From: adb@herboid.uucp (Anthony DeBoer)
Subject: Re: Diving in Canada?
Organization: Linda's Dragon Memorial Society
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 04:21:08 GMT

In article <SCUBA-L%92070809261909@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU> ADP64@MSU.BITNET (Tony.Kuhlman) writes:
>Stefan (UH51@DKAUNI2.BITNET) asks:
>
>>Hello everyone!
>>I'm diving in Germany, not for too long and will be studying in Waterloo
>>Canada for one year starting this September. Are there places to dive in
>>this region, and is it good to take my wet suit with me, or is it better
>>to rent the complete gear there. Are there diving shops around?
>>What's all this about turning to bush into a verb? I'm not a native
>>English speaker and probably therefore miss the point.
>>bye, Stefan Ruhl  UH51@DKAUNI2.Bitnet or UH51@rz.uni-karlsruhe.dbp.de

>  I'm not sure where Waterloo is in Canada,

It's in southern Ontario, about an hour's drive west of Toronto.  It's the
western half of the Kitchener-Waterloo city area.  There are at least a
couple of universities in town (U of Waterloo is the big one, and my
sister is studying at Laurier).  Kitchener used to be called Berlin,
Ontario, until World War I, when it got renamed.  There are still a lot of
German people in and around the area, and Stefan will NOT be missing
Oktoberfest this year.  There is at least one dive shop that I know of in
K-W, but there are a lot in Toronto and it's probably worth shopping
around there.

> ... but it's probably safe to say that
>you will be diving in cold water.  In my (limited) experience in diving in
>Canada, I found water temperatures to be 50 - 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 - 16
>degrees Centigrade) during the summer.  If you are comfortable diving in your
>wetsuit in this temperature range, and the cost of transporting it is not too
>high, then bring it.  The alternative is to buy or rent a wetsuit or drysuit
>in Canada.  Most people here are using drysuits.

People use both wetsuits and drysuits here; you do have to limit your dive
times a bit in a wetsuit on deeper dives and in the colder months, depending
on how hardy you are.  Below about 30 feet, in deeper bodies of water,
you can count on 40 degree Fahrenheit (5C) water all summer, although the
surface may warm up to 70F (20C).  I have gone through thermoclines where
the temperature passed between those values in a matter of a few feet.
Shallower bodies of water may be warmer right down.

One of your nearest dive sites would be the quarry at Innerkip, Ontario,
one highway exit west of Waterloo.  It's not the best dive site, but it
offers a lot of interesting things on the bottom (two old aircraft, an
old mineshaft, a schoolbus, a car, a van, a boat, a newspaper box, etc.)
and it gets really warm in summer, being only about 25' deep over most of
its area (50' down the mineshafts, but be careful there and stay out of
the horizontal branch tunnel where two divers got killed doing a cave
penetration they weren't ready for).  It's an excellent compass navigation
dive if you get some of the bearings between the things on the bottom.
Do use some Burosol or other medication in your ears and don't get an
infection like some divers have, from all the ducks who live there.

There is much better diving a few hour's drive north, in Tobermory, with a
lot of old shipwrecks.  There are other shipwrecks all over Ontario, and a
year isn't long enough to see them all, but Tobermory has the most in a
small area.  There are a lot of other good ones around; try to get out to
Kingston and see the Cornwall and the Wolfe Islander.  The Waome, in Lake
Muskoka, is another good one.  Finding a good dive club is probably the
best way to get to some of the dives, but be careful and remember your
training.  Some clubs are very serious about safety, but others are more
serious about partying.  I'm not sure what sorts of club(s) might be
around there.

>However, you should know
>that Canada imposes a luxury tax on dive equipment, and so prices may be
>higher than what you expect them to be.  I think the tax rate is something
>like 20%, but I could be wrong.  Imagine people thinking that SCUBA gear is a
>luxury!!!  8-)

Actually, the rate is 15%, and it's not a luxury tax.  It's the same sales
tax we pay on almost everything (7% to the federal government and 8% to
the provincial government in Ontario; it varies a bit from province to
province).

>  Also, if you plan on bringing your own regulator:  All the Canadian dive
>gear I have seen uses the same fittings as we use in the USA, which means that
>if you use the 200 BAR or 300 BAR (or whatever it's called) equipment, you
>probably will need some sort of adaptor.  That's not to say that you won't be
>able to find compatable equipment, but you may have to look a bit.

Just to clarify, the standard U.S. fitting is the yoke, not the DIN fitting.
There are 300 bar DIN tanks around, but they're a premium item and most
tanks use the yoke fitting at about 200 bar.  There are adaptors available;
Poseidon makes one to fit their DIN regulators (either 300 or 200 bar) to
a yoke-type tank valve.

Virtually all Canadian dive equipment is exactly the same as what's
available in the United States, and very little European equipment is
available.  Beauchat imports much of its line, but NOT its European tanks
(probably because the certification standards are different here), and
Mares does business here too, although I get the impresssion their
regulators are happier in warmer water than we can offer here.
-- 
Anthony DeBoer   NAUI # Z8800, D5482 | Why watch TV, when Netnews provides
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