Lake Denton Florida

[The Wanderer]

Lake Denton seems like a popular place for dive training.

I've never been there. What is it like..... depth.... viz.... marine life.... etc?

Is it worth a trip for certified OW divers, or is it just a good, cheap training site?

 

[bdrannik]

Howdy Wings.. For some reason everytime I read one of your messages I find myself swaying back and forth in my chair.. hehehe.. I'll jump in here since I just returned from from there, although this weekend was my first time at that location. The vis seemed pretty good, 15-20 feet or so most of the time, and that is with a bunch of students stirring things up.. Lots of Bluegill type fish, very tame.. They'll come up and stare directly into your mask lens from about 3" away.. People feed them a lot.. Some by breaking open small clam type shells that are on the bottom, saw others with cheese and hotdogs.. hehe.. Also saw a couple of rather large turtles also. (man they can really scoot along in the water when they want to)

According to some of the instructors that I spoke with, the deepest spot in the lake is about 51 feet where the springs feed into it. We cruised around at about 43' or so.. The bottom for the most part is sand/gravel, but in the areas not frequented by divers there is a grass? type bottom about a foot deep. Water temp was in the high 80's with a definite thermocline noticed at roughly the 43' foot mark..

There were 3 small boats sunk at 22-25 feet or so, and also some strategically placed cement blocks and five gallon pails filled with cement to be used for navigation classes, etc..

Lots of friendly people, an occasional freaking student blasting thru the surface , and overall a nice place to dive.
No dangerous critters such as snakes or gators known about (asked around beforehand). Would make a good "low-stress" night diving location. Saw dive shops from all over the place - Orlando, Tampa, Port Charlotte, and many more..

Should have some photos from one of those $7 disposable waterproof cameras in a short time..

 

[The Wanderer]

Howdy Wings.. For some reason everytime I read one of your messages I find myself swaying back and forth in my chair.. hehehe.. I'll jump in here since I just returned from from there, although this weekend was my first time at that location. The vis seemed pretty good, 15-20 feet or so most of the time, and that is with a bunch of students stirring things up.. Lots of Bluegill type fish, very tame.. They'll come up and stare directly into your mask lens from about 3" away.. People feed them a lot.. Some by breaking open small clam type shells that are on the bottom, saw others with cheese and hotdogs.. hehe.. Also saw a couple of rather large turtles also. (man they can really scoot along in the water when they want to)

According to some of the instructors that I spoke with, the deepest spot in the lake is about 51 feet where the springs feed into it. We cruised around at about 43' or so.. The bottom for the most part is sand/gravel, but in the areas not frequented by divers there is a grass? type bottom about a foot deep. Water temp was in the high 80's with a definite thermocline noticed at roughly the 43' foot mark..

There were 3 small boats sunk at 22-25 feet or so, and also some strategically placed cement blocks and five gallon pails filled with cement to be used for navigation classes, etc..

Lots of friendly people, an occasional freaking student blasting thru the surface , and overall a nice place to dive.
No dangerous critters such as snakes or gators known about (asked around beforehand). Would make a good "low-stress" night diving location. Saw dive shops from all over the place - Orlando, Tampa, Port Charlotte, and many more..

Should have some photos from one of those $7 disposable waterproof cameras in a short time..

Thanks for the report. I may have to make a trip there to add to my newbie diving experiences. Is it a multiple tank dive?

And yes, many SB members look for my posts, just to watch my avatar for the hypnotic effect. I can't count how many people compliment me for my outstanding choice of self expression through the graghic arts.

 

[bdrannik]

Thanks for the report. I may have to make a trip there to add to my newbie diving experiences. Is it a multiple tank dive?

I'm not sure if there is a fill station around town or not.. We brought 2 tanks each with us so didn't have to inquire. The most interesting area in the lake that we found was near the small sunken boats with all the fish around in 22-25 feet or so..

