Florida diver looking for possible dives in Ohio
- Thread starter OrlandoRogue
- Start date
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
Natural Springs will probably be closed by then, I think the owners shut it down in late Oct. or early Nov. A note on the Great Lakes, I've been told that the charter season ends shortly after Labor Day as the weather gets too unpredictable after that I could be wrong though. Gilboa is your best bet even though it's a longer drive; if you take the shortcut instead of going all the way to Findlay it cuts about 25 minutes off of the drive. (Take the Napoleon Rd. exit off of I-75 and hang a left then when you get to Old 224 (a t-intersection) hang a right and the quarry is on your right a mile or so down the road. I can make if from the I-70/I-75 interchange to the quarry in about an hour and a half going that way.
A 7mm suit will be fine, make sure you have a hood, boots and gloves. We dove there last year the weekend before Thanksgiving and the water above the thermocline was still almost 60 degrees. It's always about 40-42 degrees below the thermocline near the tubes no matter what time of year it is. Make sure you bring along a winter hat and mittens to wear between dives as well as something to keep the wind off of you such as a long coat. When diving here in November you can never carry too many warm clothes!
At the moment I have check-out dives scheduled for Nov. 20-21 at Gilboa but the date may move to Nov. 13-14 if my students do well enough to take their final the last week of school instead of finals week. It shouldn't be too hard to find a buddy, there are a bunch of GLWC people who go to the quarry on a regular basis even when it's "cold."
Ber :lilbunny:
A 7mm suit will be fine, make sure you have a hood, boots and gloves. We dove there last year the weekend before Thanksgiving and the water above the thermocline was still almost 60 degrees. It's always about 40-42 degrees below the thermocline near the tubes no matter what time of year it is. Make sure you bring along a winter hat and mittens to wear between dives as well as something to keep the wind off of you such as a long coat. When diving here in November you can never carry too many warm clothes!
At the moment I have check-out dives scheduled for Nov. 20-21 at Gilboa but the date may move to Nov. 13-14 if my students do well enough to take their final the last week of school instead of finals week. It shouldn't be too hard to find a buddy, there are a bunch of GLWC people who go to the quarry on a regular basis even when it's "cold."
Ber :lilbunny:
cstreu1026:
Natural Springs is less than 45 minutes from Dayton, depends on exactly where in the aea you are. I live east of Dayton, and it's about 45 minutes over to the quarry. It is just off I-70, just before the Indiana border.
As for the water conditions, by mid-November, the water won't have had that much time to cool off yet, so it won't be too bad yet.
Ken
Thanks for the info Ber, what do you say/know about the other close by option - Twin Springs or the other one which is a good drive out, Portage? Its good to know this kind of local stuff!!
I understand that the deep side of Gilboa is used for tech training etc (required to put in a dive plan with the owners before going under), but is there much to see, or is it a man-made wall essentially (like a retaining wall) and not a lot to see, or a carved out rock face - anything kind of interesting on the face - just wondering if is it worth going into that area for anything but training dives? I saw the map with plenty of the usual boats/planes/car/buses/culverts/structures all over the place on the shallow side, is that stuff mostly above the thermocline? (how deep thermo?).
I understand that the deep side of Gilboa is used for tech training etc (required to put in a dive plan with the owners before going under), but is there much to see, or is it a man-made wall essentially (like a retaining wall) and not a lot to see, or a carved out rock face - anything kind of interesting on the face - just wondering if is it worth going into that area for anything but training dives? I saw the map with plenty of the usual boats/planes/car/buses/culverts/structures all over the place on the shallow side, is that stuff mostly above the thermocline? (how deep thermo?).
I wish I could help you on the other two. It's been years since I've been to Portage so I'm not sure when they close for the season. I've never been to Twin Quarries but there are others around here who dive both sites often, hopefully they will chime in soon.
