high tide/beach dive question

[Dr. Jay]

Ok folks...

What are the advantages and disadvantages of shore diving at high tide and low tide...or more over diving during "slack tide".

Lookin' for a sophisticated-like answer here. Hopefully followed by a "Tides for Dummies" version.

 

[FallenMatt]

hey, don't laugh at me.. i grew up 8 hour drive from nearest sea

but here is a question: we want to go beach dive in Ft. Pierce tommorow.
and i have no idea how to do a beach dive since i aither dive in a fresh water or from a boat.

SO, i can get tide data from the net and see when is the high tide there. But how do i proceede then: go in the water half an hour before the high tide mark and stay there how long ?

how do i do it in a state park ? just grab my gear and walk into the water or the park rangers will chase after me ?

thanks!

 

[FallenMatt]

ok, Dr. Jay beat me to it.. posted 2 minutes before me.. and he said, quoted:

(19:34:41) optimalmatt: ahh hell, post a question on scubaboard.. what do i know ?
(19:34:50) DrJay: hmmm
(19:35:48) DrJay: ok...I'll make myself look stupid

 

[JoeyFla]

High tide will be @ noon near the inlet. You must tow a dive flag/float.... no spears guns, etc in the park. At Ft Pierce Inlet State park.... park at the north end of the parking lot next to the rest rooms. Swim out east, north east and you should run into the 1st reef.. which has some nice ledges in about 12 ft of water.. further out is the second reef line... in about 20 ft. Water was cold... the summer thermocline must have moved in...

Pepper Park... is about a mile north of the inlet.... and has much prettier reef formations... but from the beach I don't remember any references to find the best spots... since the only time I dove it was from a boat.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

In this neck of the woods, I have not worried about tides. I know there have been some posts bout diving on a high tide. I just did 2 dives on low tide with some pretty good vis and relatively no current despite a good breeze.
When I do a beach dive, I find the closest parking space I can, gear up and head straight for the water. Once I get in the ocean, then I put my back to the surf, put on my fins, mask and gloves. Enjoy the swim out to the reef on your back. Periodically look down to see when you are on the reef. Desend. Enjoy the dive!
I always carry and extra 2 pounds of weight. Just seems to make it a little bit easier.
In the state park, at the entrance ask for the regulations and best dive areas. Of course the attendent might not know the answer, so try this link (it was buried in the myflorida web site)http://www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/
good luck!

 

[seadog]

We always dive the Blue Heron Bridge at high tide due to better vis.
My reasoning:

The ebb tide running toward Lake Worth Inlet is carrying all the "dirty" water form Lake Worth Lagoon around Peanut Is., Rivera Beach area out to sea.

The flood tide running in from the Inlet is carrying "clean" water in from the Ocean.

Don

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

If you're wondering because we posted tide times for the bridge dives this weekend, it's because the dive site is on the intercostal waterway, and not open water.

Tides come into play because they cause currents as the water comes in or goes out the inlets into the intercoastal.

In open water, tides aren't a concern, though I *think* they may only may cause opportunities where the water flowing between reefs as the tide goes - rip tides (?).

 

[Walter]

With many beach dives, tides don't come into play, with others tides are crucial. There are even places off shore where tides are a big factor. Local knowledge is important. Tides shouldn't be a concern at Pepper Park.

 

[jviehe]

Diving at high is usually best in a ocean situation as the tide brings in clearer water. Also reefs and such during a high tide are deeper, and so you wont be subject to popping to the surface. Slack tide is usually 2 hours around the max low or high, so normally you can enter an hour before the tide. Now, on low tide, heres an advantage. While you may start swimming against the tide to get out, if you stay to long, you will be with the current on the way in. On high tide, if you stay too long, you will have to swim against current to get back in. In a jetties situation, I'd much rather be swept into the inlet, than out to sea.

Tide for Dummies: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761561041

 

[FallenMatt]

thank you for all the responses

so we (dr jay and me) went today to Ft. Pierce to do our first ever beach dive. Sunshine, nice clear sky. sunshine.. . did i mention sunshine ? somehow sunshine and black wetsuits don't mix well

got in the water only to realize that the dive flag we have is total crap and won't stay on the buoy. Stupid thing wants to float away by itself every time wave comes by.

Somehow we get it attached and we go diving by the jetty. The yellow flag flies on the beach , that means "caution", i think.

It is after 12:30 when we get wet and it is definitelly already after the high tide mark.

On the way out we fight with waves that toss us around even at 12 feet depth, we cruise on top of the bottom with sand till the horizon. which is not much since the visibility is at about 5 feet (no kidding). We get to the reef but we can't see much, just tons and tons of sea urchins and bunch of tiny fish here and there. We see about 3 bigger ones (i don't know their names, Dr Jay would need to post their names here).

Finally we decide to head back and... it sucks big time. The current is against us and every time i take my eyes off the compass for just a few seconds i find myself facing in a wrong direction.

The heavy cardio workout starts here and i see my air pressure gauge falling down rapidly. Went from about 1000 psi to 340 psi in just few minutes. Finally gave up (my computer dindn't like the idea of me continuing to dive so it started to flash "gas alarm" and beeping once i hit the 500 psi mark).

We swim the rest of the way to the shore on the surface, or rather swim hard (which means work really hard but barelly move towards the shore) to the place where we can stand on the bottom and walk out from there.

Dr. Jay decides that it was too much for him (and he worked a 16 hour shift the day before) so we basically cancel our plans for the second dive this day.

Also we find that our dive flag dissappeared, we have just a buoy with a stick

On the way out we visit Pepper park to see how would a dive there look like. Unfortunatelly i feel like doing a second dive (after visit in a LDS to get another flag) but Dr. Jay is basically pooped and refuses to get back to the water, even to just "look around". Oh well can't make him dive when he doesn't feel like.

So back to the car and 2 hours later back in Orlando..


and that is our story for today..

bottom time: 1 hour 5 minutes
maximum depth: 20 feet
average depth: 10 feet

minimum water temp: 73 F, average 75 F