Harvey's Lake, PA

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Dectek

Guest
Messages
795
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0
Location
near Atlantic City
# of dives
200 - 499
Anyone here dive Harvey's lake anymore?
When I was younger my parents had a cabin near the lake and I remember a dive school right on the lake. I was wondering if it was still in operation and if any WVDs dove there.
11½miles of shoreline and areas close to 100 feet deep.
 
Dectek:
Anyone here dive Harvey's lake anymore?
When I was younger my parents had a cabin near the lake and I remember a dive school right on the lake. I was wondering if it was still in operation and if any WVDs dove there.
11½miles of shoreline and areas close to 100 feet deep.
I haven't dove it but, I have gone up and checked out the possibillities. Late fall or early spring would probably the best time to dive Harvey's. During the warmer months, it is way to congested. Also be aware of the altitude as I passed a few towns along the way that had elevations of at least 1,000 ft.
 
I grew up in Shavertown, PA (about 7 miles from Harvey's Lake) and dived the lake on a regular basis back in the 70's. The Harvey's Lake Scuba School and owner Tommy O'Brian are long, long gone. Tommy was quite the character. Kind of marched to the beat of a different drummer when it came to diver training. He wasn't a member of any training agency. He would train divers by using the methods he learned when he was a merchant marine and would issue his own diving certificate. I doubt it would be accepted by anyone else. Many of the local divers did get their first experience by taking one of Tommy's one day intro courses. During the summer months Tommy would charge divers to dive from his property ($5.00 or $10.00 or so if my memory is correct). You could bring a picnic lunch and stay the entire day. He even sunk two or three small boats in about 15ft of water to give divers something to look at. Tommy also would charter a large pontoon boat that he had and take divers to different locations on the lake. But that was a long, long time ago. Tommy was a good friend of many of the local divers in the area (which weren't very many at the time) and he is saddly missed.

Except for the State boat launch, Harvey's has pretty much turned into a private lake. Unless you had your own boat, you would have to let someone allow you to cross their property to get to the water. Good luck with that ever happening.

During the 80's, Harvey's use to suffer from large blooms of algae during the summer months. The lake would actually turn a light green. I'm not sure if this is under control. When I use to dive the lake, visibility in the 10-15 ft. range was common. Visibility steadily decreased over the years. I have a depth map of the lake. The deepest point (110 ft.) is located straight out from the old Hanson's Amusement park (which is also long, long gone).
 
Has anyone dove here recently I'll be passing through this area next Friday (05 September 2008) and am wondering if there might be a place to stop and dive for abit to break up the driving. I realize that this thread is over 4 years old but it is the only discussion I could find.
 
Ive heard it was dived but never seen anyone do it. I am doingcheck out dives at dutch next week but would like to find something close to home to dive. I've see people diving in Chapman Lake when I was a kid. But I don't know of anything currently dived.
 
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