New Diver in Ontario

[Luke99]

So after speaking with Kelly from Divers Den in tobermory i have learned that they have a season pass for $450 that offers unlimited rental gear and air fills. Which is fantastic news for us to get a bunchhhh of diving in the season more affordably before we decide if we should purchase cold water gear.

So now the question I have is, what kind of shore diving options do we have near Tobermory?

I know about the tugs and lighthouse wall dive. I cant find much else from googling shore dives near Tobermory.

Are there any else in the area that you know about? I have read that you can possibly get in at the light house and swim down the right bank and get to the sweepstakes, not sure if this is advisable though haha.

 

[jvanostrand]

You need to place a diver down float. I suggest you buy an SMB and a finger spool and use a block of lead as an anchor. Or you can tow it.

There are two common dive sites:
The Tugs: Located on Bay St near the intersection of Earl St. There's a deck there, a bathroom and a map of the shipwrecks in the area. Most of them are just boards, but you can see some skeletons close the entrance. The Alice G is your target there. It's maybe a 20 minute swim to the right of the entrance. It's a good 10 ft to 50 ft deep dive and rarely that cold. Parking is right there, but go early, it fills up quickly.

The Lighthouse: Located at the end of Big Tub road. Entry is either straight ahead from the road or to the right. Depths there reach 60 ft quickly. Nice rock formations. Follow the bottom wall to the left or to the right. It's not allowed to cross the bay or swim down to the Sweepstakes/City of Grand Rapids wrecks. Parking is right there, but go early.

The Anchor used to be a dive, it might still be. It's at Highway 6 where it meets Big Tub road. Just go straight and you'll see shore access down some large rocks there. The wall drops off fast to about 60 ft, if you head east you can encounter an abandoned anchor. For parking you'll have to drop your gear there and repark the car across from the Legion and walk back.

If you know people there or rent a cottage on shore you can dive from shore at places like the Sweepstakes or the "Back Wall" (off Trails End Lodge.)

Dave's Bay, a.k.a Little Cove: the location is just south of Tobermory. When you see the sign for the airport, turn the other way. The road there used to go all the way down to the shore, but they've blocked it off and it's a 1km walk downhill to the water. In the peak months you have to reserve a parking spot. The rock formations there are amazing, with pothole rocks. I recall getting about 50 ft there, a shallow slope. One kilometer off shore is where the Niagara II shipwreck is. Foiks with scooters can reach it, or take a boat.

The Grotto: Further south of Tobermory is the Grotto. It's a heck of a hike to get there but I'm sure some divers have done it. A cart with pneumatic wheels might help a lot. The rock formations there are amazing with house sized boulders leaning against cliff walls. the grotto is an open cave with two underwater tunnels going to it. It's fun to surface there (carefully because folks jump off rocks), it shocks people a little. This is an easy dive when done by boat.

Lions Head: About 30 minutes south of Tobermory is the town of Lion's Head. There are some small shipwrecks off the beach there. I've not dived it but friends have.

Cedar Hill: About 1 hour from Tobermory, Located on Grey Road 1 about 10 minutes east of Wiarton is the part of Cedar Hill. There is a covered structure and picnic tables there as well as a bathroom. Parking is also right there. Head due north from the covered structure and you'll run into lots of stuff fo see at about 40 ft. Including a geodesic dome, windmill, skeletons, deeper is the Eiffel tower, rocket ship, etc. It's a common place to dive. The shallow slope takes about 10 minutes to get to 40 ft. In 20 minutes you can get to 130 ft. It's tough for newer divers to get to 130 because of gas consumption and you'll likely run out of NDL trying.

Then you have lots of boat dives to choose from. My favourites are The Forest City, Arabia, Niagara II. All the wrecks and locations are good in their own way. Some shallow wrecks are beat up but still have metal hardware on them.

You could spend most of your summer weekends on shore dives since it takes a while to take some of them in and punctuate it occasionally with a boat dive.

 

[davecampbell]

Hey Luke, welcome to Scubaboard, and the rabbit hole of coldwater great lakes diving. Its a wonderful thing, but is significantly different from the diving you've done. I checked my logbook from last year, and the temps I had on the Maple Dawn and the Marquette were 68F. Toby is far colder, even when shallow. You will need a good 7mm suit minimum, hood, gloves, and boots, and possibly an added vest depending on conditions. It wont be fun if you're not comfortable. They say most people dive Toby wet........once. Its not actually true, but for what it's worth, we purchased drysuits after our first real season of diving locally.

