Signed up for SSI Open Water

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Well, we signed up for our Open Water certifications today! It's my wife's birthday tomorrow, so I paid for lessons for the both of us. She thinks it's so cool to tell her girlfriends "my hubby got me scuba diving lessons for my birthday!". Hahahaha

 

The shop teaches the course over a single weekend, about 20 hours in total. You start Friday night at 5pm, then all day Saturday and Sunday. There's several sessions of pool and class time that alternate. I talked to the shop owner, he seems friendly and knowledgeable.

 

When we went snorkelling at a couple of places in Florida, both times I used a rented mask - and it leaked like a sieve around the eye sockets. It really detracted from my enjoyment to have to constantly stop and clean the mask, empty out the water, etc. I have a big melon with cromagnon features, so am rather difficult to fit. While we were in the dive shop I picked up a REALLY nice mask (Scubapro Crystal Vu) that was a very comfortable fit and passed the "stick on" test (put it on your face, inhale slightly and check that it stays put). It has great peripheral vision which I really wanted. The silicone is ultra-soft and comfortable, the softest/most comfortable one I tried on in the shop.

 

 

 

We got our course booklets and we're sharing an SSI training manual. I skipped through the manual for about an hour and it all seems fascinating. I will let you know how it goes, training day starts June 13th (sinuses and ears permitting).

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Guess the image link went dead...

 

[Jimmers]

My wife and I were certified last year and it was a really fun and challenging experience to share as a couple.

 

The best of luck to you both.

[rsldonk]

That's the same mask my wife has and she loves it. Didn't fit me, and I needed one that wasn't a single lens because of my eyesight correction lenses, but she seems to like it. I'm a big Scubapro fan, their gear is top notch and they actually stand behind it.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Thanks guys! Good to know.

 

I would rather bring a mask with me everywhere we hit the water, than deal with an old, potentially leaky rental.

 

I suspect we may also get kitted up with wetsuits (we have snorkels). Reading the bit on this board about "everyone pees in the rental wetsuits" kinda decided me on that one.

[rsldonk]

Thanks guys! Good to know.

 

I would rather bring a mask with me everywhere we hit the water, than deal with an old, potentially leaky rental.

 

I suspect we may also get kitted up with wetsuits (we have snorkels). Reading the bit on this board about "everyone pees in the rental wetsuits" kinda decided me on that one.

 

Depending on where you want to dive, you may just want like a rash guard or something. That's all I had in Cozumel and Grand Cayman and it was plenty. first and foremost, get a good mask, like you did, and get fins you like. After that, get gear as you go and can afford. Don't skimp on your regulators, spend the money, get something good.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Will do! Wife and I will definitely get all of our "personal" gear before we go.

[satxdiver]

I have all my own equipment. I know how it is maintained and who used it last (me!). If I am down 100 feet, I want to know that my equipment is in tip top shape. I have seen borrowed equipment and sometimes rental that have failed underwater. Buy your own quality equipment and maintain it annually.

 

I wear at least a skin or 1 mm in warm water (>80F) and a cap if needed (I am follicle challenged). It offers skin protection at least. I never liked the hoods. I would never wear a rented wet suit unless it was absolutely my only choice.

 

I like to go on live-aboards where we are diving four and five times a day. I use an air integrated dive computer to regulate my dives and let me know when to surface. I would heartily recommend the use of a dive computer for each individual. Some live-aboards require it. The non-integrated dive computers are relatively inexpensive.

[Pilot70D]

We both got or OW certification through SSI. We learned a lot and enjoyed the experience in so doing.

 

One of the issues confronting most new divers is the rent vs. buy issue. We have always brought and used our own equipment. I think that there are several reasons for so doing. I have copied a post I wrote about year ago on this subject. Bear in mind this is my opinion so take it for what it's worth.

