Need help planning ShoreDive's

[c0nners]

Hi. Do you guys have any tips for me when planning shoredives? I've had mixed results to date.
I use the 'EasyTide' website to find my highwater times but am unsure about my best entry times.

How long before HW should I go in?

Thanks

[purple vonny]

It's best to seek local knowledge about the best time for shore diving. Some areas have slack water before high/low tide and some after. If you are diving in a new place that you are unfamiliar with, you need to know about currents too and specific dangers like lines and nets. Local dive centres, clubs and skippers who are familiar with the area where you want to dive may well be your best resource.

There are several things to consider for safety too, like entry and exit points, shore cover, who you would contact in an emergency, local boat or jetski traffic, your own and your buddy's diving experience level. Are you both competent and well practised at rescue skills? Do you have appropriate equipment?

It might seem like a cheaper option than boat diving but shore diving takes meticulous planning to be safe.

http://www.bsac.org/page/358/dive-planning.htm

This link might be useful.

[Ben Panter]

Hi Conners,

Welcome to the forum!

With regard to shore diving, there are several points to consider. First and foremost is egress - once you're in the water and have completed your dive how are you and your buddy going to safely exit the water? Easy entries at high tide can easily turn into nightmares when the tide has gone down by a meter. Likewise, weather can change very quickly - is your safe exit still safe if a squall comes in?

The next thing to consider is navigation during your dive - will you be able to get back to where you started from, and is getting back to that point crucial to be able to make a safe exit? Also of prime importance here is what the currents will be doing down there. For example, if you dive near a headland there may be strong currents when you get near to it that will move you away from your entry point, or make it very hard to return to it.

It helps if you know the location that you're diving, and if you don't you should try to get some 'local knowledge', be it from a club, shop or divers who you see there. If there is a group of you it means easier surface cover too, always a bonus.

There is a BSAC Skill Development Course (like a PADI speciality) which you might be interested in called Dive Planning and Marshalling. It's a theory course which covers things like reading tidal diamonds on charts (the way you can plan currents) and introduces the thinking behind organising a day's diving. I expect that PADI has something similar, but I don't know what it is called.

Unfortunately there is no simple 'X hours before HW is perfect' formula - it depends on many other factors. Some of these you can predict, some you just have to gain from experience. Sometimes you get it wrong anyway....

Cheers,

Ben

[c0nners]

Thankyou guys. You've given me some food for thought. I didn't realise the position of slack changed. :)

[MarkM]

Local knowledge is definately the way to go. If you want any local knowledge in Cornwall I could help with several suggestions, most of which do not matter about slack water. A couple would depend on HW/LW though.

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[c0nners]

Local knowledge is definately the way to go. If you want any local knowledge in Cornwall I could help with several suggestions,

Actually Mark, you could probably help me. I want to follow in my dads foot steps and dive the 'Isle of Scilly'. He must have been there abourt 35 years ago I think so I guess its changed. :) Can you give me the name of any good firms I could hook up with? I'll be on my own so a nice busy dive centre would be really cool.
Cheers

[Edward]

One other thing your may want to consider.

Informing the Coastguard as you would when diving from a boat (start and end of diving).

On the West Coast of Scotland they encourage it, but check to see what your local GC office want.

Edward

[GarethJ]

Hi Conners, if you can't get in touch with anyone with local knowledge, your best bet is to buy or borrow an admiralty chart of the area. This will show type of bottom, depth, and any interesting features such as drop offs, reefs etc. The chart will give limited tidal information.

Better tidal information is shown in the nautical almanacs such has Reeds and contain tidal charts showing direction and tide strength, and hence slack times. The almanacs are published yearly, but you don't need a new one for tide information since the tide charts relate to high water at some selected port. You can therefore use any year's almanac to determine when slack is, then look at this years tide table. You can get old almanacs for nothing if you know anyone who does some sailing and replaces the almanac every January.
Regards,
G