We (my wife and I) do a mixture of group diving with a couple shops we frequent, and a bunch of walk-on charter stuff on our own. We dive primarily with Dan's Dive Shop out of St. Catharines, and also sometimes with Float and Flag in Burlington. Both shops have charters and local trips that would be of interest to you, and is an excellent way to get the feel of Coldwater. Dan's has weekly Wednesday night dives, but they're all in the Niagara region, so a bit far from you. I'm sure local shops must have similar events in your area. You almost need an LDS to get started diving here, based on the requirements for experience to get on the charters. It was with a shop trip (FnF) that we did our first diving in Toby. We had done our training with them (ow, aow) and were accompanied by instructors and DMs over the weekend. We also got to meet the staff @ Divers' Den, and they got to know us. That got us the required experience to be able to pursue the walk on charters on our own. We were coldwater from the get go, so not sure how warm water trained divers are handled. Maybe taking a course with Divers'Den would be the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish your "vetting", and get the experience.

When in Toby, we're in drysuits and this season we'll be diving double steels. We tend to focus primarily on the morning advanced charters which are reasonably deep and quite cold. My wife really has a thing for the Arabia.... and I love the Niagara II and Forest City. Not the best dives for someone starting out.

As for the equipment, you really have to decide if this is something that you are seriously going to pursue, as the cost of coldwater diving can be significant. You want to know you'll be diving frequently to justify spending the thousands of dollars it's going to cost to get setup properly. If we were renting everything all the time we wouldn't likely get out nearly as often, both from a cost perspective and also from convenience.

Anyway, I'm by no means an expert, but I'm happy to answer any questions I can regarding gear, Toby, etc...
Hope this helps a little, and best of luck.

 

[jvanostrand]

Dave's response reminded me of something I should have mentioned. You can dive these waters with a 7MM wetsuit just fine, although avid divers usually justify the cost of a dry suit. You'll be renting a wetsuit. 7MM is very buoyant and often divers will use a dual-layer "jacket and johns" two-piece suit providing 14mm of protection to your torso. In my case, that means 30 lbs of lead, which is a lot to don. One way to reduce the lead you need is to switch to steel tanks. The high pressure (3443 PSI) tanks are often about 3 to 5 lbs heavier than Aluminum 80s so you can take that off your belt. It doesn't sound like much, but it matters. Also because of the bulk you may find that you go through air faster than on tropical dives. While the AL80 is common in the tropics, the common tank I see is an HP Steel 100 cu ft. That extra air is handy and sometimes you can get two short or shallow dives from one fill.

Divers seem compelled to reduce lead because they think having a lot of lead is a sign they're a bad diver. While it's true that new divers tend to need more lead, and when they become more efficient, calm their breathing and fine-tune their buoyancy skills they usually need less. At some point the only way they can lose lead is to reduce thermal protection. So going from a 7mm to a 5mm, which you can do in the summer in shallow lakes, but it'd be crazy for most people to dive a 5mm in the Great Lakes. You could also go from a two-piece 7mm to a single layer 7mm but you'd also be sacrificing warmth. I've found a dry suit is warmer with less lead than a wet suit, but even then I'll add an additional 5 lbs of lead at this time of year to have a larger bubble in my suit. Wet suits costs about $1 for every mm of thickness, whereas a dry suit starts at $2K and then you need extras like undergarments ($1,000,) a dry hood ($100) and you may want things like suspenders and field replaceable and more comfortable silicone seals, a bag. You'll also likely want new gloves or dry gloves ($300.) Then the boots on the dry suit may not fit your fins so new fins might be needed. The upside is that diving this time of year is much more comfortable.

The real reason to reduce lead needs is so you don't have to carry that much weight on land and struggle to don it. That's where things like getting less buoyant tanks, or going with a stainless steel backplate/harness starts to make sense.

 

[davecampbell]

PS... one word you'll be very interested in if you decide Great Lakes diving is for you.... Seaskin

 

[Luke99]

You need to place a diver down float. I suggest you buy an SMB and a finger spool and use a block of lead as an anchor. Or you can tow it. We did buy those last year so got em!

There are two common dive sites:
The Tugs: Located on Bay St near the intersection of Earl St. There's a deck there, a bathroom and a map of the shipwrecks in the area. Most of them are just boards, but you can see some skeletons close the entrance. The Alice G is your target there. It's maybe a 20 minute swim to the right of the entrance. It's a good 10 ft to 50 ft deep dive and rarely that cold. Parking is right there, but go early, it fills up quickly.

