This is funny just because everyone is looking down. Funny but a good idea too.

Welcome home Kev

Welcome home Kev!... And after the family the first thing he does is dive.

Gaetan's 100th this year

How many have 100 dives this year or wish they had? Gaetan had plenty of company for the event. It looked like fun and I wish I had joined them. Here's a picture of the happy guy after the dive and another of his crew emerging from the water.

Diving the Islander

Great trip today to Alexandria Bay to dive the wreck of the Islander. The water clarity was exceptional and it's still not too chilly at about 50℉ (10℃). As always on this site, there were lots of Crayfish, including this monster. There has been some damage done to the dinner table set-up, but we restored one piece to create the ensemble shown.

Pumpkin DIvers' pictures on Flickr..

Tom Rutledge has been good enough to post some of the great shots he took this morning at the Marine Museum's Pumpkin Dive on his Flickr site. Click here to see them.

The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes is hosting a Pumpkin Carving event this coming Saturday, October 22nd. Teams need to pre-register and full details can be found in the flyer here.

The Love Affair Continues...

Staying faithful and true to my only other love, continual diving education, this past Saturday was the culmination point of another series of courses I have undertaken lately. While on pre-deployment training and under a form of distance-learning, I dove into the world of technical diving. I had been diving doubles, stages, and other forms of technical-oriented activities for quite some time, but had never taken any formal training associated with the rigors of planned and structured technical diving.

Decompression Procedures, Advanced Nitrox, and Solo Diver, prepare divers to plan and execute complex decompression dives in up to 150 feet with a ''virtual'' overhead environment. A large portion of the course was to learn problem-solving skills in order to safely return to the surface if things go wrong underwater. Mastery of such skills as mask replacement at depth, managing back gas and stage bottle freeflows, left or right-post failures, BCD and drysuit inflator failures, gas planning and management, decompression schedule planning, and inflating surface markers were only a portion of what you learn....the list of skills goes on and on...

Throughout the course, my instructor took pleasure in throwing multiple problems at me during our training dives, enabling me to learn to prioritize problems, solve them underwater while keeping a decompression schedule on track. The picture above is a photo of my graduation dive on the Munson this past Saturday. In all, it took me a total of 9 training dives to complete all 3 courses.

Many thanks go out to Anne and Harold from Kingston Dive Charters, members from the club for their support in coming along for the dive, and my instructor Dan Downes for putting me through some of the toughest diving I had yet to encounter. His mantra throughout the course was: ''Technical diving is not a destination, but a journey...'' Are YOU up to the challenge ?

Happy 100th Eric..!

Eric celebrated Canada Day yesterday and his 100th dive today. Great way to keep the weekend alive. His occasion was celebrated by the Club members pictured - and by Todd and Gaétan, who, although unable to dive, turned out to mark the occasion. The whole party spent more than 45 minutes in and around the Marine Museum Barge and the nearby logs.

Dive the Comet

Well this marks the start of a new dive season. I had the opportunity to dive the Comet this morning. A friend of mine came up from Burlington to dive this weekend. Through the efforts of Steve Black, providing the fine transportation to the dive site. David Megarry, Gaetan our club treasurer , and yours truly provided the diving. The rumor was out, that the vis was good. Well, we 3 divers found it to be outstanding. We started our descent and at 25 ft the Comet was in sight. Resting at 85 ft, it was a truly sight that had not been seen since last summer, but in the best vis ever. With a bottom time of 36 minutes and a number of trips around looking at her, it was time to head back to the surface. It was observed back on board, that the 3 of us divers enjoyed this dive. The chatter went on for about 30 min, as we got out of our gear and got the equipment stored. An absolutely fantastic dive and the weather couldn't have been better. The dive charters will be in full swing in the next few weeks. The weekly club Wednesday evening dives will be starting on the 11th of May. After todays dive, I know, I am looking towards a very exciting season of diving. See you out in the open water...

Not Just Another Saturday Night Pool Night

The Night we all were anticipating has come and gone and fun was had by all. Six divers in total were able to experience the origins of diving. As seen to the right, a diver experiences diving a 3 bolt Russian commercial suit. Other highlights were a Submerge UV 26 Diver Propulsion Vehicle, Doubles set ups, Halcyon back plates and wings, Poseidon Wings, Regulators, Dive Computers, Under water communications, to a large selection of new style BCD's, fins, masks, and under water Cameras . A big thanks goes out to Dive Tech Training Center, Northern Tech Diver, Rockport Dive Shop, and Sunset Diving. Without these four shops, the night would not have been the great success that it was. A thanks goes out to the our executive for making the necessary arrangements the night of, and to the planning of this fun event.

The 2011 Dive year is looking to be a good. The club has been very busy for the past few months, with the two Ice Diving Courses this year. The Dive Gear Showcase / Expo just about wraps up the winter dive season. With a few more pool sessions, ending with our Annual Scuba Olympics. See you in water...

Can you say Ice Course Serial 2!!!!!

