Eight

Let's talk about visibility 👀 (a hot topic right now...)

Every year around May and June, Puget Sound starts doing its thing. Plankton blooms take off, the water gets greener, and suddenly that 20-foot visibility day feels like a distant memory.

And while we all love those crystal-clear days, lower visibility has a few benefits too!

For one, it forces us to slow down.

You pay more attention to your buoyancy. You stay closer to your buddy. You communicate more (lots more). You become more aware of what's happening around you instead of focusing on what's 20-30 feet away.

It also turns every dive into a bit of a treasure hunt because you never know what's around the corner or what's going to suddenly appear right in front of you!

When visibility drops, us divers tend to spend more time looking closely at what's right in front of us. That's usually we you start noticing the cool stuff:
🐙 little octos
🦀 decorator crabs (especially the ones that love to go all out with their decorating skills)
🐌 nudibranchs
🦑 stubby squid
🦐 all the cute little shrimp!

Some of our favorite critter dives have happened on days when the visibility wasn't great. Lower visibility can make a lot of marine life feel a little safer. Critters that might normally stay tucked away often venture out to feed, explore, and do critter things.

If you can navigate, communicate, and stay comfortable in 4 feet of Puget Sound visibility, that 60-foot tropical dive starts feeling pretty darned easy.

Did you know?
Some of the biggest plankton blooms of the year are exactly why visibility drops in late spring, and they are also one of the reasons Puget Sound supports such an INCREDIBLE amount of marine life!

You know what’s easy on land? Doing multiple things at once.

You know what’s suddenly NOT easy underwater?

Doing literally anything while:

maintaining buoyancy
watching depth
monitoring gas
staying with your team
navigating
avoiding kelp
operating gear with thick gloves
aNd TrYiNg To ReMeMbEr WhAt YoUr DiVe CoMpUtEr JuSt BeEpEd AbOuT

Welcome to task loading 😅 One of the biggest things divers learn over time is how to slow down and prioritize. Because underwater, small things stack up FAST.

That’s why experienced divers spend so much time practicing basic skills until they become automatic:
✔ buoyancy
✔ trim
✔ propulsion
✔ communication

The less mental energy those take, the easier everything else becomes!

Every diver (yes, EVERY diver) has had at least one moment underwater where their brain completely blue-screened (aka lizard brain:survival mode) while trying to do something simple.

Fun fact: task loading is one of the reasons even experienced divers practice foundational skills regularly. Reducing mental workload underwater helps divers stay calmer, safer, and more aware of their surroundings.

What’s the most “my brain stopped working underwater” moment you’ve had on a dive?

🚨 PNW divers…this one’s going to get some attention 🚨

The new Shearwater Perdix 3 is coming soon, and it looks like Shearwater took everything we already loved about the Perdix line and cranked it up for cold, dark Pacific Northwest diving. Bigger screen, brighter display, faster Bluetooth, and some really nice updates to the menu system that should make life easier when you’re geared up in dry gloves at the surface trying to change a setting before dropping below into the emerald ocean.

A few things that caught our eye right away:
• Larger, ultra-bright AMOLED display
• Giant font/layout options (helloooo low viz and night dives 👀)
• Faster log downloads + firmware updates
• More customization for display colors/layouts
• Same rugged “built like a tank” Perdix feel

For local diving, brightness matters WAY more than people think. Dark water, overcast skies, low viz, thick hoods, dry gloves…having a computer you can actually read without squinting through a fogged maskor snotty water is a huge deal!

We’re also pretty excited about the larger text options. For those of use who's eyesight is "questionable" (even though we don't want to admit it) appreciate being able to glance down and instantly see what matters without hunting around the screen.

And yes…we know some of you are already trying to justify upgrading from a perfectly good Perdix 2. We see you. 😂

Who’s planning to make the jump to the Perdix 3?
👇 Poll time:
🔘 “Take my money now”
🔘 “I’m keeping my Perdix 2 forever”
🔘 “I just want to see it in person first”
🔘 “Still diving my Petrel like it’s 2015”