The Lighthouse: Located at the end of Big Tub road. Entry is either straight ahead from the road or to the right. Depths there reach 60 ft quickly. Nice rock formations. Follow the bottom wall to the left or to the right. It's not allowed to cross the bay or swim down to the Sweepstakes/City of Grand Rapids wrecks. Parking is right there, but go early.

The Anchor used to be a dive, it might still be. It's at Highway 6 where it meets Big Tub road. Just go straight and you'll see shore access down some large rocks there. The wall drops off fast to about 60 ft, if you head east you can encounter an abandoned anchor. For parking you'll have to drop your gear there and repark the car across from the Legion and walk back.

If you know people there or rent a cottage on shore you can dive from shore at places like the Sweepstakes or the "Back Wall" (off Trails End Lodge.)

Dave's Bay, a.k.a Little Cove: the location is just south of Tobermory. When you see the sign for the airport, turn the other way. The road there used to go all the way down to the shore, but they've blocked it off and it's a 1km walk downhill to the water. In the peak months you have to reserve a parking spot. The rock formations there are amazing, with pothole rocks. I recall getting about 50 ft there, a shallow slope. One kilometer off shore is where the Niagara II shipwreck is. Foiks with scooters can reach it, or take a boat.

The Grotto: Further south of Tobermory is the Grotto. It's a heck of a hike to get there but I'm sure some divers have done it. A cart with pneumatic wheels might help a lot. The rock formations there are amazing with house sized boulders leaning against cliff walls. the grotto is an open cave with two underwater tunnels going to it. It's fun to surface there (carefully because folks jump off rocks), it shocks people a little. This is an easy dive when done by boat.

Lions Head: About 30 minutes south of Tobermory is the town of Lion's Head. There are some small shipwrecks off the beach there. I've not dived it but friends have.

Cedar Hill: About 1 hour from Tobermory, Located on Grey Road 1 about 10 minutes east of Wiarton is the part of Cedar Hill. There is a covered structure and picnic tables there as well as a bathroom. Parking is also right there. Head due north from the covered structure and you'll run into lots of stuff fo see at about 40 ft. Including a geodesic dome, windmill, skeletons, deeper is the Eiffel tower, rocket ship, etc. It's a common place to dive. The shallow slope takes about 10 minutes to get to 40 ft. In 20 minutes you can get to 130 ft. It's tough for newer divers to get to 130 because of gas consumption and you'll likely run out of NDL trying.

Then you have lots of boat dives to choose from. My favourites are The Forest City, Arabia, Niagara II. All the wrecks and locations are good in their own way. Some shallow wrecks are beat up but still have metal hardware on them.

You could spend most of your summer weekends on shore dives since it takes a while to take some of them in and punctuate it occasionally with a boat dive.

This is some great info, espesically about the sites other then the tugs and light house. Though Wiarton is another hour drive there and back this sounds like a good option if we get bored of the other sites after a few weekends diving them. Im sure we will hit up all the ones you mentioned near toby, and maybe ask around at divers den if there are any not so known ones!

I think we will chat with divers den staff a bunch as we do shore dives for several weekends at the beginning of the season with this season pass offer they have. Then see if we can get on the afternoon open water charters charters. Do that a few weekends and hopefully they will be comfortable with us joining the morning advanced. If not thats ok, maybe we can do a course with them like dry suit or wreck. I am a bit concerned about my air consumption for those more advanced dives. I have noticed in the past even in the tropics i get a bit chilly some times and it makes me burn through gas more. So in cold water this could be an issue with a 7mm suit which is what DD rents. Guess we will see!

After a season of doing this, I think we will be ready to decide if its for us and we should invest in the whole kit, or if we would prefer to just stick with the tropics!

Thanks again for the amazing info and the time it took to inform me

 

[Luke99]

Hey Luke, welcome to Scubaboard, and the rabbit hole of coldwater great lakes diving. Its a wonderful thing, but is significantly different from the diving you've done. I checked my logbook from last year, and the temps I had on the Maple Dawn and the Marquette were 68F. Toby is far colder, even when shallow. You will need a good 7mm suit minimum, hood, gloves, and boots, and possibly an added vest depending on conditions. It wont be fun if you're not comfortable. They say most people dive Toby wet........once. Its not actually true, but for what it's worth, we purchased drysuits after our first real season of diving locally.

