White Star Quarry

Within the last year the wife and our daughter have gone from open water through rescue and advanced. They are now at 27 dives total, so far only fresh water. This was their first trip out of state doing all of the planning and prep 100% on their own as a dive buddy team. We are from Texas so I was a bit nervous to drive all the way up here for a dive weekend. The staff answered all our pre-travel questions through Facebook with no issue. My one rub was that you cannot reserve gear rental, so for those coming from out of state it can be a gamble. We chose to camp at the sites across the street, which were clean, flat and well cared for. Sadly our tents were too old to withstand the rain and we had to throw in the towel. Closest hotel was 25 miles away. Reserve early if you are going that route, many were full. We arrived at 8am to a line of cars waiting to get in. About 4 vehicles back, we pulled into the parking lot and was cut off by another driver in a rush for a good spot. Ironically I am a disabled vet so I took the handicap spot in front of him. My daughter got out of the vehicle and casually walked up to the shore line only to be yelled at by some dive master “that’s our table” clearly not reserved. This is not the dive sites responsibility, it is on the club and his attitude. Wife rented gear for a reasonable price, clean, working and complete. $100.00 for BCD, computer / compass, regulator, tank, and weights. The girls did 5 dives, 1 to the tunnel at 71’, 1 to the forest, 1 to the truck, 1 to the platforms and objects near the walk in, and a wall dive. We started at 9am, with surface intervals, lunch and safety stops they concluded the day at 445pm, with enough time to check in gear at 5pm. Staff was friendly, knowledgeable, air fills were fast and the grounds as a whole were well kept. Visibility was outstanding for a freshwater quarry / lake, temps were chilly. They went down in 5mm suits in mid-July and there was a thermocline, bottom temps were in the high 50s, after their 4th dive they started to notice the chilly water. Their final wall dive was at 20’. We will be back if we get back up that way again.