Walden Pond (Mass) diving?

[alex_can_dive]

I went for a swim here with a few friends and the water seems very clear.
Does anyone know if it's a good dive site? (Since swimming is allowed, I'd assume diving should be allowed, too ?)

Walden Pond: Walden Pond State Reservation

 

[boulderjohn]

The website does not mention diving as a activity. In our area, the lakes/reservoirs that allow swimming allow it in certain areas. Some allow diving, but, that too, is restricted to specific well-defined areas.

 

[mi000ke]

Well if diving is not allowed at Walden Pond, you could claim to be engaging in positive civil disobedience.

 

[Damselfish]

A New Report Says Walden Pond Is at Risk Thanks to Swimmers' Pee

just sayin’

Walden is really popular and busy. The parking lot gets closed often when its full. So lots of rules to manage the crowds. They changed the swimming rules at Walden years back. Aside from the official swimming area, and really people swimming from the shore lots of places, many people did long distance swimming across the pond, which wasn’t technically allowed. The change allows it, but with a bunch of rules like avoid the boat launch and wear a brightly colored swim cap so boats can see you.

Getting gear in there would be a drag. A haul from the lot to the water including lots of stairs. The boat launch would be much easier, but you’re not allowed into that lot without a boat. The pond is monitored pretty heavily by staff and anything they don’t want is unlikely to go unnoticed.

i think “flotation devices” may not be allowed but not everyplace seems to define that the same way.

 

[boulderjohn]

Well if diving is not allowed at Walden Pond, you could claim to be engaging in positive civil disobedience.

But it won't do you any good personally. Thoreau's strategy in "Civil Disobedience" required that the person doing the disobeying paid the consequences. He happily went to jail for refusing to pay his poll tax and wanted to stay there for the sake of the resulting publicity, but someone (no one today knows who) paid his tax for him, both then and for the rest of his life, depriving him of the publicity that would have resulted from his imprisonment and trial. Following his advice, both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were successful with their civil disobedience because the world watched in horror as they were brutally punished for that disobedience.

 

[TuckerIdaho]

*record scratch*
'Thoreau Would Be Disgusted': Walden Pond Swimming Restricted, Frustrating Open-Water Swimmers

 

[Damselfish]

How timely. I just saw that too. Jeez. Next, watch them ban kayaking and paddleboarding because you might fall in.

 

[TuckerIdaho]

How timely. I just saw that too. Jeez. Next, watch them ban kayaking and paddleboarding because you might fall in.

There have been an insane number of drownings this year. Can't really blame the state for being cautious.

 

[alex_can_dive]

*record scratch*
'Thoreau Would Be Disgusted': Walden Pond Swimming Restricted, Frustrating Open-Water Swimmers

Wait whaaaat? I swear I just swam there last Saturday ... was that actually illegal?

P.S: oh, clearly I didn't know how to read - they said "starting July 2"

 

[Damselfish]

They’ve backed down on their knee jerk reaction and are going to do things instead that might actually be useful, go figure.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/07/07/state-lifts-swimming-ban-walden-pond/