Table Rock Conditions

[snagel]

I met up with mm2002 and his wife on Saturday (5/17) to do a dive at Dewey Short. Let me just say that both these people are very genuine and I immediately felt I made a couple of new friends. So if you have a chance to dive with them jump on it, but watch out, mm2002 might put you to work. (We had to change a tire on his boat trailer)

Anyway, the water level was about half way up the steps with the metal railing. This is where we entered. The railings under water were kinda nice because they gave you a place to hold on too while putting your fins on. We descended and went left toward the visitors center. Viz was about 10-15 feet as long as you stayed off the bottom. A lot of silt on the bottom and kicked up quickly silting things out to practically 0 viz. We stayed above the TC, but did notice it got a lot darker around the 30' mark. We were all trying out new equipment so didn't want to go too deep. Water temp above the TC was about 62 degrees. All in all it was a great checkout dive for new equipment and an opportunity to make a couple of new friends.

Side note: We heard that they lost a swimmer there and saw the water patrol looking around. When I drove up there was a K9 unit from the water patrol there. What we heard was that they found the clothes from a swimmer near the water, but the person was missing. I think I heard that the person was mentally challanged. Has anybody heard anything about this? During the dive the water patrol boat was out driving around with lights on, but this didn't appear that anybody was in a panic. We didn't see any other divers in the water looking for anybody and really any huge "rescue" going on other than the water patrol driving around in circles.

S. Nagel

[skdvr]

Thanks for the report... Hopefully conditions will continue to improve down there...

Phil

[mm2002]

Snagel, it was a pleasure to get to meet you, and dive with you! You've definitely made friends for life here my brother. Next time, we won't have the boat, so I'll make sure there's no more roadside emergencies!

Update on the lost person; they recovered the body this morning. I didn't get any details as of exactly where, how deep, etc., but the park attendant at Long Creek told us as we were leaving this afternoon. It was a sad ordeal.

Now, I have to tell my perspective of our dive. We were reflecting on everything last night at camp, and man would I do a lot of things differently in the future! I was elected the leader, and snagel and my wife stayed behind me. After we descended, I stopped to check things out a bit, and the first thing I noticed was that my computer wasn't working. I screwed with it a bit, but it would not stay powered on for some reason. I turned around, and attempted to show them that it wasn't working, and I looked at my wifes computer to check our depth, etc. That was stressing me a bit, and I SHOULD have called the dive immediately. For whatever reason, I chose to continue the dive. We were on a limited time frame, so I really didn't want to ruin it for snagel or my wife, so I continued. That was stupid thing #1. Next, this was my first dive with my new BP/W, and I had the weighting ALL wrong. I had removed the pony setup for this dive because we were planning to stay fairly shallow, and there was three of us. When I removed the pony, I put my weight in pockets on my top cam bands. In the water, it planted me head first on the bottom. I could not trim out at all without really sculling with my arms and fins, and that alone was stressful and tiring. Again, I should have called the dive, and fixed the problem but I didn't. That was stupid thing #2. I fought to stay neutral, but I was constantly either on the bottom or heading for the surface, and upside down a couple of times. At the bottom, there was so much silt that I kept ruining any decent vis we had. Then towards the end of the dive, I was at the buoy anchor cable, and I decided to turn and follow it toward the dam, then I was going to head back to the entry point from there. Seemed like a great plan to me. All I remember was it starting getting very dark, matter of fact I couldn't even see my compass. I knew we were getting deeper than planned because I had cleared my ears a couple of times, and the ambient light was rapidly disappearing. I decided to stop and check on the others, but when I turned around there was nobody there. I searched for a few seconds, and decided to surface. When I surfaced, I was out near the third buoy, which is normally about 40ft deep. I started swimming toward shore, and then I saw snagel and my wife surface fairly near shore. We all had a little surface swim back, but all was good. Today, I took the boat out to that third buoy, and it was 58ft deep. I believe the deepest snagels computer registered was around 30, so evidentially we had separated by a fairly good distance.

Here's what I learned yesterday:

If my computer, or any other piece of gear isn't working 100%, I'm calling the dive.

