November 26, 2006: Austin Scuba E-list archive website
The website will still not be actively updated. However, for the purposes of posterity as well as comic relief, we have put up an archive of the website to now be hosted at our personal website - www.lauraandpaul.com (note that her name is before mine). Over time we will remove obsolete material and remove broken links, but nothing new will be added to this area. Instead we will slowly move (VERY slowly) anything that we would like to keep around, e.g., pictures, over to our personal website area.
January 2005: Austin Scuba E-list has left the building
Due to the fact that I have graduated from UT, accepted a new job, and will be moving to the Los Angeles, CA area, this website will no longer be updated.
September 18, 2002: Server Outage - Sunday, September 22nd
The server hosting the website and mailing list is being physically relocated this Sunday. There will be an outage of AT LEAST 12 hours and possibly up to a couple of days if there are any unforseen problems
July 9, 2002: Status of Lake Travis - open or closed?
There seems to be a variety of answers to that question lately, depending on who you ask. As far as I can tell Lake Travis is "closed to recreational boating". The problem I think is that even on the LCRA website, LCRA hotline, and news media, they shorten this statment to "lake is closed to recreation". And anyone familiar with the improvements made over at Mansfield Park recently would understand how the boating is the only recreational activity LCRA is aware of on the lake (yes, that is meant as a joke... have to be careful with sarcasm in e-mail).
You can see the 'news' posted here.
http://www.lcra.org/about/news/
and the most recent news with the closures here:
http://www.lcra.org/about/news/2002/07/advisory070802_3pm.html
So I called Richard Barstow over at Windy Point Park (the one right next to Bob Wentz Park currently underwater). He is still open for business and pointed out that Hippie Hollow and Pace Bend Park are open as well. If the lake was really 'closed', none of those parks could be open (including Windy Point Park). Richard also spoke with the LCRA Executive Manager of Community Services while she was taking pictures around the area and her quote was something like "We have no plans to close the lake to swimming", and she should be one of the people who has a say in when/if/how the lake is closed to activity. Something he added was that since the lake is currently receding, any risk to swimmers/divers would be reduced with time (most of the septic tanks are around 697' or higher...ewww). As some of you know there has been a fourth flood gate opened at the dam. I seem to recall seeing something about Mansfield Park being closed now, but I'm not sure if that is to all activity of just boating.
The lake peaked somewhere around 693.5' feet a couple of days ago and is now 693.0'. Predictions are that it will be around 691' by this weekend. LCRA is saying for all the lakes that it is "swim at your own risk". (I'd say that was more important to state when the lake is OPEN to boating!) There is the possibility of elevated bacteria counts in areas, but that is expected more around the inlets (like from Perdenales) and isolated, shallow coves with a lot of homes around them. Visibility (according to Richard) is 5-8ft above 40' or so. It gets down to less than a foot below that (the first thermocline), but no word on what the vis is like deeper. It SHOULD get better the silt above should settle out before getting past such a strong thermocline.
What does that mean for diving and swimming plans this weekend? If you are thinking about going out to the lake about your only choice as long as the flood gates are open is Windy Point Park. So don't just take my word for it, give them a call at (512) 266-3337 before you head out there.
Clear as mud?
Paul <thompson(-at-)scuba-elist.com>
May 4, 2002: New Mailing List Procedure
When I started this mailing list and website it consisted of about 20 people and updates were a piece of cake and most of my time could be spent on putting new content on the website. Now that the number is over 200 people, a lot of the time is spent just keeping the address book up-to-date!
It has taken some time to work out all the bugs and we are ready to move over much of the e-mail administration to a listserv (ok, maybe not all the bugs, but at least enough of them). Rather than directing e-mail to a person, any e-mail sent to dive(-at-)spaceship.com should be written as if going out to everyone.
The list will still be moderated and open only to list members, so everything should "feel" the same. However, there will be more than one moderator, members will be able to subscribe/unsubscribe themselves, e-mail addresses can be viewed by other list members, there is an "Archive" section for old posts, and so on.
Once you receive the welcome e-mail, please take the time to visit the listserv website at http://www.spaceship.com/mailman/listinfo/dive to look at the various options. Some important ones to note:
Password: you are given a generic one, so I suggest you change this
Disable mail delivery: turn off the list if you are out of town
Set Digest Mode: not much e-mail, so I suggest you keep this "off"
Conceal yourself from list: you can hide your e-mail address if you wish.
