Low Viz Diving tips.

[Z Gear]

There are times that most of us encounter low viz days or even nights.
What do you do when you are faced with a low viz dive , do you just give up and go home or do you have advice on how to approach this kind of situation. I wanted to hear suggestions on what one can do when you encounter these conditions, perhaps experience has shown you ways that can help make your dive better or at least more enjoyable.

I am speaking of low viz not "Braille Diving" just to clarify.

 

[TMHeimer]

If I have an idea that a particular location (usually in Gulf of Mex.) may have low to 0 viz I probably will take a light. On such shore dives I may use my (gloved) hands to poke around in the sand to locate shells--for maybe 15-20 mins. Then I usually give up & go elsewhere. Here in NS I can pick my days to dive, being retired. If there is chop I'll still dive. Big swell surge tends to stir things up, so I wait a few days. On low viz shore dives (shallow), I will probably surface at some point to verify location, and depend on the compass more than usual while on the bottom. It may help if you describe what type of diving you're talking about. Obviously deep boat diving is a different situation.

 

[TSandM]

It really depends on how you define "low viz". In Puget Sound, ten feet is a typical summer dive day, whereas ten feet in a cave is enough to give me pause, especially about starting a dive.

My personal limit is this: If I can't see the bottom until I hit it, it's better to go out to lunch. The exception is when I think the opaque layer is in the shallows, in which case I will go downslope until it's clear that the viz is not going to improve. To do this, I have to have a buddy who also has a good, focused light, and also has good situational awareness, so that we stay within arm's length of one another as we are searching for clearer water. I did a dive a few years back with a friend from Medford, where we literally had about two feet of viz all the way to 95 feet. We dove by staying close enough that we were bumping into one another with each kick. I don't enjoy that kind of dive, and I would have called it much sooner if my buddy hadn't been from 8 hours away.

 

[Z Gear]

If I have an idea that a particular location (usually in Gulf of Mex.) may have low to 0 viz I probably will take a light. On such shore dives I may use my (gloved) hands to poke around in the sand to locate shells--for maybe 15-20 mins. Then I usually give up & go elsewhere. Here in NS I can pick my days to dive, being retired. If there is chop I'll still dive. Big swell surge tends to stir things up, so I wait a few days. On low viz shore dives (shallow), I will probably surface at some point to verify location, and depend on the compass more than usual while on the bottom. It may help if you describe what type of diving you're talking about. Obviously deep boat diving is a different situation.

I currently shore dive off the San Diego CA area. Currently if the viz is Fair when I start the dive and then I run into poor viz I do a reverse course and head back to the better viz location. Other than that I try to go a little deeper to find better viz.

---------- Post added May 29th, 2015 at 10:08 PM ----------

It really depends on how you define "low viz". In Puget Sound, ten feet is a typical summer dive day, whereas ten feet in a cave is enough to give me pause, especially about starting a dive.

My personal limit is this: If I can't see the bottom until I hit it, it's better to go out to lunch. The exception is when I think the opaque layer is in the shallows, in which case I will go downslope until it's clear that the viz is not going to improve. To do this, I have to have a buddy who also has a good, focused light, and also has good situational awareness, so that we stay within arm's length of one another as we are searching for clearer water. I did a dive a few years back with a friend from Medford, where we literally had about two feet of viz all the way to 95 feet. We dove by staying close enough that we were bumping into one another with each kick. I don't enjoy that kind of dive, and I would have called it much sooner if my buddy hadn't been from 8 hours away.

Yeah I would have agree that when the viz on a dive gets that bad its definitely time to call it.

As far as looking for better viz, is this some thing that you discuss with your dive partner before dropping down or do you merely look around for clearer areas as you proceed with the dive and just move in that general direction.

 

[Patoux01]

I prefer low visibility dives, as it tends to educate the divers I'm with to not go bat**** crazy on a swimathon @ 90 km/h. They tend to get almost scared and won't go too far away or fast, which is nice, much more relaxing .
Low vis is something like 2-3m or less I'd say.

Get a nice narrow beam for communication, feel the "darkness" wrap around you and enter the magic world of low vis' diving, where you have no idea what you'll find 2m away from you.

My buddies give up too quickly, so we don't all too often get to do those dives (I've done maybe 5-10 of them in a year?), but they're definitely the most enjoyable to me.

So advice... Just go slowly, as in really slowly. I sometimes spend as much as 5 minutes looking at maybe 10 m^2.
Don't be scared, there's absolutely no reason to be. You're not deeper than you've ever been, you're gear is not more likely to malfunction, as for boats etc that could hit you, you still hear them (which is how you do it in high vis anyway).
People seem to say there's danger in low visibility conditions... I disagree with that (for OW dives)

 

[uboettger]

German lakes are the home of low viz diving. Here, the trick is to know your lake, look for a layer with better viz and avoid depths with worse viz. Sometimes we start with almost no viz between 0 and 10 feet (because of intake from previous rainy days), but from 10 to 18 feet, where the first thermal layer ist, things usually get better. So giving up from the beginning is no option here.

 

[Z Gear]

German lakes are the home of low viz diving. Here, the trick is to know your lake, look for a layer with better viz and avoid depths with worse viz. Sometimes we start with almost no viz between 0 and 10 feet (because of intake from previous rainy days), but from 10 to 18 feet, where the first thermal layer ist, things usually get better. So giving up from the beginning is no option here.

Knowing the dive area and figuring out where to go to have the best viz is something I want to get better at. I do know that when I dive the La Jolla Cove it is sheltered but prone to disturbances from light to moderate northerly swells or currents, but not so much with southern ones. So I can at least have a direction on which to navigate towards when I run into low viz.

 

[descent]

... My buddies give up too quickly, so we don't all too often get to do those dives ...

Your friends are taking the other advice. The advice to call the dive and go home.

... Just go slowly, as in really slowly. I sometimes spend as much as 5 minutes looking at maybe 10 m^2. Don't be scared, there's absolutely no reason to be.

This is excellent advice.

Slowing down and fixating on a small piece of real estate will give your mind something to do besides fill up the emptiness with ghost stories. Z Gear, you will probably feel amazed and delighted to notice all the life on the bottom that you have been missing by finning past at six knots.

When the viz is low, the world shrinks. Patoux is saying that it is OK for the world to be like a tiny snow globe for a short while, and I completely agree.

 

[Z Gear]

Your friends are taking the other advice. The advice to call the dive and go home.




This is excellent advice.

Slowing down and fixating on a small piece of real estate with give your mind something to do besides fill up the emptiness with ghost stories. Z Gear, you will probably feel amazed and delighted to notice all the life on the bottom that you have been missing by finning past at six knots.

When the viz is low, the world shrinks. Patoux is saying that it is OK for the world to be like a tiny snow globe for a short while, and I completely agree.

I did notice on my last low viz dive that when I noticed this huge spider crab I stopped to film it and got pretty close to it, probably spent a few minutes there I forgot about the viz and was just focusing on the bottom dweller. I probably should have just stayed around those same rocks and slowed down instead jetting around to find a clearer area.

Thanks for reminding me on this.

 

[rivers]

For most dives, I can see the wreck before I hit it, I'll dive. There are a few wrecks where if I can't see the green of the water, I won't dive.