Today I did couple of dives with Sterling Silver Scuba as a part of Project AWARE beach and underwater clean up and a Soldiers Undertaking Scuba Diving (www.SUDSdiving.org) fundraiser. We did underwater clean up in the Mountclair lake and all the proceeds from the dive were donated to SUDS.
I was diving in the dry suit and was very comfortable temperature wise.
The first dive was quite a surprise, the new experience for me. The visibility was 1 feet (~30) at most, I could barely see my hands, and once I got to the bottom at around 15 feet (~5m) it became completely dark and murky, could not see anything. It was like trying to find things in the dark closet.
I tried to use the underwater light but it didn't help much and after about 20 minutes of frustration and not being able to find anything I surfaced, gave up the light and talked to our instructor Kevin. He said that in such conditions the only way to find anything was just to sink to the bottom, pick direction and sweep the bottom with hands. You can not see anything, but at least you can recognize things by touch.
It was fun, like the game where you pick up stuff from bag without looking inside, first you have to recognize thing before taking it from the bag.
Kevin's advice helped tremendously, I found a watch, a lighter, swimming goggles, couple of masks and bunch of other stuff that was not as interesting as these items.
Kevin was bringing bag after bag from the bottom: at least 5 pairs of swimming goggles, bunch of sun glasses, another watch and many more.
Overall it was great experience, diving in practically zero visibility, trying to navigate, keep the direction and recover things that people lost or left at the bottom of the lake.
Happy Diving!
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