Well, I think a little bit of history was made here this weekend... I believe this is a first, for the Dolphin Scuba Club. We have successfully completed a second Ice Diving Course for this winter... A Big Congratulations goes out to Ben, Sadie, and Zach. After the first course last weekend, there was enough interest to run a second course. A big thanks goes out to Dave for making this happen. As well another thanks goes out to Chris at Explorer Diving, for opening the gates to the quarry for a second weekend, and to the surface support who in turn enjoyed getting in another dive. In a few weeks the ice should be off the lake, and the club will be back diving in the open water. Wishing for the great vis that we have grown accustomed to, only offered by ice diving. Again, congratulations to all our Ice Divers who have qualified from the two courses ran this year. Well done!!!

Ice Divers Make the Grade...

The very varied topside conditions over the weekend didn't create any significant challenges to successfully completing our annual ice diving course. The four divers pictured; Todd, Dan, Steve and Andrew all did well and gained a new appreciation for the discipline of diving under ice.

Well done to all of them, and many thanks to everyone who turned out to assist. At the risk of offending anyone else, I will single out Jim as the key supporting player over the weekend. He helped in every way possible. Many thanks too to Explorer Diving, caretakers of the dive site. They generously made the quarry available at no cost and Chris also assisted for much of the weekend.

There's a strong possibility, if everything comes together, that another course will be run next weekend. That's concrete evidence of the excitement being built, and maintained, in our Club. The dive season ahead promises to be a great one...

A Taste of True Ice Diving

Well it's that time of year for those who didn't travel south, take up Ice Diving. You can only dive Upper Brewers Mills so many times before you succumb to Lake Ontario's beckoning. This past weekend, a few of us had to venture into old territory well new in some aspects, as the photos will prove. (courtesy of Mike)

The weekend started with a dive Saturday morning at the Marine Museum. Once we had a hole made, we geared up and went under the Ice. We were all pleasantly surprised at just how great the Vis really was.

I would have to say we were looking at 100 ft of Vis. We used a cave line anchored at the hole and went on our dive.

Sunday's dive turned out to be a repeat of the Saturdays dive. With the exception of Mike bringing out his camera and expertise. He has proven once again that a tripod is worth its weight in gold. Proving a small aperture with a slow shutter speed gives you the best shot, but a tripod is a must.

The only exception was, Sunday seemed to be a little cooler than the previous day. The water temperature in the lake was definitely the coldest dive to date that I have ever dove. A cool 32 f. that's right, FREEZING cold. A point to consider here. An environmentally sealed and balanced 1st stage regulator is a very wise choice. All in all, the weekend of ice diving was an enjoyable weekend. The Marine Museum never looked so good.

Ice Diving!! Oh Yeah!!!!

Well, I say if you can't get into the water, via shore entry or by boat charter, because it's winter and someone??? (Mother Nature) likes to play a joke and ice over the lakes on you. Well then "GO THROUGH THE ICE"..... That is what a few of us did yesterday. In preparation for the up coming course a few of us decided to check out the ice and while we were at it see what the vis was. To every ones surprise we had close to 80 ft if vis. Better that what any of us were thinking due to the lime normally found in the water.

After a 32 minute bottom time, we turned the dive and headed back to the hole that would bring us to the surface. Water temperature at bottom was 39 f. Warmer, considering our last dive on in the lake, prior to the ice forming was 33 f. Nice to dive again in warmer waters, lol.... We were greeted under water by large schools of Gold Fish. A rare species of fish we seldom encounter in waters around here, being so far north of the equator...

We must extend a thank you to all, for your efforts in support of our endeavour. To Chris for opening up the Quarry for us, and allowing us to run our ice course here in two weeks. As well a big thanks for the great assistance from Dave our on scene manager, Gaetan and Steve for the above ice photography, and Ken who assisted with everything else. I believe all had a great time, above, as well, as us fortunate below the ice....

Mike's First Doubles Dive

As the winter has set in, Mike Hill and I had to go for a dive. With the Lake Ice formed and not many places to find open water he headed for Upper Brewers Mills, on the Rideau River. Today would prove to be a day of firsts. Mike's debut in diving with a set of doubles, and my first time at Upper Brewers Mills. The water was a cool refreshing 36F with a vis of 15 to 20 ft. with a mild to medium current, what more could two divers ask for. Mike proved that diving doubles is the way to go, judging by the smiles after the dive no difficulties were found. We went around the bowl 3 times observing crayfish and fingerling Walleye's. Ending the dive with a bottom time of 31 min and two divers happy to get in the water once again...

Americans enact Shark Conservation Law..

There was a lot of criticism of the lame duck Congress leading up to the turn of the year. It turned out though that quite a lot was actually achieved. One very important piece of legislation didn't make the headlines. President Obama signed a Shark Conservation Act into law on January 4th. Details in the link you can reach by clicking here.

Diving Adventurers..

Conditions in the Lake are really pretty good at the moment. Despite near frigid water temperatures, the visibility is fantastic, and entry and exit are straightforward. Todd and Dan enjoyed amazing sightings of Gizzard Shad yesterday and today. You can see a video of the large shoal of fish here on You Tube...

Shad-tastic..!

It's not entirely clear just what species we encountered in the waters near the Marine Museum yesterday and today, but what's quite certain is that we enjoyed an experience that is rare in local water. This link will take you to video that shows just what we were privileged to enjoy. So numerous were the fish, and so intent on shoaling, that they actually collided with the divers. If you listen carefully, on a couple of occasions you can hear a fish bump into the camera housing.

Happy New Year everyone!