Diving in Southeast Pennsylvania?

[Wesku]

I'm living in Bucks county, north from Philadelphia, PA.

I and my kids would like to try freediving.
Is there any place to go diving nearby? Where to purchase used equipment?

 

[Pezman]

Dude, you're in freediving heaven (of sorts)

Hi Wesku,

There are a number of dedicated freedivers in our area. At least 6 of us get together pretty regularly. We have a Yahoo group called "Longblades" which has 12 members (some of whom I've never met). Members in the group range from relative newbies to guys who are pulling 6+ minute statics and going 60 meters deep. Luckily, egos are left on shore! JimGlynn and Jersey Jim are both in the Longblades group.

Most of our diving is at Dutch Springs, which is in Allentown. Occasionally, we dive at other places, like Willow Springs, the Joisey Shore, Round Valley Reservoir etc. However, Dutch is close, has good vis and lots of interesting, safe stuff to keep the dives interesting. Depths at Dutch exceed 100' (if you know where to go). It's $10/day for freedivers ($22/day for SCUBA guys)

If you want to check out the Longblades group, just go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Longblades/ and join. There are some photos of freediving at Dutch if you're curious (and you can quit easily enough if you find the group uninteresting).

Hope to run into you sometime underwater!

 

[Feld]

Lets dive

Wesku,

You shouldn’t find any shortage of freedivers here.

I’m one of the two founders of the Longlades club. Myself and Trace M. teach a PDIC Freedive course at Dutch Springs mentioned above. When we first started freediving here PA/NY/NJ we were the only two now there are many. I’ve got lost of extra gear which we use to teach the course. I have many sizes and you are more then welcome to use it. We’ll have to plan a dive.

Drop me an email when you wanna give it a try.

Jeff R.
www.eastcoastfreediver.com

 

[Pezman]

Feld lives!

Yes, Feld and Cragrat are in the Longblades group too. Didn't know

Nice to see the resurrection of the ECF site.

 

[Dan]

long blades club outtings

Dose any one from the long blades club have any plans to dive at Dutch springs in the month of may, or just anyone at all, I'm looking for some one to freedive with this seson. I should be getting my new Pacasso suite this weekend, and i'm ready to go.
I spent this winter in a pool trainng.

Dan.
From Lancaster PA
Xj99@comcast.net

 

[Pezman]

Dude, come on out

Dan,

Please join us. Someone is there pretty much every weekend. Ironically, May could be a light month since several of us are likely to skip a weekend or two in May due to Mother's day and other obligations, but it is very likely that someone will be there. Our record so far is 7 freakdivers on the water at one time and the least that we've had was 4.

If you like, you can PM me with your e-mail address and I'll add you to the group. That way you will get automatic notfication of when we plan to be there (plus you'll get all kinds of other Longblades e-mail -- we are very chatty and your mail-box will overflow with our witty banter). We also have tons of photos on the group site -- mostly of Dutch, but several show us suffering through the winter months in the pool.

If you check out the "Pezman" photos in the user gallery (http://gallery.deeperblue.net/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1000), you can see some of the folks that you are likely to meet.

BTW, we were thinking about heading out your way to visit Wabank one of these days to see of we can hit the 150' mark (at Dutch, it's hard to find anything over 100').

If you join us, please bring some Funnel Cake and Shoo Fly Pie (just kidding).

 

[Dan]

traveling long blades

Have any of you been to Bainbridge sportsmen's club.
It's really nice, and I think the max depth is a 120ft. the average vis. is about 30ft-40ft in the spring.

Dan from Lancaster.

 

[Jersey Jim]

Welcome Dan

Dan:

Glad you found us. You're not too far either. I see you are under 80 miles away. I hope that means you will come out often. Most everyone in the club is from PA, with the exception of Feld and myself. We are from New Jersey. I'm pretty far south though. 2 hours exactly. About 106 miles. But that didn't stop me from making the trek over two dozen times last year. I dove with a good size group at Dutch over the last 4 weekends, since they've been open. One guy joined us two times this year, and he's from Long Island, NY. He also made it once last year. So far there's about a dozen of us. Unlike last year of just four. The club is growing nicely. And Pezman never fails to get some great pics of our weekends. By the way Mike, great shot of me behind the wheel of the crane. Many good pics.

To answer your question about May attendance, I will have to miss the weekend of the 11th (mother's day), and the 24th (Memorial day). Thank goodness they're not consecutive. Don't think I could stay out of the water that long!

Also, two guys I go out on Jersey wrecks with are looking to fill some Sundays with just freedivers. It's a small 31' lobster boat from Bar Harbor, Me and is great for a diving platform. Anyway, if you're interested, it might be worth getting 3 or 4 guys together.

Hope to see you at Dutch Springs this weekend,
Jim U.

 

[Dan]

long blades

How long have most of you guys been freediving? I had just started last summer, and I can't wait to start diving. I want to take everything in on this sport, I realy enjoy it; pluse I also enjoy cross training for it.

Dan from Lancaster.

 

[Jersey Jim]

How long

Dan:
I can't answer for everyone, but myself and a few others have been doing this most of our lives, just not knowing it was freediving. This is my third season taking it seriously, but I've been certified for scuba since 1979. Although, I haven't had tanks on in 13 years. Even some of the members in the group that are relatively new to this sport, you would think they were doing this for years. We have a lot of fun, and try to be as safe as possible. That was the comforting thing about starting with this group, you can test and realize your limits, under a high degree of safety. One can also learn an incredible amount from this forum. There are some really knowledgeable divers here, and even the ones that aren't yet, share their experiences for others to benefit from.

Hope to see you out there,

Jim U.

 

[volodya]

from MD

Hi, guys.
I would like to join you.
I was looking for MD freedivers several days ago - have got nothing so far.
I am from Maryland, there are 2 hours of driving from me to Bainbridge and 3 to Dutch Springs. The gear is supposed to come this week.
Volodya

 

[Pezman]

Hi Volodya -- I PMed you since this thread is getting a little large (considering how much freediving goes on in this neck of the woods).

 

[Sebastian GER]

Hi there, I just relocated to the Philly and am new to this area. I am looking for freediving training partners or groups in the area. I saw this old thread, but several of the people who replied have not logged on in years and the yahoo group 'longblades' does not seem to exist anymore. Could anyone give me some pointers?

I have been freediving for a couple of years and have the level 2 certification from FII. I am looking primarily for pool training, but I am also up for training in the springs near Allentown or any other good spots.

Thanks,
Sebastian