The Deep Brown?

[skarz]

Hi, I live in Wisconsin, which makes it a lot harder to access the ocean!! I've done about 20 dives in the ocean, which is barely scraping the surface. Most of the dives i do have to be in lakes, and sometimes even rivers! I' spent 2 weeks over the summer on Isle Royale, in Lake Superior diving off the huge docks there, and believe it or not, it was amazing! The sun was shining bright every day, so it wasn't as dark as lakes usually are. That's my main problem, its usually to dark, or too cold when i get down far! I was only diving at 15-20 ft. (my usual, im a super newb,i can't hold my breathe) and came face to face with a bunch of big lake trout and tons of other fish. I also found about 30 nice lures the fishermen lost

But ANYHOW, the whole point of this topic, is there anything different about lake diving than ocean diving? I know visibility is much lower, and that really sucks, but besides that, anything else to consider?

 

[Jon]

Where in Wisconsin? I live in Madison and I have another buddy who lives here as well. There is now a shop in Milwaukee that carries gear, has a hockey club, and will be running begginer freediving classes this spring.

We also have Freedive-A-plaooza planned for July up in Lake Wazze. Your welcome to join us.

We freedive year round, I was actually out last weekend and hope to get out this weekend. Shipwrecks and spearfishing are the main things we do around here, but we'll ice dive and do other things as the opportunity arrises.

BTW: The lakes aren't brown where we dive, green in the summer time and Lake Michigan can get to be a nice blue in hte winter. Vis in Michigan was over 60' last Sunday and will hopefully be better this Sunday.

Jon

 

[skarz]

Wow, That's an amazing picture! But, i am only 15, so transportation is not very easy for me..... I'm also not a true Freediver, that is one who dives to see how deep i can go and that, but i'm not just a surface snorkeler, i guess i'm right in between. I love diving down, but do it for the sights, not just getting deep. I live near Appleton, and we own lake properties in the Waupaca area. it's really fun to dive in them, because they're No wake boats, so they're no boats to worry about We can go anywhere on the lake we want, and we usually do! That's cool that there's another wisconsinite around here though!

 

[Jon]

Skarz,

Check your PM box- personal message box located at the top of the screen. I sent you a message in there.

You also mentioned Green bay. If you go just north of there, to Door County, there are a LOT of nice wrecks in shallow water. The bay is protected and gets warm in the summer time- mid 70's. Some of them startin 2' ofwater and go to 30', while others are piled on top of each other 3 high- at Death's Door. Those wrecks are very old and start in 20' of water and go down the slope to about 60', or so. There's also some nice sea caves to snorkel through up there as well.

Here's a shot of a wreck called the Niagara. She went down in 1850's, taking about 60 immigarants with her. Now she rests in about 45' of water, while the top comes to within 20' of the surface. When I was your age she still had her 40' paddle wheels, she was a side wheel steamer, intact and they were a very impressive site to behold. There is always a school of fish on her and she lies less than 2 miles from shore. The water is often cold and you will need a good wetsuit to dive her. Vis is good enough to see her form the surface on most days.

Jon