Shore diving the ocean

[jbd]

I made my first ever trip to Florida this past week. While staying on St Augustine beach I was watching the waves breaking as they came into shore. The breaking waves looked to be about 4 feet high. Is it reasonable to dive in these conditions or do you try to find a place with smaller waves?

 

[voidware]

No one can really say whether or not you should dive in a situation. I have heard about people drift diving in 13 knot currents and diving into class 4 rapids. The fact is it depends on lots of things. Is there much chop? How is the slope of the beach? Current? Do you feel comfortable in these conditions?

brandon

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by voidware
Do you feel comfortable in these conditions?

This is truely the key. Do you know the site enough to know what you are going to be getting into. With waves like that, you are bound to have to deal with a lot of surge if the bottom doesn't drop off sharply. If it's a shallow site, will the surge be something you can use to your advantage to just cruise around in, or is it going to be slamming you into rocks, or scraping you across coral? Is it just rollers that are breaking close to shore [which would indicate it drops off...]

The two things to really ask is do you, or someone your with, know the site to know what's under there, and... do you feel comfortable with what you see?

 

[MSilvia]

Originally posted by jbd
Is it reasonable to dive in these conditions or do you try to find a place with smaller waves?

While I absolutely agree that comfort is key, if you have to ask if the entry is reasonable, I'd guess that for you, it isn't. Find a beach with a different facing, try it on a calmer day, or whatever, but start with waves you're comfortable with and learn your lessons there before getting in over your head.

 

[100days-a-year]

jbd,St Augustine shore diving in 4' surf would not be worth the effort.I live 20 min north and can tell you the shore diving is terrible at best due to lo vis.The NE Fla counties lead the world in shark attacks due to the lo-vis hi concentration of forage fish in the surf zone.The diving even 5 miles offshore is 100 times better.The funniest story I know about diving came from these type of conditions.Several years ago we were blown out for mini-sport lobster season so we decided to go to Vero Beach 3 hrs south.When we got thier we decided to dive out of my ocean kayaks........as I left the beach carefully avoiding sets of waves,my surfing buddy tries to charge thru a 4' wave .Due to the weight of his gear on the back of the kayak he went "arse over teakettle"He wasn't hurt but lost a $60 knife.Another buddy had decided to do a standard surf entry.He met me about 5 min after I got out.As he was preparing to submerge after I anchored and he hung on and got his wind back he pulled his mask down over his face only to have it start to sink as the strap broke.We cobbled together a strap outta bungie material and completed an unsucessful dive (no lobster)As we were dining that night in a resturant named the 1870something House we related the story to our server.He mentioned it to the owner who commiserated and mention we should treat ourselves after such a day.We had the house specialty, Chateaubriand ,at his suggestion.The owner served us and sang some opera for us making it a very memorable trip.

 

[srkdvr]

It is all what you feel you can do, if your comfortable with diving into waves like that then go for it. If not then don't, and do not let someone else pressure you into anything you do not feel you are able to handle..... it is your life.... in your hands.

Rich :mean:

 

[art.chick]

I know lots of "macho men" who brag about how big the waves were on their last dive. My question is "Why?" Unless you have work to do out there (and it had better not be taking an OW class for their checkout dive), the viz does not warrent the effort in heavy surge.

It is highly useful to learn good beach diving skills, however! Suppose you chose a calm time & place to dive, enter, & by the time you surface, the conditions have really changed? You need to know how to safely negotiate an exit. (I heard about a class that got swept a half mile down the beach by currents that were not there when they went in!) See if some experienced locals will show u the ropes before u do anything beyond your training.

 

[kelpmermaid]

so if you have to think about it, why should you run any risks? It's true, if surf is high, viz is usually poor, so what would be the point?

 

[DivingGal]

Originally posted by art.chick
I know lots of "macho men" who brag about how big the waves were on their last dive. My question is "Why?" Unless you have work to do out there (and it had better not be taking an OW class for their checkout dive), the viz does not warrent the effort in heavy surge.

It is highly useful to learn good beach diving skills, however! Suppose you chose a calm time & place to dive, enter, & by the time you surface, the conditions have really changed? You need to know how to safely negotiate an exit. (I heard about a class that got swept a half mile down the beach by currents that were not there when they went in!) See if some experienced locals will show u the ropes before u do anything beyond your training.

You summed it up just right! (Though I have run into "macho women" too ... geesh)

 

[ebbtide]

as everyone has said so far comfort ,skill ,knowledge is the key
i mean you dont drink and drive and you dont jump out of an airplane with a parashoot that is not packed right .
but the choice is up to u just use yer head ! just dont become a statistic :cluck: