Diving in bad conditions

[MaxBottomtime]

I've had my share of bad dives...well, more than my share. I've lost fins, a mask and my dignity a few times. These days, I look at the surf and turn around instead. I don't get in many dives, but I have fewer horror stories to tell.
Three weeks ago I watched four guys getting ready to enter in high surf at Vet's. Merry and I tried to guess which of the divers would need to be rescued. They all had dangling hoses, colorful fins and two were overweight. As they entered, the chest-high surf was knocking them back. The lull was only about twenty seconds long, so it was definately not a day to dive. They all put their fins on before entering the water, a sign of new divers at Vet's. As they began getting knocked down, two of them kicked hard and made it through the waves. Two remained in the surf zone for several minutes, getting pounded with each wave. Finally, one of the larger divers got a reg free-flow and began pounding the water with his fists. A buddy who decided not to dive tried to pull him out by his arm. I ran into the surf and pulled him out by his shoulder straps. When I got him to the beach I had to unclip a shoulder strap, chest strap and cumberbund to get him out of his undersized BC, which was weight integrated with too much lead. He lost most of the air in his aluminum 80 and his mask, but was able to calm down in a few minutes. He told me he had dived there in worse conditions. My first thought was that he didn't learn from that dive either.
Last night I was there watching the surf slam into the beach. Four footers with an occasional five foot curl made a thundering sound as they crushed the sand. In the parking lot were five divers gearing up.
What makes us want to dive in rough conditions? With the surf that high and the waves so close together it would have been very surgy and dirty. I know divers who will say you just have to want it, but making dives like that just to say you get in 200+ dives per year is insane. These days I prefer quality over quantity.

 

[ligersandtions]

There is not a lot (with regards to shore diving) that makes me laugh harder than watching people try to enter or exit with fins on, while walking backward. Seriously, what idiot came up with that idea? After I'm done laughing, I start to get worried....really, it's only a matter of time before the backward walking, fin wearing guy gets pummelled in the surf. When you add in the fact that they're probably new divers who are severly overweighted, I get really worried. Unfortunately, many of these divers take it as criticism, rather than helpful advice, when you try to explain how to make life easier for them.

I have a friend....I've tried to take him and his wife out a couple times, but we've had bad luck (twice where the conditions were unfriendly and once with a drysuit leak). He keeps saying how he wants to shore dive in bad conditions. I keep asking him why and his response is "cause I'm a guy and I want to conquer it" or something to that effect....it's silly, there's no reason to dive when the conditions are bad. We live in socal, we get to dive year round....there's no reason to go out when you're going to get your @$$ kicked, have a crappy dive, and then get your @$$ kicked again on the exit.

BTW, I have to ask....when these four divers were going out, did they have snorkels in their mouths? That's another thing that gets me....I know we all don't want to waste the gas in our tanks, but the couple minutes (at atmospheric pressure) that it might take to get through the surf zone wasting your gas, could save your life. Get over it....if your dive is a fraction of a minute shorter because you safely made it through the surf zone, who cares?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I had a video of a class at La Jolla Shores walking backwards in fins all the way to the water from the wall, about 75 feet. When I worked with OW students, some would ask why we did that. I told them to do it to get their C-card, then after they were certifid I would show them how to really dive.

 

[scjoe]

I generally prefer fins in hand, but there are people who go in with fins on because they know how to do it and they move pretty quickly, sometimes side stepping. Fins in hand is not always the best method. If the drop off is steep and/or you cannot walk past the surf zone, fins on may be the only way.

I am pretty sure that the “idiots” who came up with the idea of backing in (or sidestepping or crawling in) with fins on were the WWII UDT guys and Connie Limbaugh, the dive safety officer at Scripps who helped them develop the early LA County Scuba training program. PADI certainly didn’t invent it.

The use of a snorkel in the surf zone is not based on trying to save air in the tank. It is based on trying not to embolize in the surf zone when getting sucked up a wave.

 

[TSandM]

I think I'm about 2 for 6 on surf entries and exits -- and I don't even TRY unless the water looks utterly benign. How you guys dive in a place where two foot waves are a good day is beyond me. How ANYONE would consider getting into the water when the waves are 4 feet astonishes me. And when water is moving that much, the viz is generally horrible, so there's very little to see. You have to be seriously nitrogen-depleted to dive in such conditions.

