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!!
Time to dive! We loaded up and headed down to Centeen for.. yes.. some Diving and Scootering Goodness! Shocking, I know. Mike and Michel met us there, and were coming out as well.
What a stinkin’ HOT and humid day. It made gearing up a little tough, but since it is not snow and ice, I do not want to complain too much. The park was very busy with swimmers today too, so we were careful to stay out of everyone’s way, as we brought our gear down to the water.
Getting our gear ready…
We got in the water, and debriefed. Our plan was to travel upstream for 60 minutes, then drop into the channel, and do some exploring in spots that we have not been to before. As we moved along, we could hear a freighter approaching, which is quite typical for this area. We were in 24′ as one passed over, and even though this is an event we are used to, this one sounded like the earth was about to implode. It was not even directly above us, as we were a bit shallow for freighter passing. That was some serious metal going by!
As we dropped into the channel, we came upon a cliff wall that was extremely cool. We had not seen this before, so we already knew that we were in new territory. There were so many very interesting formations, and pieces of wreckage. There were another two freighters that passed over, but not nearly as ground-shaking as the first one.
Once we got into the channel, we got into some serious Rock ‘n’ Roll current, and the visibility improved. We stayed pretty close together though, and even played around in the current. I pointed my scooter against the current, and was still being pushed backwards. What a ride!
We stayed in the channel for about an hour, as planned, then made our way up. Of course, we did make it to the Gaskin on the way back, did a quck tour, then headed in.
On deco, I found a quarter (lucky me), which I lost somewhere on the way back to the van (not so lucky me)!
Bottom Time ~ 2 Hours, 57 Minutes
Max. Depth ~ 108′
Water Temp. ~ 71F
Vis. ~ Stinky in the shallows, but quite nice in the channel
Chart of our path (thanks to Steve)…
Steve’s and my gear, after the dive…
Mike, Michel, and Steve…
Me, sporting some fancy sunglasses that I found at about 95′ (Yes, the ones on top of my hat)…
Long weekend! Oren decided to come up to see us, and picked up my suit along the way. Woo Hoo! I was really looking forward to getting back in the water. Four weeks seems like an eternity.
When he arrived, I was both exited and hesitant to put it on. You know, the whole.. “Will the measurements be right…” feeling? I was happy to see that DUI had installed the P Valve for me, even though I had said that they didn’t have to. It was ready for the next day’s dive. We did a little trimming of the seals, I put my undies on, and put it on.
I was very pleased that even with the new measurements, that the bottom fit so much nicer than my other DUI. The top had quite a bit of extra room, but I would prefer it on the top than on the bottom.
w00t! Ready for the water! Thanks so much, Faith!!! You’re da bomb!
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 ~
We decided to go to Cornwall, to make a run for the Power House. Neither Oren or I had been there, so Steve was going to lead the way.
It rained a bit on the way down…
As Steve was getting out his white board, we had a little visitor. My guess is that she wondered if we had anything to give her…
We discussed our plan of attack, and the contours of where we were going…
We geared up and put the scooters in.
There were only a couple of boats out today, which was good for us. It can be a bit hairy coming in and out of the docking area, as it is pretty shallow. The boaters and the divers do get along here, and we are always courteous of each other.
We got in, scootered on the surface, until we were out of the small bay, then dropped down. Our plan was to head south, then a bit east, then south again, once we found a wall.
Well, we did find a wall. We also found the Paper Factory Basement, which was farther north. We decided to take a bearing across, to where we thought the Power House would be. The visibility was pretty horrible, and the currents were pretty strong, so we stayed tight as a team.
We did see some rather large fish along the way, and a turn that we made, brought us back to the Paper Factory. So.. er.. I guess that today wasn’t going to be the day for the Power House. Too bad we didn’t bring a reel. The Basement would have been an awesome Plan B.
We decided to take another bearing, and when we didn’t reach our destination by the time we did our gas switch, we headed for home.
We still had a pretty fun dive, saw some interesting things, and played with some giant fish.
Bottom Time ~ 95 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 82′
Water Temp. ~ 42
Of course, I actually wasn’t completely dry during the dive. It was no fault of my wonderful new suit, but due to a couple of plumbing problems… User error…
We had a good laugh about it afterwards…
The sun started to set, so we headed back to our place. Here’s to a dry dive tomorrow!
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 ~
We decided to head down to Centeen Park, for some more river exploration. Chris P. and Allan met us down there, and they were going to go for a swim out to the Gaskin.
As we were gearing up, some visitors pulled up in a boat.
Kelly and Dave came by for a visit!
