Trip Report from Austria: Fernsteinsee/Samarangersee

kelpdiver wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

I'm still a bit stunned by this - partly the clarity, and but certainly also the cold. The very idea of diving there would not have occurred to me.

Here around Phoenix we have several lakes, and I've take dive training lessons in them. But they are nasty. Murky at best, with almost nothing to see, and the water stinks of boat exhaust. (Also cold at any depth, even in the summer.)

mountain lakes can have excellent clarity. colder water, and not being downstream of lots of human runoff (sewage, pesticides, fertilizer in fields, etc) are big difference from what you might see locally.

When I first started diving as a teenager in 1971, I made my 4th open water dive with my father in Balman Resevoir in Colorado.   It's up near treeline at 9400 feet (around 2870m).

My memory of that dive was that it was very green.  Nothing much to see but green.   Of course back then I had no prescription mask and I'm quite near-sighted, so I never did see much on my first 4 dives.  After that one I took a 35-year break from diving.

Lake Tahoe once had ridiculous clarity - 200ft, but is now sub 100. Phosphates lead to algae growth.

Yes, that would have been something to see.

9C is about the practical limit for wetsuits, though for many it's likely 11-12. 10 is where I need to start wearing gloves, which I hate.

I once forgot my hood and had to dive Carmel in 9-10. The first 5 minutes were very painful in the temple, until it went numb. Then I settled, albeit with a highly elevated rate of air consumption.

When I got my D810 dive housing I needed to test it out in a pool.   So I went to a friend with a pool - in Phoenix in December - put on my 3 mil and hopped in the water for a 5-minute test to see how the rig worked.   I left my gloves off so I could operate the controls.

And my hands almost instantly were useless.   What a shock when I hit that water!   My 5 minute test lasted only about 2 minutes - and I ran out of air in my tank at the same time, so I gladly came out of the water.