Newbie Question

[twinpop]

Hello,

This my be a stupid question but when you go shore diving, do you only do one or two dives, how ever long your gas lasst, or do you bring multible tanks?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Hello,

This my be a stupid question but when you go shore diving, do you only do one or two dives, how ever long your gas lasst, or do you bring multible tanks?

Thanks,
Kevin

It all depends on the plan. At some locations one dive is plenty as you may be overly tired from the long surface swim or the difficult entry. At other sites you may plan on two or three dives, or even more if that is what you want.

If you are planning multiple dives and a dive shop is really close like Shaws Cove in Laguna Beach and Laguna Sea Sports. You would probably just bring one tank and have it refilled during your surface interval. If the location is more remote you might bring two tanks for two dives, but plan on leaving the one you are not using in the car, and making the relatively short trip back to the car during your surface interval. If the situation is appropriate you could bring both tanks to the waters edge and have someone stay with the gear while you and your buddy are in the water. Non-diving spouses who like the beach are good for this.

So I guess the answer is "It depends on the dive."

Mark Vlahos

 

[Scubaguy62]

It would also depend on what you wanted to do...if you're going to do some macro photography, definitely bring more than one tank. Some of my buddies that shore dive and spearfish bring two tanks, just in case they want to go back in after the first, though they're usually done after one tank (chasing fish can get tiring).

But, like Mark said, it depends on your plan. When I play A/I we usually dive 25 or 30 mins, come up for a 10 min break and do another 25 or 30 mins.. that's two dives, according to my computer, on one tank.

 

[spectrum]

Like Mark and Rick said..... it depends.

We've made entire days at sites, Arrive right after low dide, engoy a skindive for 60-90 minutes in tidal pools, take a break have a picnic lunch, do a full tank dive on the approaching high tide, usually 40-60 minutes of bottom time maybe 80-90 minutes total in the water, get out have a snack, go back in just past high tide repeat on a different heading or plan. What I described was a pleasant 8 hour stay.

On the dives as mentioned we usually go down at about 10 feet, soon slope to 15-20 and then have the middle third of the dive in 25-30 feet, sometimes 40 feet. Again it depends on the site, tide and heading.

Sometimes we hit a site, pack up, go enjoy a nice meal, go to another site. it may be a mix of fresh or salt depending on location, tides and conditions.

I like doing 2 dive days, it spreads out the overhead of loading, cleaning and all. Before we invested in our second pair of tanks we would did hit a dive shop for refills between sites.

Sometimes we even sneak in a mini dive. Here in Maine it's serious wesuit country like many places. After doing a dive those lucky enough to have extra air will get out of the wetsuits, drop some weight and go back in in just swimwear for a frolic in 10-15 feet so we stay above the thermocline. Thats's a nice treat in the peak of summer! In the shallows I can often bag another 20 minutes though I haven't been logging those as dives I suppose I could.

Pete

 

[ScubaSarus]

We usually use one tank per dive its always good to have a full tank for each dive unless you just going back in for a quickie. What ever brings you back with 500 PSI is appropriate IMO.

 

[pasley]

I usally take two tanks with me and depening on the location, time of day and difficulty of the dive and visiblity I will often do 2 or maybe even three dives.

http://www.sandeaters.org not a club, just a schedule where you will find other divers 3 Sundays a month and one Saturday night.

Don't forget to visit the Club, North America/United States/California Kelp Divers/SoCal section of this forum.