...status of Lake Mead shore diving...
Well, it's not very deep! I parked the FJ as far North in the parking area at boulder beach. At the buoy, it's about 10 feet deep! Yep, only 10 feet. The good news is that the water was 66 degrees and I did it in a 3mm, no gloves, and no hood. A 5/3 hooded vest in addition would work well for longer / multiple dives. What was really cool was that the silt is only about 3 inches thick and granular in nature, so the visibility stayed in the 15-20 foot range. I knelt down in it and it didn't create a gigantic cloud. I could feel the warmth radiating off the bottom, too. The swim to the buoy was about 10 minutes, but at a very slow pace... I swam for another 5 minutes and got to 23 feet deep. I didn't surface, so I don't know how far out I was, but at that depth, I wasn't using a lot of air; that's for sure! I think this will be a decent area for classes until we can find something deeper. I know 15 feet minimum is the rule, so at least that is covered. Time would be covered, too. A great opportunity to practice buoyancy! I think I was quite far out as the silt started to pick up and visibility dropped to about 5 feet. Perhaps I was in the Jet Ski / boat lane as I could hear a constant buzzing. With the gigantic dive flag I made, it should warn others to stay away. At the very least, the park service would see someone running the gauntlet and give them a ticket. It would be really hard to miss it and the park service was out in full force, today! I am sure it was over 100 degrees at the lake. So in a nutshell, do-able. Preferable, definitely better than Scuba Park. I kayaked over there and the visibility was really bad. Maybe 1 foot with luck and only 10 feet deep. I just kept the mask to the bottom and modified frogged around. There was a class out there doing their first open water. Hmmmmmm?
This would be a great area for rescue diver class. The rescuer would have a solid swim to the shore and would test their mettle. The shore area wasn't too rocky, so walking around wasn't difficult. I would definitely recommend bring a cart or wagon to bring stuff to the shore. There was no way to drive in and with the park service out; I didn't want to 4x4 it over the parking barrier.
