“Do you hear the sea?”

As I reached the rocks I felt the sheer weight of gravity pushing down onto my shoulders and legs. It felt as if I’d walked a thousand miles and swam a dozen more. The buoyant weightlessness I’d enjoyed was gone. I turned to see another hand shaped wave reaching to drag me back to the depths.

[Dramatisation, may not have happened]

In fact I made most of that up in order to grab your attention to what could happen if you don’t check the weather. In the UK we have some of the best cold water diving but with that comes sometimes with challenging conditions. We are a nation with a historical attachment to the sea and are naturally drawn to it. Finding the time to do what we love though can be hard and it can be disappointing when we don’t get to do the things we love (diving) due to the sea being unsafe.

Every dive site in the world has its own challenges and below I’ll go through some of the aspects of the weather I consider before I dive or consider taking students out. This isn’t an exhaustive way in which to read the weather but it’s done me well so far! Whether it’s a new site I’m looking to dive or one I’ve dived many times before, I go through this process first.

There are two main apps I use for checking the weather. Both are handily called ‘Windy’ (although I believe one is called Windy.app) and both are available for mobile devices. The amount of available data you can receive for free is pretty good. I use two apps to try and aggregate the information to decide. Wind, different swell types, current and precipitation are the main points I look at.  Forecasts change and I check daily for an upcoming dive. Currents usually are only predicted for the following 48 hours of so.

Built mainly on experience of shore diving I go through the following process. I find my ideal dive site and decide is it suitable for the dive objectives I want to achieve (depth for example).

“You should dive in circumstances which you are familiar or with someone, such as professional, who can guide you.”

Next I check the waves for the site. You may note that there are different options in the apps (such as Swell 1, Swell 2). Wind creates waves and the apps provide data for wave formations coming from different locations. In general I’ve found that the main ‘waves’ option has suited me. The next decision is whether the swell is suitable for entry, the dive and crucially the exit. You should dive in circumstances which you are familiar or with someone, such as professional, who can guide you. If you do decide to dive, you and your buddy should be familiar with the emergency action plan, which should include how you plan to get out of the water if one of you were to need medical help.

Unfortunately just saying, “don’t shore dive if the swell is 1.5m” won’t necessarily help you. It really depends on the geography of the dive site. If it is a gradual gradient out to sea a 1.5m swell may be too much as the waves form up above the surface and begin breaking before the beach entrance. However with sites where there is an opportunity to stride out into the water and exit at a sheltered location, a 1.5m swell may be no problem for any diver.

Another factor to consider with waves is their direction. I have found that even with a low swell, if the waves are coming in directly from sea to shore (and not adjacent) this can make entry and exit difficult or not possible. Look at the geography of the site you are diving. The weather apps don’t allow for small local land masses that stick out and give you good protection from the weather.

If you’ve learnt to dive already you may remember about ideally diving at slack high tide to gain the best visibility from a site. Sometimes, however, I’ve found this meant not being able to dive as the ideal times fell in the middle of the night or generally when it was dark. Diving when it is high tide is especially important for shore diving as it could mean a difficult exit at the end or a long walk!

Again, it comes down to the dive site itself. Some sites are immediately deep from the shore so it’s not so much the walk in and out, but the possibility of having an option to exit elsewhere at lower tide which may involve getting help from a friend on the surface. During the winter, and particularly in Scotland, we have 6 hours or so of daylight. Through diving various sites I’ve found there are options and it’s worth being familiar with sites near to you that can be accessed at low tide.

I’ll check the wind at the same time and usually I’m happy with wind anywhere up to 15mph. Above that it really depends on the direction. Wind coming off the sea to land can cause waves to roll over and continuous amounts of wind such as this may attribute towards downwelling (the water being pushed from the surface down). An onshore wind will likely assist with flattening any waves coming into shore.

Finally, once I’m at the dive site I’ll watch the water and assess if I feel it is safe. I’m always ready to call the dive off but usually I have contingency plans in place. Ultimately it is your decision to dive. If things are pointing towards ‘yes’ that doesn’t mean you are okay to dive. If you are unsure, call it off and try another day!  Just sit and enjoy your tea. 

[Option 2 - get a boat]

- Chris

Photo Credit - Instagram - @ross__middleton