JasonH20
Guest
Just got back from a short stint for work over in North Carolina. My schedule has been hectic the last couple weeks, and it had been forever since I'd gone for a dive, so I decided to try to get a dive in while in NC!
I hooked up with fellow SB member Outlaws who was a great host. He picked me up at my hotel Saturday morning and drove me out to Lake Norman Quarry. I had flown over with everything but tanks and weights, so Outlaws stopped beforehand at his dive shop and picked up 2 PST 120's for me and loaned me his weight belt.
Out at the quarry I felt right at home. They are just as fanatical divers out there as we are here!
I guess you have to be to go diving in 46 degree, low vis water. Brrr Anyways, BP/W's, long hoses, and doubles abounded. Actually, I think the quarries are a favorite "training" place for getting ready for diving wrecks off the coast, which was probably 3-4 hours from where I was.
Other than the water tasting much better than PS, the diving conditions were almost exactly like PS, until we dropped down below 40 feet or so. Then the vis really cleared up. I'm not good at estimating vis, but I'd say it was like 15-20 above 40 feet and 40 or so below.
The big difference is of course the sea life, or in this case the absence of sea life. In some areas there were HUGE boulder fields (duh "rock quarry"), and I kept wanting to poke my head in the cracks to look for GPO's, wolfies, and other critters! Rather than fishies though, we went and looked at a sunken cruiser boat about 35 feet long at 85 feet, and worked our way back up checking out some smaller boats and cars. Found some huge drainage pipes about 5ft in diameter and maybe 10 feet long that we practiced swimming through (I still need to work on my frog kick).
I also tried out my camera for the first time, but now I see my uploads didn't work last night. grrrr I'll post the pictures tonight when I get home....
Anyways, it felt great to get back under and I'm glad I went through the trouble of bringing my dive equipment with me. Not sure if I'll dive the quarry next time I go out there for business, but I'll definitely try to plan it so I can do a boat dive off the coast to a wreck!
Happy Diving!
Jason
I hooked up with fellow SB member Outlaws who was a great host. He picked me up at my hotel Saturday morning and drove me out to Lake Norman Quarry. I had flown over with everything but tanks and weights, so Outlaws stopped beforehand at his dive shop and picked up 2 PST 120's for me and loaned me his weight belt.
Out at the quarry I felt right at home. They are just as fanatical divers out there as we are here!
I guess you have to be to go diving in 46 degree, low vis water. Brrr Anyways, BP/W's, long hoses, and doubles abounded. Actually, I think the quarries are a favorite "training" place for getting ready for diving wrecks off the coast, which was probably 3-4 hours from where I was.Other than the water tasting much better than PS, the diving conditions were almost exactly like PS, until we dropped down below 40 feet or so. Then the vis really cleared up. I'm not good at estimating vis, but I'd say it was like 15-20 above 40 feet and 40 or so below.
The big difference is of course the sea life, or in this case the absence of sea life. In some areas there were HUGE boulder fields (duh "rock quarry"), and I kept wanting to poke my head in the cracks to look for GPO's, wolfies, and other critters!
Rather than fishies though, we went and looked at a sunken cruiser boat about 35 feet long at 85 feet, and worked our way back up checking out some smaller boats and cars. Found some huge drainage pipes about 5ft in diameter and maybe 10 feet long that we practiced swimming through (I still need to work on my frog kick).I also tried out my camera for the first time, but now I see my uploads didn't work last night. grrrr I'll post the pictures tonight when I get home....
Anyways, it felt great to get back under and I'm glad I went through the trouble of bringing my dive equipment with me. Not sure if I'll dive the quarry next time I go out there for business, but I'll definitely try to plan it so I can do a boat dive off the coast to a wreck!
Happy Diving!
Jason
