Big Five Dive Eve

Just a few more hours until we head up to Lake Superior for our first dive for Big Five Dive!

The Stuff

The vans are packed to the gills with dive gear and photography gear (separate, of course, not everything is rated for 100 meters underwater).

Steve Plowman of Plowman’s Collision has lent us the vans, and we intend to return them in just as good of a shape as when he sent us off with them. We bought six tarps to make sure.

We’ll be snacking on all of those glorious chips from Bettermade.

I. Can’t. Wait.

Jessica is making homemade peanut butter oatmeal energy snacks.

Scuba Gear

Kyle bought most of his own dive gear for the occasion, but I have rented all of mine from Great Lakes Divers diveshop in Alpena.  Nick has been gracious and amazing and beyond helpful.

We’re both rocking 7 mm thick wetsuits for the 50-60 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. We also have hoods, booties, and gloves for the occasion.

I must admit that I am that much of a better diver for having this past week’s experience in freshwater with 14 mm of neoprene buoyancy. It is definitely a game-changer.

The night dive certification went smoothly, and Steve Kroll, our dive instructor, was so great about accommodating our limited time availability.

Camera Gear

The camera gear has been fun in our scouting trips, so I can only anticipate how great they will be to film with. Kyle will be underwater with his Canon 5d mark iii in an Aquatech housing. I will be filming Kyle filming the rest of Big Five Dive with Valstech’s Lenzo iPhone case.

Tami and Liz will be on shore using another Canon 5d mark iii catching us lovelies as we wade onto the shore like majestic mermaids who have suddenly sprouted legs and a 40 pound humpback. Shout out to PC&E in Atlanta for furnishing camera and lenses for this project. Hooray!

People Gear

There will be fourteen divers, plus Kyle and me. Two, maybe three night dives depending on how our timing goes.

We will have a dinner before we take the plunge, which should be great as the divers are coming in from all over the country. At midnight, we’ll be Facebook Live streaming, if you want to celebrate with us as we begin our 24-hour odyssey.

Dive Sites

Dive #1: Pendill’s Creek

Dive #2: Headland’s Park (Dark Sky Park!)

Dive #3: 40 Mile Point (Joseph S Fay shipwreck)

Dive #4: Penelope shipwreck

Dive #5: Olcott Historic Hotel Docks

The plan is dinner at 9 pm. We’ll see how it goes.

If we do this, if we can get at least ONE of us to scuba ALL five sites in this time period, I want, nay, I demand a virtual high five from everyone.