Mrs.Prages
Contributor
We'll have enough stuff Chris. I wouldn't worry about renting anything just yet. It is a cool avatar by the way.
July 16 - Lake Rawlings- Diving and grillfest
- Thread starter diverkristi
- Start date
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Kriterian
Guest
Mrs.Prages:
Ok thanks. I'm leaving work (Duke grocery store) tonight around 7:30pm EST (arriving 10pm-ish I think) and have access to just about every thing. If anyone can think of something that is missing from the list, post it here or PM me. Food items of course, I wish we had an air compressor here.
ScubaBones
Guest
Well, I attempted to make it today!
With a tight schedule, I headed out this morning with visions of having a great morning diving with you all.
That ended as I sat for 2 hours on I-95 as a wreck was being cleared from the highway.
With those hours lost, and still 1 1/2 hours away, I had no choice but to turn back.
With a tight schedule, I headed out this morning with visions of having a great morning diving with you all.
That ended as I sat for 2 hours on I-95 as a wreck was being cleared from the highway.
With those hours lost, and still 1 1/2 hours away, I had no choice but to turn back.
Kriterian
Guest
I left work in Durham around 7:30pm and got to Lake Rawlings around 9:30pm and luckily the dive shop was still open. I rented my tanks without checking the fills (a mistake) and tried to find everyone else. The dive shop guy said he was putting us all together but he sent me to lot E which was completely empty. I sat in my car until Paula (the straggler wrangler) knocked on my window and led me to the camp. Paula and her husband (Greg! I remember it now, I swear) built me a tent so I didn't have to sleep in my car, THANK YOU!
Saturday morning some of us woke up around 8am with a few more getting up a little later. We had a tarp and roof down by the water with all our gear and I think we headed down around 11:30 or 12 noon. The vis looked pretty good while standing on shore, I could see the platform that was located at about 15 ft. Glenn and his family showed up just in time and we decided to buddy up. I got short filled by the shop at 2500 and I was hot in the wetsuit so I decided to putz around in the shallows while Glenn got suited up. I took a few pictures, playing with my new Canon A95 and housing. Denise's (Jeff's better half) daughter ordered me to take her picture while she was swimming, hehe, so I obliged:
Glenn and I went out to a random buoy and descended. He went down like a rock and I was having equalization issues as usual, but I got down eventually. I was taking pictures of fish here and there, it was a BLAST. It was so much fun, and I've never been into photography at all. I'll put them up in the gallery shortly, once I resize them all. Glenn did a great job of pointing out subjects for me, especially this big ole bass that I would have missed otherwise:
I had woken up by blasting off 5 or 6 sneezes and worried I would have problems because of it. Along with the freezing cold below the thermacline because I forgot my gloves, I also had a slight reverse squeeze on the way up. It was nothing major but I decided to sit out the later dives instead of risking it.
The only other problem we experienced was with Jeff's poor doggie, Brandie.
She was the innocent victim in an attack by someone elses loose Great Dane. Jeff picked up Brandie and the Dane still bit her, hard enough that it needed stitches. Jeff found a nearby vet and got her fixed thank goodness.
In summary:
I loved Lake Rawlings. The vis was decent, around 15-20 feet before the five thousand students entered the water later. It was clear, and warm above the thermocline. I loved all the little things on the bottom, and I only saw a small portion. Aside from the airfill short (which I should have caught) it was great.
It was also good to meet more faces from scubaboard and wreckmaniacs.com like Charlie, his brother John and Kristi, Greg (Paula's husband), the other Chris M with the awesome pop-up camper, Mark Vlahos, USAFstang whose name I can't remember (sorry!), Denise's friends (Cami and um...)
Ah forget it, I have sunburn all over and I'm pretty positive that DAN said it caused brain damage and early senility.
