Has anyone ever gone diving at Balmorhea?

[scubajoe]

Debraw once bubbled...
I wnet to Balmorhea a couple of years ago, well.....maybe 5 years ago. Times flies when you are scuba diving. The diving was great, we camped and it was great to crawl out of the tent look at the mountains and then go diving. One of my favorite memories of the trip was going to the observatory and driving through the Barilla mountains. Great little town up there and even had a real soda fountain in one then local shops. Have fun I hope you get to go.

Debraw,
Did you go up the mountains before or after you dived? I blasted up to the observatory after a dive in the late afternoon. Didn't give a thought to altitude after diving. I guess I was lucky! My dive computer was sitting in the seat next to me and raising cain. It never dawned on me to pick it up and look at it. Oh well, I'm fine and the trip was worth it. They have a star party every Saturday night after sundown. It is way cool, they show you all kinds of stuff in the sky. Very knowlegdable people putting it on. Take a jacket!

Joe

 

[Sham_ba_la]

"WOW" This Balmorhea place sound beautiful with the mountains, the Springs and the Diving.... sounds like I may have to take a trip out there sometime after my class is over if we don't do our check-outs there.... Geesh I really hope we do...


D

 

[TexasMike]

scubajoe once bubbled...
Did you go up the mountains before or after you dived?

One thing everyone needs to remember is that even after you get out of the water, Boyle's Law is still in effect.

What I mean is, if you dive and then nearly immediately head up for a dry land excursion to altitude (hiking or driving through mountains), you are increasing your risk of a DCS problem. Remember that for many hours following your dive (and much longer if you did repeatitive dives), you're still off gassing nitrogen. And if you go upwards in altitiude on a mountain trek, you're exposing yourself to a similar risk as if you boarded an airplane.

Best precaution if you need/want to travel to altitude after diving is to wait a sufficient period. For more information, I check out the back issues of "Alert Diver" published by DAN or "Dive Training". I don't remember the specific issue, but it hasn't been too long ago.


Sham... The BDS instructors are well qualified. You'll have a great time and will learn a lot.

--TexasMike

 

[Sham_ba_la]

TexasMike once bubbled...
One thing everyone needs to remember is that even after you get out of the water, Boyle's Law is still in effect.

What I mean is, if you dive and then nearly immediately head up for a dry land excursion to altitude (hiking or driving through mountains), you are increasing your risk of a DCS problem. Remember that for many hours following your dive (and much longer if you did repeatitive dives), you're still off gassing nitrogen. And if you go upwards in altitiude on a mountain trek, you're exposing yourself to a similar risk as if you boarded an airplane.

Best precaution if you need/want to travel to altitude after diving is to wait a sufficient period. For more information, I check out the back issues of "Alert Diver" published by DAN or "Dive Training". I don't remember the specific issue, but it hasn't been too long ago.


Sham... The BDS instructors are well qualified. You'll have a great time and will learn a lot.

--TexasMike

Well from what you mentioned above it sounds like it would be better to go exploring in the mountain areas before diving, or would that be the same deal on having to wait for a while?

On BDS they are "GREAT" over there, I have no doubts about what I'll learn there.... just wish I could have taken advantage of their Coz trip in late Nov. Since they didn't get too many to sign up I got an email back a week ago and Michael is offering free Advanced OW Training on the trip.

Thanks again for the great info..

D

 

[scubatexastony]

San Soloman Springs is max depth of like 22 ft. (if you lay in the gully) and change in alt. is not all that much up to the "Mountain top". Unless you spend the day on the bottom and head up I doubt you'll get hit. But that's just my opinion....

It is a GREAT place to enjoy the clear warm waters in winter and picnic. Those hot showers are nice too!

tony

 

[polkster13]

Another cool thing that you can do is a night dive in the springs. You have to get park approval and there is an extra fee (to pay the guard to stay up and lock up after you are through), but our night dive was fascinating. The catfish come out and hunt at night and it was awesome watching them feed at night. You also get to see other bottome creepy crawlers that come out only at night (cousins to the freshwater crayfish - but much larger). A very cool place to dive, I just wish it was bigger and deeper. The "boiling" sands are very cool to watch. It reminds me of the river outside of Aquarena Springs. There is also very little silt so the vis is fantastic all of the time.

 

[Dee]

Ya'll keep it up and you'll have me planning another trip to Balmorhea myself!

Wonder what it's like in November??

 

[polkster13]

Actually, I think it would be quite pleasant! The water temp is not going to change and as long a northeasterner doesn't blow in, the air temp should be fine. I would take along a nice set of fleacy-lined sweats to change into after drying off. And don't forget those hot showers in the bath house. When we did our night dive it got quite nippy when we got out. A quick dash to the showers warmed my and my dive partner right up. It also wouldn't hurt to have someone standing by with some hot liquid to supplement the hot showers. Come to think of it, I may try and get the wife and daughter to take a little trip out there after I get this new software installed in California. Give me something to look forward to. If I do, I will let you guys and girls know and maybe we can make a group dive.

 

[Dee]

We were there last February. Talk about a chill when we got out of the water! Those hot showers are nice. November ought to be nice.

Maybe we can make it a Swampers road trip!

 

[polkster13]

That is a cool idea! I would love to dive with ya'll and become an offical member of the "Swampers". We have plenty of time to plan a trip if we were to do it say around March of next year. Or were you wanting to do it sooner? The last time trip we took out that way I took my pop-up camper and ended up having a flat tire going there and another on the way back. I don't recommend doing that again, but they do seem to have some nice cottages. Has anyone stayed in one of those that could give us a report? What about cost?