Friday, December 25, 2009

Twas the day before Christmas!

Twas the day before christmas, and the lake was still water, and now I forget the rest of the words, so I went diving instead!
Among my many trips to see family and friends, I make time with my old club (4D diving and adventures) to do the traditional Xmas Eve dive down on Centennial beach in downtown Barrie. This shallow shore dive is home to the Morrison, a large paddlewheel that set on fire long time ago and sank in 25 feet of water. On a typical day its a 30 min dive to the wreck and back. Its mostly broken up due to the ice damage its taken over the years, but due to the shallow location there are often lots of bass and perch around her. Those looking for a decent dive in Barrie area, this is the best you're going to find.
This years festivities were met with 0℃ topside and a light wet breeze from the south. Despite the cloudy condtions it was pretty much the best you can get for December. Considering last year's was canceled due to the lake being completely frozen I will take this for a win. Water temp at depth was hovering around 0℃ as well, which was why so many of our intrepid divers had gear failures. Out of 10 or so divers only 3 really got a dive in. Ironically I wasnt one of those guys with gear failures, go figure...Unfortunately my partner had issues so we had to scrub the dive early as well. Still 15 feet for 10 min = a dive, and I figured out its time to ask for a new dry suit hood from Santa. The holes on the side made for a chilly dive.
Things to note on days like to day: never breath into your regs before you go in the water, you risk free flowing, folks often dress warmer then normal and dont compensate weights for the extra bouency, and if your not carefull even your power inflator can freeze up.
Pics or it never happened:
Some crazy picnic bench I've never seen at the site before:
Yes Virginia, that really is alot of ice on the shore.

As allways have fun safe, diving, and don't forget: dive with a knife!
Happy Holidays folks cya in the new year!
Matt

1 comment:

Saturnain said...

HI Matt,
Nice pictures, good to see guys diving in freezing 0 degre.
Have a nice day
Gaetan