Shore dived out?

[mglasspo]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the Ottawa area and will be doing some diving this weekend starting at the Connie. What I'm finding is that I'm sick of doing to same old shore dives over and over again. I will be diving this weekend with some mixed skill individuals from OW to DI. Can someone give me some suggestions for other nearby shore dives (I know about the Rothesay) that are interesting but not too challenging for the OW divers we have with us. I'm looking for a bit more spice in my dive life and we aren't doing a boat charter this weekend.

Cheers.

Mike

 

[divebuddydale]

A fun dive (within OW limits) is the Galop Canal to Connie Drift.. You go past Cardinal towards prescott, turn left on Galop Canal Road and jump in there, the drift will take you to the Connie, you need to have 2 cars, one at the Connie and one at Galop, unless you want to walk back to the other car with your equipment.


One good dive for AOW with experience would be the Lock 21, in the Long Sault Parkway, the current can be strong, but the dive is fun, I suggest you dive this with someone who has done it before though, that way you can navigate well. (the dive on the upper walkways is within limits of OW, and even may be on bottom, but you will want to make sure they are used to current before taking them there)

Rockport Wall, is good, but depending on the time of year there are restrictions for doing shore dives, because of boat traffic.

Morrisburg, has a drift dive you can do as well, I have only done it from a boat, so I am not sure where you would get in by the shore, but people do it.

Centeen Park Brockville (east of the Dive Shop in Brockville, there is a park Called Centeen Park)

Tunnel Bay (Brockville Rowing CluB) fairly basic, but if you scrounge you may find old Clay Pipes, bottles, etc, Also there are some "pet Bass" there that will allow you to feed them if you find a crayfish, one will eat out of your open hand if you kill the crayfish first.



There are probably more, ask the dive shops in the area they can point it out.


Dale

 

[Tom R]

I have listed a few also for people to enjoy

http://northerntechdiver.com/shoredives.php

Tom

 

[JimC]

There are shore dives all along the river. But exploring a new site is probably not the best thing to do with new divers.

I would probably sugest a drift in Morisburg. Easy dives, lots to see.

There are 2-3 shore dives there for beginers and 1-2 more advanced ones.

Listed easy to hard:

Start at new waterworks and jump in. Head out 10-20 feet and start drifting in the old canal. You'll find all sorts of old bottles and junk on the bottom and can explore the old water frount. After a 20-30 minute drift you head in and should surface at the new docks, a short walk from where you entered.

Start at new water works and head straight out untill you hit the far side of the old cannal. You hit the old water works dead on if you dont drift much in the current. You can explore the old foundation and and some of the old water pumping machenery here. Then you can drift down from here and hit the old power plant. You can investigate some large boilers and whats left of the building. If you head in from here you should come up around the docks.

Start at the docks and head in untill you hit the far side of the cannal passed the power station. Drift into lock 23 and explore. Current here can be heavy and there is potential to drift out into the new shipping channel. When done exploring the lock, head out the lock in the upcurrent side and head straight in. You'll come out somewhere in the park and can walk back to the docks.



There are many many other shore dives in this area. Many are not used much and poorly documented. With a bit of research and exploration the shore diveing sites are endless.

 

[mglasspo]

I've dived Lock 21, Centeen Park and those ones, I want to make it to Rockport wall sometime, but I'll print out this thread and take it with me. Luckily the divers who are just OW are fairly experienced, they're not recently certified and they know their limits well. So as long as I can find a good description of the dive or a local diver to go with us, then I'm pretty comfortable.

I'll do a bit more research this afternoon and see what I find. Luckily we'll have an instructor with us who may know some good sites. We'll see, I haven't met this guy before so I don't know him.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[taz22]

mglasspo once bubbled...
I've dived Lock 21, Centeen Park and those ones, I want to make it to Rockport wall sometime, but I'll print out this thread and take it with me. Luckily the divers who are just OW are fairly experienced, they're not recently certified and they know their limits well. So as long as I can find a good description of the dive or a local diver to go with us, then I'm pretty comfortable.

I'll do a bit more research this afternoon and see what I find. Luckily we'll have an instructor with us who may know some good sites. We'll see, I haven't met this guy before so I don't know him.

Cheers,

Mike

Have you ever consider diving in Big Rideau Lake. The vis is iexcellent and the zebra mussels bigger than a loonie. I'd be glad to introduce you to a few sites around Portland. If you come down the #416 take Roger Stevens exit into Smiths Falls, join up with Hwy #15 to Portland (approx 1 1/2 hour dive ) you never know, you might have some fun too!

 

[mglasspo]

No, I haven't considered it.. 1 1/2 hours is still within my day trip limit, so I could.. I'll have to see how much time I have later in the season. I'm trying to do one weekend diving, the next weekend off, etc. etc. so we'll see how that works out. Would you be willing to hook up?

Mike

 

[taz22]

mglasspo once bubbled...
No, I haven't considered it.. 1 1/2 hours is still within my day trip limit, so I could.. I'll have to see how much time I have later in the season. I'm trying to do one weekend diving, the next weekend off, etc. etc. so we'll see how that works out. Would you be willing to hook up?

Mike

I would certainly be willing to hook up. I have a buddy that has a dive boat on the lake and we could probably make arrangements with him and a few others to make it a party. PM me if interested.