January 2010

Discover Scuba

When- February 3^rd
Location- Junior High Pool
Time- Class room at 6:00pm and pool at 7:00pm

Jim Zabel request Help in the following areas. If you can help out, please contact him at home 507-4555-2227 or cell at 507-271-4208.

• Load and Transport gear
• Assemble scuba gear
• Assist students with masks(2 or 3 helpers)
• Assist students with fins(2 or 3 helpers)
• Deck helpers to hand equipment to students in water
• In water divers to assist the instructor as required

North Shore diving

As we woke up on that Saturday morning to an inch of snow, I asked Woody “What are we doing?” An inch of snow had fallen over night and we were supposed to be getting ready to see the Hesper. Troy and Don are laughing without a care in the world, thankful that they have drysuits.

As we stop at McDonald’s for breakfast Troy tells us to stock up on fluids. When we are in the water we are going to want to use an old diver’s trick to stay warm. As we leave, we look at the temp. Its 35° outside, and we want to get into the water on Lake Superior. This is why we love diving.

Arriving at the dock for the Hesper, we can see 5-6 foot swells in the distance. The other divers are nervous, should we really do this? We, the new divers, want to go no matter what. Thankfully, we get the ok from Don and Troy. Time to suit up, get on the boat, and get to the Hesper.

Next challenge on the list for the day was getting a hold of the buoy to tie our boat up too. Between the wind blowing us around like a windsock in a tornado, and the waves whipping us around we were once again left wondering should we be getting into the water. Thankfully, John Chapman and the captain of our boat were able to get a hold of it and save our dive.

After donning our gear, the jump into the water was next. Think of it this way. Imagine thousands of needles slowing pricking every inch of your body. That is what diving into water with a temp of 42° with a wetsuit feels like. This is where that dive trick I spoke about earlier comes into play, and if you don’t know what that is. Ask Don.

Descending upon the Hesper you basically see a lot of rubble. It looks like a child’s daycare center with blocks strewn about. Upon a closer inspection though, you can see it for what it once was. A massive ship with hulking sides that time has not treated well.

Swimming around on the ship is something that cannot really be put into words. Every direction you look there is wreckage strewn about, except of course for Papa Don swimming around on the bottom with a smile on his face. Gliding past Troy, who looks like he is trying to bury himself in the muck that is the bottom of Lake Superior like some undersea organism hiding from its predator.

Before our ascent, we stop and look at the fabled propeller. The very same propeller that every new diver hears about on the trip up to the Hesper and the diver’s who helped bring it back out to the site curse the day they had to bring it back. Word of advice, big propellers will need a big boat!

After we spent time on the Hesper, Woody, the Morrison’s, and myself decided we would go and dive on the Ely. Riding in a camper really is the only way to travel, not to mention getting dressed into a frigid wetsuit should only be done inside a warm campers as well. Thankfully, Woody and I were able to do this prior to getting ready to launch the boat at the treacherous landing that allows access to the Ely.

Swimming up to the Ely is a completely different experience than the Hesper. It was a cloudier day, and we had some light and viz at 20 feet. Approaching the Ely though, changed that. We were expecting to see something similar to the Hesper, but we were wrong. We were looking for wreckage on the sea floor, only to have it all of a sudden get incredibly dark. As we looked up, all we could see was a wall looming in front of us.

At first, we thought we had missed the ship and we were looking at the break wall. Upon closer inspection though, we realized that we had indeed found the Ely. Swimming around this ship was exhilarating, the way one could pull and launch themselves around made it feel as though you were flying. As a bonus, you could live out your childhood fantasies and pretend you were on a pirate ship. Speaking with Papa Don afterwards revealed that Woody and I weren’t the only ones who thought the Ely looked like the closest thing we could get to a pirate ship, especially in Lake Superior.

Overall, the North Shore trip was a trip that all members of the club should partake in. The opportunity to see ships like these in our own backyard are what make it worthwhile. Not to mention the camaraderie that you are able to find in a club like ours. Going to dinner, or hearing the Morris kids talk about how scared they were at the haunted ship. All of these things combined to make this one amazing weekend, one that Woody and I look forward to participating in each year.

Web site info

ODC Web Site

The Owatonna Diving Club web site (http://kierski.net/owatonnadivers or http://kierski.net/ODC) is hosted on a privately owned computer in the basement of an ODC member/Divemaster. Information you provide on the web site is used only for ODC purposes and will never be sold or given to anyone for any purpose.

The Owatonna Diving Club web site is intended for keeping members informed about local dive and social events as wells as travel opportunities organized by the dive club and it's members.

Please, feel free to share your dive stories, pictures, videos, or plans. Add links to other dive web sites you find useful. You are limited only by your air consumption.

If you have any questions, please send email to bobo@kierski.net.

New Years day dive

The New Years day Ice dive was held at Lake Kolemeyer in Owatonna. There were 5 divers that played in the water on a day of 5 degrees F. The Owatonna free press was also on site to write and video tape the club members for the front page of the paper. After the dive, the club had supper at East Wind.