I've been reading the forum for several years now and have wanted to get into freediving for as long if not longer. It had been 10+ years since I had last did any real swimming and had never did any open water swimming. I used to swim competitively as kid and spent 4-5 days a week in the water.
The man I work for has a boat and goes out on the nearby lake several times during the summer months and I finally got fed up and said the heck with and started swimming once again. This time, though, open water. Definitely a different experience.
Right from the beginning I found myself testing water depths. I had never been lower than 12 feet, pool depth, and ended up shocked after dropping down at one point in one of the two nearby lakes and coming back up. I guessed it was 18 feet. I made a dropline/measuring line out of twine and a large hex bolt. I went back out a few days later and tested the very spot and I was right on the money +-6 inches. I did find one spot that was 25 feet in the particular pond but due to the water temp and only being in a swimming suit I decided not to try to reach for new depths. LOL!!!!! I don't ever remember an experience like the shock of hitting the thermocline(at least that's what I've heard it called). You don't have to have any contractions to decide to go back to the surface, just hit that cold water and it will send you scream back to the surface, LOL!!!!!
With the rainy day Sunday and again this afternoon I decided to try the bigger, aka normally boat filled, lake. I was shocked by the difference in the clarity of water, see question below. I was also shocked by the difference in fish life. In the small pond, 150 acres, I have hardly seen any fish at all. I have been told that the much bigger lake is a dead lake because of being so clean. I have been amazed at the schools of fish that I have seen for a dead lake. Granted they have all been small fish and nothing over 2-3 inches long. So far, since I haven't really been using fins or a mask, just swimming goggles, I have kept my depth shallow to keep from eye problems. I'm just exploring the underwater world and being surprised about everytime I'm out there.
A couple of questions based on things that I have noticed:
1. Two lakes/ponds, pond and big lake, both are spring fed, pond also drains into big lake. The only thing that really separates the bodies of water is a state highway, and naturally a few feet of elevation difference. Both bodies are free from any kind of agri runoff as their isn't any around the area. The pond has very limited visibilty, 6-8 feet deep and about the same horizontally, on a sunny or cloudy day. Big lake has much greater visibility, 20-30 feet horizontally and in some cases 8-10 feet depth, on a very cloudy, rainy day like today. Not sure what a sunny day would provide for visibility in either direction. The big lake is known to be one of the cleanest lakes in NH. Why am I seeing such a BIG difference in visibility. Both pretty much seem to have the same bottom makeup at least for as far down as I have been in either lake.
2. A few year back I had heard the rumor that a car drove off into the big lake and the divers that went to rescue the driver had to, supposedly, put on 150 pounds to be able to get down to the car. Again, supposedly this was because of the lake being spring fed. From what I have seen so far, yes putting on the wetsuit and the weight, 10 pounds has pretty much kept me down/pulling me further down and that is only around 8-10 feet. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing as having to put on that much weight. I'm tending more and more to not believe that story even though it came from someone that had a son that used to freedive in the area.
3. I noticed today something strange, in one place I would drop down 6 feet or so and then the bouyancy would send me back up to the surface on its own. In another place on the lake, not far away from the previous point, at around 6-8 feet I would hold myself stationary and then my body would start to rotate from a laying position to a standing position, then I would start to sink. In another location, closer to shore I went down about 4 feet and started to sink right off the bat. Why was I noticing such a dramatic difference in the bouyancy. Would the springs feeding the lake cause something like this to happen?
4. Is the rotation from laying position to standing position normal? To get this to happen I would drop down 6-8 feet and stop dead still. My body would just start to rotate on its own and once I was vertical I would start to sink. I do admit to using a homemade weight belt, just using a 10 pound barbell weight that I put into a fanny pack that I wear around my waist.
Yeah, I admit that I'm doing everything wrong, then again I'm still just playing, not trying to stay under for any real kind of time or anything like that. Mostly just trying to adjust to the notion of actually being out there when I figured it would probably never actually happen.
Thanks for help,
Ryan
The man I work for has a boat and goes out on the nearby lake several times during the summer months and I finally got fed up and said the heck with and started swimming once again. This time, though, open water. Definitely a different experience.
Right from the beginning I found myself testing water depths. I had never been lower than 12 feet, pool depth, and ended up shocked after dropping down at one point in one of the two nearby lakes and coming back up. I guessed it was 18 feet. I made a dropline/measuring line out of twine and a large hex bolt. I went back out a few days later and tested the very spot and I was right on the money +-6 inches. I did find one spot that was 25 feet in the particular pond but due to the water temp and only being in a swimming suit I decided not to try to reach for new depths. LOL!!!!! I don't ever remember an experience like the shock of hitting the thermocline(at least that's what I've heard it called). You don't have to have any contractions to decide to go back to the surface, just hit that cold water and it will send you scream back to the surface, LOL!!!!!
With the rainy day Sunday and again this afternoon I decided to try the bigger, aka normally boat filled, lake. I was shocked by the difference in the clarity of water, see question below. I was also shocked by the difference in fish life. In the small pond, 150 acres, I have hardly seen any fish at all. I have been told that the much bigger lake is a dead lake because of being so clean. I have been amazed at the schools of fish that I have seen for a dead lake. Granted they have all been small fish and nothing over 2-3 inches long. So far, since I haven't really been using fins or a mask, just swimming goggles, I have kept my depth shallow to keep from eye problems. I'm just exploring the underwater world and being surprised about everytime I'm out there.
A couple of questions based on things that I have noticed:
1. Two lakes/ponds, pond and big lake, both are spring fed, pond also drains into big lake. The only thing that really separates the bodies of water is a state highway, and naturally a few feet of elevation difference. Both bodies are free from any kind of agri runoff as their isn't any around the area. The pond has very limited visibilty, 6-8 feet deep and about the same horizontally, on a sunny or cloudy day. Big lake has much greater visibility, 20-30 feet horizontally and in some cases 8-10 feet depth, on a very cloudy, rainy day like today. Not sure what a sunny day would provide for visibility in either direction. The big lake is known to be one of the cleanest lakes in NH. Why am I seeing such a BIG difference in visibility. Both pretty much seem to have the same bottom makeup at least for as far down as I have been in either lake.
2. A few year back I had heard the rumor that a car drove off into the big lake and the divers that went to rescue the driver had to, supposedly, put on 150 pounds to be able to get down to the car. Again, supposedly this was because of the lake being spring fed. From what I have seen so far, yes putting on the wetsuit and the weight, 10 pounds has pretty much kept me down/pulling me further down and that is only around 8-10 feet. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing as having to put on that much weight. I'm tending more and more to not believe that story even though it came from someone that had a son that used to freedive in the area.
3. I noticed today something strange, in one place I would drop down 6 feet or so and then the bouyancy would send me back up to the surface on its own. In another place on the lake, not far away from the previous point, at around 6-8 feet I would hold myself stationary and then my body would start to rotate from a laying position to a standing position, then I would start to sink. In another location, closer to shore I went down about 4 feet and started to sink right off the bat. Why was I noticing such a dramatic difference in the bouyancy. Would the springs feeding the lake cause something like this to happen?
4. Is the rotation from laying position to standing position normal? To get this to happen I would drop down 6-8 feet and stop dead still. My body would just start to rotate on its own and once I was vertical I would start to sink. I do admit to using a homemade weight belt, just using a 10 pound barbell weight that I put into a fanny pack that I wear around my waist.
Yeah, I admit that I'm doing everything wrong, then again I'm still just playing, not trying to stay under for any real kind of time or anything like that. Mostly just trying to adjust to the notion of actually being out there when I figured it would probably never actually happen.
Thanks for help,
Ryan