 

********************************************************

The War Department (a.k.a. Mrs. B) and I have dived all over the Caribbean as well as several locations in Florida. We always brought our own gear (except tanks and weights). This did enable us to see a wide variety of the rental equipment provided by the various dive operations. Most of the rental equipment we've seen is reasonably good, upper middle of the road equipment. There have been one or two exceptions though.

 

Regardless of the newness (or not) of the rental equipment I think that you're much better off and probably safer with your own dive gear. I know instinctively where all the 'controls' (dump valves, harness adjustments, ditchable weights, etc.) are on my BCD. With a rental BCD it's going to be a learning experience to some degree. Furthermore I keep a lot of gear in or clipped to my BCD (dive knife, flashlight, safety sausage, emergency whistle) or in the front pockets. I know where each piece of this equipment is and that it's always with me.

 

Next is the service issue - how recently and how often has that rental regulator been serviced? With your own equipment you know those answers. We were diving in Aruba a little over a month ago and with a good dive operator. However one set of rental equipment had a secondary regulator which free flowed so badly that the diver had only ten to fifteen minutes of dive time. We were too far from the dock timewise to go back and get another set of regulators. They did give him a refund but that morning's dives were wiped out. When arriving by cruise ship often the only dives you get are those two tank morning dives.

 

Last but not least is the fit issue. Your own equipment fits you and probably fits better than rental equipment will. My mask fits my face and doesn't leak. My fins fit my feet with dive booties on. My wetsuit and BCD fit my body. Will rental equipment fit as well? Possibly but probably not.

 

So for all these reasons bring your own gear. Yes, it's somewhat of a pain in the fanny to lug that dive gear to wherever you rendezvous with the dive operator but this inconvenience is far outweighed by the benefits.

 

Hope this advice is helpful. Now go enjoy those dives while cruising.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

We did the open water course this weekend. Wow! We're both exhausted. It was a very demanding schedule. We had about 20 hours of pool and classroom time altogether. The schedule was Friday 5pm - 10pm, Saturday 7:30am - 8:30pm and Sunday 7:30am - 2pm, with breaks for lunch, dinner, driving from class to pool and back, etc.

 

We learned a ton of stuff. The instructor was excellent. He does police recovery work for the RCMP (Canadian federal police), salvage and runs his own pleasure dive shop in Vancouver. He is also a forensic consultant for dive-related incidents.

 

In the classroom, he went over everything from the chemical composition of air to the most common mistake people who die in dive accidents make (not releasing the weights, and not inflating the BC). We learned about all manner of safety issues and how to prevent or overcome them. He has seen them all and was a far better resource than any training manual could be. We learned how to calculate dive profiles old school - using the revised US Navy dive tables.

 

In the pool, we were taught a variety of skills. How to completely take any piece of your gear (including the entire tank and vest) off and put it back on. How to clear your mask without surfacing. We sat on the bottom and shut our own air on and off to learn what it feels like to run out of air. We did "out of air" rescue training where one diver signals being out of air, you give them your reg and switch to your spare, then "rescue" them by surfacing.

 

The final training session he threw a curve ball at us: we all had to put on gloves - not the five fingered kind, the cold water thumb and two finger kind - and do everything we'd learned so far again. Man it was hard getting the gear refastened when you could barely feel the buckles! But we did it.

 

 

The final pool test went like this: float your gear out into the middle of the pool. Throw your mask into the water and let it sink to the bottom (16' deep pool, tower diving pool basically). Swim out to your gear and put it on while treading water. Dive down and find your mask, put it on and clear it. We then teamed up with a different buddy than the one we had been training with (for most of us, that was girlfriend/wife) and repeated the buddy rescue techniques. We then replaced our normal weight belt with a massive one and had to swim across the pool twice. After that we were just told to surface for further instructions. Mysterious!

 

One last curveball. He took your mask from you and put a piece of garbage bag across the lens, effectively "blinding" you. Bear in mind we still had the thick gloves on - so we were fat-fingered and now blind! We were then told to go to the bottom and 1) remove and replace our weight belt, 2) completely remove and replace the BC vest and tank, 3) swim along the bottom blindly until you found a wall and do 3 laps of the (olympic diving sized) pool.

