Dive Condition Reports

[cruiser]

Water Temp: 88 at the surface, 85 just above thermocline
Visibility: about 10 feet

Dive #1 - maximum depth 26 feet - 3 hours, 6 minutes
Dive #2 - maximum depth 25 feet - 2 hours, 58 minutes

I am CSSP'd out until next weekend

 

[ianr33]

Nice day to be at the lake with friends. A lot of socializing and a little diving.

Went down the chain from Stair 1,took a left past the Pinto, met the next chain and followed it down to the deep platform. Found the Travis Traverse line and followed ths to its end.

Surface Temp 86
Bottom Temp 53. Why is Travis so cold this year?
Max Depth 159. Viz down deep was surprisingly good,5-10 feet. Shallow maybe 5 feet.

The River Channel is pretty neat at the moment. Bottom is covered in a lacy filigree.Presumably bacterial in origin?

I was saddened to see ugly gouges marring the pristine beauty of the deep section. Look as if they were made by dragging sidemount spgs It will take nature weeks to repair these ugly scars.

 

[ianr33]

Oops. Duplicate post

 

[shaggie]

Oops. Duplicate post

Nice hanging out with you guys. Hopefully someday we'll do a dive together.

 

[Aerosynth]

@cruiser - I dove CSSP for the first time this weekend and was very impressed. 4 dives Saturday, and 1 on Sunday. Warm water with great viz, and the wildlife there is great. I'd say I actually thought the viz was a little better than 10' in certain places... but that may just be me. Most of my experience has been diving in mud holes so far so I am impressed easily. I'd also like to add that every single diver I met on the shore was absolutely friendly... that adds to the experience in my books! Love CSSP, hope to come back in a few weeks.

 

[paulw]

Saturday 8-14-10
Windy Point Private
Divers – David P – Danny B – paulw – David T
Air Temp 93
Water Temp @ Surface – 88
Water Temp @ 65' - 80
Water Temp @ 80' - 67
Max Depth - 80'
Vis to 20' - 5' to 8'
Vis 20' to 50' - 6 to 10'
Vis 50’ to 80 - 20 to 25
Dive Time - 62 min

August 14th OHS Dive Team underwater trash pickup at Windy Point. David P, Danny B, David T and Paul W picked up 15 bags of bottles, more bottles, cans, and other trash. The vis was really not to bad in the 25 to 40 range and at 60 to 70 it was clear and more than 20ft! It was a nice morning with a little work and a lot of fun.

 

[scubatexastony]

August 16,17,18,19

11 dives
30ffw-105ffw
6 locations, best was crocodile rock and brotherhood bay, beautiful trees and rock overhangs..... HOT days
viz low upstream, 6ft @ 10ffw, 2ft @ 45ffw
viz 10-20ft closer to deep waters
surface temp 91
thermo @ 25-27, temps drop quicky from there down, viz murky through the thermocline but opens up nice with the lights on.
upper 60s @ 40ffw
lower 60s @ 50ffw
lower 50s @ 60-70ffw
upper 40s @ 100+ffw

more fish and new honey holes

 

[cindycycle]

Friday 8-20-10
Diving for Science at Spring Lake
Divers – Cindy and Jen
Water Temp 69 F
Max Depth - 19 ft.
Vis very good - >20 meters/50 ft.
Dive Time - 61 min

We were cleaning up unwanted aquatic vegetation (coontail etc.) from Cream of Wheat springs.

Had a lovely time...

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos
August 21, 2010

Temp, Same
Vis 50'+

Six Swampers made dives today at Spring Lake, Peppermintpaddi, DocWatson, BoGrady, Laredo Scuba Diver, Deb Flanagan and Driftwood.

COW looked pretty good. Other than that the lake is a mess. The hump between Diversion and COW is almost closed. At this time, your best bet is to take the shallower RIGHT passage from Little Riverbed into Ossified Forrest. OF is very overgrown on the east bank. The hump between OF and Riverbed is very overgrown. The left passage into Riverbed seems to still be the best. The algae in Riverbed is not too bad but there is a lot of coontail on both the right and left banks that needs to be removed. There was a lot of algae in Catfish Hotel and a great deal of coontail on the east bank and the floor of the site.

There were tons of salamanders in CH and Deb saw two soft shelled turtles in the training area.

 

[Lake Travis Scuba]

Trip Report August 21, 2010 - Starnes Island, Cypress Creek Wall, Oasis Wall, and Wreck Alley

Today was a success in finding unusual treasure and recovering lost items while enjoying visibility over 15' below the thermocline. It is uncommon for me to dive during the charter but Ellen took the helm so I could get in a dive. As previously posted, today was Ellen's final day in Austin before she departs for Tampa, Florida to pursue a degree in Marine Biology.

The day opened with a dive at Starnes Island, where I buddied with Michael to see what treasure I might find. The visibility was incredible, well beyond what I expected. I will no longer doubt the divers report of 20' or more below the thermocline. The group found everything from a $10 bill to evening wear, nerf gun, earrings, sunglasses, and a orange stone heart. The finds should have been a good indicator of what the day will produce. We moved the boat to Cypress Creek Wall where the finds kept coming. Within minutes of descending, the divers sent up a fishing rod and boat anchor. This was just the beginning. The most unique find of the day was the bottle of whiskey that many divers have spoken about seeing but until now remained at depth. The bottle was 7/8 full and upon smelling and tasting, was clearly unaffected being below the surface. In addition to the whiskey, another full can of Mike's Harder Lemonade was retrieved. Money, alcohol, and evening wear - could it get any better.

Well, it did. Tom's Dive and Swim came out for a Fun Dive and selected Oasis Wall to explore. I informed the divers that this site usually produces anchors, the occasional pair of shades, full beers/sodas, and once a $20 bill was recovered. The divers were put in near the location of the lost mask from Wednesday with the hope that maybe they would recover the mask. Our San Antonio dive guests, Kevin and Wendy, not only found the missing mask but also a brass bell dropped by a boater July 22, 2009.

It is hard to decide which diver receives the find of the day. Is it the bottle of whiskey, brass bell, instructors mask with prescription lenses, $10 bill, or multiple pairs of high dollar shades? What do you think?

Temps:
Surface to 30' - 87*
30' - 40' - 80*
40' - 60' - dropping to 70*
60' - 70' - 69*

Visibility:
Surface to Thermocline at 50' - 5' - 10'
Below Thermocline - over 15'

Photos from the dive can be seen at:
August 21, 2010 | Lake Travis Scuba Trip Report