Diving after it rains

[ssidiv3r]

I never dive when it rains because I'm afraid of getting my gear wet jk. Honestly where I am people dive in almost any kind of weather. Sure, the rain will reduce vis in the quarry, but going from 20ft vis to 10ft vis doesn't bother ANYBODY around here. As for run-off, I've never heard of any problems with it bringing polution but I suppose it could happen in certain areas

 

[DwayneJ]

I've never heard of any problems with it bringing polution but I suppose it could happen in certain areas

Socal is basically sunny 350 days a year - It only rains 1-2 weeks a year. As such when it does rain, the runoff can be nasty. The rain this week is the "talk of the town" because it is so unusual.

 

[dwaters]

Lot of good answers here so far..... Here in So.Cal., I would not do a shore dive on the mainland
for 3-4 days after the "first rains" and 48 hours after the later hard rains. Now going out to the island away from polution is a differant story.... one of my most fun day of diving was playing with the seal lions at Anacapa 40' under watching the rain drops from the other side...and our gear got rinsed after each three dives.... LOL

 

[ssidiv3r]

Socal is basically sunny 350 days a year - It only rains 1-2 weeks a year. As such when it does rain, the runoff can be nasty. The rain this week is the "talk of the town" because it is so unusual.

I like sunny days but I'm not sure I could take that much sun I guess the run-off would build up in areas that don't get much rain. Luckily all the quarries I dive in are on top of hills

 

[DwayneJ]

I like sunny days but I'm not sure I could take that much sun I guess the run-off would build up in areas that don't get much rain. Luckily all the quarries I dive in are on top of hills

I was in Dallas before Los Angeles and had no idea how great it was until I got a work transfer out here. Living close to the Ocean we do experience a "marine layer" of fog around June (June Gloom) so you get the grey sky without the rain. Last year it started raining hard overnight - Absolutely frightened my 4yo. I was driving around at 2AM to show him what rain was to help him acclimate. He's cool with it now.

Dwayne

 

[ruready7]

If it rains..I dive gonna get wet one way other. Viz little less but hey makes me appreciate the good viz days even more.

 

[WartedEmperor]

I will go diving when it is raining or even snowing like it was about two weeks ago. It does make it a little bit darker when it is overcast but at my local dive spot it does not effect the visibility that bad.

 

[don Francisco]

There's no hard and fast rule because conditions vary so much. When it's raining at the dive site it'll be bit darker since the sun isn't shining, and you'll get wet coming back onto the boat.

In many coastal areas it doesn't matter so much if there's local rainfall today, but yesterday's rainfall may be draining and worsening the viz. Even last weeks rain which fell 100's of miles away can ruin your dive. Visibility at sites off islands in the southern Caribbean gets noticeably poorer because of rainfall deep in Venezuela draining into the Orinoco river, which in turn dumps tons of silt into the Caribbean.

So it all depends on where you're diving. In some cases you're better off diving in the rain than waiting for the skies to clear.

 

[jeckyll]

If people in British Columbia didn't go diving after it rained, we'd hardly ever go diving

 

[tomboyy]

Just a thought, but where do you think that pollution goes that you wait a few days for? Does the dump that Uncle Harry took that got washed out to sea just go away? You may think so but I wouldn't bet on it.

The next time you turn your nose up at divers that dive polluted waters think about this. I'll just call them Muck Divers but they know what they are getting into and they get properly protected. On many dives the diver won't even get their hair messed up let alone wet because they are totally sealed from the surrounding pollution.

The average rec diver has a minimun of protective gear on in compairson and a lot if not all of their body makes contact with the surrounding enviroment.

So if you're diving in a part time polluted area you should take into account that some of that pollution is more than likely going to hang around. Some very pristine looking bodies of water are about as polluted as a septic tank when a water quality study is done. We have one of those lakes right on the edge of town. People swim, boat and do general recreation on it but when we have to dive it we get sick. We send in 10 divers 8 will get sick. It is the only body of water I have ever seen that supports worms throughout the entire water coloum.

If you're worried about polution don't dive where you think it may be poluted and stay away from ALL the bottoms.

Gary D.

It's called Osmosis