Where does poor viz start?

[piikki]

I generally rate viz either poor, average or good/excellent. Where does poor visibility start for you? With your regular (local) dives what do you consider poor visibility? I thought it would be interesting to look at the variety and how people in different environments form the cut point. I make my own log book pages, so I have formed ranges for myself according to my comfort zone. What is yours?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It depends on where you are from and what your comfort level is. Also what are you doing has a bearing on it. With students less than 4 feet can be a chore but it is very doable if good buddy skills are adhered to. Myself there really is no such thing as bad if I can see my gauges. I just adjust to it and if I can't see fish, landmarks, etc, it's a great time to work on compass skills without any distractions.

 

[drdaddy]

Pacific NW Jetty Divers call 5 feet average and 7 feet good, and anything approaching 10 feet or better excellent. Because of this, we usually record the vis by feet, as obviously what is "good vis" is relative to your location.

And, by the way, yes we do dive in 2 foot vis (following familiar contours and jetty fingers, and using our compasses extensively), and we pick up delicious dungeness crabs to eat!

 

[SailNaked]

For me poor visibility is the distance that a Shark could appear suddenly and bite my face off. or the distance that I have to hold my buddies hand or lose them. I like to see things so if I cant see what I want then the Vis sux. I like to swim within 10 ft of my buddy so for me the min vis is about 15 ft.

 

[DevonDiver]

It's a locational thing. Every area has what it considers 'excellent', 'good', 'average', 'poor' and terrible viz.

Good viz in the UK, would be terrible in the Philippines...etc etc

 

[RJP]

Poor visibility is...

Poor visibility is situation/environment dependent. On a NJ wreck, 40' is phenomenal and we'd all be high-fiving after the first dive. In the Cayman Island 40' is abysmal and we'd all be heading to the bar after the first dive.

 

[300bar]

2-3ft is pretty common here.
good is 5ft or more (in wintertime)

 

[ligersandtions]

For local (shore) diving, 10-12 feet is pretty average....15-20 feet is pretty damn good! Bad usually falls in the 5 feet or less range....and even then, as long as it's not super surgey, I don't mind.

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

Anything where you can still see your gauges is nice but if I have to dive with someone I prefer to at least have 5ft so I don't have to bump into them to know they are there. So I voted 5ft, though I dive solo and often times have less than 5ft.

 

[vtxkev]

If I can see its good, when I cant see anymore its poor.