Marshall,

Some of us would like the longest possible dive season
we can have.  This year I had only a 2 month break -
didn't dive in November or December, not due to
weather but rather due to family obligations,
Thanksgiving & Christmas travel and such.  Although
this probably doesn't happen to anyone else ;-) , I
find that after not diving for more than a month, I am
not as sharp as I was when I was last in the water.
Given that most of my diving now is in the 150 to 200
ft range and involves trimix for back gas and 1 or
more deco bottles, I find it is preferable to do some
practice dives prior to doing the "real thing". I dive
for only one reason, I enjoy it.  That includes diving
Mt Storm in the snow in "bittercold" 60 degree water
;-).  Last year I didn't make one dive in the Atlantic
in which the bottom teperature was above 47 degrees. 
Regardless, I enjoyed all the dives I made.  If I
didn't enjoy it or feel up to the dive, I wouldn't do
the dive.

But that is how I feel, if you don't feel that way,
you should go to the movies.  Have some extra butter
on the popcorn for me!

Dave

PS - If you check the weather and find a nice warm day
up at Mt Storm, you should check it out.  It will
expand your dive season with no pain, and you can
still be back home in time to catch a movie!

  
--- Marshall Wright <webster-wright@er*.co*> wrote:
> I'm a diver too.  But after reading your posting,
> I'm amazed at the apparent pain level of diving in
> February in DC area.  Can't the scooter wait?
> How about going to a movie instead?
> May is only two months away!
> I don't mean to be mean, but aren't you pushing the
> season here?
> 
> Marshall
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: dmdalton 
>   To: TECHDIVER ; Alan Russell (E-mail) ; Alex
> Varouxis (E-mail) ; Allyson Clagett (E-mail) ; Bob
> Sherwood (E-mail) ; Craig Hellmann (E-mail) ; Cyd
> Little (E-mail) ; Dave Dalton (E-mail) ; Dave
> Whittle (E-mail) ; David Moysey (E-mail) ; David Sun
> (E-mail) ; Donna Mitchell (E-mail) ; Gerard Mulford
> (E-mail) ; Glen Stone (E-mail) ; Gregory M. Leiby
> (E-mail) ; John Mason Jr. (E-mail) ; John Morris
> (E-mail) ; Kathy Lewis (E-mail) ; Ken Charlesworth
> (E-mail) ; Leslie Slone (E-mail) ; Mark Little
> (E-mail) ; Patrick Evans (E-mail) ; Robert Boling
> (E-mail) ; Rolf Hanlon (E-mail) ; Scott Cadle
> (E-mail) ; Stella (E-mail) ; Timothy James (E-mail)
> ; Allyson Clagett ; Todd Clagett ; Gary Truslow ; VB
> TECH MAIL LIST ; David B. Widen 
>   Cc: AtlanticDiver@ya*.co* ;
> dc-scuba@ya*.co* 
>   Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 8:51 AM
>   Subject: [AtlanticDiver] NOVA TECH Practice Dives
> @ Mt Storm
> 
> 
>   Both Saturday & Sunday (2/16 & 2/17) of this past
>   weekend found members of NOVA TECH doing practice
>   dives at my favorite local winter dive site, Mt.
> Storm
>   Lake (AKA: VEPCO Lake) in Mt Storm, WV.  The lake
> has
>   many features that makes it attractive for
> practice
>   dives, not the least of which is the temperature
> of
>   the water.  Constructed as a cooling pond for a
> coal
>   fired power plant the lake rarely gets below 50
>   degrees in the dead of winter and often is in the
>   60's.  It also has depths to 130 ffw and platforms
> at
>   23 ffw, 50 ffw & 90 ffw. 
> 
>   Water temperature was 60 degrees both days up
> several
>   degrees from last weekend.  The elevated
> temperature
>   allows for much longer dives and much more
> practice
>   time than one would normally endure in a 35-45
> degree
>   quarry in mid February!  Both days saw the teams
> run
>   times in the 70-80 minute range.
> 
>   Todd, Allyson & Allysa Clagett and Dave Dalton
> braved
>   the cold winds to dive the lake on Saturday. 
> While
>   stiff winds lowered the effective air temps into
> the
>   teens, the water temp couldn't be beat!  Todd
> spent
>   his time working on the weighting of his new Gavin
>   scooter.  They come slightly buoyant and require
> the
>   owner to trim them out to get them just right. 
> Todd
>   had added weight to the scooter but found that
>   although the overall buoyancy seemed right he
> needed
>   to shift the weight to the rear.  Dave and Allyson
>   worked on general dive skills including reel work,
>   lift bags and s-drills.  Allysa worked on rock
>   skipping!  As stated water temp was a pleasant 60
>   degrees and viz varied from a low of about 10' to
> a
>   high of about 30'.
> 
>   On Sunday Todd, Allyson, Allysa & Dave were back,
> this
>   time joined by Johnny Morris, another of the NOVA
> TECH
>   crowd.  While the water temp was still a pleasant
> 60
>   degrees, we found icy roads for the last 5 miles
> and
>   lots of snow (ow you know where the name came
> from). 
>   So much snow in fact (6" in the parking lot) that
> Dave
>   opted to ferry gear for the Clagetts in his 4 X 4
> so
>   that Todd's 2 X 4, F-150 didn't get stuck.  The
> wind
>   was howling, fog blew in along with snow, but the
>   diving was great.  Todd found that 3rd time was
> charm
>   with the scooter weighting and it couldn't have
> been
>   better. He spent time towing others and couldn't
> have
>   been more happy with his acquisition.  Johnny
> worked
>   on some changes to his gear configuration, jury is
>   still out on some of that.
> 
>   Next weekend some of the NOVA TECH crowd will be
>   headed to Lake Rawlings to join up with the
> VB-TECH
>   crowd for more practice.  Come on out and join us!
> 
>   Dave Dalton
> 
>   __________________________________________________
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> 
>   Jeff's web page:
> http://members.aol.com/divesafety/DiveSafety.htm 
>   To view the "AtlanticDiver" web page go to:
>   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AtlanticDiver
>   Post message: AtlanticDiver@ya*.co* 
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> AtlanticDiver-subscribe@ya*.co* 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
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> Terms of Service. 
> 
> 


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