Need help finding dive spots on Lake Keowee,S.C.

[TonyW388]

Hello to my fellow divers,

I usually dive off my own pontoon boat in Lake Jocassee. I am currently looking for a little change in underwater scenery.

I was wondering if anyone new the location of the pump house or the bridge in Lake Keowee? Are there surface markers on these items? If not, does anyone have gps coordinates that I can use to locate them?

I am thinking of a trying a few dives in the hot hole too. Any other possibly interesting areas in Lake Keowee to check out?

Any advice for a new diver in these locations is greatly appreciated.

Can anyone recommend shops in the area of Lake Keowee for fills?
Since I am not from this area (I am from Georgia), I am still putting my plan together and trying to find my way around.

Thanks for your time and any info,

 

[sandmanz32]

The pump house is about 100 yards out and to the left from the main marina docks. There is a marker buoy attached to it. Dunno about the bridge though.

 

[TonyW388]

Thanks for the info Sandman! I think I found the old shallow ford Bridge Gps coordinates on the usgs.gov website. It drops me in the middle of the north end of the lake.

 

[sandmanz32]

I've never heard of that bridge. Was it a good dive? Vis, depth, temps? Did yo find the pump house?

 

[TonyW388]

Sandman,

I will have to let you know after the dive on Sunday. We are planning to try and find the hot hole and the pump house first. If we have time we are going to look for the bridge. Below the bridge looks to be around 90' according to the deepest spot on the marine map at full pool. So The bridge if I had to guess is is 40-50' of water. I will post with the update if we find it.

Here just is this link in the deep dixie forum.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tr...shallowford-road-steel-truss-bridge-dive.html

Have you been in the hot hole yet? Is the cove on the southern end of the power plant? I was trying to figure out were exactly the discharge was for the power plant.

Thanks for the info and I will update you probably on Monday if we find the bridge.

 

[sandmanz32]

I thought you had already been, sorry. Yea, I was certified at the Hot Hole. The Hot Hole is at warpath landing in the cove byt the power plant, about 1/4 mile out. You can't really miss it, the outlets are easy to find. You should see some concrete coming up out of the water headed back into the plant, that is the outlets. You can drop down right there and hop in to be shot out! I don't dive much on keowee mainly because I don't have my own boat and it seems shops around here do not like heading that way unless it is cold. I personally think the lake is just as good an as clear as Jocassee. Unfortunatly for me, due to a recent ear injury, I want be able to dive for at least 6 weeks, if ever. Pretty distraut over that actually. I have a severe ear infection that I was unaware of. Had a few bouts of vertigo, but didnt think much of it. Went diving on Labor day and ruptured an ear drum, yay for me. Felt like i was in a washing machine, almost blacked out at 60'. Hope you guys have a good dive, and by all means, let me know about the bridge. Sounds like a interesting dive, I love old stuff like that.

 

[TonyW388]

Sandman,

Thanks again for the info! We did not get a chance to look for the bridge. We figured we would save that for our next trip.

Hope that ear gets better soon. Taking a longer time off from diving is better than not being able to dive at all.

I see why most dive shops don't go to the hot hole during the summer.
Water temp around 0-20' was 93 degrees with viz about 10'. I was so happy when we hit 45' and the water temp dropped to 88 degrees and viz opened up to about 20'. The current was very intersting there too. The bottom currents below 20' were going toward the discharge area and above 15' was head away from the discharge are. Once we got that figured out it made for a fun drift dive.

The pump house was pretty cool too. Viz was only 5' and water temp was 83 degrees at 72'. I was thinking it was going to be colder at the pump house. I was wrong. At that depth in any other lake I would have figured the temps from 60's to low 70's.