Why we worry about tides...

[Peter Guy]

Here in Puget Sound it is easy to shore dive. Unlike the Californians we don't have to worry about swells (thank goodness) and unlike the quarry divers we have salt water and generally lots of life. BUT, we do have tides. Someone asked about tides on Thursday, April 19 -- take a look -- it is a 14 foot exchange!

Seattle Tide Chart

This would be a VERY long walk to even find the water!

 

[Skeeter1097]

I think that you need a boat. Here in salt water it is coming in or going out. But the current that is a norther store. 1 mph To 5 mph at any given day or tide.

 

[SkullDeformity]

Don't get lost at Edmons UW park, wind up at the outside edge of the park, and have the tide swing on you because nobody checked before you got in the water. That was a loooong surface swim back in.

 

[Cacia]

Peter what kind of currents do you get?

I am curious how you would typically plan a dive with a given tide.

Do you mostly drift from boats?

If you shore dive, are people up there very careful about being able to make it back?

Sometimes we get currents that are so strong, I can't pull myself down the line. But those usually only last an hour or so.

Why would you all not get swells?

 

[TSandM]

We don't get swells because Puget Sound is very protected water, with a mountain range to the west of it and another to the east. It takes prolonged high winds to get even surface swells (and that does occasionally happen).

We get ferocious currents as a result of these big exchanges, and you have to be aware of what's happening with the water for a number of sites. We dove Edmonds yesterday at a poor time, and had to kick into an annoying current, but it can get far worse. Some of our sites are so current-dependent that they can only be dived a few days a year (Deception Pass, for example).

This is why almost all of the charter boat diving is live boat pickup. If it's live boat, it doesn't matter quite so much to get the currents just right.

 

[Rick Inman]

We get ferocious currents as a result of these big exchanges, and you have to be aware of what's happening with the water for a number of sites.

One of my worst dives ever was a few years back with Uncle Pug at Mukilteo Park. Neither of us even checked the tides, we just went diving. The current was way up. We kicked for the wall, me with my splits, flutter-kicking against a river of current like crazy until I thought I was going to have a heart attack, a stroke... (Pug was frog kicking along, watching me.) I started getting dizzy, with spots before my eyes, and then fighting panic, getting swept down-current...

I thumbed the dive. When I broke the surface, I was floating about 150 yards down-current from Pug, who was giving me the OK question. I coughed and choked and OK'd back, kicking toward shore. When I finally got to shore, I had about a six minute walk back up the beach to where Pug was sitting on a log waiting for me.

"You OK?" Pug asked.

"Huff...puff-puff..huff....augh-yeah....cough....cough..."

He said, "Little current here today. Let's try around the corner at the docks."

Right.

 

[spectrum]

First of all, this is beautiful....
The purpose for some people's lives is to serve as a bad example. (Doc Intrepid)

There was the time that my wife and I were not as careful about a tide as we should have been. We thought something was wrong when the bottom looked odd on the way back. We knew something was wrong when we heard the tour boat rumble above us.:11:

We had unknowingly drifted across the narrow beach we were diving from and were drawn up the Kennebunk River channel.:shakehead

Lesson learned

We also have some sites that can have a nice entry at high tide but within 75-90 minutes the water drops and the exit is a slimy rocky treacherous ordeal.

Pete

 

[pir8]

WOW we have tides andcurrent but not 14 ft.

 

[Wildcard]

My last trip home to Alaska, we had the biggest tides in four years, 35 foot change. Dove it with Snowbear a few days later.

 

[jeckyll]

We had what looked like river rapids in some narrows up in Port Hardy. So we jumped in with masks & snorkels and 'ran the rapids'

Seriously, stuff around here is so mild compared to that, it's not even funny.

Good reminder Peter.

Bjorn