Dive Condition Reports

[Joe-Diver]

Surface: 79
Thermocline: 72 at 18'
Vis: 10 to 15'

Open Water checkout dives 1-3 with 2 groups of students. North end on plane. The thermocline was just at the top of the plane, to 1' above it. Vis wasn't too bad but it looks like we're not going to get some of those stunning 30' days this year. Have the scooters with us so once we finish with students today we'll get out in the lake more.

 

[texbob]

San Luis Pass Beach

Surface: 78 F
Vis: 6" to 12"
Wildlife seen: none except for jellyfish sting on upper lip

Hey, I had to try. Rack this up to a "you have to do it once" type of thing.

I was there with the family 3 weeks ago, and the visibility seemed really clear but I didn't have my gear. We went back prepared but the water looked noticeably different.

After kicking out a few hundred yards and reach the awesome depth of 8 feet and feeling like an airline pilot flying on instruments, it was time to head back to the beach for some cool cervesa.

 

[Timeliner]

Lake Texoma ~ Texas side May 31, 2009

1/2 mile West of the Dam on the South shore. water temp. mid 70's top to around 25 feet . Thermo. at 30 feet and 66 degrees down at 70 feet. Vis. 1 - 3 feet in the top water and a bit of a break out in the vis. at around 40 feet. It's still dark down in that lake but not at all a bad day to be out checking cables.

 

[psychocabbage]

Blue Lagoon May 31st 2009
Huntsville, Tx
Lagoon 1
Temp: 83.6
Max depth 25ft
Vis was amazing at 20+ in some areas. Lowest it got was 10ft around the common areas.
In my 2 years of diving this location, its the best its ever been!

Roads have been smoothed out so they are not as rutted.

 

[Lake Travis Scuba]

Drysuit specialty open water dives at Windy Point Dive Park (just in time for wetsuit)

Temps:
Surface to 25' - 79*
25' to 42' - 73*
42' to 50' - 68*
50+ - 64*

Visibility:
Above 30' - murky 5+'
Below 30' - cleared to over 10'

Richard moved two platforms to below stairs 1 & 2. Easy to explore the pecan tress with low lake level.

 

[psiborg1812]

Canyon Lake-Ramp 1, 6/7/09

Did 2 dives, explored the area, i was going off a map that i got from this thread actually, lot's of stuff down there!

Max depth-45 feet
Visibility-4-5 feet, but it got a lot worse after 40 feet.
Temp-71 on the surface, dropped down to 62 below 30 feet

First dive, went down by the first set of drainage pipes that run into the water. Found the truck at around 15 feet, then followed the line to the towncar, the boat, and the platform. Lots of trees that come out of nowhere, so go extra slow and steady. Also there was a lot of fishing line on the ground, but not too much around the objects. LOTS of boats with it being the weekend, but they stayed pretty far away from my flag. However, at one point i heard a boat REALLY close by, so i made sure to come up right next to shore.

Second dive follwed the line down to an odd concrete block thing with spokes sticking out of it. Vis was getting pretty low around 45 feet, and it was getting cold, so i headed back and decorated the platform a bit. I found a really cool bottle that has an odd pattern on it. Most of the objects were in the 15 to 30 foot range, with the lake being down so much. It was a great day to dive!

EDIT: Also, this last dive was number 98 according to my log book! Hopefully triple digits soon!

 

[Gillty]

June 5-7 2009

San Solomon Springs at Balmorhea State Park

Visibility was around 100ft until people started doing some silt angels on the bottom and caused the vis to drop to a dismal 50+ in some areas.

Water temp was 76 degrees.

One important thing to note is that I would not classify the schools of fish as "schools" but somewhere closer to "swarms". I believe this is due to many of the divers feeding the fish "cheese in a can" that must be laced with some sort of mood altering drugs. You have been warned.

All in all we had an excellent time despite the long drive down there.

 

[eieio_24]

June 11, 2009 : 10:00 am
Tom Hughs Park, Lake Travis

Intended on diving to search for fish, so we went no deeper than 40'.
Vis was poor, the worst I've ever seen at Tom Hughs - maybe 4-5' maximum.
A lot of the time we found it was as low as 3' vis. We saw very few fish, though during
past dives at Tom Hughs there were lots...

I completely forgot to check thermometer for actual water temp, but did hit a dramatic thermocline at about 18' as the water became quite cool.

With the lake level lower than it was last time I was there, it is still quite a feat to haul your gear from the trail, over and around all the large rocks to the water. Also with the lower water level, we again found the grottos and found the upper ones around 35-40'.

 

[James R]

Windy Point - Lake Travis - 14 JUN 09

The platforms are now in about 1' or so of water. Seems like it's 2' lower than just a couple weeks ago. You could actually see what looked like silt stirred up from the top of steps/park. Not a good omen!

Very busy weekend. Tons of people there camping, swimming, diving, etc.

From the stairs down you would be lucky to see your hand at the end of your arm. Once down to around 25-30 feet it did open up some to around 6-8 feet. I saw a few people going down the chain sitting on their butts and/or knees going like plows. Not really sure why.

Night dive was much more enjoyable than the day dives. Also, it was easier to keep track of divers w/lights.

Surface temp 80
47' temp showed 74

All in all, a good day/night of diving. Headed out on Giant Stride shortly

 

[k-valve]

What I've noticed about the Lake Travis lately is that vis is extremely variable. I didn't go out this weekend, but last weekend I was out both days. At the Oasis wall vis was good at 40', 65' and 80'. It was pretty cloudy between those depths and the layer of good vis was only about 15' at each of those levels. At about 110' it was like swimming in milk.

At Don Brod's Old Scuba Park vis was "OK" around the boats and cleared up dramatically at the bottom of the Pecan trees to about 100'. After that it was very low vis similar to what I found at the Oasis Wall.

Temps were above 70 while at 60' and above. Very distinct thermocline at 60' in both places. The first day I wore my drysuit, the second I wore a 3mm with a hooded vest. Unless I'm planning a deep dive...which is hard to find at Travis right now anyway...I'll stick with a wetsuit.

June 11, 2009 : 10:00 am
Tom Hughs Park, Lake Travis

Intended on diving to search for fish, so we went no deeper than 40'.
Vis was poor, the worst I've ever seen at Tom Hughs - maybe 4-5' maximum.
A lot of the time we found it was as low as 3' vis. We saw very few fish, though during
past dives at Tom Hughs there were lots...

I completely forgot to check thermometer for actual water temp, but did hit a dramatic thermocline at about 18' as the water became quite cool.

With the lake level lower than it was last time I was there, it is still quite a feat to haul your gear from the trail, over and around all the large rocks to the water. Also with the lower water level, we again found the grottos and found the upper ones around 35-40'.