Welland Canal Trainbridge Dive Number 126

Sunday, November 25 – 2007
10:15 – 11:25
Dive Number 126
Start: 12:00
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +4C
Water Temp: +6C
Area: Welland Canal Train Bridge – Welland, Ontario
Vehicle: Lada Niva
Weather: Mostly Cloudy
Visibility: 9m
Divers: Wolf, Jenn B.
Shore Crew / Tenders: Tori, Chuck
Maximum Depth: 11m
Plan: Train Bridge Dive

I arrived at the train bridge to find a set ot tech divers kitting up and getting ready to dive. I kitted up and used my steel 17L tank I had filled at Eric’s house last night after work. Chuck R. was one of the tenders today and arrived shortly before I. Chuck and Tori were the dive tenders today. I was the 2nd diver in the water and waited in about 3m of water for the other divers to kit up and join us. Unfortunately I had some difficulty with my weights on the dive. This is one of the first few dives I’ve conducted with the cp200 DUI drysuit with full thermal underwear. This caused some buoyancy difficulties for me throughout the dive. I believe I was overweighted.

The divers I followed around missed a lot of the interesting things at this site including the various shopping carts, rototiller and other fun objects which have made their way to the bottom. One of the divers took a lot of photographs as he went along. We did see quite a few sunken bicycles as well as a few other objects which had been down there for a while such as road signs and old buckets.

Part of the weight issue was that I had my ankle weights on, this caused me to drag my fins on the bottom and kick up a bit of silt.

We ended up leaving the train bridge area and heading off towards the boat ramp which was quite a bit away from our entry point. Around 50 bar I decided it was time for me to surface, and headed back towards the entry dock.

En-route back I noticed several rocks flying into the water ahead of me. I popped my head out of the water and saw Chuck throwing them at me – I gave him the middle finger.

When the other divers surfaced we removed our equipment and went to the Rex Hotel in Welland to relax and talk for a while.

This was the first time I have experienced any real buoyancy issues. Normally I dive with a certified PADI Professional Divemaster who was also very surprised to hear of my problem as we dive together all time without incident.

I am starting to enjoy the cold water dives with the drysuit as I do keep relatively comfortable during the length of the dive in the frigid +6C water.