quarry dives??

[Paddy Diver]

Not sure where this goes so I put it here.
Anyway since the winter is upon us and the diving is over for us for the season (well it is for us anyway) we went about looking for a inland site to dive over the winter and we found a quarry and I did my first quarry dive two weeks ago in it, it hasnt been dived as far as we know so its virgin terrority, anyway did my secong dive on sunday there and found interesting stuff, cars, mini-van's, bikes etc but and is this usual that the viz to 7m was shite, from 7-10m was gin clear, unbelieveable and from 10-12m (the bottom) shite, is this normal?

And because I/we never dived in quarries before is there any special concerns? Bar the usualy stuff you do in the sea.

Ian

[wilbo]

The only things I can think of are:

Be careful around any items of 'interest' - as they've not been make safe (like in other inland sites)
What water bourne contaminents could be in the water - Chemicals that could damage your kit - or worse - you.. Weil's disease ? - from the urine of rats
Emergency Access - what happens if someone needs help.. do you have shore cover? How will the ambulance/O2 get to you?
Are you trespassing?

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by Paddy Diver

.. is this normal?
..

No its normal shite top to bottom

Chris

[daveb0000]

i use the ndac a fair bit cause its a bit of a treck to the coast and most of the time at the 50m shot end the viz is poor untill you get down to the cooler water and then the viz picks up.

it seems that the warmer water holds all the sediment up in the upper layer and when the cold weather comes its more of a contrast, but then its always clear from the murk to the bottom, i have never seen it like you have discribed.

[eightacrelake]

Originally Posted by Paddy Diver

Not sure where this goes so I put it here.
Anyway since the winter is upon us and the diving is over for us for the season (well it is for us anyway) we went about looking for a inland site to dive over the winter and we found a quarry and I did my first quarry dive two weeks ago in it, it hasnt been dived as far as we know so its virgin terrority, anyway did my secong dive on sunday there and found interesting stuff, cars, mini-van's, bikes etc but and is this usual that the viz to 7m was shite, from 7-10m was gin clear, unbelieveable and from 10-12m (the bottom) shite, is this normal?

And because I/we never dived in quarries before is there any special concerns? Bar the usualy stuff you do in the sea.

Ian

Don't pannic its probably thermo clines, this is where different water temps are visable, can happen in our lake at Eaight Acre. Rat pee, wot ever next.

[Lou]

Originally Posted by eightacrelake

Don't pannic its probably thermo clines, this is where different water temps are visable, can happen in our lake at Eaight Acre. Rat pee, wot ever next.

Thermoclines? Thought Eightacre was just various densities of beige silt?

Ont he OP..

As Wilbo said, the danger would be entanglement as you don't know what the hell is in there. think of roll sof barbed wire etc, dumped in and haging up ina subken branch or similar, so go carefully and always dive with someone and with surface cover.

Contaminants would be the next issue - those cars etc probably went in full of oil, petrol and with batteries etc. What about chemical containers? Keep an eye out for anything like that and don't dive it again if you get worried. Any oil slicks on the surface is a good indication that diving would harm your kit as latex loves oil and diesel - it is soluble in them.

[Okeanos]

Being the first to dive a quarry is great fun, I did one that was 92m deep 8-10m vis. I try to avoid it unless the weather totally ruins the possibility of diving in the sea.