Diving in Ontario for the Newbie! Tips, Advice, Experienced Buddies.

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Pawlu

Registered
Messages
48
Reaction score
3
Location
Canada
# of dives
100 - 199
Howdy... I have just taken up scuba diving in Ontario, and have my open water check out dives this weekend in Gulliver's lake. I am doing my check outs with a good friend of mine who is just as new to diving as I am.

We would like to try and get as much experience as we can at the Open Water level and plan on getting our PADI Advanced next spring. We are in no big rush and prefer to gain as much experience at each level before venturing on to the next. With that in mind, we are trying to find good enjoyable locations within driving distance from us where we can start gaining some safe diving experience under our belts. To be precise we live in upper Hamilton (Binbrook area).

In staying with accordance to good safety practices we only plan on diving in any new place with other more experienced divers that are familiar with the area with the exception of Gulliver's lake which we plan on going to just review our newly learned skills a few more times after our open water checkouts and probably every spring prior to the main diving season.

We both own a 7mm wetsuit, fins, mask, boots, gloves and very soon dive computers. This year we will need to rent a jacket BCD, regulators and tank. If we manage to keep it up we will invest in our own BCD/Reg/Tank next year.

So for the big questions, keeping our physical location in perspective, what locations do fellow Ontarian divers recommend for beginners like us? We were both given the impression that there is not much out there for open water level divers and we would need to have at least the advanced level of certification to enjoy diving in our area. From my part I did some research on the main locations, in order of proximity to us and this is what I came up with.


Millgrove Ontario (Gulliver's Lake) 30 min drive
Frenchman's Creek (Niagara River) 1 hour 10 min
Barrie (Lake Simcoe) 2 hour drive
Kingston (Lake Ontario Collin's bay area) 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive
Brockville (St Lawrence River) 4 1/2 hour drive
Tobermory (Lake Huron) 5 hour drive


I also read up on the various differences in both temperature and current of these locations. I am hoping that Frenchman's creek and Barrie offer diving opportunities for beginners as they are reasonable in terms of distance. The other locations will have to be full weekend type outings with a stay over at some B&B.

Tips, advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, we are also looking for good trustworthy dive clubs or buddies that meet up in these locations on weekends and that would welcome beginners.

Thank you in advance.
 
Hi,

Given your location, For a fun, easy dive I really recommend the scuba park in Welland. Max depth is about 32 feet.

You can park and enter the water at the docks and boat ramp.

Lines on the bottom lead to a wreck, some cars, and some other stuff . If you are good on air, you can follow one side of the canal down to the swing bridge and check out the pilings and fish, then come back along the other side of the canal. If you run low on air, you can always surface swim back or step out and walk back through the park.

A dive flag is required. There are sometimes non-motorized boats around.

Go on a week day or early in the day if possible--on weekends, classes sometimes stir up the bottom.

There is usually a porta-potty set up there.

I am linking a map.

http://vaxxine.com/scuba/map_boat_ramp_welland.jpeg
 
Hi,

Given your location, For a fun, easy dive I really recommend the scuba park in Welland. Max depth is about 32 feet.

Great thanks never even heard of this! thanks for the tip, its about an hour away from us and very doable!
 
Welcome to the world of diving :)
From your list Gullivers is a good choice for the two of you to get comfortable in. Also Soggies req for the scuba park is great as well. Most everything else you mentioned I'd recommend you use a guide for sure the first time. Finding some of those places can be tricky. Well Toby is mostly charters so no worries there.
The Niagara river offers some really cool shallow drifts, mostly just for the fish and ripping current. Again find a guide before attempting that, there are plenty of entry points but you want to me mindful of your exits :wink:
Locally aquahaulic charters run pretty regularly on lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The boat usually launches in St.Catherines for Lake ont and Port Dover for lake Erie, both places about a 45min drive for you.
Alternately Fully Tek Charters runs on Lake Huron (dock is about 2hrs from you) and there are some seriously spectacular wrecks (google the North Wind in lake Huron, then remember to pick your jaw up off the ground).
Kingston and further east in the St. Lawrence river offers some pretty amazing diving. For the St. Lawrence especially there are many easy shore dives and long shallow drift possibilities. Evey thing from wrecks to submerged villages.
I'm from Ottawa originally and drive back that way to dive at least 4 times a year.
As for temps, in any of the lakes or quarry's down below 60-80ft it's pretty much chilly all year round (mid-high 40's). The St. Lawrence is the same temp surface to bottom so if you dive it in July it can be in the high 70's regardless of depth which is really sweet.
 
You know where Owen Sound is? That's where I grew up and started diving.

Tobermory is about 1.5 hours away. There are dives there that are safe for novices and many that are not. The water is very cold - 4, 5, 6 degrees at depth all year. But the water is super clear! For me, the temperature makes the dives costly - when I last dove the Niagara II I could manage only 20 minutes in the water, but the price stays the same no matter how long you stay in the water. So, not much value for money if that means dollar spent per minute in the water; but that wreck is nice to see. One of these days I will get a dry suit. Anyway, keep that in mind if you are thinking of going all the way to Tobermory.


