Have you ever dove ZERO viz?

[Kbear]

Today, me and my dive buddy were doing a favor for my future brother in-law. He is in charge of maintenance for a local subdivision, and he had a pond that had a fountain, and the fountain jet on top had fallen off. The part was relatively expensive to replace, he asked us to see if we could dive for it.

We of course said yes, and scheduled it for today. We arrived at the pond about 11:30, talked about the dive plan and geared up. Upon entering the water, I knew that the murk would be a problem, but I've dove 6" viz before and done night diving (Colorado diver), so it didn't bother me too much. After we gave the ok to descend, we grabbed hands and descended, but after descending about 1 foot I knew this dive was going to be aborted.

I could literally not see my hand in front of my face till it was on my goggles. I signaled my buddy through my hand at around 5' (I'm guessing) that it was time to go up, and we did, and aborted the recovery dive. I even brought my primary light, a C8UK Led, and when I turned it on, could not even see a hint of light from it.

I'm curious if any of you Tech Divers/Professional/Rescue divers have ever dove in these conditions, and if you did, how you coped with them and accually completed the dive.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Yup, just today in fact.

JT

 

[do it easy]

I've dove in low vis and a few times I've been silted out to zero briefly. I'm starting to formulate a rule of thumb that the water should look non-toxic. yuck!

I suppose you could do a search pattern by feel. Did I mention yuck? Or maybe hire a commercial diver to look for it while you sit around and drink beers.

yuck! I like freshwater just as much as the next guy, but yuck!

 

[D_B]

:11:
I remember this from another thread .. clear water balloon held up against mask, gage held against other side, and light in middle to read gage ... yeah :11: :11:

I don't envy that kind of diving ... worst I've experienced was 2 or 3 foot

 

[Kbear]

I've dove in low vis and a few times I've been silted out to zero briefly. I'm starting to formulate a rule of thumb that the water should look non-toxic. yuck!

I suppose you could do a search pattern by feel. Did I mention yuck? Or maybe hire a commercial diver to look for it while you sit around and drink beers.

yuck! I like freshwater just as much as the next guy, but yuck!

Yea, not a very pleasant dive. I’ve been silted out before as well, but I’ve never dove stuff like this. I knew the bottom was 10’-12’, but not being able to see my hand till I touched my mask really made me uneasy. If I was getting paid A LOT of money to do this dive, I might have pushed through, but as a favor….nope.

Although I do like your idea of hiring a commercial diver to make the recovery, while we sit back and have a few beers is great, I think it might cost more than the fountain head.

 

[trtldvr]

KBEAR,
First of all I commend you for calling the dive. If you don't know what kind of debris is in the pond a zero vis search can be quite dangerous.

Yes, I have dove in conditions like you described. I am a diver for the sheriffs department. We routinly do evidence searches in water noone would think about diving or swimming in. Part of the training that we put perspective public safety divers (law enforcement and fire fighters) through, involves dives with thier mask blacked out with tape. Not all can handle it. We call it diving by brail or using "The Force".

trtldvr

www.divealive.com

 

[Gary D.]

I don't recall ever diving in Zero Vis. All our dives are nice clear good vis with no hazards. How do you handle it? Everyone is different. For us it's just another day at the office.

I do hope you guys shut the pump off first. That was hazard #1. #2 would be ponds seem like peaceful little places to dive but in reality they can be and are at times killers. Fishing lines, hooks and other debris are nasty not to mention all the misc. stuff likle broken glass.

Gary D.

 

[drivsea]

It would probably be advisable to have surface-supplied gear on a dive where you cannot read a pressure guage. Also a downline that you could sweep off of would certainly help... get rid of the fins too, rubber steeltoed boots and kevlar gloves that are thin enough to feel stuff with (we use kevlar gardening type). It helps to shut your eyes too so your brain isn't trying to make sense out of what you think you see. I don't think I would do this dive on scuba or at least not for more then 5 minutes...

 

[Gary D.]

It would probably be advisable to have surface-supplied gear on a dive where you cannot read a pressure guage. Also a downline that you could sweep off of would certainly help... get rid of the fins too, rubber steeltoed boots and kevlar gloves that are thin enough to feel stuff with (we use kevlar gardening type). It helps to shut your eyes too so your brain isn't trying to make sense out of what you think you see. I don't think I would do this dive on scuba or at least not for more then 5 minutes...

Why Kevlar and no fins?

Gary D.

 

[turtle_guy]

I have done vero vis in three feet of water. I was descending so slowly that Ithought I was at least 15 feet down. When i pressed my comp to my face it said three feet so I stood up. Slowly of course.