thevalkyry
Queen of the Turtles
This weekend my buddy and I headed down to Aquarena Spring in San Marcos to take the Texas State University Diving for Science course. We prepared ourselves with layers. In addition to a standard issue wetsuit and boots we went equiped with a second wetsuit for layering, hoods, gloves...
The class is awesome. You spend Saturday morning in the classroom learning about the geology of the spring, the history and archaeology, and the various species that can be found in the spring. Our classroom for the geology was an actual classroom, but for part two we moved out to the spring itself and had lecture in the glass bottom boat. Part 3 was in the aquarium. All the classroom was taught by the director of the River Institute, Ron Cowley. He is an excellent lecturer and the academics of the class were really very interesting. I had no idea that Aquarena's history was so extensive. All of you divers should really go take this course if you havent. The academics alone are worth the time and expense.
Over lunch we looked ahead to what the diving would be like. Each diver is required to pass a buoyancy test by doing an obstacle course. We were a bit concerned about this as we are still perfecting that elusive neutral buoyancy. Luckily for us entering the water proved much more difficult than moving around in it.
We were assigned to group 2. So we had a bunch of time to dwell on water temperature. Despite the cold front the afternoon air temp was almost 70 which is very tolerable under 6 mils of neoprene. We ended up being the last divers in... As we stood on the dock we asked how the water was. We were assured that it was 'like bathwater'. The chattering jaws, however, belied the truth of that statement. With resignation we strode in and the first shock was truly horrific. But once we got used to it then it was OK. The obstacle course was nothing. All that worry and we breezed through it. Then they made us get out... oh god, suddenly the water wasnt so cold. So I jumped back in.
Underwater, Aquarena is incredible. The viz, for a Texas dive is amazing. It looks like those pix of Florida springs you see in dive mags. Just crystal clear. And you would never know it from the surface. The surface looks green and murky - a typical Texas swamp dive - and then you go underneath and it is like going through the looking glass. Both of our tour dives were perfectly timed at twilight and early morning. So the sun shafting through the water is the first thing you notice. It really gives a fairy land aspect to everthing. The flora is the next thing. The plant life is abundant and waving gently in the current. And in amongst the plants are tons and tons of fish - big fish! And they swim right along with you. There is so much to see you just dont know where to look. There are also tons of turtles - and everyone knows how much I love turtles (it's genetic, I get it from my great aunt, but I like aqua-turtles and she was a land turtle type). The Spring lacks cleaning stations so the turtles just get mossier and mossier. So you have to look carefully while going through the plant life - sometimes they just blend right in. On our last dive I saw 8 turtles. So cool!! They have a spotted fish with a long nose called gar and we saw some adults which was a treat too.
I wont bore you with all of the gear up and gear down details. Just needless to say - so glad for warm showers!!! And the heated seats in my car. By the end of our second dive Saturday night I was a real diver-sicle. But so worth it. Sunday was 42 air temp. So I just made sure I was nice and chilled going in and the water was nice and warm
Joe Bob says Check it out!
BTW - there has been some speculation about demolition at Aquarena. I cornered Ron about this specifically. He confirmed that, yes, a number of buildings are scheduled for removal in 2 years to get them out of the flood plain. They do not really have a replacement plan in place, but Ron said he would like to see a floating dive facility that wouldnt be subject to the floods. He says some interesting ideas. But the diving program is pretty important to the Institute so I dont think it is in any imminent danger of it going away. It's impact is too measureably successful. So things will change, but I dont think they will go away.
The class is awesome. You spend Saturday morning in the classroom learning about the geology of the spring, the history and archaeology, and the various species that can be found in the spring. Our classroom for the geology was an actual classroom, but for part two we moved out to the spring itself and had lecture in the glass bottom boat. Part 3 was in the aquarium. All the classroom was taught by the director of the River Institute, Ron Cowley. He is an excellent lecturer and the academics of the class were really very interesting. I had no idea that Aquarena's history was so extensive. All of you divers should really go take this course if you havent. The academics alone are worth the time and expense.
Over lunch we looked ahead to what the diving would be like. Each diver is required to pass a buoyancy test by doing an obstacle course. We were a bit concerned about this as we are still perfecting that elusive neutral buoyancy. Luckily for us entering the water proved much more difficult than moving around in it.
We were assigned to group 2. So we had a bunch of time to dwell on water temperature. Despite the cold front the afternoon air temp was almost 70 which is very tolerable under 6 mils of neoprene. We ended up being the last divers in... As we stood on the dock we asked how the water was. We were assured that it was 'like bathwater'. The chattering jaws, however, belied the truth of that statement. With resignation we strode in and the first shock was truly horrific. But once we got used to it then it was OK. The obstacle course was nothing. All that worry and we breezed through it. Then they made us get out... oh god, suddenly the water wasnt so cold. So I jumped back in.
Underwater, Aquarena is incredible. The viz, for a Texas dive is amazing. It looks like those pix of Florida springs you see in dive mags. Just crystal clear. And you would never know it from the surface. The surface looks green and murky - a typical Texas swamp dive - and then you go underneath and it is like going through the looking glass. Both of our tour dives were perfectly timed at twilight and early morning. So the sun shafting through the water is the first thing you notice. It really gives a fairy land aspect to everthing. The flora is the next thing. The plant life is abundant and waving gently in the current. And in amongst the plants are tons and tons of fish - big fish! And they swim right along with you. There is so much to see you just dont know where to look. There are also tons of turtles - and everyone knows how much I love turtles (it's genetic, I get it from my great aunt, but I like aqua-turtles and she was a land turtle type). The Spring lacks cleaning stations so the turtles just get mossier and mossier. So you have to look carefully while going through the plant life - sometimes they just blend right in. On our last dive I saw 8 turtles. So cool!! They have a spotted fish with a long nose called gar and we saw some adults which was a treat too.
I wont bore you with all of the gear up and gear down details. Just needless to say - so glad for warm showers!!! And the heated seats in my car. By the end of our second dive Saturday night I was a real diver-sicle. But so worth it. Sunday was 42 air temp. So I just made sure I was nice and chilled going in and the water was nice and warm
Joe Bob says Check it out!
BTW - there has been some speculation about demolition at Aquarena. I cornered Ron about this specifically. He confirmed that, yes, a number of buildings are scheduled for removal in 2 years to get them out of the flood plain. They do not really have a replacement plan in place, but Ron said he would like to see a floating dive facility that wouldnt be subject to the floods. He says some interesting ideas. But the diving program is pretty important to the Institute so I dont think it is in any imminent danger of it going away. It's impact is too measureably successful. So things will change, but I dont think they will go away.
