Diving Comal

[cruiser]

I've never been there but it sounds fun from your posts. Is this a "current" dive? You get in at the top and out at the bottom? Just wonderin'

 

[cruiser]

I didn't word that right. Do you start your dive at the beginning of the river and drift down to where it joins the Guadalupe?

I've never been there but it sounds fun from your posts. Is this a "current" dive? You get in at the top and out at the bottom? Just wonderin'

 

[hydro12]

It's definitely a drift dive - one that I got to experience for the first time last weekend.

We started off "upriver" at a campsite off Landa RV Park (site 512, I believe) and took the stairs into the river. We drifted with the current down river for about 35 mins or so till you can hear the water running through the damn (there is a net that will catch you if you get too close, with the last set of stairs on your left).

Then of course, during the surface interval, a quick doffing of the equipment and the obligatory tube chute in the wetsuit a few times to the other side of the damn.

It's a very neat dive, we had great viz (about 10-12 ft), great weather last weekend (84F air temp, and 74F water temp). Lots of fish, a turtle, several crawfish, and a few ducks.

The most difficult thing was logistics about car parking. We left our gear at camp, drove the truck down river near the exit stairs, walked back up river to our site where our gear was, donned up, went in, and unloaded the gear in the truck down river.

 

[cruiser]

Michael--

Thanks for the info. This is going on my dive list

It's definitely a drift dive - one that I got to experience for the first time last weekend.

We started off "upriver" at a campsite off Landa RV Park (site 512, I believe) and took the stairs into the river. We drifted with the current down river for about 35 mins or so till you can hear the water running through the damn (there is a net that will catch you if you get too close, with the last set of stairs on your left).

Then of course, during the surface interval, a quick doffing of the equipment and the obligatory tube chute in the wetsuit a few times to the other side of the damn.

It's a very neat dive, we had great viz (about 10-12 ft), great weather last weekend (84F air temp, and 74F water temp). Lots of fish, a turtle, several crawfish, and a few ducks.

The most difficult thing was logistics about car parking. We left our gear at camp, drove the truck down river near the exit stairs, walked back up river to our site where our gear was, donned up, went in, and unloaded the gear in the truck down river.

 

[hydro12]

When I went to Comal for the first time last weekend, it was the first dive I did after having returned from a scientific dive off the Gulf Coast to repair a meterological buoy (think NOAA buoys). The buoy repair dive was in about 5-6 ft depth most of the day trying to hold on to the bottom part of this 9 ft diameter buoy as it swung in the water column w/ the 4 foot seas we had that day, all the while attempting to use crescent and box end wrenches to remove bolts and repair devices on board. So, if all the whallops to the top of the noggin from the buoy crashing down on top of us weren't enough, it was a balmy 60F water temp, we were surrounded by Portugese man-of-war jellies, and the 10 hour day of riding the underwater mechanical bull made me sick as a dog.

Anyway, the point of the story is that, after all that mess, going to the Comal and letting it do all the work of taking you down-river on a nice easy ride was a very welcome change to the previous week's Hurling Hell ride.

Maybe it was just the stark contrast, but Comal sure did seem awfully nice ;D