Diving in low viz

[sunnyboy]

I have gone diving in low viz, bad viz, zero viz (held working 21W HID up against mask and could not see it). Also I've gone diving in a raging November storm where we had to jump over two logs crashing together at super-high tide and put our fins on underwater.

Why? Because I love diving. I watched Cousteau as a kid and grew up wanting to dive. But starting as a poor ($$$) student, then young family, ... could not take OW until I was 40. Been diving ever since and most of the time I'd rather be underwater than miss the dive.

I hate airports (did too much business travel before OW) plus the cost means I don't travel to dive, so I either don't go diving for months on end (ice in Alberta or now herring runs plus algae blooms) or you just bite the bullet and go.

Besides, always something to see diving off Vancouver Island. Plus, low vis dives do build the nav skills. ;-)

 

[Locus]

In a couple of days I will hit the 1 year mark since my OW cert. Since then, the bulk of my diving has been done in the relatively high-viz winter conditions in Howe Sound.

Two weeks ago I did a dive somewhat like the one you're describing; 1m viz after descending. My buddy held onto my arm and I navigated to where (I hoped) a wall with deeper water was waiting for us. After 15 minutes I wondered if we would hit it at all. Finally found it after 17 minutes swimming in pea soup, and descended down past 20m. The viz opened up beautifully and we found ourselves doing a night dive at 4pm on a sunny afternoon. It was gorgeous. Had a great swim along the wall and back, then did compass navigation all the way back through the muck and came up (pretty much) right where we wanted to.

For a pair of rookies like us, it was a challenging and rewarding experience. It definitely made us less shy of bad viz.

Besides that (and the desire to keep diving regardless) there's also the need to stay in practice for next winter that will help keep us diving all summer.

 

[mathauck0814]

... because visibility is all relative. 6 feet of visibility isn't all that bad if you only had 10 feet last week. What else are you going to do? Not dive? That's way more betterer.

 

[sunnyboy]

The first dive of crap vis (herring run) after the winter diving season where 25-50 ft vis was the norm for weeks on end is always a huge letdown. One week, 25 ft. Next week, 4 ft., and now probably 4ft vis for several months. :-(

Even the macro photos are more of guck than critters.

 

[RVBldr]

My OW check-out dives #3 and 4 were under the HWY 17 Bridge over the Edisto River in SC, and after early dives there and the Cooper River, Puget Sound just isn't that bad on a relative scale.

BTW Bob - good to meet you at Cove 2 Wednesday evening, we wondered why you gone so soon!

 

[seattlepaul1975]

Viz in the Pacific Northwest has hit its usual April low. The shallows were "can light visible at about 3 feet", and the deep water opened up to an impressive 6 or 7 feet of dark, particulate-filled water. At the same time, our buddy from last night, doing his first dive since his move out here from New York, said the viz was fine, because it was better than most of the diving he had done in his previous home.

I posted about it, and one of my friends said, "I keep seeing people talking about how bad the viz is, but they're still going diving. It doesn't make sense to me!". So I wondered . . . what's YOUR reason for diving in pea soup?

I dive it because I love to dive, good viz or bad viz. I have told friends I will not be a "fair weather" diver who will only dive in good viz. With our location, that would not let me dive the amount I want. Besides it's fun telling your dive buddy who is a newer diver, "Don't worry the bottom is there when you descend.....I promise you will find it"

 

[billt4sf]

I can only offer a counter-example: We need at least 10 feet. We tried several times to dive in low viz waters and found that we just weren't relaxed enough to enjoy the dive because we couldn't see each other. That alone tended to make us a bit panicky.

I have a bit more flexibility on viz than my wife does. But I would not dive in 5 feet of visibility.

Finding our limits and staying within them was one of the best things we ever did!

- Bill

 

[Skittl1321]

So I'm able to practice for when I can go somewhere there is something to see.

 

[TMHeimer]

Diving in very low viz and other undesirable conditions when you may not get something better for a while is, for me, important. Maybe not so much now as when I was new. Skills get rusty, expecially if you're new at it. Early on I was just concerned that I geared up properly, follwed the rules, and kept everything "in order". Now I do it more because it just seems the thing to do. The April Atlantic temp. here in NS is STILL Jan. temps. (33,+1)--what's going on???-- It usually wams up 10F more by 3 weeks from now and I start my 2 dives/day (wet) routine weekly. May have to resort to my Nov./Dec. thing of one dive only coming out of and back into our basement. But at least that's there.

 

[diver 85]

It's the only vis we get in freshwater.......So, it's either stay home that day or 'get wit it' that day......