Paulmal
Contributor
Low/ no vis is not a problem but I defiantly prefer to be able to see.
Low Viz scare ya ?
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NAUI offers a Blackwater Diver I specialty cert (I have one), so I'm guessing PADI does also. The big problem is finding a sport dive instructor that teaches this course. I most highly recommend this course as a way to improve confidence. Also a really useful skill if someone loses something on a silty bottom.
I guess my question with most low vis diving is what's the point? Without something to see or do, I would not find it enjoyable.
I have enjoyed looking for fossils in black water. Mostly if the vis is bad, I dive another day.
I have enjoyed looking for fossils in black water. Mostly if the vis is bad, I dive another day.
Xitesmai
Registered
You could take the night diver course. After that low viz wont be a problem....because any viz is better than no viz! 
CamG
Contributor
Greetings ccx2 low vis and no vis can be very challenging for any untrained diver to navigate.
The two greatest tools I found that helped me be confident in low vis compass skills and reel skills.
If I have a line or reel to follow I am good even in black out conditions I am warm and fuzzy.
If I am in mid water in low / no vis then I am on the compass following a bearing again I feel pretty confident.
The only place where low vis cranks me up would be in areas with seals where large predators were actively feeding.
Not to crazy about that easy to mistake a black dry suit for a seal!
In the reality though you are very safe as long as you have the skills to cope with low or no vis situations.
Nothing substitutes training in your local quarry or lake with a group of divers who are familiar with low / no vis conditions.
Like most things once you learn skills mastery takes practice but when you are trained it takes a lot of the stress out of the situation.
CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!
The two greatest tools I found that helped me be confident in low vis compass skills and reel skills.
If I have a line or reel to follow I am good even in black out conditions I am warm and fuzzy.
If I am in mid water in low / no vis then I am on the compass following a bearing again I feel pretty confident.
The only place where low vis cranks me up would be in areas with seals where large predators were actively feeding.
Not to crazy about that easy to mistake a black dry suit for a seal!
In the reality though you are very safe as long as you have the skills to cope with low or no vis situations.
Nothing substitutes training in your local quarry or lake with a group of divers who are familiar with low / no vis conditions.
Like most things once you learn skills mastery takes practice but when you are trained it takes a lot of the stress out of the situation.
CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!
Token
Contributor
Scare me....no. I certified OW in a viz of 6'-8' and didn't find it unduly disturbing. Maybe I have a poor imagination, but I'm just not worried about 'what might be out there...'.
One thing I have found is that diving in murky water, like a plankton bloom, where I can't see either the surface or bottom, is _extremely_ disorienting and anxiety provoking, although I think I could get used to it enough to have an acceptable dive once I reached the bottom. I haven't been on a proper night dive yet...just my manta dive where there were dozens of divers in the water and lots of lights. I guess I'll find out what it's like diving at night sooner or later...
One thing I have found is that diving in murky water, like a plankton bloom, where I can't see either the surface or bottom, is _extremely_ disorienting and anxiety provoking, although I think I could get used to it enough to have an acceptable dive once I reached the bottom. I haven't been on a proper night dive yet...just my manta dive where there were dozens of divers in the water and lots of lights. I guess I'll find out what it's like diving at night sooner or later...
Aqua-Andy
Contributor
For me it all depends on where I'm diving. In the ocean low viz does not bother me at all, I just adjust my field of view and often see a lot of smaller critters I would have missed if the viz was good. In lakes I can get spooked every once in a while. Over the July fourth holiday we went camping and there was a small pond to swim in, I put on my oldest sons mask and decended a couple of feet and the viz was no more than 3 feet. I was totally creeped out, it might have something to do with the huge turtles I've seen there(shell the size of a man hole cover).
I certified in lousy viz -- in fact, the viz on the day I did my first OW dive was so bad that the DM leading me on the tour got lost. I am also prone to vertigo when deprived of a visual reference, and I spent many of my first direct ascents staring at my depth gauge and chanting, "It doesn't matter if I'm doing somersaults, so long as I am doing them at FIFTEEN FEET!"
Seven years and a thousand dives later, I've concluded that the one thing that will make a dive delightful to me is being able to see. Even if there isn't much to see IN the water, if the water is clear, the dive is fun. It's not that I'm worried that something is going to come out of the murk and eat me; it's that I have much more trouble navigating in really bad viz, and I don't like not knowing where I am.
Seven years and a thousand dives later, I've concluded that the one thing that will make a dive delightful to me is being able to see. Even if there isn't much to see IN the water, if the water is clear, the dive is fun. It's not that I'm worried that something is going to come out of the murk and eat me; it's that I have much more trouble navigating in really bad viz, and I don't like not knowing where I am.
Deefstes
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This is an interesting one. I'm fortunate to do most of my diving in excellent viz. Even our local quarry has fairly decent viz. On occasion though, after a rain storm or a long weekend where the quarry had been churned into a silt soup by qualifying divers, the viz can be real bad and, weirdly enough, I actually enjoy that. There is something exciting about not having any visual clue as to where you're going and having to follow your instruments and knowledge of the quarry's topography etc.
Some of the "artefacts" that are scattered around the quarry have lines running to them and connecting them so you can quite easily get around by simply following the lines. Some however don't; The helicopter for instance just sits there in the middle of nowhere and fairly deep (28m). When the viz is very bad it's always an enjoyable challenge to find the chopper. If you get it right and all of a sudden this monster chopper materialises in front of you it's a real sense of achievement.
Some of the "artefacts" that are scattered around the quarry have lines running to them and connecting them so you can quite easily get around by simply following the lines. Some however don't; The helicopter for instance just sits there in the middle of nowhere and fairly deep (28m). When the viz is very bad it's always an enjoyable challenge to find the chopper. If you get it right and all of a sudden this monster chopper materialises in front of you it's a real sense of achievement.
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