Lake Travis vis report 01/18/2006

[Hemlon]

Just for discussion purposes here are some of the variables I see in a vis estimate.

1. ambient light -- amount of cloud cover, time of day, in the shadow of a dam or cliff or boat
2. is there anything to see -- much easier to see an airplane than a fish
3. contrast -- if there is a light colored bottom I can see something further away than if it is dark colored
4. color of objects -- much easier to see yellow fins than black ones in low vis
5. am I using a flashlight, how good is it
6. physical ability -- I dont see near as well as I did when I was younger. My night/dark vision has suffered the most. I normally go to a nearby window to see the caller ID if I dont have my glasses on. I can easily read my gauges without corrective lenses if there is plenty of ambient light, but not if it is dark.
7. wind affects the visibility -- I suspect that on a windy day vis is much worse on the downwind side of a lake than on the upwind wide or in a protected cove. Choppy conditions diffuse the light reaching the surface.

Theoretically it seems that vis would be a constant based on the water clarity and amount of light available. Too bad we dont have transmissiometers to measure the vis at a particular point like they do at the end of runways. Wouldnt it be nice if the ocean buoys had cables that went to about 80' and reported the vis and temp as well as the surface conditions?

I try to estimate vis as, horizontally, how far away can I see my dive buddy.

Willie

Excellent points!

 

[Willie]

I wouldn't bother with contacting the shops tho...they want people in the water and seem to give questionable vis estimates.

As I said I havent been doing this long, but my observation is also that dive shops and their websites tend to give some pretty optimistic reports of vis.

Willie

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Maybe we need several underwater cameras hooked up to web cames, say in 5 feet sections, camera 1, 5 feet, camera 2, 10 feet and hang and object and hop online, and see which one you can see.....

I've wished for that myself, but my plan is one camera and markers at several distances. Then hop online and see how many markers are visible. The problem is that you would have to get someone to clean the lens, probably daily...

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Wouldnt it be nice if the ocean buoys had cables that went to about 80' and reported the vis and temp as well as the surface conditions?

As far as temp goes, I see that the Wendy Point web site is down right now. As you probably know, they link to a graph that shows temps down to 60'. They get the data from UT's Lake Travis Test Station, across the dam from Mansfield Park. Here's the link:

http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/~esdwww/test_fac/ltts/cur_weath.html

Sorry, don't have anything on the vis...

 

[Teknadv3x]

I feel the pain I too have driven down based on a vis report and did well to see my gauges when the vis was "10 feet"

10 feet is 10 feet, 10 feet is not 2 for one person and 20 for another, I can get a tape measure out and prove that the distance does not change when I hand it to different people m

For the record folks......If FIXXERVI6 or Cyklon 300 post a vis report TAKE THAT ONE TO THE BANK.

Dave

 

[Teknadv3x]

ROFL...too funny! Maybe I'm naive, but I thought half the fun of diving was just being off work, in water, and (hopefully) surrounded by fun people.

Either you're one of us and you understand it; or you aren't and you don't



Dave

 

[daniel f aleman]

Why the confusion? This was posted by Ron Carlisle, the NAUI Course Director at Oak Hill Scuba:

carlislere 01-10-2005, 02:27 PM

We dove the nearside point off the cove at Mansfield Park this morning. Temp was from 59-55. Vis was 5-6 foot from the surface to 35 footish. From 40-70 it dropped to 2-3 feet. Below 70 foot to at least 100 the vis was basically zero. We did see some small fish in the shallow areas towards the end of the dive including a baby catfish.

 

[shaggie]

I posted a few weeks back that vis at mansfield was 8-10. I figure that some of the people posting here with 500-1000-2000 dives under their belts would know that vis changes week to week and some times day to day depending on variables such as Willie has pointed out. If you want consistantly great vis and warm water, go to Coz.

John

 

[Teknadv3x]

I posted a few weeks back that vis at mansfield was 8-10. I figure that some of the people posting here with 500-1000-2000 dives under their belts would know that vis changes week to week and some times day to day depending on variables such as Willie has pointed out. If you want consistantly great vis and warm water, go to Coz.

John

John,
bless your heart for bringing that observation to our attention. You know I have 453 dives in 11 years @ Travis I am so glad you gave me the heads up on the lake condition factor. Now maybe we can figure out when to make a trip up to the Lake. Or better yet just tell us when is the best time to pull off dives at Travis when it has good vis. and could we also please get you to tell us in detail why the lake's vis is good then?

Thanks in advance
Dave

PS: John,
If I wanted warm water maybe I should not be diving Travis In January, what do you think? Also if I wanted pristene vis maybe I should dive Akumal not Coz. what do you think?

 

[Willie]

Some of us base our dive plans on accurate imfo! In the future until you learn how to judge vis, please do not post a vis report. ... My point of this follow up is to give the heads up to those reading on how IMPORTANT it is to give accurate Vis reports.

I am open to any suggestions as to standards of estimating vis. I am new at this ... I try to estimate vis as, horizontally, how far away can I see my dive buddy.

I also count on accurate info. AND I want to provide accurate info. Therefore, I would like to learn how to better estimate vis. That was the point of my posts. How can I improve the accuracy/quality of my estimates?

Willie