Aquarena Springs

[MichaelBaranows]

Me and my dad ran up to San Marcos today to do a little volunteering since we were both off work and seas to rough to get offshore. It has been about a month and half since I have been up there and the springs really need cleaning. Cream o'wheat looks good but the rest of the springs could really use some good cleaning. Since I am off every other Friday I am going to start trying to go up a little more often. So for those of you that haven't volunteers lately maybe this would be a good time to do a little of your volunteer time.

 

[Hemlon]

As soon as they stop charging $200 for a "training class", I'll be one of the first in line to clean it up!

 

[Dutchman]

Why do they charge so much? Is part of the cost actually a donation to help keep the park open? I understand there is a level 2 training also. This is another $200.00.

 

[AXL72]

$200 is steap.

I would volunteer if there was not this charge.

Where can we beat the concept of volunteerism into the dive instructor(s) charging the $200 for the training? Surely they can donate their time as opposed to raping good intentioned volunteer divers on price.

 

[MichaelBaranows]

I hate that yall are so up-set about paying the $220 training. I will not try to justify the cost but course was very informative about the history of the area and importance of the water system. Plus after paying once you don't have to pay. So in the long run the price doesn't seem to bad to me. Most other place to dive charge everytime you go. So it will end up cost much more than $220.

 

[AXL72]

$220!!!!!

Good lord, the price went up another $20?

You are killing us. It takes a $43 tank of gas to get there and another $43 tank of gas to get back. NOt to mention $50 to $90 hotel room stay.

How often do you volunteer each year? What is there to see on the cleanup dives? Where is the link again? How are the anual water temperatures? How is the depth, again?

 

[cyklon_300]

The tuition for the Science Diver course was worth it. The class was informative, fun, and I met some folks I'm still keeping in touch with. Diving in Spring Lake requires excellent buoyancy control to keep from making a mess of the vis and disturbing rare and endangered species.

If it was free, every Tom, Dick, and Numbnuts would show up and you'd get a lot of low-skilled silt kickers. Not wanted, not needed.

If you can't part with the dough to further the restoration work being done, then you're a cheapskate and don't deserve to dive there. Besides, there's no shortage of people willing to pay $200, so don't think you're hurting the program by not signing up.

If you want to complain about something, I understand the new dive supervisor is not doing a great job of returning emails to already certed Science Divers requesting permission to participate. Also, the one-dive per year requirement to maintain the cert is bs. I dive 80-100 times per year in much more challenging places than Spring Lake...lol.

 

[AXL72]

now now, cyklon,

No need to get all ghetto with us by calling us cheapskates. I just wanted to point out the major descrepency here and my oppinion (yes oppinion) of raping on price by a volunteer program on its volunteers. Good god, i am still in sticker shock mode over the $220 price tag. Grrrrr.

Hey, can you post the link and a refresher description of the volunteer program, what you see, what are the good points are. I appreciate the ghetto mud slinging at us, but I wanna hear a good sell job on this

Maybe I shell out the bucks, maybe I don't Is this a PADI or NAUI certification program? Is the certification recognized throughout the world? I read into this a while ago, but I love hearing the story again from time to time.

 

[MichaelBaranows]

The problem with the new dive supervisor is that she only works on Tuesday and Thursday. When I emailed her Thursday morning and she emailed me back by 1030.

I have only been certified since Feb. and I have been up there twice since to volunteer. The water is always 70 degrees so it is great to dive year round. When I was there in Feb. getting me cert. the air temp was 26 degree getting into the water was like getting in a hot tub.

http://www.aquarena.txstate.edu/diving.html

 

[ReefHound]

The course cost is well worth it. Why don't some of you approach CSSP or Athens and offer to pay them $200 for free diving for life and see what they say. Nope, that'll get you about 20 dives then you gotta pay more.

If you expect to dive Spring Lake once and say you got the t-shirt, then it's expensive. They don't want the one-time tourists anyway because it takes a while to "train" you to where you are an asset not a liability. But you get free diving (including air fills) after that. As for the diving, it's by far the clearest viz I've seen in a lake anywhere in Texas. 50' - 60' is a bad day. The fish life is fantastic. And it's a great dive year round.

You need to take the course and be checked out because you can do a lot more harm than good if you don't know what you are doing. There are endangered species there and protected archaelogy sites where the place could lose it's access if they don't control their divers. Also, if you get lost you can find yourself in thick vegetation, and there are ridges to cross which force you within 5' of the surface, where buoyancy is really hard to control. You can't just pop up anywhere because they run glass bottom boat tours while you are in there.

BTW, when someone uses inflammatory words like "raping" they should expect a sharp comeback.