Oregon Freedive Palooza Aug 10-12

[wes]

Dear Deeper Blue,

You and your freediving buddies are invited to the first annual Oregon Freedive Palooza. Here are the facts:

Dates 10-12 Aug 2007 (Friday thru Sunday)

Location Lost Lake, Oregon (Google "Lost Lake Oregon")
Elevation: 3,143 feet (958 meters) Note 10% standard altitude pressure
drop at this altitude so only 90% of the air at sea level.
Max Depth: 175 feet (53 meters)
Surface Water Temp in August 80 F (27 C)
Thermocline at 30' and bottom temperature ?? 50F ?? (?? 10C ??)
Lake Size: Lake is about 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile so very small.
Boats: NO MOTOR BOATS OF ANY KIND ALLOWED ON LAKE (WHICH ROCKS FOR FREEDIVING)
Visibility: Amazing, can be 100' looking up from the bottom.

Getting There:
Drive 2 hours from Portland Oregon
Drive 4 hours from Seattle Washington
Drive 6 hours from Vancouver BC
Drive 12 hours from San Francisco
Fly and rent a car, they are cheap from Portland airport PDX.

Lodging:
Campsites are first come first serve and fill up always by 2pm Fridays in the summer. We can go and get sites early if you RSVP to us, there are individual and group sites. There are also some cabins that can be reserved though they are 15 minute walk from the good freediving. This is a very very very nice campsite with nice soft ground tent sites and group camp fire and cook site etc.

Lost Lake Resort & Campground: Hood River, Oregon

Recommended Wetsuits:
For shallow diving above thermocline: 3mm with or without hood
For Deep diving below thermocline: 3mm with hood is perfect or more if that's all you have. It is really relatively warm.

Spear Fishing:
If anyone knows how to find out what the fishing regulations are for freedive/spear fishing please do so and let us know.

Friday Schedule:
Late morning: blueberry picking at Dee Flat on road to Lost Lake
Afternoon: Naps and Freediving
Evening: Potluck dinner and campfire

Saturday:
Breakfast: Wes and Nancy's famous blueberry oatmeal.
Have fun all day. There are hikes and trails as well as awesome diving. We will have some lines set up, bring your own safety or buddy up at the campground.
Evening: Potluck with Fresh Grilled Salmon provided by Wes and Nancy

Sunday:
First thing early morning diving.
Sunday Potluck Brunch
Afternoon: Naps, packing up, more diving?
Go Home.

Registration:
We aren't running a contest or organizing a group event or anything like that, just letting you know a bunch of freedivers will probably be at Lost Lake on this weekend. We assume no liability for anything at all (even this message).
So there is no registration, no fees, no organizers.

Safety:
Bring your own safety or be prepared to buddy up with others attending, and please always be prepared to help out others. We want this to be a very very very safe weekend.

If you have questions or want to let people know you are coming please post below and include where your location is.

Cheers Wes Lapp

[tylerz]

That sounds like fun... maybe I can combine it with a surfing trip to the coast! Great info Wes, hope to make it, but I can't plan ahead more than a week or two at this time.

Cheers,
Tyler

[fogish]

Spear fishing in freshwater in Oregon is for non-game fish only. I am not sure if you even need a fishing license to do it since they are non-game fish (I will find out). I have been trying to get the regulations changed on freshwater spear fishing here, but it is a lot harder than I thought.


I will be there, and my wife will most likely come with me too (to camp, not dive). I just found boggspc on here who lives in the same city as I do, so hopefully he can come a long with me as a partner, otherwise I will have to bribe someone to take me on as a third wheel.

[wes]

Tyler and Fogish,

Thanks for the replys. Fogish looking forward to meeting you. Tyler, it would be really great to get a car load or two down from Vancouver BC to come. It's not a bad drive at all, maybe 6-7 hours total. We came to up last year to Vancouver for a PFI course and now are PFI junkies so have met Roberta, Jill Eric, and of course Kirk and Mandy.

