Rescue in Two Jack Lake (Banff, AB)

[moorish8idol]

Hey folks!

I thought this summer might be a good chance to do my rescue course finally! I'm off to Malpelo at the end of the summer where it can get gnarly so thought it'd be great to have that extra safety training beforehand. However, I am currently located in Calgary and don't really have enough vacay time to spend 4 of my holiday days in a warm place doing my rescue course. One of our local dive shops is offering the course next week and I thought I might take them up on it. But the open water portion is out at Two Jack Lake and I do not have a drysuit cert and fear the water temps are going to be too cold for even the most layered up wetsuit. Anyone have personal experience diving out there in June and/or doing their rescue course in Canadian lakes (the coldest I have ever dived in was around 19 degrees and I had a 5 mm full suit with a 4 mm shortie on top and I was still chilly) and can share their experience and recommendations for someone like me?

Thanks!

 

[shurite7]

That is going to be nice and cold. I'm just south of you and dive in Glacier and Waterton. Currently the runoff is keeping the water temps down. After the snow melts then the lakes will start to warm up. Hopefully the weather will hold out with sunny days to help the heating. Waterton Lake is about the same elevation as Two Jacks. Waterton stays quite cold until August, especially when compared to Flathead, which is on the other side of the divide.

At a minimum I recommend 7mm or semi-drysuit. I just looked at the forecast for Banff and it looks like it is supposed to be rainy and quite chilly this weekend, just like here. Prep to keep yourself warm. At least you are in a beautiful area. I really like Glacier/Waterton and Banff.

 

[Jcp2]

Good luck and have fun. I used to go to Two Jack Lake in the summer to swim, and every once in a while would see divers there. I wonder if there’s interesting stuff down there to see.

 

[Saboteur]

I've dived extensively in these lakes. Water temperatures will be around 8-9C. Dives were miserable in a FarmerJohn, 7 mil attached hood. If you are not going to be only a vacation diver and live in Western Canada invest in a dry suit. There is nothing to see in these mountain lakes IMO other than Lake Minnnewanka which has an old submerged dam and township site.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I took my open water in Minnewanka in late June (a couple of decades ago), 7 mm, hood, mitts, etc. Kinda miserable fersure. Then took my AOW same lake, same get up in late Aug, iirc. Still cold but not as bad.

As someone said above, if you're going to be diving Canada and become part of the Calgary diving scene, you might as well get started with a drysuit now.

Also, phone around the shops, maybe one of them will be doing rescue at one of the city lakes.

Are you a member of Underwater Outlaws?
Feel free to contact me by pm if you would like more info about connecting with Calgary divers.

 

[moorish8idol]

Thanks for all of the replies. Hmm, it has me re-thinking whether to do it here at all or to see if the shop offers the same course a bit later in the summer. I absolutely love diving but I have little to no interest in diving here in Canada (basically my medium term goal right now is to leave Canada again because I am just so over this climate). The idea of doing rescue here and now was to be all the more prepared for potentially challenging dives in Malpelo (and for the rest of my diving career) and doing it locally just saves me "wasting" my time on a course when I have limited vacation dives and would rather be fun-diving or something else while I am somewhere nice and warm. Sounds like I would need a drysuit to do the dives here - I was in 10 mm of neoprene in Mexico in 19 degree water and still cold. 10 degrees and a 7 mm, I think I would literally die and the other students would get to do a real-life rescue protocol on me!

 

[sunnyboy]

Thanks for all of the replies. Hmm, it has me re-thinking whether to do it here at all or to see if the shop offers the same course a bit later in the summer. I absolutely love diving but I have little to no interest in diving here in Canada (basically my medium term goal right now is to leave Canada again because I am just so over this climate). The idea of doing rescue here and now was to be all the more prepared for potentially challenging dives in Malpelo (and for the rest of my diving career) and doing it locally just saves me "wasting" my time on a course when I have limited vacation dives and would rather be fun-diving or something else while I am somewhere nice and warm. Sounds like I would need a drysuit to do the dives here - I was in 10 mm of neoprene in Mexico in 19 degree water and still cold. 10 degrees and a 7 mm, I think I would literally die and the other students would get to do a real-life rescue protocol on me!

OK. A couple of things to (hopefully) help you out...

First. I did my OW from Calgary back in 2000. We went to the west coast for the actual OW dives (Porpoise Bay, sunshine coast). All we had was 7mm wetsuits with farmer john and jacket. Chilly for the second dive, fine for the first dive. I switched to drysuit in late August after the AOW course, also at Minnewanka. (and we saw the dam!).

I came back home to Calgary and dove the entire first spring/summer at Lake Minnewanka in the same wetsuit. Again, first dive fine, second dive a bit chilly. You can survive diving in Two-Jack lake (just next door to Minnewanka) in a wet suit just fine.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: The rescue course is not really diving. You will get a few dives in, but mostly you will be running into the water yelling "PIZZA" at the top of your lungs, then swimming fairly quickly to the "victim", whereupon you will be removing their gear (on the surface) while doing pretend rescue breaths and counting very loudly. I can pretty much guarantee that you will be quite warm by the time you are back in shore. There's considerable time spent on shore briefing/debriefing as well as doing land training exercises before heading to the water (i.e search & rescue).

It's an awesome experience (rescue course) and I recommend it to everyone as a very important step in one's diving career.

But don't let the wetsuit hold you back from taking it. I took my rescue course at Two Jack in the fall using my (new) drysuit and often got quite warm with all the activity. The only time I got chilly was when I got to be "victim" and was told to lay on the bottom "and hide". (part of the search and rescue portion). They didn't find me for some time, so I got chilly. Otherwise it was just a lot of fun.

 

[moorish8idol]

On another note folks, does anyone know what the time commitment is on getting the e-learning portion of the Rescue course done?

 

[borisphotosafari]

I did my dry suit course in Two Jack lake, after 15 years of diving. I thought it would be great to dive 5 minutes away from my house. It was Aug and water temp was 11C, air temp was 28C. I learned that I don't like cold water even in a dry suit.