Superior, Maderia- Aug 24th

[LKunze]

The trip was AWESOME! It was by far my most incredible diving experience yet. Chris, Jason Baker, Ray(dyvrz) and I all met at the dive site at 9:30am Saturday. We hauled our gear down to the site and hit the water for the surface swim. It was a beautiful day, waves were only about 1 - 2 ft so the surface swim wasn't difficult at all and really wasn't that far of a swim either. Jason had a creeping freeflow problem with his regs and that set us back a little before we were able to start the dives. The original plan was for all four of us to go down to the deepest part of the wreck first but due to Jason's reg problems he and I opted for the shallower dive first and Chris and Ray went on to the second buoy for the deeper dive. The water temp on the first buoy was around 40 degrees down to about 60ft which is where we bottomed out at the first buoy. It was only a 25 minute dive for Jason and I as he had lost 1000psi of air before we even started the dive. We ascended and headed back in for an hour surface interval and geared back up for the second dive. Jason played with his reg a little in between dives and wasn't able to completely fix the problem but it was diveable and was only a very minor creep. He waited and had me turn his air on once we were out to the buoy and ready to descend on the wreck and we were good to go. Chris and Ray opted for the shallower dive for their second dive. Jason and I descended down the second buoy and found the pilot house which is out the farthest and we also explored the biggest section of the wreck. Our maximum depth was 100ft and that was right to the bottom of the lake on the very end of the main section of the wreck. Jason and I both got narced a little bit on this dive at 100ft and it didn't totally clear up for me until we were back up to around 70 ft on our way back up the wreck. One thing that I thought was really cool about this section of the wreck was that it was sitting at an angle so looking down on the deck of the wreck it kind of messed with my perception of what was actually totally vertical. This dive was about 26 minutes and the water temp was a bone chilling 38 degrees. I was pretty darn cold in my 2-piece 7mil Henderson wetsuit. All I can say is that I am definately investing in a drysuit in the near future. I think drysuits really are a must to truely enjoy the dives in Superior to there fullest extent. Even though I saw several divers diving wet that day, drysuits or at least a semi-dry suit is ideal. I have a pretty high tolerance to cold too and this is the first time I've truly been cold on a dive, not to the point of shivering but it was COLD. My fingers were numb at the end of the dive. All in all this was an incredible experience and I cant' wait to dive it again. Would I do it in a wetsuit again, is it worth being cold? Yes, just because it is such an awesome experience but I'm going dry soon so then it will be even better! Oh...and I forgot to mention the visibility was awesome. I'd say it was a good 40ft.