Newbie from Mankato

[holophonervirtuoso]

Greetings everyone! My name is Ben and I am a newbie/wannabe from Mankato! I had been thinking about getting my wife and I certified for Christmas, as we've been talking about it for a long time. The time is definitely right to get it done! I am ecstatic thinking about it! We are going up to the cities for the pool classes probably in September.

After reading posts here and ScubaBoard the last few days, I have been able to pick up some VERY useful information and it's only made me more anxious. I am however finding myself wishing a lived in a larger city. I found a SCUBA club in Rochester and of course there are a ton in the cities, but none in Mankato, not even at the University. That might make it a little tougher to find buddies/outings, but I'm sure it will all work out.

I just wanted to introduce myself and say I am looking forward to my cert classes! Does anybody know of any decent dive sites south of the cities (if such a thing exists)?

[grumpie]

All the dive sites are good, just some are a little better. welcome aboard and enjoy your time in the water. a thought might be is to do the classroom and pool stuff here and go south for the checkouts.
grumpie.................

[DiverQueen]

MSU used to have SCUBA on the P.E. curriculum....  :  I couldn't pass the prerequisite of Water Safety Instructor so I had to wait til I moved up here too!

There are a couple divers from the Mankato and Mapleton area occasionally on this site,  good luck getting in touch with them!

Lake Okoboji in Iowa is probably the best "Southland Lake"  I can think of a few others.  Will PM With info later!

[LKunze]

Welcome to MNSCUBA!  Fish Lake near Waterville in LeSeuer County is supposed to be alright in the spring. I've heard vis around 10 to 12 feet. Probably gets pretty green in the summer though.  The Rochester group would be a good group to hook-up with, they go to Wazee fairly often which is probably the closest "good" lake to dive for you.  Most of the lakes South of the twin cities aren't very good for diving unfortunately.

[doogles]

There is a group of us in the Shakopee area with divers from Glencoe and such that get together as often as we can. The dive shop in Shakopee is our usual meeting spot. We are going to Wazee in 2 weeks. Try not to get addicted.    I tried scuba as barter for a job and now the only thing I need is probably a compressor, but then I wouldn't have a reason to hang out at the LDS. I camp at Sakatah State Park, how far is Fish Lake?

[smurfette100]

You sound just like me 2 years ago, wanting to do this for a long time and getting eager the more you look at stuff. I took my training here last March and did our check out dives in Hawaii on our honeymoon last April (2007).

I look at the DNR's website to check lakes out that no one knows about on this list. They have visibility on there, so you can check the lakes around you. It looks like the site is down right now, but you can enter in a lake name near your house and look at maps, visibility and other information about the lakes.



For our first dive on our own, we hired a divemaster to accompany us. We had no experience shore diving (Hawaii was all boat dives) and no experience in a lake where the visibility wasn't 100 feet like Hawaii. We're very glad we did that.

Feel free to send me a private message if you'd like to chat further.
Theresa

[Punky]

Fish Lake is by Elysian, Mn.  There is a dive shop in Fairmont, Mn called RLT Divers
Another place to dive is Quennen's Quarry in Iowa about 1 1/2 hours from Mankato.
A good contact for diving might be    josejavierlopez256001@yahoo.com
I used to dive with him and he knows the local spots.

[Anderson]

Welcome to the underwater world.  We will be holding a open water diver class in Lake Crystal this fall.  We don't have the specific dates yet, but drop me an email and I'll keep you informed.  We also have a good group of divers that always welcome someone new.
Check our website and keep in touch.  Frost is 40 miles south of Mankato.