Cheers Wes

[Craig Baumann]

I'm in Portland. Lost Lake is a beautiful spot. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance in preparation for this event. I've already started to spread the word at the local dive shops.

Thanks for the invitation. I plan to see you folks there.

Craig

[nickw]

Very cool, I am putting it on my calendar!

I am located in Portland, west side. Is anybody interested in maybe getting some pool time training in? I have to get the cobwebs out of the lungs considering I have been slacking off my training. I know of a 50 yard pool off highway 26 in Beaverton if anybody would like to join me.

I would also be up for joining somebody else if they know of someplace to train, dryland or pool-

Nick

[Nikkey]

Is Lost Lake before or after Cannon Beach?

[wes]

Lost Lake is located abit under 2 hours EAST from Portland so its about 3 hours inland from the coast near Mt Hood.
Cheers Wes

[Boggspc]

I've been to lost lake quite a few times--don't think there are any fish there that would be considered "non-game" fish. The ONLY freshwater fish you can spear in oregon are carp, suckers, MAYBE catfish, but i'm unsure on that one. At any rate, it sounds like fun.

Since there won't be much spearfishing at the lake, i'm going spearfishing next weekend at the coast if anyone wants to get some big ling, crabs, and big bass, drop me a line.

[wes]

All,

We dove Lost Lake today to confirm details for the
beuatiful group camping sites and have some fun. It
was awesome!! I dove in my 3mm Oceaneer suit for the
first time and it was very warm, especially as its
June and the lake will warm up alot more by August.
The whole time osprey and eagles were fishing above
us. Attached are three pics from today. Depending
on interest we will get 1 or 2 group campsites that
take 12 people each. We also found out they have
lodge rooms avaiable for reservations so if you want
to stay in a lodge room call right away as they will
fill up quickly. If you will camp then all you need to do is RSVP and we will have space for you in our group campsites.

Lost Lake Resort & Campground: Hood River, Oregon

Cheers Wes

[Nikkey]

Me and my husband will be coming, do you know if the campsite is dog friendly? Not a big deal if they arn't we can always leave the pups behind. What are the costs for the campground? Great pics by the way!

[fogish]

My wife and I will be there, I just wish I could bring our horses. If any of you are bringing someone who doesn't dive much, my wife would enjoy the company.

[wes]

Nikkey,

The campgroud is very dog friendly I would say. We will have a group campsite so will have some privacy from others and there is lots of space. There is a leash law in the campground that is pretty strictly enforced especially on weekends in August. If you are out on the trails away from camp most people let their dogs run free if they are not afraid of them running off forever after a deer or whatever. The cost for the weekend will be $10-$20 donation each for the camping, it is a local county campground so very cheap though the campground is amazingly beautiful (they have an old growth train IN the campground itself!!)

Fogish,

If you really want to bring your horses you should call the Lost Lake campground on that. I know they have a group camp that is specially made for horses and reserved for horse use. There is probably another group that has the horse camp reserved though you may be able to get ther names from the Lost Lake campground and then contact that group and ask if you could join them if they have room for another horse camper. Sometimes people reserve these group spots as they are cheap and don't fill them up as the group spots are pretty big, I think the group horse camp is for 20 people. It is a short walk from the horse camp to where we will be. Also for your wife I think there will lots of other fun things to do. We will bring our canoe and there are fabulous hikes all around Lost Lake. My wife Nancy will be there and she will lead some Yoga classes and we may have a specialist in breathing who will lead a breathing class (go ahead and laugh, my wife took this course and private sessions from her and last time did 5 min 4 second static to win Grand Cayman static contest. When she came up from her winning breath hold I asked how many contractions she had and she said "none.", I asked her why she had come up then, and she said I don't know I just felt like it!!)

Cheers Wes

[joe123321]

Looks like a great spot from the pictures, ill have to check some dates, but I would like to be able to go.

[OregonSpearo]

We (2) will be there, arriving on Friday evening. Looking forward to it. Thanks for putting it together Wes