Not long behind them were Chris Red, Jane, Mike, and Warren…
We shot the sheet for a little while, and since they had their shiny new Cudas with them, they were going to tie up the boat, and scooter out to the Gaskin.
Chris…
Steve, explaining some of the cool stuff around the channel…
I caught Allan in the background…
We got in, did our predive checks, and headed out. We showed Dave, Kelly, and Warren to the line, and they were off like Greyhounds! We did catch up at the wreck, played around a little, then made our way out into the channel. Exploring time!
We happened on to some wreckage that we had not seen before. There were remnants of a shipwreck, many bottles, and chunks of metal. This looked like it was pretty old stuff. We played around for a while, drifted, and looked at bottles. I think we all had pretty large grins on our faces. NEW STUFF!!
We drifted back a bit, looked around some more, then scootered up a bit more shallow, drifted some more… you get the idea… Another fantastic dive.
Bottom Time ~ 72 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 104′
Water Temp. ~ 53
I found it a bit odd that I was a bit chilled on this dive. When I got out, I noticed that I had not pulled my zipper all the way down. So.. I have christened my new suit in more ways than one…. Next week.. Dry.. 😀
A crew of us gathered together, for a weekend of friends and diving. We were off to the Jodrey! Steve was off doing instructor stuff, so I had to leave him behind in Kingston.
We all convened at Rockport Dive Centre, loaded the boat, and off we went. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we were happy to get out diving, and to the Jodrey, no less! We had one full boat load on Saturday.
Ralph and Ed…
Oren…
Claudia and Sean…
Mer, Jackie, Oren, and Gina…
Jen and Jay…
Jen, Claudia, and I were diving together, and it would be my first time leading a Jodrey dive. My previous dives on it were with Steve, and he is the one with the “Spidey Sense” navigational skills. We discussed our plan on the surface, geared up, and in we splashed. We let a couple of the others go in before us, as we all had different profiles and run times, so the pair with the longer run time went in first.
Claudia, Jen, and I, doing predive checks, taken by Jackie Kaley…
We did our predive checks, and in we went. The plan was to drift over the edge, stay close to the wall, and hit the wreck at 140′. We came down on the “ghost line,” and hit the wreck in exactly the right spot. Woo Hoo!! We made our way around different parts of the bow, and circled the wheelhouse a few times, peering into doors and windows. The three of us really worked well together, and had a nice, relaxing dive. Coming up on the ascent, I missed part of the crack in the wall, that leads you to a nice spot for your 70′ gas switch, and eventually to a relaxing 20′ deco stop. It wasn’t that bad though, as we found some nice rocks to tuck in behind, to avoid the absolutely screaming current. I’ve not seen the current that strong here before. Not being at the normal deco spots wasn’t that bad, as we ended up closer to the boat anyway. We relaxed on the surface before climbing up and debriefing our dive. It seems everyone had a good dive.
Me, taken by Jackie Kaley…
Of course, we had the obligatory Kool Aid shots…
Once we cleared customs, and were allowed off of the boat, we headed back to Caiger’s for some grub! Ralph had arranged for a dinner there for us, and there was a little bit of everything to try.
We even had Birthday Ice Cream Cake!
Then it was off to sleep, for the next day’s adventures.
Sunday, July 19th, 2009 ~
Another sunny day, and another trek out to the mighty Jodrey. Today, we had a couple more people, and were able to get Jeff’s second boat.
Today was just Jen and I, as Claudia was joining Ralph, Ed, and Gina for today’s dive. We dropped in, did our predive checks, discussed our plan, and away we went.
As we descended, we were slightly more shallow than the last dive, and followed the pipe down to the wreck. We were only very slightly to the left of the ghost line on the way down, but still ended up in the planned spot. We did some exploring around the bow, peeked in a couple more doors and windows, and made our way safely around the wreck. On our ascent, we managed to stay on the crack up the wall, and got to the 20′ stop with no problems. We ended up having some pretty fun conversations during deco, to which Sean and Oren both laughed about later on. We also enjoyed feeding some zebras to the gobies.
Once we had fulfilled our deco obligations, we made our way back to the boat once again. I wouldn’t have believed it, but the current was actually stronger on the way back today than yesterday. Holy smokes, it was a-rippin’! We surfaced once again, with grins on our faces, and happy that we had found the right spots. I also had about a foot of hair cut off the previous Friday, and it was amazing to surface without a rat’s nest underneath my hood!!
Jen and I, taken by Jackie Kaley…
It was an amazing couple of days, diving with friends, with much laughter, and more diving goodness!
She-P shot!
Thanks to all of our friends who made the drive out to play!!
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