Any DIR folks that dive Lake Jocassee in Salem, SC?

[fisheyeview]

Not intending to hijack the thread, but do you like diving in lake Jocassee?

My brother lives on Lake Keowee (sp?). I have hiked around the Lake Jocasse area, and have thought of diving there.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Jeff, I am using a long hose and bungee back up. Deb will be using one on her next dive. We are replacing her Aeris gyro octo thing with a Salvo SRS on a long hose. Her old primary will now be her back up. We did a bunch of air shares in the pool and I hated how it breathed! I was a horrible feeling even while I was calm. I can't imagine how it would be if things were going bad. It had a hard wet feel to it. Made me very nervous in 4' of water to be on that thing and I was in a postion to just stand up.

Fisheye, I love diving Jocassee! It has something for everyone. If you are a kid and want to stand on the ramp and just look in the water and toss bread to fish while the big people dive-- you will have a great time. I often see kids catching fish in mask boxes that are almost as long as the mask box.

Jocasseegirl and I like to do shallow cove dives and watch the fish. We most often dive the cove to the left of the divers ramp. If you can take being narced, you can head for deep water and the forest straight out from the ramp and reach depths well over 100-150'. There are many places in the lake that are over 300' deep and a lot of people do deep tech training there.

The Mount Carmel Baptist Church foundation and cemetary are in 140-160' range.

The Attakula Lodge and Jocassee Camp for Girls are both in the 300-320' range.

All depths give are when the lake is at full pond.

In the winter folks move over to the "hot hole" in Keowee. It is the secondary cooling water from the power plant. I have only been there once and look forward to going back in the winter. Water temps stay 60-70 all winter in the main flow. Jeff correct me on this if I am wrong.

There is also the Pump House on Keowee. I have never been there. Still diving wet and my only chance was during the cold months with cold water.

Jeff aka xiskiguy would be better to answer your questions on most of these dive sites as he has a lot more bubbles under his belt than I do and has been to most of them.

I consider any question about diving Jocassee or Keowee to be right on topic. If that is what it takes to get you guys to come out and dive with us---ask away!!!

We got all of Deb aka Jocasseegirls new gear on order yesterday. It should be here sometime next week. I am as excited about her new gear as I was when I got mine. Having a buddy who is willing to go over to the darkside is so exciting!

Let the kool-aid drinking begin! While many on other threads argue west coast/east coast DIR. Here the Deep Dixie DIR Divas (and hopefully Dudes) will be working on:

Finding mentors
Buoyancy
Trim
Proper weighting
Air sharing
And arguing about things that are truly important here in the south like should hickory smoked barbeque be served with sauce that is mustard, tomato or vinegar based? There is no argument on the wood we use to smoke our meat around here--hickory, but many a fight has been had over the sauce! I believe the DIR way is mustard sauce! The last time we cooked out at the ramp it was served with a combo tomato/mustard sauce and I could see the reasoning behind that method. More cookouts will need to be had and more meat consumed while looking out over the mountain lake! I do not see a reasoned solution anytime soon!

 

[xiSkiGuy]

Jeff, I am using a long hose and bungee back up. Deb will be using one on her next dive.

Good!

Water temps stay 60-70 all winter in the main flow. Jeff correct me on this if I am wrong.

I've seen between 75 and 66, depending on the day and your proximity to the discharge. I've only been there in the winter.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I had a few folks that dive standard gear tell me the long hose was hard to deal with, but I haven't found that to be true for me. I did have some trouble at first since I don't have a can light and I was tucking under my knife. One of my internet mentors told me to just tuck part of the hose in the right side of my harness and that is working well for me. I got the yellow hose and it is a little floaty. I have heard the black has better buoyancy characteristics and will probably go black next time. I will need to find some other piece of gear to keep up my bumblebee look! LOL

Anyway going to the long hose has been an easy move for me to make and donating the reg in an air share is easier than I thought it would be.

 

[fisheyeview]

Fisheye, I love diving Jocassee! It has something for everyone. If you are a kid and want to stand on the ramp and just look in the water and toss bread to fish while the big people dive-- you will have a great time. I often see kids catching fish in mask boxes that are almost as long as the mask box.

Jocasseegirl and I like to do shallow cove dives and watch the fish. We most often dive the cove to the left of the divers ramp. If you can take being narced, you can head for deep water and the forest straight out from the ramp and reach depths well over 100-150'. There are many places in the lake that are over 300' deep and a lot of people do deep tech training there.

The Mount Carmel Baptist Church foundation and cemetary are in 140-160' range.

The Attakula Lodge and Jocassee Camp for Girls are both in the 300-320' range.

All depths give are when the lake is at full pond.

In the winter folks move over to the "hot hole" in Keowee. It is the secondary cooling water from the power plant. I have only been there once and look forward to going back in the winter. Water temps stay 60-70 all winter in the main flow. Jeff correct me on this if I am wrong.

There is also the Pump House on Keowee. I have never been there. Still diving wet and my only chance was during the cold months with cold water.

Jeff aka xiskiguy would be better to answer your questions on most of these dive sites as he has a lot more bubbles under his belt than I do and has been to most of them.

I consider any question about diving Jocassee or Keowee to be right on topic. If that is what it takes to get you guys to come out and dive with us---ask away!!!

We got all of Deb aka Jocasseegirls new gear on order yesterday. It should be here sometime next week. I am as excited about her new gear as I was when I got mine. Having a buddy who is willing to go over to the darkside is so exciting!

