Relocating to Colorado Springs

[LakeScubaDiver]

I am in the Air Force and they see fit that I will be moving to Colorado Springs (Peterson AFB) in Nov of this year. I am looking for a couple things in the way of advice.

1. What are the good local dives in that area and can anyone give me some personal feedback on them?

2. Are there any good dive shops in the area that someone can reccomend? I plan on getting my Dive Master when I get out there. I started here, but have zero time with finishing up an MBA, having a 2 month old, work schedule, and getting ready for the move.

Thanks in advance for the help and I hope to meet some of you in the future! I am actually pretty excited to make the move from Oklahoma to Colorado, however I have never even visited the state!

Mike

 

[knotical]

An early “welcome to Colorado Springs and Peterson AFB”. There are at least two of us on the board who live in the Springs: roakey and knotical.

“Good local dives” depends somewhat on your definition. Aurora and Chatfield Reservoirs are two common dives (Southeast and Southwest of Denver respectively, an hour plus drive from Peterson). Visibility varies with the number of divers and quickly deteriorates. Aurora is bigger. Diving only in the warmer months.

Turquoise Lake near Leadville is a kick simply because it pushes or exceeds the altitude tables.

I once dove Prospect Lake in downtown Colorado Springs and will not do it again.

Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM (four plus hours away) is where many dive stores do their training because the water temperature is constant year-round.

And there is some ice diving, but not by me.

Others have more local diving experience than I, and a stroll through this forum will also give you more info on various bodies of water.

There are two Dive stores in the Springs, Divers’ Reef and Underwater Connection (alphabetically). Both are PADI. Both are fine. I am on the staff of one of them, so I have a preference. Suggest that you stop by both stores and get a feel for the personalities. I recommend them both. If you’re already hung up on a product line, Divers’ Reef’s flagship is ScubaPro and Underwater Connection’s is Aqualung. They both carry multiple other brands.

I hope (and think) you will enjoy your tour here.

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

Knotical,
Thanks for all the good tips, especially letting me know about the shops. I use both Oceanic and OMS gear and like them both. (Ocaenic dive comp and reg; OMS backplate system) Believe it or not Blue Hole in New Mexico is the last place I dove a couple months ago (had a little girl and that has put a temporary strain on diving). It was a pretty cool dive, especially for my first visit, except for the fact I had full blown strep throat and felt like crap the first day. The trip was planned, and my ears were clear so I wasn't backing out! I will definitely look into some of the local spots you sent my way and add them to my database. You can PM me the shop you work for and I will definitely check your shop out first! Thanks again and look forward to getting there and getting started with altitude diving (not much of that around Oklahoma)!

Mike

 

[boulderjohn]

Another local dive--although not so much local from Colorado Springs--is Carter Lake, up by Berthoud. Unfortunately, it is a reservoir that serves other needs, so its depth varies. I am told that right now it is already so low that the tiny area reserved for diving is almost undiveable already.

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

I came across that site somewhere else and was going to do a little web-research on it...thanks for the heads up!

 

[boulderjohn]

I came across that site somewhere else and was going to do a little web-research on it...thanks for the heads up!

I assume you are talking about Carter Lake in this post.

If you go to the Dive Training web site, you will find a review of Carter Lake. Take it with a grain of salt.

I wrote it as a joke and sent it in to DT. I had a lot of tongue in cheek humor in it, joking about the vis, the mud, and the extremely diver-unfriendly attitude of the rangers. (They really hate divers there, and they look for opportunities to bust them for minor infractions--or stop all activities because of paperwork complications.) DT took out the most obvious barbs and printed the rest as if it were a serious review.

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

I assume you are talking about Carter Lake in this post.

If you go to the Dive Training web site, you will find a review of Carter Lake. Take it with a grain of salt.

I wrote it as a joke and sent it in to DT. I had a lot of tongue in cheek humor in it, joking about the vis, the mud, and the extremely diver-unfriendly attitude of the rangers. (They really hate divers there, and they look for opportunities to bust them for minor infractions--or stop all activities because of paperwork complications.) DT took out the most obvious barbs and printed the rest as if it were a serious review.

Yeah, that is the site I was talking about. If you have any pictures or videos of that site and you forward them to us, we will post them as well. I am going to try and research through the web and get some information up on our map abiout that site. If you want to write one up for us...serious or sarcastic, we will post and give you credit for the write up. Thanks!

Mike