Dive Conditions, what's good?

[MJsizzle]

Hey guys! So I've been diving a lot and the weather seemed alright but the Vis was awful, I would love some experienced imput on what affects Visibility, I know wind makes it crap, but how much wind? is it okay if its just a light breeze, and does direction matter? Also, rain, does dive after rain make it suck?. Any other advice on when to go judging by weather forecast/surf report would be awesome! thanks again ~Michael

[spearthebigones]

Underwater swell, chlorophyll, incoming or outgoing tide, surface wave height, cloud cover, and wind all determine or play a factor in what the visibility wil be like.

You want small swell, a low chlorophyll count, slack tide, small waves, a clear sunny sky, and minimal wind for the best visibility.

[Chainsaw]

Originally Posted by spearthebigones

Underwater swell, chlorophyll, incoming or outgoing tide, surface wave height, cloud cover, and wind all determine or play a factor in what the visibility wil be like.

You want small swell, a low chlorophyll count, slack tide, small waves, a clear sunny sky, and minimal wind for the best visibility.

You forgot, and big fish, Daniel... big fish makes all visibility better, no matter how bad it is.
Two weeks ago I was out with Scotty Wotty kayaking and the vis changed every 1/2 mile, sometimes you just gotta get out there and movearound a bit.

[Alashaman]

Don't forget ocean currents, bottom structure, and depth

off shore winds tend to push 'dirty' water out to sea and clean water fills in.. which usually drops the water temp at least for a few days but visibility gets better.

Any wind > 10mph starts to impact viz, light breeze really does not have much of an effect

White caps start to appear at about 12-15MPH of wind... if you see white caps expect poor visibility

This time of year when the chloro counts are low viz is usually impacted most by particulates in the water (ie sand being pulled up off the bottom). Hard rocky bottoms with minimal sand will have much better visibility than soft sandy bottoms.

For this same reason the tides have a large impact. Large tide swings with out going tides means a lot of sand is getting sucked into the near shore waters and clouding them up. When tides are pushing in cleaner water from deep tends to be pushed in, but any water movement in or out can pull up all the junk off the bottom... so minimal water movement is ideal.

Bottom line... try to dive up coming tides, near the high tide mark, dive over rocky bottom and avoid heavy wind days and you should find at least reasonable viz.

If you don't you probably need to look for a new dive spot.

[MJsizzle]

Originally Posted by spearthebigones

Underwater swell, chlorophyll, incoming or outgoing tide, surface wave height, cloud cover, and wind all determine or play a factor in what the visibility wil be like.

You want small swell, a low chlorophyll count, slack tide, small waves, a clear sunny sky, and minimal wind for the best visibility.

Awesome! thanks for all your comments, is there any specific sites you guys use to check these statistics mentioned above? ^ cause right now all i can look up for like little corona is weather swell and wind.

[Alashaman]

http://magicseaweed.com/

http://www.surfline.com/home/index.cfm

http://windalert.com/

http://www.weather.com/

[MJsizzle]

Originally Posted by Alashaman

http://magicseaweed.com/

http://www.surfline.com/home/index.cfm

http://windalert.com/

http://www.weather.com/

Thank you