Lake Jocassee update

[krawlings]

Are you talking about this upcoming Saturday the 18th I believe? That sucks because I was hopping to dive then and was hoping to do it off the boat. Hell, i might just have to join you at the ramp.

Yes this Saturday (that is the 19th ,the 18th is Friday). We will me doing shallow dive 50" , 60" max We will be working on our Drysuit skills ,getting comfertable diving dry. Maybe we will se you there

 

[joe8mofo]

Actually, I did not man up to the wife and buy the drysuit yet! I will be renting from LJDS next weekend! I am planning on waiting until after the DUI and Whites Demo days at ABWA! If she does not approve my drysuit by then I might bite the bullet and do it on my own! That way I just have to beg for forgiveness!

Tony,

A trick to diving wet in cold water is to bring HOT water in coolers. Before your first dive pour it into the wetsuit. After your first dive pour it into the wetsuit and soak your hands in it. Diving wet in cold water is bearable as long as you come prepared. The one time I didn't bring hot water with me and I dove wet in 40 degree water I became mildly hypothermic and it scared the crap out of me.............hence the drysuit from now on.

 

[FireInMyBones]

Sorry for the late update.

Sunday February 13th around 12:30pm:

Viz 25' most everywhere. Very silty. Water temp 47F.

I dove dry with [user]Floatingtheflats[/user] and had a good time. I am got Dry gloves from my wife for my birthday. Too bad I didn't know that until a few days ago. I can not wait to try them out.
Lake is calm, water is nice. The ramp had about four other divers at it when we left. Three divers were out trying out their DPVs. One ramp rat: Bill.

 

[jimmy71]

I'll be there on sat the 19th. I'll bring some of my drysuit accessories. I have a couple weight harnesses that I used before my Bp/w. Anyone need any gear? I have a lot of extra stuff such as atomic split fins, an extra bp/w and plenty of extra stuff. Not sure If my gf will let me borrow her drysuit for someone to use. Let me know if you have any requests. I am happy to stay shallow if anyone believes they need any help or tips with there suit. FYI I am the one with the whites and the chuck taylors.

 

[TonyW388]

Tony,

A trick to diving wet in cold water is to bring HOT water in coolers. Before your first dive pour it into the wetsuit. After your first dive pour it into the wetsuit and soak your hands in it. Diving wet in cold water is bearable as long as you come prepared. The one time I didn't bring hot water with me and I dove wet in 40 degree water I became mildly hypothermic and it scared the crap out of me.............hence the drysuit from now on.

I am still a cold water wuss! Actually, I have tried warm water in my wetsuit! I can't seem to get it to work so well for me(peeing in it works the best:shocked2. My 7 mil farmer(14 mil total) fits really well. It fits so well I made it to the bottom when we walked into Lanier(several weeks ago) and hovered for a minute at 5'! When I got out only my feet and hands were cold. I was wet from my calves down and my from nipples to the top of my head! My :mooner: was still dry. I can dive comfortably to 45^o for thirty minutes. I would just rather giant stride in than have to walk in. I have seen someone hypothermic underwater before too! :shocked2:

Sorry for the late update.

Sunday February 13th around 12:30pm:

Viz 25' most everywhere. Very silty. Water temp 47F.

I dove dry with [user]Floatingtheflats[/user] and had a good time. I am got Dry gloves from my wife for my birthday. Too bad I didn't know that until a few days ago. I can not wait to try them out.
Lake is calm, water is nice. The ramp had about four other divers at it when we left. Three divers were out trying out their DPVs. One ramp rat: Bill.

Sounds like it was descent vis. Thanks for the report! Why were you stirring up the silt?

I'll be there on sat the 19th. I'll bring some of my drysuit accessories. I have a couple weight harnesses that I used before my Bp/w. Anyone need any gear? I have a lot of extra stuff such as atomic split fins, an extra bp/w and plenty of extra stuff. Not sure If my gf will let me borrow her drysuit for someone to use. Let me know if you have any requests. I am happy to stay shallow if anyone believes they need any help or tips with there suit. FYI I am the one with the whites and the chuck taylors.

Cool! I would love to try that bp/w another time if you would not mind? Is it rigged for a single or doubles? Tell your gf I promise not to pee in her drysuit!

I(we) were planning on staying shallow just to get comfortable in a drysuit. The drysuit seemed to mess with my trim some(seemed to be more head down in the drysuit)! I am hoping to sort it out since we will not be rushed to get back on a boat or rushed to finish up any class work! I passed my learners test and now it's time to take my first solo test [-]drive[/-] dive!

 

[jimmy71]

Tony, a lot of times the trim issue resolves itself with different gear configuration. I found diving a drysuit with a vest or rear inflation traditional BC to be very cumbersome. I poop load of weight around your waist and very little elsewhere. It also rides up like we had talked about. The BP/W is set up for singles and dry diving. With the weight it has you would not need an additional weight belt. I will not be diving it and will bring it along. With the amount of weight you traditionally need with a dry suit, you should try a harness instead of a weight belt. I will bring a couple sizes of that as well.

DO you guys need any additional weights?

Also it sounds like most of your dives will be bouncing around and trying stuff out. As we all know, boyency is easy as hell while swimming. It gets really hard when trying to sit still. We will play around tomarrow with different gear and configurations. You may be surprised that it is not you but your gear that is the problem.