Hopefully, this change is one that everyone finds more useful than the old system. As always, feel free to send an e-mail to thompson(-at-)scuba-elist.com if you have any questions or comments.
August 8, 2001: Memorial
for Bob Smith on Saturday, August 11
The family has planned a memorial to be held at the LCRA Mansfield Park on Saturday, August 11th at 9:30am.
Further details will be forwarded on via e-mail.
July 26, 2001: Bob
Smith's Death
This is about as official of a notice that I am going to get, and I know a number of you were
interested in any further information that I had.
The only thing that I would like to add has to do with some of the questions that I received asking "how" or "why" this happened. (I know that I keep trying to think back at what I could have said to Bob as a friend that might have helped to alter this course of events). All we know is what Bob told us about his plan. That fact is, only he knows what
actually happened on his dive and anything we might add would be educated guessing, wishful thinking, or simply incorrect.
=============================================================================
From: "Austin AquaSports - Nathan Coburn" <nate(-at-)austinaquasports.com>
Subject: Bob Smith's Death
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 07:05:13 -0500
Paul, please post to E-List. Thank you.
Bob Smith was a personal friend and I am proud to say he considered Aqua Austin Sports a second home. His NAUI #8 instructor certificate has been
displayed here for years as a testament to his contagious love for scuba diving.
On July 22d at 7:30 pm, at Palancar Reef in Cozumel, Mexico, Bob Smith, proudly known as NAUI # 8, was lost at sea. Bob was diving beyond the dive
profile, wishing to attempt a personal depth record on air.
Cozumel search and rescue immediately conducted both boat and shore searches. Searches concluded Tuesday at sunset with no conclusive findings.
Officially, the US embassy and the Mexican authorities consider Bob missing at sea and presumed dead.
Bob is survived by his former wife, and two daughters, all of Austin, Texas.
The family has expressed their desire to conduct a memorial service in
approximately two weeks at Mansfield Park, which was a favorite swimming and
diving spot for Bob. Further details will be posted in this manner.
I consider this a loss to us all. One of us died doing what we do. Friends
and acquaintances will remember different eccentricities, whether his diving
attire, his dancing, or his love of music. His selfless contributions to
our different efforts, our senses of humor and our lives will be dearly
missed.
-Nathan Coburn
Austin Aqua Sports
April 30, 2001: SNAZZY
NEW WEBSITE
Thanks to a lot of hard work by Laura Albright, there have been major revisions to
the look and feel of the website. Please bear with us as some of the
changes are still being worked out. In the future look for: listserv
based mailing list, streamlined forms for joining and proposing dives, a
password protected directory of names, and more.
Most of the current web pages should reflect the changes as we make them, but there well be the inevitable kinks and bugs. Specific problems with the website should be addressed to paul(-at-)lauraandpaul.com. More than one person will be checking this account, so please do not send any personal e-mail. Personal correspondence to Paul Thompson (thompson(-at-)scuba-elist.com), Laura Albright (laura(-at-)scuba-elist.com), or anyone else maintaining the mailing list should be sent directly to them..
April 14, 2001: General News
Jac's Easter Egg hunt last week went off without a hitch (though Jac may
argue that point). The parking lot at Mansfield was full and everyone had a good
time. A number of prizes were given out, including a brand new regulator.
In case you haven't been diving out at Lake Travis recently (say because you are
too busy filling out tax returns), conditions are much improved over a few
months ago. Temperatures near the surface were approaching 70 deg according the
the ARL test station data! And it doesn't get much below 60 deg until around 50
feet. Even better, visibility has been great shallow--we have measured it over
20 feet at times. It tends to get murky a bit deeper, but deeper still in the
80-100 foot range we have encountered at least 30 ft vis... at least further
than our lights could show. And the lake is more than full right now--up to 170+
feet in places.
On that note, I have had more than one person give an account recently of sink
holes as deep as 225 ft in the lake. There were places that were once flat in
the river channel a few years ago, but now contain sudden dropoffs. One theory
being that the recent years of drought removed some support in the underlying
rock and allowed the bottom to subside. We see such things on land, so why now
on the bottom of the lake?