Saturday morning some of us woke up around 8am with a few more getting up a little later. We had a tarp and roof down by the water with all our gear and I think we headed down around 11:30 or 12 noon. The vis looked pretty good while standing on shore, I could see the platform that was located at about 15 ft. Glenn and his family showed up just in time and we decided to buddy up. I got short filled by the shop at 2500 and I was hot in the wetsuit so I decided to putz around in the shallows while Glenn got suited up. I took a few pictures, playing with my new Canon A95 and housing. Denise's (Jeff's better half) daughter ordered me to take her picture while she was swimming, hehe, so I obliged:
Glenn and I went out to a random buoy and descended. He went down like a rock and I was having equalization issues as usual, but I got down eventually. I was taking pictures of fish here and there, it was a BLAST. It was so much fun, and I've never been into photography at all. I'll put them up in the gallery shortly, once I resize them all. Glenn did a great job of pointing out subjects for me, especially this big ole bass that I would have missed otherwise:
I had woken up by blasting off 5 or 6 sneezes and worried I would have problems because of it. Along with the freezing cold below the thermacline because I forgot my gloves, I also had a slight reverse squeeze on the way up. It was nothing major but I decided to sit out the later dives instead of risking it.
The only other problem we experienced was with Jeff's poor doggie, Brandie.
She was the innocent victim in an attack by someone elses loose Great Dane. Jeff picked up Brandie and the Dane still bit her, hard enough that it needed stitches. Jeff found a nearby vet and got her fixed thank goodness.
In summary:
I loved Lake Rawlings. The vis was decent, around 15-20 feet before the five thousand students entered the water later. It was clear, and warm above the thermocline. I loved all the little things on the bottom, and I only saw a small portion. Aside from the airfill short (which I should have caught) it was great.
It was also good to meet more faces from scubaboard and wreckmaniacs.com like Charlie, his brother John and Kristi, Greg (Paula's husband), the other Chris M with the awesome pop-up camper, Mark Vlahos, USAFstang whose name I can't remember (sorry!), Denise's friends (Cami and um...)
Ah forget it, I have sunburn all over and I'm pretty positive that DAN said it caused brain damage and early senility.
Tanked Monkey
Contributor
Sounds like I missed quite an eventful dive trip. Nextime...
Mike Loyco:
Yes Mike, you'll have to join us next time. I really enjoyed meeting all the new folks. However, I did get Mark and Chris confused at one point.
Mel :dazzler1:
Marci....check out the avatar.
BabyDuck
Contributor
mel, there ya go baby!! i just love that pic. chris, awesome report & great pictures. mike - ha ha!! bones, really sorry about the obstruction. we were wondering what had happened to you. i'll do a quickie report...but it's all about me. i'm gonna leave the editorial comments to others for a change.
ok, mark vlahos was extraordinarily kind and helped me web the bp (as an aside, i think i'll call that 'warping' from now on, like setting up a loom, because it sounds cool.) which wasn't as hard as i had feared - thanks again, mark! and thanks to jason (jason b) for the springs (good & snug!) and the loaner wing & sta. and thanks to glenn (ncknightdiver) for the little bounce profile dives we did to try to dial in the weighting. gee, surprisingly, it's not all about me. hmmm. i'll ponder that later.
anyway, i used just the john part of my wetsuit because the depths were what the surface was the first few times in there, so i thought the whole thing would be too hot. in my bc i had been using 16lb the last few times, so started with 12 as a guess. WAY too much. took off 4. WAY too much. took off another 4 and put the last 4 down my suit. pretty good. actually, great. could go down and up on lung air alone, not having to add air on the surface (some air helped, of course, but i could float without it with minimal effort). the main problem was that if i relaxed, i'd go vertical head-down. anyway, that was dive 1, several up and downs to about 20 and a few minutes tooling around at about 25.
2 was with jason. i had only used half a tank on 1 and just wanted to blow a few bubbles. plus i respect his opinions and wanted him to give feedback on how i was doing. this time i put my old ankle weights in the webbing ring of my crotch strap, 5 lb, to try to hold me a little more level with less effort. i would still go vertical with total relaxation, but with just fairly normal body tension stayed horizontal better. when we got out i made him say i was doing fantastic. then lunch...
3 was with a big group that also had primary buddy teams. i was with chris (cmalinowski) and carl (usafstang). we had a great dive, saw things i'd never run across in rawlings, but this time i got a bit chilly at depth. never had to touch the inflator hose at all. then dinner...
