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<scuba@uc*.be*.ed*> wrote: > Yes, I'm no stranger to diving by brail in here No. California, but tell > me honestly, what kind of dive are you doing with 2 inch of visibility? > ... I've been on sight-seeing, training and wreck dives in almost zero viz. Given that the divers are experienced and comfortable it is usually not a reason for calling off the dive. On at least one wreck dive I have mask-butted the wreck before I saw it. The viz can change over the length of a wreck and very often the viz inside is better than outside - until I get there :-). Having gone to all the trouble of getting to that stage I'll be damned if I'm going to call it off just because I can see bugger all :-) On the serious side you often see small things that you'd otherwise miss because you are moving so slowly and have to look very carefully. This will probably shock a large number of US divers but there are significant differences in the training and attitudes between here and the US. We have very few resort divers here, i.e. people who got qualified on a resort course once upon a time and only dive for two weeks a year. Those that do tend to only dive on holiday abroad anyway. Instructors here do not carry personal insurance. There is 3rd party club insurance to cover all club divers but on the whole we don't have the same (IMHO - silly) liability problems you have in the US. It generally takes at least 2 to 3 months training to get a complete newcomer to a standard where he can go on club dives as a trainee. Because of the club system the chances are that a novice will be diving only with the people who trained him and everyone will be aware of each others capabilities. Diving conditions here are rarely ideal so by the time you have been diving a year or so you will probably have hit a number of adverse situations, and by the time you are diving wrecks at 30+m (100+ft) you are probably a pretty seasoned diver. This is not to say that everyone in the UK thinks or dives the way I do. There are many clubs who do not dive deeper than 100 ft and many people who wouldn't dive in low visibility. But generally I'd say that the standard of recreational diver training is higher, they more readily accept less than ideal conditions and because of this there is a level of experience and awareness that perhaps many US divers lack. Actually I think one of the biggest problems of experience here are those people who spend their whole diving career in fresh-water quarries and then go wandering out to sea thinking that conditions are exactly the same. Comments? I wouldn't criticise any of this group, but on my dives abroad I have noticed some strange things. If Jim Greenlee is around he may remember my comment when the boat captain warned us not to run out of air on the far side of the kelp. Personally, I couldn't think of any reason I'd want to run out of air regardless of where I was. I've had resort-buddies run out of air and even one guy arrive on a decompression line after a wreck dive to 37m (120ft) and indicate he didn't have a watch. Strange people! > And of course, here, even though YOU might not be able to see more than 2 > inches, that doesn't mean the SHARKS can't see you perfectly as a huge > electromagnetic blip on their radar screen...;)..Not that there are many > White sharks left alive to be worring about. Not something we really worry about in the UK. Alan awright@gs*.bt*.co*.uk*
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