 

[simbrooks]

I have probably about 10 training dives there, 4 for open water checkouts, two for AOW dives for navigation and liftbag work, two in doubles, two to test out new gear. Its ok, nothing really to special. It is located just southeast of Avon Park which is a good 60 min drive from I-4 down SR-27 or a distance along SR-60 to SR-27, i know it is a good 90 min drive from Orlando.

The layout is a large bowl, you get in off a sandy slipway with a congested parking area (the side of the road) and there are usually between 2-6 classes there on a saturday morning. Viz can range from 6-15ft typically, depending on many things including students . There is a rope course about 100 yds out maybe that is used to guide the students around and you can tie off your flag to if you want to do stuff nearby. There are two sunken jonboats in one area and another one at the end of another line - these are popular, if you go to either of these boat sites, expect to see a lot of students pass by you (sometimes dropping onto you, or ploughing you down even if you try to move out of the way). Max depth at the boats is around 35-36ft, beyond the rope course there is open sand and grass, i have never really gone too far off the course though. As for tanks, well with a single 80 you should be able to get more than 60 mins there, with your 119 James, i would say at least 100 mins, more than enough to see every inch of this lake and just to people watch with the classes etc.

Its a safe place that you can use to work on things, but dont go there for the sights, you can however check it off your list - i am working on diving as many different sites as possible around this state with as many SB members as i can dive with. So far about 7 different springs/fresh lakes (2/3's of my dives), 2 different shore diving areas (1/6 of my dives), 3 different boat diving areas (1/6 of my dives) and 32 SB FCD members - soon to add at least another 12 to that total of divers with these trips in August and next weekend, with 3 more shore diving areas as well as more boat dives in another area, slowly getting through them, i love meeting new people and diving new places!!

 

[bdrannik]

Thanks for the info and depth correction simbrooks.. We had cruised past the boats heading inland, and a while after I checked the depth and we were at 19.. That's why I had a "range" of depth given for the boats, didn't know it exactly.. Didn't know I was that far off on my guess of the boat depth..

 

[simbrooks]

Lets just say i have been out to those boats a few times. Whilst there i have found myself hugging the sand to move out of the way of students raining down on me at great speed, not looking where they are going until they thud feet first on the bottom - sweet! Same thing with some divers charging directly towards me whilst i was just hovering there doing something, look up to see them marauding towards me, i think it was a game of chicken, although cant be sure, but i moved first. Typically my max depth has almost always been around 35-36 in the sand at the boats, it does get shallow kind of quickly up that line, and most of the course is around 20ft or so, so even a little swimming along and you will find yourself shallower. The tops of the boats are in the low 30's. I have even thought of solo diving this lake as i believe i have dove it enough to get an idea of what is where. Would never overlook it as a skills diving place, nothing else to really distract you as long as you dont get a class use your flag as a down line

 

[bdrannik]

I was wearing my "Venice shark tooth hunting solo rig" described in another thread with photos.. It got some strange looks from the students.. I was hovering horizontally over one of the boats keeping my depth +/- about 2 inches and a pair of students next to me were going up, down, up, down while pointing to me.. I think they were expecting me to plunge to the bottom with my HP steel tank and no BCD.. hehe.. Oh, and yes, I did have a student drop down on top me while I was over one of the "ropes" tied off along the bottom.. I squeezed out from under him and they dropped to the bottom, proceeding to get a fin stuck under the rope.. It was an interesting dive at times..

 

[simbrooks]

It just keeps reminding me of the war movies and such where you see the paratroopers jumping out of the back of the plane, just running and jumping, dropping til their chutes open - same with the students, instructor says drop, so down they go, not looking at all where they are going until they hit the bottom (and if you are in the way, lucky you ). Just bugs me when they swim out to my flag and descend down it onto me, why not find somewhere without a flag and use your own????

 

[CBulla]

you could screw with em and show up with a gator wrangling pole (think of a looong tickle stick with a noose on the end away from you) and have a laminated picture of a gator with the words "Have you seen this Gator? His name is Bubba!" that you can show to new people.