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I had been corresponding with Aaron, a freediver out of Toronto, through the online forum
Deeperblue.net. Through e-mail conversations we discovered that we both seem to be at about the same non-competitive level of freediving, and enjoy seeing and doing the same kinds of things underwater. So I invited him down to Kingston to come shore-dive some of our local wrecks.
We had meant to get a relatively early start. Despite the 2-1/2 hour drive from Toronto, Aaron arrived right on schedule at 9:00 am, but by the time I had located all my gear (most of which kind of lives in my truck, but the neoprene I had brought into the house to warm up a bit), gone over the potential sites with him, and headed out, it was nearly noon. We had to stop by the Yacht Club first since I had business I needed to do (I'm on the Executive, and some things you just can't escape from) but despite being 'shanghaied' several times, we did manage to leave.
Must say Saturday was an absolutely unbelievable day for a few shore wreck dives. The forecast had been for drizzle and rain, 5 - 10 mph winds out of the southwest, and general gloominess. In contrast actual conditions were bright and sunny, with a very slight northerly breeze - the lake surface was like glass! You couldn't have BOUGHT better weather - sure made liars out of all the forecasters!! Vis was outstanding (25 - 35'), and the water temps (given enough neoprene, of course) nice and toasty at 55°F.
We dived a couple of my favorite sites just around Kingston - an old sunken wharf, as well as the requisite sunken wreck, stayed wet for over 90 minutes. I was having a few equalizing problems with my ears so didn't get down further than 17'. Aaron did a new Personal Best of 30'! We were both wearing depth gauges - mine is a typical scuba gauge which records max depth with a needle - Aaron's does not, so after a particularly deep dive he came up elated and I asked him how deep he had gone. He had forgotten to look so back down he went to find out! He also found and brought up 3/4 of an LP record - it was so worn we couldn't tell what label might have once been on it. We had some fun "breaching" to the surface - dolphin-kicking as fast as we could on the ascent and seeing just how far out of the water we could get. Aaron won those little contests but I think, for a newbie diver wearing scuba fins vs. Aaron's proper freediving long fins, I didn't do so badly either!
After close to two hours in the water I got a gas bubble or something uncomfortable in my stomach and we decided it was time for a 'surface interval'. Unlike in scuba, when surface intervals are important in order to allow the body to free itself of excess nitrogen it took in from the compressed gas scuba divers breathe, freedivers have no such concerns. Our surface intervals occur only for a change of scenery, or a chance to warm up.
We went to Home Depot to bother my husband during his second job, then headed to a Tim Horton's. Neither of us eat before diving if we can help it but we decided that a bagel each wouldn't hurt.
My choice for second dive of the day got ruled out due to a search and rescue exercise happening at that location, surrounded by spectators (besides, it wasn't all that outstanding a site to begin with).
So we ended up at my Yacht Club playing on the two wrecks I've visited waaaaaay too many times. It's absolutely amazing how much fun you can have with two playful freedivers, a couple of cameras, and a shallow wreck on a 'perfect' current-less, wind-less day with 25 - 30 feet of vis. I thought I was intimately familiar with the Regent, but it's so much more fun when you have someone else to show as well! I found out that my equalizing problems disappear when I'm horizontal in the water, so with the reduced depth on the Regent I was able to dive, take my time, get level, and explore. My max times were still under a minute, but at Aaron's suggestion, I relaxed and started moving slower, hovering over parts of the wreck, instead of constantly swimming.
After we had played for a while I decided to show him the other wreck, the Psyche, in the foot of the bay. We decided to swim to it. During the swim through the deserted marina, Aaron played around oftentimes pacing me under the water. I copied him at one point swimming along upside-down. The surface sure looks weird when viewed as a floor!
We got to the Psyche as it was beginning to get dark, but still had a chance to play around and under this much shallower wreck. Neither of us wanted to end the dive until it got too dark to see! Finally we had to pull the plug and head for shore. By the time we got back to my truck and started gearing down, the streetlights were all on!
All in all, a most fun and outstanding day! I sure hope to do this again sometime! I told Aaron that the next time he comes down, I hope to drag him out to Brockville and the Connie and
Rothesay!
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