Diving in low viz

[Foxtrot16]

The diving in all of my local sites is usually in poor vis with 3 - 4m being considered good vis with very cloudy / milky water with lots of particles and crud floating around.

We dive every weekend and do it in these conditions because it is great practice for our underwater photography because if we can get great images in poor conditions then when we hit the tropical waters with vis of > 20m then we will nail every image.

Poor vis means you have to concentrate on all of your camera skills and in particular your lighting / strobe positioning and therefore you learn more about your camera and your skills in poor vis than someone who dives in excellent vis.

The upside of being used to diving in poor vis conditions is that when you go on a dive holiday and if the vis drops then you are used to it and will still dive - I have been on trips where the vis has dropped to 10m and people have refused to dive!!

Karl

 

[shoredivr]

When I started diving I didn't like low viz. But as the years passed, and if I wanted to dive locally, I needed to get comfortable with it. I am now in a place where I find low viz relaxing, just hovering over the bottom.

Fun dives here are Chippewa Creek and the Niagara River. You can get a good current, 2kts, and viz on a good day can be 8-10 ft. Have to dodge the dock pilings and assorted junk in the River on the magic carpet ride which can be surprising at times.

I did a dive last year where the surface layer of the lake was 2-3ft viz, then opened up at 15 ft to cold black tannic water that was very clear. A night dive during the day.

The last few dives I've done at Humber Bay have been 1-2 ft viz and 34F. This last dive was a sunny day, and at least a dozen divers were going in to practice drills and what-not. Every time divers came out of the water they'd tell the new arrivals the viz was craptacular, but people just kept going in anyway, they were so starved for diving after this long, long winter lol.

 

[herr2720]

One of the things I like about low viz is that it gives the barren inland lakes a ghost town feel. A nice soothing eeriness. Anyway, the low viz helps hide the things that make you realize how dirty the lake really is and would probably keep you from swimming in it if you knew it was there......

 

[ReefGuy]

I have several hundred hours diving in 0 vis (working dives and training dives). 2-3 feet of vis is really good vis to me, and if I can see my fins, I'm ecstatic. When I'm hunting for shark teeth, all I need is 1' (so I can at least search with my eyes), and I'm relaxed and happy. I like diving on the wrong coast and down in the keys, but I really like the challenges and environment of "low vis" diving.

 

[Vegan Shark]

In my experience, bad vis creates a scientific phenomenon I like to call the "Jaws Effect." Visibility and how loud the Jaws theme song plays in the back of your head have a perfect negative correlation of -1.00

 

[ccx2]

In my experience, bad vis creates a scientific phenomenon I like to call the "Jaws Effect." Visibility and how loud the Jaws theme song plays in the back of your head have a perfect negative correlation of -1.00[/QUOTE
Dats funny , and spot on for this clear water diver.

 

[XS-NRG]

Dive Pea Soup because you can and because it's a high level of training and continued skill testing. If you can navigate and keep buoyancy in check and not panic and still conduct the dive safely in these terrible conditions you'll have an amazing time when you goto places like the Caribbean etc where the viz is seemingly endless Don't forget that OW training taught you to dive in situations equal to or better than those you trained in so if you learned and constantly dive in the worst conditions you "should" be able to dive anywhere (of course depends on the exact type of diving you are doing)

 

[seattlepaul1975]

Because it is still diving. Dive in the soup and when we see 15' it's amazing! .

 

[SteveBF]

God doesn't deduct Bottom Time from our Lifespan

 

[They call me Tater]

There is another advantage....since many of us dive the same qarries over and over it keeps things interesting. If you could clearly see that school bus and alien statue on every dive it might get boring. We would lose the excitement of 'finding' the yellow bus 3 feet in front of you!