Diving in Kansas?

[jeraldjcook]

Oh... that thing... I would consider that more of a pond... or a flooded ditch.

What kind of vis do you get there? Looks like it'd be about the same as a pond farm to me. I guess it's an excuse to get in the water though.

I used to drive past that thing everyday on my way to work. I always imagined it to be 3ft, or just deep enough to float a boat.

 

[jeraldjcook]

The diving in southern Missouri isn't bad. It only takes me 4 1/2 hours to make it down to Table Rock. And on the way you pass Stockton lake, Oronogo, Bull Shoals. Just past Table Rock is Beaver lake. There are plenty of places to dive if your willing to make a weekend car trip.

 

[Bill51]

Oh... that thing... I would consider that more of a pond... or a flooded ditch.

What kind of vis do you get there? Looks like it'd be about the same as a pond farm to me. I guess it's an excuse to get in the water though.

It’s 6-8’ deep and viz is about 6-12” once you hit the bottom to go to work. It’s a great black water search and recovery practice, it helps the kids on the local water ski team save money, and it’s what working diving is all about – and the folks that built it and maintain it for the ski club consider it their lake so that’s what it is.

 

[Bill51]

The diving in southern Missouri isn't bad. It only takes me 4 1/2 hours to make it down to Table Rock. And on the way you pass Stockton lake, Oronogo, Bull Shoals. Just past Table Rock is Beaver lake. There are plenty of places to dive if your willing to make a weekend car trip.

I regularly made that trip from KC to Table Rock for 40 years to go diving (though I cheated and mostly flew there for the last 15 years), and now I live on the ocean in Florida but unless I want to go spear something in cold 20’ viz I once again make a 4 hour trip – but that now puts me in the Keys.

 

[broncobowsher]

Now I know of a private lake only an hour south of KC with clear water and 30' deep. It is way back on some private property (that happens to be my parents neighbors). Thank KCPL for digging up a strip mine back in the 30's. To the best of my knoweledge I am the only one to have ever dove there.

You just need to know the right people and places.

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

Hey Bronco, have you ever considered making it a dive property? Is it nice enough to be one and have people drive from miles away to come stay and dive it? Who knows, this may be a new venture for yourself!

Chris

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

Hey Kansas guys, I was looking around on Google Earth and found some lakes - what about
1. El Dorado Lake
2. Timber Creek Lake
3. Wellington Lake
4. Elk City Lake
5. Lake Parsons
6. Toronto Lake
7. Marion Reservoir

Are they all just mud holes???

 

[slingshot]

As a proud Kansan by birth and upbringing (heck, I remember Clinton Lake before there was a Clinton Lake), I dare say Kansas is not as flat as Florida! I have no doubt that as this fact sinks in to the general populace, there will be an influx of hopeful Floridians seeking a better and more topographically diverse future in the sunflower state. What, after all, could Florida offer that Kansas could not match? The American Bison is as fine as any manatee, the waving fields of grain in the summer matches the grandeur of any windswept beach! The fiery contrails of Titan IIs lifting off over Lawrence are as awe-inspiring as any shuttle launch I've seen. (Okay, that was just a special effect in "The Day After") Need I say more? Stout hearts, men and women of Kansas!

 

[Bill51]

LOL I got married in the Danforth Chapel in Lawrence literally the day after the movie “The Day After” aired. The minister even teased us about the movie. I do miss the hills of eastern Kansas but I had 50 years of them so it was time to move on. There’s days I get sick of the manatee being so thick in the canal you can almost walk across it and would like to just be back in Kansas where I could shoot a deer when they get too thick. Get to be my age and I remember when they were first filling Table Rock and I walked the bottom of Tuttle Creek before it filled.

Having seen hundreds of great little potential diving holes from the air in eastern Kansas, I learned that it’s nearly impossible to open any of them as a commercial dive site. The two biggest problems is the water carries too high a concentration of heavy metals to meet most insurance standards or the walls are too crumbly and have too many cave ins.

 

[broncobowsher]

Hey Bronco, have you ever considered making it a dive property? Is it nice enough to be one and have people drive from miles away to come stay and dive it? Who knows, this may be a new venture for yourself!

Chris

Not my property, can’t do it. He uses it as a get away from everyone else. I know he doesn’t want people back there. I only know of it because he is my parent’s neighbor for 30+ years. He knows that if wants to get rid of it to contact me.