It takes me some 20 min it seems to get to any depth at the ramp. In these temps that means 40mins just getting to destination. I try to limit my dives in the cold water to 1 hr. That leaves little true bottom time and woudl be hard to get any real deco. I will probably try to get good and narked at some point in time and then play with your guys. I have been diving dry almost exclusively for a good while. I am happy to help out in any way.

 

[TonyW388]

Tony, a lot of times the trim issue resolves itself with different gear configuration. I found diving a drysuit with a vest or rear inflation traditional BC to be very cumbersome. I poop load of weight around your waist and very little elsewhere. It also rides up like we had talked about. The BP/W is set up for singles and dry diving. With the weight it has you would not need an additional weight belt. I will not be diving it and will bring it along. With the amount of weight you traditionally need with a dry suit, you should try a harness instead of a weight belt. I will bring a couple sizes of that as well.

You have made some good points so far! I still would rather get a few dives in my own gear. I would hate for you to drag it out to the lake. I am not ready to start a rebuild of my gear yet. I want to dive a bp/w just because eventually I am considering going more tec and I want to shed a few extra pounds I have to carry. When I head down that path I plan upgrading to steels tanks too! Oh and getting rid of the air2 also!

I actually carry less weight now(in the drysuit) than I was in my 7 mil FJ! I think it is the weight position but I also countered it on the last free range dive of the class just by adjusting the position of my back inflate bc(loosened the shoulder straps and slid my bc down an inch or so!

DO you guys need any additional weights?

Also it sounds like most of your dives will be bouncing around and trying stuff out. As we all know, boyency is easy as hell while swimming. It gets really hard when trying to sit still. We will play around tomarrow with different gear and configurations. You may be surprised that it is not you but your gear that is the problem.

It takes me some 20 min it seems to get to any depth at the ramp. In these temps that means 40mins just getting to destination. I try to limit my dives in the cold water to 1 hr. That leaves little true bottom time and woudl be hard to get any real deco. I will probably try to get good and narked at some point in time and then play with your guys. I have been diving dry almost exclusively for a good while. I am happy to help out in any way.

I have enough weight to sink all the new divers of the world but 90% of it is in shot bags! So it depends on how they attach to the harness if someone decides to try it!

It is easier to maintain your buoyancy swimming but I plan on working on my stops too! I don't really like bouncing all over the place on dives so I try to work on one or two minor issues a dive and balance them out over several dives. (that's also harder to do if you keep changing gear between dives)

I thought if you hung a left(facing the wall)off the left side and down the hill you hit a 100'(or whatever it is now that the lake is down) pretty quickly? Never mind just read the next line about getting in some good deco time. See that sparked more questions I have about how off gassing is effected by the cold water. Just not to that point in my diving yet!

I am sure we will pick your brain once you get un-narced!

Thanks!

 

[jimmy71]

I do not dive the ramp all that often. The line i have found that leads to depth goes by an airplane wing in a forest of trees. At that point i can usually manage to get down to around 130 but i usually ALWAYS get turned around in the trees as I am unsure of how the line has been ran. It really seems to run in a somewhat circle to me. The trees make it almost impossible to run my own line so i end up wandering around looking at sand till I clear any deco.

On dives like the ones you planning, which are in essence training dives, your best plan is to dive nitrox to compensate for the frequent depth changes and do multiple short dives so that after each goal/activity you can surface to discuss/learn. Doing the same things over and over do you little good unless you are figuring out how to do it better. Its all good. Ill bring my slates. I will say that my handwriting underwater sucks

We can play it loose and easy tomorrow. No worries. The harnesses use soft or hard weights. I will also have the extra Bp/W with me as it is already in the car and i am to lazy to remove it.

 

[FireInMyBones]

Sounds like it was descent vis. Thanks for the report! Why were you stirring up the silt?

It wasn't me. I know who it was though. I'm not telling.

I do not dive the ramp all that often. The line i have found that leads to depth goes by an airplane wing in a forest of trees. At that point i can usually manage to get down to around 130 but i usually ALWAYS get turned around in the trees as I am unsure of how the line has been ran. It really seems to run in a somewhat circle to me. The trees make it almost impossible to run my own line so i end up wandering around looking at sand till I clear any deco.

Just about all of the lines run down there were for that purpose: to confuse people so they wouldn't go down there. Some of my friends are extremely familiar down there and plan on redoing some of them for safety. Mostly, there are too many local divers that dive beyond their level of training and venture down there. I think we will probably leave out line leading from the ramp to the trees but do a better job of marking the trees themselves.

 

[TonyW388]

It wasn't me. I know who it was though. I'm not telling.

I smell a rat!

Just about all of the lines run down there were for that purpose: to confuse people so they wouldn't go down there.

That sounds like it would be more dangerous than just having one line ran in and out of the trees! ijs I have not been in there, yet!

Some of my friends are extremely familiar down there and plan on redoing some of them for safety. Mostly, there are too many local divers that dive beyond their level of training and venture down there. I think we will probably leave out line leading from the ramp to the trees but do a better job of marking the trees themselves.

Who called the scuba police on the locals. It's not the lines running in and around the trees that is the problem then!