Tag: SCUBA Diving

Heather and I went diving at Clear Lake.  Clear Lake is the headwaters of the McKenzie River.  We went underwater in the upper portion of the lake hunting for underwater trees and freshwater springs.

Looking into the larger portion of the lake where Heather and I have gone diving before.  I also went diving here with Brent quite a while back.

One of the many submerged trees shows itself in the relatively shallow water next to the lodge.  The underwater forest was flooded after a lava flow blocked the McKenzie River several thousand years ago.

Getting ready to head underwater.  All of the photos from here on were taken by Heather and are copyright 2013 to her.

This is a video that I took using a pink filter on my GoPro Hero2. I think that it turned out pretty well. The main difficulty that I am still having with underwater videography is stability. Even with holding the camera on a short stick in front of me, I still had jitters in the video. Perhaps there is some stabil-rig that I can build to make my videos look more like what the pros do in terms of stability.

This video I shot without any filter. While it still looks good, I think that the pink filter makes the video look more true-to-life. In the future when I get a better computer, I will try doing post-processing as well.

Green slime on the bottom.  The lake alternates between sand, silt, green algae, and other strange plants.

A few trees sticking up out of the sediment.

The green muck will come and get you!

Sentinal trees.

Heading into the underwater forest.

 

One of the many underwater springs that feeds the McKenzie river and keeps Clear Lake full.

Heading down into a deep spring well.

Insects have been running around in the silt here.

A boat passes by overhead.  The whole lake is motor-free.

A tree reaching for the surface.

Green merging into wood.

Lava rocks.

Just chilling out underwater.

The water temperature was 37 F in the spring wells and about 38 F elsewhere on the bottom.  On the surface it was more like 40-42 F and very close to the shore it felt more like 55 F.

Lava meeting the silt.

Heading down into a spring well.  This one was 60 feet from the surface when I got to the bottom.

Lava spilling into the lake.

Strange white growth on the bottom.

Looking at the lava rock.

Underwater plant life up close and personal.

I was using my GoPro Hero2 with the LCD BacPac that Heather got me for my birthday.  The pink filter she got me also works really well underwater.

The spring where water pours forth into the lake.  The underground aquifers are very cold in this part of the world.  The water was 37 F coming out of the hole.

Looking up from 50 feet at the surface.  It’s as clear as it gets in tropical water except that we were wearing full dry suits, 6 mm gloves and hoods, and still were chilly!

We came out on a beach near the cabins that the resort rents out.  There were quite a few people rowing boats and fishing in the area.  Some kids in an inflatable raft came over and said that we were “AWESOME” for diving.

Someone learning how to fly fish.