I want to dive Lake Travis every day I can this week and need buddies ...

[NadMat]

Off to Wentz this morning, got to throw gear in van and finish my coffee, or something along those lines. Predicting arrival at wentz sometime after 10 and before 11:30 since In10se has to go pick up some rental gear this morning. Going to probably try a second dive either off the point or over at mansfield, first will be search and recovery for my weight pouch lost last years clean up. Someone drop by and bring us some lunch

Looks like a great day to go get wet

 

[In10se]

Looks great out there. I'm on standby waiting for the LDS to open then I'll cruise over and meet you at wentz

 

[NadMat]

Nice day at wentz, lots of very shallow diving, since the lost weight pouch was at a target depth of <15'. Started off by loosing my jets in the shallows when I left them sitting on bc floating while I ran back to shore for something. We searched around in the silt at the end of the cove for a bit and I finally found them.

We started our dive, but Larry was having issues with fit of his rental bc and with just a little bouncing off bottom we would loose one another in silt, sometimes finding each other in water, other times surfacing to pair back up. However, the last time he lost me he had me a bit worried, I tried to locate him for a couple of minutes, then surfaced to locate his bubbles. couldn't see bubbles nearby, so exited water and stood on shore looking for him, finally saw a head break surface way across cove halfway to sailboat ramp, hollered his name and got a fin wave, he did the long slow surface swim back, was low on air by then. After a short chat about buddy separation he hung out on shore while I burnt a little more air at 12', I think I finally located the contour I lost my pouch on, but haven't yet located the pouch.

Other than Larrys' gear issues and consequent separations, it was a nice dive, I think the cove side on a weekday is not a bad spot to dive, amazing amount of fish life, several large catfish, bass, a huge carp, and all the normal suspects. I may try this again as an afternoon dive later this week. It is however shallow for a long way and a rather silty bottom, so proper weighting and good bouyancy and trim are necessary for a successful dive there. On the last solo jaunt I did I was getting 12-15 good vis following a rock spur out into lake before I hit 20' and decided to move back to shore and exit.

 

[NadMat]

Favorite pic from today...

That is just as it came out of camera, he hung out with me for a while, the rest are in my webshots album

 

[In10se]

Today was great. Mat and Melissa were outstanding people to dive with.

Mat had the experience of being my first post cert dive buddy, and as he posted it was not uneventful. We got separated and I followed our dive plan trying to "catch him" instead of just surfacing and staying up until he showed. I did come up and look around twice, but I didn't see him and went back down to continue on trying to catch up. Bad idea. Mat I owe you lunch at the place of your choice.

SO okay ... new rule: DO NOT FREAK OUT YOUR DIVE BUDDY!! I get separated I surface and I wait for my buddy to pop up somewhere. This way my buddy doesn't worry about the SPORE meeting up with Murphy at depth. Murphy is persistent. He is also amphibious, while I am not.

My SAC rate on my first dive sucked. Whoa ... whoda thunk it. I figured I'd do better, but w/e. On my second dive with RumBum I did better on my SAC, but getting my ears to EQ was not as easy as I'd like it to be. Meh ... no biggie.

Lost a snorkel. Whaaaaaaa I tried out a rear inflate BC. It sucked. The majority of the air was stored closer to the top of the rig. Even when I dumped enough air so that my face was above water barely enough breath I was still getting pushed to far forward. I was not amused by this and will not use that style of BC again. I also did not like the short hose on the primary. I had to maintain a serious grip on the primary with my teeth ... much more of a grip than required on previous dives with other equipment. It was just too dang short of a hose and I'll tell Adventure Scuba what I think, though I doubt that will matter to them.

Tomorrow morning Mack is taking me out with a little tech gear. I get to try a BP/W and learn the ins and outs of a wrist mount dive comp. I'm counting the minutes.

All in all I had a fantabulous day. I've been looking forward to this for a few months. Mat and Melissa ... thanks a billion for your patience and your time :thumbs_up:

 

[NadMat]

Here is a pic of my buddy Larry before the dive, we will have to wait till next one to get a pic of him under water for his avatar.

and here is my catfish buddy after I cleaned up the images a little bit.

 

[RumBum]

Your photos are really great, Matt! That catfish photo is especially good.

 

[Mack Diver]

Had a nice dive with in10se this morning. 1st stop was the platform to work on buoyancy control a little. Once we were set, we moved back to the sailboat and followed the line over to the airplane. From the airplane, we dropped to 68' and followed the contour for awhile before coming back up to the boats at 40'. We moseyed over to the barge and worked our way to a 15' safety stop. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. The thermocline is about 60' and vis is hit or miss. In10se really likes his air, but that will improve with time and practice.

 

[In10se]

I enjoyed today tremendously. I did suck a lot of oh2 though. Mack had an additional 700psi more than I did at the end of the dive. I guess I gotta get my lazy posterior out and do some road work.

Cool part was I lost neither my buddy nor any gear toady. This is a marked improvement over yesterday's misadventure. Also, I hit my deepest dive yet at 65ish feet. I'll have to consider thermalclines and my shorty next time.

A wrist mounted comp is the shiznit. That console with them little tiny letters and numbers is a pain the rectal orifice since my 48 year old eyes caint read 'em without doin' that wag to find the best focal distance from my face. A casual glance told me what I needed to know with the wrist mount. Now I need to find one with the largest display.

All in all I'd say that anyone needing to book time with a professional dive instructor would do well to go see Mack at Oak Hill Scuba. Learning how to dive isn't just about getting someone to show up. Learning to dive is also about getting flexibility from the people you are required to deal with in the process. As a new diver half the time I won't know what I need 'til after I've already needed it. Mack can handle that with ease. I was wanting to learn the differences between a console and a wrist mount today. I had no wrist mount, so ol' Mack just pulled the one off of his wrist and showed me how to use it. No fuss no muss just good service. I've been to a few other shops to sort out who to do business with and they are not all the same. Lets just say that attitudes vary. Mack's is top shelf.

 

[In10se]

Your photos are really great, Matt! That catfish photo is especially good.

Seriously ... that is a great shot.