Chanb77's Weblog

Sunday, May 31st, 2009 ~

It had been last August since I had last been in the water with my friend, Andy, and he was game for a dive in Kingston! Andy made the trip up from the US side, to meet me at Dive Tech, where we harassed the local Candy Man for a while, then headed to Kingston, to meet up with the folks at Northern Tech Diver.

The charters weren’t going out that afternoon, as the weather had turned quite a bit, and the lake was too choppy for the boats. A bunch of us decided to head up to the Brule Road Quarry for some skills and thrills. Dan had a fundies course going on there as well, so we made sure to stay out of his way. Most of the gang taking the course were friends of mine, and it was nice to say hello.

Two “Dive Gear Transportation Units…”

Andy, geared up…

We headed over to the wonderful beach entrance, did our predive checks, and dropped down.

The quarry has a maximum depth of about 28′, and has a couple of small boats in it, a car, some shopping carts, and many beer bottles, from the campers.

When we descended, we made our way over the rocks, and as we made our way out, we steered clear of the lift bag, being used to mark the square pattern, being used by the Fundies course.

We did a nice, leisurely tour of the quarry, stopping to put beer bottles in the shopping cart (picking them up off of the ground, and adding them to the others), took a tour of the boats, and even checked out the car.

I decided this would be a good time to demonstrate the valve drill, so signaled Andy to watch. We had discussed this on the surface, so it was not a surprise. Andy also demonstrated that he could reach his valves and will be practicing the valve drill as well.

We did see a fish or two… We weren’t sure if it was the same fish or not, but if it was in a different place, perhaps we can count it as two?

We did the entire circuit of the quarry, then made our way back in, and discussed the dive on the surface, before getting out.

Bottom Time ~ 44 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 28′
Water Temp. ~ 63
Visibility ~ 25′

Gearing down, Andy noticed that I had GI Joes in the van, and that, of course, triggered some silliness..

We headed back to NTD, and loitered a bit, while the fundies class finished their exam. We got a shot of Mike, with his fancy dive bag…

…and a hood…

Boats from Kingston Dive Charters, with James’ little boat…

Vicky Marie…

The class finally finished, and I got a pic of them smiling…

I even snagged a picture of Marc, who was up visiting, giving Dan a hand…

Myself, Andy, Dan, and Marc went out for a bite to eat, shared some great conversation and a bunch of laughs, then all went our separate ways back home.

Andy, it was great going for a splash with you, and I look forward to corrupting you… I mean.. diving with you some more!