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javelindan · 05-13-2003, 08:04 PM,

I'm new to MN diving... I visited FantaSea in Burnsville a couple of weekends ago and was told that I need to do my homework and get the proper dive permits and understand the dive rules for specific locales. For instance, the guy I talked to (Nick) mentioned that Christmas Lake covers two counties. One of the counties requires that you have a dive flag for each diver down (vs. a single dive flag). Additionally, he mentioned paying Mpls $8 to dive in their lakes. He also mentioned rules about staying within X ft of the dive flag depending on where you are.

What's the experience of divers on this board? If so, are the rules enforced? Is there a particular location (web site or phone #) which provides a snapshot of the requirements of each Lake, county, city, etc.?

tcjtn0 · 05-14-2003, 06:01 AM,

Another option is diving outside the Metro area. (Crosby mines..etc). The visibility is usually better and you don't have to get permits to dive there.

Jean Smile

P.S. I haven't dove Christmas lake in about 2 years , but I found the visibility there to be not too great. And Lake Harriet...can you say MUCK???

SmithDiving · 05-14-2003, 08:38 AM,

Just want to clarify something. Minneapolis dropped the Scuba Diver annual permit in 2002, it is no longer required. If you are not diving the city lakes you are missing some great dive sites. The DNR/Cities/Counties all put alot of money into restoring wetlands around the city lakes several years ago. As a result of this work the water quality is greatly improved and I've seen vis as high as 20' below the thermocline in Calhoun. Besides there's lots of cool junk down there. We have actually added Calhoun to our fun dive list for this summer.

plmnwater · 05-14-2003, 08:41 AM,

I'm excited about adding a number of lakes to my log this year, even in Minneapolis. Does anyone else have any local lakes that they dive besides the ones that are highly touted here? And if so, are there any special permits or other requirements that anyone knows about around here?

LKunze · 05-14-2003, 08:44 AM,

Awesome...that's great news. I have yet to dive any Mpls. lakes yet but have heard Calhoun and Harriet have had decent viz this spring.

tcjtn0 · 05-14-2003, 08:51 AM,

Harriet is a great place to find junk. Unbelievable what we found in there last year. It was actually quite a fun dive , if you didn't get yourself all entagled.

Jean Smile

Lindan · 05-14-2003, 09:50 AM,

I dove Calhoun last week and the vis was good. The bottom topography is cool with lots of hills and valleys.Lots of milfoil though and getting worse. Last year by midsummer almost solid! There was about an inch of water above the weeds and easy to get entangled we had gotten to the middle of the lake before the weeds broke. Last week we wanted to tie off the flag on the bottom and I grabbed what I thought was a rock, it was some big furry thing! Got a good laugh w/ resulting mask flood. Probably won't dive there again. Linda

javelindan · 05-14-2003, 11:25 AM,

Good to hear about Mpls dropping their annual dive permit req's. Any other info to share about permit req's and/or local dive rules to follow? When prepping for a dive, do users of the forum first contact the local authorities with juristiction over a particular lake to inquire about permits/rules? Any concerns here or is it simply bring along your dive flag and go for it?

igotoofar · 05-14-2003, 11:30 AM,

Until this thread, I never knew anybody required a permin in MN. You gotta love MN where nothing is FREE!

beeger · 05-14-2003, 11:32 AM,

I've been meaning to do Calhoun and/or Harriet for years. Where do you guys usually dive from on shore? I've always wondered where the best place would be for either lake.