We had a request to recover a swim platform that had come dis-lodged from the back of a boat. I had heard numerous horror stories about diving in Lake Austin, so I was not looking forward to it. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a nice dive.
Lake Austin is shallow, with a max depth of about 25 feet. For many years, the lake was choked with Hydrilla. There is allot of boat traffic, so vis is usually poor and the conditions are hazardous. We purposely scheduled the dive for a weekday morning. This would minimize boat traffic and give the sediment a chance to settle.
We arrived at the dive site and things went as planned. We only saw one boat on the water and vis was about 6 feet. Amazingly, there was no hydilla. We staged a canoe on the water, with a dive float, to warn any other boats away. Water temp was 71. Our search area was about 300 x 150. We ran a couple of cross hatch patterns with no success. One of the guys in the canoe said that they had done a u-turn in the middle of the lake, straight out from one of the docks. I took a due north heading from the dock and found the float in 16 feet of water. It was actually sitting almost vertical, which explains why we missed it with our pattern.
We had been told that the swim platform weighed probably about 100 lbs, so we had lift bags ready to hoist it to the surface. In fact, it probably weighed about 25 lbs dry, and I was able to swim it to the surface with ease.
All in all, a happy ending. The boat owners got their swim platform back, we got paid for our efforts and I can add Lake Austin to my list of dive sites.
The bottom was basically featureless, with the occasional tree limb, beer cans and golf balls. I did see one bass, but that was it.
Moral of the story is that Lake Austin should not be considered a destination dive. If you have to dive there, do it on a weekday morning and have a boat in the water for protection.
Lake Austin is shallow, with a max depth of about 25 feet. For many years, the lake was choked with Hydrilla. There is allot of boat traffic, so vis is usually poor and the conditions are hazardous. We purposely scheduled the dive for a weekday morning. This would minimize boat traffic and give the sediment a chance to settle.
We arrived at the dive site and things went as planned. We only saw one boat on the water and vis was about 6 feet. Amazingly, there was no hydilla. We staged a canoe on the water, with a dive float, to warn any other boats away. Water temp was 71. Our search area was about 300 x 150. We ran a couple of cross hatch patterns with no success. One of the guys in the canoe said that they had done a u-turn in the middle of the lake, straight out from one of the docks. I took a due north heading from the dock and found the float in 16 feet of water. It was actually sitting almost vertical, which explains why we missed it with our pattern.
We had been told that the swim platform weighed probably about 100 lbs, so we had lift bags ready to hoist it to the surface. In fact, it probably weighed about 25 lbs dry, and I was able to swim it to the surface with ease.
All in all, a happy ending. The boat owners got their swim platform back, we got paid for our efforts and I can add Lake Austin to my list of dive sites.
The bottom was basically featureless, with the occasional tree limb, beer cans and golf balls. I did see one bass, but that was it.Moral of the story is that Lake Austin should not be considered a destination dive. If you have to dive there, do it on a weekday morning and have a boat in the water for protection.
