Dive 247 - A Deep January Dive in Gilboa Quarry

Early this morning, an intrepid band gathered at Keith's place to load a car with dive gear to go for a dive at Gilboa Quarry in Findlay, Ohio,

Unlike local lakes, the quarry is not frozen over and the latest reports stated it had 39 degree water and good visibility.

We planned to dive the deep section and then move into the shallower areas.

So for this dive we packed full tanks and scooters and all the related gear and headed to Ohio.

We reached the quarry and after filling out the world's most over-lawyered waiver, we headed into the depths.

Sure enough, the water temp was 39 degrees and the visibility was fantastic, probably 80 feet which is incredible.

After a descent of two minutes, we hit a new record depth for me - 118 feet down. The water temp at 118 feet was cooler at 32 degrees.

Scootering around made the dive a lot of fun and let us get around the quarry quite effortlessly. Now I've got some video footage to edit.

Here's Chad showing how to scooter in style.

We left the deep end and headed into the shallows. We dove around and in the Grumman Gufstream

and around and inside the huge Sikorsky Double Deuce CH-37 Mojave helicopter, both at 35 feet depth. The chopper is so big you can scooter right through the cargo doors and out the side without touching any part of it.

In addition to my heated vest, I put a Little Hotties Hand Warmers in each glove. This made a huge difference. With the warmer in each palm of the sealed gloves my hands an fingers actually stayed warm the entire dive. I'd recommend these to anyone who is outdoors in the cold or underwater.

A great deep dive in January.

Dive details
Dive Time: 36 minutes
Water Temp: 39 degrees
Max Depth: 118 feet
Average depth: 60 feet
Breathing Gas used: 1600 Psi