Natural Springs... today's diving...

[erparamedic]

My hubby and I met Komi Hunter at Natural Springs today and got a few dives in. NS has really nice facilities, and the employees are very kind. Water was 80-81 at the surface and about 64 at the thermocline (apx. 16-17 feet). The first dive, the viz was about 6-8 feet. The second dive, prolly around 5 feet or so. I'd have to say, though, that by the 3rd dive, it was mostly about 2 ft viz. I only saw 2 fish the whole time! We found the same car twice (love swimming circles! LOL), and found one of the boats when we landed on it (that was the 3rd dive with the worst vis, and the boat was pretty covered over with water grasses). There were a couple classes there today, so that didn't help the viz any. My ears generally give me trouble on decent, and did so today, but not nearly as bad as usual... so I was glad for that. I worked a little on my navigation (thanks for being patient, Komi! ). In the bad viz, we had a bit of trouble seeing each other, and lost each other a couple times, but we safely looked for about a minute then met on the surface... just as it should be. We all did a great job of keeping track of each other's air. We had some very safe dives, and a good time. We'll definitely go back to NS... hopefully, the viz will be better next time.

All in all... the viz sucked, but I still have to say it was a good day of diving cause we got back in the water, and made a new dive buddy.

Komi... it was nice meeting you, and we had fun... we'll have to get together with you again!

 

[Ber Rabbit]

LOL! Natural Springs isn't exactly the best place to work on navigation. I warned Komi about the metal in the bottom in some places that screws with your compass I was aggravated with a student one day because he kept missing the rowboat on the navigation runs--missed it 3 times in a row and I'd stop him before he went into the swimming area each time. (I admit to surfacing and asking him if he could even find his butt with both hands). I sent another team out to find the buoys we had placed and what do you know? They made the same 45 degree turn after retrieving the buoys that we had made after placing them. I did apologize to the student, it wasn't him screwing up it was the compass--the other team said the buoys were right where his notes said they would be they just couldn't seem to get the compass to take them back to the rowboat.

There are actually a bunch of largemouth bass in there

Visibility is good in the spring and usually in the fall as well. The park usually closes for the winter but if you call SODA sometimes the guys will come out and open it up for you. We had great visibility in December when we went out for my husband's 25 years of diving anniversary (don't know if Komi remembers the vis but he remembers the water temp ).

Natural Springs is a nice place to get a "neoprene fix" and it warms up a lot faster than other local sites making it a good choice for early season diving. The largemouth bass are usually attending eggs in late April/early May and it's interesting to watch their behavior. One year a bass was guarding eggs that were laid on top of the computer--definitely not a typical largemouth nest.
Ber :lilbunny: