I would, Mack, but I just don't have enough wetsuit for it. One of these days, I'll have a drysuit, but until then...
Anyway, here's a report on Balmorhea: Water temp was 75 F and vis was really good. Well, as long as a certain pair of fellows from New Mexico were out of the water, anyway. They were entertaining themselves with two cans of cheese whiz while kneeling on the bottom. This accomplished two things: they kicked up the bottom, and they attracted HUGE clouds of little fish. Sure, it was fun to watch, but the problem was my partner and I were there to shoot some video and still photos for a presentation I'm putting together for late January. The vis wasn't that much of a problem...we could simply move or wait for the water to clear. However, after the fish-feeders left the pool, those huge swarms of fish mugged me and my partner, begging for more canned cheese. We could hardly get acceptable shots through the cloud of finned cheese fiends! Oh, well, we managed, and we had a great time on both hour-long dives. The turtles and ducks put on a great show, and it was fantastic to spend a warm winter day diving a truly special place. It didn't hurt to nearly have the place all to ourselves, either. Oh sure, there were a few other divers, but not many at all. We had a blast!
For me and my partner, it was a long drive, but it was worth it to get in one final day of diving for 2007. Now comes that much too long wait for our next dive outing...usually March or so.
Well, there's always Aquarena, right?