This adventure didn’t happen at Lock 23. It was at Ivy Lea Campground where divers regularly take in the underwater scenery on the northern shore drift. The adventure wasn’t about the dive itself; it was about getting into the water at the start. Picture the general scene: The shoreline is rocky with plenty of boulders. …
Category: Teaching Moments
Replacing a Weight Pouch Underwater
A Scuba Palace Discussion A few weeks ago I posted about the difficulties associated with removing and replacing a weight-integrated BCD underwater. I’ve wanted to follow up with a note about replacing the weight pouches themselves. Online “lost and found” posts are relatively frequent – where divers have tried to track down the owner of …
Diver Missing (but Found) on the Tin Plate Drift
The view here is calm but it wasn't so on Wednesday evening. As we milled about after our dives, our last group was in the water and expected to exit right about here. However, some of its members surfaced early, calling to us from upstream for assistance with a missing diver. In the end, everyone …
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2022 August 17: Such Low Water!! Such poor viz!
We've had great conditions and become a bit spoiled at Lock 23 all summer so were dumbfounded to find the water level as low as it was last night. Computers resting right on the road hovered at a reading just below 9 feet! I'd never even noticed - busy in the yard and then chatting …
Continue reading 2022 August 17: Such Low Water!! Such poor viz!
Removing an Integrated-Weight BCD Underwater
Removing is the easy part... we have to get it back on afterwards.... A Scuba Palace Discussion We had a discussion around the BBQ recently about the problems associated with fully or partially removing an integrated-weight BCD underwater - the type of BCD most commonly used by divers today. In the "old" days, not so …
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Slammed in the HE Plant Back-Eddy
A few days ago I dove the Hydroelectric Plant route with my wonderful dive buddy, Lise. She and I explore the river often, and she has accompanied me many times at Lock 23. She's the perfect dive buddy: she stays close, she enjoys every aspect of the dive, and she's quite content to go wherever …
Lock 23 Skill Reviews
As many divers are aware, we host Lock 23 dives every Wednesday evening during the summer, and because we know the routes so well, we welcome divers of all levels of experience to join us. Each week I write a review of the dive, drawing attention to issues that come up. It provides a great …
More Weight is Better in Current: Ummmm… Nope.
Reprinted from 11 July 2018 - weekly dive debriefing. Those of you who have been diving with me over the years know that one of my least favourite statements is, "It's better to be heavy than worry about weight... and especially in current". Nope... wrong. It's worse. Heavy divers work too hard, can't maneuver properly, …
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