Dive Condition Reports

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos November 14

Vis: 50'+
Temp: Same (almost true)
Spring Flow: 240cfs

The "deep" aquifer water has hit the lake. Spring flow is up 70cfs from a week ago.

Pete and I cleaned up Diversion and made a significant dent cleaning up Cream of Wheat. On a very good vis day, you can see deep into COW from the Training Area. All the coontail blocking access into COW has been cleared. I hit one spot of cold water (low pressure shallow spring independent of COW and Diversion springs) about midway down Little Riverbed. All the big heads of coontail in COW have been cleared. At the end of the dive, we were pulling softball size clumps of plants out of the springs in COW. Made some headway, but more still needs to be done.

Cow needs finning and there are a few heads of coontail still hung up around Diversion.

Great working dive when at the end, you know you made a difference.

Overall, the area is starting to look like it did before the drought.

 

[Earl Grey]

Saturday 11/16/2013

Blue Lagoon, Huntsville, TX

Air temp ~74F, bottom temp @ 23' was 63F. Viz was great for BL and was 20-30 feet.

 

[paulw]

Saturday 11-16-13

Lake Travis - Bob Wentz

Divers – paulw

Water Temp - 67

Max Depth - 85'

Vis - 3 to 4' above 70 and less than a foot below

Dive Time - 70 min


Saturday morning I waited until 11am to dive hoping it would warm up and although it did warm up to the mid 70's there was no sun and the wind was a steady gale force causing a lot of wake which in turn caused clouds of muck to roll down the wall, with almost no vis and being cold I decided to call the second.

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Sunday 11-17-13

Lake Travis - Mansfield Dam

Divers – paulw

Water Temp - 67

Max Depth - 85'

Vis - 4' to 8' above 70' and maybe 1' below 70'

Dive Time - 72 min


Sunday afternoon I went to the dam at 2pm, it was 85 degrees with bright sunshine and almost no wind! Above 70' the vis was not bad at all around 8' but at 70' and below it was only inches, I went to 85 and turned. This was one of the best dives I've had in a while but the water temp was 67 and I was pretty cold the last 15 minutes. There were very few fish moving around although I had about a 3lb black bass follow me the entire dive, hunting in my light I guess.

 

[paulw]

Saturday 12-7-13

Lake Travis - Mansfield Dam

Divers – paulw - Danny Bryce

Air Temp - 25

Water Temp - 60

Max Depth - 60'

Vis - 3 to 4'

Dive Time - 50 min

Well what can I say, the morning started with a tailgate frozen shut, then a frozen reg and then two frozen divers. It was dark enough to seem like a night dive and lots of silt floating in the water mucking up the vis and gearing down was lets say exhilarating but all in all not a bad dive, well not if you are crazy

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos

Vis: 60'+
Temp: Same
Spring Flow: 220cfs

Did a survey run from COW to Catfish to see where we could have the most impact. We ended up working in COW. The "wall" of cold water in Little Riverbed is gone, the flow from shallow springs is being overwhelmed by the flow from the deep springs.

Cow is starting to look "decent" again. OF is a mess. Riverbed is clear without too much algae. There is a lot of coontail reestablishing itself on the west bank, but you can still see the shoreline from the bottom of RB.

Great dive and glad to be back in the water after a head cold.

 

[Sushi Boy]

288 Lake - Jan 1st

Water temp - 54 degrees, viz 5-7'. Chilly, but a great way to kick off the new year!

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos January 2

Temp: same
Vis: 50'
Spring Flow: 180cfs

The water felt very warm today. Pete and I cleaned up COW. Chilly walk back to the trucks. Aaron was talking about moving the floating dock back to its position before the "deconstruction".

 

[James R]

Spring Lake, San Marcos January 3, 2014

Temp: same as always!
Vis: 50'

Worked down in RB today, nice day, though a bit cold early in the AM. Sun cam out and it ended up being beautiful outside today!


DSC_4643 by JamesR_307, on Flickr (click thumbnail for larger image)

A few more photos from today here

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos, January 10

Temp: Same
Vis: 60-70'
Spring Flow: 170cfs

There is a new spring in Deep Hole that is usually filled with gravel. It is located at the mouth of the spring named Deep Hole. Its been there all the time and opens up when there is sufficient pressure to blow the gravel out. Right now the exposed fissure is about 4" wide and 3' long. Over time, the gravel has shaped the exit into a bowl shape and keeps the limestone polished to a pure white color. I think I am going to call this one "The Crack"

In addition, the staff has moved the floating dock back to its old location. They have not finished work on the ramp so using it can be a bit tricky. First step toward reopening the Training Area to classes.

 

[Bill Parker]

I've been here before on June 1, 2013 but my video was bad because I didn't get my camera set up correctly and the lens fogged. No fogging this time. I dove a small pool at the one of the outlets of Spring Lake. The pool is at the base of an artificial waterfall. It's near the Saltgrass restaurant at the intersection of Aquarena Springs Dr, University Dr, and Sessom Dr. Many species of fish were abundant. The vis was great. Water temps were in the 70sF as they are year round. One of the fun things was what you feel. There's a small part of the video (around 5:30) where it recorded a rumbling sound. When you are in the water near the falls your whole body can feel it. It's like your whole body is an ear drum being shaken slightly by the lowest bass speakers ever made. It's a bizarre sensation.

[video=youtube_share;uoMcC6z35_8]http://youtu.be/uoMcC6z35_8[/video]

Thanks to oldschool for telling me about this place.