Another Blue Hole update

[Jasonmh]

And unfortunately this one is not an April Fools joke... :no

I talked with my sister-in-law who works for the US Army Corps of Eng. and is on the BH project team. She told me that the Federal funding for the BH updates did not come through, so for now the project is on hold indefinitely. They are going to try again in 2008. This doesn't mean that none of the improvements will be done, just the ones that the Corps of Eng. were involved in. That includes moving the outflow, possibly widening the stairs or adding a second set, the channel with the swim-in area, etc. As far as she knows, this should not affect the new dive shop and other amenities, as they were funded seperately (but she is not involved in the local city-run stuff).
If anyone wants to see it, here was my original post on the updates:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=173585

Oh, and amascuba and I were at BH diving today, great weather and uncrowded!!

 

[ABQdiver]

And unfortunately this one is not an April Fools joke... :no

I talked with my sister-in-law who works for the US Army Corps of Eng. and is on the BH project team. She told me that the Federal funding for the BH updates did not come through, so for now the project is on hold indefinitely. They are going to try again in 2008. This doesn't mean that none of the improvements will be done, just the ones that the Corps of Eng. were involved in. That includes moving the outflow, possibly widening the stairs or adding a second set, the channel with the swim-in area, etc. As far as she knows, this should not affect the new dive shop and other amenities, as they were funded seperately (but she is not involved in the local city-run stuff).
If anyone wants to see it, here was my original post on the updates:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=173585

Oh, and amascuba and I were at BH diving today, great weather and uncrowded!!

Thanks for the update. Can't say I'm surprised..... I wonder if those funds were tied to the "get us out of Iraq now" bill

Glad you enjoyed your day. Last weekend was as crowded as the third weekend. Maybe the upcoming third Sunday will be back to normal!!

 

[RonFrank]

Thanks for the update. Can't say I'm surprised..... I wonder if those funds were tied to the "get us out of Iraq now" bill

Glad you enjoyed your day. Last weekend was as crowded as the third weekend. Maybe the upcoming third Sunday will be back to normal!!

Heh, this war costs plenty! HERE is a site that indicates over 413 BILLION, yes, that is with a B! I'm very sure they include all military expenses that would not go away ever even if we pull out, but WOW!

My GUESS is that LDS in Denver, ABQ, CO Springs, and anywhere else that can not do OW checkouts anywhere BUT the BH locally in winter months (if you call a 400 mile drive local for Den) have been full to the gills getting the divers that did the classroom and pool OW work checked out before spring break, and vacation time in the US which starts in April. The hard winter has prevented a lot of shops from doing their normal winter checkout dives as no one is interested in driving down if the pass is snow packed, or there is a call for snow.

I would HOPE that things slow down now that it seems like the Hole has been on a Monster jam crowd spree over the past month or so. Based on James report at least it was more normal this weekend.

Some Denver folks may make it down again for the April ABQ dive feast. As everyone knows, I won't come down alone, just too expensive. But Kent has said April may work for him, and we also have a few new Denverites on the board who appear to be interested!

 

[amascuba]

It was a gorgeous day and Jason and I had the hole to our selves for most of the diving. The crawdads were out in numbers pointing their pincher's at us and following us around as we did some skills at the bottom and the fish were unusually curious of us when we were diving on the silty shelf at 10'. The visibility wasn't great, but at the same time wasn't bad. Overall we had a great time.