Anyone from the greater Lansing area?? Need LDS info

[SpartanDiver]

MSU99,

Thanks for the reply and info. I'm in the process of visiting several of the places that you mentioned. I didn't mean to imply that I would only go to a place with a OW certification on premises. I'm more than willing to drive to get my OW cert if that is what needs to happen. You are right, I just need to get a feel for which place best seems to fit my teaching/personality preferences.

I've dived with traditional BCD rigs before and am eager to try out a DIR rig with backplate/wings. After several long talks with my brother and hours of reading pages and pages of info I think that the DIR school of thought fits me best. As I said, I'm eager to get into the water and test my hypothesis.

What is diving and learning to dive at Gilboa like?

 

[MSU99]

Spartan Diver,

I think you'd like the Back Plate & wing set up. If/when I ever get another BCD this is what I'll probably go with. I trained with regular jacket style BCD's (Scuba Pro Classics I think) nad never really cared for how they road up and shifted when inflated. I purchased back in 1999 a Scuba Pro X-tec Back inflate soft pac harnes system and LOVE it. The only thing I'd do different is get a hard plate for it (which they sold at the time, but I didn't get, oh well no biggy). I know Boat got a Zeagle back inflate, and if I recall correctly, he loves his also. It's great, nothing in front of you to get in your way, you can trim horizontally great and to me I can hold my neutral bouancy better. Remember your mileage may vary.

One thing, You'll do your learning to dive in the dive shop/local pools. Gilboa is just were you do your 5 or 6 open water certification dives, which heck those can even be done in the Caribbean with a refferal from the dive shop. Gilboa is great to dive at due to all the cool stuff to see when diving, the fish, the "Wrecks", the tubes, the varying topography of the quarry, it's just cool. Plus there is a great restuarant down the road in Ottawa Ohio that had killer ribs (Red Pig Inn I think).

The TBNMS post had some good info, the wrecks are great dives and the few times I dove the Bay was pretty warm, even down to 60 Ft. Sad thing is I was born and raised there and never took advantage of the resource I had until I moved 4.5 hours away.

Anyhow, good luck in finding a shop and instructor and let us know when your ready to go diving we'll find a backwater around to go get wet in.


MSU99

 

[Randy43068]

The Red Pig Inn has won several awards for their ribs. Good stuff, those ribs!!

If you want to try out a back plate and wing with single tank let me know. I've got stainless or aluminum that you can try out sometime.

Maybe we can get together at Gilboa one day soon so you can give it a spin.

Spartan Diver,

I think you'd like the Back Plate & wing set up. If/when I ever get another BCD this is what I'll probably go with. I trained with regular jacket style BCD's (Scuba Pro Classics I think) nad never really cared for how they road up and shifted when inflated. I purchased back in 1999 a Scuba Pro X-tec Back inflate soft pac harnes system and LOVE it. The only thing I'd do different is get a hard plate for it (which they sold at the time, but I didn't get, oh well no biggy). I know Boat got a Zeagle back inflate, and if I recall correctly, he loves his also. It's great, nothing in front of you to get in your way, you can trim horizontally great and to me I can hold my neutral bouancy better. Remember your mileage may vary.

One thing, You'll do your learning to dive in the dive shop/local pools. Gilboa is just were you do your 5 or 6 open water certification dives, which heck those can even be done in the Caribbean with a refferal from the dive shop. Gilboa is great to dive at due to all the cool stuff to see when diving, the fish, the "Wrecks", the tubes, the varying topography of the quarry, it's just cool. Plus there is a great restuarant down the road in Ottawa Ohio that had killer ribs (Red Pig Inn I think).

The TBNMS post had some good info, the wrecks are great dives and the few times I dove the Bay was pretty warm, even down to 60 Ft. Sad thing is I was born and raised there and never took advantage of the resource I had until I moved 4.5 hours away.

Anyhow, good luck in finding a shop and instructor and let us know when your ready to go diving we'll find a backwater around to go get wet in.


MSU99

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Gilboa is a great place to bring students because there is so much to see and it's easy to navigate so students start learning how to find their way around. From what I've heard about many of the lakes in Michigan they may have a platform and a couple of boats to look at but they are more for boaters than divers. Gilboa has the airplane, helicopter, numerous boats and vehicles with 2-6 wheels, lots of fish that follow you around plus tons of other stuff to see. It's definitely worth the drive!
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

If you think rivalries are bad, I own a dive shop in Ann Arbor and Run a quarry in Ohio... I never wear blue and yellow down there (afraid of the outcome
Rich

One of my staff drives a blue car with Ohio plates and was parked at a hotel in Lima the night of THE game, OSU won. Someone painted a yellow stripe on his car with spray paint. Looks like you can't even drive a blue car in Ohio if losing Michigan fans are around
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Thunder Bay Minnow]

Gee Ber,

Here you go opening the can of worms……

“Open water divers vs. quarry divers”

Oh………did I type that?!?

 

[mph]

Minnow,

I noticed that you have several suggestions in Alpena as good options to diving in a quarry. Sadly, I don't have any quarries by me, so I just have to dive in Lake Huron;-) I've been diving in the Alpena area several times and have only been diving at the one sinkhole by Middle Island. Why have I never heard of or seen all these other sinkholes? Also, I can't believe how many shallow wrecks there are. That's AWESOME, since I don't really want to dive to 200 feet to see shipwrecks, but I do like diving them. Thanks for that info.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Gee Ber,

Here you go opening the can of worms……

“Open water divers vs. quarry divers”

Oh………did I type that?!?

Not "THE" lakes, dive shops take the students to places like Bear Lake or Lake 16 (I think those names are right) and the quarry is more interesting from what I'm told by those who dive both

If you can get your check-out dives done in the big lakes or better yet on a shallow wreck in the big lakes..well, that just ROCKS!
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Thunder Bay Minnow]

You know, I believe it is a comfort level thing.

I have talked with many shop owners in Northern Michigan about why people would rather go to the same quarry time and time again. When from anywhere in Michigan you are less than 55 miles from a Great Lake.

I see that many quarries don’t charge the instructor for admission and I am sure for other amenities, when they bring the class there. Because when divers are cut loose after getting that card, they are going to continue to dive where they feel comfortable and where other divers are at (warm water charters).

It is a real shame.

I have only been certified a few years and have made it a point to seek out other venues. Although I admittedly still have not done a quarry. I have dived these other venues with the help of this board. I went shallow water mud diving in Cheboygan with a group of MUD divers. This was the site of several very large saw mills, very cool. I did a Grand Traverse Bay dive with a group that do a weekly dive. I have done Union Lake with another group. I have done AuSable River dives with another and under water pumpkin carving with another. But lately I ahve been really attracted to river diving. After the eye opener that the MUD divers gave me and the telling of their adventures in diving the St Clair River. Can't wait to give it a go!

The use of this board has really expanded my horizons.

Here in Alpena there are many divers around that don’t have a regular dive buddy and would love to take someone out and show them around. And several of them have boats!

______________________________________

First you have to be confident in your skills and then you can reach out.

Jeff

 

[Ber Rabbit]

For one you're guaranteed to never get blown off of the quarry which makes it much easier to schedule the dives I have to drive almost 2 hours north to get to a good quarry. I wish I was in "weekend dive" range of the Great Lakes but Erie is the only one that's feasible and that's if I dive out of Cleveland. Did that in May once, won't make that mistake again. I hear the visibility is good in August and September and I'm looking forward to trying it again sometime.

The quarries are great for training, don't knock them until you've tried one. Personally I recommend Gilboa for the ultimate quarry experience.
Ber :lilbunny: