The first dive of the year! We usually get in for a splash on January 1st, but were a bit lazy this time around, so the 8th, it would be!
After a group breakfast at Tim Horton’s, we made our way up to the Quarry. We were not sure what to expect, as far as ice coverage, as our last quarry dive had been in open water. We have had some serious arctic temperatures, recently, so figured there would be some ice.
Arriving, we saw that the beach area was ice covered, but the larger area was still wide open. Sweet!
We were in two groups of three: Eric, Steve, and myself, and Team Cave 1 (who had recently done C1, in Mx.).
Team Cave 1: Cory, Raluca, James! James had only been back from the warmth, for two days!
Eric, getting gear ready…
Steve, Eric, and I got in, did gear checks, and away we went. We headed down to the sub, played around a little, then came back up. I was feeling a little light, with my new undies, but they were extremely warm. I had quite a bit of weight on me, so chalked it up to having a bit of gas in my suit. We carried on for a little while, then headed in. We were getting chilly!
Bottom Time: 27 mins.
Max. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 39F
Visibility: Not horrible, but still a bit milky
Raluca, doing a dance…
We had a fun day of diving, and the quarry will more than likely be frozen over, on our next dive. We headed to The Works for some post dive burgers and banter! Until next time!
This year has been another wonderful adventure, and we were blessed with some really amazing new and existing friendships.
We usually do a New Year’s Day dive, which we did, but it ended up being on the 2nd, instead of the 1st. There was not much snow on the ground, and the quarry was still open!
It did not take long for the quarry to freeze, and Ice Diving Goodness Season was upon us. I was very fortunate, to be able to test the DUI Heated Undergarment, too!
Then there was the release of the movie, Sanctum. A group of us went to see it, on its second night of showing, and decided to do a parody of it, the following day. We had quite a bit of fun, filming Sanked ‘Em. There were so many tears of laughter had, and thoughts of a sequel. Thanks to Chris Phinney, for his handy dandy camera work, and editing while being a passenger, on the way back home!
Then… Jacob came to visit, and try this ice diving thing! He was just in time, as this was the last weekend of an ice-covered quarry!
We were even able to take him down to the river, for some Scootering Goodness!
John Bailey got a bad ass tattoo!
We also hosted a GUE Meet ‘N’ Greet, which brought some new faces, and shared some information about GUE.
Andy and I, at the quarry!
Fred and Angelica came to town, too. It was really great to be able to share some of our dive sites with Fred, and to spend some time with both of them!
Raphael, Denis, Mick, and Mark came up for a visit too, and we went out for some St. Lawrence River diving!
We spent some more time doing some exploring, in the St. Lawrence River. We did some nice three hour dives, with our scooters.
Becky and I had threatened on many occasions to go diving together, and did not seem to be able to coordinate. Then the stars aligned, and Becky came up to dive with us! We had a blast!
I could have sworn that I saw David on one of the dives…
Becky took some shots of us, too (Below pics by Becky Kagan Schott)…
We then had the 2011 Brockville Canadian Invasion. This was the biggest group to date (50 people), and everyone was just absolutely wonderful. Thanks to all for being so wonderful!
I was also very fortunate to get one of the first Light Monkey wings, in which I started diving at the Invasion. This is a really nice wing, in which I have tried a few different tank combinations with.
*Thumbs up!* Thank you, Light Monkey!
Forest Rothchild did a write-up of his thoughts on the Invasion. Thank you, Forest!
Then came the Kingston Invasion, which was smaller this year, but still much fun!
After the Invasions, we were finally able to meet Heleen and Sander, who came to visit us from Holland. They had been to Alberta for a week, before seeing us, then we took them out for some dives, and to see the infamous plane! We had been looking forward to meeting them for a few years, and the time finally came! w00t!!!
Here are Heleen’s videos, from the Quarry, Kinghorn and the Back Mine!
I then took a trip to Seattle, while Steve left for his RB80 training, where I met some of the coolest kids on the block, and the “AGGAST” sisters were born! Leg Number One of the AGGAST (All Girls GUE All Star Team) sisters world adventures. This was the first time I had been in salt water, since before I had any GUE training. That is, apart from below the halocline… 😛 What an amazing place to dive, and a really fantastic GUE community. I can see why people love diving here! There are octos and wolf eels, and so much life! Anyone hiring in Seattle?
We even witnessed an octopus riding a wolf eel!
Laurynn’s video of the underwater rodeo!
My videos of Keystone Jetty (GUE day) and the Day Island Wall…
When Steve got back from his RB80 training, he hit the water with Blake and Steve S.
I ventured out with some other friends, too.
At the end of October, a group of us headed down to Mexico, for two weeks of Cave Diving Goodness. A few were taking Cave 1, a few taking Cave 2, and a few of us just going diving! We did some absolutely amazing dives, and each day, the dives seemed to be even more amazing, topping it off with a dive at Ox Bel Ha, on our last day.
One of our favourites was going to the Boa Restriction, in Grand Cenote/Sac Actun. Gorgeous cave and a lot of fun! Another highlight was Tux Ka Paxa, where we saw Mastadon bones. Just an absolutely incredible trip! That is, when we finally got there, and finally got our rental car. 😉 We even saw a Puma cross a jungle road, but still no “Tadantulas.” Well.. at least Steve and I didn’t see one. It seems everyone else did!
Me, in Dos Ojos…
Back to Canada, we went, where the water was significantly chillier than in the Mexico cavezzz… We still managed over an hour on the triggers!
Throughout the year, we made a couple more attempts at finding that darn truck, including the beginning of December.