 

I'm not sure how tough this training is relative to any other normal open water course, but we came out of it feeling like we could handle just about anything now - which I guess was the idea! :D We still need to book our final certification dive in order to receive our credentials, but we will probably do that in the next month or two.

 

Looking forward to diving in the Caribbean in December.

[cruzegirl]

We did the open water course this weekend. Wow! We're both exhausted. It was a very demanding schedule. We had about 20 hours of pool and classroom time altogether. The schedule was Friday 5pm - 10pm, Saturday 7:30am - 8:30pm and Sunday 7:30am - 2pm, with breaks for lunch, dinner, driving from class to pool and back, etc.

 

We learned a ton of stuff. The instructor was excellent. He does police recovery work for the RCMP (Canadian federal police), salvage and runs his own pleasure dive shop in Vancouver. He is also a forensic consultant for dive-related incidents.

 

In the classroom, he went over everything from the chemical composition of air to the most common mistake people who die in dive accidents make (not releasing the weights, and not inflating the BC). We learned about all manner of safety issues and how to prevent or overcome them. He has seen them all and was a far better resource than any training manual could be. We learned how to calculate dive profiles old school - using the revised US Navy dive tables.

 

In the pool, we were taught a variety of skills. How to completely take any piece of your gear (including the entire tank and vest) off and put it back on. How to clear your mask without surfacing. We sat on the bottom and shut our own air on and off to learn what it feels like to run out of air. We did "out of air" rescue training where one diver signals being out of air, you give them your reg and switch to your spare, then "rescue" them by surfacing.

 

The final training session he threw a curve ball at us: we all had to put on gloves - not the five fingered kind, the cold water thumb and two finger kind - and do everything we'd learned so far again. Man it was hard getting the gear refastened when you could barely feel the buckles! But we did it.

 

 

The final pool test went like this: float your gear out into the middle of the pool. Throw your mask into the water and let it sink to the bottom (16' deep pool, tower diving pool basically). Swim out to your gear and put it on while treading water. Dive down and find your mask, put it on and clear it. We then teamed up with a different buddy than the one we had been training with (for most of us, that was girlfriend/wife) and repeated the buddy rescue techniques. We then replaced our normal weight belt with a massive one and had to swim across the pool twice. After that we were just told to surface for further instructions. Mysterious!

 

One last curveball. He took your mask from you and put a piece of garbage bag across the lens, effectively "blinding" you. Bear in mind we still had the thick gloves on - so we were fat-fingered and now blind! We were then told to go to the bottom and 1) remove and replace our weight belt, 2) completely remove and replace the BC vest and tank, 3) swim along the bottom blindly until you found a wall and do 3 laps of the (olympic diving sized) pool.

 

I'm not sure how tough this training is relative to any other normal open water course, but we came out of it feeling like we could handle just about anything now - which I guess was the idea! :D We still need to book our final certification dive in order to receive our credentials, but we will probably do that in the next month or two.

 

Looking forward to diving in the Caribbean in December.

 

Wow... Your right. That was a tough class. I did alot of what you guys did but not all. But I agree, sounds like he put you through the drill and you'll be better for it. That's another why I was glad to get certified in California versus the Caribbean. There's a whole different set of circumstances out here. And to dive out here gets you lot's of training & practice.

[bruce-r]

We learned a ton of stuff. The instructor was excellent. He does police recovery work for the RCMP (Canadian federal police), salvage and runs his own pleasure dive shop in Vancouver. He is also a forensic consultant for dive-related incidents.

What was your instructor's name? It wasn't Rob was it? I might know him.

 

I'm not sure how tough this training is relative to any other normal open water course, but we came out of it feeling like we could handle just about anything now - which I guess was the idea! :D We still need to book our final certification dive in order to receive our credentials, but we will probably do that in the next month or two.

 

Looking forward to diving in the Caribbean in December.

