Now Great Lake diving is not Caribbean diving. Its challenging requiring 7 mm diving suits. Most people prefer to dive dry. Deeper dives require dive lights and other specialized equipment. Visibility is poor providing about 10 to 40 feet on a good day and only inches on a bad day. Furthermore its cold. In the summer time the surface water temperature is about 50-60 degrees F. When you hit a thermocline it is about 40 degrees. Now of course this is all relative to where you are at and what time of the year you are diving.
People here are known to dive all year round. They dive in the summer when its warm and during the winter when it is crazy cold. So cold that the water temperature is less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the air is 17 degrees not including the wind chill.
These people include my husbands dive buddies as seen in the video. They are suiting up at Rick's house in their dry suits, walking out on the ice and jump in the water, drift dive a mile down the river, then drive the awaiting car back to Rick's house.
I'm glad that you guys had a great and safe dive. I'll join you after I have the baby and its a bit warmer!
4 comments:
I love it! My old stomping grounds! I grew up out there! We used to tube in the St. Clair River, from my girlfriend's house, and let the current take us past the Inn, alongside the boardwalk, and down to the salt plant. I was crazy, as I couldn't swim. That footage is fantastic! Hard to believe it was taken with a cheapo camera. You have to be brave and very sturdy to dive in the winter in Michigan. WOW!
Diving? You dive? In those cold, cold waters? Oy! Was it you who posted about the something-anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald a few months ago? That's a fascinating story.
Did I read somewhere that people are bringing up old logs from the Lakes and using them for lovely objects?
I do dive but not in such cold conditions. I get sick if the water is below 45F. I usually dive around July - September when the water has had a chance to warm up a bit.
I didn't post about the Edmund Fitzgerald so that must have been something else.
About bringing up objects from the lake. It happens all the time. There is this one guy that has ship wreck parts and bottles and all sorts of stuff found on the bottom of the lakes all over his house and yard. In his front yarn he has a propeller from a wreck that he salvaged.
Libby
Thanks for posting our video! Tell Ray hello, and to get in the waters with us.
~Rick
www.BrethrenoftheCoast.net
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