Swamper's Get Together - June 25-27 Lake Travis/Mansfield Dam Park

[-=>Larry<=-]

Well?

The weather was fine in Oak Hill Saturday morning, after ~1.5" of rain the preceeding day, - - on the other hand - the radar had the rain mostly to the NW of Austin, and not quite to Travis - - so off I go to find y'all.

Arrived just a hair after 9 to find campsite 5 locked off, about 4 classes in action and not a Swamp Diver in sight. Put a CD on and emerged every now & then to check new arrivals. Somewhere close to 10 - the new arrival was Liserom - - So I got to meet a new swamper, but he was preparing for the class he told us about. It was up to a constant mist about then - and I'd still not found anyone to dive with. Somwhere about 11 - It had increased to REAL rain - - - So I called it.

Returned to Oak Hill SCUBA for my weekly dose of idle diver talk. Most of the classes had cancelled also - so looks like I'll be busy again DMing next weekend.

If my timing missed yours - sorry. I'll look forward to the next opportunity to try to get together!

 

[Diver Kat]

Larry - so sorry, but somehow we missed you - although I think we were actually there at the same time .... the rain was pretty heavy all morning in Cedar Park, but we decided to pack up the gear and head over to the Dam. Got there around 10:45 or so. Scoped out campsite 5, but didn't expect any campers with the great weather, and no one was there. Parked in the day area and Alan checked on the large dive class huddled under the dive pavillion, and talked to a few other divers hanging around, but we couldn't find any swampers. The rain finally lightened up and quit just after 11, so we geared up and went in. The viz was pretty miserable, but at least the lake temp had warmed up considerably from 2 weeks ago, it was 77 at 70 feet. After we got out, there was even a few peeks of sun, but still couldn't find any swampers .... until 'txbrent' came by and introduced himself, as he'd seen the sign we'd put on the blazer. It was nice to meet at least one swamper! Dawdled about for a bit more, but didn't spot anyone else, so packed up to go get the tanks refilled. Alan had some trouble with his reg and when we had the shop check it, something with the high pressure was out of whack - so there was no going back to dive today or tomorrow. Bummer! But we have to get it fixed as we head out to FL on Friday ...

I hope some of you other guys had better luck finding each other .... and sorry we missed you all!!

 

[Hawkeye Mark]

Larry good to meet you if only briefly.Someone else came up to me and asked for Swamp Divers. I identified myself as one. At that time there was no one at site 5. Unfortunately I had no time. We had OW class with 7 plus an advanced class with 6. One instructor and 3 DM's. We got in water around 11 and did not finish the last dive tilll almost 10. Today first dive at 8:30 got out about 1:00 or so. Drove home. Nine dives in about 24 hour period. Pretty tiring.

 

[NDH]

Well we dove twice this weekend. Once on friday between storms and once on Saturday around 415pm. We did ask around for some swampers but couldn't find any so as it stands we are still not swampers bummer. We did get go see the Imax Corel Reef in Austin, pretty cool on the sharks but really sad about the reefs. Maybe next time we will be able to dive will someone and become swampers. Vis was about 6 to 8ft on friday after one storm and maybe 8ft on Saturday.

 

[ae3753]

Kat, I think that we passed each other at the bottom of the dive stairs. We were coming in while you were heading out!

Up top, we bumped into Brent as well, we walked around a bit but unfortunately didn't see anyone else. Next time, we will coordinate times.

Ended up diving with some of the locals we knew. Hopefully, we'll dive with some Swampers next time.

 

[txbrent]

Kat, ae, It was nice to a meet y'all even if we couldn't dive. I suppose I've got the same problem as NDH. I've been to a couple of events, but never have been able to dive with a 'Real Swamper'. I'll be looking forward to the next meet!

I did end up diving with a club from UT. They saved me from taking a full tank back to the shop.