Dutch Springs 10/8/10: Diving with the Sound of Silence
How do you know if rebreather diving is for you? Dude, one way to find out is to just go ahead and try it. Having dived with only open-circuit scuba gear I couldn’t help but wonder, what does diving with a closed-circuit rebreather feel like? They say it’s silent, that there are no bubbles when you dive, which sounds kinda cool. But what really blows my mind is the possibility of diving way deeper and way longer. So when I read about a rebreather demo (TSC Scuba) I signed up right away. (Yeah, a...
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Dutch Springs 9/4/10: Heavy Metal Diving
This was one of those ‘dude, I just gotta do this!’ Time for some hardhat diving! These NEDEG guys were having their rally at Dutch (the info I got thanks to my DiveBuddy) so I wanted to try the original Mark V diving rig. The guys are great, they have a solid brass Mk V and the newer Chinese version and a SuperLite helmet and some super freaky-looking Soviet outfits and I don’t know what else but, man, they’re loaded with heavy stuff. I mean, that’s diving history right there, way before scuba,...
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Dutch Springs 9/3/10: Another Cessna
Well, I did find the missing plane, the old Cessna. That brings the grand total of aircraft at the bottom of Dutch Springs to 4 (Helldiver, 2 Cessnas and a giant Sikorsky). Therefore, I hereby officially declare this place the Truk Lagoon of North East. Or at least, of Pennsylvania. I can see why that plane was moved to the far South side and out of the way, what with both wings collapsing and the tail gone. Between here and the East Cove there’s a bunch of humongous koi and largemouth bass patr...
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Dutch Springs 8/28/10: Crane
I’m spoiled now, I want my weekday vis back. Saturday at Dutch invariably translates into lower visibility and close encounters with other divers. So today this guy just descended almost on top of me, his computer hose got lodged right between me and my reg hose. I could tell how badly he wanted his computer back by the way he was trying to yank my regulator out. Dude, I kinda gotta breathe down here, I mean if you don’t mind? Some people might find it weird but I have this sentimental attachmen...
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Dutch Springs 8/24/10: Army Truck & Stairway to Heaven
Checked out Dutch on a weekday, finally. Had the place to ourselves practically, compared to weekends. Was hoping for a better vis, and it was there alright, even though the sky was gray on a 68° day. Surface water temp was almost hot, 74°. Swimming out to the army truck on far side of the lake, saw the Cessna right from the surface. The plane was clearly visible 30’ down below. Took some sweet shots of the plane (and bass swimming around) with this kind of vis. Okay, maybe not as good as in tha...
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Dutch Springs 7/17/10: Cargo Helicopter
Did a Dutch Springs grand tour: the helicopter, Helldiver, school bus, one of the boats. 53°F @ 63’ (air was high 80s). It was great to finally dive the helicopter, Sikorsky S-56 (CH-37 Mojave) from the 50s. That thing is huge, dude (72’ long)! The great part about it is that it’s suspended, can’t beat that as far as access. (I mean, how many wrecks are suspended out there?!) Very spacious inside, bluegill and bass swimming around. The landing gear are still there and the tail rotor blades. The ...
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Dutch Springs 6/26/10: Cessna & Tanker Truck
Just had to try what it feels like to have no hood and no gloves past the thermocline, in the low 50s. Big mistake, dude, wow. I didn’t notice if my hands were cold, it was my head that almost made me scream underwater. Felt like I had no protection of my skull or blood vessels, just my brain directly exposed to cold water. Really hurt. Otherwise, had fun diving, 52°F @ 67’ (80s topside). Checked out the tanker truck (looks like it crashed, tilted halfway on its side), school bus, cabin cruiser....
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Dutch Springs 6/12/10: Helldiver & School Bus
Back to the sunny Quarribbean, yay me! The water’s really warming up, 62°F @ 35’. Thermocline has to be somewhere around 40’ (and boy, do you feel it) because at 54’ the temp dropped down to 52 °F . Huge patches of zebra mussels on the bottom, these little dudes are doing a great job filtering this aquarium. Some of my largemouth buddies swim up almost as close as you would to shake hands. Except, they stop short of the last step and just keep that distance, staring at you. Well, nobody’s here a...
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Dutch Springs 5/23/10: Cabin Cruiser
Not quite as beautiful as yesterday, the air is 70°F and it’s raining. But dude, that’s not some sissy Caribbean around these parts, that’s NorthEast for ya, deal with it. Bob the Fish put a drysuit on, I thought he was going down with us. But he stayed on the beach (didn’t dive at all that day), he said he just wanted to stay dry. Well, hey, that’s exactly what drysuits are for. 54°F @ 54’, as long as you keep swimming, you’re warm. (Like Dory famously said, ’just keep swimming, just keep swimm...
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Dutch Springs 5/22/10: Fire Truck
It’s a beautiful day in North East PA, 75°F topside. 56°F @ 35’ and if you’re covered in 7mm of neoprene (like yours truly dude is) it takes care of things just fine. The vis is okay (gotta be better on weekdays). Quite a few delicious bass swim by. Got behind the wheel of that fire truck, tried to start it up and... a bit of a disappointment. The steering wheel turns fine but the engine is not turning over. Hmm, probably nobody cared to refill the tank. (Oh, and the mussels clogged up the engin...
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