Lake George, NY

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I knoe scuba ny in yonkers was running a trip in Feb to go ice diving.

The ice dive is this weekend.. anyone, if you want to go call the store @ 914 779 2966 and I'll get a hold of Rob for you ( they left this am for lake geo) and check if there is room at the hotel..I will be store sitting today and tomorrow.
No more ice dives for me,been there did that..I am running trip to Bonaire in May/June..
 
I dove there last weekend. We had a group of 12 divers that was an Ice Dive cert class. We went off Hearthstone campgrounds on Saturday and did the class. It was an all day affair.

What a blast! We had 8 students (I was one) and the others were already ice certified and ice diving experienced. A lot of work to cut up the entrance and pull the blocks out. Ice was about 18" thick. The bottom 12 " were crystal clear and top 6" layer was milky, it was the snow that had melted that week and then re-froze. The good part was no shoveling since all the snow had melted and then re-froze.

The blocks would freeze as soon as you stopped moving them on the surface of lake. Air temps were in mid teens and it was a bit brisk with a strong wind.

Water temp was 34 degrees.

Ice diving is a real treat but as I said a lot of work. It is pretty cool down there, you hear the ice groaning and shifting and every once in a while a loud "CRACK" as the ice moves. You don't hear anything on the surface but it comes alive when under.

Our next trip is to Alexandria Bay in two weeks for more ice diving.
 
Looking forward to diving with Dive NY in Lake George and any others divers that are interested. I'm pretty much available anytime...with a little advance notice.
 
Keep this thread active and let me know when you'll be up for dives and I'll see if I can join you.
 
Did my Y cert there in '70, and started going with my kids for their PADI cert work with Rich Morin, in Lake George @5 yrs ago. Did my rescue there last summer too. My son wants to do a Deep and a Search and Recovery cert this summer, so we'll be diving there again. If DNY does do a trip we'd be up for it; we usually camp at Hearthstone State Park.
 
Hearthstone is a great facility. Nice campgrounds, close to the village and popular with local divers. We do a lot of certification dives there with classes.

There are some things to see in the water there, a small plane in about 35', a car at 55' and a small boat also at 55'. The car and plane are off the beach. There is also a great area of small ledges off the beach that have all sorts of nooks and crannies to peer into. I believe it is leftover from the glacier that originally carved out the lake and left behind some neat rock formations.

Night dives there are very cool with tons of fish "sleeping" on the bottom.

Heartstone gets busy in the summer so I would try to make reservations in advance if camping. If just there for day use then you can get there any time but earlier is good to snag a picnic table close to the water.
 
Is there day use allowed at these facilities or do you have to be a camper? The other question I have -- is there a marked area for the scuba diving. Only dove there once by a zodiac and had a great time. Shore dives would be great.
 
Yes, there is day use here. The scuba area is not marked off but adjacent to the beach and you'll find divers set up there just about any weekend day. Some shops use the area for classes and local clubs and divers use it frequently too.

Honestly, the best dives are from boats as noted here before. If you can get acess to a boat then the quality of dives can be very high. There are walls and ledges all over the lake and make for some really cool dives.
 

Read your report on Rodgers Rock. You dove the wrong place. You have to go to the Association (north of the day use parking lot) and go around the island that's to the left. That's where you can hit about 100 ft and the rock walls. Alot of times the Association is booked, but generally if you ask the campers there, they don't mind you diving there.
 

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