But more to your specific question: there is a dive site in Colpoys Bay at a spot called Cedar Hill. See this: Wiarton, Ontario - Cedar Hill - Diving My Way

Anyway, when I dove that spot in '91 or '92 or so there was nothing but rocks. But nowadays there is a little underwater theme park, so to speak, with lots of artifacts and junk to look at: a large geodesic dome, a little rowboat with a skeleton rowing etc.. Its like being a goldfish in a fish bowl. There are lots of videos on youtube (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=347DPYAxQZE).

Anyway, all summer, on Sundays, there is a fleet of divers here. Some very advanced fellows going super deep and many novices looking for buddies. This spot is a good dive site for practice for the water here is so much warmer than Tobermory, the visibility is usually good and at least here there are lots of things to see without going super deep - I think the geodesic dome is at 60'; apparently there is a Christmas tree at 100' but I have not found that, yet.

It is a good place to practice Navigation too for many of the junk to find has known compass bearings (e.g., go directly north from the shore entry and you will hit the geodesic dome). Just be sure to remember the bearing back to shore - a good practice run is to see if you can hit the same spot on the shore with your back-bearing.

I am neither super advanced nor a novice but the dive shop I use has a crew of customers and students who go on every Sunday; I paired up with a few of their newly certified students looking for in water time at an uncomplicated site for several weeks in a row. My newly certified and old friend and I went there together too to build up his experience.

The dive shop I use is in Port Elgin (http://www.groundhogdiversportelgin.com/); the husband and wife team who run it are super friendly and have pretty good rental gear and have owned this shop since the early 90's. If you were to call them they could introduce you to some very experienced people who dive there every Sunday.

This place is not as far from Hamilton as Tobermory - lots of people from Guelph and Kitchener area dive schools come here for open water certification dives. From Hamilton to this spot will be 3-4 hours depending on the route you take (taking Grey Road 6 will save 45 min! I studied at McMaster and Niagara in Welland so I commuted north too many times and know lots of good back-roads - so pm me if you want time-saving advice).

There is no 'official' camping at that site but there are camp grounds in that area and lots of secret places along the Bruce trail for 'overnight resting'. Cedar Hill park is a small picnic area with picnic table and an outhouse and so on. People have campfires there; and some people have tented there while diving; but I don't know how well the place is policed.

Anyway, this would be a good place for a weekend or overnight trip for sure. I don't live there now; but I will be in Owen Sound in August and will get my reg serviced at the shop so I may take in a day's diving for something to do...

Good luck

MT
 
You've also got Windmill Pt and Sherkston Quarry off Hwy 3, going towards Ft. Erie. Both have an entry fee ($10 I believe) and are close to you. You might want to call to inquire about the visiblity at each site before you go.

The thing about diving up there in the Bruce Pennisula, especially Toby this time of year, is getting accommodations. The prices spike starting right about now and stay that way until Labour Day, and they're not always available for weekends. Then you have to worry about getting parking tickets at the Little Tub harbour platform. No charge for diving, it's good, not difficult, but there's a 2-hour parking limit if you can get a spot. Parking tickets there are $25 each; I got two in one day last year! And to dive in the Marine Park, you have to get a season dive tag ($20) or pay a daily fee of some amount. You have to go to the Visitor's Centre to register and to get the Diving Tag.

If you go to Cedar Hill, Groundhog Divers (this one works: Groundhog Divers II | Scuba Instruction Port Elgin | Home ) has their "Family Day" scheduled for July 6th. There's a free campground in Wiarton (at least it was last year) on Bayview St at Division St, just north of the Foodland store (open 24-hours in summer months). If you don't want to camp, then Wiarton Willie's was reasonable and pretty good last year. (He should still be in business this year--two other smaller ones quit last year). ( Wiarton Maps, Wiarton Ontario Canada scroll down to the bottom to see the town map.)
 
Thank you all for these great tips, appreciate it, I will definitely be checking these spots out.. just finished my first 3 check out dives, 1 more to go for tomorrow all went good.
 
The St. Clair river is one of my favorite dive sites - easy entries, easy exits and a bunch of different parts of the river accessible for divers. It would probably be a 2 to 2.5 hour drive. There are lots of local divers from the area that are more then happy to act as tour guides (no charge - best kind) to out of town divers. The current can be mild in some spots to some pretty serious ripping current for when you gain more experience. Feel free to PM me if you are interested in a road trip and if my schedule allows I will be happy to act a dive guide or point you in the direction of some other divers who would be more then willing.

Also - welcome to great lakes diving.
 
Humber Bay in Toronto is a great spot to meet other divers and work on skills.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom