2024 Dive Trip Dates

[SurfLung]

Fellow Excellent Divers,

It's that time of year when we're stuck in the frozen north and dreaming of Spring when we'll be able to do some more Vintage Diving. I've taken it upon myself to claim some 2024 calendar dates for dive trips. Notice...

1. I didn't mess up Mother's Day
2. I didn't mess up Fathers' Day
3. I didn't mess up Memorial day
4. I didn't mess up Labor Day

May 17-18 Wazee, Black River Falls WI
May 31-June 1 Fortune Pond, Crystal Falls MI
June 21-22 Fortune Pond
July 12-13 Orebegone, Gilbert MN
July 26-27 Fortune Pond
August 9-10 Wazee
August 23-24 Fortune Pond
September 20-21 Fortune Pond (Fall Colors)

These are penciled in right now... They seem to work for me and hopefully for most of you.

- Best Regards, SurfLung

[simonbeans]

Sounds like a busy season ahead. Any chance of warming up those northern waters?

[rhwestfall]

Sounds like a busy season ahead. Any chance of warming up those northern waters?

that takes a lot of pee....

[swimjim]

I'm looking forward to the year ahead. I'll definitely make several of those dates.

[SurfLung]

Divers Kicked Out of Wazee
- First it was Fishing that was more important than divers at Wazee and they injected nutrients and weed harvesting that took the visibility from 50-60 ft down to 2-3 feet... That was a terrible year.
- Then it was Swimmers that are more important than divers and they dumped silty sand into the dive access sites to make them more beach like for swimmers. The swimmers came in crowds... Commandeering the dive equipment tables and stirring up the sand for perpetual cloudy water. Visibility was often no more than 10-15 feet and often as bad ad 5 feet. (There IS a nice big beach for swimmers but they prefer our dive access points and the park officials don't mind at all.)
- And NOW, it is Bike Riders who are more important than divers. We came early in the season to hopefully get some spring thaw visibility and to avoid the swimmers due to the water being too cold for swimming. Paid for motel and dinner Thursday night and got in 4 Scuba dives before the swimmers started showing up at around 3:00 PM. Stayed another night at the motel and got out there at 7:30 Saturday morning... Intending to dive Blue Gill access, which is not popular with the Swimmers.
- Filled out my self-registry pass, paid my $10, and drove to Blue Gill. But as I started to take stuff out of my vehicle, the park ranger pulls up and says the park is closed for a Bike Race until 11:30. But we can go to Sherwood until then. Sherwood has the best beach for Swimmers and we just spent a whole day there yesterday. So, I asked for my $10 back and we went home.
- The writing has been on the wall for 5-7 years now but we have just refused to accept it... Wazee is no longer a dive destination that is worth the time and expense to drive to. I don't think I'll be going back there again.

Sherwood Dive Report
- The diving we did on Friday was pretty good. We (SheriffDiver and SurfLung) met Sea Hunt Jerry and his friend Chris at Sherwood Forest. First dive was a Twin Tank swim dive. We went out from the beach to the left of the ridge and saw all of the fish cribs, platform, pirate skeleton, gnomes, Chris Craft, and Lego Man... Then we turned right at about 60 feet to follow the cliff until we reached the 56 ft deep platform... Which now has no Buoy and has collapsed to almost sliding over the cliff into the abyss. From there we swam toward shore, up the drop off and finished the dive in about 31 minutes. VIZ was a very respectable 25-30 feet for a change.
- Dives 2,3, and 4 covered the same area multiple times on our DPV scooters. A high point of the day (and the weekend ultimately) was when we dove our JC Higgins replica regulators.