It’s 8 o’clock in the morning when dive instructor Ted Heublein gathers his group of scuba enthusiasts for a rundown of the day’s diving activities. They plan three dives for the day, and expect to reach depths of up to 85 feet, in water temperatures of around 51 degrees.
An atypical underwater excursion for Bay Area scuba enthusiasts
By Scott Hargis
Published: December, 2005
It’s 8 o’clock in the morning when dive instructor Ted Heublein gathers his group of scuba enthusiasts for a rundown of the day’s diving activities. They plan three dives for the day, and expect to reach depths of up to 85 feet, in water temperatures of around 51 degrees.
A normal day of diving off the coast of Monterey, right?
Wrong. Ted and his group are diving Lake Tahoe. When they reach their maximum depth of 85 feet, off the beach at Sand Harbor, they’ll be 6,140 feet above sea level.
Lake Tahoe has been a destination for adventurous divers for more than 30 years, and is accessible to any diver with an Open Water certification. The advantages of diving at Tahoe, according to Heublein, are the visibility, which can reach nearly 150 feet, and the lack of currents, surge, and waves that typify the California coast diving experience.
The average Tahoe water temperatures range from 45 to 51 degrees, comparable to those of the Humbolt current off Northern California’s coastline, and there are numerous wrecks, vertical walls, and fauna to be explored at dive sites around the lake. Besides, says Heublein, who is a dive instructor at Wallin’s Dive Center in San Carlos, Where else can you dive and see snow-covered mountains when you look up at the surface of the water? Wallin’s Dive Center runs dive trips in the Bay Area every third Saturday, but for divers looking for a new experience, Tahoe offers an affordable and convenient change of pace.
After reviewing the special precautions they’ll take because of the altitude, the team of six divers enters the water. The contrast from a typical coastal shore dive couldn’t be more pronounced; instead of fighting surf and stumbling over rocks in their heavy dive gear, Ted and co-instructor Keith Chesnut (of Sierra Diving Center, Reno) simply wade out from a sandy beach into calm, clear water.
"Where else can you dive and see snow-covered mountains when you look up at the surface of the water?"
Like many Northern California divers, they are swathed in polartech fleece, covered with an exposure suit, and outside all, a waterproof neoprene dry suit; these divers won’t even need a towel when they emerge. Swimming out 100 yards, the group does a final gear check, and then descends into about 35 feet of water.
One of the things you notice, says Heublein, is the eerie quiet of underwater Tahoe. Unlike the riotous pandemonium of kelp beds, the lake is serene and calm. That, coupled with visibility unheard-of outside of tropical destinations, makes a dive in Lake Tahoe a spectacular experience.
As the divers swim slowly out, they encounter an enormous fallen tree, and follow it downslope to its crown, lying in 86 feet of crystalline water. Along the way they stop to play with the abundant crayfish that inhabit the lake bed. Aggressive but harmless, these small crustaceans try to bluff the divers by clicking their pincers and will stand their ground or even charge when approached. In the crevices of the decaying tree the group finds juvenile trout, barely an inch long.
Seasonally, divers can expect to find full-grown rainbow, brown, cutthroat and Mackinaw trout, as well as salmon, freshwater sculpins, shrimp and other fish schooling near the rocks and boulders. Divers have also spotted freshwater otters, underwater. Other divers have left rock art: stones placed on the lake bottom to spell out cryptic messages.
Without significant currents or wave action, the lake bottom is undisturbed. Artifacts remain in place, unburied, for years. You wouldn’t believe the things people drop from boats, says Heublein, who removed a sock from the lake bottom on this trip. In other parts of the lake, entire buildings are resting on the bottom, having sunk while being towed on barges from one location to another.
As the divers swim to the bottom of the lake or resurface, they must carefully control the rate at which they descend and ascend – coming to the surface too fast causes decompression sickness, or the bends. Caused by excess nitrogen in the blood from breathing pressurized air, the bends are avoided by ascending slowly, allowing the body to off-gas before surfacing.
A common mistake made by novice high-altitude divers, says Heublein, is to climb in their car after a day of diving and drive over Donner Pass, on their way home to the Bay Area. The pass lies at 8,000 feet, and causes the divers to decompress even more rapidly, bringing on symptoms of decompression sickness. For this reason, it is recommended that divers remain at lake level overnight, before heading home. For Heublein and his group, this was just another of the many reasons Tahoe makes a great dive destination: the resort setting and nightlife.
There are no special certifications necessary to dive Lake Tahoe. Although all of the divers on this trip had Advanced Open Water certificates, and quite a few specialty certifications besides, any diver with a Basic Open Water card can participate. Heublein recommends always checking in with the local dive experts before diving in a new location — in addition to the technical aspects of diving at high altitude, it’s always wise to get a briefing on the specific area you intend to dive to be aware of the hazards as well as the hidden treasures that await you.
All images: Ted Heublein, Tom McKeithen & Ian Sayer
Wallins Dive Center
1119 Industrial Rd #7
San Carlos, CA
(650) 591-5924 www.wallins.com