It sounds like you received very through training. You should be good to dive anywhere in British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest.

[scubadiver888]

We did the open water course this weekend. Wow! We're both exhausted. It was a very demanding schedule. We had about 20 hours of pool and classroom time altogether. The schedule was Friday 5pm - 10pm, Saturday 7:30am - 8:30pm and Sunday 7:30am - 2pm, with breaks for lunch, dinner, driving from class to pool and back, etc.

 

I was originally certified in PADI OW. I recently started my AOW training at a shop that does PADI and SSI. For PADI you can do the regular PADI AOW course (I'd be done now if I picked that), you can do the SSI course or you can do a 'SSI like' PADI course. Basically it is an SSI training course, it includes the PADI documents and you get a PADI AOW card. I have three more days of diving and I should be done.

 

We learned a ton of stuff. The instructor was excellent. He does police recovery work for the RCMP (Canadian federal police), salvage and runs his own pleasure dive shop in Vancouver. He is also a forensic consultant for dive-related incidents.

 

In the classroom, he went over everything from the chemical composition of air to the most common mistake people who die in dive accidents make (not releasing the weights, and not inflating the BC). We learned about all manner of safety issues and how to prevent or overcome them. He has seen them all and was a far better resource than any training manual could be. We learned how to calculate dive profiles old school - using the revised US Navy dive tables.

 

I was trained in Jamaica by a guy who was an instructor in something like 3 different agencies. He got the PADI certification because there was more work in PADI but the stuff he taught was beyond what was required for PADI. I had a REAL PADI refresher course back in 2006 and was totally disappointed. Was seriously thinking about going back to Jamaica to have Haldane (parents named him after John Scott Haldane; published article on preventing DCS in 1908) do my AOW training.

 

In the pool, we were taught a variety of skills. How to completely take any piece of your gear (including the entire tank and vest) off and put it back on. How to clear your mask without surfacing. We sat on the bottom and shut our own air on and off to learn what it feels like to run out of air. We did "out of air" rescue training where one diver signals being out of air, you give them your reg and switch to your spare, then "rescue" them by surfacing.

 

The gear removal is a requirement for all agencies. Mask clearing is also necessary. I'm not sure if the turning off the air is required but my instructor did that as well.

 

The final training session he threw a curve ball at us: we all had to put on gloves - not the five fingered kind, the cold water thumb and two finger kind - and do everything we'd learned so far again. Man it was hard getting the gear refastened when you could barely feel the buckles! But we did it.

 

 

 

HEY! Those are Waterproof gloves. Did you use Waterproof equipment? I have been looking at that stuff and considering purchasing stuff from them. They have a 3mm five finger glove than actually looks pretty good. I'm also considering the 3mm full wetsuit (Aries or Lynx, whichever is 3mm). If you used the Waterproof gear let me know what you think of it.

 

The final pool test went like this: float your gear out into the middle of the pool. Throw your mask into the water and let it sink to the bottom (16' deep pool, tower diving pool basically). Swim out to your gear and put it on while treading water. Dive down and find your mask, put it on and clear it. We then teamed up with a different buddy than the one we had been training with (for most of us, that was girlfriend/wife) and repeated the buddy rescue techniques. We then replaced our normal weight belt with a massive one and had to swim across the pool twice. After that we were just told to surface for further instructions. Mysterious!

 

This is a tough instructor. My instructor had me recover my mask from the sea. He took it off and tossed it away. I then had to find it, put it on, clear it. Did you know salt water is not that bad on the eyes while you are in it. Once you clear your mask is when your eyes start to burn. :)

 

One last curveball. He took your mask from you and put a piece of garbage bag across the lens, effectively "blinding" you. Bear in mind we still had the thick gloves on - so we were fat-fingered and now blind! We were then told to go to the bottom and 1) remove and replace our weight belt, 2) completely remove and replace the BC vest and tank, 3) swim along the bottom blindly until you found a wall and do 3 laps of the (olympic diving sized) pool.

