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...