Horseshoe Lake Improvement Association

SNUBA News!    (Originally published Spring 2010)

If you missed the last meeting or decided that snuba is for you, let us know if you are interested. We plan on having some snuba 'parties' this Spring so that this can be a fun event with some good work and good fun mixed together.

We will have 3 or 4 wet suits purchased by the time the snuba diving starts. At this time we will likely purchase one each of the following: mens LG, XL and XXL and one ladies LG, this is based upon the response we received from those interested in diving. If you are interested in purchasing your own wet suit they can be bought for under $100 or if you want a custom suit those can run $500. The place that we are going to buy these suits from is www.tommydsports.com, they have a good selection of suits that are typically under $100. If you do decide to purchase one you will want a 7mm full length suit. Besides the wet suits mentioned and the snuba setup, the rest of the equipment you would need to provide. At the minimum you would need a mask and fins, you may also want to have a snorkel, a neoprene hood or cap and perhaps neoprene boots. It depends upon what your personal preference is and tolerance for extended periods in cool water.

The milfoil is typically in 5 - 12 feet of water and the temperature at 12 feet is much cooler than the surface temperature. Extended periods of time will cool your body core temperature even when wearing a wet suit. The milfoil will start to get fragile by the end of June and at that time most of the diving will need to end until later in open water season. So, plan on snuba from early May until the end of June. The water temperatures will be very chilly to begin with and by the end of June a full 7mm wet suit is a bit much.

If you are looking for good prices on masks, fins and other related items I have personally used www.scubatoys.com and www.leisurepro.com. If you would like to see something before you purchase it, Scuba Toys has an in-store web camera. You can give them a call and they can show you the items in question while you are talking to the person on the phone, a nice touch to customer service for purchasing on the web. If you have any questions, just send me an email at craig.nackerud@gmail.com. I typically monitor this account on a daily basis and will get back to as soon as I can. Additionally, if you know of anyone that was not at the last meeting and think they would be interested in participating, pass this information on to them.

I hope that we have more people interested in participating than we have time to dive. Laura and I typically dive every weekend that the weather permits. The best weather is the same weather that you would want for other water activities, calm and clear. We hope to get some weekends lined up for a group dive and make this a social, fun activity while doing some work on the lake that benefits everyone. We also hope that Matt Berg and his high school scuba club will be able to arrange an overnight trip to Horseshoe Lake to remove milfoil. If you are available when and if that happens it's always a great time. Someone will notify everyone in advance when that occurs.

Lastly, if you are not already scuba certified by either PADI or NAUI you will need to get snuba training which can be done on-line. You can start at Brownie Dive to purchase your on-line course. Call them at 1.800.327.0412 and talk with Stacy at extension 208. She will process the $75 per certificate order and email you a certificate with a code and the web site address needed to start the on-line training.

Thank you all for your interest and hope to see you all in the water soon!

Craig Nackerud


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