 

[liuk3]

I was taught at least three different methods for getting through the surf in my OW and advanced classes. Two of the ways had you enter in the surf with fins on. There are certain conditions where this would make more sense than going in with fins in your hands. I was also taught to go through the surf using my snorkel rather than the reg due to the potential to embolize.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I was taught the embolizing thing as well. I asked my instructor how, when breathing at one atmosphere the gas would expand when a wave went over. He laughed and said,"That's just what we teach. It doesn't make it right."
The chance for an embolism is pretty much zero, but the chance of drowning with a snorkel in your mouth when a wave knocks you down is high, especially when you're geared as these guys were with dangling second stages. When you need air, it's easier to breathe through the reg in your mouth than one filled with sand somewhere behind you. Sometimes common sense outweighs what we were taught.

 

[Rainer]

I was taught at least three different methods for getting through the surf in my OW and advanced classes. Two of the ways had you enter in the surf with fins on. There are certain conditions where this would make more sense than going in with fins in your hands. I was also taught to go through the surf using my snorkel rather than the reg due to the potential to embolize.

Just curious in what conditions you'd prefer fins on as opposed to fins in hand (or clipped off) for a shore/surf entry.

As for the snorkel in as opposed to reg in, there's just no good way to justify it (and no, possible embolism is not a reason to risk drowning).

 

[liuk3]

I was taught in certain high surf conditions it would be easier to get in with the fins on (although, you would probably just choose not to dive). I've done this before during a really a high surf condition on a sandy beach night dive. While I got through the surf, my buddy that night could not. That was when we were earlier in my diving and stupid. We should have chose not to go in that night. Incidentally, surf conditions were also so bad that I had to crawl out on my hands and knees to get out.

On some rocky beach entries as well, I was also taught to don my fins before going in. For instance, if you cannot get a good footing due to the rocks covering the bottom in shallow water and surf, you might don your fins and then swim/glide across the top of the rocky beach water in order to get in. If you were to try to walk in and then don your fins, it might be difficult to balance with chance of injury from tripping or getting foot wedged in the rocks.

The idea with the snorkel is that you should be trained enough to be able to hold your breath long enough to use it correctly to get through the surf. If it is that high, again you probably should decide not to go in. While my current gear configuration does not use a snorkel, when I did wear one, my primary reg would not be dragging through the sand rather it would be clipped off for retrieval if I needed it. The theory was that while breathing on a reg, if you held your breath, you could potentially embolize even in shallow water surf, albeit the risk is low (hopefully also because you would know not to hold your breath).

I don't want to get into a political battle about whether you should carry a snorkel or not. While I do not currently carry one, I also have to admit that I loved using it. I think that it is a personal choice, and I'm not going to condemn people who want to carry one. In terms of my dive philosophy, I am a big proponent of each person having the right to choose how they want to dive. Go in with fins or not, that is your choice. I'm not going to berate you for it one way or another. Use a snorkel or not; use a jacket bc or not; wetsuit vs. drysuit; etc. I respect everyone's right to choose what works best for them, just as you can also choose whom you would like to dive with as well if you think that they are an endangerment to themselves and their buddy.

Edit: I am by no means an instructor (only OW certified for less than 2 years) and just trying to convey what I was taught. You can probably ask your local socal beach diving instructors/mentors their thoughts.

 

[dannobee]

We have that beach up north called Monastery, maybe you've heard of it. I think Lynne knows about that beach.

Walking backward with your fins on is an acceptable exit method as it forces you to see the wave/swell and allows you to hunker down before it body slams you.

The first lesson in high surf diving is never take the reg out of your mouth. Ever. The second is every man for himself when transiting through the surf zone.

When the swells are larger than 6' and you *still* want to go diving, the preferred method is to wear your fins on your wrists, reg in your mouth, and let all of the air out of your bc/wing. Once you enter, crawl along the bottom until you're out of the surf zone, then spin around, sit down, and put on your fins, then start diving.

The hands and knees crawl is also known as the "Monastery Crawl."

BTW, Monastery can still have excellent vis when the surf is up because the "sand" is more the size of small pea gravel than fine, powdery sand, so it doesn't get stirred up. I've had vis upwards of 40' with 6 footers hitting the beach.

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