I am going to be visiting a couple of friends in Alabama and thought I would make an extra day to hit Rock Divers near Huntsville. I was just wondering if anyone has dove there and if so, what are the typical conditions? Is there decent viz( and by decent I mean over 10 feet). Also is it worth it for an hour drive? Thanks.
Is Rock Divers in Alabama any decent?
- Thread starter chindiver
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SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I dove it towards the end of last summer and we have visibilities in the 5-25' ranges. I dove it with a few friends and we basically just played around all the junk they have sunk in the quarry. It was fun. We drove 5 hours or so to play around in it, but it gave us a reason to roadtrip and camp.
Some pics http://www.suprbugman.com/gallery/album12
Some pics http://www.suprbugman.com/gallery/album12
It is an ok place to dive but I find Blue Water in Birmingham much more enjoyable. Blue Water gets over 150 (but there is nothing but rocks and beer cans past 100 due to liability concerns) and B W typically has better viz.
mike_s
Contributor
chindiver:
I live very near it. If you've never dove it before, then it's definately worth an hour drive.
What time/month of year are you planning on diving it? As most rock quarries are, they don't warm up until summer hits. Temps now are most liekly in the 50's at the best (or the high 40's). You don't get bottom temps in the 60's until into June. July/August/Sept are the best for temp in my opinion.
It's water covers about 8 acres and is about 45 feet deep. It might be slightly deeper after a huge rain, but they try to keep it at that depth so the "rear" area parking is dry. Lots of stuff to see. a S-10 pickup and boat trailer, a walking bridge span, a F4 fighter, a Minuteman Missile, a couple houseboats, several "runabouts", a firetruck, etc. They have/had a bus that I think they've sunk, but I'm not sure.
They do offer air fills and equipment rental on site. Hours are posted on their website, but when it's not busy, they have a tendency to not exactly follow those hours people have said. They have a retail store also, but they don't stock a large inventory. Cost to dive for a day is $17.
Vis can vary due to "algae" in the water, the most recent rain, and if there have been a large group of open water students who can't keep their fins off the bottom stiring up silt. I've been there where VIS was 50 feet and when it was under 5 feet.
FYI. Dive training magazine has a write up last year on it and you can view that on their website on the DIVING USA section.
Before you go, print out directions. You can see it from the Interstate, but you have to zig zag around several turns and cut through a local company area to get to it.
Hope that all helps. Please feel free to PM me or post her if you have more questions.
-Mike
SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Theres still a bus onsite, I believe its close to the south-east side of the quarry - if I remember correctly.
mike_s
Contributor
SuPrBuGmAn:
Wasn't sure. Apparantly they "forgot" to clean out one of the oil/gas/fuel/etc tanks and it had a leak last year or so. They were talking about removing the bus because of that. At least until they could clean it. From what I read somewhere, it generated a little "mini" oil slick on the surface.
SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
The funniest part of that is, if you ask the guy running the shop, vandals caused the oil slick?¿? LOL
mike_s
Contributor
SuPrBuGmAn:
Yeah. heh. He even made a "written statement" about that in Dive Training Magazine saying they had been sabatoged by vandals. (This was a response by the manager to a "reader letter" complaining about the dive park management etc., conditions, hours, etc, and the attitude they got from the managing partner. The reader orignally sent in his "letter" to the magazine after there was a published article about the dive park which is now). This was all done over about 3 issues of the magazine.
Here is the "original article" written by Dive Training magazine
http://www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/MadisonAquaticParkAL.html
The "letter" and "response" were in the readers letters section (in another issue), which I don't think is available online.
I talked to someone else who works there and they rolled their eyes at "the vandals" statement and said they just didn't clean it good enough apparantly and were most liekly going to have to pull it back out or something... As for missing something with oil in it, I'd say that'd be easy to do though. A bus has lots of fluids (brake, oil, gas, hydralic?, gear oil, transmission, etc) in it. I'd guess that just the brake lines (if not air brakes) could be enough to cause a problem.
Overall though I think this group runs a pretty good dive park. But I understand the person in the "reader letter" frustration though as he drove down ( I think) only to have them close very early that day which limted his diving or something and the attitude he was given by their management that day.
Firebrand
Contributor
If you can make a day of it then it is worth going. There are lots of things to see and play around, but it's still quarry diving. I have not been to Blue Water in Birmingham, and therefore cannot report on it, but diving on the F-4 fighter jet at Rockdivers was pretty cool.
mike_s
Contributor
Blue Water in Birmingham is pretty cool also. I haven't been to it in a while. It's also much deeper (if you need that) and cold as crap. The madison quarry is much much warmer. Mostly I think because it's shallower and that "north wall" catches/reflects so much sunlight to warm the water.
The quarry in Moultan is back in operation again after several years of being closed. It's being operated by a "new" dive shop in Center Star, which is supposed to open it's
doors soon. For those not familiar with Center Star, it's on hwy 72 between Rogersville and Florence (and isn't even big enough to warrant a stop light, so I'll be interesting to see how this business does).
The quarry in Moultan is back in operation again after several years of being closed. It's being operated by a "new" dive shop in Center Star, which is supposed to open it's
doors soon. For those not familiar with Center Star, it's on hwy 72 between Rogersville and Florence (and isn't even big enough to warrant a stop light, so I'll be interesting to see how this business does).
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