We (my wife and I) do a mixture of group diving with a couple shops we frequent, and a bunch of walk-on charter stuff on our own. We dive primarily with Dan's Dive Shop out of St. Catharines, and also sometimes with Float and Flag in Burlington. Both shops have charters and local trips that would be of interest to you, and is an excellent way to get the feel of Coldwater. Dan's has weekly Wednesday night dives, but they're all in the Niagara region, so a bit far from you. I'm sure local shops must have similar events in your area. You almost need an LDS to get started diving here, based on the requirements for experience to get on the charters. It was with a shop trip (FnF) that we did our first diving in Toby. We had done our training with them (ow, aow) and were accompanied by instructors and DMs over the weekend. We also got to meet the staff @ Divers' Den, and they got to know us. That got us the required experience to be able to pursue the walk on charters on our own. We were coldwater from the get go, so not sure how warm water trained divers are handled. Maybe taking a course with Divers'Den would be the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish your "vetting", and get the experience.

When in Toby, we're in drysuits and this season we'll be diving double steels. We tend to focus primarily on the morning advanced charters which are reasonably deep and quite cold. My wife really has a thing for the Arabia.... and I love the Niagara II and Forest City. Not the best dives for someone starting out.

As for the equipment, you really have to decide if this is something that you are seriously going to pursue, as the cost of coldwater diving can be significant. You want to know you'll be diving frequently to justify spending the thousands of dollars it's going to cost to get setup properly. If we were renting everything all the time we wouldn't likely get out nearly as often, both from a cost perspective and also from convenience.

Anyway, I'm by no means an expert, but I'm happy to answer any questions I can regarding gear, Toby, etc...
Hope this helps a little, and best of luck.

This is a concern of mine as well. I honestly get chilly near the end of dives in 80F water with a 2mm shortie. So in the cold great lake water this may be something I need to get used to, especially since DD rents 2 piece 7MM wets. I definitely could see investing in a dry, or maybe a semi dry depending on how often we think we will go. Semi dry does seem like a good option for the kind of diving I would likely do locally.

Maybe i can rent one somewhere to test it out to see if its worth it for me first.

Hi @Luke99 and welcome to SB.
Depending on where you are, I have found several options. My LDS and dive clubs offer local trips. My LDS offers dry suit course and the cost of the course can be used as a discount to buying a suit, so the course is basically free.
I still can’t get myself back into cold water diving. I went to Lake Simcoe. I prefer warm water.

Sorry somehow missed you reply. This would be great if a LDS did this, i have not seen this posted on any of their websites but maybe its something i could ask about! What LDS are you talking about with this offer if you don't mind me asking?

 

[davecampbell]

if you're going to go the season pass route, and plan on going a bunch, think about booking your accommodation sooner rather than later. Things book up fast as the season approaches. We stay at the Harborside motel, since it's steps (literally) down to the dock, takes care of the parking issues, and is super convenient. You can basically park once and everything is walkable.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Hi There,

I am new here so hello everyone!

Thought I would poll you guys on your thoughts for how a newer diver could/should get into the diving scene in Ontario.

Background:
Padi OW Certified in Grenada in Jan 2022.
Padi Nitrox June 2022 and dove twice on nitrox up near Penetanguishene Ontario on the Maple dawn and Marquette as part of that cert package.
Padi AOW in Roatan Sept 2022 plus quite a few fun dives.
6 Basic fun dives in Puerto Plata, Dominican Jan 2023
25 Total Dives including training dives.

I am definitely hooked on diving at this point. I prefer diving in the warmer waters of the Caribbean but I do want to experiment diving locally more as well, especially Tobermory. I have up to this point been diving with my wife but my interest is a bit more obsessive then hers I think lol.

I don't own most gear, have warm water fins, computer, and mask. So diving locally is expensive having to rent gear every time, and I don't have a local dive buddy. The cost of renting gear locally really has been the main barrier to diving more here, so I might have to just bite the bullet and spend what I need to dive in here and in cold water (wetsuit(or if i really want to invest, drysuit + cert), BP/W, reg, etc), but I need a buddy that wants to dive with me since the wife likely wont.

So what's the best way to find a like minded/experience level dive buddy for the odd weekend dive in Ontario? (within a few hours of the GTA). If anyone has recommendations that would be appreciated, or anyone here in a similar situation and skill level and would be looking for a buddy now come summer!

Where are you in Ontario?

 

[davecampbell]

Where are you in Ontario?

think he said around Barrie