Minnesota diving.... I'm going crazy.

[fjohnson]

it's 20 deg. F outside and the wind is howling!! and this is only a taste of winter! I keep looking at 7mm, or 8, or 9 wetsuits and still shiver. I have got to move!! At least soon the water will freeze over by about 5 feet and I won't be so tempted anymore.... you folks in the warmer climes... I envy all of you. I'm thinking about building a 100' deep pool..please send donations.. .... o.k. o.k. now I feel better.. just had to vent.

[Cliff Etzel]

I'm not sure about the rest of you folks in the upper mid-west or canada for that matter... How do you take it every winter up there?

Sounds like you need to hit the public pool for awhile... I know I am going crazy and the temps have only dropped into the low 40's here in Oregon.

I am planning on making at least one trip to Mexico later on this winter just to get away from the depressing weather already setting in here.

Hang in there - and besides, maybe you should get to a warmer climate... I know several people who have done just that and are happier because of it...

Have a great holiday season!

[Jon]

I play underwater hockey once a week with a group of friends. I have been thinking about joining a master's swimming program to get my butt in better shape.
We also run a charter boat out on Lake Michigan all winter long for scuba trips. It is hard to freedive that time of year, but I guess I'd rather scuba than no diving at all- once you get past the outer harbor there is usually no ice on the "big pond".
It would be nicer yet if I could find another person to do pool training with- I won't go it alone.
Jon

[Bill]

Aloha
What a strange thread. Yesterday I decided to try one more personnal best because there is a storm coming in and the water temp. dropped to 23. Sort of an end of the season signal.
Then I read about the weather in my old stomping grounds (5 yrs in Manitoba) and I really feel like a wimp. I was going to hang up the 3 mm suit until spring if I can find enough lead for the 6.5 mm.

Bill

[Erik]

Cliff I really liked your article on Kirk and Brett's clinic. Any pictures of you in the water?
It's damn cold today, and the snow is making it tough to get around on the mountain bike, but I will persist. Open water freediving is out of the question; if I want to ice-dive, I will have to wait until the ice is thick enough to walk on. That leaves the pools. There is an Olympic facility here that has a 5metre deep dive tank and a 50 m lane swim. The dive tank is opened to scuba divers on Saturday nights for an hour, so I go there sometimes to practice and float around, and to see how many scuba divers will come up to me to ask if I'm ok , which is nice of them actually.
Our days are very short now as well, which, combined with the temp and snow, removes a lot of motivation to get out and do anything. Usually I am immune to Seasonally Affected Disporder (S.A.D.), but today I am definitely "Feeling Minnesota"; no offence to fjohnson.
Slainte,
Erik Y.

[thin_air]

before the weather was nice but i wasnt allowed to go out because of an injury now the weather is bad i i can finally go outside jeeeeeeeeee........

well i guess i can still get to the pool and dive down the whole 5 meters of it and then get kicked out by the lifegaurds because an old grandmother though i was dead and didnt notice my buddy on the surface oh well...

you people down in the nice warmth are lucky

[Angus]

Hi Vince,

Utah is not that far south from you. Yesterday it was snowing but my wife, my daughter, and I went up to Midway - about 45 minute drive to dive in Homestead Crater. When we got there the snow was a third of a meter deep. Inside the crater the water was 95 degree F. and 15 to 20 meters deep with 15 to 20 feet of visibility. So anytime you need to get into some warm water and have moderate depth dives just come on down; you too Erik and Doug and Cliff. (Stephan you are more than welcome also but if you spent big bucks to come to Utah I would, out of friendship, have to give you a serious dope slap and then get your medications adjusted. For the same amount of money you could go to Belize or the Red Sea or ... anyplace that would be better.)Or we could run down to Lake Powell. Our 7 mm should be more than sufficient.

Otherwise, I am still planning to move to the tropic somewhere within the next five years because I am secure in myself as person, as a man, as freediver and my wife finds it embarassing when I wimper.

I am so looking forward to finally being out of school and making enough money so that I can actually meet you guys and we can go diving in warm deep living water. Nine more months and at least I will back in Oregon. Very broke, like more than tapped flat but within five hours of the Pacific and an hour from Waldo Lake.

I'm leaning toward the Maldives......

[fjohnson]

Angus,
I've been through Utah several times... talk about a place that looks like it's from another planet. In all the traveling I've done I still tell people that southeast Utah is far and away (literally also) the most unusual landscape I've seen and has the best parks of anywhere. I use to travel through there often when I worked and visited my retired folks in Az. Next time through I wouldn't mind checking out that crater. The pool I'm frequenting is a whopping 9' (less than 3m) deep and a 40+ mile r.t. whoa! Just finished 2 hours of snow removal....if the rest of the roads are open I'll make it to the pool this afternoon.

[Cliff Etzel]

Well, Mark - Maybe this time around when you get back we can actually meet and dive Waldo - I was just too busy this last season to get any diving done - in fact, my first time in the open water was at the Perfomance Clinic!

Working as a Sys-Admin right now for a startup has taken much of my time these last few months. I am hoping that as things progress for DeeperBlue, that I can maybe leave all of that behind (Linux, Win2K, webdev, etc) and just write, photograph and FREEDIVE!

Please keep in touch and let me know when you get back into these parts... I need a good dive. And hopefully add to my stock library of freedive images...

[thin_air]

hey angus,

your thinking of waterloo wisconsin or in one of the states around there......

i live in waterloo ontario, close to toronto although im glad to say we dont have any snow.....

oh well

[Angus]

With the snow piling up and the temperature diving past solid water my brain starts going to la la land. There is a strange form of psychopathology called a Folie a deux, in which a delusional state develops in a person because of an intense personal relationship that they have with some who already has a psychotic disorder with prominent delusions. As I was shoveling snow at 10 pm after completing a 14 hour rotation I keep thinking of Cliff's dream to dive, write about diving, photograph diving and underwater, dive, and about Erik and the rest of us having a touch of SAD, and my thinking that Ontario isn't that far away, and it all suddenly became clear to me. We are not going crazy we are already crazy. Here is a bunch of really smart visionary kinda of folk with a passion for the blue wilderness, adventure, nurturing the planet, and dreaming about living in paradise while we shovel solid white water from one part of our property to another.

So lets all get on the bus and go to the Maldives tomorrow. OK?

[Stephan Whelan]

Mark,

Originally posted by Angus
(Stephan you are more than welcome also but if you spent big bucks to come to Utah I would, out of friendship, have to give you a serious dope slap and then get your medications adjusted. For the same amount of money you could go to Belize or the Red Sea or ... anyplace that would be better.)

Hehehehe - well, I am planning a trip to the Red Sea next year with a few buddies (that is if we don't shot down flying over there or shot in the head whilst there) but I can't decide if it is going to be Scuba or Freediving (i.e. if i'm any good at it by then).

I'll also be flying the Pacific NorthWest to visit Cliff next October before we both fly to the World's in Hawaii...you never know I might organise to stop by on the way back.