Thanksgiving 2020 Dive

[SurfLung]

Thanksgiving Diving in Minnesota
- I have gone diving just before freeze up a number of times. I can suit up indoors and go directly down to the water without much exposure to the cold air and wind. The water is usually 36-39 degrees... Which is about the same temp as Fortune Pond when we dive below 80 feet. So it's manageable.
- In the past I made a point of bringing the GoPro camera. But this year I got lazy. Here's the deal...
- One Fall a few years back, Rich and I made a glorious late November dive where the visibility was around 30 feet and the sun was bright. The weather stayed mild and I got in yet another dive December 6th... Again with fabulous visibility.
- And so, I'd been hopeful of those same conditions every Fall since then and unfortunately have been disappointed.

- So I could see the weather was going to be clear skies with temps in the 40s last Saturday. Looking down the hill into the lake with polarized sunglasses made the water clarity look promising. It's not very deep near shore so that can be deceptive. I suited up to give it a try. And I went in diving with my Kraken and Seatec horsecollar. Visibility wasn't so hot... 5-10 feet with alot of floating stuff. Water temp was 36 degrees F but wasn't uncomfortable... Probably thanks to having suited up in the warm house. I visited our underwater angel and said a prayer. Then I went over to our little Thumbalina and checked that out. Swam down the shore a ways to see that everything is still there. Didn't see any fish and the vegetation was for the most part laying down and not very scenic. Max depth was 18 feet and I came in after only 10 minutes. That was 2 days ago and this morning the lake is froze over.

- Not too exciting of a dive report, I have to admit. But on the other hand, this is one summer that I didn't waste very many opportunities to go diving. And this weekend's dive was a great way to finish off the Summer... Diving right up until freeze up. I'm thankful that I can go diving!

- Here's a video from a previous late Fall dive under similar conditions.

[swimjim]

Way to get out there Eben! I was going to go to Fortune Pond on Friday, but managed to throw out my back on Wednesday. I'm still recovering from that. Eric P told me he was at Fortune two weeks ago and the Pond must have been turning over. He said it was hard to find the big split rock even. The viz was less than 20 feet. It was clear past 100 feet though.
Thanks for the report and Happy holidays!

[ScubaLawyer]

Eben, I'm glad you had a good time. I suffered through a dive yesterday in the cove below my house. Just about had to call the dive when I saw my temperature gauge reading 62 F. Saw all the usual stuff. Basically the same thing you see in the lake next to your house. Playing around with a new video editing program so I took the GoPro images from my dive yesterday and made the following 2 1/2 minute video. Still working out the kinks in my learning curve on the program but thought I'd share. Everyone stay safe! Mark

[dhaas]

Mark,

Well done and being that close to an ocean looks great!

Good camera work from steadiness to focus to lighting too

David Haas

[ScubaLawyer]

Mark,

Well done and being that close to an ocean looks great!

Good camera work from steadiness to focus to lighting too

David Haas

Thanks for the kind words David. I just started using DaVinci Resolve (the free version) for editing. There is nothing intuitive about the program but I'm getting there. Need to learn how to use the color correcting controls. Also need to learn the secrets to editing 4K. I shot that dive in 1080 because my computer does not like to process the bigger video files. Mark.

[simonbeans]

MARK,
62 degrees, that is balmy for us here in the Great Lakes region. Seems that diving up here is becoming blah, if it isn't the cold water, it's the "wondrous" shades of grey and green. I had the chance to dive near Catalina years ago and the Garibaldi made my day. The colors of the oceans! Nice job, I enjoyed the reprieve from snow today, Dec 1.

[antique diver]

That was a nice video to start my day with. I wish I had a back yard dive like that available!
Well done.

[swimjim]

REALLY NICE video Mark! My next dive will be on Sunday and I anticipate the water temp to be about 35.

[couv]

Thanks for sharing guys.

[antique diver]

Sitting in the house on a cold morning, I just had to watch your video again. If I had a beach dive like that behind my place I would never get any work done! A stock pond just isn't very inviting.

[ScubaLawyer]

Sitting in the house on a cold morning, I just had to watch your video again. If I had a beach dive like that behind my place I would never get any work done! A stock pond just isn't very inviting.

