Northwest Dive Club

A group of us are looking for instruction on reading tide tables and how to best determine optimal conditions for diving. We are new/new-ish to this and want to better understand the water.

Any instruction/classes available in the Seattle area?

I took my tides & currents class through the Northwest Dive Institute (http://nwscuba.org/), but the shop closed, and they don't appear to have any classes. One of their former instructors or DMs might know if you can still take it.

Mishi Carter used to teach a really good Tides and Currents class- unfortunately she retired from diving. Maybe you could contact her and see if she would be interested in helping out.

One bit of caution - The canned Tides classes form PADI etc. are BS and won't help you one bit in the Puget Sound. Currents in the Sound are site specific and dependent on several factors that make a site work or not for a specific time frame. You need an experienced diver who can teach you about our divesites and how and when to dive them on a particular exchange.

This is very true. The channels, points and other features if the Sound cause all sorts of variations from general tide predictions. I think the best approach is to find an evening seminar from someone with local experience, rather than a specialty class from some agency.

One app that I've found pretty useful is AyeTides, because it has data from local current markers as well as tides. However, some sites (i.e. Day Island Wall) still have underwater topography that often defies current prediction.

Personally, I'd say you don't need a "class", as tides and current aren't rocket science. Conceptually its pretty straightforward.

But...

Taking that data and applying it to a particular site is some combination of voodoo, experience, and luck. And no class will ever teach you that. That you learn by asking here.

There's a wealth of knowledge and information here no class will ever give you. I'd suggest you start with a site you are interested in, a date, and then go from there. You will learn which sites are and are not (generally) current sensitive as well.

LadyGoDiver wrote:A group of us are looking for instruction on reading tide tables and how to best determine optimal conditions for diving. We are new/new-ish to this and want to better understand the water.

Any instruction/classes available in the Seattle area?

Just a small correction here...

At 99% of the sites in Puget Sound you want to be looking at current tables, not tide tables. Current tables describe the horizontal movement of the water, which direction it's flowing and it's velocity.

Tide tables describe the vertical changes. By and large we don't care so much if the water is going up or down it's the horizontal velocity which makes for hard work and "experiences"

...

LadyGoDiver -
Did you find a resource or someone to help you out with this?
If not, shoot me a PM and I'll hook you up!