| My recommendation is that if
you have never been diving here to go with someone who has and knows the
currents, the exit and entry points for the dives, due to the fact that
access for entry and exits is limited. The St. Clair River is a major
shipping lane and diving here and all dives done are treated as an
overhead environment. Surfacing anywhere other than the shore or
climbing directly back onto a boat could prove fatal.
There are several different types of diving that can
be done in the St. Clair River. When I first learned to dive in the
river I started in Marine City at a little roadside park that has an old
cannon in the square. I am not sure the real name of the park but all
the divers just call it Cannon Park. My dive instructor teamed me up
with an experienced river diver our dive objective antique bottles. The
current here is a little strong and requires a diver to hold on to the
bottom while fanning away the mud to dig for bottles and the visibility
is usually pretty low about 5'-10'.
As time went on and I gained experience at river
diving I moved up to the city of St. Clair where the current is stronger
but because it is further up river the visibility tends to be a little
better 5'-15'.
A little way south of the Blue Water Bridge is the
Coast Guard Cutter Bramble and is a favorite entry point for divers.
This part of the river is done as a drift dive and you can get moving
along at a pretty good pace. Along this dive divers can see the wreck of
the Colburn, a Steam Powered Crane, an Antique car and usually ton's of
Walleye. The exit for this dive is about one mile south by the YMCA
where there is an easy exit.
Further on up the river is Edison Park where divers
can dive on many different shipwrecks. This area of the river is for
advanced divers only entry here consists of climbing over the railing on
the boardwalk and jumping off to the water level about 8 feet below.
Exits here are done by climbing the escape ladders an the sea wall.
Doing this in a full river diving rig requires being in excellent
physical condition, once you jump off the boardwalk you are committed to
the dive. The current here is very strong and I have seen visibility as
good as 50+ feet. Divers here can dive the wreck of the M. E. Tremble,
the crane un-loader boom that fell off of a freighter, a 4 x 4 truck and
more. North of the Blue Water Bridge is
the wreck of the John B. Martin the current here is extremely strong (deadly fast)
to the point it could rip your face mask off if you turn your head sideways in the
current. Also some regulators will allow water to come in if the current is coming
from the side (Poseidon) This can be fixed by wrapping black tape around the small
vent holes on the side of the regulator. If you are not extremely experienced don't
even think of jumping in here, it could be your last dive. It won't be much comfort
to you when you find out you weren't the first diver to die on this shipwreck
because at that point there will be no turning back. Add a passing freighter to this
mix and it is the equivalent of jumping into a huge washing machine with your scuba
gear on and putting it on high.
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