Posted by jb22 on July 02, 2003 at 13:51:14:
In Reply to: Beach Diving Conditions and Tides posted by Andy on July 02, 2003 at 11:34:17:
Generaly speaking, for a given day and given conditions (wave, season, rains, etc), a high tide dive does improve the chances of better visibility, for I believe the reasons that you mentioned.
However, after a storm, for example, low tide or high tide, you will most likely have bad visibility.
Other conditions that affect vis. are such things as 'the season', etc... Last spring was one of the poorest vis. conditions that I remember, for beach and island dives (at least the days that I decided to dive). Previously, I could always count on a 20+ ft vis. at Anacapa, however, the vis. at my last dive there (about 2months ago) was very poor... 5 feet at the most (like diving in green pea soup).
That said, sometime there is no apparent logic in prediction of visibility. There have been BEAUTIFUL and calm days, which by every account should have produced good visibility, but didn't. On the other hand, I've done some beach dives where the conditions were indicative of poor visibility, but was pleasantly surprized to find better than average vis.