Mt. Storm - Saturday, March 15 - 10:30 am

[O-ring]

A few of us are heading up for some practice dives before the season gets in full swing. Mt. Storm is located in West Virginia and is relatively hillbilly free (so I hear...).

PM or post here if you are interested in going and need directions. Everyone is welcome...but leave your banjos at home please..

 

[dmdalton]

To add to what O-Ring so eloquently wrote:

5 of us from St Mary's County, Laurel, MD, Germantown, MD & Northern VA area will be going up to Mt Storm Lake (AKA: VEPCO Lake) on Saturday, 3/15/03 for a day of diving. Come on out and rinse the cobwebs off your gear and get in practice for the season. We expect to arrive between 10:30 & 11:00. Last week temps were low (53-55) due to the melting of 4 ft of snow. I expect temps to be near 60 this weekend.

Mt Storm lake is a man made lake that serves as a cooling pond for a coal fired VEPCO power plant. The water is warmed by the process and usually remains 60 or better during the winter and up into the 90's at the surface in the summer. It is a high altitude dive located 3244 ft above sea level and depths to 130 ft can be found. It is located about 6 miles from Mt Storm WV. For more info see the following sites:

http://www.scubadiving.com/US/mtstorm.shtml

http://www.deepwater.org/asa/scuba/mt-storm.html

Hope to see you there,

Dave D

PS - I'll have my new DJS Stealth Light conversion to show you the small and O-Ring will have the fuselage of the 747 that he carries as a light for comparison.

PPS - O-Ring promised that no narcosis tests would be administered. Funny, but I thought that would be the perfect place to practice technique!

 

[O-ring]

At least I got the times right! Yeah...I will bring the Satelight for all to see...

 

[dmdalton]

See ya at Mt Storm!

Dave D

 

[O-ring]

dmdalton once bubbled...
See ya at Mt Storm!

Dave D

I wish my death reg (Scubapro Mk2) would have come in so I could test it...oh well...should be a good day of diving anyway.

Any of you guys up for the Dutch Springs trip on April 12-13? There are a bunch of other scubaboarders headed up there and I was planning on meeting them..

 

[Gdiver]

I hope the dive went well. My wife and I would have loved to go, but we don't have alot of our own gear yet and I saw the post last night. We'll have to keep watching the site and go on another dive with rental gear.

 

[dmdalton]

Gdiver once bubbled...
I hope the dive went well. My wife and I would have loved to go, but we don't have alot of our own gear yet and I saw the post last night. We'll have to keep watching the site and go on another dive with rental gear.

Good day of diving, some of us arrived at 10 am, 30 minutes before the projected time while others (I won't mention his name but his initials are O-Ring) who claimed they would be there by 10:30 didn't show until 11:00!

Viz was about 10 ft, up from about 6 last week and water tempwas about 56 at the surface and 53 at depth. Both poor viz and cool temps are due in large part to the 4 ft of snow that just melted. Temps should increase quickly.

Keep watching the board as some of us will be going up there almost every weekend until the "fairweather" divers season starts!

Dave D

 

[O-ring]

There were 6 of us and we took it easy and had a good time. Some people from the Erie County rescue team were up there training, but other than that I didn't see any other divers.

Since O-ring wasn't driving, I blame his tardiness entirely on Mark...

 

[MikeS]

I had fun today. These were my first OW dives with the new DUI CLx 450 and Andy’s 200 underwear. The following are my lessons learned:

1. Despite the fact that the girl at the medical supply store was impressed, buying XXXL catheter condoms was probably not a good idea. I accidentally step into one, have you ever tried to get that glue off your leg hair?

2. My Halcyon 10 Watt light head flooded. Good news, after I got home and dried it out it sparked right up; appears to be working fine. In the future I will make sure the front bezel is tight before each dive.

3. Adding Andy’s 200 underwear under your drysuit requires you add a lot of weight. It’s looking like the ACB system is not going to be a good option for this configuration and will be replaced by a weight belt. Damn, Uncle Pug was right again (please don’t tell him though); I hate it when he gloats.

4. Andy’s 200 underwear is probably overkill for 50 degree water. I might have to find something less for warmer water.

5. Mark earned the John Wayne Memorial “Real Man” Award for being the only one daring to dive with a wet suit. However, when we stopped for dinner they took it away because he was driving a mini-van.

5. Park your minivan in the redneck parking section at your own risk!


Mike