We still haven’t found that thing, which brings us to the end of four years of looking for it. I think the other people that have seen it are photoshopping it into their pictures. Either that, or they move it, every time we go looking for it! 😀 Maybe next year! At least I got my new Santi undergarments in time for winter diving!
That brings us full circle, preparing for our season of winter ice diving. We recently went out to the quarry, to put in some “permanent lines,” for easier ice diving reference!
In between all of these adventures were also Fundamentals classes, in which Steve was teaching, and I was helping. Allan came up to intern, too!
I also had two photos chosen by National Geographic, in their Daily Dozen. At least one of them was supposed to have made it into the magazine, but I have no idea which issue. Two of them were made into Nat Geo wallpaper downloads. Thank you, Nat Geo! w00t!
A Year In Video…
If Steve and I have half of the adventures in 2012, that we had in 2011, we will be very lucky! *Cheers* to happy and safe Diving Goodness in 2012! Let the planning begin!!
Today, we had decided that we would run a few permanent lines in the Quarry, in preparation for Ice Diving Season.
Of course, Eric was modeling some fashionable glasses, from St-Laurent…
Dominic joined us, too…
We got our gear together, and although it was a little bit cloudy, the air temperatures were not too bad.
The quarry..
We had an old reel with some fancy Orange line on it, so we decided to use that for the “Plane Line.” Steve had the line, then Eric, Dominic, and myself, with the camera.
Swimming out…
Eric ties a line arrow into the main Plane Line…
Steve ran the line from ahead of the “Deco Rock,” past the plane, boat, and around to the “Deco Habitat.” (Sanked ‘Em reference). 😀
As we went by the plane, we saw a live fish!
Steve tied off the end of the line, and we made our way back in.
Bottom Time: 29 mins.
Max. Depth: 64′
Water Temp.: 46F
Visibility: Not horrible, but usually better, this time of year. Still “floaties” in the water.
Steve, using his RB80…
Dominic, with a duck-under…
Eric, ditching his stage…
We got out, doffed our gear on the tables, and replaced the line on the reel. We had some fancy green line for the line down to the sub. Even Evelyn gave us a hand with unknotting the line.
We got back in, and Eric took a turn at running the line, as we headed down to the sub. After tying off the line, we hovered for a little bit, then made our way back up.
Heading down…
Heading back up…
Dominic, chillin’…
Eric and Steve, practicing OOG drills…
Bottom Time: 38 mins.
Max. Depth: 59′
Water Temp.: 46F
We finished up, got out, packed up, and headed to The Works for some after-dive nosh. We will still have to run a thrid line to the shark.. another day.
A good day of Diving Goodness, and meeting new friends!
So.. we decided to have another look for that darn truck… The one that people must be photoshopping into pics, as we still can’t find that stoOpid thing…lol. We have been searching for that thing on and off, for about 4 years.
Steve, Eric, Cory, Raluca, and myself went on the hunt. Although, today’s hunt would be shorter than other attempts, as the water was getting colder. We decided to go to the Gaskin first, then head south, and drift…
Gearing up…
Guess what??? Yeah.. we didn’t find it. We did have a fun dive though, and I was trying my new Santi undies, which were extremely warm. They would have been even warmer, if my suit didn’t flood, I’m sure. I was pretty much soaked, from head to toe, and it seems that I did not have enough weight with my new undies. At the end of the dive, I was extremely floaty. I guess a couple of extra pounds are needed with these babies!
Bottom Time: 1 hour, 3 mins.
Max. Depth: 101′
Water Temp.: 44F
Visibility: Not great, at all
Steve and Eric, with a hand action shot!
I guess I moved a bit too quickly on this one, and caused a bit of blur.. Doh…Cory and Raluca were tough, seeing as they only just got back from the warm cavez of Mexico. Congrats on your course, guys!
I was even a bit blurred with my self portrait.. sheesh…
At least I got a decent shot of the entry, as the sun was going down, behind the clouds…
Today’s dinner = Santa Fe!
It seems I will be reporting from the quarry, for our next dives! St. Lawrence, we’ll see you in the spring!
Steve and I headed down to the St. Lawrence River, to meet Blake and Eric. We know there aren’t going to be many St. Lawrence dives left in the season, so we want to make the most of our time, before the deep freeze. We met at Teapot Island Bay (it has many names; this just happens to be what I’ve known it as), and planned on scootering over to the Rockport Wall, drifting for a while, then scootering over to the wreck of the Kinghorn, then in at Rockport. We placed cars at each location, to make life easier.
Entry…
We took our gear into the water, changed, then went to drop a vehicle off in Rockport. As we got into the water, there was so much mud, that it made putting fins on a bit of a challenge. We very slowly made our way into slightly deeper water to do our predive briefings and gear checks. The mud was so bad, that we had to go right up into each others’ face to verify our stage bottles and do bubble checks.
We surface scootered over to the bowl to avoid mud, weeds, and bad vis. Once we got there, we went four across, until we got to the wall. We made our way down to 100′, where it was quite a bit darker, and enjoyed both scootering and drifting across the wall. We saw a few big fish, and directed ourselves toward where we thought the line to the Kinghorn would be. Voila… we found it, and continued on to the wreck. We played around a little, and once inside, Eric asked me if I was cold (since I usually get cold). I signaled that I was good to go! Then.. I guess I had it in my head, and I began to feel chilled.. Bahh! *Signal*… er.. Eric? I think I might be a little chilly, now…
So.. we turned and headed for shore in Rockport, with Steve and Blake coming along shortly after. Eric and I did notice that we had to dial back a bit on our scooters, as Steve and Blake’s RB80s did seem to cause a bit more drag in the water. Interesting note!
We definitely had a really fun dive! I did get some video, but it was quite dark…
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