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

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

No I live about two and a half hours north of the where the meetings are and I have to be at work by 6am every morning. Since they are during the week, it would be really hard for me to make it. I belong to the yahoo group and read the posts about the meetings and the members have responded with helpful information when I have asked questions.

 

[MBH]

We had a very nice lady who attended, I think it was our June meeting. She was DIR curious and I thought it might have been you.

Anyway, I'll definately make it over to lake Jocassee sometime in the next month or so. I'll be looking foreward to it!
Brent

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

We will be looking for you. My dive buddy Jocassegirl just placed her order today for a bunch of new gear. She has a Golem #35 ring wing/donut and stainless steel plate on the way along with a Salvo reg and she has some jet fins on the way as well. She tried my rig and fins and fell in love with it. So by the time you get here she should have her gear set up and have a couple of dives on it. Hopefully we will have weightig and trim issues solved or mostly solved by that time.

It would be great to have you show us some skills and also evaluate some things that you think we need to work on--well since we have so much to work on--just pick what we are worst at!!

Now as I get ready to go to bed I just need to click my fins together keep saying over and over in my head--I will helicopter turn, I will helicopter turn I will helicopter turn! so that I can have sweet dreams of gracefulness dancing through my head as I sleep!

 

[Jocasseegirl]

We will be looking for you. My dive buddy Jocassegirl just placed her order today for a bunch of new gear. She has a Golem #35 ring wing/donut and stainless steel plate on the way along with a Salvo reg and she has some jet fins on the way as well. She tried my rig and fins and fell in love with it. So by the time you get here she should have her gear set up and have a couple of dives on it. Hopefully we will have weightig and trim issues solved or mostly solved by that time.

It would be great to have you show us some skills and also evaluate some things that you think we need to work on--well since we have so much to work on--just pick what we are worst at!!

Now as I get ready to go to bed I just need to click my fins together keep saying over and over in my head--I will helicopter turn, I will helicopter turn I will helicopter turn! so that I can have sweet dreams of gracefulness dancing through my head as I sleep!

She's so silly :blinking: . Yeah, I tucked that credit card in the deepest part of my wallet, not to be seen for a l-o-n-g time. I was so sick of having gear problems: a too-big BC that shifted all over the place, too-light fins, and so on. It only took one dive with Leah's Golem rig to lure me over to the dark side :yelclap: Seriously, though, when I first started diving, I bought everything that everybody else said I needed, and I've since found out that there's not much of it that I like. I love the simplicity of DIR gear. It's so sensible . . . and now it's mine! Woo hoo!

I guess the Jocassee Darkside Diving Divas should have an alias: "Princess Leah" and "Deb the Darthdiver"

By the way, a DIR diver (along with 3 other divers) made his way 280 feet down in Lake Jocassee to see Attakulla Lodge up close and in person this past Sunday. Got some excellent video which I'll post on my website when they send me a disk.

 

[MBH]

Hi Deb, nice to meet you here. I think it would be a great idea for us to put together a team for some SC diving!!! Hey, if y'all have some DIR people slick enough for a cold/dark, 280' lake dive....that's who we need to hook up with! (not that I have any intention of doing 280' in a lake)

Anyway, while most everybody else is slugging it out on another DIR thread...we are working on a dive plan.
Brent

 

[FLDVR]

Let me get this right..
Your diving in a manmade lake? And theres a lodge and other stuff in it?
How cool is that?

Sounds like the making of a dive trip if you ask me.
Henry

 

[Jocasseegirl]

Let me get this right..
Your diving in a manmade lake? And theres a lodge and other stuff in it?
How cool is that?

Sounds like the making of a dive trip if you ask me.
Henry

Yuuppp! Jocassee was formed in 1971 - used to be the most beautiful mountain valley. You can see an aerial photo on my website. Attakulla Lodge is about 15,000 SF and is standing pretty much intact in 300' when the lake is at full pond (although I just recently found that part of the house is on its side, still intact as a "cube" - just on its side). Keep an eye on my website for upcoming video. Anyway, most dwellings were demolished prior to flooding, but we were in a lawsuit with Duke Power, so they weren't allowed to touch the Lodge. There is a girls camp at 318' (they have found the steel bridge across the river and the gate to the camp), along with myriads of forests, etc. It's really fascinating (unfortunately I can't dive deep enough to take most of it in). Mt. Carmel Cemetery (of Deliverance fame) is in 138, so that will be do-able for me one day. The lake is 75 miles of mountain shoreline, only about 1 mile is developed, so the viz is excellent. Come on up! I'll give you the cook's tour!

I will ask Tom if he would be interested in helping out some new DIR divers. I'll bet he would

 

[xiSkiGuy]

Mt. Carmel Cemetery (of Deliverance fame) is in 138, so that will be do-able for me one day.

With the lake level as low as it these days, the Graveyard is only at 115ft right now. The foundation of the church was at 132ft this past weekend.

@Leah and Debbie: I don't claim to be a DIR diver. However, I will take GUE-F at some point. I have read several of JJ's books and Dan MacKay's book. I have the 5thD-X videos. My gear is hogarthian. I have cave training. While I'm nowhere near qualified to mentor you in the ways of DIR, I can help you with some of the basics of buoyancy, trim, weighting, fining, etc.. I dive Jocassee quite a bit. If you cannot find some more qualified help, PM me and we will work on some basics.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Jeff, It has always been a pleasure to see you at the lake. We will certainly take you up on your offer of some help. We need a lot of work on buoyancy, trim and finning. You should see the silt clouds we make! LOL! I hope that will change with some practice and direction from folks like you.

I have been making progress over the last year, but with just two noobs in the water, it has been slow going. I am ready to kick things up a notch and be challenged.

 

[xiSkiGuy]

Leah, are you and Deb using long hose primaries and bungeed backups?