Last Dive Of 2007!

Sunday, December 30 – 2007
13:00 – 14:00
Dive Number 128
Start: 13:00
Roads: Wet from Snow
Visibility: 18km
Temp: +1C
Water Temp: +1C
Area: East Main Street Bridge – Welland, Ontario
Vehicle: 1994 Blue Grand Am
Weather: Overcast
Visibility: 1m
Divers: Wolf, Paolo
Shore Crew / Tenders: Tori, Chuck
Maximum Depth: 10m
Plan: Last Dive Of 2007

Sadly, this will be the last dive I get to do in 2007. Marking almost 30 dives this year. It was a cold, rather miserable day thankfully there was no wind.

I met a new dive partner called Paolo on OntarioDiving.com who has a drysuit and can dive throughout the winter as my normal dive buddy Chuck is out of the water for the winter season.

I arrived with our dive supervisor DiveMaster Chuck and set-up the road pylons around the car and kitted up. Paolo met us and got kitted up and we headed down to the waters edge and entered by the steel dock under the Division Street Bridge.

We entered the water and it was very cold, only 1C. Thankfully my Aga mask would keep my face warmer than just having a mask and regulator.

We descended to 3M and I felt something tugging on my ankle and realised the dive float was tied around my ankle. I went up a little and Paolo untied me.

We descended down to 10m and realised the visibility here was absolutely horrid. I have never been at this location and had the visibility so bad here. We could hardly see eachother.

Continuing on with the dive, I did not see my partner and turned around to find him to see him laying on his back. The first thing that went through my mind was “This is not good”, until I realised that the line had now gotten caught around his ankle and he was trying to free himself.

I untied my partner and we headed on and trudged through the poor visibility to see only two or three bicycles as we usually can see dozens as well as only one shopping trolley as there are also many of them on the bottom.

I did find a good sized mud puppy to play with, he was very slow and docile although did try to swim away.

After around 1/2hr The poor visibility got to be too much to handle and I decided to signal to my partner it might be a good idea to abort the dive.

We surfaced and made our way back to shore and exited only to be confronted by a reporter who took a few photos and asked me to send him some via e-mail.

It wasn’t the best dive of the year, but sadly it will be the last.