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Come on down to Florida, West Palm Jupiter, the keys,Pensacola. How can you beat that. Plus cave country in central Florida.
New diver in Chicago
- Thread starter Rich Vogt
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Rich, welcome into diving and Scubaboard.
I always prefer to have my training dives in places (or similar conditions) i intend to dive most. It is also good to face more difficult environments under guidance. I find that use of skills that were trained well, easy to transfer to less demanding waters.
Your first decision should be - how often you want to dive? If this will be one of the things you will plan couple of times a year when traveling for vacation, then having your checkout dives in warm water makes lots of sense. In Florida i would suggest heading to key Largo to John Pennekamp coral reef park. East coast Florida is more affected by Gulfstream and is fun when you are a bit more experienced to enjoy drift dives.
However if you desire to engage in diving more often, local diving is the way to go. Living in Chicago, Great Lakes are your local waters. We typically dive the Great Lakes from late April ro late October, local quarries even more than that. Another decision is what you are looking for underwater? Colorful reefs and prety fish is not what you will find here, there are many places around the world to offer that and that will be in warm water.
We have a very unique treasure here called shipwrecks, that offer a one of a kind experience. Preserved by cold fresh water, there are still intact wooden schonners over 150 years old, some with their masts still standing upright. Each one has a facinating story and many still carry artifacts from the times they sailed the Great Lakes. It is a unique maritime museum not found anywhere else. If you are a person fascinated by history, if you have a soul of an explorer, i can see you falling in love with Great Lakes diving
As for cold and comfort, you will need to dress for the occasion. I won’t be warm going skiing in 5 mil T-shirt so to truly enjoy local diving, dry suit is a way to go. Some local shops will rent you one and even will have your checkout dives combined with a drysuit training. Having this done locally, it will introduce you to equipment and techniques that are helful to explore shipwrecks safely for you and for the wrecks.
To give you a sense of what you can expect to see here, this is a two masted brig Northerner that sank in 1868 and is located 3 hours north of Chicago, near Port Washington WI. It is within recreational limits, 130 ft of warer, Though advanced cert and preferably deep diver training are needed to enjoy visiting it. There are other shallower wrecks that you can visit with OW cert.
Good luck with finishing your certification
I always prefer to have my training dives in places (or similar conditions) i intend to dive most. It is also good to face more difficult environments under guidance. I find that use of skills that were trained well, easy to transfer to less demanding waters.
Your first decision should be - how often you want to dive? If this will be one of the things you will plan couple of times a year when traveling for vacation, then having your checkout dives in warm water makes lots of sense. In Florida i would suggest heading to key Largo to John Pennekamp coral reef park. East coast Florida is more affected by Gulfstream and is fun when you are a bit more experienced to enjoy drift dives.
However if you desire to engage in diving more often, local diving is the way to go. Living in Chicago, Great Lakes are your local waters. We typically dive the Great Lakes from late April ro late October, local quarries even more than that. Another decision is what you are looking for underwater? Colorful reefs and prety fish is not what you will find here, there are many places around the world to offer that and that will be in warm water.
We have a very unique treasure here called shipwrecks, that offer a one of a kind experience. Preserved by cold fresh water, there are still intact wooden schonners over 150 years old, some with their masts still standing upright. Each one has a facinating story and many still carry artifacts from the times they sailed the Great Lakes. It is a unique maritime museum not found anywhere else. If you are a person fascinated by history, if you have a soul of an explorer, i can see you falling in love with Great Lakes diving
As for cold and comfort, you will need to dress for the occasion. I won’t be warm going skiing in 5 mil T-shirt so to truly enjoy local diving, dry suit is a way to go. Some local shops will rent you one and even will have your checkout dives combined with a drysuit training. Having this done locally, it will introduce you to equipment and techniques that are helful to explore shipwrecks safely for you and for the wrecks.
To give you a sense of what you can expect to see here, this is a two masted brig Northerner that sank in 1868 and is located 3 hours north of Chicago, near Port Washington WI. It is within recreational limits, 130 ft of warer, Though advanced cert and preferably deep diver training are needed to enjoy visiting it. There are other shallower wrecks that you can visit with OW cert.
Good luck with finishing your certification
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I started out in the Chicago area 56 years ago but fortunately moved to SoCal 7 years later! As a marine biologist, quarries were not for me. Where to go should depend on what you want to see. Wrecks? Possibly Lake Michigan. Wrecks and marine life and warmer water... Florida.
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Chicago was one of the pioneer diving centers and to this day has a number of good shops and fresh water wreck divining
The early 1950s well up into the 1960s the Chicago based company "Divemaster" was well known as a dive leader and diving innovator.
The worlds first dive log was developed by the late great Dick Bonin, who later became a co founder of SCUBA pro, was marketed with limited success by Divemaster
Also the worlds first mail order SCUBA training program was developed by Californian Ellis R Cross and was the standard for dive training in the Chicago area as well as other areas. @drbill s great female friend has the distinction of holding the Divemaster training card #10
PADI was founded in a Chicago suburb of Downers Grove in 1969
There is a lot of dive history in your area - enjoy your diving
SDM
Chicago was one of the pioneer diving centers and to this day has a number of good shops and fresh water wreck divining
The early 1950s well up into the 1960s the Chicago based company "Divemaster" was well known as a dive leader and diving innovator.
The worlds first dive log was developed by the late great Dick Bonin, who later became a co founder of SCUBA pro, was marketed with limited success by Divemaster
Also the worlds first mail order SCUBA training program was developed by Californian Ellis R Cross and was the standard for dive training in the Chicago area as well as other areas. @drbill s great female friend has the distinction of holding the Divemaster training card #10
PADI was founded in a Chicago suburb of Downers Grove in 1969
There is a lot of dive history in your area - enjoy your diving
SDM
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This is the Wells Burt, a wooden schooner that went down with all hands in 1883, off Evanston. Even though it’s only in 40ft of water, it’s wonderfully preserved. These are dead eyes, which were used for managing the rigging.
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Marie13
"This is the Wells Burt, a wooden schooner that went down with all hands in 1883,"
What do you do in your spare time above water ?
Visit cemeteries and have lunch on the graves?
inquiring salt water diver would like to know
'sdm
"This is the Wells Burt, a wooden schooner that went down with all hands in 1883,"
What do you do in your spare time above water ?
Visit cemeteries and have lunch on the graves?
inquiring salt water diver would like to know
'sdm
Sam, I read a LOT on Great Lakes wrecks. The books by Cris Kohl are my favorites. I don’t dive a wreck without knowing squat about it. I even look for site plans, if they exist. Friends were on a recent GL wreck trip and sadly to say, didn’t seem do much research. While they were on their multiple hour drive to the dive site, I was taking pics of pages from my books and sending them the pics. I’ve been doing a lot of research ahead of my Alpena, MI/Thunder Bay/northern Lake Huron trip in a month. (Same trip got blown out last year the day before we left).m
I do enough research and retain enough information that I was correcting the captain on a recent dive on the Louisville in Lake Michigan. She’s an early prop driven vessel on the Great Lakes. Went down in 1857 with just one death (fireman got caught in the wash from the still turning prop and drowned). Burned to the water line. Anyway, in his briefing, the captain had the year of her sinking incorrect. I’m a stickler for history stuff and corrected the captain. We had a good laugh about it.
I’ve been a massive history buff since childhood. I read Gone with the Wind in 6th grade and I was off reading real history from then.
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Welcome to SB Rich. Its a great place to hang out during surface intervals. Friendly and knowledgeable people.
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