Homestead Crater, UT.

[Ghosty]

Next month I'll be doing my AOW cert. here. It's located East of SLC, near Midway, UT. Any advice, tips, dangers, restaurants, etc. I should know about ahead of time? I'm sure my dive shop will fill us in, but it's good to know all the real world experience from others who've done it. Probably staying at the Homestead Resort hotel.

Thanks!

 

[shurite7]

It can get a bit crowded during the weekend. Since you only have a two hour slot each time you dive I recommend setting up your gear outside the dome before your time slot. If it is cold outside you can put your scuba gear together in the hotel room and take it over to the dome. That way you can walk in, put on your gear and get in the nice warm water.

There are plenty restaurants in town that are a five to ten minute drive. There is a BBQ place across the road from the resort, easy walking distance, that is quite good. There is also a quaint Italian place not too far from the the Crater Dome. On the same road as the Italian place a few blocks down is a Mexican restaurant with all sorts of different salsa sauces. Further in town there are plenty of other restaurants. I have found the food to be a bit pricey.

The diving is the Crater Dome is easy because it is nice and warm. Some people find it a bit claustrophobic because there isn't a whole lot of light in the water. There is one light at 25 feet near a small platform. There is some light from the top of the dome during the day. At night it is best to bring a dive light. The max depth is 67 feet. Mind your buoyancy and stay off the bottom!! The viz can be reduced dramatically if you stir up the bottom. There are two frames made from pvc at 45 feet and 15 feet hanging from cables attached to the ceiling. Since the elevation is a mile high make your ascents nice and slow.

The greatest thing about the water is it is warm; 93 at the surface and 95 at the bottom. Enjoy.

 

[Ghosty]

Definitely important to remember altitude! Will be playing with my new DC as well, hopefully no issues, so I'll have a regular hosed SPG as a backup to compare with. That sucks they don't have it lit up more. Will probably just dive in a t-short and swimming trunks for those temps, heh.

I'm still debating on going this route, getting it out of the way so I can do more wrecks in Spring, vs. waiting and just doing my entire AOW in Florida, but using up some rec. dives for the AOW electives. But the entire environment will be much nicer. Cost isn't an issue.

 

[PhatD1ver]

I realize that it's now snowy and cold, but seriously why would you do AOW in the crater? what good are you doing yourself as a diver?

Okay, I admit, and I am the last person to want to be called the "SCUBA Police", but I'm curious to learn how you can meet the standards for AOW?

Underwater Nav is mandatory, the crater is barely big enough to set up a 10m line to do your fin kicks, for sure you can't run a square, or a triangle effectively. There is no natural features to navigate by. I don't see it.

Deep is required - the crater is 54 feet deep (18m), DEEP is deeper than 18m, you really won't get the right experience fudging the numbers just for a card. And if you think that this in any way is going to prepare you for wrecks? think again my friend, unless you are planning on only diving wrecks down to 55 feet, you really need to get down to 30m or 100 feet and learn what happens (and if possible get narc'd a little so you know you can work thru it).

Fish ID - There aren't any fish, no fish ID,
Wreck - No wreck, no anything really except a giant natural hot tub.
Boat diving? - no boat, scratch that
Photography? - what's there to take pictures of?
Buoyancy Control? always a good skill, I did Peak Buoyancy during my AOW
Drift? only if someone flushes that giant toilet
Underwater Naturalist? again, not much in the way of 'nature' other than rock walls and white sediment on the bottom

Two of my kids certified for OW in the crater. Then came to Asia and dove in a REAL open water environment at Puerto Galera. I thought when I paid for their courses that the instructors would at least give them ONE real OW dive out at Blue Lake.

I guess if all you want is to brag to your buddies that you are AOW, it's your money, but what a waste. And you clearly won't be a 'better' diver for the experience IMHO.

You say money isn't a problem, then do yourself a favor. Take a couple days of vacation, call Pacific Wilderness in San Pedro, CA; and drive down and spend 3-4 days diving with one of their instructors along the coast, in some pretty challenging shore entries, thru the kelp, where you can see fish, underwater features for navigation, and then even have one day to go out to Catalina, dive Ship Rock if it's possible (for your deep), or even Bird Rock. There's a bunch of great places.

Point here is that you'll get a REAL AOW education in those 3-4 days that will help you be better prepared to learn to dive wrecks in FL.

 

[Ghosty]

Good info @PhatD1ver, thanks! But it's all moot because I decided to skip Homestead and do my AOW in Ft. Lauderdale or Key Largo. I'm not sure I can answer your questions about how this shop conducts their classes at the Crater. I definitely want to plan a California dive trip in the future, SoCal, Monterey Bay, etc.

Point here is that you'll get a REAL AOW education in those 3-4 days that will help you be better prepared to learn to dive wrecks in FL.

Agree, and if I'm spending $400, it would be nice to actually enjoy some real ocean and sealife while I'm doing all these dives. With the money saved on doing the Homestead trip, I bought my BCD. An AquaLung Axiom i3.

 

[boulderjohn]

The crater is 67 feet deep, not 54, so you can meet the minimum standards for the AOW deep dive there. I don't recommend it, though. The maximum depth for the AOW deep dive is 100 feet, and I believe you should try to come close to that. IMO, the most important thing about diving deep is diving deep enough to experience the greater speed with which you will go through your gas. Another problem with the deep dive there is that you are supposed to see how color changes as you get deeper. You won't see that because it will be too dark, and if you shine a light on it, then you are losing the effect.

As mentioned earlier, navigation is also a problem.

People thinking of doing AOW out of the Denver area are going to get a better experience going to Santa Rosa and doing it in the Blue Hole.

 

[PhatD1ver]

Thanks John, I know the actual depth, but they don't like anyone to "bottom out" bac use invariably it results in kicking up silt and messing up the vis for a day or more. So they try to keep dives at 54 feet.

But as you state, it's possible, but what "value" is there in a confined water dive to 67 feet?

I think as noted, air consumption, color recognition, and also temperature change and workload are all learning points.

Diving so much in warm water here, it took adding a little "work" to induce narcosis for me, my instructor felt that also was a key learning point to experience under supervision.

A year later I was diving wrecks in Coron and we dropped down to 35m to enter, another diver literally ran over me, knocking my mask off, kicking my reg out of my mouth and necklace, and I was suddenly furious, with a heavy task load. I went to my long hose, then fixed my short. By then I already recognized the narc feeling, and then had to go to 39m to get my mask, and the whole time I was telling myself, you're narcd 1) slow down, 2) relax your breathing, 3) ascend to a safer depth (which was 30m)... By the time I'd done all that, the DM was poking his head back out the entry and circling his light.

Point is, it's part of the learning, and a fiver should know that feeling, not just they are "affected"