Few dive reports

[DallasNewbie]

Only a true swamp diver would refer to 8-10 foot visibility as either "exciting" or "open(ing) up"

I dove at Windy Point for the first time earlier this month for an AOW class. I would have been very excited for 10' of visibility much of the time. Finding the "lost" tank was exciting with 3-4' of visibility, and at times I couldn't see my own knees, let alone fins. It seemed like it might be a nice place to dive with better visibility (and without the three-story climb at the end).

 

[cavemn]

So cavemn,
Does this mean you own a new camera now?

. . . . . I think I am changing my tag line. See tagline below

I doubt it works, it's flooded. I'm gonna give it to Shawn and see if he can revive it

 

[scubashawn123]

I dove at Windy Point for the first time earlier this month for an AOW class. I would have been very excited for 10' of visibility much of the time. Finding the "lost" tank was exciting with 3-4' of visibility, and at times I couldn't see my own knees, let alone fins. It seemed like it might be a nice place to dive with better visibility (and without the three-story climb at the end).

I have heard the stories from 20 to 30 years ago when Lake Travis had 100 foot vertical visibility before all the pestisides and run off destroyed it with pump stations.

Are there any divers out there that can accurately tell us about the good ole days of Lake Travis?

I have been diving it for 5 years and each year it has gotten worse. from low to NO viz.

 

[richerso]

I dove at Windy Point for the first time earlier this month for an AOW class. I would have been very excited for 10' of visibility much of the time. Finding the "lost" tank was exciting with 3-4' of visibility, and at times I couldn't see my own knees, let alone fins. It seemed like it might be a nice place to dive with better visibility (and without the three-story climb at the end).

Dallas,
Probably about half the time I am diving around here, I can't see my fins. The other half of the time, visibility is not bad. You will get used to it.

I have heard the stories from 20 to 30 years ago when Lake Travis had 100 foot vertical visibility before all the pestisides and run off destroyed it with pump stations.

Are there any divers out there that can accurately tell us about the good ole days of Lake Travis?

I have been diving it for 5 years and each year it has gotten worse. from low to NO viz.

Shawn,
I keep hearing similar stories about Possum Kingdom (west of Fort Worth). I keep hearing that 'back in the day', I think this means 20 to 25 years ago, that visibility at PK was always 40ft to 100 ft or better. The few times I have dived PK, I think the visibility ranged from 3 ft to zero. I also believe that visibility just keeps getting worse with each passing year. Unfortunately I am starting to believe this is true of my beloved lake Murray too.

 

[PeppermintPaddi]

I have heard the stories from 20 to 30 years ago when Lake Travis had 100 foot vertical visibility before all the pestisides and run off destroyed it with pump stations.

Back in the old days, perhaps before the lake accumulated so much silt, back in the summers of the 80s, the viz off Windy Point public wasn't great, but it wasn't any trouble keep track of multiple buddies either. Somewhere I have a pic of a friend 'riding' a motorcycle that used to be off on the shallow flats near WPPub. The point being that you could actually SEE the bike and the person. The water was green near the surface and quite dark but clear below the 2nd thermocline or so. Viz was not a big deal and I never made any comments in my logs.

I was an even whimpier diver back then and rarely went when it was cold, but I do remember that viz was better in colder water before the algae kicked in.

 

[paulw]

Shawn,
I keep hearing similar stories about Possum Kingdom (west of Fort Worth). I keep hearing that 'back in the day', I think this means 20 to 25 years ago, that visibility at PK was always 40ft to 100 ft or better. The few times I have dived PK, I think the visibility ranged from 3 ft to zero. I also believe that visibility just keeps getting worse with each passing year. Unfortunately I am starting to believe this is true of my beloved lake Murray too.

I dove Possum Kingdom several times in the 80's and it was really clear, I'm not sure about up to 100ft but it was well over 30ft as I remember. Also about the same time frame I used to dive off Tuckers Tower at Lake Murray and the vis was great, over 30ft vis but I have not dove either in a looong time and I hear it isn't so good now.

 

[scubashawn123]

june 30 Aquarena

a wonderful constant water temp of 72degrees, clear spring water

3 dive day

AWESOME to be diving TEXAS the summer of 2011