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I've looked through the threads and couldn't find this, although maybe it was buried in a post.
My question is, SSI has a river diving certification. Is it useful to have? I would like to do Cooper River this year and want to make sure that I can have fun and not spend all my time keeping from being a three bottom plow. Also, there are scads of rivers in PA and they don't charge you to swim in them...
I like the idea of looking at different stuff. I have a friend that told me diving around bridges is a great place to find stuff that people toss into the water. He found a diamond engagment ring and on one dive a 2004 Ford F250, that ended up in an insurance scam!!
Anyway, I might not find any prizes but free is good!!
Bear in mind that you don't want to be in the water beneath the bridge when the *next* Ford F250 gets dumped over the side.
I don't know how useful the river certification would actually be for you, but I know there are enough hazards in a river that you won't find in the ocean or a big lake that, if I were going to be diving in a river with serious currents and visibility issues, plus debris (trees and parts of trees, and other flotsam and jetsam) bearing down on me, I think I'd take the instruction before taking up this kind of diving. And that goes double for any river like the Cooper River, which is (from reading only - never been) notorious for the lousy visibility.
A lot of rivers have terrible vis and absolutely nothing whatsoever to see.
That said, there are plenty of rivers, and sections of rivers, that make great dives. I've done plenty of river diving and have no cert for it.. sounds like something right up there with PADI's boat diving specialty. Just use some common sense and hook up with someone who knows where the good sites are.
www.americanwhitewater.org is a good resource to keep an eye on river levels. Usually best to dive rivers when the water level is low, so there's less current and often better vis.
I've been river diving for 30 years...it's about all I do. Never had a course, didn't know there was one. Best thing is to hook up with an experienced river rat and go for it. Pick a nice blackwater river with fair viz and get used to the current, bottom features, snag possibilites, etc. Cooper is a good place to start....now you wanta get adventurous, try the Ashepoo, about 50 miles South of Charleston..... BAA-AAD viz - (like chocolate milk) most of the time you can't read your guages, a ripping current and BIG ol' alley-gators.
I teach SSI and our shop doesn't bother with that particular specialty. There are many specialties that are just plain fluff in all the agencies and I feel this is one of them. Then again the majority of our students are checked out in rivers.
Here's the course, look for current, start your dive upstream, don't go over waterfalls, don't spend time below bridges and tip your dive leader 10 percent.
St. Claire River at Port Huron, Michigan usually has pretty good vis for most of the dive but the current runs really hard.
The St. Claire River is a very advanced dive regardless how you look in it.
Very strong current and very heavy boat traffic. Things like that should be dove with a buddy that has experience with the specific dive site.
Visability can vary from 17-18 meters to roughly 20 centimeters within a day. It depends on wind direction (North winds=Crappy vis) and runoffs.
The St. Claire River is a very advanced dive regardless how you look in it.
Very strong current and very heavy boat traffic. Things like that should be dove with a buddy that has experience with the specific dive site.
Visability can vary from 17-18 meters to roughly 20 centimeters within a day. It depends on wind direction (North winds=Crappy vis) and runoffs.
I totally agree, I've got 22 or 24 dives in it and I wouldn't take anybody that wasn't highly advanced. I guess I've been lucky, the vis has been great every time I've been there. It get pretty bad at the end of the dive if you exit down near the Black River, you know, touch your mask to see your finger type vis. But it's still fun.
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River certification & river diving
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Originally Posted by scubamate
