cstreu1026
Contributor
Anyone planning on diving portage quarry this coming weekend?
Portage Quarry
- Thread starter cstreu1026
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wrecNcaver
Contributor
Are you talking about the Portage Quarry just south of Bowling Green Ohio? I dove that many years ago. Rather go to Whitestar or Gilboa. Have you tried either of those?
OP
cstreu1026
Contributor
I will be doing part of my AOW there Saturday and part on Sunday at Gilboa.
I'm planning on going to Portage Saturday afternoon and sitcking around for a night dive. It'll be my first visit there - looking forwsrd to it. The map paints a nice picture.
Sunday is either staying there, or going down the road to Whitestar or Gilboa. If ya see a Blue 2DR Explorer with Illinois plates - that'd be me....
Sunday is either staying there, or going down the road to Whitestar or Gilboa. If ya see a Blue 2DR Explorer with Illinois plates - that'd be me....
I don't plan on diving this weekend, but I know enough about the quarry to answer questions....
How does Portage compare to Whitestar or Gilboa...?
Realistic Visability?
Wrecks?
Staff?
Facilities?
Crowd?
Places to camp your gear? Picnic tables, grass, gravel, wooded, etc... Any docks, or all beach/walk-in entries?
netmage
Hands down, Gilboa is the place to go. The silo at Portage is (maybe) the only thing they have going for them. Kinda slick to hang out at the top of it and have the fish interact with you. If you are into that sort of thing, you get that at Gilboa on the bus.Fairly shallow, going off memory,maybe in the 40'-50' range (haven't been there in a quite a while.) My info is dated (last fall) so maybe they added a few things since then. Went there just to try a different spot...haven't been back since.
Whitestar, well..it's wet
Good place to practice buoyancy (dunes). A couple weeks ago a good buddy of mine showed me how to go through the police car... with doubles on... sideways... (name withheld to protect the guilty ). The???? crud...I forget what its called...the crusher possibly??? I thought was nice. Drop down to around 68-70' then follow it up to shallower depth.
Either way...have a good time and let us know what impressions it makes on you.
Best Regards
Don
Hands down, Gilboa is the place to go. The silo at Portage is (maybe) the only thing they have going for them. Kinda slick to hang out at the top of it and have the fish interact with you. If you are into that sort of thing, you get that at Gilboa on the bus.Fairly shallow, going off memory,maybe in the 40'-50' range (haven't been there in a quite a while.) My info is dated (last fall) so maybe they added a few things since then. Went there just to try a different spot...haven't been back since.
Whitestar, well..it's wet
Good place to practice buoyancy (dunes). A couple weeks ago a good buddy of mine showed me how to go through the police car... with doubles on... sideways... (name withheld to protect the guilty
). The???? crud...I forget what its called...the crusher possibly??? I thought was nice. Drop down to around 68-70' then follow it up to shallower depth. Either way...have a good time and let us know what impressions it makes on you.
Best Regards
Don
lisa4516
Contributor
My husband, brother in law, sister in law and I are going to Portage Saturday am. Going to check it out since their daughter's boyfriend is doing his open water there in a few weeks and we are planning to go along to support him. Decided to go down there tomorrow and see what is what. We plan to leave the Detroit area around 8:30 am. Gilboa is next on the list. Just want to work on buoyancy and skills a bit more before we go there!We have new wetsuits (7mil) and are still adjusting to the difference from 3 mils or skins!
Well, of the three dive sites, I'd rate protage 3.
Viz on average is 20 to 40ft at depth....less in the training area...there is a map of the quarry at www.portagequarry.com
There are no wrecks, and the silo is something they have had deaths in before.....there is a bus and a new semi trailer they dropped last year. There is also an airplane a couple of boats, a crucified diver, a motorcycle, and a few other underwater platforms.
Most of the entry points are wade in rock, so it is slippery, on the far side there is a beach entry point
It is an all outdoor facility, there is no running water...thus the facilities are pop-a-squats and out houses. It is first and foremost a rustic camp ground. During the summer Portage caters mostly to people who bring their campers up and stay for the season...thus there is not a lot of support for the divers who do show up.
If you want to camp, and would like to sleep, I'd suggest staying a little further away from the masses from what I understand, I have never camped there.
Portage really isn;t the most diver-friendly site there is. IT is a hole in the ground that has some neat stuff to see, but it isn't a place I'd recommend going and staying the nite. I'd only suggest diving there if you want nothing from the shop other than a quarry to dive in...you have all your gear and gas, and are ready to pack-up and leave when finished.
Visited Portage on Saturday and Gilboa on Sunday... Both were nice. I'd rank Gilboa and Portage closely tied at numbers 1 & 2. (Gilboa probably has an edge up due to having warm showers available for a post dive cleanup.) Whitestar at #3... (then again, I've only been there once, and my navigation sucked... We entered on the far side and never made it to the other side where the rock crusher/tunnel is.)
Since everyone knows about Gilboa - I'll summerize Portage...
Fairly nice, lots of stuff to see underwater. The semi-trailer swim through was very cool. There was what looks like the remnants of an old dock, cement/rock wall with wooden platform suspended out. Weaving under that gave a very surreal flying sensation.....
My only gripes are:
a> The fills
The do wet fills VERY fast and accordingly low.... I had my new HP100's and he had them filled in under 2 minutes. Rated to 3180 without the 10% I ended up with 2800-2900 when in the water.
b> The entries
Wadeing onto a concrete ledge in 1-2feet of water to put fins on with sharp rock edges and one very nasty looking pipe sticking out of the concrete was no fun. Practically had to crawl out at one point.
The pluses:
a> They have grass! Sorry the whole forest thing going at Gilboa is nice for the shade, but the bugs (killer dragonfly's and mosquito's) & walking around in dirt/mud, rocks sticks leaves is no fun...
b> Lots of interesting stuff scattered in a relatively small area. Swimming along the sheer walls make for a fun dive, and tons of fish everywhere... I swear we saw two 4+ft in length...
All in all the weekend was a great success. Well worth the 9 hours of driving... Got in 6 dives over two days. Awesome weather - not too hot, not too cold, very little rain.... Looking forward to going back to the area in two weeks.
Since everyone knows about Gilboa - I'll summerize Portage...
Fairly nice, lots of stuff to see underwater. The semi-trailer swim through was very cool. There was what looks like the remnants of an old dock, cement/rock wall with wooden platform suspended out. Weaving under that gave a very surreal flying sensation.....
My only gripes are:
a> The fills
The do wet fills VERY fast and accordingly low.... I had my new HP100's and he had them filled in under 2 minutes. Rated to 3180 without the 10% I ended up with 2800-2900 when in the water.
b> The entries
Wadeing onto a concrete ledge in 1-2feet of water to put fins on with sharp rock edges and one very nasty looking pipe sticking out of the concrete was no fun. Practically had to crawl out at one point.
The pluses:
a> They have grass! Sorry the whole forest thing going at Gilboa is nice for the shade, but the bugs (killer dragonfly's and mosquito's) & walking around in dirt/mud, rocks sticks leaves is no fun...
b> Lots of interesting stuff scattered in a relatively small area. Swimming along the sheer walls make for a fun dive, and tons of fish everywhere... I swear we saw two 4+ft in length...
All in all the weekend was a great success. Well worth the 9 hours of driving... Got in 6 dives over two days. Awesome weather - not too hot, not too cold, very little rain.... Looking forward to going back to the area in two weeks.
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