Lake Ouachita Road Trip (Oct 3/4)

[scubashawn123]

Come on, none of the Northern Folks (Dallas and others) want to meet up with us to explore this dive site.

How could you pass up a FUN road trip and diving exploration like this?

 

[scubashawn123]

That is my plan exactly. I'd like to rent the boat Saturday sometime and keep it for 24 hours. We could do some night diving if we wanted to and maybe make a dive Sunday morning. Honestly though, I'm up for anything. I do have to be home Sunday. Work calls and I just got back from the UK so they won't be happy campers if I miss Monday. ;-)

I absolutely have to be back also for work Monday morning. Sorry for those without such demanding and structured jobs.

 

[Ryanh1985]

Well Im officially out. Found out I have to work until 11 on Friday that week, just to late to get on the road and enjoy the weekend.

 

[scubashawn123]

Well Im officially out. Found out I have to work until 11 on Friday that week, just to late to get on the road and enjoy the weekend.

Maybe the next adventure. Will miss you but I totally understand. The remote location from our area in Texas really makes this a remote location for us Swampers and if I did not get Friday off work, would have the same difficulty in getting to Hot Springs Arkansas.

Glad to get a vacation day for this exploration of a Lake I would not normally have on my dive list, except for our dive friends deciding to make this happen.

Everyone is welcome to join us.

 

[heavyjeffd]

I have to be back to work Monday as well, so it works for me!

I will be bringing:

1 hiking backpack with all my camping stuff and clothing in it.

1 Stahlsack with all of my scuba stuff plus a small regulator case

2, possibly more, tanks. At this point just air tanks unless we find out for sure we can get Nitrox fills there, then I may bring an additional tank for Nitrox since I will likely be above or near the thermocline most of the time (while you crazy people tech/deep dive ).

Just figured I'd get that out there.

Also, what are we doing for food? I am hungry like every 4hrs!

 

[richerso]

k-valve,
In your estimation, what is the maximum comfortable diver count for the dive boat? What is your current commitment? I am interested in diving Ouachita again. I simply cannot make a commitment at this time. So, I shall remain silent on the issue. This is a curiosity question only.

 

[scubatexastony]

k-valve,
In your estimation, what is the maximum comfortable diver count for the dive boat? What is your current commitment? I am interested in diving Ouachita again. I simply cannot make a commitment at this time. So, I shall remain silent on the issue. This is a curiosity question only.

Not counting the operator, I figure 4 comfortable, 6 a bit crowded on a 25 footer, but manageable. Our dive teams 26 ft. pontoon is set up with boxes for gear and such that serve pretty good as seats for gearing up, and with 6, it gets crowded, even though 2 of those are tenders. My boat is 20 ft and it would be crowded, but ok with 4. Now if I tore out the seats and console and such, and set it up like a dive boat, maybe 6, but the wife sure would be angry.... you have to figure a diver with gear is like hauling 2, my capacity is like 1700 lbs, inclusive of the motor.

Didn't you just dive from one of the pontoon boats? How many did ya'll have on the boat and what size was it?

~tony

 

[richerso]

I did just dive from a pontoon. But it wasn't your usual pontoon. I am pretty sure this guy purchased one of those 16 ft. "you-build-it" aluminum car port sheet metal structures with tubular aluminum frames - and then built two large pontoons with a frame/plywood sheeting underneath the car port. Don't get me wrong. It was a nice pontoon boat. It was just an assemblage of two large pontoons, a bathroom house (head) structure, one motor (50 hp?), a plywood deck (approx. 25 ft. length) and an attached overhead (commercial) car port.

So, this wasn't your usual pontoon boat. Anywho, we had 20 divers plus a few non-diving family members onboard. I believe we had over a 50 count of 80cu.ft. AL cylinders on board by the end of the weekend plus passengers. Go figure. This boat comfortably cruised the lake; albeit, slowly.

 

[scubatexastony]

Were the pontoons commercial logs or were they fabricated oversized to haul that much weight? I could imagine it was a bit on the slow side. I know the dive shop in Shreveport has one up there that'll handle 20+ divers and that many tanks, but it's like 30 ft. They have a platform, like a large chainlink gate that can be suspended under the boat at 20 ft. for ow checkouts.

 

[k-valve]

We can get a 20', 25', or 30' pontoon/party boat. I want to say Robert gets about 8 on his boat, The Giant Stride. Once we have a better count we can figure out what size boat to get. I reserved a 25 footer for no other reason than it was the mid-sized option.