Hi Bill,

Appreciate your kind words. Your statement raises the issue of an ongoing argument I have been having with my wife for years. Since I don't want to do any real work right now, I will respond. I say the ocean is actually in front of our house, not behind it. I say the house faces the ocean (big view windows, deck, etc...) , therefore the ocean is in front of the house. My wife says no, the front door side of the house faces away from the ocean, therefore the ocean is behind us. It is an argument I will never win. Mark

[couv]

so that means we all live in Mark's back yard?

I guess it's time for the Morlocks to have their turn.

[swimjim]

Sitting in the house on a cold morning, I just had to watch your video again. If I had a beach dive like that behind my place I would never get any work done! A stock pond just isn't very inviting.

Hi Bill,

Appreciate your kind words. Your statement raises the issue of an ongoing argument I have been having with my wife for years. Since I don't want to do any real work right now, I will respond. I say the ocean is actually in front of our house, not behind it. I say the house faces the ocean (big view windows, deck, etc...) , therefore the ocean is in front of the house. My wife says no, the front door side of the house faces away from the ocean, therefore the ocean is behind us. It is an argument I will never win. Mark

Here on Lake Michigan the front of the house faces the lake.... so plus one. But happy wife, happy life

[antique diver]

Sitting in the house on a cold morning, I just had to watch your video again. If I had a beach dive like that behind my place I would never get any work done! A stock pond just isn't very inviting.

Hi Bill,

Appreciate your kind words. Your statement raises the issue of an ongoing argument I have been having with my wife for years. Since I don't want to do any real work right now, I will respond. I say the ocean is actually in front of our house, not behind it. I say the house faces the ocean (big view windows, deck, etc...) , therefore the ocean is in front of the house. My wife says no, the front door side of the house faces away from the ocean, therefore the ocean is behind us. It is an argument I will never win. Mark

Here on Lake Michigan the front of the house faces the lake.... so plus one. But happy wife, happy life

I like the idea of it being in front of your house, so I definitely agree with you... but don't tell your wife I said this.

[SurfLung]

Clear and Warm Ocean vs Cold Dark Lakes... And Changing Expectations
- After my Dad finally got to dive in the Caribbean, he never went diving in our MN lakes again. And when I was 19, he took me to Cayman Islands for my first experience in Caribbean diving. Up until then I did underwater photgraphy with a used Nikonos and light meter and I had to "PUSH" the processing of 400 ASA ectachrome up to 1600 ASA to get enough light sensitivity... And I got pretty crummy pictures. After the Caribbean trip, I realized my problem was simply a lack of water clarity, light, and colorful subjects to photograph. I never did underwater photography again until I took up the GoPro in recent years. For that matter I didn't do much diving in all of those year after going to Cayman Islands.
- In 2011 when I discovered this whole Vintage hobby, my new fascination with diving was just to play with my restored vintage equipment. I did a lot of cold and dark diving in the lake and was often surprised by good water clarity, pretty scenery and wildlife. But it depends on the day... One dive might be great and the next not so great.
- My local VDH buddies had settled on two good places to take a trip: Lake Wazee and Fortune Pond. We'd get 50 ft. visibility at Wazee and sometimes over 100 ft. viz at Fortune. Then Wazee started going downhill... Sometimes only 5-10 ft viz. And I started getting angry about it... I think the DNR is trying to turn it into a fishing lake by injecting "nutrients". So I quit going there.
- Well, long story short... I've become philosophical about the whole thing. I found that if I downgrade my expectations, I have a good time diving regardless of the conditions. And sometimes, I get a total surprise and find WAY better conditions than expected.
- How Low Can Expectations Go? - Yesterday SeaHunt Jerry, Tom, Rich, Ron, and myself drove all the way to New Richmond WI where we were able to reserve 2 lanes of the community swimming pool for a couple of hours to go scuba diving. We tried out multiple vintage regulators and other equipment, checked each other for leaks (air), and practiced getting our buoyancy right. In between we were visiting and helping each other. I think we all agreed we're going to count this trip as the "'Rona Christmas Party".