Let the kool-aid drinking begin! While many on other threads argue west coast/east coast DIR. Here the Deep Dixie DIR Divas (and hopefully Dudes) will be working on:

Finding mentors
Buoyancy
Trim
Proper weighting
Air sharing
And arguing about things that are truly important here in the south like should hickory smoked barbeque be served with sauce that is mustard, tomato or vinegar based? There is no argument on the wood we use to smoke our meat around here--hickory, but many a fight has been had over the sauce! I believe the DIR way is mustard sauce! The last time we cooked out at the ramp it was served with a combo tomato/mustard sauce and I could see the reasoning behind that method. More cookouts will need to be had and more meat consumed while looking out over the mountain lake! I do not see a reasoned solution anytime soon!

LOL, it's been a long time since anyone refered to me as a kid.

When I was younger I use to dive deep in order to get narced. Although I have done a lot of deep diving over the years, I now prefer to do shallower dives. The deeper stuff sounds enticing, but I think I would pass on that. I love to shoot a lot of pictures, and more bottom time = more images.

I have only been up there in the fall and winter. The air temp was in the low 40's as a high the last time I was over at Lake Jocassee, but there were divers out there. I am a warm water wimp born and raised in South Florida. I have dove the springs and caverns in North Florida, but that is the coldest water I have been diving in.

My brother just moved up there last week. He has had a place in Keowee Key for a few years, and is no building a house on the lake. I'll probably be coming up there more often now that he has moved up there. I guess I better learn to like the cold, or invest in a dry suit.

Now, if you want to talk bar-b-q. There is a place in Seneca across the street from the Ingles on US 76. I think it's called Annies. Now that is bar-b-q worth eating.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Fisheye, if you come this winter, give me a shout. We get a lot of days in Nov-Mar where we have really warm days with air temps in the 60'-70's Those are perfect hot hole weekends. Both shops that charter there will bring the tanks to the lake for you and have them on the boat waiting. I will be keeping an eye on www.accuweather.com and looking for those good weekends to get wet. I am still diving wet, so I will need to pick and choose the days.

The hot hole is a drift dive. You swim up the shore line and then cut across and ride the out flow current then catch the return current back to the main flow. It is a lot of fun. I am looking forward to going back in a couple of months.

I am more of Henry's, Little Pigs, Charlie's or Maurice's BQ kind of gal and I lean toward the mustard camp. Never tried that place in Seneca. I will have to make a point of the next time I am out that way. I have begun doing some of my own smoking and get mustard sauce from Henry's or Maurice's. The stuff I smoke has a really bold smoke taste to it. It is not for the weak at heart! I rub it down with cajun spices and smoke it over wet smoldering hickory. Then serve with a spicy honey mustard sauce. It is not a middle ground dish. You either think it is "done right" or you think it is "done wrong".

 

[MBH]

Y'all are making me mighty hungry this morning!

 

[fisheyeview]

Fisheye, if you come this winter, give me a shout. We get a lot of days in Nov-Mar where we have really warm days with air temps in the 60'-70's Those are perfect hot hole weekends. Both shops that charter there will bring the tanks to the lake for you and have them on the boat waiting. I will be keeping an eye on www.accuweather.com and looking for those good weekends to get wet. I am still diving wet, so I will need to pick and choose the days.

The hot hole is a drift dive. You swim up the shore line and then cut across and ride the out flow current then catch the return current back to the main flow. It is a lot of fun. I am looking forward to going back in a couple of months.

I am more of Henry's, Little Pigs, Charlie's or Maurice's BQ kind of gal and I lean toward the mustard camp. Never tried that place in Seneca. I will have to make a point of the next time I am out that way. I have begun doing some of my own smoking and get mustard sauce from Henry's or Maurice's. The stuff I smoke has a really bold smoke taste to it. It is not for the weak at heart! I rub it down with cajun spices and smoke it over wet smoldering hickory. Then serve with a spicy honey mustard sauce. It is not a middle ground dish. You either think it is "done right" or you think it is "done wrong".

I have a 7mm suit that I use when I shoot the manatees. Do you think this would be enough?

Annie's has a variety of sauces including a mustard based sauce which is what I prefer. If I hadn't just finished having bar-b-q for lunch I would be headed up there to Annie's right now.

 

[Sloth]

Hey Bee,

Like you I started my DIR aspirations diving up in Lake Jocasse. It's a great place to work on skills.

I use to work on buoyancy at the 40' platform. Start out negative laying on the platform. Put enough air in your wing to the point where you can start to swing positive by inhaling. Once you get neutral try and see how close you can remain to the platform. Try to anticipate the positive and negative swings and start inhaling or exhaling before you swing one way or the other. The goal is to get to a point where you can stay neutral while rhythmically breathing. This takes time to get down so don't let it frustrate you.

After you and your buddies trim and buoyancy get manageable you can head into the cove you like to dive by the ramp, shoot a bag, tie off on one of the many trees around 30' and then do ascent/descent drills. Do 1 min at 20', 1 min at 10' on ascent and 1 min at 10', 1 min at 20' and 1 min at 30'. Rinse and repeat. I was introduced to this drill in the DIR-f class last weekend and wish I would have been practicing something like it sooner.

Last, always frog kick. No mater how ineffective it is at first start breaking the habit of using a flutter and focus on frog kicking all the time. The silt in jocasse is a great feed back to how well you are managing your kicks. You should shot for swimming inches off the muck without stirring up any silt.

Jocasse can be a bit boring after a few dozen dives so it makes for a great training site.

Happy diving
Mark

PS, fed-ex me some Maurice's please