Dangerous- or not?

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bpotkin

Contributor
Messages
85
Reaction score
14
Location
So Cal.
# of dives
50 - 99
My 23 year old son an I are newer divers who have been recently certified as AOW and night divers. We each have
40+ dives under different conditions. This last week we did our first night dive " by ourselves" from a location we are
familiar with at Malibu beach. We checked the local swell report and weather report. We knew the rain was coming
and the weather would be changing, however the waves were the same size as when we did our training. When we
dropped down to the reef at aprox. 25 ft. , we had 1 to 2 ft. Vis. We were also being slightly tossed around in surge.
We completed a 40 minute dive and made it to shore tired but with no problems. Some scuba friends said we should
have called the dive due to almost no visibility. Did we do something dangerous - or not?.
 
Were you in control? Were you able to keep track of each other, and would you have been able to react appropriately in the event something went wrong?

You'll get lots of opinions. Brace yourself :)
 
Eh, I probably would have thumbed it. Not much to see in 12 inches of vis, and separation (worse at night, potentially) is a real risk.
 
12 inches of vis in a surging environment at night, when you know the sea state is going to pick up ????

Well I can think of safer things to do...
 
That just doesn't sound fun. I would have thumbed it. With 1-2 ft vis, my regular buddy would have also thumbed it, but I wouldn't know unless she hit me in the nose with it.
 
12 inches of vis in a surging environment at night, when you know the sea state is going to pick up ????

Well I can think of safer things to do...

Hey, at least they weren't spearfishing :rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3: :rofl3:
 
If you knew the weather would be changing, you'd have to ask yourself if you could handle yourself if the current conditions got worse.
At 1-2ft of viz I would have called it for a fun dive, especially knowing the conditions were going to pickup.

I've dove 1ft viz in brown-out conditions, doing search drills with heavy longshore currents and surge. Not fun.

Under normal unchanging conditions, in 1ft viz: if you and your buddy are in control then have fun with navigation. No problem with that. The main thing that sticks out to me is that you went in knowing conditions were going to get worse. And you didn't state if you had thought out what would happen if conditions did pick up while you were in the water.
 
How was the 40-minute dive with little visibility at night? Was it enjoyable? Did you have trouble sticking together?

As an AOW with night diving experience, you should be capable of leading (or co-leading) a night dive with your buddy at a site you've dove before during the day. You guys were smart in checking the swell report and weather, and you had no problems during the dive. You guys apparently were in control (and safe) the whole time and you didn't lose your buddy.

In my opinion, it's your own personal decision to do a dive with 1-2ft visibility. I would probably thumb it because I know I wouldn't enjoy it. I think that we all have plenty of dives left, and it's not a big deal to call off one dive if you have an issue with visibility (same as if you felt cold or felt the conditions were unsafe). No one will look down on a diver for calling a dive for any reason, even just discomfort.
 
I would have called it too. Night diving by it's nature elevates a lot of risks. General practice is to make night dives only under optimal conditions.

Good job managing a challenging dive. When in doubt, get out.

Pete
 
You have experienced it and now are a low viz night diver. 40 minutes of this would be a very great deal of navigational skills. Also what your 2' vis might be another divers 5' vis, so in essence there was enough vis to actually keep you diving, cause if not you would ascend up to the beach and end the dive on your own decision.

More or less your scuba friends are only stating this cause you are new divers, of course now you passed this and now have first hand of this dive condition. Keep it up as you and your buddy should do well in diving.
 
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