Diving Aquarena Spring, San Marcos, Tx 11/24

[BillP]

Hi All:

I'm diving Spring Lake at Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Texas this coming Friday 11/24 (the day after Thanksgiving). If you've completed their Scientific Diver authorization to dive course, I'd be glad to have you join me.

If you've not taken the authorization to dive course yet but are interested in more information on how you can work to help maintain this ecological and archeological treasure in central Texas (and do some warm, fresh, clear water diving for free*), check out Southwest Texas State University's website for the Aquarena Certer at http://www.continuing-ed.swt.edu/aquarena/home.html .

Hope to see you there,

Bill


(*There's no such thing as a free lunch. To dive in Spring Lake you have to work on a project. But the work isn't too taxing, and you get to dive with fish, turtles, nutria, ducks, cormorants, and other animals. It's fun!)

 

[Lewis]

Brrrrrr. I did this dive a while back. All I had on was my shortie wetsuit. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

 

[BillP]

Hey Lewis:

I'm definitely a warm water wimp. People dive Spring Lake in a shorty, but I ain't gonna. You already know this, but for those that haven't been there before, water temps in the lake are a constant 70-74F year round. There's a warming hut where you can change into and out of your gear, but it might or might not have the heater on.

If air temps are warm, I'll dive in a 3mm long sleeve shorty/farmer John. If air temps are cold, I'll dive dry.

Bill

 

[King_Neptune]

BillP,

LOL, an all new meaning to the letters "WWW" eh?

*lights a candle*
"High my name is BillP, and Im a Warm Water Wimp" ...

hehe

=-)

 

[BillP]

We had a great time at Aquarena yesterday. I met up with a friend from the Diverlink board ( http://diverlink.com/forum/ ) yesterday morning . Diving Spring Lake is like diving in a freshwater aquarium. The water is exceptionally clear, and the fish were everywhere. We dived with Guadalupe bass, Rio Grande perch, spotted gar, flathead catfish, smallmouth bass, bluegill, and red eared turtles. It was an overcast day, so even the white catfish that are normally only seen dusk to dawn were out in force. My kids (6 & 7) got to watch us dive from a glass bottom boat.

If you're in Texas and you haven't taken the Scientific Diver authorization to dive course at Southwest Texas State University to dive Spring Lake, I recommend it. Aquarena Center is a big step up from most Texas freshwater diving sites. Come and join us!

Bill

 

[diverdoll]

I'd love to do this been thinking about it for a year, just
never got around to it. Its it difficult to do? Im advanced Padi?

Barb

 

[BillP]

Hi Barb:

The authorization to dive course isn't difficult at all. Everybody passes. They have the lecture part of the course the first morning and it covers the ecology of Spring Lake, discusses the endangered species there, they go over the geology and hydrology of the Edwards Aquifer, you get to know a little about the archeology of the lake, hear about government rules and regulations for diving there, etc. After each lecture session there is a quiz. All of the answers to the quiz were just covered in the lecture, so if you paid any attention at all you should get 100%. Even at that, there were some people who did not pay attention. They said, "I don't understand the question" and the instructor all but told them the answer. The course instructors are there to teach you about the lake, not fail you.

The dive portion of the course is pretty straight forward too. It is almost literally just a hoop to jump through so they can be sure that you're not dangerous. After some buoyancy drills you head to the obstacle course for a few practice runs. You swim through a series of hoops, move a heavy object without losing buoyancy control, descend to the bottom in a silty area and ascend without disturbing the silt, swim under a grid without crashing into it to simulate an overhead environment, etc. It only takes just a little more than rudimentary buoyancy skills to pass, and again, "everybody" passes. You take a glass bottom boat tour of the lake for orientation, tour the lake on a dive, and even do a night dive. You have to bring ALL of the gear you need to dive (don't forget a light for the night dive), they supply no diving gear. But there is a compressor on site where you can get fills.

I found the course fun. If you like Nova on PBS or The Discovery Channel, you'll love the course. I'm heading back down there this next weekend (12/9 & 10). Some friends are going to take the course and I'm going to work on some projects in the lake. If you'd like to join us, we'd be happy to have you. To get information about signing up for the course, contact Mark Hamilton, Diving Supervisor, Aquarena Center at mh35@swt.edu or at (512) 245-7541. You can read a little more about Spring Lake and the course at http://www.continuing-ed.swt.edu/aquarena/home.html . Let me know if you have more questions.

Hope to see you there sometime,

Bill

 

[Damsel Fish]

I dove Aquarena Spring several years ago while it was still a commercial operation. One thing I noticed is that you will need a little more weight than you normally do in fresh water. I really don't know why this was so but it was then anyway. Also it is a very shallow dive. I think the deepest we got was 28 feet and that was right down on top of the springs. So you do need good bouyancy control. But it such an interesting dive that I did it twice, and still didn't get to see everything. Although I did get to see a white catfish and a huge snapping turtle. The university had just bought the springs and they were just starting to teach their underwater archeology courses, but they had several areas gridded off where they were doing digs.