If I buy a totally new rig, it's going to the pool first, not a flooded lake with zero vis in spots.

If I'm diving in a threesom, and I'm leading, I'm going to stop more often to check the whereabouts of my buddies.

Last but not least, If I'm going to lose sight of my beloved wife on a dive, I want her to have a buddy like Mr. Nagel by her side. I wasn't worried about her in the least.

Now, I have to commend snagel for being nice, and not calling me an idiot. But I really feel like an idiot. I made some VERY bad decisions, and deserve a good ass whipping!

Other than that, it was fun to get back in the water again, and after I get this BP/W tuned out, it is the most comfortable rig I've tried to date. I really see why you guys love them so much!

[reactive]

The important thing is that everyone made it back safe and sound. You also learned a few lessons, so don't beat yourself up too bad.

[snagel]

Dude, all is well. We all were trying out new equipment and we knew going in that this was the case. I looked at this dive more as a "try new equipment dive" - your bp/w, my drysuit, and your wifes long hose. Hey, everything was good. I look at every dive as an opportunity to learn something new and to work on a basic skill. We all stayed fairly shallow and I atleast didn't get too concerned about anything. Worse case would be we would surface to find each other and that was the case.

All in all a great day. Good diving, good people, and had the opportunity to see some history.

S. Nagel

[mm2002]

Originally Posted by snagel

Dude, all is well. We all were trying out new equipment and we knew going in that this was the case. I looked at this dive more as a "try new equipment dive" - your bp/w, my drysuit, and your wifes long hose. Hey, everything was good. I look at every dive as an opportunity to learn something new and to work on a basic skill. We all stayed fairly shallow and I atleast didn't get too concerned about anything. Worse case would be we would surface to find each other and that was the case.

All in all a great day. Good diving, good people, and had the opportunity to see some history.

S. Nagel

Yeah, you're right. Nothing "alarming" happened, so it was a good dive, and getting on board the Zeb was way cool! I had a lot of fun, but I do tend to critique my dives a lot. My wife hates that about me. I guess what really hit home with me was today on the boat. I didn't know the exact depth of that third buoy until I took the sonar over it. Then, all that went through my mind was wow! Me, with a total of 18 dives under my belt, at 58ft in ZERO vis, ALONE, with unfamiliar AND inoperative equipment, and in floodwaters! Maybe that's a little over dramatized, but damn, if I'd got tangled up in something down there, it could of been my body they were dragging out this morning. Yes sir I learned a lot from this dive!

[snagel]

This is out of the Springfield Paper:

The body of a 28-year-old man was found in Table Rock Lake late this morning, more than 24 hours after he was reported missing.

Charles C. Cribb of Branson, who was mentally disabled, apparently went into the lake near the Dewey Short Visitors Center when his sister was in the restroom about 10:45 a.m. Saturday. She began searching for him when she discovered his clothing and shoes at the water’s edge near the center. He had apparently told family members earlier that he wanted to go swimming.

Divers began searching the area Saturday. Cribb’s body was discovered at 11:27 a.m. today in 18 feet of water, 150 feet from the shore where his clothing was found, according to a report by Missouri Water Patrol.

The body was taken to Snapps Funeral Home in Branson.


Sad thing....prayers go out to his family.

S. Nagel

[mm2002]

Oh man, poor guy. Very sad indeed. Honestly though, he went out having a little fun, and probably didn't have much of a quality of life to begin with. I feel for his family, but he's probably better off now. RIP Charles.

[Mtrewyn]

That is sad too hear, my prayers go out to him and his family.

[skdvr]

Well I am glad to hear that you learned a few things during your dive. Like has been said already, everyone is still blowing bubbles so it is all good. The best part is that you are not sitting here defending yourself thinking that you did everything correctly. It is the fact that you can talk about what you did and learn from it that will make you a good diver. EVERYONE makes mistakes, but it is what the individuals take from those mistakes that will seperate good divers from scary divers.

I am ancious to get down there and do a few dives with you guys in July...


That is very sad to hear about the poor guy that drown out there this weekend...

Phil