Summersville Lake-WV

[mselizann]

Has anyone been here? What can you tell me about it?

[emcbride81]

WVDiver and Kokomo are the forum authorities on this one. I missed out last year, but I hear the vis is great. Not sure about temps tho. You can check this out Home

[orion586969]

the vis is great normaly temps are good the last dive i did there was 9-29-08 it was 75degrees down to 55 ft there is a bunch of threads on summersville lake on thes site to see more divers thoughts on summersville

there is a dive shop there also open spring to fall Home

[afjml]

mselizann,
WVdiver is much more of an authority on Summersville than I ,but I have been there quite a few times over the past few summers and the vis is very good for lake diving (minus what boat traffic stirs up). The lake has an interesting bottom composition & topography at the ramp nearest the dam. Personally, I prefer to dive near the dam. The winter boat ramp has less vis.
Be sure to make plans and give Summersville a go.

[scubajane]

Ok... I have been trying to get to summersville lake for 2 summers and the stupid job keeps getting in the way. maybe I should give up food and housing and just dive

[WV Diver]

mselizann,

The lake is nice and visited by many shops and divers over the summer months. There are two most often used dive sites. One is at the winter boat ramp, near the dam, this is the one most folks go to. There is one platform at about 25 feet west of the entry point in a small cove. This cove also has a small sunken boat, the Thomas Patrick, which is near the platform and in about 30-35' of water. To the east, toward the dam there is a large rock that some of the shops use for a platform for students to do skills on. Beyond the cove is the winter boat ramp. It is in about 80'+ of water in the summer months and a fair dive.

The other dive site in beyond the camp ground and farther down the road. It has two small boats to dive on but most folks don't do it because you have to carry your gear a little ways to get into the water as it is gated. But if you can catch one of the rangers there they will open it for you long enough to drive your gear to the water. Personally I don't think the haul is that big of a deal myself.

Late summer and fall are the best temps and can be in the upper 70's. I have read articles that advertise the vis to be 40'. This I have never seen, in reality it is more like 15-20' on good days in the < 40' of depth range but can be clearer at depths > 40', although the overall vis is about the same the water is more clear. The elevation is 1565' at the entry point. Boat traffic is heavy most of the time, be sure to have a flag. BTW, the Corps of Engineers does not like you towing your flag. This is not the norm in most other areas. So we usually plant several flags around the dive areas and just pick them up when we do out last dive.

There are facilities at the top of the hill a short drive from the entry point and BBQ grills and picnic tables.

If you have specific questions just ask here. If you would like to dive with us anytime this summer just shoot me a PM and we can discuss it and meet there for some dives.

[mselizann]

We were going to Dutch Springs for a few days in late June, but it is pretty expensive, and we were checking out other options. We were thinking of camping nearby, and diving the last Thurs-Sat in June.

[WV Diver]

Depending on the spring temperatures and rainfall late June should be good. Last spring was miserable with lots of high water events and the streams and lakes took longer than usual to warm up.

Send me a PM to remind me of your dates sometime before you go and I will let you know if we are going to be in the area.

[drifter136]

I've been to Summersville several times for camping, boating, and cliff diving, but haven't been back since getting certified. It would be kinda cool to try and get a Scubatoys MADD group together sometime this summer for a weekend of diving at Summersville.

Oh yeah, I haven't been there for several years, and the friends I usually go with heard that they had started outlawing cliff diving or at least restricting it to certain heights. Anyone know anything about this?

[WV Diver]

Sorry Drift, I don't know anything about the cliff diving.