dive spot conditions

[FIXXERVI6]

I'm getting cabin fever and hopefully I'll be recovered enough from a head cold to get out this weekend, but I'm clear springed out and travis is lookin cruddy, is there anything out there right now that is descent?

other than CSSP and Travis, and within a day trip distance of DFW

 

[crd_kats]

White Rock Lake, Lake Ray Hubbard, and Lake Dallas are huge bodies of water, but dunno if they're divable. Curious, is that your sidemount or a scooter in front of you in your avatar?

 

[FIXXERVI6]

White Rock Lake, Lake Ray Hubbard, and Lake Dallas are huge bodies of water, but dunno if they're divable. Curious, is that your sidemount or a scooter in front of you in your avatar?

Its a 108 sidemount swung around in front, for those that have tried it they know how hard it is to actually swim with 108's out front, even 1 out front is very hard to do. (HEAVY, they want to pull you over)

as far as the lakes, doesn't white rock get a ton of boat traffic?

 

[crd_kats]

White Rock and boat traffic? Not that I recall.. unless you're talking about the little sun sailing skiffs.. It mostly has allegators Good luck on finding somewhere to go.

Very cool avatar. I've been around several sidemount divers recently and have yet to see them pull their tanks forward during the swim. Didn't think about the weight pulling you over. Very nice.

 

[psiborg1812]

try Lake Murray up in Oklahoma. It's dark, but usually clear.

 

[texdiveguy]

.................... from 12/30/09--- "Thought about going to Murray:

Well, TxIceDiver and I made a run to Murray on Tues. Dec. 29.
It was a reasonably rational day, all in all. We left DFW about 830am and headed north across the river. The weather that morning was very clear but cold. roads were in great condition. There were a few small patches of ice in Oklahoma hiding in the shadows of overpass bridges. There was little bit of snow left on the ground at Murray, mostly in small patches. We arrived at Marietta Landing.

We had the park -- we had the lake to ourselves. There was nobody up there. The water at 1100am was glass smooth; no wind; but still cold air temp. We geared up in our dry suits and went diving. We set a 330 compass heading out of the beach scuba park. We bumbled around mostly in a general 330, maybe a 300 compass heading. Got lost (navigation) a couple of times. Never lost sight of each other. Visibility was 5-6 ft. No better. Too bad. We eventually hit the northern shore of the cove at a location well beyond (to the west) the buoys! What a dive!

We never did see anything interesting; not even any fish. We found a couple of beer cans and an old shoe. Water temp was a solid 45 F from surface to a max depth of 64 ft.

After dive #1, and considering the lack luster list of things we saw, we decided to not conduct a dive #2. We packed our gear at a casual pace and headed to La Roca for lunch. Too bad! I was promised snow!

We left La Roca at about 200pm and headed south. It started snowing in Gainesville and was snowing really good by the time we got to Denton. All in all, we had a very fun day even though it was only one dive."
__________________
"This having fun thing is a lot of hard work."
-- richerso

 

[richerso]

I am not really recommending Murray right now. See my report from yesterday; graciously reposted here by texdiveguy.

Visibility was a very consistent 5-6 ft. Not great vis; of course I have dived in worse. If you are just really jonesing to get wet, Murray will work; just don't have any high expectations.

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Current plan is to shoot for elmer thomas, this way even if the vis sucks at least its a new spot for me.

 

[texdiveguy]

Current plan is to shoot for elmer thomas, this way even if the vis sucks at least its a new spot for me.

Rick, did you make it out to the lake (never been myself).....???

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Just got back, lets see... COLD

COLD

COOOLD

Air temp had to be around 30 I don't remember exactly, I just know there was ice all over and it was a very cold stiff breeze! I was walking down to the lake looking at the ice on the rock and puddles of water thinking awsome, I need to invest in dry gloves

Had a slow start, o-rings wouldn't seat on my regs so I had to warm them up with the trucks heater and dig them out and put new ones in.

Jason (Gilty) our guide gave us a dive briefing and we were off, plan was to go out the dam, check out the old dam thats underwater and come back accross. (I think, I thought a was paying good attention by my ears were frozen)

First dive was 93 feet max depth, runtime was about 19 minutes, Kurt was diving 3 mil gloves and the cold was just too much (I wouldn't have lasted half that long). I decided I didn't have enough punishment so I went back for another 21 minutes on a shallow dive with Jason (the only one smart enough to use dry gloves) and at that point I couldn't feel my fingers any more with my 7mm gloves so I had to pack it in.

Vis varied, on the bottom I could make out fins and light a few feet away but it was in a haze so good clear vision was like a foot, up shallower we hit some spots that was probably a good solid 6 feet of vis.

Temperature graph shows 38.6 for surface and 37.5 for max depth, my codest dive to date.

One thing I have discovered about diving sidemount, I do not like it for cold water, when I have to remove a nice warm reg and stick in a nice fresh ice cold one on the tank switch, thats not fun.

On a side note large portions of the bottom were gravel and rock in some areas and TONS of muscles all over and LOTS of I guess duck poop?

All in all good day out, I'll do it again - when its warmer!