poleinahole
Registered
Diving in Latvia:
I was beginning to despair about diving in Latvia. For three months I e-mailed all the 4 or 5 dive operators I could find on the web and let them know I wanted to dive in August. I got no reply except a polite apology from Juri at Baltic Seal Dive Club (info@diveclub.lv, Tel. +371-9277421 or +371-9615907) who said he would be able to take me wreck diving when he returned from Iceland at the end of August. Unfortunately, by then I would be in Finland. Two days before my arrival in Riga, I started calling the dive operators in desperation. I learned that diving in Latvia normally occurred in summer but that many instructors also traveled during this time. Another dive club only did the pool sessions and then took their students to warmer climes and could only take me with a lot of advance notice in the off season if I had all my own gear. It looked as if I would have to limit myself to land sight seeing
My flight into Riga from London Gatwick on Air Baltic was very delayed and Id been spending a small fortune at the airport checking my e-mails in the hopes that some dive operator would respond at the last minute. My prayers were answered once I rolled into my Riga Hotel (The Albert. Very cool, very new, city hotel $ 110 at www.hotel.comb) at 2 AM and checked my e-mails again. Sandris Grantin of Go Dive LV (sandris@godive.lv. Mobile: +37-292-09420) had told me he could offer me a night dive followed by a Club barbecue that evening and the following day could take me diving near the town of Jekabpils where there was an underwater railway track and other Soviet era artifacts in an abandoned quarry.
Night Dive at Sloka II Quarry, Near Jurmella City
The charming Sandris picked me up at 7:45 PM. We stopped off to pick up some other divers: a Brazilian sound engineering student and a Latvian medic. We then went to the offices of Go Dive to have some coffee and tea, wait for about 8 other divers and pack gear. Sandris operation is very pleasant & modern and he has a great selection of gear. (Sandris plans to move into new store front premises with a dry room for equipment and other neat little touches by year end.) Latvia revolves around club diving and not from slick dive shops. This promotes loyalty and a very friendly atmosphere but can make it difficult for visitors to dive there. I had expected the arctic conditions I had dived in two days earlier in the Faroe Islands and so had put on dry suit underwear and had no bathing suit. I realized my error when I was handed my wet suit and Sandris cheerily drove me back to the Albert Hotel for a quick change in attire. (They dive wet in Latvia as long as the water is 10 C or more.)
We then headed off about 45 KM towards the airport to Sloka II quarry and pulled up in front of a shallow artificial lake (maximum depth 16 feet) at about 11:00 PM. Sloka II is a preferred spot in Latvia to do check out dives but we found only a few swimmers scampering out of the water. We kitted up and were each given two bright lights (one back up), divided into pairs and waded into the 20 Celsius water. Viz. was about 2 meters and we saw a small crayfish, a few fresh water fish and abandoned old boot, algae that looked like grass, zebra mussels and lots of silt. The shallow water and silt made this a great place to practice good buoyancy control skills. When we came out at 12:30 AM the stars were out. My new Latvian friends told me that on clear summer nights they stayed in the water admiring the shooting stars, but we didnt see any shooting stars that night.
Sandris then set about cooking some excellent chicken and pork on the barbecue. He and the other club members had also brought some tomato and cucumber salad, homemade cookies and lots of juice and beers. First class atmosphere and dive fun. I was dropped back at my hotel at 2:30 AM and crashed out for a few hours before getting picked up the next morning for a day dive. Poor Sandris spent the night putting gear back and getting ready for our day dive.
Birzu Quarry, Near Jekabpils (an hour from Lithuanian border)
Sandris picked me up at 11:30 AM with a professional photographer breaking into underwater photography in tow. Despite the fact that he had slept little during the night, he was his usual genial self. We drove for about 2.5 hours to an artificial lake that had once been a quarry during Soviet times. When the USSR collapsed during the early 1990s, someone stole the quarry pump and it was soon flooded. We waded in and quickly found the train tracks and switching equipment which led us to some abandoned buildings whose roof had fallen in. Viz. was again about 3 meters and water temperature 20C. There were some tall algae and dead trees still upright eerily standing in the water surrounded by fine silt and called the ghost forest. We also saw some fearless pike fish during the hours dive. Sandris just had time to drop me off at my hotel before dashing to take his rescue diver students through their paces at a swimming pool. The man is truly tireless and a great ambassador for diving and PADI. He runs a safe, friendly operation and also runs dive trip to Lithuania and charters boats to some neat spots for his dive club members. I had a blast diving in Latvia thanks to Sandris and met some wonderful people. Diving really has the capacity to unite us!