The deep side of Gilboa is basically boring for a reason, enticing unqualified divers over there will get them killed. The quarry is a limestone quarry and the wall is simply a sheer limestone face with nothing but a few drill marks from where the charges were set and some "quarry slime" on it. The shallow side has a small wall (maybe 20 feet tall) that looks just like the deep end one as you swim toward the "tubes" which are at about 60 feet, it looks like a vertical highway cut (ho-hum).
If you don't have the proper equipment and training the deep side is not where you want to be. You need environmentalized regulators and you should have a redundant air source and I don't mean a spare air. The deep end is not the place you want to do your first cold water dive either, you need to be familiar with the demands of cold water diving before going over there.
Most of the stuff is above the coldest thermocline, the tubes and the wreck (a tower as well as a boat) that is close to them are below it. The temperature is usually comfortable down to 35-40 feet. You can see all of the cool stuff and not get too far below 30 feet, there is also stuff to see at 20 feet or so and you can stay above that thermocline later in your dive to warm up. I tell my students how cold the water is and usually when they get out they tell me it's not as bad as I was making it out to be
I've found that when I go diving expecting to freeze my tail off I'm often pleasantly surprised by how much warmer the water is compared to what I was expecting.
Hope this helps!
Ber :lilbunny:
The deep side of Gilboa is basically boring for a reason, enticing unqualified divers over there will get them killed. The quarry is a limestone quarry and the wall is simply a sheer limestone face with nothing but a few drill marks from where the charges were set and some "quarry slime" on it. The shallow side has a small wall (maybe 20 feet tall) that looks just like the deep end one as you swim toward the "tubes" which are at about 60 feet, it looks like a vertical highway cut (ho-hum).
If you don't have the proper equipment and training the deep side is not where you want to be. You need environmentalized regulators and you should have a redundant air source and I don't mean a spare air. The deep end is not the place you want to do your first cold water dive either, you need to be familiar with the demands of cold water diving before going over there.
Most of the stuff is above the coldest thermocline, the tubes and the wreck (a tower as well as a boat) that is close to them are below it. The temperature is usually comfortable down to 35-40 feet. You can see all of the cool stuff and not get too far below 30 feet, there is also stuff to see at 20 feet or so and you can stay above that thermocline later in your dive to warm up. I tell my students how cold the water is and usually when they get out they tell me it's not as bad as I was making it out to be
I've found that when I go diving expecting to freeze my tail off I'm often pleasantly surprised by how much warmer the water is compared to what I was expecting. Hope this helps!
Ber :lilbunny:
Generally kind of what i was thinking about the deep end. I dont take the potential dangers lightly. It looks like with quite a few of these quarries that it could be a good hour or so swimming around in the shallows followed by some chilling on the SI. 
I am sure Becky or i will phone these other quarries regarding their opening hours/seasons, rental stuff and whatnot sometime soon, just looking for general ideas at the moment.
I am sure Becky or i will phone these other quarries regarding their opening hours/seasons, rental stuff and whatnot sometime soon, just looking for general ideas at the moment.
Don't forget Blue Springs in Waldron Indiana. I get there in an hour from the north side of Cincinnati. Much closer to Mason than Mineral Springs or Gilboa. Blue Springs has shelters and changing rooms too. No showers yet, but soon I'm told.
I don't live far from Mason....so Blue Springs and Circleville Twin Quarries are the closest. Blue Springs is open year-round, and during the off season all that's required is a phone call to get the combination to the lock on the gate!!
I don't live far from Mason....so Blue Springs and Circleville Twin Quarries are the closest. Blue Springs is open year-round, and during the off season all that's required is a phone call to get the combination to the lock on the gate!!
OP
OrlandoRogue
Contributor
Wow, thanks for all of the information guys (and gals!). Once I get my travel arrangments for work sorted out, then I'll have a better idea of how much time I have to spare for driving to the various dive locations. It sounds like there are several options, though, so I'll be thrilled even if I only get to try out one new place. I'll let you know where I decide upon diving in the end. In the mean time, don't be shy about calling me up for a dive if any of you are in Florida!
