Halifax report/photos

[MarkH]

Could you elaborate on "a proper, civilized home-made strobe".

You stuff a small surface flash (an army surplus store on Agricola Road had them for $4-5) in a 4" ABS pipe fitting from Canadian Tire (it's the one with the internal threads in it). Then you get the ABS threaded cap to match it (they usually come included with an o-ring). That's how you open/close the housing. I have to sand down any raised letters/numbers on the sealing surfaces with fine sandpaper. Then you glue a piece of plexiglass with Aquaseal on the other end for the window (this time, I cut off the window from my busted strobe and used that). I attatched the sync cord from the crappy, leaking, "real" underwater strobe. I've also made others before without a cord, but with a "peanut slave" in the housing that's triggered by a small flash in my camera housing. Anyway, they're a cheap and easy way to get a strobe when you are off visiting somewhere, your "real" strobe craps out and you don't have time for the Ebay thing. The only problem is bringing it back on the plane without setting off a security alert. They're also not very powerful, but in our darker Northern waters, It tends to match the natural background lighting fairly well.

 

[MarkH]

Yeah, it's kind of insane actually. You'd lose your dive gear, car, boat, &/or cabin if you got caught. It's just not worth it. I'm jealous of American divers though. For some, it's their reason to dive. That wouldnt' be the case for me, but I'd still like to be able to legally grab a bug from time to time.

When I was in Halifax, I read in the paper about some guy that was arrested for bringing up 2 lobsters. I don't know what ended up happening to him, but it showed me that they do enforce those kind of things. I agree, not worth it. And to think that 50 years ago, only poor people would be caught dead eating those things.

 

[giom]

hey swankenstein great review! I am from quebec and want to go dive to
nova scotia. So is it possible to go dive there in january? Do you have any contacts you could give me?

 

[MarkH]

hey swankenstein great review! I am from quebec and want to go dive to
nova scotia. So is it possible to go dive there in january? Do you have any contacts you could give me?

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to dive there in January. The only problem is that most local divers seem to quit diving in October/November until Spring (I'm not sure why). I showed up at this place:www.nautilusaquatichobbies.com and found some divers that were still going out. I think if I went in the middle of winter I would rent a vehicle and go off exploring on my own. That way I could dive wherever and whenever I wanted.

 

[nadwidny]

It is quite possible to dive in January in the Halifax area-when I lived there I did it and a lot of my friends do it. The season never really shuts down, it just gets quieter. One reason for the diving to get quieter is the weather. The charters shut down for various reasons so shore diving is the main option and those options become more limited as the winter wears on. Winter storms regularly make shore diving impossible due to rough surface conditions. Water temps dip down to -2C. Snow makes shore access impossible. This is why a lot of my friends dive the harbour or the Northwest Arm in the middle of winter.

One thing is for certain. You can not transfer anything you know about west coast winter conditions to what may or may not be possible for the east coast diving. They are two totally different beasts. I would suggest that if anyone wants to know more about diving opportunities in Halifax, they get hold of "kennedydive" on this forum. Jason is a great resource for local diving and he dives all year round so he knows the ins and outs of the area.

 

[scuba66]

jason kennedy knows the ins and outs of wreck diving so if your not into that kind of diving then youll be shunned.