Seeking cold water divers

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Fellows:

I have been thinking about putting together a local dive group that would travel within US and around the world to document lesser known or totally undiscovered diving locations. If we have enough interest, we can then start a journal publication or website that will be committed to bringing new and previously unheard off dive destinations to the attention of the general diving community. Most of these places will be cold water places (though we can not rule out some warmer areas). So far my list includes:

1). Acadia, Maine (Some beautiful shore diving can be done while camping there)
2). NFL and Labrador (Canada)
3). Hudson Bay (Northern Ontario where land ends and Arctic begins)
4). Ice Land
5). Alaskan Coast
6) Greenland
7). Norway
8). Crater Lake (This is inside the mouth of a flooded volcano in Oregon and is an altitude dive)
9). Point Barrow Alaska

Some of these places have a little diving infrastructure while others have none. Point Barrow for example is 330 miles inside the Arctic circle and has no road access. Hudson Bay is also near Arctic without road access. Diving in these areas will require transporting compressor, tanks and to these locations etc. If we could bring back detailed maps of dive sites along with photographs and information for future divers, we may be able to get partial sponsorship.

If this type of diving interests you please get in touch with me. I look forward to getting in touch with like-minded people and taking this idea forward ...one step at a time

Regards -

Sinbad

 

[Doppler]

Contact Mike Robertson. He works as a consultant with me at Silent Diving (PM me for his email address) and is a specialist in cold-water diving. He regularly dives in the arctic... polar bears, whales, colorful invertebrates... all that stuff. He is also associated with a company that organizes expeditions to the far north.

Good luck with sponsorship. TV channels have virtually stopped fronting money to production companies and manufacturers expect a name... even guys I know who shoot for Nat. Geo. and who are working at places like woods hole have a tough time getting support. Engage someone who can write grant applications.

 

[Peter_C]

For now Crater Lake is off limits. We had talked about diving there.
Threat of Invasive Species to Temporarily Close Crater Lake to Scuba - Crater Lake National Park

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Contact Mike Robertson. He works as a consultant with me at Silent Diving (PM me for his email address) and is a specialist in cold-water diving. He regularly dives in the arctic... polar bears, whales, colorful invertebrates... all that stuff. He is also associated with a company that organizes expeditions to the far north.

Good luck with sponsorship. TV channels have virtually stopped fronting money to production companies and manufacturers expect a name... even guys I know who shoot for Nat. Geo. and who are working at places like woods hole have a tough time getting support. Engage someone who can write grant applications.

Thanks so much Doppler. I am a TV producer myself so I will be able to write proposals and grant applications when it comes to that. I may also be able to have my employing company partially sponsor some of the projects. VOA has sponsored a lot of my diving documentaries in the past. Their sponsorship will most likely come in the form television production support (camera crew, editing, graphics) and more importantly their global distribution which will give us an air slot on their international broadcasts. They will not pay for the travel and the dives themselves. For that, we will eventually have to approach manufacturers.

As of now, I am not looking for that. My primary goal is to just get together with a group of like-minded people and explore some of these places in our own time in a much more casual setting. Instead of going to Bonaire or Bahamas next year, I would like to head towards one of these places. Even without any sponsorship we will still be able to bring back still photographs, dive maps, GPS locations of reefs etc. This we can share with the rest of the diving community through an online publication, web page or even a facebook page. All this will be more towards diving community that is looking for new places to dive than general TV audience. Now some of these expeditions may even have stories that are bigger than diving audience and are of interest to global TV audience. That is when VOA can come in and then we will also be in a position to approach manufacturers for their help.

At any level it is a win win situation.

 

[randy88k5]

I'm interested. PM sent.