Diving circumstances

[dutch-scuba-kid]

Seems like most of the people here have only been diving in places with excellent circumstances. Great viz., warm water, coral as far as the eye can see, etc...
So I wonder what the worst diving circumstances were you ever had the 'pleasure' to dive in. So many spoiled divers! hahaha. No offence ofcourse!
As for myself... watertemp wise... it was about 6 degrees with a 7 mm. Ofcourse it can be colder, but I don't have too much body fat.
And visibility wise... well, that's like none to 5 cm's... Luckily no bad viz ánd cold water in one dive so far.

byebye

Ramon

 

[diverrick]

I had to dive in a flooded drydock with a half sunken ferry in it, looking for a little boy who had disappeared. Lots of rusty nails, and rotted splintered wood. After that I got the pleasure to go dive/search in the pond that was being used as a storage of sewage of some sort. Really foul smelling and thicker than water. 0 vis as well, and that was back in the days when no one took precautions about infections and such. They just had the Fire Dept. hose us down after we came out. after that, the delta waters didn't look so bad, nor dark. This all occured down near Rio Vista California.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Coldest, +1c water temp. (one degree above freezing)

Lowest vis was on the way back to the exit point on shore, a rain storm had just passed overhead while we were under. The downpour washed all forms of dirt, sand and muck into the lake. From 30 feet it looked like we were entering a black cave. If I had not known the dive site so well I would have thought we had, however it was just the run off that reduced the vis to 0, well maybe 2 inches. We had to do our last 2 deco stops in 0 vis. When we came out, everyone started shouting at us to get out, just then a lightning bolt struck a tree 10 feet away from us. We were out of the water and into the nearby shelter in record time. It must have looked very funny to everyone, the sight of us running full tilt, knees high, fins on, fully geared up, and the whites of our eyes filling the entire visible space of our masks still on our faces, running nearly 100 yards to the shelter. They just stood there for a few seconds with their mouths open staring at us, then burst into raucous laughter. Wish someone had a video camera.

 

[Gary D.]

Would a sewage treatment plant holding pond count as the crappiest dive? :54:

Gary D.

 

[Snowbear]

...Great viz., warm water, coral as far as the eye can see, etc...

I've heard tropical diving is nice. Someday...Maybe...Meanwhile - I LIKE cold, murky, dark, life-infested waters.

Would a sewage treatment plant holding pond count as the crappiest dive?

You win - it doesn't get any crappier than that :sick:

 

[grazie42]

6C in a 7mm @ 35m so the neoprene was pretty compressed...
viz? well...total darkness until I turned on my light...also did a "treasure-hunt"-dive in a harbour here where I had trouble seeing the red stuff on my snorkel...

 

[Diver0001]

Seems like most of the people here have only been diving in places with excellent circumstances. Great viz., warm water, coral as far as the eye can see, etc...
So I wonder what the worst diving circumstances were you ever had the 'pleasure' to dive in. So many spoiled divers! hahaha. No offence ofcourse!
As for myself... watertemp wise... it was about 6 degrees with a 7 mm. Ofcourse it can be colder, but I don't have too much body fat.
And visibility wise... well, that's like none to 5 cm's... Luckily no bad viz ánd cold water in one dive so far.

byebye

Ramon

I dive in cold water with poor viz most of the time. Last weekend the water temp was 3C but viz was 8 metres, which is uncommon here. Usually the viz is 3 metres or so. I've had many dives where I could see my hands but not my feet...... My coldest dive to date was -2C according to my computer. I didn't even know water could get that cold until I saw it for myself.

We have definite seasons under water here too. Right now mostly everything is dormant or dead. In the spring it will come to life. We have pairing seasons for cuttlefish and starfish blanket the bottom at certain times of the year to name a couple. In the summer there is an explosion of life which is mostly gone again in the winter.

BTW, I've seen some really poor viz and really heavy currents in the tropics.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

Would a sewage treatment plant holding pond count as the crappiest dive? :54:

Gary D.

You're kidding..... That would jsut peg my gross-o-meter.

R..

 

[Snowbear]

You're kidding.....

Probably not - Gary D's a public safety diver....

 

[dutch-scuba-kid]

I dive in cold water with poor viz most of the time. Last weekend the water temp was 3C but viz was 8 metres, which is uncommon here. Usually the viz is 3 metres or so. I've had many dives where I could see my hands but not my feet...... My coldest dive to date was -2C according to my computer. I didn't even know water could get that cold until I saw it for myself.

We have definite seasons under water here too. Right now mostly everything is dormant or dead. In the spring it will come to life. We have pairing seasons for cuttlefish and starfish blanket the bottom at certain times of the year to name a couple. In the summer there is an explosion of life which is mostly gone again in the winter.

BTW, I've seen some really poor viz and really heavy currents in the tropics.

R..

While reading your post, I realized you're probably from the Netherlands, like me. when I read the part about the cuttlefish, I was sure.
Well, so am I as you probably read. So I sort of know what you mean. I guess you just have more experience.

Ramon