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Oct 06
1

The Circle of Life

By | All Posts, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada, Underwater Photo and Video, We Are Water | No Comments

My oldest friend Dr. Jaqueline Windh and I stumble through the forest that is damp with yellow fall foliage and arrive on the cobbled bank of the Quinsam River. We’ve known each other for 50 years and still love the same things we did as kids: getting dirty and observing the natural beauty of our extraordinary world. This reunion is an opportunity to celebrate our friendship and observe the remarkable cycle of life of the various salmon species that make British Columbia their home. Beneath the glassy surface of the fast moving water, eighty or more salmon turn their heads…

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Oct 06
0

The Bears of Bute Inlet

By | All Posts, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada | No Comments

It is raining hard with a 35-knot wind pouring downslope from the coastal mountains into Bute Inlet. A fresh frosting of snow dusts the peaks with the season’s first freeze. We brace ourselves in the aluminum boat which is pounding over broken waves. Most other vessels have turned back today, unable to fight the combined forces of the wind and furious tidal currents that cycle in violent whirlpools and back eddies. But we are determined to reach the traditional territory of the Homlco Xwe’malhkwu Peoples in Bute Inlet. Like other Coastal First Nation peoples, the Homalco are stewards of the…

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Sep 27
0

A Solid Video/Primary Light – Review of the OrcaTorch D900V

By | All Posts, Cave Diving, Rebreather Diving, Sidemount Diving, Underwater Photo and Video | No Comments

As a professional in the industry, I am sometimes sent sample products to evaluate. Recently, OrcaTorch sent me a video light, their D900V. I picked it up at a friend’s dive shop, EPSO in Gatineau, Quebec. As local distributors for OrcaTorch, they had a full stock of the entire line of OrcaTorch products. The D900V is specifically designed for video shooters and answers a need that is unique. Years ago, I asked my electrical engineer brother if he could develop a light that offered different color temperature settings. He never came through, but OrcaTorch did. The resulting product provides four…

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Sep 26
0

Exploring Saguenay

By | All Posts, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada, Underwater Photo and Video | No Comments

Carl Tremblay has the ocean in his eyes. From the moment you step onto his small aluminum cabin cruiser in Saguenay Fjord, you know this is a man who has a lot of passion for his job. “I love this place,” he says with childlike wonderment. While our captain readies the boat and goes through a quick safety briefing, Tremblay pulls out a sizeable spiral-bound book filled with photos of wildlife that he has taken. He spends a few minutes sharing each photo, carefully describing how I will find these things and how big they are. Some the size on…

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Sep 24
0

First Photos of 1863 Steamer Homer Warren

By | All Posts, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada | No Comments

The Canadian steamship Homer Warren has been sitting on the bottom of Lake Ontario for nearly one hundred years. In 2003, shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville located the wrecked remains using side scan sonar equipment, but it was careful research that led them to the right location. Using newspaper accounts, witness reports and weather data, they pieced together a hypothesis about where the ship came to rest. To confirm the find, Dan Scoville made solo dives to document the wreck with his video camera. Now fifteen years later, Jill Heinerth and Teddy Garlock have brought back the first…

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Sep 24
0

13 Tips that Make Cold Water Diving More Enjoyable

By | All Posts, Arctic, Cave Diving, Rebreather Diving, Sidemount Diving, Underwater Photo and Video, We Are Water, Women Underwater | No Comments

Making documentary films while immersed in the hostile, yet stunning waters of the Canadian Arctic, I need great technology to keep me warm and safe. The travel, dives, and image making all create their own set of unique challenges, and once you are in the north, there is no way to call up a dive shop for something you may have forgotten. I’ve spent many months in the polar region, most recently helping to create a film about climate change. Camping on the sea ice and then on a remote island outpost, I swam with polar bears, hovered below fighting…

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Sep 21
1

Les Escoumins – A Vibrant Underwater Garden

By | All Posts, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada, Underwater Photo and Video, Women Underwater | No Comments

It’s a long journey from Ontario to the little dive shack on Highway 138, just north of the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. Eight hours of roadway are more beautiful with every turn that I make in my trusty Subaru Outback. The multi-lane highway surrenders to winding a coastal road along the St. Lawrence River’s north shore and pauses briefly at a ferry crossing at Baie St. Catherine. The trees are showing a rusty hint of fall as the stiff breeze ushers in a cold, foggy wind. I cross over the bay in building white caps and…

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Sep 06
1

Carved by Water – A Visit to Bonnechere Cave

By | All Posts, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada | No Comments

Canada’s water story includes water that moves underground. Most Canadians will never get a chance to follow me through an underwater cave system, but at Bonnechere Cave in Ontario, you can have a similar experience. During the summer season, the underwater cave is pumped dry so that visitors can explore winding passages up close. In a virtual classroom inside Mother Earth, a tour guide will ensure your safety while teaching you about local folklore, 450 million-year-old fossils, glaciation, geology and the hibernation of bats. A 40-minute tour takes you along a boardwalk through the passages where you can find rare…

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Sep 03
1

First Dive on the Canadian Schooner Queen of the Lakes

By | All Posts, Rebreather Diving, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Underwater Canada, Underwater Photo and Video | No Comments

28-year-old Teddy Garlock has never been shy about reaching out to mentors. As a new scuba diver, at the age of thirteen, he contacted noted shipwreck explorer Jim Kennard. To Garlock, Jim was a local “Cousteau.” Kennard, an electrical engineer by trade, is a shipwreck enthusiast who has found over 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, NY Finger Lakes and in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers over the past 35 years. Using side scan sonar and ROVs, Kennard has spent decades on the lake searching for some of the 8000 or more shipwrecks lost in the depths. In…

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