Where did you solo dive today?

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

The first best dive site in all of Alberta is Lake Minnewanka, in Banff. Okay-ish vis most of the time, large historical structures to look at, good access and amenities. Even better as an ice dive in the winter! That’s quite a hike from Edmonton though, Twin Lakes is our local spot.

There’s a few other places around for the cheap and desperate but Alberta is mostly vacation divers. I try to get out to Vancouver Island twice a year.

I want to get back to my home province to go ice diving at Minnewanka, for a vacation. Take Alan Keller's course. I also want to visit the town-site underwater.

 

[Frontpointer1000]

The first best dive site in all of Alberta is Lake Minnewanka, in Banff. Okay-ish vis most of the time, large historical structures to look at, good access and amenities. Even better as an ice dive in the winter! That’s quite a hike from Edmonton though, Twin Lakes is our local spot.

There’s a few other places around for the cheap and desperate but Alberta is mostly vacation divers. I try to get out to Vancouver Island twice a year.

Where on Vancouver Island do you like to dive?

 

[Jonn]

Where on Vancouver Island do you like to dive?

I don’t even know! Had a deposit on Hornby for three years, then they folded up. I’ve been to Browning Hideaway in years past but John finally went bust for good. There’s still Gods Pocket but kinda pricy… My regular guy Jack Madro in Sidney hasn’t done much this year, although I’ll race over if he ever calls. There’s a few shops that run a boat on the weekends. I can always just put on my suit and walk into the water at Ogden Point and other shore dives.

Everyone is bitching about the tropical coral bleaching, our chilly waters are as rich as ever but the industry[/] seems endangered!

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

This thread has transformed a bit here ... lets get back on topic. Yesterday morning, I joined in my LDS for the Sun morning drop in. Due to the wind and crappy Saanich Inlet vis, the group chose Ogden Point Breakwater, at Victoria Harbour, Vancouver Island. It has been called, Canada's Best Shore Dive. My plan for the dive, was to gather as much discarded fishing line as I can. I have a small piece of thin plywood as a line winder. I hit the water at 10:21 am, on an ebb tide, which meant I would have a gentle drift, outwards. Vis was not bad for the site, 10' - 20' in a green haze. My max depth on the dive was 66', and my avg was 49'. Of course, at my SS at 20', I look to my left, and see a strand of fishing line. My SS 3 min countdown has started, and I have 500 psi. .I say awe, and go after the line. The easy part of winding it up, is the portion heading to the surface. I wind that in, and look at the line going down, then my spg. I decide, why not, and descend a bit to retrieve the line. I start fighting with the stuck line, and checking my spg. I get the line, never descending out of my Shearwater's SS zone, and immediately go to the surface, and climb out on the blocks of the breakwater. I have 200psi showing on my Spg after I fill my suit and bcd on the surface. Mission accomplished though, and I retrieved a ton of discarded line, and returned to the surface. Starting pressure, 3400 psi in a Faber Hp 100, ending, 200 psi. 30cu Catalina pony, 3000 psi to start, and finish.

 

[Ana]

This thread has transformed a bit here ... lets get back on topic.

I agree. If you go diving without other human regardless of your choice for gear please share with us.

Most of us will be happy for you, and feel free to ignore any criticisms of your choice of gear. As a general rule SOLO divers own their reasons to dive the way they do.

 

[Frontpointer1000]

Here I am on Guam.
I’m here on a contract for two months. I had set a goal to do 65 dives while on island, diving around my work schedule.

Originally I felt that was an aggressive but achievable goal. Well today was my dive number 65 on island. I still have three weeks of contract work left. I might end up hitting dive 85 on island.

Solo shore dive with the sun setting.
Today I shucked the SM gear and went for the BPW with 80 cf alum on the back and a slung 40 cf riding “my little pony.”

I dove the Piti Channel Tunnels looking for nudibranchs. Stronger current than I’ve yet experienced there.

131 minute night dive (all back gas, didn’t touch the pony) where I found six octopi and 15 nudibranch, four new species to me, three mating pairs, and three different nudibranch egg ribbons. It was unbelievable. 6 lion fish including a juvenile twinspot LF (Dendrochirus biocellatus). 2 of the octopi were out in the open, and one of them was the cutest little thing swimming around in the water, no bigger than a golf ball.

Dive #65 did not disappoint.

 

[Marie13]

I think I’m moving to my 50s for this summer’s diving unless I have a good reason to dive the 85s. The 50s are just so much easier to handle. I’m pretty much biding my time until my CCR arrives late summer/early fall.

Once the quarry warms up, I’ll be diving wetsuit and AL80s a few times in preparation for full cave in MX in early August.

 

[Frontpointer1000]

I think I’m moving to my 50s for this summer’s diving unless I have a good reason to dive the 85s. The 50s are just so much easier to handle. I’m pretty much biding my time until my CCR arrives late summer/early fall.

Once the quarry warms up, I’ll be diving wetsuit and AL80s a few times in preparation for full cave in MX in early August.

I know you’ve traditionally posted all of your experiences with your training, which I have not kept up on. So which CCR did you go with? in the spirit of solo diving, I thought you would enjoy this comment.

I think I posted earlier about how I decided to take a solo course while I was here on island, not my original intent, and I’ve been diving solo for a long time, but one of the boats required it, etc etc.

Anyway, my instructor was awesome, and I actually learned some stuff from him. Alot of advice was more technical in nature, which made me decide to finish my advanced nitrox and decompression procedures, which I started a few years ago and was stopped because of Covid. In order to do that, I went through sidemount first, because I didn’t wanna dive with doubles on my back.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my instructor is a huge fan of CCR, and just picked up the liberty side mount CCR to use as his backup/bail out in conjunction with his 80 tri-mix sidemount bail out, with a Hollis Prism II on his back. His plan is to dive CCR solo with this set up. Pretty sweet.

End of story.

 

[Marie13]

I know you’ve traditionally posted all of your experiences with your training, which I have not kept up on. So which CCR did you go with? in the spirit of solo diving, I thought you would enjoy this comment.

I think I posted earlier about how I decided to take a solo course while I was here on island, not my original intent, and I’ve been diving solo for a long time, but one of the boats required it, etc etc.

Anyway, my instructor was awesome, and I actually learned some stuff from him. Alot of advice was more technical in nature, which made me decide to finish my advanced nitrox and decompression procedures, which I started a few years ago and was stopped because of Covid. In order to do that, I went through sidemount first, because I didn’t wanna dive with doubles on my back.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my instructor is a huge fan of CCR, and just picked up the liberty side mount CCR to use as his backup/bail out in conjunction with his 80 tri-mix sidemount bail out, with a Hollis Prism II on his back. His plan is to dive CCR solo with this set up. Pretty sweet.

End of story.

Kiss Spirit. Lighter weight backmounted unit. I didn’t want a SM unit as they seem too fiddly. Plus Great Lakes wreck diving is my passion so BM unit much better for that. See my “Been Busy Diving” thread under Advanced Diving. I will probably solo dive with it, depending on how comfortable I am. I at least intend to spend some time on a platform at the local quarry at first. Can work on buoyancy and such without boring buddies. I see people solo diving on CCR fairly often. Will be SM my LP50s for dil/BO.

 

[happy-diver]

Mower man came today, can't stand the noise so I decided to go for a splash out the front of my place
Back in time to do some scratching around the joint before chillin out watching the magnificent sunset

Pretty harsh winter