Fantastic dive on Monday!

[ScubaDog]

ScubaBob and I hit the cove on Monday after work. Our mission was two-fold. First, we tried to find a watch that he lost (no success, there). Next, we had to locate the large boat and put a new marker on it since the old one disintegrated. The visibility was AWESOME. It topped out at 30 feet! Before we hit the thermal at about 15 feet viz was still a good 20 feet. Temps near the surface were 66 and at depth (we maxed at 70) were 61. I got some good footage with the new camera, so I'll be uploading those once I actually have a moment to breathe.

If you don't have a 5 or 7mm full wetsuit, I can't stress enough how much you need to get one and hit the water right now! You may not see water this good the rest of the season.

[diverdave]

hello scubadog, this is diverdave in dallas. my dive partner & i are coming down to dive on the may 6 and diver on the 8th & 9th. needless so say we have never been there and would appreciate some advise. the dive shop on line says they close at 1pm on saturday, is there any place else to get air/nitrox if needed? is the dive park off hwy 90 the only place to dive with out a boat? i've been diving since 1965 and i would like to know if at the dive park,is easy getting into and out of the water. i don't know yet where we will be staying but we are going to dive friday am,pm and nite and the same on saturday.

if you are going to be there durning that time then call me cell # 214-384-3790.

many thanks in advance for your help.


dave robinson

[ScubaDog]

It's nice to hear from you, and I'm glad to hear you'll have an opportunity to try out our lake. Visibility this past weekend while I was teaching a class was almost 30ft, water temps 71 surface, 68 at 70ft.

Now, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you mentioned a "dive park". We really don't have anything like that. There is what we call Scuba Cove, which is just to the right of Diablo East Marina. However, it's not what I'd call easily accessible. Once you turn off of Hwy 90 at the Diablo East road, you'll go maybe a quarter of a mile and see a very worn Park Service sing for fishing/swimming on the right. This is a rather lengthy winding dirt road that takes you by a number of picnic areas. The two most frequented spots are the cliffs, followed by the cove. The cove parking circle is as high as the cliffs and you have a pretty steep walk down to the shore...not for the weak, that's for certain, particularly carrying scuba gear.

No one in Del Rio does Nitrox, sad to say. There are only three places to get regular air fills in Del Rio. The primary is at Amistad Scuba, also known as Amistad Propane. They are on the right side of Hwy 90 on your way out of town (just across from the Exxon station). Ignore the two story building on the left just before that--it used to be Amistad Oupost, but they went out of business last year. Anyway, Amistad Scuba, as you noted, closes at noon or 1:00 on Saturday. If you call ahead and coordinate they'll often accommodate divers who need a fill. The other two ways to get fills would be to contact myself or the other PADI instructor in the area, Richard Urban. He lives out by Rough Canyon. We each have our own Max-Air 90 portable compressors that we purchased mostly for the convenience of filling tanks while we're teaching. Neither of us are really advertising air fills, but if I'm around I can usually be persuaded.

Regarding places to dive without a boat, you have the cove, you have Governor's Landing (take the turnoff for the International Dam and you'll see the road to Gov's Landing), and the Old 277 bridge (also used as a boat ramp since most of it is submerged, so be careful). Really, just about anywhere you can reach the water from a road there's a place you can dive. Speaking for myself, I prefer wall diving, so anywhere that I can access a submerged cliff, I'm happy.

Although I'm teaching a class this week, it looks like Saturday and Sunday are mostly free. So, depending on what time you want to dive, I'm up for it and I'm guessing ScubaBob, our club VP, may also be available. We can take you on "the tour", which amounts to visiting a couple of simple sunken boats. Then maybe head to the cliffs and drop on the wall a bit.

[diverdave]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE INFO. DOUG AND I HOPE TO MEET YOU SOMETIME THIS WEEKEND. WE ARE STAYING AT MOTEL 6. WE ARE GOING TO DIVE FRIDAY AND MAYBE FRIDAY NITE AND AGAIN ON SATURDAY.

LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS WEEKEND.

MANY TAHNKS

DAVE ROBINSON

[ScubaDog]

I'll be doing pool work with students Saturday morning until probably 1:00 (totally dependent on the ability of the students to master the skills) and I have a band practice at 4pm, so if I can squeeze in a dive on Saturday it probably won't be until 2pm or so. However, a night dive on Friday sounds nice. I'll probably finish the academics with my students around 8:30, so I'll give you buzz to see what's shaking.