Morrison Springs dive report and pics 3/7/09

[scuba066]

When you have a group of divers entering off the beach at Morrison it does effect viz. I watched it happen if front of my eyes.

 

[SeaYoda]

The stuff stirred up at the beach mostly goes downstream. Many locals have been swimming at the beach and not disturbed the viz too much. The real problem begins around the platform. The soft bottom is easily stirred up by foot dragging students and careless oldies. The new dock won't help the folks that kick up the crud in the basin either. If you want clear water, get there very early before others muck it up or dive after the mess has cleared (Remember to keep your feet up) . Mid-morning to late afternoon viz will be shot from now until it gets cold again. The fall is my favorite time of year to dive Morrison because the crowds are less.

 

[GLENFWB]

The number of students that are at Morrison impacts the viz more then how many people are swimming at the beach. I love Morrison, but I sure hate the "snot balls" that get in your hair and gear when people get things stirred up. That being said...I will gladly endure the snot balls for the privilege of diving it again!

The stuff stirred up at the beach mostly goes downstream. Many locals have been swimming at the beach and not disturbed the viz too much. The real problem begins around the platform. The soft bottom is easily stirred up by foot dragging students and careless oldies. The new dock won't help the folks that kick up the crud in the basin either. If you want clear water, get there very early before others muck it up or dive after the mess has cleared (Remember to keep your feet up) . Mid-morning to late afternoon viz will be shot from now until it gets cold again. The fall is my favorite time of year to dive Morrison because the crowds are less.

 

[huntster70]

It wasn't very silty the times I was there, Crystal clear and there were the customary snot balls jumping in the water from as HIGH as they could get up the trees and landing 6 feet of water.

 

[Jim Baldwin]

Please read the following disclaimer:

Today's pictures were an experiment. I set the focus to manual before the dive as practice for the cavern project. On the dive I had to open the aperture much wider than I thought in order to get any picture at all. The result was absolutely no focus. Please do not attempt to find focus in these shots - you may go blind!

Now to the report ....

The air temp is getting warm and the sun was out so surface conditions could not have been better. I had a detour to ScubaTech to pick up my pony from hydro and visual inspections before heading to the pond. I finally made it to the park around 09:30. I was surprised to find a parking spot inside the gate. I decided to make a pit-stop before heading to the water ---- what did I find?????

I'm glad we waited so long to have safe facilities !!!!!!

I loaded the sand yacht and headed out to the floating dock. I thought I'd see if I liked using it more than I expected. There was no one using the SCUBA Center or the bench. I geared up with just a couple people coming out of the water. I splashed and found viz to be green and chunky.

The cavern was clear as usual. I saw the gnome and a surprise visit by the watermelon boy. Flow seemed medium, not much sand blowing up from the bottom. There was a chain on the big boulder - it looks like someone was trying to open the hole wider. I think nothing moved and the hole looks about the same to me. Here are the fuzzy pictures from dive two - I had the cavern to myself on dive one.

Upon surfacing after dive one, I saw that I would no longer be diving off the floating dock. MBT had three classes going - gear and people were everywhere. I did see Halftime working with the newbies and his daughter was surface support.

Here are some surface pics that turned out OK with the locked manual settings:

If you look close in the last two pics you will see this little fellow:

I adjourned to meet with Sally about a certain cheeseburger matter and then on to the house. Not a bad day at all.

When we (Bayou Divers of West Monroe, LA) got there at 7 a.m. Saturday the bathrooms were already as your pictures show.

This was our first trip back to Morrision since it opened and we had 19 students. They were impressed by the facility except for the bathrooms of course. The walkways and floating dock are very nice.

Looking forward to making several more trips down this year. That was our trailer parked beside the picnic tables. Sorry if we bothered anyone running our air compressor.

 

[mike_s]

The top pictures are just down right disgusting. You could only hope it was just a muddy day. Really shows the piss poor class of the diving community.

It's bad when we waited a year to get well water approved, when the only clean water around is coming from the spring itself.

As Bill said,... that's "not mud"... see all the toliet paper on the ground? someone was trying to back up the toliets.

I doubt it was divers in general. that park is used by a LOT of the local non diving community as a swimming hole, fishing launch spot, and "beer drinking spot".

I imagine the ones that did this were just out there drinking and had no better intellect of anything else other to do than stop up a toliet.

pretty sad.... spend all that money on something just to have people try to ruin imediately.

this will prob result in the gates being locked again every day at sunset, like it was in the past.

Man, that picture of the boardwalk full of people is kind of depressing. Looks like some major traffic jams up there. Check your work schedule and let me know when we can head back over to test some camera equipment.

I have a feeling that any time that there is a class, that boardwalk will become a crazy zoo. :shakeno:

 

[jviehe]

Wow, yoda, youre picture taking ability has really degraded.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Actually the back wash was present but the clumps floating in the water is from divers, NOT the river. Morrison has a large presence of mung and when you kick it up totally kills the viz. So it was a combination of both the river and divers. Who knows whats up with the chain around the boulder in the cavern?

I, not being cave certified, am surprised at how large the main room is. Impressive!!!! I'd was wondering how the Photo (Time Elapsed Pix) experiment was going. Glad to hear it's still being talked about.

There must be something to the plumbing that we aren't knowing of....

The clarity of the spring is effected by the backwash from the river and NOT beach entries but I agree... practicing beach entries at Morrison isn't preparing anyone for actual Gulf Beach Entries. and Gulf Beach entries don't prepare anyone for Atlantic Beach Entries.....But then again any training helps. Dang I need to get WET!!!! My gills are all dried out!

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

All the talk about backwash of poop water and river water is getting me confused!!

I was there Thursday till 2 pm and the bathrooms were perfectly fine. It must've happened after 2 on Thurs or on Friday.

Bill, I like your pictures because they show little divers in this huge cavern. Gives a good perspective of how big it really is.

Glen, Pensacolanewbie and I should be hitting up Morrison again on Thursday morning. Will be there by 8 and out by 1:30.

 

[GLENFWB]

Glen, Pensacolanewbie and I should be hitting up Morrison again on Thursday morning. Will be there by 8 and out by 1:30.

Sweet...unless something comes up...I will try to meet you guys there!