Whoa. good visability is weird!

[creamofwheat]

i just experienced good visability for the first time a couple days ago. a few friends and i went on a boat charter up the coast a ways. we began descending on our first dive to about 80ft, where the sponges started. i looked up. and i could still see the surface. i usually lose the surface anywhere between 10 and 30ft (30ft is on a very good day, too). this dive was still in cold water (which is the only kind of diving i have done), about 7C, i think, but we didnt get a temperature reading. just guessing.

it was actually quite disorienting. i had to sit still for a minute to orient myself properly. it's weird, because it is deceiving. it looks like the surface is right *there*, but it's not, because we were 80ft down. had to keep on looking at my depth guage to remind myself i was deeper than i felt.

anyway, it is bizarre to dive in good visability. all you warm water tropical divers are insane! i cant even imagine diving in 100-200ft visability. weird weird weird!

 

[H2Andy]

lol... it's what you're used to diving that feels "normal"

i was diving in Grand Cayman once, and the vis was so perfect, it was like
i was just suspended in the air...

weird feeling.... i had to focus on my buddy to get my head to clear =)

 

[TSandM]

Oh, no, no . . . not weird weird weird. Nice nice nice.

You get used to being able to see. Unlike those blind cave fish, we can adapt.

 

[Cacia]

I am a sucker for viz... like being in space, yea?

 

[Jim Ernst]

OH THANKS GUYS!!!! i have never dove anything but cold water, mainly monterey , catalina on up too the puget sound, and well you know what type of vis i am used to, the best i have ever seen is in the channel islands, and now in a week and a half i leave for the phillipines, and you guys are talking how wierd the great vis is to have, wow i guess i am in for a disorienting treat!!!!

 

[Cacia]

are you going with Dennis?

 

[do it easy]

I know what you mean about weird- I was in a pool once that was so clear that I wanted to scream and hide in the deep end. Lucky for the students, I kept it together.

It is odd to be able to see the surface when you can't touch it. It looks like a dimensionless glass ceiling that is always the same distance away.

I don't mind the dark, low vis- it's cozy. I've only been bothered by low vis a few times and it just amounts to heavy breathing. I did get scared by a fish once and I ended up covering my eyes and curling up into the fetal position. Then I started laughing underwater...

 

[Diver Dennis]

If the vis is that good catherine I might just come over for a week after the PIs. When do the whales leave?

@ Jim. Where are you going to be diving? I'll be there from the 5th to the 26th.

 

[do it easy]

and now in a week and a half i leave for the phillipines, and you guys are talking how wierd the great vis is to have, wow i guess i am in for a disorienting treat!!!!

The first dive I did in the Philippines, there was hundreds of feet of vis, and it's almost like narcosis. I saw another group of divers coming towards us. They might have been 100' - 200' away (I couldn't tell) and I was able to watch them advance, I could see every breath they took, and I could make out the color of their fins!!! I floated there and stared for a while. It's like the Twilight Zone..

 

[Diver Dennis]

Gotta like that, eh easy?