Well here is another dive day. This Saturday we figured we would head down to a little place called King’s Beach in Newport RI. We figured we would head here for some Spearfishing action since this is the spot where the U.S. Championship Freediving Spearfishing Tournament is going to be held. I mean how could you lose at a spot where the Championships are held right?

Well here is how. First what you need to do is wait until the perfect hurricane forms off the Florida coast, then wait till it kicks up a notch or 2, then head down to your favorite spot and watch visibility drop from 0 feet to a negative number. I know it seems impossible, but trust me, been in New England all my life, good visibility here is a myth. Yea yea, we sometimes get 10 – 15 feet and once in 2 years now I seen visibility hit 20 – 30 feet. Was the best dive I ever had too, but on average, you’re lucky if visibility hits 5 – 10 feet on good days. Some dive spots are notorious around here for poor visibility in the summer months, like Fort Wetherill, King’s beach, our coastline in general.

You see, a lot of people don’t realize a few things about Rhode Island (not an Island, it’s just its Name) for instance that here, we get the Gulf Stream just about touching our shore line. This means that yes we have warmer water then the two states next door on average, but it also means we have less visibility. You see, when a hurricane or tropical storm forms on the Atlantic Ocean, the gulfstream is always in its wake. This kicks up debris in the water and that fast moving, warm current, Gulf Stream pushes all the debris right into our shoreline. So if we even hear of a storm of any type “forming” in the ocean, we know we’re in for a tough time.

I’ll bet if you did a survey of underwater navigation Skills amongst all divers, I am willing to bet that you will find New England Divers to be among the best in the world. I mean what choice do we have? Ever been down to say 50 feet in near blackout conditions, you take out your flashlight, turn it on, and visibility gets worse? Panic usually sets into a diver under these conditions. Not us, this is the norm around these parts. I have had days so bad I swear I couldn’t even see the lens in my Dive mask, let alone beyond that lens. But what’s a Diver to do? Go home and go back to bed? Not likely my friend, not likely. What we do, is we call it a navigation dive. That means that all we’re actually expecting to do is navigate around in the murky waters. Sure once in a while you come face to face with a large Striper, Blue Fish, or even a shark on occasion, but trust me, they are far more scared of me than I am of them, well maybe not that shark, but it’s close. Some of the most fun I have had diving has been in near zero visibility. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to descend into the depths of no visibility, and an hour or so later, return to the exact spot you descended. Sure does boost a divers confidence level, I can tell you that much. Someday, I am going to dive in the clear water I read about in dive magazines, but I am not so sure that is going to be as fun! I mean come on you can see out 50 – 60 feet or more, what fun would that be, well that’s my story and I am sticking with it, at least until I move to the tropics anyway.

Below you can see a map of the King’s Beach area. The red circle is the parking area; the blue circle is the area we commonly dive. As you can see from the picture, this is a beautiful dive spot with lots of rocky drop offs and reefs everywhere. The fish come here in massive schools and hunt down the bait fish. I mean look at that spot, if I were a fish this is where I would want to be spear fished from, wouldn’t you? This is also a great spot for Photography, above and below the waves. There are many light houses visible from here, the Newport Bridge, and many of the Mansions of Newport can be seen in this area.

We started this dive as we always do, we ask everyone around how the visibility is, they tell us it’s terrible, we disbelieve them, and go look for ourselves anyway. I don’t know why we haven’t skipped the ritual of asking every other diver how the visibility is, especially since we would never just say “well that’s terrible, let’s go home”. Were going in and that’s that, so we really should stop asking, all it does it get our hopes up/down anyway.

