Dive Condition Reports

[texdiveguy]

Did one dive to practice dry suit skills and multi bottle handeling......the DS skills were pretty good since this is the only second time wearing it since mid. Dec. 08'. Now the multi bottle handeling in a DS can use some additional practice! Surface of the pond was hmmmmmm mid 70'sF, and at 60ffw it was 64F. Water vis is slowly improving. Mainy stated in the 40ffw range//65min. dive.

 

[James R]

10/25 - 2 tank trip with Lake Travis Scuba

Really nice weather at Lake Travis and a really fun charter.

1st dive, Shaker Plant
From mooring line, we went north to the wall, found the big down-pipe, kept going until we were 1/2 air then back towards wall turn point. Had a nice dive, viz was probably 6-10 feet most of the way. 72 degrees at 62 feet.

2nd dive, Wreck Alley
Did the loop around the pecan grove, to the boats, Corona deluxe, and back around. Vis is pretty poor, 2-6' at the most I'd guess. Enjoyed the first dive a bit more.

Everyone had a good time, though. Great way to spend the day.

 

[carlislere]

Dove Mansfield Park dive area this morning. Headed toward the boat ramp. Water temp is 71 degrees down to 90 feet. Drops into the 60s below that. Visability was 8-10 feet down to 70 feet. From 75-105 feet vis is zero, braille diving. From 105-108 vis was pitch black, but 1-1 1/2 feet. Finally gave up and came back up to 65 feet and had a great dive the rest of the time. Lake level is 645.6 and rising.

 

[carrielsal]

2 dives off the Giant Stride tonight with Texas Torpedo, JamesR, blomdiver, and ScubaGypsy. We drove our cars down the boat ramp to unload and boarded the boat from the dock at Mansfield dam. Hopefully Robert can do this more often.
1st dive Oasis Wall. Dropped down to 105'. Below 95' there was no vis to be found. I couldn't see the glow of my computer, much less my buddy's hand or light signals. Temp at 105' was 70 degrees. We managed to break Robert's ladder getting back on the boat. Second dive Shaker Plant. It was nice following the lines. I managed to lose the end of my inflator at about 40' and had to swim my gear up. David and James did a great job helping me remove my gear in the water and not drop it into the lake at the end of the dive. Max depth 67'. Vis 5-10', temp 72 degrees.
Everyone had a great time.

Carrie

 

[James R]

Dive w/Lake Travis Scuba tonight...good fun, nice dives!

1) Oasis Wall
Found the stalactites and played in the grottoes. Viz was hit/miss. At best, 10-12 maybe, but never terrible (for Travis) above 70' - i'd say average 6-8ish.
Temp surface 80.2,
Temp 68' 69.4


2) Shaker Plant
Viz here was weird, in some places it was really pretty decent, then you'd be in a haze that was almost like fog, especially below 70' here - worse than at the Oasis Wall. Followed the nice lines that were set up, saw some of the timber and such I haven't seen on previous dives here. Really fun dive.
Viz was 2-10 maybe, depending on if you were in a cloud or not.
Temp surface 78
Temp at 83' 68.9

 

[PeppermintPaddi]

Lake at 646
Air Temp 73F
Surface Water Temp 73F
Temp at 86 ffw 72F
Viz 0-20 ffw - very green
Viz 20-72 ffw 5-10
Viz 72-86 zip, zero, nada, seriously the worst I've ever seen

Took Zinc's line to the Jungle Gym. Hit a white wall at 72 ffw. Continued to the gym and BlazerDiver attempted to measure 2 sides by braille and a knotted string while I held the end. 9' x 11'. Took the line back out and had a decent dive above that 1 degree thermocline that is collecting all the silt waves were washing into the lake. From the top of the hill you could see a layer of white right at the edge of the water and just a couple of feet out the water was clearer.

 

[PeppermintPaddi]

Lake at 646
Air Temp 79F
Surface Water temp 73F
43 ffw temp 73F
Sailboarder said the wind was doing about 25 mph; he liked the white caps.
No viz down to 13 ffw, due to waves
vis 2-4 feet from 15-45 ffw


Took step-son (Navy, enroute from Norfolk to Bremerton, certified in June of this year, now an official Swamper ) out to dive since he's used to quarries. Hung a left from former-porta-potty cove and checked out the grottos. Wall disappearing 2 or 3 times; had to hunt it down with the aide of a compass.

 

[cbrich]

Pretty much the same as Windy Point.

The vis was the best from 0-30': 2-5'.
- We saw a 20+ lb catfish at around 20'. Is noodling on scuba illegal?

vis from 30-80': 1' and less
- at one point on the accent we came across a complete black out. I was holding the head of my canister light about 6" from the mask to read my computer and everything went black, and no my light did not go out. Got out of this portion and the vis went back to 1'. The only thing I could see of my dive buddy during the accent was his light.

 

[carrielsal]

A fantastic day of diving with scubashawn123, bogrady and peppermintpaddi. Shawn was shooting video for his Aquatic Update.
3 dives, about an hour each. Temp 70 degrees, vis was great! Numerous fish and turtles. On the second dive, we ran into a friendly spotted gar that swam right out in the open for Shawn to catch on video. He had no fear of us and I swam with him for quite a while.

 

[psiborg1812]

10/30/09 Lake Elmer Thomas Dam

Took forever to find the place, but when i did, it was a good dive!

Viz- Started out at around 7-8 feet, below the thermocline it got up to around 15
Depth- 60 feet- after 40-50 it got dark, kept getting darker. At 60 feet it started to smell a bit, probably was hitting the O2 dead zone, so i hung out above the "smellocline"
Temp- Started out at a balmy 60 degrees on the surface and then dropped to 55 below the thermocline. I wore a full 3 mil, gloves, and a beanie cap and was comfortable, although my face got a bit numb after a few minutes.
Stuff- Not much to look at if you are looking for structures. However, the vis is great, there are many pretty fish that live among the rocks, and the wall along the dam is nice too!

Good dive, i was sad that i only got to make one! I'll be back!