Coldwater_Canuck
Contributor
Hey, this is my first post here and hoping some of you can help me out. Hopefully I'll stick around here, seems like a good place to discuss diving. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I wasn't able to find anything by search.
So far I haven't gone diving anywhere where current was anything more than a mild inconvenience (and actually worked to my advantage a couple of times). But now I'm looking at some sites where there could be a real danger due to currents, and I need to plan properly. There's 2 main questions I have:
1.) In general, how long before/after high/low tide is it considered "slack". I realize the correct answer is 'it depends', but that doesn't really help me, in general what are good times? For example, say low tide is at 9am, in an area with potentially deadly currents, what would be the general recommendation of when it's safe to dive?
2.) Reading a few dive site reviews, I saw some things like "there is minimal slack at low tide, you have to dive at high tide". Why would this be, and is there anyways to determine this from tide tables if there is no slack at a certain exchange; or do you need to find out from people who know the site?
and 3.) Any other tips related to current and slack?
Thanks in advance for your help.
So far I haven't gone diving anywhere where current was anything more than a mild inconvenience (and actually worked to my advantage a couple of times). But now I'm looking at some sites where there could be a real danger due to currents, and I need to plan properly. There's 2 main questions I have:
1.) In general, how long before/after high/low tide is it considered "slack". I realize the correct answer is 'it depends', but that doesn't really help me, in general what are good times? For example, say low tide is at 9am, in an area with potentially deadly currents, what would be the general recommendation of when it's safe to dive?
2.) Reading a few dive site reviews, I saw some things like "there is minimal slack at low tide, you have to dive at high tide". Why would this be, and is there anyways to determine this from tide tables if there is no slack at a certain exchange; or do you need to find out from people who know the site?
and 3.) Any other tips related to current and slack?
Thanks in advance for your help.