5/28/2006 - First Dives Of The Season.
Yesterday Saturday May 27th my dive buddy Tim and i made our first dives of the season out at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee IL .Tim lives over in Indiana and i am in the North west Burbs of Chicago so for me it s a 82 mile run one way to the Quarry. Now since we both live in the Midwest you can quess how are Winters are and why we dont dive after November and we really look forward to Spring and the start of the dive season.
Any way all of last week we have been having great weather in the 70 s and 80 s today Sunday were in the 90s. The Quarry yesterday was great.Air Temp 83 , Wind was out of the South West 10 to 13 mph, Water Temp to 25ft was 60 degrees, Vis was 30ft and the Thermocline kick in at 30ft which was 50degrees.
Our first dive was at 30ft for 30 minutes over in the area of the Rock Crusher and Drill. We actually stayed at 30 feet for about 8 minutes we chose not to wear gloves and hood s so on this dive we stayed at 25 to 28 ft and we were never chilled yes those ScubaPro 7mm wet suits work great. Tim was trying out his new underwater camera for the first time and had a chance to take a picture of a Paddle Fish but he could not get his camera off his BC fast enough. My back was to him i was busy having a stare down with two rather large Catfish. I quess i was in there way and they would not go around me so after about a minute of this i gave up and went around them.
After we surface we floated back to the beach just took our time stop and talk to some other divers who had just came up from a dive. We stayed out for a few hour s just catching up on what has been going on and were talking with some other divers.Then around noon with fresh tanks we were ready to go again.
I took the lead on the second dive this time we did a wall dive that starts right by the beach.This dive was 30 ft for 35 minutes. He got me hook on Wall dives last year , this dive starts out in 15ft of water and as you are going along you going over mounds of rocks then you come to the edge and look over and it, about another 35 ft to the bottom.Well we drop down to another 15 ft which gave us 30 ft and we began our wall dive .We went along the wall for about a good 20minutes.Saw a lot of fish along the wall such as Pearch, Bass and of course Catfish.
We did find this large boulder in a sandy area at 25 ft called Golf Ball Rock. Yes some Dive club named it that and put in a golf mat with a tee and a broken golf club and golf balls. Now the whole idea behind it is if you find lots of golf balls around your home or at a garage sale bring them to the Quarry and place them on Gold Ball Rock.This was the end of our second dive for the day. We surface and just floated back to the beach which took about as long as our dive.
We only had two little things go wrong. On the first dive as i got into the water i could hear a small air hissing comming from either my tank vale or the reg. Turns out to be the O ring on my new tank so it was out of the water an a 300 yd hike up to the Quarrys Dive Shop.Now on the second dive we had just gotten down to 15 ft when Tim gave me the thums up. When we got to the surface the first thing i said to him was are you ok. Tim said yes i am ok but i left my dive computer with our gear on the beach. So now it was his turn for a little hike to get his computer.
We only made two dives Saturday but it was enough to get us started. I made dives 20 and 21 Tim made dives 50 and 51. There is still a lot to see around Haigh Quarry which is also called HQ and we hope to see alot more in the comming months as we head into summer. Yesterday there about 150 divers of which 30 of us went to dive the rest were in classes. I think all of the dive shops from Chicago land area where there doing OW, AOW, and Rescue classes. Seeing the look on the new students face as they headed to the water for the first time and then to see them with a smile when they came out of the water hey we all know how they felt we have all be there before. It was a fun day looking forward to our next day of diving in June. My dive club is going tommorow Monday which is Memorial Day for a day of diving and a cook out but i have to work which i dont mind there will be other cookouts and dives this Summer with them.
Dive Safe Dive Often
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