Moving to Madison from California.

[FreediveWI]

I've dove the kelp beds and the Ruby E. shortly after she was sunk. My favorite charter boat, although it's been a few years since I was out there last, was the Lois Ann. I understand that Larry and Lois have since sold it.

I've dove the La Jolla area quite a bit and did my Instructor training up in Sana Anna. Made it out to Catalina and Anacap a few times as well.

As far as temps in Lake Michigna goes, that depends upon hte time of year. Right now it's around 40 on hte bottom, but every August it will warm up to the high 60's. THat temp will get deeper as the winds blow from the east and the warm water builds up on this end of the lake. Last year it extended down to 110'. Other years it has gone as deep as 135- the bottom of the WISCONSIN.

Inside the break wall it will get into the mid 70's that time of year. When I lived in Milwaukee we would do lots of our openwater training dives out there- off of the Len-Der charter boat. It was a much nicer way to introduce new divers to the wonders of the underwater world- 75 degrees, hard sand bottom and 40' of vis! Compare that to the inland qaurries that time of year- with less than 5' of vis and it's an easy sell.

IF your moving to Madison you need to time your local diving. Right now, as in the next 1-2 months, the lakes are fairly clear- 10-25' of vis. However, once summer gets rolling along the lakes green up pretty bad. THe weeds come up so high they clog the rudder on my surf ski and make paddeling a real b**ch! THe water also gets black below 25' in July. In the fall she clears up again and the water stays warm through out October.

Devil's Lake is just to the north, but only 45' at it's max depth. There is a lake restoration project going on there right now that is cleaning the lake up quite a bit, over time. She is supposed to get back to 50' of vis in hte next couple of years.

Other wrecks on Lake Michigan will vary depending upon where you go in the lake. If you go south the wrecks are all pretty shallow- above 60'. If you go north things will get deep pretty quick- making for some excellent tec-diving. If your into tec charters you should check out Greg Such with Shipwreck Adventures. He runs the safest deep diving operation of any charter boat I have dove off of- and the only one I could recommend.

IF your heading south you should talk to Dave Manchester of the ENTERPRISE- the big red boat. He runs trips south of the state line.

In Milwaukee I am biased to the Len-Der, sorry there Dean but he is my father-in-law. From what I have seen Dean runs safe recreational charters and you could look him up as well- although I might be out of the will for saying that. ;D

Jon