Aquarena Springs;, Diving July 10-11

[DandyDon]

A Lubbock Dive Shop is sponsoring this, and they have spaces available. I'm flying in Friday night...

http://www.continuing-ed.swt.edu/aquarena/

72 degrees, crystal clear, 40 feet deep, 4 specieis found nowhere else in the world.

I'm diving Nitrox Sunday morning to reduce Time To Fly to under 7 hours. Air would be safe, but Nitrox safer.

Let me know if you're interested.....?


I know that some of y'all have dived this before. Anything you'd like to tell me about it...?

 

[scubafanatic]

.....I graduated from their Scientific Diver course a couple years ago......it was a lot of fun, and it's pretty much the only place to dive locally in winter (DFW area resident), as it is a constant 72 degrees all year long.

The water is certainly the clearest you'll find in Texas.......although the max depth is more like 30 feet, and that's rare......I'd count on ranging between 15 and 25 feet deep in the places the springs erupt from the ground.

There are numerous threads on this subject here on Scubaboard, with a lot more info than I want to retype here....it will answer all your questions.

I assume you're aware Nitrox isn't available on-site.

P.S. ......in reality, there are only 3 unique species known to be located there........the 4th species hasn't been seen in something like 20 years, it's just that's it's extinction hasn't been officially declared as of yet.


Karl

 

[Scuba_John]

I dove and excavted this site while in school. The deepest it got was around 20-25 feet. You should be able to find the site over by the dock on the west side of the spring. Take a general heading if standing on the dock of east south east and head for the point on the east shore just before the curve back into the finger. Should be about 10 kicks and then strait down. If the site is still maintained you will be able to find all kinds of projectiles and cores. Keep in mind that if you do find something it does not belong to you and that it should be turned over the the school. I have not been back in a while so I would be interested to know if the display case at the entrance of the building is still there. Dr. Shiner, not the beer, of SMU was the first to discover and conclude that this was a "home base" for Paleo-Indians who trade with many of the New Mexico tribes and all the way up to Alaska. If you would like my thesis on the site I will be ore than happy to provide it

 

[ScubaTexan]

Here are some pictures I took from Spring Lake at Aquarena Center

http://groups.msn.com/ScubaTexansPhotoGallery/aquarenacenterdecember2002.msnw

 

[DandyDon]

Yeah, from the NOAA dive manual, based on their dive chart and time to ascend to 8,000 ft, I don't need the Nitrox on Sunday, but the LDS only charges $5 more, so I might as well - for extra safety, always a good idea.

Sounds kinda like Athens TX diving, but with clear water and something to see!

 

[scubafanatic]

...a word-of-caution, DandyDon,

...be mindful that once you dive outside the zone surrounding the old underwater theather, you will be in the area patrolled by the glass bottom boats, which are electric powered and very quiet, and while they have a pretty shallow draft, could still ruin your day if you're diving too shallow.

For peace-of-mind I'd stay at enough depth once you're out in the open river area to avoid prop hazzards.....especially be alert as you move underwater from one spring to another, as you will have to traverse significant patches of shallow, sometimes very shallow, water.

Maintain situational awareness, and make sure you can hear well, peel back you hood as needed, to listen a bit before moving across shallow areas, or surfacing.....again, the boats are very quiet...between your bubbles and a hood you could easily blunder into a boat if you can't hear it.

The 'theater' (where Bridget will run you through the underwater bouyancy control course) is safe from boats, and is a fun stress-free area to 'play' in ( lots of TX dive shops do BOW classes there) and a fair amount of room to dive in......you can touch/rest on the bottom in this area without breaking federal/state laws (or squashing any of those endangered species).

However, outside the 'theater' area it is forbidden to touch the bottom (thus Bridget's new diver bouyancy control tests) and always remember that she or other staff members will crew those glass bottom boats...so be on your best behavior, they can see your dive skills (or lack thereof) and you wouldn't want to get 'banned' from there.

The tourists in the glass bottom boats get a kick out of seeing 'scientific divers' in-action, so that's kinda cute to be putting on a show for them....so always try to look like you're doing something important down there!

Karl

P.S. since you're in the Scientific Diver class, Bridget will give you free air-fills (air-only), also, whenever you return, assuming you graduate, you'll get free air-fills in exchange for letting her put you to work on various ongoing underwater projects. Don't worry, it's a small trade-off, for a modest amount of 'work' you'll get in plenty of playtime.