Help, this is maddening(quite long)

[m2b]

Talk about not understanding what I have been experiencing/seeing, err not seeing. Try this on for some fun.

I'm mostly into diving for the fun/uniqueness of it. I'm not in it for competition or spearfishing. I don't spend any time at the bottom, no desire to. I dive down and come straight back up. One thing I have found, with warmer water, that I like is to play dead at the surface. Having no weight on makes it possible to be super bouyant and just to completely relax. The only other place you could truly totally relax is in outer space. Now I understand why NASA trains in oversized swimming pools.

I have been staying in shallow water since it's close to shore and I swim out to where I dive. Since I don't have to best of cold water gear the colder water up in these parts makes it a smart thing to find dive spots that are close to shore. I still like to find 30-50 foot water and there are several spots around that I know of that I can find that with only a 1-200 yard swim from shore.

Goshen Ocean(local nickname) is a small man-made lake used for flood control. Pretty much stream fed from nearby Mount Sunapee. At least 40 feet deep, maybe deeper but haven't had any real decent chance to really fin around the lake and drop the dive line down to check depth, and I haven't seen any depth charts online for the lake. It's a smaller lake with a walking trail that goes all the way around the lake. Its 3 miles long. Like I said, a small lake. Drive time is about 10 minutes from my house. Gas powered boats are prohibited. I can be in 28-40 foot water within 100-150 yards of shore.

Lake Sunapee, spring fed lake, 100-140 feet deep, million dollar homes all around the lake and one of the two dive shops that are within 30 minutes of my house. Does see some stream runoff, I believe, from Mount Sunapee but it is mostly spring fed. Over 4000 acres in size. Of the 4 public access sites on the lake only one is really decent for diving, all the other accesses doesn't drop off until you are quite a nice swim off shore. The decent dive spot is about 10 minutes from my house and I can be in 35 foot deep water within 150-200 yards of shore. The state park beach is 3 minutes from my house but it doesn't drop off fast at all, you have to be way out in the meat of boat traffic before you see anything over 20 feet.

After remembering about Goshen Ocean a couple of weeks ago I started diving there and stopped diving anyplace else, simply no boats and I like it that way. Yes, I dive solo as there is no one else that freedives in the area. I have asked at both of the dive shops in the area. The only freedivers are the guys that spearfish at the ocean that lives on the other side of the state. I don't have the newest of car, the best of cold water gear or the money so I dive locally with the equipment I have recycled from whitewater kayaking.

The first day or so of diving at Goshen Ocean, normally two dives per day, thanks to cold water, maybe three dives if I'm lucky, I was able to get down to 28 feet without any trouble. I would get back up to the surface and wouldn't even think about starting to breath, no reason for it. I did notice something though. When you get down to 22-23 feet the visibilty "drops" and the water turns colder. Over the past couple of weeks it would be 65-70 on the surface and 55-60 at 28 feet. It almost seems like someone turns the lights out when you get into the 22-23 foot range.

After the first day or so I started having trouble making it to the bottom. It wasn't breath hold problems but I had been thinking that it was the bad visibilty. The mind just wouldn't let me go all the way down. It would make me chicken out and head back for the surface. I come to see yesterday that I do need to do some adjusting to the water world as I'm not used to the concept of the underwater world yet. I watch as I bumped into a rock yesterday at the bottom of Sunapee. I "freaked" and shot straight up for the surface. No reason for my reaction but I'm just not use to the environment. I totally understand that. It only comes with experience.

Last Sunday on the first dive at Goshen Ocean I only made it to around 22-24 feet and then bailed. On dive two I made it down into the "black zone" and the mind kicked in and I bailed. I grabbed the dive line and headed up to the surface with it. I was essentially planning on using it to tell me how far down I actually made it, kinda like grabbing a tag off the line in a competition, except I take the whole line up with me. As I got about 2/3-3/4 of the way to the surface I noticed out of the bottom of the goggles that there wasn't hardly any of the line beneath my hand. I was shocked, to say the least. Turns out I was only two feet from the bottom and I still couldn't see the bottom. The temperature on the surface that day was 65 and it was 55 down at 28 feet.