I was beginning to despair about diving in Latvia. For three months I e-mailed all the 4 or 5 dive operators I could find on the web and let them know I wanted to dive in August. I got no reply except a polite apology from Juri at Baltic Seal Dive Club (info@diveclub.lv, Tel. +371-9277421 or +371-9615907) who said he would be able to take me wreck diving when he returned from Iceland at the end of August. Unfortunately, by then I would be in Finland. Two days before my arrival in Riga, I started calling the dive operators in desperation. I learned that diving in Latvia normally occurred in summer but that many instructors also traveled during this time. Another dive club only did the pool sessions and then took their students to warmer climes and could only take me with a lot of advance notice in the off season if I had all my own gear. It looked as if I would have to limit myself to land sight seeing
My flight into Riga from London Gatwick on Air Baltic was very delayed and Id been spending a small fortune at the airport checking my e-mails in the hopes that some dive operator would respond at the last minute. My prayers were answered once I rolled into my Riga Hotel (The Albert. Very cool, very new, city hotel $ 110 at www.hotel.comb) at 2 AM and checked my e-mails again. Sandris Grantin of Go Dive LV (sandris@godive.lv. Mobile: +37-292-09420) had told me he could offer me a night dive followed by a Club barbecue that evening and the following day could take me diving near the town of Jekabpils where there was an underwater railway track and other Soviet era artifacts in an abandoned quarry.
Night Dive at Sloka II Quarry, Near Jurmella City
The charming Sandris picked me up at 7:45 PM. We stopped off to pick up some other divers: a Brazilian sound engineering student and a Latvian medic. We then went to the offices of Go Dive to have some coffee and tea, wait for about 8 other divers and pack gear. Sandris operation is very pleasant & modern and he has a great selection of gear. (Sandris plans to move into new store front premises with a dry room for equipment and other neat little touches by year end.) Latvia revolves around club diving and not from slick dive shops. This promotes loyalty and a very friendly atmosphere but can make it difficult for visitors to dive there. I had expected the arctic conditions I had dived in two days earlier in the Faroe Islands and so had put on dry suit underwear and had no bathing suit. I realized my error when I was handed my wet suit and Sandris cheerily drove me back to the Albert Hotel for a quick change in attire. (They dive wet in Latvia as long as the water is 10 C or more.)
We then headed off about 45 KM towards the airport to Sloka II quarry and pulled up in front of a shallow artificial lake (maximum depth 16 feet) at about 11:00 PM. Sloka II is a preferred spot in Latvia to do check out dives but we found only a few swimmers scampering out of the water. We kitted up and were each given two bright lights (one back up), divided into pairs and waded into the 20 Celsius water. Viz. was about 2 meters and we saw a small crayfish, a few fresh water fish and abandoned old boot, algae that looked like grass, zebra mussels and lots of silt. The shallow water and silt made this a great place to practice good buoyancy control skills. When we came out at 12:30 AM the stars were out. My new Latvian friends told me that on clear summer nights they stayed in the water admiring the shooting stars, but we didnt see any shooting stars that night.
Sandris then set about cooking some excellent chicken and pork on the barbecue. He and the other club members had also brought some tomato and cucumber salad, homemade cookies and lots of juice and beers. First class atmosphere and dive fun. I was dropped back at my hotel at 2:30 AM and crashed out for a few hours before getting picked up the next morning for a day dive. Poor Sandris spent the night putting gear back and getting ready for our day dive.
Birzu Quarry, Near Jekabpils (an hour from Lithuanian border)
Sandris picked me up at 11:30 AM with a professional photographer breaking into underwater photography in tow. Despite the fact that he had slept little during the night, he was his usual genial self. We drove for about 2.5 hours to an artificial lake that had once been a quarry during Soviet times. When the USSR collapsed during the early 1990s, someone stole the quarry pump and it was soon flooded. We waded in and quickly found the train tracks and switching equipment which led us to some abandoned buildings whose roof had fallen in. Viz. was again about 3 meters and water temperature 20C. There were some tall algae and dead trees still upright eerily standing in the water surrounded by fine silt and called the ghost forest. We also saw some fearless pike fish during the hours dive. Sandris just had time to drop me off at my hotel before dashing to take his rescue diver students through their paces at a swimming pool. The man is truly tireless and a great ambassador for diving and PADI. He runs a safe, friendly operation and also runs dive trip to Lithuania and charters boats to some neat spots for his dive club members. I had a blast diving in Latvia thanks to Sandris and met some wonderful people. Diving really has the capacity to unite us!
