Diving salt water vs fresh water?

[ohmdiver]

The real diffrence is that while you are basically in the same element, fresh water lacks big animals that are way cool to see, while fresh water offers limited vis and cool wrecks. Salt water has wood boring organism that reduce a wooden wreck to something unrecognizable. This organizism does not live in freash water and therefore wooden wrecks last a very long time.

There is an instructor that I work with that claims fresh water dives are not the same as salt water dives He belives that 1 fresh water dive could equal up to 10 salt water dives. There is enough of a diffrence to be a diffrence. Good vis in fresh water around me is 20' but as the winter gets older vis can get out about 60'. I have done a dive where it was all you could do to see the end of your arm.

There are unique experiances to have in both. Celebrate the diffrence....

 

[FishOutUvH2O]

Saltwater burns your eyes far worse than freshwater. So you might as well just walk into the water wherever you plan to dive, dunk yourself, and open your eyes. Better to know what you're in for than to get one heck of a surprise at a depth where it might cause a problem.

 

[knotical]

Currents and tides can be dramatically different.

 

[KOMPRESSOR]

Some notes on freshwater diving that I think is worth mentioning.

If you're sometimes having trouble with your nostrils clogging up, and have as many others found that sea water works great for clearing them up. Well, it doesn't work in freshwater! For me it even gets worse, so when I dive in freshwater (regularly) I always bring nose spray (xylometazolin). I've had the unpleasant experience of not being able to empty my mask because my nose was completly clogged after 20 minutes in the lake. This would never happen in salt water and I never use nose spray there.

Weight adjustment is rather easy. However, first timers in freshwater are always having issues with adjusting their bouyancy. Due to "lighter" water you will have to adjust somewhat more carefully. -But if you train regularly in freshwater you get really good at it too! Our OWD students start out in freshwater, but we take two of our 6 mandatory ow-dives in saltwater. It is clearly much easier for them.

 

[KOMPRESSOR]

The real diffrence is that while you are basically in the same element, fresh water lacks big animals that are way cool to see, ->

Yeah, right!

YouTube - Huge pikes in lake (UW-video)

 

[fox7265]

Most of the time the shore is a lot further away in salt water. If you get away from the boat you can be in a lot of trouble. You should have a safety sausage with you so the boat can see you if you come up away from the boat.

 

[ohmdiver]

There are some big lakes while it might not be 100 miles from shore... you may not be able to see it....

 

[CaseyJr]

Some notes on freshwater diving that I think is worth mentioning.

Weight adjustment is rather easy. However, first timers in freshwater are always having issues with adjusting their bouyancy. Due to "lighter" water you will have to adjust somewhat more carefully. -But if you train regularly in freshwater you get really good at it too! Our OWD students start out in freshwater, but we take two of our 6 mandatory ow-dives in saltwater. It is clearly much easier for them.

I was wondering about bouyancy issues. I'm new, so getting to "neutral" and avoiding those sudden ups & downs is still my bigget challenge (fresh water). Just wondering if it will be any different or same or an easier process in salt water when I FINALLY get to dive salt water??

 

[KOMPRESSOR]

I was wondering about bouyancy issues. I'm new, so getting to "neutral" and avoiding those sudden ups & downs is still my bigget challenge (fresh water). Just wondering if it will be any different or same or an easier process in salt water when I FINALLY get to dive salt water??

The process is the same. But most of our students say they find it easier in salt water. And I can only agree since my first experience in fresh water comfirmed that!

 

[Ben_Ayers]

Never seen one of these in the quarry.

Ben