How to explore shores

[MacDuyver]

Tip 1:

See if there’s a Facebook or discord for local divers. If there is, there’s a good chance you can eventually get ahold of a .kmz or google map pin set showing favorite local spots. Some groups keep these on close hold and will expect you don’t share the map with the internet at large in order to protect good spots off the beaten path.

Tip 2: on Okinawa, I’ve used Google imagery (and the measure distance tool) to find places not included on the couple local spot .kmz map files that people have shared with me. I look around the map for potential places where it looks like there’s a drop off and a shorter amount of reef. Then I look for places I might be able to park my car. If I find a place that looks cool, I’ll check it against my set of Japanese depth charts. If it’s still looking good, I’ll go pull a survey or ask divers, surfers, and fishermen if there’s any weird currents in the area. If it all seems ok at that point, I’ve got a couple choice buddies I’ll call and go explore it with.

Tip 3: unless you found a wreck, chances are it’s not going to be all that great. Typically, at least around here, the best sites are already popular with advanced divers and are well noted. Most of what I’ve found is rate 3 stars out of 5. Not bad dives but not usually sites I’m clamoring to get back to.

Tip4: dive a new site at high tide, if possible, if high tide or tide coming in is out of the question, do it with as much daylight as possible.

Tip 5: always have signaling gear. ALWAYS have signaling gear. And a DSMB. You never know when a chill spot is gonna end up dragging you way off course.

Tip 6: TELL SOMEONE exactly where yall are going and give them a time you’ll be out of the water by. Instruct them to contact emergency services if you violate that time. CALL THEM AT OR BEFORE THAT TIME AND LET THEM KNOW YOURE OK. pretty important. If you’re a person who can’t manage deadlines, be careful about how you do this. I want them to come looking for me if I get swept out to see or smacked up against some rocks, but I want to make sure they don’t get called out for a false alarm bc I got behind on my timeline and didn’t let my failsafe know.

 

[NothingClever]

Lots of really great advice here.

The only couple of things I can add are:

1) Think about the level of detail you’ll be satisfied with and let that calibrate how you focus and expend your efforts. I’d proffer that broad contours and general descriptions will be more useful and achievable than detailed UW sketches. Look at an existing guide product to develop the information and data that you collect.

2) Contact Reef Smart Guides for advice. They may help ”fast forward” you past some arduous chapters of discovery learning. If you dive often enough they may even provide technical support to help them amass data for new cards or a book. I was all set to do that for big chunks of Saudia Arabia’s coastline (sorely needed) had I stayed long term.

3) Consider a DPV to exploit that explorer gene in you. Instead of taking months to map ten kilometers of shoreline, you’ll be thinking in terms of ten kilometers every month.

4) Twinset.

5) Figure out a method to correlate your photos and sketches in your wetnotes.

Super advice from @MacDuyver above about leaving a contingency plan with someone. Be generous on your time estimates so you don’t set yourself up for failure. Better to say you’ll make contact in three hours and call at one hour than plan for contact in one hour and find at that first hour that you have plenty of gas to keep exploring an awesome site for a total of two hours. It’s hard to put a “lost diver” response effort back in the box once it’s triggered and it’ll be embarrassing when a CG/LE boat pulls up to find you safe and sound but an hour overdue.

Have fun!