theskull
May 14th, 2006, 06:43 PM
Spent the weekend diving at Table Rock with my new buddy Marty and my best buddy SLIM.
We made all our dives near the dam since we wanted to make shore dives and wanted to go deep. All dives were to depths between 140 and 175 ft. and bottom times ranged from 15 to 25 minutes. Backgas was near-air (diluted Trimix or diluted Nitrox) and deco gases were EAN 50 and O2 (or near-O2).
Conditions were great. Surface temp of 63 F, hard thermocline at about 45 ft. of 50 F, and 45 F below 130 ft. Visibility was 10-15 above the thermocline and 30+ feet below the thermocline. Natural light penetrated all the way to 140 ft. depth or so, but below 160 it was black as night--but still great viz.
And good news for all recreational divers. There is nothing worth seeing (at this site, anyway) deeper than 130 feet! Near the dam the bottom just planes out into a flat silty expanse of nothing. The prettiest part of the dive area was at the West edge of the no-boating zone at a depth of 90-130 ft., where there are a great deal of trees to swim through along with some rock outcroppings and excellent fish habitats.
The weekend was a great success as far as meeting the goals we had. Between the 3 of us we had 5 different mixed-gas dive computers we were using and comparing results from--and a Mosquito that we badly bent on the first dive, but continued to function as a great bottom-timer in gauge mode. Also comparing what the computers called for on the dive to what DecoPlan and V-Planner said the profiles should be. Adjusted Marty's gear configuration just a little bit and gave him a chance to dive with a canister light. Also practiced deploying a lift bag from depth and valve shut-down drills.
Life is Good!
theskull
We made all our dives near the dam since we wanted to make shore dives and wanted to go deep. All dives were to depths between 140 and 175 ft. and bottom times ranged from 15 to 25 minutes. Backgas was near-air (diluted Trimix or diluted Nitrox) and deco gases were EAN 50 and O2 (or near-O2).
Conditions were great. Surface temp of 63 F, hard thermocline at about 45 ft. of 50 F, and 45 F below 130 ft. Visibility was 10-15 above the thermocline and 30+ feet below the thermocline. Natural light penetrated all the way to 140 ft. depth or so, but below 160 it was black as night--but still great viz.
And good news for all recreational divers. There is nothing worth seeing (at this site, anyway) deeper than 130 feet! Near the dam the bottom just planes out into a flat silty expanse of nothing. The prettiest part of the dive area was at the West edge of the no-boating zone at a depth of 90-130 ft., where there are a great deal of trees to swim through along with some rock outcroppings and excellent fish habitats.
The weekend was a great success as far as meeting the goals we had. Between the 3 of us we had 5 different mixed-gas dive computers we were using and comparing results from--and a Mosquito that we badly bent on the first dive, but continued to function as a great bottom-timer in gauge mode. Also comparing what the computers called for on the dive to what DecoPlan and V-Planner said the profiles should be. Adjusted Marty's gear configuration just a little bit and gave him a chance to dive with a canister light. Also practiced deploying a lift bag from depth and valve shut-down drills.
Life is Good!
theskull