Shore Dive - Mississauga/Oakville

[electric_diver]

This thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ontario-fresh-water-freaks/233901-barrie-morrison-report.html

describes the morrison in Barrie and how to get there.

 

[grf88]

A shore dive that would fit this description would be Humber Bay West which is in Etobicoke. There are a number of dive sites in the Toronto and Oakville areas. I would suggest you download the Shipwreck Directory at:
Ontario Underwater Council

This is used in conjunction with Google Earth and will provide you with additional information and the dive sites locations.

 

[Sparhawk13401]

I have the shipwreck directory and it doesn't list any shore dives for the Mississauga/Oakville area. There's a bunch of boat dives but that's it.

That was the point of the thread - to ask if there were any spots the "locals" would hit rather than drive for an hour or two to the well-known, well used places.

 

[grf88]

It does show the Humber Bay West divesite which is the only shore dive I know of in the area where there is a point to swim around. I do not know of any shore dives in the Mississauga/Oakville area.

 

[ScubaSteve]

OK well I tested the Lake Ontario Shore Dive option by diving off an old boat launch at the east end of Coronation Park in Oakville. You can see where it is by looking at the first (top left) site shown HERE . IMHO, it was an intersting dive simply because it was somewhere that nobody had dove before (that anybody seems to know of that is), it was very limited vis making it a bit more exciting and also making navigation tougher and more critical. Other than a small surge, there was no currents to speak of and we towed a dive flag since this area was not known for scuba divers. Our first dive was about 82 minutes and was not straight out and the second dive was about 72 minutes and was straight out on an angle (this dive was started to get a bit deeper before we turned due to time). I came back from both with 1700 to 2000 psi (diving steel 120's). The dive was very shallow which was not exactly what we wanted but hey....I was at least on the right side of the surface. Other than the fact that the visibility was very poor, I would call this a very basic site. We drew a lot of attention from people close by and were asked a lot of questions (even got a couple pictures taken with people). Would I suggest this site? If you are comfortable with lower visibility diving and are an excellent underwater navigator and have superior buoyancy control (due to shallow depth).....AND just want to be underwater irrespective of depth and "excitement" then yes I would . If you need deep dives and exciting things to see.....drive 2-3 hours or pay for a charter. This site is not exciting but a good place for a quick "dip".

FYI, if we had dove another 5-10 minutes I am certain we would have hit 20-30 feet of water but even that is still shallow....especially for adventure seekers. Since I had so much air left over, if we had planned on a 2 hour dive, I am certain I could have found the 20-30 foot waters and played. By the way, when we dive, it is very slow in pace so other divers could no doubt do this quicker. I like the slow liesurely dives.

 

[twitterfox]

Thanks for the information ScubaSteve. I live in Milton, so this is particularly interesting to me. I'm a new diver and dive with my 17-year old son. We both need a bit of inexpensive practice... so if you find other sites where shore diving is possible, please let us know. We'll likely play hooky one day in September and head up to Tobermory. We have never been. I believe some of the sites there are pretty easy. I dove 3 times in Barbados recently, but it will be my son's first dive since his OW. Happy diving!!

 

[ScubaSteve]

Thanks for the information ScubaSteve. I live in Milton, so this is particularly interesting to me. I'm a new diver and dive with my 17-year old son. We both need a bit of inexpensive practice... so if you find other sites where shore diving is possible, please let us know. We'll likely play hooky one day in September and head up to Tobermory. We have never been. I believe some of the sites there are pretty easy. I dove 3 times in Barbados recently, but it will be my son's first dive since his OW. Happy diving!!

No problem twitter. I want to do this because it is fun but will be trying others because I really want other options. I am working on a more comprehensive SHORE ONLY dive list with complete "ranking" for each but until that is done this page from my site has some options for you. The other list I am working on has a large number of options but is in the infant stages at this time. Send me a PM if you are looking for more information.

 

[shark_tamer]

Hey Steve,

I just read you post now for the first time !!!

Whenever I dive here in Canada ( not to often, water is way to cold here !! ) I dive in Brockville. But this migt be too far from you.

Here's a good site of dive sites in Ontario. Hoping you'll find a site that suits you !!

Ontario Scuba Diving

Dive safe !!

 

[ScubaSteve]

Hey Steve,

I just read you post now for the first time !!!

Whenever I dive here in Canada ( not to often, water is way to cold here !! ) I dive in Brockville. But this migt be too far from you.

Here's a good site of dive sites in Ontario. Hoping you'll find a site that suits you !!

Ontario Scuba Diving

Dive safe !!

Thanks Shark. Unfortunately everything local (local in that case is 3 hours away) on that website is a charter dive. The whole point of what I am trying to do is to put together a package of "free" shore dives for divers. What I want is to dive "local" as defined to be within 1 hour of home one way maximum. Roughly 300 dives ago, I wished I had access to a list of all dive sites (more local rather than a 2+ hour drive - unfortunately Brockville is about 4-5 hours one way for me). I say that SURELY there must be local sites that we can dive if we just want to get in the water and NOT have to pay to access a charter. I just want local options.

 

[two.crows]

Steve - did you see the thread on OD where they dove the "Southern Trail" by bicycling out on Leslie Spit? Good stuff!


two.crows