My first lo-visibility dive

[svidlano]

Today I went to our local lake and did my first lo-vis dive. Water temperature was 16C (60F), depth between 2-3m (6-10ft) and I was able to see up to my fingertips. Bottom is covered with mud so if you touch it you don't se anything. My buddy had a yellow sleeve, and that had helped me a lot. If we would separate so that our elbows were more than a foot apart, I would not be able to see him.

The feeling was strange, but there was nothing frightening. Glad I spent all those hours in the pool practicing buoyancy control, so that I was able to hover around.

My buddy didn't like the dive, but to me it was OK. Learned something new.

 

[jbd]

murky side I found that being able to dive comfortably in really low viz has helped me alot with diving in general. Did you use a compass?

 

[aquagal]

Congratulations on not being afraid of low vis diving. I agree, low visibility can be a great test of your skills.

Once my buddy and I had to surface because we couldn't see each other (ironically we surfaced at the same moment only 5 ft (2m) apart). Then we used my octopus as a buddy tether in order to complete the dive. I would have surface swam back to shore if we hadn't used the tether.

Aquagal

 

[ElectricZombie]

I have grown to enjoy low vis diving quite a bit. The first dive I ever did was a low vis dive so, I guess I became accustomed to it quickly.

Zero vis diving is even better...

 

[svidlano]

jbd once bubbled...
murky side I found that being able to dive comfortably in really low viz has helped me alot with diving in general. Did you use a compass?

We had one compass. I tried to use it, but the moment I would look to see where my buddy was I would lose direction. I tried to cross the lake but ended on the starting side few meters apart away from starting point.
Than my buddy took compass. He was a little bit better, but we were still unable to follow direction.
Problem is that he is experienced diver and I am not (and were "buddied" for the first time). If he was to follow direction he would have to look at the compass all the time. But here and then he would check on me and in doing so we would loose our direction.

 

[Padipro]

Here's a little trick you can try in low vis when using a compass. It's really hard, as you know, to monitor your depth and buddy while looking at a compass in good vis but in bad vis it can be almost impossible. The next time you're in that situation swim just above him holding onto his tank valve. You watch the depth while he navigates. This way you won't get seperated and he won't end up changing depth while he's consentrating on navigating.

We used to do all our checkout dives in a lake and with 7 or 8 students the vis would drop quick to just a few feet. I remember one time we were doing one of the swim tours after a short set of exercises. The vis was down to about 3 or 4 feet (1m) as we were swiming I began to see something BIG off in the distance, just a shadow at first, that seemed to be hovering just a few feet off the bottom. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what would be that big in this lake and hovering just off the bottom. I was a little leary of continuing to approach it for fear that one of the students would freak. When we got closer to it I started getting a little freaked myself not knowing what the @$%# it could be. We finally got close enough to it that I could see it was a Christmas tree, complete with decorations, that someone had tied a weight to and left on the bottom for us divers to find. The students thought it was one of the coolest things that they had ever seen and talked about it the rest of the weekend.

Low vis isn't bad but there's nothing like 100+ feet of vis in crystal clear water.

Scott

svidlano once bubbled...


We had one compass. I tried to use it, but the moment I would look to see where my buddy was I would lose direction. I tried to cross the lake but ended on the starting side few meters apart away from starting point.
Than my buddy took compass. He was a little bit better, but we were still unable to follow direction.
Problem is that he is experienced diver and I am not (and were "buddied" for the first time). If he was to follow direction he would have to look at the compass all the time. But here and then he would check on me and in doing so we would loose our direction.

 

[TheDarknessLord]

low-vis is a very important skill! I am a cave diver and it is not a must...

 

[jbd]

that sounds like a pretty typical experience for the first attempts at using a compass in low viz. Don't let that discourage you. Keep working on it. Try padipro's method also. It also helps if you and your buddy stay side by side at the same depth instead of one diver becoming a follower that is above and behind you without some form of physical contact.

Continue practicing and you will get good at using the compass.

 

[svidlano]

jbd once bubbled...
that sounds like a pretty typical experience for the first attempts at using a compass in low viz. Don't let that discourage you. Keep working on it. Try padipro's method also. It also helps if you and your buddy stay side by side at the same depth instead of one diver becoming a follower that is above and behind you without some form of physical contact.

Continue practicing and you will get good at using the compass.

I tried to swim side by side with my buddy, but then all I could think of was "watch his elbow". This way we managed to stay together, but if he were to swim by some obstacle I would swim right into it.

I will sure try that "one above the other" method. Thx.

 

[jbd]

you will be able to watch more where you are going and be able to avoid running into things. You won't need to "stare" constantly at your buddy. I found that using the modified frog kick using pretty much only my ankles to perform the kick made it easier to move very slowly through the water which allows you to see things before you run into them.

Low viz is also a good way to learn to maintain depth without looking at your depth guage constantly.