 

I can see how this would be good for low viz conditions. Great instructor. He definitely has you well prepared for diving in Canada.

 

I'm not sure how tough this training is relative to any other normal open water course, but we came out of it feeling like we could handle just about anything now - which I guess was the idea! :D We still need to book our final certification dive in order to receive our credentials, but we will probably do that in the next month or two.

 

Looking forward to diving in the Caribbean in December.

 

This guy was tough. You had some really good training. I have yet to see a PADI only instructor even come close to this. Actually, a lot of PADI instructors will blow off the required minimums, e.g. you don't need to swim the 200 yards.

 

A lot of the skills he taught you are good for diving lakes and quarries in cold climates like Edmonton. It is overkill for diving in the Caribbean but it will just make Caribbean diving so much easier.

[scubaran]

\This guy was tough. You had some really good training. I have yet to see a PADI only instructor even come close to this. Actually, a lot of PADI instructors will blow off the required minimums, e.g. you don't need to swim the 200 yards.

 

Hi,

 

Should come around where I live. My instructor, who's also a regional course director for PADI, does an "above and beyond" training course as well. Some things he did that weren't mentioned were:

 

In OW used to toss our tanks in the pool if we left them standing up and we turned away to get our BCD. Said, if we were on a boat the tank would be in the ocean if we didn't keep it secure.

 

Required we practice backward entries with our fins crossed. Said he'd seen too many divers smacked in the face while someone flopped into the water on a boat with their fins hanging out.

 

Tested us on dive boat edequte, getting geared up, paying attention to the briefing, breaking down immedately after a dive.....

 

Did all our pool work in full 7mm farmer johns, gloves and hoods. Said if we could do all the training excercises in 7mm in 80 degree water then any normal dive would be a cinch (he was right, I feel sorry for those Florida divers that come to the NE to dive with us and have never had on a full 7mm set up, where I can dive in Florida in a swim suit with ease :) ).

 

In Rescue had us do "fast donning" exercises, full 7mm wetsuit, gloves, boots, hood, mask, tank, weights, BCD and tank, etc. ready to go from car to beach in under 6 minutes on 75 degree day (try it sometime, it was like boot camp getting past this test and I had to do it four times before passing). Reasoning, a few times he's gotten to a dive site where a diver needs rescuing figuring the normal person will have difficulty recovering after 7 minutes without air so you have to be ready to go and get the job done. BTW, if you remember a few years ago the "Ethan Allen" tour boat on Lake George NY flipped over with a bunch of elderly people. He was giving a training class just down the lake and was credited with being first on the scene and rescuing those people who survived (and unfortunately recovering those that didn't). Coordinated his 4 dive masters who were helping with the training and working with the NY fire department and police who came a short time later in transporting the injured. So I guess there's something about his "being prepared" training.

 

In Rescue, he intentionally distracted me going over what we were going to train on that day while other divers were entering the water only to ask a few minutes later what happened to the divers he sent to tie off the dive flag in the training area? Oh sh%&, talk about never loosing your awareness of how many, and where the, divers are again! Said we were going to practice search patterns the next day, but to my surprise, I had to jump in and do it right then (plus he had the diver hide in an underwater cave entrance pretending he had an injured leg).

 

He always said, there's what you need to get your certification, and then there's what you need to be a good diver, he prefers the second. :D

 

Randall

 

P.S. Just like those really hard teachers in school you appreciate now, I really appreciate him being hard on us during training. I get compilments on my dive skills and always attribute them back to my instructor.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

What was your instructor's name? It wasn't Rob was it? I might know him.

 

Jack.

 

It sounds like you received very through training. You should be good to dive anywhere in British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest.

 

Excellent! I might just do that. We're about 12 hours drive from Vancouver, and the shop runs specials there.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

HEY! Those are Waterproof gloves. Did you use Waterproof equipment?

