be that you can see a diver, whether it is your buddy or not, they can not be sure. Others relate it to being able to identify a paticular person or object while others want to be able to read an eye chart. How you judge viz is not so important if you and the rest of your group know and understand what you are trying to convey.

As far as reading posts where people discuss the viz they encountered on a particular dive you only need to remember that viz is a relative term. You should always take it with a grain of salt and try to remember the depth of what "5' viz" may mean.

 

[Buoyant1]

The first time is weird...but when you get used to low-no viz it's not so bad...Not panicking is the biggest thing...and having the understanding of not seeing anyone for about a minute of two means surface and find each other (if you're at a reasonable depth) Some Saturdays at the quarry get a little murky, but otherwise it's nto too horribly bad..we did have a Wednesday night where we felt like we were diving in MILK! I couldn't read my computer right up to my face and just remembered surfacing (I was at about 10 ft) and seeing my two buddies doing the exact same thing about 10 yards away!) Funny stuff!

 

[dave4868]

I read many of you talk about your low vis and no vis dives. I always assumed that meant crappy vis.

Went out in a local lake with my sister. She was wearing a brand spanking new neon yellow tank and I could not see that past 3 feet away. Could not see the rest of her nor my own gauges without really working at it. Never saw the bottom.

We were in an unfamiliar place and I called the dive before we ever really got started.
I just kept envisioning swimming square into a tree covered with fishing line.

Smart! I hate entanglements in low vis, especially with my failing vision of old age! I also hate surprises in low vis....

Like you, most of the divers I know, including myself, would have aborted that dive, unless there was some other achievable goal, like trying to find a mooring, etc. Heck, we've even aborted a dive just eye-balling it from shore if the surf has turned the sea to liquid mud.

Then again, some dives may have poor vis near shore and decent vis further out. That's unlikely in freshwater rivers and lakes, like where you were.

My question is when you people say 5 foot vis as conditions what really does that mean? 5 foot away you can make out a shape or at 5 foot you can see things no problem?

I consider the vis to be the point where the object is still barely visible, if only as a shape or color.

When I get some real good vis, I'll measure it horizontally with my flag line, which has a mark every ten feet. That takes away the subjective exaggeration and/or guesswork. It also trains one's eye to judge the distance.

Low vis isn't worth more than a rough guess and a range.

At either rate that type of vis is out for me.

Same here.

Although an occasional experience of low vis may improve one's ability to cope with adversity, avoiding low vis is more likely to improve one's ability to make sensible diving judgments.

Dave C