Why dive in a quarry? Should you log them

[diver0008]

I've only dove dry up to this point. Got drysuit cert with OW in early October. 36 drysuit dives. Now 4 wet.

Just curious, but do you count quarry dives in your #logged?

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This off-topic post generated some considerable discussion so it has been split from this thread:First wet dives this weekend . Marg, SB Senior Moderator

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[The Chairman]

Just curious, but do you count quarry dives in your #logged?

Why wouldn't you?

 

[diver0008]

Why wouldn't you?

Having never dived in a quarry, the question is sincere in its ignorance. I've heard that they are often used for certification training / testing. I had not pictured them as actual dive destinations, in lieu of a better word, like oceans, lakes, caves, etc. They seem more like diving in the deep end of a pool to me. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just wondered if this was the kind of thing one would log.

 

[Kevo88]

Having never dived in a quarry, the question is sincere in its ignorance. I've heard that they are often used for certification training / testing. I had not pictured them as actual dive destinations, in lieu of a better word, like oceans, lakes, caves, etc. They seem more like diving in the deep end of a pool to me. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just wondered if this was the kind of thing one would log.

Fair question if you've never dove at a quarry. It's much like diving any other lake, except generally deeper for it's acreage and often times clearer from being spring fed. Like any other dive locations, they can be as simple or as challenging as you want them to be. I was at the local quarry on Saturday. In the morning we were at 80ffw, 44F temp, <10' of viz on the bottom. In the afternoon, we were on the warm sand flats in 10ffw watching all the little fishes. I logged both since my computer gave me a depth and time reading.

 

[Doby45]

Having never dived in a quarry, the question is sincere in its ignorance. I've heard that they are often used for certification training / testing. I had not pictured them as actual dive destinations, in lieu of a better word, like oceans, lakes, caves, etc. They seem more like diving in the deep end of a pool to me. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just wondered if this was the kind of thing one would log.

There are quarrys that are very large and deep. In my local quarry I have been down to the bottom at 156' and the temp was 42*. It is not just a deep pool.

 

[boulderjohn]

Having never dived in a quarry, the question is sincere in its ignorance. I've heard that they are often used for certification training / testing. I had not pictured them as actual dive destinations, in lieu of a better word, like oceans, lakes, caves, etc. They seem more like diving in the deep end of a pool to me. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just wondered if this was the kind of thing one would log.

The deep end of a pool may be like 10-12 feet deep with crystal clear water. Quarries vary tremendously. Some can be 100 feet deep or more, and they often have terrible visibility. The following are brief descriptions of the primary dive sites in my location--and that includes very long drives to reach them. I am leaving none out. Not one is a quarry. I would bet there are many quarries with far more serious diving conditions than these.

Chatfield Reservoir: We have to dive off of a beach in an area with 21 feet maximum depth.
Aurora Reservoir: We have to dive off a beach in an area with 35 feet maximum visibility. There is a sunken Cessna.
Homestead Crater, Utah: People travel many hundreds of miles to dive here. It is a geothermal formation inside a rocky dome. It is much smaller in surface area than a typical swimming pool, and it is 65 feet deep. The water temperature varies a bit by season, usually around 94° F. Because it is inside a dome, it is dark and has artificial lights, like a pool.
Blue Hole, New Mexico: People travel for hundreds of miles to dive here as well. It is a sinkhole measuring about 60 feet across at the top and something more at the bottom. It is 85 feet deep if you snuggle up next to the cave opening at the bottom (entrance blocked). Because it is fed by cave water, the temperature stays around 61° F all year.

All of these are legitimate dive sites, far more challenging than many of the ocean sites I have visited. They are all more challenging than almost any site on Molasses Reef in Key Largo, for example. I suspect the average quarry dive would be even more challenging than they are.

 

[HantsDiver]

Quarries are total rubbish - and are fine for training people in something they have not done before because they offer benign conditions. By this I mean they have no currents and generally you know what you are going to get.

Unless you have no chance of getting into the sea I think you'd need your head checking if you chose to dive in them. I've done around 800 dives in quarries during training. Never have I particularly enjoyed them or felt like they offered anything like the quality of the ocean.

 

[diver0008]

The deep end of a pool may be like 10-12 feet deep with crystal clear water. Quarries vary tremendously. Some can be 100 feet deep or more, and they often have terrible visibility. The following are brief descriptions of the primary dive sites in my location--and that includes very long drives to reach them. I am leaving none out. Not one is a quarry. I would bet there are many quarries with far more serious diving conditions than these.

Chatfield Reservoir: We have to dive off of a beach in an area with 21 feet maximum depth.
Aurora Reservoir: We have to dive off a beach in an area with 35 feet maximum visibility. There is a sunken Cessna.
Homestead Crater, Utah: People travel many hundreds of miles to dive here. It is a geothermal formation inside a rocky dome. It is much smaller in surface area than a typical swimming pool, and it is 65 feet deep. The water temperature varies a bit by season, usually around 94° F. Because it is inside a dome, it is dark and has artificial lights, like a pool.
Blue Hole, New Mexico: People travel for hundreds of miles to dive here as well. It is a sinkhole measuring about 60 feet across at the top and something more at the bottom. It is 85 feet deep if you snuggle up next to the cave opening at the bottom (entrance blocked). Because it is fed by cave water, the temperature stays around 61° F all year.

All of these are legitimate dive sites, far more challenging than many of the ocean sites I have visited. They are all more challenging than almost any site on Molasses Reef in Key Largo, for example. I suspect the average quarry dive would be even more challenging than they are.

Nice post. I still don't quite get it though. A challenge is not really what I associate with the joy of diving. Diving in dark, cold, bad visibility, etc. surely has some benefits as a training exercise, but I am missing the point if it is otherwise. All that challenge for what? My personal enjoyment of diving centers around seeing things; life, topography, sunken things. I really do not see the point of diving in hard or lousy conditions with nothing to see. What am I missing?

 

[boulderjohn]

Nice post. I still don't quite get it though. A challenge is not really what I associate with the joy of diving. Diving in dark, cold, bad visibility, etc. surely has some benefits as a training exercise, but I am missing the point if it is otherwise. All that challenge for what? My personal enjoyment of diving centers around seeing things; life, topography, sunken things. I really do not see the point of diving in hard or lousy conditions with nothing to see. What am I missing?

So what you are saying, in essence, is that if a dive does ot have the features that YOU look for in a dive, then it should not count as a dive. Is that right?

Different people dive for different reasons. For many, there is simply pure joy in doing the dive itself. I will certainly dive in those locations, just for the fun of it, and the fact that I did not see anything special does not mean it was not a dive worth doing.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Nice post. I still don't quite get it though. A challenge is not really what I associate with the joy of diving. Diving in dark, cold, bad visibility, etc. surely has some benefits as a training exercise, but I am missing the point if it is otherwise. All that challenge for what? My personal enjoyment of diving centers around seeing things; life, topography, sunken things. I really do not see the point of diving in hard or lousy conditions with nothing to see. What am I missing?

There are usually sunken attractions (school bus, plane, helicopters, boats, etc) and platforms to perform skills on. Many divers enjoy navigating from one point, to the next, and the next and doing more complicated/longer dive plans.
They allow divers who are more landlocked the opportunity to dive regularly. Many divers enjoy the social aspects of camping or meeting new people that have congregated at the site. There are no tides that need to managed or that will impede visibility--you can do multiple hour plus long dives and see/do different things.