 

Oh hell no. These were old ripped gloves that he brought over in a bag, tossed em on the floor and said "find a pair, they don't have to be pretty or match." One glove I had fit OK, the other was way too tight for my large meathooks. The smarter people took the REALLY ratty gloves where your fingers stuck out the holes, but I figured that was cheating so I took semi decent ones. ;)

 

 

Did you know salt water is not that bad on the eyes while you are in it. Once you clear your mask is when your eyes start to burn. :)

 

I was actually wearing contacts and was surprised the chlorine didn't get under them and irritate my eyes during the challenge. They actually held up all weekend (with daily cleanings) and worked fabulous.

 

I can see how this would be good for low viz conditions. Great instructor. He definitely has you well prepared for diving in Canada.

 

Yes. In the end I'm very glad we took the course both for being better prepared, and actually learning a lot of interesting subject matter. The people we took the course with were all about our age and were fun to be around too, so it was something of a social thing as well. The wives traded Facebook addresses after. :D

 

If anybody is reading this in the future and debating whether they should take a dive course before going on vacation, the answer is definitely "yes". The stuff I talk about sounds hard here, but don't let it scare you off. Everything was built up to gradually and at no time did I feel like I was doing something outside my abilities. This is the hallmark of good training.

[scubadiver888]

Hi,

 

Should come around where I live. My instructor, who's also a regional course director for PADI, does an "above and beyond" training course as well.

 

Sounds like the kind of instructor I like. The first instructor I had and like was PADI *and* other agencies. The current instructor I have is PADI and SSI. It seems that my experience has been instructors here will be PADI because most people look for a PADI shop (PADI does the most advertising) but they like to teach SSI, ACUC, SDI, etc. because it goes beyond the minimum requirements.

 

The last PADI only instructor I met was proud about getting certified with minimum requirements. Was actually bragging about going out and doing 20' for 20 minute dives, over and over again just so he'd have the required number of dives to become a DM then instructor.

 

It is nice to hear not all PADI instructors are this way.

[scubadiver888]

If anybody is reading this in the future and debating whether they should take a dive course before going on vacation, the answer is definitely "yes". The stuff I talk about sounds hard here, but don't let it scare you off. Everything was built up to gradually and at no time did I feel like I was doing something outside my abilities. This is the hallmark of good training.

 

I can confirm this. I was trained in Jamaica but my instructor insisted I learn enough to be capable of diving anywhere. When I started my AOW class there were two people who were trained in Hawaii. The first day was a write off for them. They actually got zero dives done; i.e. they couldn't handle 20' for 20 minutes. They REALLY needed to take the OW training again because they just were not prepared to dive in Canada. For the second day, we went boat diving and the two people trained in Hawaii stayed behind and continued the first day training. I heard they didn't do much better on the second day.

 

When I go to the Caribbean I am CONSTANTLY talking to people about all the things I see and most people are too busy dealing with buoyancy. They totally miss all the marine life. I end up talking about things with the guys who have been diving for years and have a hundred dives under their belt.

 

Additionally, getting trained at home means you are a better diver in the Caribbean. Being a better diver usually means the local dive operators are willing to take you to the more pristine dive sites.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Well, we're signed up to do our OW certifications in about three weeks at beautiful Lac Beauvert, near Jasper Alberta.

 

 

Glacier lake, river rock bottom and absolutely clear water. Should be a blast, if a bit cold. We will be going to get fitted for wetsuits at the dive shop probably this weekend.

[scubaran]

Well, we're signed up to do our OW certifications in about three weeks at beautiful Lac Beauvert, near Jasper Alberta.

 

Glacier lake, river rock bottom and absolutely clear water. Should be a blast, if a bit cold. We will be going to get fitted for wetsuits at the dive shop probably this weekend.

 

Ahhhhh... the wonderful thermoclines, don't know what these are? You WILL. :) I dive in Lake George, NY. Very similar conditions. Last week the surface was in the mid-70s (20's c) and at 25 ft below the thermocline, upper-40s (10's c) :eek: . Refreshing, especially in a 7mm one piece with 3mm gloves and hood. :p

 

Enjoy!