The thoughts of this crazy situation kept coming back to the same concept, the dark water was forcing me to bail out of going to the bottom and nothing else. I thought about it a little on Monday and Tuesday. I decided it was time for a switch of dive locations. Goshen Ocean may not have the best visibility but it's still better than some spot I have been in before. Lake Sunapee is known for having real nice visibility, not ocean quality by any standards but still one of the best, non-ocean, in northern New England. I learnt that talking with the local dive shop owner. The owner had said the at 90 feet you still have 10-12 foot visibility but at 100 feet you are lucky to have 2-3 foot visibility. It seemed like it would be a good choice to answer the "long" standing question of what was going on.

Since the state website that has many of the lake/pond depth charts doesn't list Lake Sunapee or Goshen Ocean, I did some more searching online to try to find which of the 4 public access spots on Lake Sunapee would get me into 30-40 foot water the closest to shore. I saw one of the town beaches drops off quite quickly, almost but not quite as quick as Goshen Ocean.

I work in landscaping and lawn mowing. A lot of the lawns we take care of are around several of the different lakes/ponds in the area. Several properties are lake front on Lake Sunapee. I have noticed that a lot of boats have been taken off the lake for the summer. With that knowledge and the warm temps we had this past week I decided to spend a midweek evening on the lake and see if I couldn't solve the mystery. Little did I know what was going to happen as a result. One question left unanswered, a thousand more questions asked, DRATS!!!!!!!!!

After getting off work late Wednesday I waited until Thursday after work to heas out to the town beach. I knew I only had 30 minutes top to be in the water due to other plans for the rest of the evening. I get in the 66 degree(quite important)water and fin out and drop the dive line down. I swim a little further until I'm once again in 28 foot deep water. I breathe up and dive down. I have no trouble making the bottom??? The "black zone" wasn't there like I have always noticed on Goshen Ocean but the visibility still seemed to be about the same, at least until you get a couple feet from the bottom and then everything opens up and you have 10-12 foot visibility in any direction, still seems strange???

I surface and breathe up and take the second dive. Once again the same thing, no trouble making the bottom. This time I grab the dive line and take it up with me. I quickly check the water temp and see that its only 63 degrees at 28 feet. Quite a big difference from the 55 degrees that I have been seeing otherwise at Goshen Ocean???????????

Friday I head back out for a couple of sunset dives at the beach. As I put the fins and other equipment on I have the dive line in the water at the shore checking the surface water temp. The past few days have been unseasonably warm, in the upper 70s to low 80s. I saw the surface temperature had risen 4 degrees, to 70 degrees, in the past 24 hours????????

I fin out and drop the line where I figure is probably 28 feet and find that I'm actually in 35 foot water. I stay there and start the breathe up. I dive down and once again have no trouble making the bottom????? I do have a little trouble, for the second night, equalizing, but I manage to correct that. It has started to seem like putting my hand on my nose makes me think about equalizing so I do it normally but with the new nose clips I don't have the hand on my nose so I don't think about equalizing until pressure builds. I do notice a bit of a temperature change that I hadn't noticed the day before and I also noticed it was a bit darker toward the bottom than the day before but I still made the bottom.

I breathe up and go for the second dive pretty much right at sunset. Once again I make it to the bottom. After "stumbling, err fumbling" around at the bottom for a second or so I head back up with the dive line. Upon reaching the surface I check the temp and it was showing 59 degrees, questionably. I tend to believe what it was showing.

The reason I have been grabbing the dive line is to get as quick a check on the temp as possible, out of curiousity. The Timex watch that I have been using does seem to respond rather quickly to temperature change in the water, as I noticed today, so by taking it with me as I surface I end up getting a better reading of the bottom temperature.

Continued next message,
Ryan

[m2b]

I did have big dive plans for today that mostly didn't happen. I was going to do an early morning dive at Lake Sunapee, while everyone else was asleep, and then dive at Goshen Ocean today as well. I figured it would make a perfect comparison check. By the time I got around to doing any diving it was 4PM. I knew to skip Sunapee but I didn't listen. I drove off toward the beach and after getting there I decided to skip it and just go for Goshen Ocean. I just didn't like what I saw so I listened to myself and headed southwest.

