THE KNOWLEDGE TOOLBOX
How to dive in Canadian waters
By Sarah Everts
If you can handle the cold water, Canada has a lot to offer adventurous divers. From bountiful
marine life to enticing shipwrecks, the fresh and salty waters licking Canadian coasts
leaves few divers disappointed and most coming back for more. Here we provide the low-down
on what you need to dive deep into Canadian waters.
What’s first?
You need to be in reasonably good health, comfortable in the water and at least 10 years
old to start diving. You’ll also need diving certification. Dive boat operators won’t
glance at your gear if you don’t prove you can wear it.
There are several organizations that offer basic and advanced diving certification. These
are some of the most popular in Canada:
In a basic open water dive course, you’ll learn
- to dive to 19 metres
- the physics of diving — how pressure and volume are related and why the deeper
you dive, the faster you use up precious air
- techniques to empty your mask if it fills up with water, communicate under water and
ascend in an emergency (remembering to blow little bubbles as you rise to make sure your
lungs don’t expand too much)
- how to read dive tables, figure out how long you can safely spend at a given depth
and plan your diving trips
Many basic courses combine in-class training plus pool or on the water diving practice. The
courses start at $200 but you’ll need to spend up to $100 more to be tested and certified
as a scuba diver.
Diving deeper, darker requires more training. You’ll need extra training to be certified
for:
- Night Diving: Nocturnal divers need extra lights and very good navigation skills.
But nighttime fauna, such as eels and mudpuppies (salamander-like fish with gills) are
often worth the trouble.
- Shipwreck Diving: While extremely rewarding, shipwreck diving requires a different
strategy for conserving air and is more technically difficult. Divers cannot ascend directly
to the surface in an emergency, and must be aware of vessel structural instability… the
boats sank in the first place, didn’t they?
- Deep diving: Basic training lets you dive to 19 metres. Those with a penchant
for the profound need extra instruction to dive to the maximum allowable depth of 36 metres.
- Cave diving: Not for the claustrophobic, cave diving is rare in Canada. Cave
divers need sophisticated equipment — such as side tanks - so they can fit through
tight spots, excellent navigation skills and many people to back them up on land. There
are only about 30 people in Canada with the training to cave dive.
Equipment
Buying all the equipment you’ll need to scuba dive at once can get pretty pricey — up
to $2,000! Many people opt to rent equipment for their entire diving career. Rentals start
at about $65/day and $100/week.
- Snorkelling equipment: A mask, snorkel, weight belt and weights: $200-$300
- Regulator: This set of tubing connects the diver to the tank. Every regulator
has an additional "octopus" arm, so that in an emergency someone else can breathe off your
tank: $150 and up
- Buoyancy Compensator Device (BCD): Divers wear a vest attached to the gas tank
to control buoyancy under water. By adjusting the gauge, divers can move up, down or maintain
a constant depth: $300-$800
- Gas tanks: Divers choose between aluminium (cheaper, lighter) and steel (more
expensive but more durable) tanks, as well as volume (2.3-3.4 cubic metres): $240-$700
- Gauges: Divers need a pressure gauge (to measure how much air is left in the
tank), a depth gauge and a compass. Often all three come on one console: $300-800
- Wet or Dry Suits: Wet suits come in several thicknesses — from three to seven
millimetres. Good for some summer diving, wet suits just don’t compensate for the
cold water during the winter — and all-year long in some coastal locations: $300 and up
Dry suits will keep a diver warm and airtight regardless of the conditions. But it comes
at a steep cost: $800 to $2500 and up
- Dive Computer (optional): Dive computers monitor how often and how deep you
dive. They calculate the length of time you need to break between consecutive dives. This
is important to avoid “the bends,” a diving condition that comes from too much inhalation
of nitrogen gas. Although it is possible to use a pencil and tables, some people prefer
to let a computer do the calculations.
Diving in Canada challenges
More challenging than warm Caribbean waters, divers agree that training in Canada means
you can easily dive almost anywhere in the world.
- Temperature: In general cold is what comes to mind when divers speak of Canadian
waters. The temperatures range from -1°C for ice diving to 20°C in some lakes in the summer.
- Currents: They can be fast, change direction and reduce visibility. Always
inquire about currents before suiting-up for both fresh and ocean dives.
- Tides: Diving should only be done at slack tides: the changeover period from
high to low or low to high tide. The best visibility happens during the changeover from
high to low because at high tide, breaking waves don’t stir up the sea floor.
top
|
