Wanted to share

[Dragon]

A couple buddies of mine got in touch with me last week and wanted to do some diving at Millbrook Quarry in Haymarket. Granted no-one really wants to go diving at Millbrook, but when you live in NoVA and have a desire to do some diving with no travelling it's all that's available to you. I'd recently gotten some new gear in preparation for my trip to the VI next month so it was the perfect time to test it out before I really put it through it's paces. The main thing that was getting tested was my underwater housing for my Fuji F10.

Considering it was my first time ever doing underwater photography, it's the quarry so visibility sucks, and I didn't have a strobe, the pictures came out surpisingly well.

Here's some of the highlights:

Bubble trail to the surface


Jon cheezing it up for the camera


Mike found a friend


One of the clearest pics of the dive


Jon's a Goofball


Mike at the platform


Jon found a friend too


If you want to see the rest of the photos you can go to the directory here. Be warned they definitely aren't the greatest quality shots, but hey what do you expect it was my first try at this.

http://bashbroz.com/MLeech/images/MilbrookDiving100805/

[Mike]

already saw em... myspace owns youuu! looks fun... we need to go in early november.

[Dragon]

I'll do a dive any Sat or Sun morning before heading to Allsports, just let me know when man.

[Mike]

where is that quarry? anything worthwhile in it? how deep?

[ScottyB]

whoa, cool. those are very good shots all things considered.

[Dragon]

where is that quarry? anything worthwhile in it? how deep?

Haymarket
Deepest part is 85' which is the main part of the quarry, the rest of it where most people stick to goes down to about 60'.

As for anything to see there, eh, that's debatable, they've sunk some boats, a few buses/cars/vans, a small plane, swing set, and some other stuff. It's ok for diving, but certainly not great. Basically an excuse to get under the water and that's about it. Oh and it's cold, water temps when we were down at 60' were 60 degrees approx, so plan on renting a 7 mil wetsuit if you're gonna go.

http://www.splashdivecenter.com/pdf/quarry-nov03.pdf

[Jeff]

thats pretty cool...I don't dive but it looks like fun to see all the crap people threw down there. My Geo teacher said he did a quarry dive once and found like 5 60's mustangs.

[Mike]

take the scuba class at jmu. best time i had there...

matt, what certs you have? i want to get my advanced and then do some cave and wreck diving.

[Dragon]

Basic Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Nitrox Diver, Advanced Rescue Diver.

Working next on Wreck Penetration and Master Diver, but those probably won't be until the beginning of '06.

The Wreck Penetration cert my shop typically does as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway trip they do once or twice a year. A couple of friends of mine have been on it, really cool trip apparently.

As for Cave certification, I did some cavern diving down in FL as part of my Advanced Rescue Cert and let me tell you it's a completely different experience. How comfy are you with low visibility, confined areas, and not being able to ESA?

[Mike]

I need to find a shop to call my own. There is one here in Sterling, but I know nothing about it. Where is yours? As far as my comfort level with cave diving? I really don't know. I can say I'll be fine, but you never really know until you're in the situation, eh?

[Dragon]

I'd definitely suggest doing some cavern style diving first, that will give you a good gauge for your comfort with it and see if you want to go further with it. I'm thinking of making a trip next year to Playa del Carmen in Mexico, close to Cancun for partying, and very well known for it's cenote cavern dives.

Sterling Silver Divers is the shop I assume you're talking about, I have walked in there once or twice since it's close to Allsports. They seemed friendly enough.

The shop I go to is Adventure Scuba over in Chantilly off of Metrotech. They've got a really friendly staff and most of them are quite knowledgable. I've got three friends that are instructors or asst. instructors there. Also if you become a rather consistent customer of theirs you'll find they cut you nice price breaks now and then.

Other shops in the area is Scuba VA over in Manassas close to Nissan Pavilion and The Dive Shop over in Fairfax/Vienna really close to Ryan's place.

I've made purchases at Scuba VA, The Dive Shop, and Adventure, I'd reccommend any one of them. (although if you want to get a quarry pass go to The Dive Shop they have them cheaper than any other shop since they are the ones that own the quarry.

[Mike]

the one in chantilly will work for me. lets set some shit up.

[Dragon]

Sounds like a plan. The quarry's last weekend open this season is November 20th, maybe we can convince the other MMers w/Certs to make a morning of it assuming they don't mind the chilly water.

[Chris]

Feersty and I took the class at JMU- very fun class. I never had the funds to complete the open water dives and become certified, but its something I'd like to eventually get.

[Dragon]

Do you still have the referral letter for your certification? You'd be surprised how cheap it is considering you probably already have all the gear and you've done all the classroom stuff. It'd probably be quite inexpensive to finish it up.

[Mike]

We rented gear at school.

[Dragon]

Ahhh, didn't think about that. Most divers that do it occasionally rent their gear, but every dive shop I've talked to require you to buy the basics in order to do any of their classes, fins, mask, snorkel, booties, and weight belt. Guess that was different since y'all were taking it as a class.

[Mike]

Yep, so I guess I'll have to buy those things

[LorenaBeana]

Actually, my experience with that quarry is that if there are too many people on a given day, visibility is really bad. And yes, it's cold. Especially in the FALL! I only went to the platforms down 30ish feet, didn't go hunting around the bottom to see the school bus or plane or whatever all is down there. Hope ya'll enjoy yourselves! Wear a thick wetsuit!

[Mike]

or just pee extra!