Lake Pleasant Diving

[SCUBAholicEd]

I dove BP with my friend John on Sat. We did our Underwater Hunter dives. Our first dive we used my steel 130’s and ran down the road looking for The General. Once we hit the center, we had Zero vis. Never found George. With zero vis would have had to run into him to see him. We went 4/5 of the way across and came back. At about 30 feet on the way back we turned east into the rocky area and got 2 feet to 6 feet of vis.
2nd dive we used 80s and went east along the shore line. Stayed around the 15 to 20 foot level. We saw a 5 pound flathead and a 6 pound bass, but no separable fish ie carp, buffalo, gold fish, etc.
There was a lot of classes out. Saw Steve and Bill (great to finally meet you Bill), Shared a surface interval with them . As always a great day of diving.

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

I met Bill (Phxski) SATURDAY morning and dove at Beismeyer Point. We were thinking about looking for GW but with the vis being what it was, we wouldn't have found him unless we bumped heads with him. Bill and I were wearing 3mm shorties and both agreed we felt a chill in the water that wasn't there a few weeks ago. Is it time already to bring out the full 3mm? Soon I'll need the dreaded 7mm again.

On the first dive we got in just west of the road and stayed that way zig-zagging west and north before turning back around to the road again. Bill's superior nav skills (superior to mine anyway) brought us through some pretty murky waters. The vis is as bad as I've ever seen it. Sometimes we couldn't see our hand in front of our face. We found a lot of trees and stumps but didn't see any catfish or bass. Not that we could have without resorting to the braile method.

But it was a good day to get wet. The weather was perfect and since we started early, the boaters were at a minimum. It was Diver Central out there with at least one class going on and several groups of fun divers. We had a good chat with Ed3 and his buddy John during our surface interval.

On our second dive we found a big canopy frame that had somehow made its way into the lake. We were in 25 feet of water about 100 yards northwest of where the road and water met. In the spirit of "Splash for Trash" and the surface side clean-up efforts last weekend we decided to recover it. The first order of business was to see if we could fold the thing up.

By the way, I have to stop here and say how cool it is to have a dive buddy like Bill. We've been diving together for a while now and there have been several occasions where we knew what the other was thinking.

After checking on our air pressure we agreed that we were good to go. We pushed and prodded the frame from opposite corners little by little. I finally got to use my BC knife to cut through a duct tape "cast" that was holding part of the frame open. A few minutes later we had it all folded up and ready to go. We stopped to check our air pressure and again agreed that we could start bringing it up. When we tried to pick the thing up it wanted to unfold so I wrapped a line from my finger reel around it. Next I thought I would use my safety sausage to add a bit of lift. Doh. That thing couldn't lift a fin off the bottom much less a fifty pound canopy frame. I grabbed the frame on one end and Bill grabbed the other and we muscled our way along. I inflated my BC a bit just to take enough of the weight so that some vigorous finning would lift the frame along.

When we got to about 12 feet of depth we surfaced nomally and finished the rest of the swim on the surface. Finally we drug the frame up to the side of the road. Whew! That was fun. Looking forward to diving next weekend.

Steve.

 

[skidroe803]

My son & I just completed our open water course at lake pleasant today! We plan on going back next weekend on Sat morning. We did all four of our checkout dives at desert tortoise on the underwater road. is there better/other dive areas that are still shore dives?

 

[aaen]

Hmm, I would suggest you go to Vista Point. That is where we dove every weekend for more then year. It was a lot better then Desert Tortoise, although I did wish that Scorpion Bay was still open at least then I had a choice of two different areas to go to.

Vista you can get a little deeper, and if I remember correctly there was a trench or something in the middle. Not to much to see in the old lake, mainly we just used it for practice and to stay consistent. Check it out though it will at least be something different then Desert Tortoise, and give you and extra option for diving.

 

[deepdivered]

hey every one. with the scuba season coming closer to winter i am getting less hours at work. i am a part time worker at saguaro Dive shop. If any of you know of a position available at your job. pleas let me know. i need a full time job. thanks!

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

Looking for dive buddys for Sunday. Anybody heading to the lake?

Steve.

 

[booth22]

Looking for dive buddys for Sunday. Anybody heading to the lake?

Steve.

I'll keep you posted... no classes this weekend, so maybe some dives with out teaching slates are in my future!

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

I'll keep you posted... no classes this weekend, so maybe some dives with out teaching slates are in my future!

Cool. Keep me posted. I've been kicking around going on a boat dive but I'm thinking that the vis may not warrent paying the bucks. Have you ever done the boat dive on the dam during this time of the year?

Steve.

 

[PhxSki]

Cool. Keep me posted. I've been kicking around going on a boat dive but I'm thinking that the vis may not warrent paying the bucks. Have you ever done the boat dive on the dam during this time of the year?

Steve.

Hey Steve:

I'll be free Sunday morning. If you don't do the dam dive, let me know.

Regards, Bill

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

Hey Steve:

I'll be free Sunday morning. If you don't do the dam dive, let me know.

Regards, Bill

You're on. I think I'll wait for the lake to come up a bit before I do the boat dive. Then the vis will be all that much better. How about 7:00am at the west entrance?

Steve.