What are you willing to do to keep diving?

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’m just wondering how dedicated people here are.

With the pandemic closing down a lot of activities and access to foreign countries and flying, what are you willing to do to keep diving?
How about local diving, would you be willing to dive in colder local ocean waters or dive more in quarries, lakes, and rivers if that’s what you’ll have to do to stay wet?
What about going on semi local road trips to get to decent domestic diving, say a whole day or a couple days in the car and a few days camped out or in a motel?
How about needing to use a thick wetsuit for the first time or a drysuit, are you willing to do that to get in some diving?

Or, are you one of those that unless it’s bathtub water and tropical you’ll pass and just not dive?
I’m curious.

 

[lexvil]

Diving cold water is just how it is, warm water is a treat but not more than a few dives per year or less now days.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Our boat is in the shop waiting for back ordered parts. It's good to have friends with their own boats.
Phil and Merry tag along with Andy

I'm not opposed to beach diving, but our camera rigs are bigger than some divers' suitcases.

 

[ATJ]

I live in Sydney and we have awesome shore dives. I really haven't missed a beat and have pretty much dives 3 times a week right through the pandemic. I'm not all that interested in travelling for diving at the moment.

I do long dives so am in my drysuit just about all year round.

 

[Marie13]

Most of you know I’m a die hard Great Lakes wreck diver. If I can’t get on the lake, I’ll dive one of the quarries in the region.

My local quarry (Haigh near Kanakee, IL) should have opened the first weekend of April, but didn’t open until June 1 due to the stupid plague. That meant I’ve lost two months practice for my tech class. I have driven to Ohio multiple times to quarry dive, both over the winter (November and March) when local quarry was closed, as well as to dive this spring when Haigh wasn’t open yet due to the stupid plague. Ohio is also a place to dive with tech trained friends from MI and OH for class practice. I’ll be driving to OH next week to dive there again.

Due to being currently out of work, I’m diving mostly three days a week. Now that I’m available during the week, I have friends who I can dive with during the week. Better viz with fewer students stirring up the bottom.

Local quarry is 90 minutes away. Quarries in OH and WI are a 4 to 5 hour drive. At least one night in a hotel. I know the good ones by now.

 

[D_Fresh]

I'm pretty lucky to be in the Philippines, though a bit unlucky to be in Manila for all of this.... But we have amazing shore dives within an hour or two dive of my house... So as soon as my area is allowed, I'll be in the water. The only issue at the moment is a lack of access to cylinders... But that should be rectified soon. Travel to different islands is still not allowed, but should also open up soon.

 

[Esprise Me]

I'm lucky to have good local shore diving with water that isn't too cold for me. While I spent a lot on local boat dives and dive travel, and look forward to getting back to it, I'm currently just doing more of a particular kind of diving I enjoyed before.

 

[David Novo]

I have been diving in Porto (my hometown), which has probably the worst visibility in the country (0-10m). There are however some cool wrecks, such as a German Uboat submarine.

I already did more dives here during the last month than on the last three years.

I would usually go to Sesimbra or Peniche (closer to Lisbon) but Lisbon is the region of the country with more new cases. North of Spain would also be an option if the border would not be closed.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I’ve always been a local and short road trip diver. I’ve never taking a ‘dive trip’ per se where you fly some distance for the primary purpose of diving. Never.

My first decade as a diver I dived the quarries & lakes of the Midwest and the Great Lakes. My furthest dive focused trips were the 15 hr drive to Morehead City NC or the 17 hrs for Cavern/Spring diving in North Florida.

Now I live in South Florida and all of my diving is here locally.

For me the pandemic hasn’t changed my diving at all. The only impact was the 6 weeks of lock down when the beaches were closed & boats weren’t running. Otherwise it’s business as usual for how I dive.

 

[MichaelMc]

I think we are the wrong group to ask that question of.

I'll put on a 10mm top with hood, drive 2hrs, view 60 degree water as really warm, wear a mask and physically distance while getting gas. (Just like normal except the mask and distancing.)