Table Rock/Branson things to do

[cummings66]

I made the dives today, had a pretty good time at it. I got to see the Branson Bell which was kind of interesting. It's showing some age on it, missing deck boards and such. I also got to see the enchanted forest, looks interesting and you can find things like fishing poles and hooks, line too... Lot's of empty Bud cans on the bottom there, people sure like to pollute don't they.

The water temps at depth were 51 degrees but pretty comfortable in my 7mm wetsuit, but my lips were a bit cold and when that water touched my nose you could tell it was cool as well. I don't mind a little water in the mask, but I did clear it when that cold stuff hit my nose.

Vis was 30 - 40 feet at the forest, and 10 - 15 feet at the wreck, falling off as you got down around 85 feet or so. Not that bad though, and I couldn't see anything but black in the stack, even with a light. Looked through a lot of holes in the wreck, but really couldn't see a lot due to the vis being what it was.

Scuba Sports had a good crew and they seemed to know the area pretty well and were friendly. They brought drinks for us as well. What they do is have 2 DM/Instructors and for those that want to go low one of them handles that, and the other handles the high side so you can split a boat and everybody gets what they want. We had a young boy who had a blast when he went in the water on the high side, almost worth the time just to watch him have fun.

All things said we had 6 divers and as far as I could tell they all had a good time and did what they wanted.

$50 is what they charge for a 2 tank dive, but if you tried to rent a boat and do the same thing you'd be hard pressed to do it for less by yourself. You'd have to have a group to do it any cheaper.

I believe I'd do it again.

 

[Bill51]

If you can swing taking your wife to dinner at Big Cedar, or better yet stay there sometime, you’ll keep her so happy you’ll get in lots of dive trips to Table Rock.

You had a couple great dive sites to check out, now you need to go back and do the Zeb for your next trip along with a few of the houseboat and cruiser wrecks. There are a few spots you can get below the tree canopies in enchanted forest that are just incredible dives when the conditions are right. If you get to the bottom first the silt kicked off the treetops by the divers following you looks like snow falling around the trees in your dive light.

 

[cummings66]

You had a couple great dive sites to check out, now you need to go back and do the Zeb for your next trip along with a few of the houseboat and cruiser wrecks.

I thought I mentioned the name trivia, the Zeb is the Branson Bell wreck that I dived on. They renamed it according to lore so that the people on the surface version of it wouldn't get nervous, i.e. the current Branson Bell. I don't know if that's really true or not, but it's an interesting wreck that apparently had to have the paddle wheel removed in order to remain in that spot. I never did find out exactly what caused it to sink and not be recovered, unless it had something to do with those holes I saw. I took those to be the rotting afterwards though. The guides did not know where the city that's under the water was. They figured it was on the edge of where it drops off deep and that's why it's not popular. I would love to dive there after I get some Nitrox training.

I think Breezy point since I like to find things and then I'm not sure. I'm definitely coming back to help Project Aware, and maybe once more before then. Judy and Elizabeth had a good time playing and Elizabeth was so wore out that she fell asleep almost as soon as she hit the car seat. I've got to get me a cheap underwater camera to play with...

I forgot to mention, the buddy I dove with was a pilot as well. Pretty nice guy who was captivated with the sites and could talk about many things besides diving. He was pretty upset with himself that he ended our dive early but I told him don't worry about it, things happen and I was glad I was able to help like a buddy should. In a way that situation for me was a very good learning experience. Running out of air or low on air was always a fear of mine and this example showed me how important a buddy can be. It also showed me one drawback to a buddy who has equal air consumption rates, you'd both be out if somebody didn't notice they're low, so the secondary lesson is to always watch your air. I had plenty of air when we surfaced so it was still no problem for me.

I'd dive with him again, we got along fine and I think this was a good learning experience for both of us. I told him of this board and if he gets here if you dive there again and I'm around let me know.