Lake Rawlings Virginia

[Drewski]

Hi All:

Here's a 3 min tour of Lake Rawlings, a little quarry off the I-85 just south of Richmond, Virginia in March, 2010. This place has a campground, showers, pavilions and a dive shop. It's an excellent location for beginner divers who don't want to try going offshore yet, or need some spin-up dives before they do. The entry fee is less than $30 a day. Underwater visibility is usually good, often exceeding 30 FT. Underwater features include 40 FT vertical walls, sunken boats, cars, buses and aircraft. Two of the most popular features - an aircraft and bus - are in the video.

[vimeo]10196341[/vimeo]

The water temp for the video is a chilly 45 degrees and the underwater visibility exceeds 40 FT. Surface temps in the summer are in the 70s with the bottom in the 50s. The aircraft is at 50-60 FT, the bus at 30 FT. Most features are connected with lines for touring, a park map is near the entrance to the water. This is a training and gear testing location for a bunch of mid-atlantic offshore folks. Dive shops use it for openwater as well. Our group of evil tech divers was there the day I made the video and rebreather divers outnumbered open circuit folks.

ENJOY and let's GO DIVING!!!

 

[Dr Neil]

Boy has Rawlings changed when we first got certified there in 1999. Back in the day if you arrived on a Friday evening to camp, the gate key was hanging on the back of the sign at the gate.

One thing that has not changed is the visibility or how quickly the viz clears after a particularly a busy weekend.

Rawlings is a great place to learn and test gear. And no matter the weather, you can't be blown out!

 

[vel525]

Did my first drysuit dive there. Was there for the DUI demo day. Pretty cool to be in such cold water and be warm! Now, if I dove cold water regularly, I might pick up a drysuit.

 

[tfsails]

I was in the water teaching a class (working on AI) when they rolled the blue bus into the water. The next day I was one of the first to dive on it when it was sitting on top of the PADI wagon. Obviously, they've since moved it. I can still find some of the stuff I wrote on it before it got wet, but it's deteriorating rapidly now.

My first dive on the airplane was when it had only one wing attached and it was held in balance by a lift bag.