Private Lake diving -

[Dayo Scuba]

It is my understanding that if the lake is not posted no tresspassing than the worst that can happen is that they tell you not to dive there again. FYI: I will bet that there is no construction equipment in a small lake. It would not make sense not to get it out from the start. Have a great sneak dive.

 

[Agent 47]

Many things with ponds,
1. its in Florida =Make sure your not a Gator snack!
2. Poor vis usually none!
3. liability to the association.

In all seriousness, #1 above is a pretty good point. Just recently we had three people killed by gators in one week here in Florida. Apparently that was considered a pretty freakish string of occurances by the media, but still, I'd definitely get to know the place before getting in the water. There are lots of gators living in lots of retention ponds around the Tampa Bay area. Mostly smaller ones, but that office park up by the old Tampa Bay Center used to have a 12 footer living in the ponds. (Some secretaries there considered it a pet and thought it was cool to feed it from a small aluminum boat.) Also, a homeless guy was taken apart by a little 3 1/2 footer a few years ago in Clearwater. Of course, his physical condition was probably terrible, but just the fact that a gator of that size would be willing to go a few rounds with something as big as an adult human is enough to make me cautious.

On another note, a few years ago I read an interview of a diver who collected golf balls from ponds on courses down around the Miami area. He once had a small gator latch onto his arm, but he said he'd always known it was bound to happen some day and he'd had a plan already thought out. I don't know much at all about alligators, but this guy said they have a flap of skin that covers their nostrils to keep water out when they're submerged. When the gator bit down, the guy grabbed his octo with his free hand and lifted the flap with a finger or two while he stuck the mouthpiece up there, then he hit the purge button and shot it's nose full of air. He said it worked like a charm. The alligator let him loose right away and bolted, then he got out of the water and got his arm stitched up. One thing he did say was he was lucky it was a small enough gator that he could pull it off.

 

[reeldive]

1.What type of weed killer do they use??? some of that stuff can be pretty nasty.
2. AND THERE WAS THIS CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON THAT WAS EMERGING FROM THE RETENTION POND. LUCKLY ONE OF THE RESIDENTS WAS ABLE TO SUBDUE IT WITH A PLACTIC LAWN FLAMINGO BEFORE IT COULD EXCAPE. THE UNIDENTIFIED CREATUE WAS TRASPORTED TO THE MOT MARINE LAB FOR FUTHER STUDIES