Great Lakes Shore Dives

[pcarlson1911]

Ber excellent reccomendations. I will be back to school the last week in august, so I won't be able to join you, but thanks for the invite. Woe is me.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

If you ever get up to Tobermory two popular wrecks are for advanced divers only (Arabia and Forest City). We liked G&S because they changed the itinerary for us since we were the first ones to sign up for the charter--I didn't want to try a challenging wreck my first boat dive there. The girl at the shop was only OW certified and said she couldn't do the Niagara II because it was deeper than 60 feet but you can have a really nice dive on that boat and never go deeper than 60'. She had never been so she didn't know that Niagara II is a really popular scuttled wreck.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Mlody11]

Wow, I reckon I must do alot of semi-local diving this summer Anyone up for an adventure.

 

[DudleyNMU]

Marquette Mi...Black rock's great shore diving in Marquette...Wrecks and rocks and soe 40+ vis year around....Vis is great in the spring. Conntact Diver Down Scuba if you have any questions. www.diverdownscuba.com great group they can help ya out if your in the Marquette Area.

 

[RockPile]

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.

Great news. Is there any check in or procedure for shore diving at Evanston or North Shore? Or is it truly a "walk in" situation?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
JB

 

[Mlody11]

I've never tried the north shore one but im sure the chicago park district or the marina would know. The evanston one, go to the beach house/ district place right where greenwood ends. There you need to show them your cert. cards and a buddy. The wreck is off greenwood beach marked by a bouy. Its kinda hard to see the bouy, but its there ( I beleive its red/orange in color) the office can tell you for sure. Its quite the walk from where you can park to the beach directly in front of the wreck, so you might need to shuttle the equipment back and forth. Try not to leave anything on the beach. Its quite the swim out to the wreck as well.

I would strongly recommend going on a day that is very calm. In fact, I wouldnt mind doing it on a very calm day with good vis. . Only problem is that the water is darn cold for a 7mm right now... especially with such a long swim. In the summer when the beach is open you will probably need to pay the 10 dollar p/p entrence fee after 10am. If you go there before then and tell the office, you can get away without paying it.

I remember I wasnt very happy when 1 day in the summer.. 70 degree water and the visibility was easy 20-30 feet near the beach and I didnt bring the scuba gear. Wasnt happy.

 

[RockPile]

Mlody11,

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I'm definitely not going to be diving until it's warmer. I'm just talking about it because the monkey on my back is going nuts. I can't wait to be diving again.

Maybe I'll see you down there!

Thanks,

JB

 

[ScubaGypsy]

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:

I'm making plans for visiting Tobermory this summer with my 3 scuba certified boys. Can you tell me what shore dives had 3 wrecks? I'll also get in touch with G&S Watersports for a charter. My boys are young but into wrecks so I'm looking for dives shallower than 60' or so. Also, are there any campgrounds nearby that you would recommend?
I'm planning to leave Tobermory and go onto Pt Traverse to dive with Ducks Dive Charters (http://www.ducksdive.com/divegallery.htm) where there are a couple of shore dives as well as charters. They are going to let me park my motorhome on their property for a couple of days while diving with them which saves me from a car rental. Are you familiar with this group and area?

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Here's a website that has a map and description of the wrecks. I guess there are 4 wrecks where we dove--didn't see the fourth one. The girl at the dive shop told us they were at 40 feet (they were at 20 feet or so) so it took a while to find them. I hear the Anchor is tricky to find, we're going to try that one next time. The lighthouse dive is an interesting wall dive, you can see glacial grooves in the rocks.

I highly recommend taking them out on a boat and doing the Sweepstakes (the "City of Grand Rapids" is within swimming distance and worth a look) and the Wetmore, the Minch is also shallow and interesting. (By shallow I mean 20 feet and less, you could stand on some of these wrecks and have your head out of the water)

We stayed at a hotel so I don't know anything about the camping facilities in the area.

I've never been with Duck's so I can't help you out there either.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[pcarlson1911]

Great website.