4 was my first night dive. my dive plan was 'don't lose ken' (kwickert) since he had the big light & i just had a dinky flashlight. we also picked up dan somewhere. had on the jacket, too, but didn't need to change the weight. it was a lot of fun, though i kept to about 25-30, just over the second thermocline. then thanks to chris malinowski, i got to have a warm shower (yay!) and sit around the fire for a few before sleeping in a meat locker (chris' popup). of course, we had a great time! don't we always?
ok, mark vlahos was extraordinarily kind and helped me web the bp (as an aside, i think i'll call that 'warping' from now on, like setting up a loom, because it sounds cool.) which wasn't as hard as i had feared - thanks again, mark! and thanks to jason (jason b) for the springs (good & snug!) and the loaner wing & sta. and thanks to glenn (ncknightdiver) for the little bounce profile dives we did to try to dial in the weighting. gee, surprisingly, it's not all about me. hmmm. i'll ponder that later.
anyway, i used just the john part of my wetsuit because the depths were what the surface was the first few times in there, so i thought the whole thing would be too hot. in my bc i had been using 16lb the last few times, so started with 12 as a guess. WAY too much. took off 4. WAY too much. took off another 4 and put the last 4 down my suit. pretty good. actually, great. could go down and up on lung air alone, not having to add air on the surface (some air helped, of course, but i could float without it with minimal effort). the main problem was that if i relaxed, i'd go vertical head-down. anyway, that was dive 1, several up and downs to about 20 and a few minutes tooling around at about 25.
2 was with jason. i had only used half a tank on 1 and just wanted to blow a few bubbles. plus i respect his opinions and wanted him to give feedback on how i was doing. this time i put my old ankle weights in the webbing ring of my crotch strap, 5 lb, to try to hold me a little more level with less effort. i would still go vertical with total relaxation, but with just fairly normal body tension stayed horizontal better. when we got out i made him say i was doing fantastic. then lunch...
3 was with a big group that also had primary buddy teams. i was with chris (cmalinowski) and carl (usafstang). we had a great dive, saw things i'd never run across in rawlings, but this time i got a bit chilly at depth. never had to touch the inflator hose at all. then dinner...
4 was my first night dive. my dive plan was 'don't lose ken' (kwickert) since he had the big light & i just had a dinky flashlight. we also picked up dan somewhere. had on the jacket, too, but didn't need to change the weight. it was a lot of fun, though i kept to about 25-30, just over the second thermocline. then thanks to chris malinowski, i got to have a warm shower (yay!) and sit around the fire for a few before sleeping in a meat locker (chris' popup). of course, we had a great time! don't we always?
It was a grand day, lots of fun, lots of people, (but cleared out some with the Thunderstorm), but we all stayed until it passed. I got 2 great dives in and had the most fantastic buddy, I always knew where he was, what a concept, he can navigate too, a big plus!
I did not realize Lake Rawlings was only about 2 hours from me buzing up US1 to 85 (actually a bit longer but I made a stop in both diretions).
Okay what is the next big group adventure? Anyone up for Lake Norman?
Linda-BlueD
I did not realize Lake Rawlings was only about 2 hours from me buzing up US1 to 85 (actually a bit longer but I made a stop in both diretions).
Okay what is the next big group adventure? Anyone up for Lake Norman?
Linda-BlueD
LindaBluedolphin:
Lake Norman could be an idea. I haven't been there yet. Is it a lot like Rawlings and/or Fantasy Lake?
Also..I'll put this on the SB calendar.....DAN has their annual Treasure Hunt at Bluestone Quarry on October 16. Everyone go ahead and mark your calendars! Lots of prizes to find. http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/events/index.asp?sort=detail&EventID=257
Mel
Don Burke
Contributor
I uploaded the pictures I took.
Higher resolution versions are available.
If anyone wants a picture removed from scubaboard, just PM me and it will be gone as soon as I get the word. Please give me a number as I have a terrible memory for names.
Higher resolution versions are available.
If anyone wants a picture removed from scubaboard, just PM me and it will be gone as soon as I get the word. Please give me a number as I have a terrible memory for names.
