This was the coldest water. Personally, I prefer tropical dives, however the water was so clear and calm here. Me and Aiden didn't know how to prevent our regulators from freezing open, so our dives were all very short.
| Location | Clear Lake, Oregon |
| Date | 09/09/2024 |
| Team | Lance, Aiden |
| Activity | Camping, Scuba Diving |
| Stats | 45° water temp. Three tanks each. 6-8 mins each dive. |
| Conditions | As the name implies, it was cold... very VERY cold! |
Subsurface Chart
Under the surface!
Here's a short (all the dives were short! video)
The Story
It was an interesting camping trip for a lot of reasons. Some of the cool things we wanted to see included an ancient underwater forest and possibly a boat wreck or some maybe a lost bag of jewels.
It was our first 'unsupervised' dive. We planned our trip, rented the gear, then setup camp. Just a weekend trip - enough time for three dives.
Normally dives last 45 mins or so, but our regulators kept freezing open - which means ll your air is quickly exiting the tank... time to surface and let you gear thaw.
The dry suits kept our bodies comfortable, but our fingers and face felt the full sting of the icy cold water. 45° may not sound cold, but you try submersing yourself in it!
When getting ready to leave, we discovered a flat tire. Normally not a big deal, however our ID.4 does not come equipped with a spare, so this involved towing to the closest city (Bend, Oregon) after finding out our AAA account only covered 5 miles of towing, then discovering the tire stores closed (nice comfy motel room!). The next morning I learned that my car has very unusual sized tires. In fact the front tires are a different size than the rear. I'm pretty sure I have made a few run-on sentences trying to convey my story here.
I also found out that I do not have the 'key' for the locking wheels (Volkswagen loves to lock your wheels for some reason). So, it took some negotiation between the Volkswagen dealership and the Les Schwab to find a solution $1600 later!!!). Considering we stayed in a nice hotel out of town and I missed an extra day of work, I won't complain!
Anyway... here are some pics. The underwater images were shot with the GoPro 11 in a dive case.
