Freedive-aplooza

[unirdna]

sneak preview

I threw together some footage of Wazee from last August.....featuring 'freedive Lisa', 'jon' and me. This should give y'all a pretty good idea of what to expect. Against my will, I was forced to apply the overused 'Enigma' song to the footage......nothing else seemed to fit.

Happy productivity wasting.

Ted

https://www.ibackup.com/qmanager/servlet/share?key=05365881677549755uuuuuuu

pass = 'deeperblue'

 

[donmoore]

Very Nice Ted! I think I’ll try watching that again during my dry static today.
don

 

[bobbybuttr]

That was really cool!
Bobby

 

[xsaul]

Guys and gals,

I like my water warm, I hate beer...But now, I'd take ANY WATER THAT ISN'T SNOW!!!!!!
Water Rat--Frussed....

 

[flyboy748]

So... Who's all going to be at the Freedive-aplooza?? I'm planning on making the trip from Toronto. If anyone in the east wanted to join up, I've got three empty seats in my car, and I could pick someone up from Toronto, Detroit or Chicago

I'm curious who else is planning on making the trip to the land of milk and cheese for what sounds like a great diving weekend!

Only two more months!!
Aaron

 

[fjohnson]

I'm fired up!! my brother and I will be there.. my plan is to get there a day or two early to reserve several camp sites for those who want camp. I'll be bringing lots of stuff and there will be several companies that I'm aware of, OMER and Special Fins being represented there with their equipment, sounds like a good turn out and we're still getting the word out. It's definetly time to start making plans. Waters warmin' up!!!
Fred

 

[flyboy748]

Fred, hang on to a tent site for me for friday and Saturday night. Lookin' forward to it!!!

Aaron

 

[kingohyes]

Very nice video!!! Who has planted those things on the bottom?? How deep are the tree-cabins on the bottom??

 

[Jon]

There were all kinds of things put on the bottom by divers, but many of them have since been cleaned up, by other divers. There is acutally a little battle going on between the people who want to add "knick-knacks" to the bottom of the lake and those who want to keep it "natural"- or as natural as a former strip mine can be.

The "cabins" are actually fish cribs planted there by the DNR> There are a ton of them and they are all at about 15'-20'. SOme come up to as shallow as 7' and others are a little bit deeper.

There are also training platforms, and lines, at different levels in the lake-25', 30', 75', 105'.

At deeper depths there are some other things that have been planted. At 150' there is a graden gazing ball. At 190' there is a flag, which you can see posted under my photo gallery on this site. The flag is kind of funny becasue it has written on it, " first divers to 200'", but it's really only at 188'- I guess they were diving on air. THere is also a fake skeleton chained to a rock at about 213'. His nick name is "Jimmy Hoffa".

THere is a new book out about the lake wirtten by John Janzen and is availible through dive shops in Minnesota.

Max depth is around 321'. THis makes it the deepst, and the clearest lake in the state- not counting the Great Lakes.

Jon

 

[skarz]

Jon, do you know how much a campsite would cost? My sister just got a new kayak, so she might be interested in checking out the area, which means i have a ride there Do you know how far it is from the Fox Cities area to Jackson county?? Hopefully i can make it, my bottom time right now is like 50 seconds i've never tried to see how deep i can go.

 

[Jon]

There are some big groupsites that we're going to try and get. That way we can have a bunch of people set up camp in the same area. It should keep the price down quite a bit.

Distance from where you are should be less than 2 hours.

We should have some demo dive kayaks up there as well and the lake has a "no motor" rule so the paddeling should be pretty good for your sister.

Jon

 

[skarz]

Sounds awesome! Oh yea, our paintball team pulled out of the June 6th tournament due to some troubles with our sponsors, and i just got a job, plus the nearly $200 i have already saved for a wet suit. I'm praying that i can make it to the freediving clinic in Milwaukee. i know it's June 4th-6th, but what time does it start on the 4th? That's my last day of school, and i have a half-day, so it's about a 2 hour drive from my house.

Do you also know how big the group is, instructor number, etc.? I'm hoping (if i go) i can get a ton of help, considering $150 is pricy for a 15 yr. old..... I know it should be great though. I was also wondering if i could just buy the OMER mimetic Med when i got to Gert's shop, and then take it to the clinic. Oh yea, one more question, do you know what Gert has that wetsuit priced at? I checked the website, but theres not really anything about freediving.

 

[Jon]

I'll PM you.

Jon

 

[xsaul]

Hi Guys....

'S Gonna take a MIRACLE to get me there NOW--NOT from LACK OF WANTING IT!!!
So...PRAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! Your Sis has a kayak??? I've always wanted to try that---
I totally Suck at Depth--8 feet is my Comfy Max--ears and sinuses too messed up....
Still, there's gotta be Something....
Water Rat

 

[unirdna]

Originally posted by xsaul
I totally Suck at Depth--8 feet is my Comfy Max--ears and sinuses too messed up....
Still, there's gotta be Something....
Water Rat

There is a sand beach on the west side that makes for a gentle entry point. The sand slopes down to a flat @ 20 feet. Surface swimmers can easily make out the bottom and the fish cribs in this area.

My gal was not only a newbie, she was deathly afraid of deep water as well. With some patient instruction (from mua) and a training line, she was able to dive to 20 feet @ 1+ min. Wazee is perfect for beginners.

 

[FreeFloat]

Originally posted by flyboy748
So... Who's all going to be at the Freedive-aplooza?? I'm planning on making the trip from Toronto. If anyone in the east wanted to join up, I've got three empty seats in my car, and I could pick someone up from Toronto, Detroit or Chicago

I'm curious who else is planning on making the trip to the land of milk and cheese for what sounds like a great diving weekend!

Only two more months!!
Aaron

Hey Aaron, you're severely tempting me now. If I can carpool with you that would be even greater......... it would shave my driving time from 15 hours down to 2-3..........and I have nothing against camping either.

 

[skarz]

Jon, what are the different lines depths? You said 20' ft. was good for a starter, but due to recklessness, i know i can already reach 35 ft. (dont ever hold onto an anchor As your weight belt ). There will obviously be better divers there, and hopefully some that could watch me as i try to go deeper..... i'm so anxious, this is like the only diving trip i've ever done in my home state!

 

[Jon]

There's two shallower training platforms that go to about 25'-30'. There's also a platform that goes to 75. There is a training line, not really a platform, that goes to 105', and then there's another drop line, that I haven't used for freediving, that goes to 195'.

Water temps that time of year are really nice all the way down to about 40'.

Here's a shot of Ted by the 75' platform.

Jon

 

[skarz]

So what's all going on, scuba, FREEDIVING, kayaking? Anything else around of interest? My parents say i'm too young, i'll show them

 

[Jon]

There's also some mountain biking and a lot of ATV's up there.

I imagine that some of us may check out a bar or two at night- in which case your parents are right, you are too young!

You can fish, swim and go hiking. I plan on spending most of my time freediving, and talking to other freedivers- was just kidding about the bar thing.

Jon