Trisha
Contributor
Back to crawdad country!
Natasha and Lemuel from Scuba Adventures in Oklahoma City took their classes to Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri, on Memorial Day weekend, so we tagged along. Dive instructor S.R. got seven students through Open Water Diver and Advanced Diver courses and provided good information on what to expect during our predive potluck at the shop.
Most of us camped at Table Rock Lake State Park (I love it there!) and drove the two miles to Dewey Short Visitor's Center. The gravel shore diving spots are wonderful, with cliffs reaching to the dam at the east and a swimming area buoyed off to keep the boat traffic away. Two sets of stairs lead to the shallow diving (west) and the deep end (east) with a rope course that goes waaay down. The visitors center is fun, and has restrooms and a separate restroom/changing area building.
Some of the group went boat diving, which I heard was awesome. The weather couldn't have been better for camping, sunny and in the high 70s to low 80s. It only clouded up Monday, which kept us from doing one more dive before heading home.
Water clarity: alas, the lake had rolled over in the last week and conditions were pitiful for the first 20 feet, about 3 ft visibility. Good thing my husband has yellow fins, mask and octo hose, because that's all I could see.
At 20 feet it opened up a bit, 5 ft viz or so, but that's also where the thermocline hit. Temps in the mid to high 60s at that point, which kept me in the murk on my first dive of the weekend. My face stayed cold at I hung head-down to keep an eye on Richard!
At 25 feet it really got better, around 15 to 20 ft viz. I added my 1.5 mil under my usual 2/3 wetsuit and had no problem with temps in the low 60s down to 40 feet. The thick upper layer kept us in the gloom, and our pocket flashlights were needed to see around and keep track of each other, but at least we didn't have to hold onto the dive flag line the entire time to stay together.
Other divers said the visibility was great further down, but we stayed around 25 to 35 feet for our dives. We go for the wildlife, although we have followed the rope trail at Dewey Short's deep section to the 80s and explored the cliffs a bit.
Critter report: the lack of visibility made this disappointing. Last year was much better, and people were apologizing for the bad conditions then! We did see some lovely perch and bluegills, of course, and one striped bass stayed with us for a while. It was just too cold and gloomy to do it justice.
We did see crawdad on three of four dives. Some were good sized, too. We passed on the night dives (it felt like we were already doing them!), but others had good luck following the buoy cables along the lake bed. We tried that twice and enjoyed it, but our dive flag kept getting hung on the upper cable. And we needed the flag to stay together during the safety stops!
Overall: our diving was more about learning, less about relaxing and enjoying the ride. Richard is still working on weighting and buoyancy in a 7 mil john-and-jacket and handling his camera (no pictures, too murky.) I found the two wetsuits just right, and used the same 10 lbs, no problem. We lost each other a few times, and wound up doing safety stops in the silt, holding our computers to our faces to stay at depth for three minutes.
We are nearing our 50th dives -- yeah!
Non-diving activities: the girls preferred to swim, do shore duty, and boy-watch. We spent two days picnicing and hanging out with the other divers at Dewey Short, had a potluck Saturday night (thanks for the homemade ice cream!), and did a family night Sunday with dinner and Ripley's Believe It or Not in Branson.
So now it's just a matter of rinsing gear, unloading the fifth wheel, and getting stoked for our trip to Florida in late June/early July. One thing -- I've got enough bread and hotdogs for the freezer!
Natasha and Lemuel from Scuba Adventures in Oklahoma City took their classes to Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri, on Memorial Day weekend, so we tagged along. Dive instructor S.R. got seven students through Open Water Diver and Advanced Diver courses and provided good information on what to expect during our predive potluck at the shop.
Most of us camped at Table Rock Lake State Park (I love it there!) and drove the two miles to Dewey Short Visitor's Center. The gravel shore diving spots are wonderful, with cliffs reaching to the dam at the east and a swimming area buoyed off to keep the boat traffic away. Two sets of stairs lead to the shallow diving (west) and the deep end (east) with a rope course that goes waaay down. The visitors center is fun, and has restrooms and a separate restroom/changing area building.
Some of the group went boat diving, which I heard was awesome. The weather couldn't have been better for camping, sunny and in the high 70s to low 80s. It only clouded up Monday, which kept us from doing one more dive before heading home.
Water clarity: alas, the lake had rolled over in the last week and conditions were pitiful for the first 20 feet, about 3 ft visibility. Good thing my husband has yellow fins, mask and octo hose, because that's all I could see.
At 20 feet it opened up a bit, 5 ft viz or so, but that's also where the thermocline hit. Temps in the mid to high 60s at that point, which kept me in the murk on my first dive of the weekend. My face stayed cold at I hung head-down to keep an eye on Richard!
At 25 feet it really got better, around 15 to 20 ft viz. I added my 1.5 mil under my usual 2/3 wetsuit and had no problem with temps in the low 60s down to 40 feet. The thick upper layer kept us in the gloom, and our pocket flashlights were needed to see around and keep track of each other, but at least we didn't have to hold onto the dive flag line the entire time to stay together.
Other divers said the visibility was great further down, but we stayed around 25 to 35 feet for our dives. We go for the wildlife, although we have followed the rope trail at Dewey Short's deep section to the 80s and explored the cliffs a bit.
Critter report: the lack of visibility made this disappointing. Last year was much better, and people were apologizing for the bad conditions then! We did see some lovely perch and bluegills, of course, and one striped bass stayed with us for a while. It was just too cold and gloomy to do it justice.
We did see crawdad on three of four dives. Some were good sized, too. We passed on the night dives (it felt like we were already doing them!), but others had good luck following the buoy cables along the lake bed. We tried that twice and enjoyed it, but our dive flag kept getting hung on the upper cable. And we needed the flag to stay together during the safety stops!
Overall: our diving was more about learning, less about relaxing and enjoying the ride. Richard is still working on weighting and buoyancy in a 7 mil john-and-jacket and handling his camera (no pictures, too murky.) I found the two wetsuits just right, and used the same 10 lbs, no problem. We lost each other a few times, and wound up doing safety stops in the silt, holding our computers to our faces to stay at depth for three minutes.
We are nearing our 50th dives -- yeah!
Non-diving activities: the girls preferred to swim, do shore duty, and boy-watch. We spent two days picnicing and hanging out with the other divers at Dewey Short, had a potluck Saturday night (thanks for the homemade ice cream!), and did a family night Sunday with dinner and Ripley's Believe It or Not in Branson.
So now it's just a matter of rinsing gear, unloading the fifth wheel, and getting stoked for our trip to Florida in late June/early July. One thing -- I've got enough bread and hotdogs for the freezer!
