Lake diving ?

Hi, y'all. Finally made my first lake dive this past weekend. New equipment worked great. Overall dive experience was great. At first though, I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I was used to having viz from the 60 foot range and up. Now, I was in water with viz in the 10-20 foot range, at best. At the thermocline, it was down to near zero. Fortunately, I was paired up with a divemaster who was more than happy to accompany a newbie. The water temp was something to get used to as well. The temp was nice and warm up to about 25-30 feet, go lower than that and it was cooooold. Now to my questions.

1) Does the viz improve past the thermocline? I didn't bother going down below it. You could say I was just a little scared.

2) Are there specific equipment that would be useful to have when diving in lakes? Mike, the DM, was kind enough to show me throughout the dives all the possible points of entanglements- tree limbs, numerous fishing lines. Wasn't diving with a knife then but wouldn't consider diving without it now.

Well, that's all folks. I'm just glad I finally found a place to dive that doesn't involve a flight or 2 day drive. Thanks for the info, y'all.

Congrats on venturing into cold water diving!

Every lake is different, so it's kind of hard to answer your question. Most lakes are going to be a far cry from the Carribean, no matter what. 10-20 feet isn't really too shabby in my experience, although it certainly does get better. Lower vis (just not TOO low) sometimes enhances a dive for me. Descending on a wreck in lower vis can be really cool. It slowly materializes like a ghost from the dark blankness ahead of you - very cool.

Generally in fresh water, colder is clearer, so you may find an improvement in visibility below the thermocline.

Thermoclines are fun! Don't be afraid of it - enjoy it!

Regarding equipment, make sure your regulator can handle colder water - not all are designed for it. Those that are not, may tend to freeflow. And of course make sure you have a suitable exposure suit for the temp.

Get in some more dives & come check out the wrecks in the Great Lakes!

In keeping with the "colder = better viz theme", spring or fall diving is typically clearer. That, and you don't have to deal with hot topside weather while you're gearing up. Wetsuits and air temps in the 90s don't mix all that well...

Lake diving can be looked upon as a nice training ground, typically more accesible (unless you are one of the lucky buggerers living on the beach), usually shallow water dives because the viz is usually poor (strike Lake Tahoe from that list) with mean thermoclines,
however you don't have to worry about tides, things that bite you, bad currents (exceptions),
you DO have to worry about boaters striking you, more fishing line/hooks, often more pollution (stagnate water),
not exactly Monterey but still a lot of fun zeN

2 weekends ago. I was pleasantly surprised! The water was much toastier than I'm used to at 60F to the thermocline at 25', where the temp dropped to 56F and the viz improved to ~40'. I discovered several varieties of fresh water sponges and though it was still a bit early in the season, saw 1 pair of spawning salmon while I waited for my buddies to get in the water.
I liked it so much I tried a more local lake last weekend. Not near as pleasant, but it's now marked for me as a future "Gotta Get Wet" site!
Another great advantage is the gear cleaning - all I had to do was rinse - no soaking!! WooHoo

zeN|| once bubbled...
Lake diving can be looked upon as a nice training ground, <snip>
zeN

Click to expand...

You've never been in the Great Lakes, have you???

The lake I went to this past weekend was Bull Shoals lake in Arknsas. It was pretty nice. Will probably use it as a training site and a place to get wet. Still a 4-5 hour drive though but doable on a weekend. Hmmm, I wonder if I can get away this weekend. Ahhhh, this diving bug got me good . Nitroxbabe, how's the diving in the great lakes? Wetsuit doable? Not interested in doing drysuit yet, probably not for a while. Of the places I'd consider moving to next time are Chicago and anywhere in Florida. Hopefully will graduate this summer and be able to do that.

Try 20 inch vis. You gotta really like diving to dive in that kind of vis.

Yeah, the vis often opens up below the thermocline but not always. It can be a little freaky below the thermocline because even if the vis improves, the light can't penetrate the top "muck" layer so it's dark, and also, there's something about feeling that cold water in a 3 mil that really makes a person (or me at least) get a little more serious and concentrate more on the dive.

I've never dived the great lakes, but I agree with Zen. Lake diving keeps your skills fresh because it's fairly close by so you can make many more dives per year and you can eliminate long dry spells that tend to rust up your skills... and IMO, if you can dive in a cold dark lake with 1' to 10' vis and feel comfortable doing it, alot of the blue water diving then seems like diving in a swimming pool in comparison. Good vis does alot to ease most folks insecurities. If the vis drops below about 6' or so... my wife starts to freak, so when I dive with her, it really limits my dive spot choices around here. Some people are just more comfortable with poor vis than others.

I never dove it, but went along when my dad and uncle did. Seemed like great vis to me, since he'd learned to dive in Tenkiller, OK. He says it was a cool dive lake, but I hardly ever hear anyone talk/see anything on it. It's in MO somewhere.

No Nitroxbabe, what's the conditions like in the Great lakes? Z