Great Lakes Shore Dives

[pcarlson1911]

I'm working on planning a tour of the Great Lakes. We can't dive off charter every day, so I would love some suggestions for shore dives.

List your favorites and ones to stay away from!

Thanks.
pc

 

[Mlody11]

only 2 places that you can do a shore dive in chicago... 1 is off evanston beach, the george morely. Not much to see there except the left over skeleton of the hull and you have to get lucky with the vis. or else its about 5-10 ft. The 2nd is the north shore beach... never dove it but I heard its pretty much 5 ft vis. and a bit nasty.

BTW you need a dive flag for the evanston beach dive. You should go to Haigh Quarry is you want a shore dive... about 1 hour away and very nice . Another place would be pearl lake, but the vis. isnt as nice as haigh.

 

[pcarlson1911]

thanks mlody
pc

 

[500 PSI]

You can shore dive the Big Pond up here in Wisconsin.
Come to MIlwaukee,and you won't leave thirsty for lack of a beer. You can dive Atwater Beach in Shorewood, its along North Lake Drive. Park on street and walk down with gear about 5 flights of stairs. Then there is a large sandy beach, very nice in spring & summer. Swim and Dive along the north end of beach along the rocky breakwater for about 10 -15 minutes and you find the remains of a wooden hull that is about 20- 30 feet. It a historic site and marked by a bouy. You can find out more on one of the historic web sites. Its not for the weak but its great exercise and the vis is nice. Bring that 7MM suit.

 

[SwimJim]

You can shore dive the Big Pond up here in Wisconsin.
Come to MIlwaukee,and you won't leave thirsty for lack of a beer. You can dive Atwater Beach in Shorewood, its along North Lake Drive. Park on street and walk down with gear about 5 flights of stairs. Then there is a large sandy beach, very nice in spring & summer. Swim and Dive along the north end of beach along the rocky breakwater for about 10 -15 minutes and you find the remains of a wooden hull that is about 20- 30 feet. It a historic site and marked by a bouy. You can find out more on one of the historic web sites. Its not for the weak but its great exercise and the vis is nice. Bring that 7MM suit.

As long as your in Wisconsin, if you've recovered from the beer in Milwaukee, you may as well head up to Door county. Stop at Green Bay scuba on the way up and pick up thier Door county shore diving guide. They have close to thirty shore dives in it. My favorites are Porqupine Bay and the Fleetwing. I haven't worked my way through the list yet. Be sure to put the blinders on the Missus if your on the bay side of Door county though. It could get expensive. Ha.

Jim

 

[pcarlson1911]

I have good friends in grafton, so wecould come home through Minn and WI. 30 shore dives is great!
thanks!

 

[Mlody11]

Wow 30 shore dives in door county???? What are the water temps over there usually in the summer?

 

[SwimJim]

Wow 30 shore dives in door county???? What are the water temps over there usually in the summer?

It depends. If your diving in a sheltered place like Garretts Bay where the fleetwing is temps into the '70s are not uncommon. Thats well into summer of course. Generally, depending on wind direction you will encounter surface temps in the 50's to the 70's from late july until mid september. I would not hesitate to go up there with a 7MM wetsuit. The neat thing about Door county is that there are dive sites on three sides of it. Four if you include Sturgeon Bay. There is always someplace you get in reguardless of wind direction. The diving guide you get at Green Bay scuba comes complete with maps, so you can compare that with the wind direction and decide where to go from there. One thing you must be prepared for diving up there is the entry/exit points are usually though slippery rocks making it a PITA to get in and out. If you can get over that hurdle, the dives are great.
Try and access as many as you can using hwy 57 to by pass the YUMAK ( young upwardly mobile *** kissers) crowd. They tend to choke up traffic on the west side with thier Jeep Cherokees, Beemers and Lexi. Ha. On the way home, stop off in Sturgeon Bay. There is a great bar across from the Best Western. Its a nice place, clean, good service, great food and a fine selection of beer on tap. The chili is great after early season and late season dives. Have fun

Jim

 

[bladephotog]

Now I haven't done this yet but friends say the St. Clair River is a blast to dive. But it's very fast current in boat traffic so you need to know what you're doing. But it is a shore dive.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Tobermory, Ontario has the remains of 3 wrecks on one shore dive. You can also dive near the lighthouse which is an interesting wall dive and across the harbor there is an anchor that people have a lot of trouble finding but it's a shore dive as well. I highly recommend Tobermory! We went last summer (going again the last week of August if you want to join us) and dove with G&S Watersports. We did two of the deep wreck charters and one shallow wreck charter (total of 6 wreck dives) and had a total of 16 air fills between the two of us (did some shore diving). The total cost for two divers was $500 CDN.
Get at least one of Cris Kohl's books; he has written several and they do a good job of describing both shore entry and boat dive sites on the Great Lakes.
Ber :lilbunny: