Posted by brianc on July 18, 2001 at 16:23:08:
In Reply to: Re: Uh, have you done much diving in S. Florida? posted by MHK on July 18, 2001 at 15:53:33:
Of course there are no differences in NDL's. (Aside from wanting to be more conservative in cold water.)
My point is that, in my specific experience, CA diving is more hazardous than typcial South Florida diving. Surf entries are much more common here than in Florida. The colder water means more cumbersome gear in terms of thermal protection (not just a "slight change"). Kelp presents an entanglement hazard not present in Florida. The low viz in California makes navigation more difficult and can make the experience more nerve racking for new students. In S. Florida, drift dives are done along a reef line, meaning there's very little need to learn navigation. Boats follow dive flags so that surface swims due to missing the boat are almost unheard of in S. Florida.
When I lived in Florida, seeing all the tourist once-a-year divers led me to build up an ego about my dive skills. That got shot down my first time in CA waters. I now realize that I'm at the toddler stage in my diving development.
As I wrote in my original post, my intention in the post was not to take a stand on divng philosophies/approaches, but to comment on the arguement used. If Catfish had written that a gear configuration/philosphy used in CA could be used in Florida, I would not have been surprised. I felt that Catfish was using a poor arguement to support a point.
As for my own belief in the appropriateness of an approach to CA conditions: I believe that, because our conditions are much more challenging than warm tropical diving, an approach developed in technical diving is more appropriate for CA conditions.
Let me know if that's unclear. Sometimes it's hard to read what I've written in this little text box and my posts look more rambling and diconnected than something I can easily reread and edit.