Any drysuit divers want to hit Travis?

[texdiveguy]

I am neither 'pro or con' to lines in Travis (it appears from reading that one is started from near Windy Point across the lake/river bed to the other side,,,and the one Rick mentioned--a new one near the dam wall as a possible)....my question: what is the purpose of these deep lines....training/non compass nav. runs/greater safety/just something to do,,,just curious.

 

[FIXXERVI6]

When diving deep in travis its a virtual overhead, boat traffic, with lines I can treat it more as a overhead dive with reduced chances of having to shoot a bag to surface with the boats if I were to get lost or for some reason need to abort the dive.

In the low visibility sections it can be an aid, for example when I hit the windex last year I had to go through about 10 feet of 0 visibility, touch contact with the bottom and buddy to find my way at around 100 feet, a line would have been prefered here, lines can also be tied to points of interest and a navigational aid in low visibility, it is very very easy to get lost when your heading out into the middle of the lake and zig zagging all over the place makes a compass hell to follow back.

It can also reduce chances of lost buddy in the crappy deep vis, if you loose your buddy you know he is either on the line, close to it, or looking for it.

If lines are ran properly there is no danger of entaglement, and if I lay one on the dam side it is going to start rather deep so people will not feel the need to remove it "to keep people safe"

I'm against a ratsnest of lines running all over the place, I was goign to run only 1 on the dam side then possibly some "jumps" off that line to points of interest if any are found, but again if done properly lines can be safe in OW with divers trained only in OW, I have been in areas where there were lots of lines in OW, and right through OW and I got into them, buddy got me out but the line was like 4 feet off the bottom, thats just bad juju, I support lines and will lay them even if someone keeps taking them out.

 

[texdiveguy]

When diving deep in travis its a virtual overhead, boat traffic, with lines I can treat it more as a overhead dive with reduced chances of having to shoot a bag to surface with the boats if I were to get lost or for some reason need to abort the dive.

In the low visibility sections it can be an aid, for example when I hit the windex last year I had to go through about 10 feet of 0 visibility, touch contact with the bottom and buddy to find my way at around 100 feet, a line would have been prefered here, lines can also be tied to points of interest and a navigational aid in low visibility, it is very very easy to get lost when your heading out into the middle of the lake and zig zagging all over the place makes a compass hell to follow back.

It can also reduce chances of lost buddy in the crappy deep vis, if you loose your buddy you know he is either on the line, close to it, or looking for it.

If lines are ran properly there is no danger of entaglement, and if I lay one on the dam side it is going to start rather deep so people will not feel the need to remove it "to keep people safe"

I'm against a ratsnest of lines running all over the place, I was goign to run only 1 on the dam side then possibly some "jumps" off that line to points of interest if any are found, but again if done properly lines can be safe in OW with divers trained only in OW, I have been in areas where there were lots of lines in OW, and right through OW and I got into them, buddy got me out but the line was like 4 feet off the bottom, thats just bad juju, I support lines and will lay them even if someone keeps taking them out.

I have no problem with lines that are properly layed and serve a purpose, such as a few reasons that you have hit on. Now Rick have you treversed the lake from say Windy Point a direct path to the other side of the lake,,,what is the deepest depth at the bed and its topo, besides trees?

 

[FIXXERVI6]

I have not made the traverse, for me the depth is too great (I assume it is I've never been out too far on windy point side) as I'm still diving air but I plan to change that starting this summer, and the distance combined with depth is probably a bit much without some form of DPV, a few degrees of course could land you in trouble if your swimming it, not to mention any mistakes will put you doing deco hanging on a bag in the boat lanes, very dangerous, but if line was laid in sections and compass headings taken on each section then I could see it as doable via swimming with the correct gas mix, which for myself I'm assuming will be something like 18/45 for what I expect the depths to be.

I do have a fear that if such a line was laid and easily accessible there would be people tempted to try for it without the proper equipment/training/gases, while I believe in personal responsibility and if people try for a darwin award then so be it, but I certainly don't want them trying to win the darwin award on line I or members of my team have laid, if I start laying line for such a project I won't be making it public and will probably try to make it difficult to find, but a traverse would be an interesting dive.

 

[loosebits]

Who needs a DPV? Give me a 1/4" nylon rope.

 

[Teknadv3x]

When diving deep in travis its a virtual overhead, boat traffic, with lines I can treat it more as a overhead dive with reduced chances of having to shoot a bag to surface with the boats if I were to get lost or for some reason need to abort the dive.

In the low visibility sections it can be an aid, for example when I hit the windex last year I had to go through about 10 feet of 0 visibility, touch contact with the bottom and buddy to find my way at around 100 feet, a line would have been prefered here, lines can also be tied to points of interest and a navigational aid in low visibility, it is very very easy to get lost when your heading out into the middle of the lake and zig zagging all over the place makes a compass hell to follow back.

It can also reduce chances of lost buddy in the crappy deep vis, if you loose your buddy you know he is either on the line, close to it, or looking for it.

If lines are ran properly there is no danger of entaglement, and if I lay one on the dam side it is going to start rather deep so people will not feel the need to remove it "to keep people safe"

Rick you hit it right on the head about the importance of those lines. I could not agree more with what examples you gave.
If people feel a great need to keep other people safe, maybe they should quit pulling up lines layed with purpose and start doing something really productive like promoting the importance of team awareness, dive planning and backups even at the OW level. Once they accomplish that they will find the lines to be a good tool and not a hazard.

Again well said Rick

Dave

 

[texdiveguy]

I have used DPV's around the 125ffw mark in the trees,,,a great ride, but have never gone towards the river flow bed of shore.

 

[Daylonious]

I was thinking about heading down to Travis this weekend (April 8-9) and getting a couple of dives in at Mansfield - anyone interested?

D.

 

[cyklon_300]

our line course started at 105' and terminated at 174'...can't imagine that poses much of a threat to OW divers.

I'll pull random lines out of the trees to eliminate snag hazards, but a line that is tied off and has obvious intentional placement points needs to remain undisturbed.

Just because Joe Bob Diver in a 3mm shorty and a hog sticker leg-mount knife thinks it's 'dangerous' is not a reason to remove something.

 

[loosebits]

our line course started at 105' and terminated at 174'...can't imagine that poses much of a threat to OW divers.

I'll pull random lines out of the trees to eliminate snag hazards, but a line that is tied off and has obvious intentional placement points needs to remain undisturbed.

Just because Joe Bob Diver in a 3mm shorty and a hog sticker leg-mount knife thinks it's 'dangerous' is not a reason to remove something.

Amen.. I was thinking of running a line at the dam at the 120' isopleth and then have some jumps off of it going deeper... easy to find, just decend until you hit the line, follow the line to a jump and you're off.