JWBOpenH2ODiver
New
Hello all,
I just joined the boards yesterday. I've watched "Into the Drink" for the past year and thought I need to go checkout the website they talk about on the show. I really enjoy "Into the Drink" It's fun to see the locations they dive at. I may never get to go there but at least I get to see others enjoying the dive sites.
As the subject states, I'm from a cold weather climate so I don't get to enjoy diving year round unless I either do dry suit diving or travel to a warmer climate than the great lakes. I taken the training for dry suit diving yet or done a lot of lake diving. Since I was a kid I enjoyed snorkeling in the shallow portions of Lake Michigan when on summer vacations and always wanted to dive. Never got the opportunity to take training as a kid so now that I'm "older"
I can enjoy some of the things I always wanted to do as a kid.
I first started my training in 03/2001 when we decided to travel to Aruba for a family vacation. My son and I both took the Open Water class locally. Having my son also taking the class allowed me to have a built in buddy to train and dive with since my wife doesn't swim. (Not sure how I married a non-swimmer but that's another story. LOL) I thought I might as well get the course and pool work out of the way and then do my checkout dives where it was warm. I enjoyed the classes in the pool as well as the book work. But the most fun was diving in Aruba! We ended up doing 6 dives while on Aruba. There was a lot of dive opportunities. The only issue we ran into was the visibility wasn't great due to a storm which had passed through not long before we arrived. Even with the lower vis it was still a lot of fun.
Shortly after returning from Aruba my son and I started our Adv cert. This time we didn't have a vacation to a warm climate planned and since it was now coming up on summer time I figured how cold could the lakes be in Northern IL and southern WI. Well I found out. A 7 mil wet suit in July helps but it still gets cold in Lake Michigan when it's 95 deg out of the water but only about 45 deg in 50 ft of water. The first time you bend you neck to look down at the bottom and that cold water shoots down your back, :shocked2: that will wake you up quickly.
There are some great dive opportunities in Lake Michigan and I'm looking forward to doing more dives there but I think I may take the Dry Suit training first and pickup a dry suit just to enjoy the dive more. 
In 2008 we did the Epcot Dive Quest at Disney and really loved the dive. Disney does such a wonderful job presenting everything and makes you feel part of the crew. Matter of fact, they tell you when you sign your waver you are an honorary cast member of Disney and are expected to act as any other Disney cast member would. My son and I both did the dive at Epcot. The best part for me was swimming within 3 ft of three sharks. We followed right above them for about 30-45 sec before I started thinking in the back of my head, those sharks may get annoyed with us being so close and they could turn on us before we knew it. I knew that wouldn't be the case since we had talked to the DM at the Living Seas before our dive and was briefed on things but just in case we peeled off and headed to another area of the tank.
We really enjoyed interacting with the guests outside of the tank, both in the restaurant and the viewing areas. The rest of our family was eating in the coral reef while we were diving so we were able to go over by the windows and get pictures from outside of the tank with our family.
IMHO, Dive Quest is a great dive and one I said I would do again if I had the time and opportunity. Well three years later, I now have a friend who was just certified as an Open Water Diver and they are going to Disney with us for an upcoming vacation. I told him about Dive Quest and he jumped at the chance of doing a dive there. He asked if I would like to do it and of course I said I would love to. So now I get to do my second dive at Epcot. This time I'm sure I'll be checking out other things that I missed three years ago.
Someday I would like to get to Atlanta and do the dive at their tank but not sure when that will be.
Well so long for now from cold, snowy, & cloudy IL. Thanks for listening.
- Jeff -
I just joined the boards yesterday. I've watched "Into the Drink" for the past year and thought I need to go checkout the website they talk about on the show. I really enjoy "Into the Drink" It's fun to see the locations they dive at. I may never get to go there but at least I get to see others enjoying the dive sites.
As the subject states, I'm from a cold weather climate so I don't get to enjoy diving year round unless I either do dry suit diving or travel to a warmer climate than the great lakes. I taken the training for dry suit diving yet or done a lot of lake diving. Since I was a kid I enjoyed snorkeling in the shallow portions of Lake Michigan when on summer vacations and always wanted to dive. Never got the opportunity to take training as a kid so now that I'm "older"
I can enjoy some of the things I always wanted to do as a kid.I first started my training in 03/2001 when we decided to travel to Aruba for a family vacation. My son and I both took the Open Water class locally. Having my son also taking the class allowed me to have a built in buddy to train and dive with since my wife doesn't swim. (Not sure how I married a non-swimmer but that's another story. LOL) I thought I might as well get the course and pool work out of the way and then do my checkout dives where it was warm. I enjoyed the classes in the pool as well as the book work. But the most fun was diving in Aruba! We ended up doing 6 dives while on Aruba. There was a lot of dive opportunities. The only issue we ran into was the visibility wasn't great due to a storm which had passed through not long before we arrived. Even with the lower vis it was still a lot of fun.
Shortly after returning from Aruba my son and I started our Adv cert. This time we didn't have a vacation to a warm climate planned and since it was now coming up on summer time I figured how cold could the lakes be in Northern IL and southern WI. Well I found out. A 7 mil wet suit in July helps but it still gets cold in Lake Michigan when it's 95 deg out of the water but only about 45 deg in 50 ft of water. The first time you bend you neck to look down at the bottom and that cold water shoots down your back, :shocked2: that will wake you up quickly.
There are some great dive opportunities in Lake Michigan and I'm looking forward to doing more dives there but I think I may take the Dry Suit training first and pickup a dry suit just to enjoy the dive more. In 2008 we did the Epcot Dive Quest at Disney and really loved the dive. Disney does such a wonderful job presenting everything and makes you feel part of the crew. Matter of fact, they tell you when you sign your waver you are an honorary cast member of Disney and are expected to act as any other Disney cast member would. My son and I both did the dive at Epcot. The best part for me was swimming within 3 ft of three sharks. We followed right above them for about 30-45 sec before I started thinking in the back of my head, those sharks may get annoyed with us being so close and they could turn on us before we knew it. I knew that wouldn't be the case since we had talked to the DM at the Living Seas before our dive and was briefed on things but just in case we peeled off and headed to another area of the tank.
We really enjoyed interacting with the guests outside of the tank, both in the restaurant and the viewing areas. The rest of our family was eating in the coral reef while we were diving so we were able to go over by the windows and get pictures from outside of the tank with our family.
IMHO, Dive Quest is a great dive and one I said I would do again if I had the time and opportunity. Well three years later, I now have a friend who was just certified as an Open Water Diver and they are going to Disney with us for an upcoming vacation. I told him about Dive Quest and he jumped at the chance of doing a dive there. He asked if I would like to do it and of course I said I would love to. So now I get to do my second dive at Epcot. This time I'm sure I'll be checking out other things that I missed three years ago.
Someday I would like to get to Atlanta and do the dive at their tank but not sure when that will be.
Well so long for now from cold, snowy, & cloudy IL. Thanks for listening.
- Jeff -
