mike_s
Contributor
Well this was the last weekend for the Madison Quarry to be "officially open" for the year. Local shop SDI and the quarry operator, Aqualine Aquatics, held a customer appreiciation day at the quarry with a late afternoon grill out of hot dogs, etc.
On Saturday the participants numbered close to a hundred. Most everyone was diving wet but a few folks were out in drysuits. The water temp was a nice 73f but the air temps were in the mid 60's which made the surface interval a little chilly. SDI had a large class of open water students out as did a dive shop from Tupelo MS.
Visibility was rather poor at 10 foot or less, sometimes down to a few feet. The poor vis was due to the extremely warm bottom temps of up to 86f during the summer and an algae bloom. Of course the open water students stirred up the silt even worse, which is common any time they have classes here.
Overall it was a pretty good day of diving though. I got to try out a scooter that a fellow diver had and that was lots of fun. One of those sure would have been usefull on high current wrecks like the Spiegal Grove.
Thanks to Southeastern Divers for making arrangements to let divers use the quarry this year.
Hopefully next year they'll have it's normal operation restored and it'll be open every weekend.
On Saturday the participants numbered close to a hundred. Most everyone was diving wet but a few folks were out in drysuits. The water temp was a nice 73f but the air temps were in the mid 60's which made the surface interval a little chilly. SDI had a large class of open water students out as did a dive shop from Tupelo MS.
Visibility was rather poor at 10 foot or less, sometimes down to a few feet. The poor vis was due to the extremely warm bottom temps of up to 86f during the summer and an algae bloom. Of course the open water students stirred up the silt even worse, which is common any time they have classes here.
Overall it was a pretty good day of diving though. I got to try out a scooter that a fellow diver had and that was lots of fun. One of those sure would have been usefull on high current wrecks like the Spiegal Grove.
Thanks to Southeastern Divers for making arrangements to let divers use the quarry this year.
Hopefully next year they'll have it's normal operation restored and it'll be open every weekend.
