Do you have a minimum viz or temp for a dive?

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Jarrett

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Location
DFW area
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New to the sport and trying to define my personal limits on diving. I've dove in 68 degree water so far and was ok with it. Not sure how much colder I would like to go than that. But recently I did a dive where the viz was about 3-4 feet and didn't really enjoy it too much. Kinda like closing your eyes and swimming around in the pool. I think a lot of the enjoyment of the sport is being able to actually see something for me.

I talked to a rather knowledgeable diver lately who told me at this point he was an "80 cubed" diver. Needed 80 foot depth, 80 foot visability, and 80 degree water temp or he wasn't really that interested in going anymore.

What about you, do you have limits on what you will dive?
 
80 degrees, 50 foot and any rec depth


"If you need more than a T-shirt, it's too cold to go diving"
 
Min. 10' vis. 50F
 
If I can see 10 feet I can hunt, though more is better. As for temps, that's what suits are for. I just want an idea of what they are so I can pack the right suit. A skin for summer, a 3/2 for spring & fall or the springs, a 5 or more wet or a 7 mm semi dry for winter diving here.

Your friend wouldn't dive much in Panama City, 80 ft viz is not impossible but not that common. In fact, I don't think I've seen it yet in the past year of diving there.
 
Used to dive in New England in summer/fall probably averaging 15ft viz and 60F in a 7MM 2 piece. I prefer to see and hate wetsuits, gave it up for those and a bunch of other reasons, mostly didn't find it worth the trouble. I've thought of trying a drysuit out of curiousity but I don't think I'd do it on a regular basis.

Now I stick to tropical waters, 75F or more is ok, 80 is better. I'll probably make an exception for someplace like Galapagos someday if I can talk the other half into it. The more viz the better, but I don't mind pretty low viz as long as there's something to see.
 
Jarrett:
What about you, do you have limits on what you will dive?

I like to have at least 32 deg F in fresh water and at least two feet of visibility. I have dived in lower vis, but those really were not dives for fun. As long as the water is liquid and I can read my gauges I can enjoy diving.
 
I recently dove in a friend's stock tank (since you are from Texas you know what that is). For those that don't know that term, it is a small manmade pond used to provide water for cattle. He needed me to check the depth and find the end of a water line. The depth was only 14' (he thought it was 30'). It had filled in with 16' of silt in 4 years from rains. There was 0 visibility. I could not count the fingers on my hand when placed 1" from my mask. At 8', there was no light penetration, it was like diving at midnight without a light. The surface temp was 92° and at 12' it was 70°.

I would compare this to diving in a giant pond of chocolate milk.

I found the water line, and had to follow it along the bottom with my hands, reaching from armlength to armlength, searching in the mud for the line. I followed it from the edge to the middle of the tank (pond), and found that the end was not buried in the mud, which was my goal for the dive. Hope to never do one like this again.
 
For me, it kinda depends on the circumstance. If I know beforehand that the site I want to dive at is below 5' vis and or below 50 deg (7mm wetsuit), I'll probably make alternate plans.

If I get to the site and then discover less than ideal conditions, I'll wade right in, just to go underwater for a bit. By that point I already spend some time and bucks to go dive, so I figure, why not?
 
Nope and nope.... unless it's a charter, then I care about vis (let's say I hope for 10' or better) but not temp.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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