Night Diving at Rawlings?

[Rand]

I'll be making my first trip to Lake Rawlings this weekend. I didn't see any info on their site about night diving.

Does anyone know what their rules are such as how late you can dive, etc. ?

How late do they do air fills?

Anything else I should be aware of/prepared for?

Thanks.

 

[tfsails]

Once you're in and paid up, if you want to dive at night, they'll give you the combination to the key locker by the gate on the road so you can leave when you want to. Rawlings also is open for camping so on weekends there'll most likely be people there 24 hrs a day.

Having said that, I've never dove Rawlings at night. Not because I didn't want to, but because it's about 75 miles from my house and I've always wanted to be home earlier than I could if I dove after dark. I'm told that the big bass come out to play at night.

You can probably dive as late as you want to. Air fills go away when they close up shop for the day, usually around 6 pm.

There is little if any night lighting around the lake, so take your own lighting to use in addition to your dive lights.

 

[Rand]

Thanks for the info. The staff there this past weekend was great. Very helpful. I didn't get the info about the gate combo and ended up just parking in the upper lot and walking my gear up the hill for the night dive, but I'll be sure to get it for next time. You are correct in that there is no limit to how late you can dive, however they stop doing fills at 6PM, so you need to plan accordingly.

Just a mini trip report from 5/10--5/11 for anyone who's interested:

Viz was 20-30 feet due to recent rains stirring everything up. Lots of particles in the water.

Temperatures were 61 degrees at 24 feet down to 52 degrees at 62 feet. Glad I had the drysuit!

The new plane was really cool. Only saw it at night, but it'll be the first thing I check out in the daytime the next time I'm down there.

The staff says the bathroom/shower complex will be complete in 30-45 days. They were working on it this weekend. Should be nice.

Very nice dive site and one I'm sure to head back to.

 

[H3LlIoN]

I night dive there too a lot, and you def want to make sure you are full up on air before 5:50. You can dive all night, which is what we generally do, although we camp there too. It's nice at night because the bottom settles down from all the students, and the viz goes back up where it's supposed to be. It's also a great place to chill on the bottom and watch the trees and moon from under the water. It's very beautiful.

 

[DivingPrincessE]

I night dive there too a lot, and you def want to make sure you are full up on air before 5:50. You can dive all night, which is what we generally do, although we camp there too. It's nice at night because the bottom settles down from all the students, and the viz goes back up where it's supposed to be. It's also a great place to chill on the bottom and watch the trees and moon from under the water. It's very beautiful.

You are quite the fountain of knowledge on all things Rawlings (from your other posts too). I'm glad you joined SB, thanks.

 

[H3LlIoN]

Well, where my father lives it's only about a 40 minute drive, so we run up there all the time and make a weekend out of it. We'll go up on friday nights, tell Kevin we're coming. Then set up camp, and work our dives so that we are getting in right about the time that the students are getting out. I originally did my OW cert dives there with underwater adventures, which is how we found it. It makes a great weekend trip, and our camping spot is way away from everyone else, which makes it pretty nice. Generally head out about Sunday or so. It's a good place to check gear and such too. The students also generally hang on the 25 foot shelf, so dropping down to the bottom is generally always uncrowded with decent vis, especially when you get towards the opposite wall.

 

[tfsails]

The best time to dive Rawlings is in the middle of the week when everybody's working (except for us retired old farts...). Vis is at its best and you're almost guaranteed to get some one-on-one attention from some of the brim there. Especially if your ears are unhooded!

 

[Jason_Ambrose]

Been under at Rawlings quite a few times and it is a great dive. Night dives there are awesome. Like H3Liton stated, drop down to 30-45' ft or so, cut your lights out and look up...simply amazing!