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low visibility limits motivation

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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oystercatcher

New Member
Dec 2, 2004
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Live on the calif coast with a decent dive spot about 15 miles away. I have been spoiled as in winter the clarity of the water can be pretty good but we have had months now of cloudy water probably due to red tide.

What motivates the free diving community in murky water when you need to get up close to see anything? Also the coastal fog has been thick.
At the dive spot today though there was a pod of 5 or so dolphins working outside the kelp bed quite beautiful.

Deer Creek Road near the border of ventura and los angeles county line.
 
murky water... we live in it... a drop line (helps us go straight down instead of sideways) with a flashlight shinning upwards gives us something to look at when we get there.. so... I guess that flashlight is motivation :duh well..... whad'ya do?
 
imagine all the poor folks that train on lakes... most of them get half a meter of vis... the drop line is a very good idea.
 
The best thing is to dive in very deep murky water where you won't crash into anything. Then, do the whole dive with your eyes closed, and just enjoy the weightlessness and the feeling of being in the water. Hang in midwater at your neutral depth, and enjoy the feeling; sink past your neutral depth and enjoy the freefall....

Those are some sensations that scuba divers don't seem to care about or notice... they are always too fixated on 'what did you see?' Sometimes I don't see anything but I still enjoy the dive.
 
I agree. Some of my most memorable dives have been in extreme cold (4 celsius) and near darkness.

Lee
 
Fond memories. Spring time bike rides up Deer Dreek Rd and down into Hidden Valley. In Sept shooting big fish at County Line and Deep Hole. Good to hear that there is still access. I remember a Jan dive at the Deer Creek kelp bed with crystal clear 50 degree water and huge schools of barracuda. My first night dive there too.
Aloha
Bill
 
Except for avoiding sharks at some places in the world little/no viz is still MUCH better than not diving.
If there's nothing to look at, look at yourself. (inside)
I had good times on viz of less than 3m as well.
Even in what seems to be a barren sea, laying on the sandy a few snails put up an amusing show.
Problem is that low viz require different safety...
 
we have a deep line with a strobe at the bottom. It attracts me like a moth.

I dive deeper in cold low viz than in good viz because if I can see how far I gotta swim it freaks me out and I turn round!

but that is depth seeking - a whole different world to soul freediving or sighseeing - and yeah, there is not much to motivate you to do that in crappy viz
 
How about buying a short speargun? Spearing in crap viz can be quite a challenge and its pretty cool to be able to catch fish in less than a metre of seeable water. That way you can freedive with a goal, works for me
 
me with a speargun in crap viz???? far more likely to spear all my buddies than any fish

actually sounds like a plan, there are a few people I can imagine inviting on that trip!!

; )
 
Reactions: Alison
What kind of bad visibilty are you talking about? Murky up here means from 3-5 feet visibilty. I dive lakes though. Like Fattah says just let everything go and enjoy the freefall down to your target depth.
 
Noooooo Sam, you can't spear the only fish in the lake
 
LOL the only fish? Has it eaten all the others? It must be huge! rofl
 
one big enormous pike - it ate most of the others and then the army set off some underwater explosives and killed the rest.....

we know how to do things with style ; )

Viz in our lake at the moment is actually a pretty healthy 8ish metres in the deep end - about 4m in the shallows...
 
Sometimes we pluck abalone on the north coast with less than a meter of visibility on ruff days. The fun insn't in 'what you see' it's in 'what can still see you'.
 
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