Diving the Dam

Drove down to Austin this past weekend with the Gibson family for another round of Lake Travis scuba diving. This time, I broke the 100 ft barrier for the first time out on Windy Point. Let me tell you, it was dark, cold and the visibility was shit. But the experience of going beyond that arbitrary level was mildly intoxicating. We finished off the weekend with a wall dive at Mansfield Dam. The picture above is a photo of the constructionn of the dam back in 1940. If you look carefully you will notice the geometric "columns" that flank the base of the dam. Each of these columns are covered by thousands (?) of iron gates. At 107 feet down, the gates were extended as far as the eye could see in every direction. It was kind of scary for some reason. The visibility at the dam was great. A 33 minute dive almost drained my single tank and really clued me in to how important a proper dive light can be.

Celebrating in Dallas

I haven't worn contact lenses in almost seven years but I decided to throw my lot back in with the lensed this week. Signed up for an eye exam and I'm wearing a pair of test lenses for a week. Yesterday was the first day and I must admit it was a little bit uncomfortable. Today wasn't so bad, although things weren't helped by the fact that my company had a party yesterday to celebrate our contract with FedEx/Kinko's. The soiree was held at Dallas' Ghostbar, high atop the new W Hotel. It's arguably the trendiest watering hole in the metroplex. On the weekend it's frequented by the likes of Maverick Stars and superstar guest DJs. It's one place I would never go to on my own, but hey, if the company is picking up the tab...I'll have a single malt, please. In other news, I joined up as a member of DAN (Diver's Alert Network) and am making plans for my first saltwater dive at the Flower Gardens in the Gulf. Oh, and I promised Tiffany that I'd take ballroom dancing classes with her. No laughing...I'm a sensitive guy.

Scuba Doo

Greetings, Earthlings. I've been pretty busy the past month. I've spent the past three weekends scuba diving...actually, I just got certified last weekend in San Marcos at the former Aquarena Springs. I know, it's weird...scuba diving in the winter. I thought I'd get a jump on the summer mayhem but a bunch of other people felt the same way. Our class was packed. I did my first official dive this weekend out at the chilly Clear Springs Scuba Park in Terrell, TX. The water was a brisk 50 degrees but that didn't stop this polar bear. What stopped me was my buoyant 7mm wetsuit. I didn't have enough weights to keep me under the water till about 10 feet. After a few false starts, I finally got under and the water pressure compressed the suit. But coming up, I experienced an uncontrolled ascent and shot to the top like a missile. If we had actually been deep diving that would've been it...but I cheated death to dive another day! Hopefully my mother is not reading this. Don't worry I'll get better...the combination of cold water and all new equipment configuration was a potent and confusing brew -- something that I'm going to have to adjust to. Unfortunately I won't get a chance to get wet for another couple of weeks. I'm already formulating my evil plans.