The Aquarena Diaries

Below are photographs taken at the Aquarena Center, San Marcos, Texas. This will be an on-going feature with pictures added as we venture to showcase historical diving and diving history at one of Texas's premier diving locations. The Aquarena Center is located about 30 miles south of Austin, Texas on IH-35. It is a part of Southwest Texas State University and the Center provides students and researchers a wonderful location to observe and study unique species only found in the San Marcos river. The diving at the Center is excellent, the water is clear with up to 50 feet of visibility, light current and a hard gravel bottom. Some of the features of the Center include a underwater observation area known as the Submarine Theater. There are also glass bottom boats and an aquarium so this not only makes for a great dive location, but also a great place to bring your family. So enjoy the pictures and if you have the opportunity, join UHEXSO at its next event by going to the Events Page for dates and times. To learn more about the center, please visit their web site Aquarena Center

The UHEXSO dive team dove at Aquarena Center on April 29-30, 2000, to make sure we would be able to deploy and recover our standard dress divers safely and also to check out the facility. We could have not asked for a better dive venue and facility. Our thanks to Ron Coley, Grant Wells and their staff for making us feel right at home. We also wish to thank Robert Knapick the President of NAOS, who shared his dive slot at Aquarena with us that weekend.

Saturday, April 29, 2000

The UHEXSO dive team of:

Diver: Pete Petrisky in his Korean rig.

Back Left: "Crunch" Lowe

Middle: Richard Lowe

Right: Randy Furr

Right: Richard Lowe in Pete Petrisky's Korean rig getting ready to make his first dive in standard dress. The helmet is made from cooper with brass viewing ports. The breast plate or corselet is mated into the suit or dress using brails which are made of brass and are tightened down with wing nuts to form a watertight seal. The suit is made of canvas and rubber. Air is controlled by an air control valve which is located in Richard's left hand. The exhaust valve is spring loaded and can be controlled by a knob or wheel located on the right side of the helmet and by a head button located inside of the helmet. Add the weight belt and weighted boots and you are ready to dive.

Right: Richard Lowe in Pete Petrisky's Korean rig getting ready to make his first dive in standard dress. The helmet is made from cooper with brass viewing ports. The breast plate or corselet is mated into the suit or dress using brails which are made of brass and are tightened down with wing nuts to form a watertight seal. The suit is made of canvas and rubber. Air is controlled by an air control valve which is located in Richard's left hand. The exhaust valve is spring loaded and can be controlled by a knob or wheel located on the right side of the helmet and by a head button located inside of the helmet. Add the weight belt and weighted boots and you are ready to dive.

Here are some photos of the divers in action at Aquarena.

Above: Pete Petrisky using his Korean rig with Richard Lowe's Siebe chest weights. Photos by Russell Miller	Above: Richard Lowe
Top: Pete Petrisky and Right: Richard Lowe