So as we descend into the depths of darkness yet again, my dive buddy and I am wondering just one thing, WHATS FOR DINNER. With this visibility, it turned out to be a very tough dive. Couldn’t see much other than the massive Eel Grass beds in this area too. The eel grass beds in this area are not nearly as neat as the ones at Point Judith Harbor of Refuge. At least at Point Judith, the eel grass beds have sandy spots, this place, it seems like one continuous carpet of 6 – 8 foot tall eel grass that is unrelenting. You can swim over them for 10 15 minutes at a time and never see a sandy spot to rest, for you or any fish. You can see huge Black Sea bass swimming away from you as to darn near touch nose to nose, but as far as getting a shot off and coming home with dinner, just not gonna happen. But hey, you can’t always be lucky now can you? Was generally a great dive with lots of practice navigating around the rock islands, learning the currents, and stuff like that. Now don’t get me wrong, there were moments of some clarity out there where you could all of a sudden see out 10 feet or so. But there wasn’t much in the way of legal size game fish in the area. I did however see something I have never seen before in one of these moments of clarity. A school of Tautog all swimming together in circles, in an area with no rocks, eel grass, or hiding spots in general. I could not tell what they were up too, nor did I even take a shot at some of those fat delicious tempting fillets just a few feet away (hold on while I dab away the drool). I was just in awe at how they were right here in the wide open, well away from the rock islands. Just swimming around chasing each other over a little sandy patch. Odd to say the least since Tautog are usually found tucked under a rock let alone near a rock. I have never seen Tautog in the open water before this and to be frank, it concerned me a bit. I was beginning to wonder if a bigger predator than me, may be lurking somewhere, chasing them from their little rock hiding spots. We did keep a close eye over our shoulders, and let me tell you, if anything had come to within the 1 foot or so we could see, we were ready for it, well not really, but we convinced ourselves we were ready.

So we did end up with fish and chips for dinner, we found a great little place in Newport that Sold em. Hey, you can’t always have Fresh Fish n Chips now can ya? I mean it’s good to see how the other half live once in a while too right?

The bottom line here is this. Many people go diving; very few can dive comfortably in say 0 – 3 foot visibility. This is because many divers are what we call yuppie divers. They go on the dive cruise once a year, in 100 foot visibility coral reefs, and they go home and tell everyone they are a diver. We technically yes, and technically no. Just because a kid plays football in the street with his friends, it doesn’t make him a football player now does it? Same thing for diving. You may go diving, but you’re not necessarily a diver. Get out there, test yourself, and have some murky fun. You will be surprised how much confidence you will gain simply by going on a murky water dive. In some areas this is considered a specialty course, in New England; it’s considered a requirement and a standard. So contact that dive shop and sign up for a limited visibility dive course, what do you got to lose, I mean besides your comfortable 30 foot view right? Trust me when I say this, what it will do for your confidence level alone is worth the trip, let alone the fact that your safety level also goes up for you and everyone you dive with. I mean if the visibility drops fast, would you rather be thinking OMG this is not good, or ok here we go again. From what I understand the divers that find themselves saying OMG this is bad, are far less likely to survive a disaster than the diver who says here we go again. It’s safer for you, and everyone you dive with. If you panic, that’s bad, if you’re not panicking, that means you’re able to help someone who is panicking. I mean when we first started this, my dive buddy would come right up to my face to see the expression on my face. It was obvious he was in panic, but the big smile on my face and the calm attitude I had in near zero visibility just forced him to realize “hey, no big deal, if he is fine with it, then so am I” and to this day, my dive buddy is totally comfortable in zero visibility, and he is only 12 years old, so this should be a piece of cake for you right? Haha good luck. But make no mistake, if my dive buddy, for any reason, signals that the dive is over, it’s OVER. Don’t push it; panic is a human emotion that CANNOT be controlled under certain circumstances. If you push someone past this point, you are going to lose a dive buddy. Be safe, work on your skills, and most importantly…KNOW YOUR LIMITS AND DO NOT EXCEED THEM.

Always remember this when diving in murky water. It’s like being in a dark room, there is nothing there in darkness that isn’t there in the light, and so what are you afraid of? I mean besides that Great White you’ll never know is right behind you. (Yes, we have them here in Rhode Island too. Our record is an 18 footer that weighed almost 3000 pounds. Yikes, that would take like what, 8 divers to make a meal?)