Diving

[mrbottles]

Hi again Bryan,

Nope you don't need a boat. It's nice to have because so many people that live on water can be silly about simple access. When we dove the river in Fondulac we pulled up in three different spots and got out of the truck and jumped in no questions asked.

Here is a picture from yesterday where we walked right in. Even though we didn't find it yesterday I'll bet there is a nice pontiled bottle just below the surface. Swimming there calling out Bryan come get me. WHAT CHEW GONNA DO BOUDIT? We have found some killer walk in spots. For now you don't need a boat you need a certification. It will take you years to run out of shore dives. You can see a favorite winter dive past time in the rivers for us in teh photo. Put the junkers on the ice for the fun and wonder of every one downriver.

Ah Warren this isn't Navy Seals or air force Rangers, Flash Back Man! an inflatable is also a 'deflatable'. Not recommended for Wisconsin salvage diving. I have deep jagged dents in my aluminum boat to prove it! Bob and I once sunk in an overloaded dive dingy. Diving is best and safest off a larger stable boat.

Bob and I had a twelve foot dingy with a five horse motor loaded with six tanks and two sets of gear when we first started. We also had four hundred pounds of human in the boat. I threw my gear overboard as the boat rolled to take on a fatal load of water. It sank and Bob spent a half hour looking before he found it in twenty foot deep water. It was a cold miserable fall day and a big wind kicked up.

The nice thing about diving for you in Wisconsin Bryan is that your motto is life is easy with your eyes closed. that's good because diving in Wisconsin is usually like diving with your eyes closed. Muddy water and tons of loose bottle laden mud.

Wayne for $6 you aren't getting two bottles of Milwaukee's best. Unless you are talking about John Graff Hutchinson soda bottles, "THE BEST WHAT GIVES"

Once you start diving Bryan you'll know exactly what that means!

Steven

 

[capsoda]

Hey Wayne, Six bucks + six pack = fun filled weekend.

 

[Tony14]

What area of the Fond du Lac River have you dived?? I know that river like the back of my hand from all the fishing ive done there and have no idea where you would go about diving. Were you in the east or west branch, or were you closer to the lake??

Andrew, once i get my driving licence next month I probably can drive us out to get our diving certifications if we have the money.

 

[Andy4707]

okay, thanks for the info Steven, not sure when i am going to get certified, i have to get the money first. When i do, i will let u know.

 

[capsoda]

Hey Steve. what was all that crushed brown and blue glass you sent me with that great Pepsi?


By the way, Thanks A Bunch Bud.[]

 

[southern Maine diver]

Steven...

That's a cool picture setting the bottles on a little ice flow... Really neat! It sure sends home the message about "cold Water Diving" to our southern brothers and sisters who think cold water diving is anything just below 60 degrees![&:]

Time to break out the drysuits!!!

Wayne

 

[mrbottles]

Hi Tony,

We hit three spots. Typically we don't worry much about any thing other than where people were as far back as we can track. For our day of discovery in Fondulac we dived as close as we could get to the earliest neighborhoods. Mostly close to downtown. We used an early birds eye view of the city to determine where to dive. Like I said earlier we didn't do very well. We did find old fragments but nothing old whole. There is good stuff in that river. the town is so old and people depended on those water ways for life back then. The bottles are there it will just take some hard core hunters to get on the ball and get in the water.

Andy I don't know anything about you or your lifestyle. Yes it can be expensive to get started. If you simply throw a couple of bucks into the dive kitty instead of doing the things people do for entertainment you will quickly have the money it takes to get certified.

As for gear some one said it somewhere on this site. Save your money. Don't go crazy buying fancy looking fins and wacky super air force ranger gear. (No offense Grog) You can buy fins for 150 bucks or you can buy them for 40 or less used. The forty dollar fins look like they are from the maiden voyage of the calypso (Crapy) but they work the same. As a bottle diver you are going to beat the shit out of your gear. Don't buy a dive computer. Don't waste your money or frills. I know this will bother other divers but I dive with the first stage and second stage. No compass no computer no pressure gauge and no spare regulator. That may not be safe for you as you learn but it shows that as a serious bottle diver your gear will be a tool not a toy or a thing to show off to people it's just what you have and what you use. The only time we compare gear is when it's so beat that we wonder how it still works. Get a good regulator. I recommend a Sherwood Maximus. It will work in all of the impossible dive conditions you give it as a hard core face in the muck frozen river diver.

You should be able to get fully trained and geared up for less than $1500 if you do it carefully and only spend the money you need to spend.

My brother and I likely have some things we can give you that will help you get started. When you are down to it send me an email at the mrbottles site and I'll see what I can scratch up for you for free.

The regulator and the BCD I recommend will cost you about $750 if you buy them right. They are the best for bottle diving and you need these components to be reliable. Certification is probably another $280ish now. I'm not sure on that. The balance of your gear will be what you can get. Ask around go to play it again sports or ask the dive shop pros if they have any old rental gear or know of any one who wants to sell there old gear. You will get it for pennies on the dollar. It's not being cheap in a negative way it's being smart.

Warren im glad your wife likes it! It was a private stock label just for you. I didn't even know what the back side pyro glaze meant untill i met you! In Napa that is some serious bidness my brotha. The Graf is common but an interesting form. I hate to think what you might be doing with all those stoppers Bob sent. I always wonder bout you sudners after I saw the movie deliverance. You don't know that guy that was swinging the banjo on the bridge do you? We find the Pepsi bottles more often that I care to admit. They do hearken to a more simple time. Some that I have saved have a very nice antique look to them.

Bob said the check you sent had a bunch of one inch diameter circular marks on it. Were you dancing on your checkbook again? I wonder why you do that!!!

That is the strangest thing. We will be frozen to teh core out of the water and we get back in to set the bottles on the ice flows. It's a compulsion. You have to wonder what a guy fishing on the sea wall a mile down river thinks when an old milk bottle and ten other old bottle forms he has never seen float by.

Bob dove wet! Even in my dry suit i was cold on the second tank.

Steven

 

[southern Maine diver]

Steven...

I'm still diving wet and our water temp is 38degrees!!! But once I get into the "glass" I don't even notice... until I have to relieve myself, then I can't even find it![&:]

Wayne

 

[bottleboy311]

[sm=lol.gif] Fond du Lac? I think I served that at my last party?

 

[Miles]

Steven...
That looks real fun, but it looks like there are bottles coming out of the water by themselves. [:-]