In March of 2019, our team Newton County Rescue and Recovery (NCRR) was called to Beaver Lake to assist the Benton and Washington County dive teams in searching for and recovering a couple of people that had drowned. The water temperature was around 45 degrees for the dives we did. The visibility was less than perfect, we could actually see as far as the INSiDE of our dive masks. Well, I am kidding but not by much, our visibility ran from none to about 3 ft at best.
Not the best conditions for diving. How do we prepare for that kind of diving you may ask.
Be prepare by diving all the time in all kinds of conditions throughout the entire year.
Starting with the New Years Day dives, you will find NCRR divers diving alongside other members of the Extreme Sports Dive Club. Water temps in the low to mid 40’s with visibility about 20 ft. Cold water = a time for a heavier wet suit or a dry suit. February and March roll around and Chris Parrish and I are diving again in the not so balmy Beaver Lake.
OK. I cheated and did my February dives in Cozumel. Don’t judge me for that.
For our, April dives the water was warming up to the mid-50s. Visibility still 20-25 ft where we dive. Many of the team members will be diving from May through October, while a few of us will continue diving through December and continuing on in January.
We dive for fun, we dive for training, we dive when it’s hot, we dive when it’s cold, we dive when our wet suits start freezing up as we get out. We practice our skills on nearly every dive we do. Every dive we do is a training dive. Every dive we do helps us prepare the dives no one wants to do. As I mentioned earlier, we did some recovery dives in Beaver Lake.
We dive because someone has to do the dives most of us don’t want to do, recovery. You would be amazed at the things we’ve had to recover.
Diving all year round and diving in all conditions, warm or cold, bright and sunny, or overcast and rain, beach weather or snowball fighting weather, it doesn’t matter. We dive to be ready.
And anyone that wants to dive with us during our “fun” dives is more than welcome to join us.
We have fun diving and we don’t mind sharing our underwater world.