Dangerous- or not?

[nimoh]

when you say 1'-2' of visibility, could you still see each others' dive lights, and communicate with signals? If you couldn't do that then I think it was unsafe.

I probably would have thumbed the dive as other suggested, since there really wasn't much to see

 

[Doomnova]

I follow a simple premice you can always dive another day (or night in this case). It is better to be a little more cautious than reckless as one major mistake can result in permanent injury or death. Both of which could easily end your diving career. I called a dive earlier this month due to unfavorable winds that were going to pop up on the weekend and after looking at the forcast the night before my buddy and I decided it would be best if we just didn't go. The weather never arrived but in the end we both though it was the better choice than trying to get out and something happen. With the currents around Victoria BC is great for tons of life bad if you get caught in them cause your going for a nice long trip if you do.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Low vis in and of itself is not a reason to call a dive. In fact a lot of critters will be out and about in low vis that will not be ordinarily since there is less predation pressure. Of course losing you buddy is a reason to surface and reconnect the group. And that is not much a problem from 25 fsw. Both divers having the attitude that you will stay together is the first step to staying together. Good lights and staying close will really help. Navigation in Malibu as you know is really easy. Set that reciprocal bearing to north and you are good to go.

If there is a lot of surge it can make observing things difficult. Deeper sites are often the answer and in that Malibu may not be a good choice. You can get deep near Point Dume but it will be a long swim. Redondo is an option that can get you out of the surge, even if the vis is not much better. Do check the CDIP swellwatch website. When it is dark blue go diving.

 

[mathauck0814]

Diving is inherently dangerous under any condition. So... yes.

 

[TSandM]

I usually like to change one variable at a time. If I'm doing the first night dive ever at a site, I'd try not to do it in viz that was significantly different from the viz I'd had during my daytime dives at that place. If I'm facing larger surf, I wouldn't do it for the first time at night, and so on.

Was what you did dangerous? Not necessarily. I once did a dive in viz that poor with a very good buddy. We dove literally shoulder to shoulder -- we were bumping one another constantly, but we didn't lose one another, and although I wouldn't say the dive was fun, neither of us was unnerved or anxious. If you guys have dived together enough to know how to stay together in very low viz, then you just had a not very good dive. I'd have been much more concerned about the changing water conditions, because I've learned the hard way that surf can change quite a lot during just an hour's dive, making a site that was easy into something much more worrisome.

 

[RTBDiver]

So many opinions and none are right or wrong. I often cave dive at night in caves with rippin currents that can and do silt out or have black water intrusion and its no different than a day dive, I have done many dives day and night in worse visibilty in some local rivers searching for sharks teeth and other cool stuff, It all depends on comfort levels and if you were prepared should something go wrong. Now if I were going to do the dive you mention, for whatever reason, I would not be as concerned with buddy teams as I was with time and plan, and we would both be diving redundant, By no means would I want to do that type of dive IF I needed to find my buddy to assist me or vise versa

 

[nimoh]

So many opinions and none are right or wrong. I often cave dive at night in caves with rippin currents that can and do silt out or have black water intrusion and its no different than a day dive, I have done many dives day and night in worse visibilty in some local rivers searching for sharks teeth and other cool stuff, It all depends on comfort levels and if you were prepared should something go wrong. Now if I were going to do the dive you mention, for whatever reason, I would not be as concerned with buddy teams as I was with time and plan, and we would both be diving redundant, By no means would I want to do that type of dive IF I needed to find my buddy to assist me or vise versa

I have no doubt that you can do such dives safely, but there is a big difference between an instructor with 1000+ dives, and new AOW students with 40 dives and pushing their limits.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

An instructor with 1000 dives, could be 960 OW classes and only 40 actual dives out of there normal realm, and lied about dives to become an instructor. IJS.

 

[theduckguru]

With 1-2 ft of vis, I would have called the dive prior to entering the water during day light conditions.

 

[nimoh]

An instructor with 1000 dives, could be 960 OW classes and only 40 actual dives out of there normal realm, and lied about dives to become an instructor. IJS.

Well, I'm assuming neither is lying