Randall

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Ahhhhh... the wonderful thermoclines, don't know what these are? You WILL. :) I dive in Lake George, NY. Very similar conditions. Last week the surface was in the mid-70s (20's c) and at 25 ft below the thermocline, upper-40s (10's c) :eek: . Refreshing, especially in a 7mm one piece with 3mm gloves and hood. :p

 

Our instructor went over thermoclines, so I _do_ know what they are! (I told you he was thorough) ;) But I expect the first hand experience to be "electric". :D

 

These lakes are full of "rock flour", which is powder made when the glacier creeps across the landscape, grinding rocks against each other. The lakes up in the rockies actually have that blue/green look that the water in the Caribbean does from this sediment.

 

[scubadiver888]

Well, we're signed up to do our OW certifications in about three weeks at beautiful Lac Beauvert, near Jasper Alberta.

 

 

Glacier lake, river rock bottom and absolutely clear water. Should be a blast, if a bit cold. We will be going to get fitted for wetsuits at the dive shop probably this weekend.

 

Hope you had fun. My dive club likes to dive in Kingston, ON (Lake Ontario). I recently found out if we went 1 hour east to the St. Lawrence there is no thermocline. Oh well, as Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger."

 

I was in Calgary last weekend. Took a drive out to Lake Louise on Saturday. The water was very murky looking. A sort of cloudy, milky looking water. I guess this is the sediment from the glaciers you talked about. Took my shoes off and waded around in it for a bit (its a thing I do; always have to get a little wet on a new body of water). WHOA was it cold. After a few seconds though my feet went numb and it didn't hurt quite as much. :D

[scubaran]

Hope you had fun. My dive club likes to dive in Kingston, ON (Lake Ontario). I recently found out if we went 1 hour east to the St. Lawrence there is no thermocline. Oh well, as Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.":D

 

I dive on the St. Lawrence quite a bit. If you go a bit further east to Prescott, ON there's the Rotheasy and the Conastoga wrecks. Both are accessable from shore and both are great dives (no thermoclines :D ). I actually have been to Kingston (come over via the ferry from the U.S.) a few times, didn't know there was diving there....

 

Randall

[scubadiver888]

I dive on the St. Lawrence quite a bit. If you go a bit further east to Prescott, ON there's the Rotheasy and the Conastoga wrecks. Both are accessable from shore and both are great dives (no thermoclines :D ). I actually have been to Kingston (come over via the ferry from the U.S.) a few times, didn't know there was diving there....

 

Randall

 

Oh yeah, there are something like 200+ wrecks in the area. The problem is, the same conditions which cause wrecks can make for an unpleasant dive. :)

 

I found a Google Earth map of dive sites and it shows a LOT of dive sites around Kingston. If you don't have it, get Google Earth software from http://earth.google.com/. Once you install it you can get KMZ files which map out different sites. The Ontario Underwater Council maintains a Google Earth map of dive sites. You can download the KMZ file from http://www.underwatercouncil.com/?action=cms&cmspage=dive-ontario. Just click on the link which says "OUC Shipwreck Directory".

 

It is a REALLY cool program.

[scubaran]

Oh yeah, there are something like 200+ wrecks in the area. The problem is, the same conditions which cause wrecks can make for an unpleasant dive. :)

 

I found a Google Earth map of dive sites and it shows a LOT of dive sites around Kingston. If you don't have it, get Google Earth software from http://earth.google.com/. Once you install it you can get KMZ files which map out different sites. The Ontario Underwater Council maintains a Google Earth map of dive sites. You can download the KMZ file from http://www.underwatercouncil.com/?action=cms&cmspage=dive-ontario. Just click on the link which says "OUC Shipwreck Directory".

 

It is a REALLY cool program.

 

Cool, thanks. I see some of my favorites, like the Keystorm are plotted out. Thanks again,

 

Randall