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melev

Colder weather won't stop my certification

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The final part of my SCUBA certification involves open water dives this weekend. I'm going to two different lakes, one per day. The car is loaded up with gear and an ice chest will hold food and drinks.

What you see in this image are two air tanks, 5mm wet suit, 5mm hoodie vest, BCD, weights, log book, and a few smaller items. Not pictured are my fins, prescription mask, snorkel, and booties. And towels, clothes, first aid kit, etc.

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Of my class, I'm the only one going tomorrow but there will be other divers working on advanced certification, like Rescue dives - so I feel extra safe even with my bum ankle. With only one person in the class, I don't need to be there as many hours. I'll arrive at the lake at 11 a.m. which allows the weather to warm up a bit before I start my day. I just checked Google Maps and the drive isn't as bad as I thought, only an hour and 41 minutes away rather than two full hours.

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This is the lake itself, which appears to be dedicated to diving based on the name: Clear Springs SCUBA Park. I've heard the water clarity is excellent.

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Sunday is going to be at Wheeler Branch Park, in Glen Rose, Texas. This trip is only 41 miles away.

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I'm not positive where the lake is, as the marker isn't near the water and zooming in didn't show any other obvious body of water, so I may be swimming in that phytoplankton-looking stuff for a few hours.

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If you've not seen my recent SCUBA articles on the front page, you can read them now. After this weekend, I'll have another one up about the open water portion, and then after my Hawaiian vacation over Thanksgiving I'll have one more to share. Then it's back to Reef Keeping for a while.

Jessy lent me her GoPro 2, so I'll see if I can get a little video to share from this weekend. And with that, I'm off to bed.

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Updated 11-17-2012 at 01:54 AM by melev

Categories
Scuba

Comments

  1. Midnight's Avatar
    So are you official now Marc?
  2. melev's Avatar
    Yes. I documented both days on the front page of the site.
  3. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Congratulations Marc! This is something I want to do soon too. But cold water? The dive school here goes to Valdez in the winter to dive in the ocean for the open water portion. Everything else is frozen over.
  4. melev's Avatar
    I say cold, but if I had to do what you are dealing with, it would be in a dry suit. Different method, also interesting but not really of interest since I'm into reef fish and reef corals.
  5. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    My interest is in tropical reefs too. so I may do the classroom and pool dives here, then finish the open water work someplace tropical. However, google Alaskan Corals sometime. I think you'll be surprized.