Ok, it looks like we might fly into Dayton, not sure quite whether that will be our base of operations for the weekend and whether we will stay much beyond saturday and sunday (maybe monday depending). So of course we will most likely have a no-fly day, maybe two depending on how diving goes on the saturday when we will dive for sure. So what other options do we have in the area - any good mtn biking trails (plus places to rent bikes from) or good areas to paddle in (and somewhere to rent kayaks)?? I will do a little internet searching and look at the travel guidebooks over time, but thought i would start here as you have all been so helpful so far
Any areas in Dayton that are advised against to stay in? Maybe we could put our base camp right up on the lake shoreline and work from there with the nearby quarries and some paddling around (any good islands to paddle out to/around?). All a bit flux at the moment, but slowly getting ideas together
Any areas in Dayton that are advised against to stay in? Maybe we could put our base camp right up on the lake shoreline and work from there with the nearby quarries and some paddling around (any good islands to paddle out to/around?). All a bit flux at the moment, but slowly getting ideas together
The Dayton area doesn't have mountain bike trails but they have a very nice rail-to-trail system that is paved. Check out www.activedayton.com you have to register for the site but it's free and has all kinds of information about the area including recreation. I did a quick search and came up with these companies for bike rentals http://oh.allpages.com/dayton/shopp...ng/athletic-equipment-rental/bicycle-rentals/ you can rent canoes/kayaks from some of these companies. http://phonebook.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Canoe+&+Kayak+Rental+&+Leasing/S-OH/T-Dayton/ The zip codes closest to the Dayton airport are anything starting with 454 or 453, Springfield isn't too far and it's prefix is 455. Zip codes starting with 450, 451 or 452 are in Cincinnati and the surrounding area. Columbus has 430, 431 and 432 prefixes.
Five Rivers Metro Parks is the recreation division in Dayton, we have more rivers than lakes but Caesar's Creek Lake and several reservoirs are close to Dayton.
Gilboa is only about an hour and 45 minutes from the Dayton airport. Most of the other dive sites are within 2 hours of Dayton, we're really pretty centrally located when it comes to Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky diving. If you are staying at a hotel and want lots of restaurants nearby try to get one on Miller Ln. that's "restaurant row" for the north side of Dayton and it's right along I-75. There is a nice KOA in Brookville, Ohio which is about 10 miles from the airport and it is easy to find from westbound I-70. I can't tell you much about the south side of town, I rarely go there. The south end is where most of the hotels and restaurants and malls are though. Other options for nearby (to the airport and Dayton) hotels include Huber Heights, Vandalia and Englewood. A little farther north (10-15 miles) you have Tipp City and Troy.
The only place you really don't want to be is on the west side of Dayton, once you cross over the "Peace Bridge" downtown the peace stops
Hope this helps!
Ber :lilbunny:
Five Rivers Metro Parks is the recreation division in Dayton, we have more rivers than lakes but Caesar's Creek Lake and several reservoirs are close to Dayton.
Gilboa is only about an hour and 45 minutes from the Dayton airport. Most of the other dive sites are within 2 hours of Dayton, we're really pretty centrally located when it comes to Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky diving. If you are staying at a hotel and want lots of restaurants nearby try to get one on Miller Ln. that's "restaurant row" for the north side of Dayton and it's right along I-75. There is a nice KOA in Brookville, Ohio which is about 10 miles from the airport and it is easy to find from westbound I-70. I can't tell you much about the south side of town, I rarely go there. The south end is where most of the hotels and restaurants and malls are though. Other options for nearby (to the airport and Dayton) hotels include Huber Heights, Vandalia and Englewood. A little farther north (10-15 miles) you have Tipp City and Troy.
The only place you really don't want to be is on the west side of Dayton, once you cross over the "Peace Bridge" downtown the peace stops
Hope this helps!
Ber :lilbunny:
Similar threads