Also, Laura Albright has been putting in a lot of work to improve the website,
make things more user friendly and generally better to look at. Also, we are
working on forms for submitting dive proposals and signing up for the mailing
list. Also, there will new e-mail addresses to get traffic off my personal
account. Currently that sort of stuff takes too long for me to get updated and
sometimes proposals are not sent out in time to do any good. Look for all of
that to come online in the coming weeks.
I know more and more people are getting out and diving, so please feel free to
offer to organize some activities of your own or let us know about other groups
looking for divers. As summer approaches, we should be back up to our
traditional Sunday day, and Wednesday night dives each week.
February 4, 2001: NEW WEB ADDRESS
The web address for the Austin Scuba E-list has been changed to www.scuba-elist.com.
Please update all your links and bookmarks!
April 4, 2000: NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS
The e-mail address for the Austin Scuba E-list has been changed to
scuba-elist(-at-)mail.utexas.edu and all future
correspondence should be sent to this new address. E-mail sent to the old address
should be forwarded to the new address for approximately six months, so don't worry if you
just noticed the change. Most of the current web pages should reflect this change
except for old 1999 trip reports.
April 2, 2000: NEED
VOLUNTEERS:
If you are willing to volunteer some time, then there is probably something that you can
help with. Come up with a title and put it on your resume, I did. Don't count yourself out
because you are a new diver. As all experienced divers know, most of the time in a dive is
planning, not the dive itself.
It might be apparent to many of you that I've been a bit slower than usual. This idea of
mine will be one year old this coming May, and it has grown a LOT in that time. During the
peak of last Summer there were only about 30 people listed. Now it's about 5 times that.
With more people signing up all the time I cannot respond to e-mail, update the website,
plan dives, send out trip info, AND dive. (That's right I'm not only the president, I'm
also a client).
There is only so much time that I can volunteer for this. And before everyone sends their
ideas in for improvements---if you suggest it, that is an excellent way to get drafted to
do it ;-) What I would really help me would be to have something like officers to take
some of the responsibilities. (P.S. thanks for the input Kat)
For example:
Site Leader - organize dives locally. That is not the same as a DIVEMASTER. You do not
have to be a divemaster to help organize people to show up for a dive, only some free time
and a little knowledge about the lake to get people organized.
Trip Leader - organize trips for diving. Again, you do not have to be a divemaster. All it
would take is a little research around town to collect info about interesting trips that
are all ready planned. You don't even have to be going on the trip yourself. Basically,
make it easy for me to send out the info for everyone. No need to start from scratch when
plenty of other people have trips ready to go.
Contributing Editor - anything you would like to add to the website? I think of this as a
resource for divers, so if you have something to contribute...
Safety Officer - collect/donate O2 and other safety equipment
Boat Captain - would need to work with a site leader to take divers out to other places on
the lake (and own a boat of course)
Webmaster - if you have the webspace or just want to contribute pages, I'm all
for it. But as long as I'm using my school account, I have to be the main
webmaster. Can't knock free webspace.
Instructor - want to announce your class and need students?
And whatever else you can think of...
For anyone interested, please let me know. I would like to have a meeting with a group of
all the volunteers in the coming weeks to try and get things organized. Not that the
E-list is about to go away, but I would like to see it continue to grow.
March 18, 2000: There was a diver lost during an advanced class this weekend. I will post updates here at this link as they become available.
January, 2000: Things are a bit slow during the winter, but activity will pick back up as spring approaches
October 31, 1999: I have some sad news report about a diving fatality at Windy Point. Since a number of people have contacted me about details, I thought that I would at least pass on what little I have heard about the accident.
October 1, 1999: Mansfield Park is to be closed for renovation from October 1 to May 1. This is posted on a big sign as you come into the park. Traditionally, this area has been used numerous openwater classes as well as a place to take beginning divers on their first dives. Also, this park has some of the best boat access and that traffic will be displaced. This is not the only place to dive, but it is the easiest. Activity for the list will continue thru that time, but will probably require a little bit more planning. Feel free to suggest alternative sites for diving out at the lake.
If you have comments or suggestions, send e-mail to paul(-at-)lauraandpaul.com