Black Water Diver

[Dutchman]

Black water diving is what we do in Texas at Lake Travis around 80 feet. LOL

 

[vablackwater]

Never heard of it

 

[String]

"Black water" is common here inland due to peat and so on in the ground.

Literally dark the second you go under as a result.

 

[gmhicks5867]

Public Safety Divers do a LOT of "Blackwater" Diving. Basically this is diving intentionally whenever the vis is so bad you cannot see anything even right in front of your mask.

I have done some public safety training dives where I was touching my mask and could still only barely see my hand. Public safety divers get into this condition especially quick due to the nature of their diving and that they are most likely intentionally negative and crawling along the bottom kicking up the silt making even normally poor conditions worse.

Of course if you are looking for evidence or a body it is mostly by feel hence the negative buoyancy.

 

[ScubaSarus]

Black water doesnt mean low vis water IMO its water were no sunlight gets thru to and thus is dark and black.

The Larchmount off RI at 130 ft is a black water dive while the USS Bass 15 miles away at 160 ft is like a blue water dive. The King Philips Abyss in the CT River at 100 ft is a black water dive and if you have a HID light on the dives you can see pretty well and vis can be 40 ft with a good HID light. With no HID light your beam is absorbed by the water and practically useless but to see your gages.

The bottom of lakes and some quarries below the nether (thick incline layer) is black but can be extremely clear with a HID light.

 

[rockjock3]

Blackwater diving can also be diving in the open ocean when the bottom is several hundred to several thousand feet below and being tied to a line dropped over the side. Usually you tethered about 60fsw. You see a lot of life that comes up from the depths. They do one off of the big island.

Another type of diving refered to as "black water" diving is commercial divers that dive in sewage/sewers/waste treatment areas.

Doesn't have to be commerical though. Simply means diving where you can't see your hand in front of your eyes. Don't really see the enjoyment in that unless I am doing it for a job. I can close my eyes and turn the lights off in the bathroom and dive in my tub for that.

 

[Guba]

I'm from North Central Texas, and we don't do too much blackwater diving here....it's more of a deep ochre. That comes from the fact that we live in the "Texas Redbeds", and the water takes on a characteristic reddish-orange hue (they don't call it the "Red River" for nothin!). After you get below six feet down, however, almost all light is filtered out, so I guess it's blackwater, since we usually experience that "hey, who turned out the lights!" feeling at depth.
As for a previous post that said blackwater was anthing less than ten feet...wow. Ten feet of vis in my neck of the woods is practically "Carribean".

 

[College Diver]

For a minute I thought it meant swimming around with a heavily-armored DPV and spearing civilian divers on sight.

Crap, did I just type that out loud?

yeah, that or you thought it really, really loud