I got to lake and put the dive line in and found the surface temp to be 66 degrees. Not to surprising other than the fact Sunapee, MUCH BIGGER, was 70 yesterday and I figured that Goshen Ocean should warm up much faster since it is so much smaller?????? I fin out and get to where I figure I'm pretty much into the usual 28 foot water. I drop the line down and see I'm in 31 foot water. I stay there and breathe up. I dive down and in usual Goshen Ocean fashion I bail. I do get close enough to the bottom to break through the "visibility" layer. I do get to where I can see the threaded rod and watch, used for the "anchor" for the dive line on the bottom. I don't actually touch the bottom though like I have on all four dive each of the past two days. I also noticed that the temperature has dropped QUITE NICELY. I grab the dive line, about two feet up from the bottom and head for the surface. As I get 2/3 of the way to the surface I pull the dive line up to where I can see the watch. I check the temperature and see it make a change reading from 47 to 52 degrees. Making me think that it was 47 degrees on the bottom. I get to the surface and check it again and see it change from 52 to 54 degrees as it has gotten into the warmer surface water. I bail after the one dive and call it quits for the day.

Okay, now that you have read the madness, I think you can already guess the questions that I have. Next message.

1. Is there typically a big, non thermocline, temperature change when you "drop the visibility"? I'm not losing daylight but it acts like I have as the water seems to get much darker. I did notice on Sunapee yesterday that down just about 30-32 feet it was starting to get darker, nothing like I have noticed on Goshen Ocean though in higher water. Granted I was diving quite late in the day yesterday and that may have had some impact on it.

2. Is it normal to be able to see a 4 degree temperature change, rise in temperature, in 24 hours??? Even though this is surface temperature, this still doesn't seem right.

3. After today...is the haze, that I've been told about, that sits right at the thermocline layer a clear haze or does it appear dark in color? I know thermocline temps around here are typically 45-48 degrees. It always seems like the "black zone" and the temperature drop, thermocline or not, always happens at the same depth. I thought the dive shop owner, who has been scuba diving 50 years said the thermocline haze was "clear", but I don't remember for sure and I'm curious considering what I've been noticing.

4. Since I still think my problem with bailing is simply the visibility issue, even though water temp is also a possibility, is there anyway of getting over the psychological aspect of the "black zone"?

I have been seriously considering the idea of putting aluminum foil over the goggles and diving blind for a while, more than one reason for this idea. I know from other experience that aluminum foil will turn day into night very quickly and make it so you can't see anything at all. I'd thought for a long time that free icediving would be fun...than I got talking with the local dive shop owner and he shot that idea up with steriods big time. One of the things I would need to get used to doing for what has now become my ultimate dive would be to get use to diving "blind". Putting aluminum foil over the goggles would create the perfect training ground. I don't think normal, that's for regular people to do.

5. Is it normal to find, in lower visibility waters, that you won't have much visibility as you dive down, until you hit bottom and then the visibility will return to what it was on the surface? Err, like I said about Thursday evening as I dove down I couldn't see the bottom until I was a couple feet off the bottom, but once I was on the bottom I could see 10-12 feet easily on any side of me. Is that normal? If I'm in 10-12 visible water shouldn't I be able to see the bottom from 10-12 feet above it?????????

6. Why do I see such a temperature difference between Goshen Ocean and Lake Sunapee? It seems like, since they are within 20 minutes of each that I should see the same water temperature at the same depth. Actually I would think that I would see cooler temps on Sunapee since it is spring fed and is much bigger it should take longer to warm up both at the surface and at depth, shouldn't it?????

Like I said it has been strange. Too many weird things that don't seem like what I would expect them to.

Thanks for any help,
Ryan

[wes]

Too long.

(sorry, had to say that).

[Mucko]

Are you alone doing these dives?

[m2b]

Their are no other freedivers in the area, an hour or more of here. I've asked around at both the of the dive shops in the area, one which is five minutes from my house. Everyone around here goes for scuba diving.

Hence part of the reason why I'm such a pussy when I dive. I don't press my limits by a long shot, it's not worth it. Then again, I also realize freediving isn't the only thing that can cause you stop breathing for eternity. A car accident can kill just as quickly as freediving and extremely few people ever bother to wear a helmet or any kind of padding while they're out driving on the open road with all the other idiots. When it comes to protecting yourself while participating in something like freediving everybody is all for it though. Strange human behavior.

I did see the same scenario play itself out more last week/weekend. On Lake Sunapee as of last Wednesday it was still around 65 degrees down at 25 feet but last Sunday it in the upper 40s at 31 feet at Goshen Ocean, while in the lower 60s on Lake Sunapee. Both bodies of water have the same surface temp. The dive sites are only 20 minutes apart and the closest spot on each lake I would say is probably 10 minutes apart by car. I just can figure out why I see such a dramatic difference in water temperatures the way I do.

Ryan