Have you ever dove ZERO viz?

[Gil57usa]

I am a Rescue/Recovery Diver with the Fire Dept. Pretty much all of our dives are like this. We cover the Erie canal and it has pretty much zero vis and about 3ft. of silt on the bottom. It's amazing the games your head plays. I always close my eyes during the dive and "feel" my way through it. We also always have surface support and back-up divers ready to go.

 

[MikeFerrara]

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.

I used to do some diving for a pond management company. It was mostly turing fountains on in the spring and turning them off in the fall. I think I had to actually go to the bottom once to check something on the pump.

I used to get $100 a pop and they had to buy any equipment that got trashed. It probably wouldn't have been cost effective to have me search for anything on the bottom unless that something was VERY expensive. What did you get?

 

[MikeFerrara]

If you are on the bottom looking for something in the muck there is no real point to being neutral, your not concerned with protecting precious sealife or preventing a silt out and neutral buoyancy will only disorient your sweep pattern. IMO it would be best to get negative and crawl your sweep pattern (perhaps using a downline/sweepline fastened on surface to the top of fountain).

I don't think you're quit undersatanding what some of these little ponds are like. The silt and rotting vegitation can be several feet thick. It's actually more like sludge than silt. Why do you think there is zero vis? If you got negative and crawled you would actually be crawling under the bottom rather than on it.

 

[Busdiver]

We dive the St. Clair River on a regular basis. Viz on a good day is 8 to 10 feet. On average it is in the 3 to 5 foot range. When it silts it goes to 0 very quickly and can stay that way for a while. Not a problem because the current will clear the silt after a bit. It gets awkward when a freighter goes by and the current shifts and the viz is 0. I like to grab on to a log or a rock and plant my knife into the river bed and hold on. Good fun, like riding the tea cups at Disney World.

 

[drbill]

Very rare for me since Catalina generally has good vis.

I was diving in our dive park one day with 30 ft vis at the start of the diving. About half way through the dive, things suddenly closed in with a white out. I couldn't see a thing. Fortunately, I was in the park and knew where I was so I just surfaced as I had effectively completed a long safety stop by then.

Another time I was diving the King Cruiser in southern Thailand. My Dutch divemaster misread the tide tables and we were faced with a fairly sudden near zero vis situation. To add to that, we were blown off the wreck by the current. Despite this, we surfaced with smiles.

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

Being from Alabama origanlly, I have dove in lakes, rivers, springs, quarries, the Gulf, and swamps, so yeah....I have dove in 0 viz. Its stinks! Thats why I chose to live and work where the waters have 60-100+ foot viz year around.

 

[matt_unique]

I've never done a full dive in zero vis. I have been in conditions where vis went to zero in a particular area. Once in a lake the vis was extremely bad and worsened as I approached another area (ahead). The ground sloped up and I did not know it until my mask mashed into the muck. Yuck....ha ha...anyway that was an interesting experience. There would be no point to diving zero vis unless you are working.

--Matt

 

[drivsea]

I don't think you're quit undersatanding what some of these little ponds are like. The silt and rotting vegitation can be several feet thick. It's actually more like sludge than silt. Why do you think there is zero vis? If you got negative and crawled you would actually be crawling under the bottom rather than on it.

Depending on the weight of the object lost it is possible that it could be caught in the upper part of the ooze, otherwise it will be as far down as it can go or you can go...
that said this is not a scubadive- reserve tank or no. With loss of vis, unknown entanglement hazard, and a physical work load a limited air supply does not make sense.

 

[meesier42]

lost track of how many dives were in 0 vis. It was good thinking on your part to call the dive that was not in your dive plan and that you were not 100% prepared for.

I have really come to appreciate 0 vis, as it taught me how to operate my gear, complete a task, navigate, and trust both yourself and your gear.

 

[MPR]

In the military. Night with no light.

Not doing it again. If I'm not getting paid, I want to see what I am doing. Frustration and pucker factor x 10.