Happy 35th Anniversary DeepFathoms!

The year was 1988. It was a very cool Ontario spring day, two Guelph University students decided to breakaway for the weekend and get some diving in after a long couple of months of intense studies. Tired of driving to the local quarry and diving sandy bottoms and chasing tiny minnows around, the two decided to head north to the great white of Georgian Bay. Cold frigid but clear waters was only 6 hours from campus.

Fathom Five (the national marine park in Georgian Bay) offers some of the best freshwater diving opportunities in the world. Clear, clean water, submerged geological formations (cliffs, caves, overhangs) and more than 20 historical shipwrecks all offer a variety of underwater experiences. But what was most intriguing to these two young divers was the Grotto dive site located along the Georgian Bay shoreline about 19 km (12 miles) east of Tobermory.

NaDeau’s Diver tags (1984-1993) from Tobermory with logs from dive sites around Georgian bay including the Grotto and the wreck of the Forrest City.

Hidden passages lead from inside the Grotto to the open waters of Georgian Bay, but not before winding in and around a maze of limestone pinnacles, only interrupted by the occasional dome rooms that intersect with each tunnel. Charter operators advertise this as a boat access only site and were asking way more money than the cashless college students could afford. After the attendant at the tourism booth told the two youngsters that it was only a 3- or 4-kilometer hike from the road at Cyprus Lake Head, the two struck out to haul gear into this remote site.

At first, hauling dive gear for two dives each did not seem like such a big challenge. Silly men. Three and half hours later the two emerged from the muddy trail out to a ledge at the fringe of the Grotto. A beautiful site to say the least. Just as they arrived, the local dive charter pulled up and anchored. The manifest of divers looked up onto the ridge and after realizing that the two hikers were actually divers who just hauled their gear a marathon through snow covered trails, they began to ridicule the two. One charter passenger however appreciated the effort and was overheard saying "Wow, for serious divers only I guess!"

From that moment on the term stuck for each and every adventure the two made, Serious Divers Only.

Adam Harrington was a grad student in Marine Biology and myself, the other in this story, was an undergrad studying earth and environmental sciences at University of Guelph. We spent a great deal of our time diving whatever body of water we could get into. Not a lot of choices in the western Ontario region, especially during winter. However, the late week night and weekend get-aways were what kept us sane during our academic tenure.

SDO founders Bill (left) and Adam (right) at a quarry near Guelph, Ontario in 1987. Every chance we took to go diving between classes. Photo by John Reekie.

A newspaper article from 1990 after our dive club recovered and restored parts from the WAOME shipwreck that had been stripped off by divers.

Our adventures soon drew the attention of other divers with similar interests and passions. Eventually, 'Serious Divers Only aka S.D.O. ' became more than a secret diving cult of people who wanted to take the sport to the extreme. It evolved into a club and later a business providing training, travel, programs, dive charters and offered a variety of environmental marine expeditions. The unique services this company had to offer was quickly recognized and soon it was sought after by commercial operations to conduct sub-sea assessments, specimen collection and even the design and construction of marine superstructures such as marine railways and boat lifts, large aquariums, cisterns, and underwater photographic surveillance systems. In doing so the S.D.O. team was forced to think outside of the box, integrating a combination of traditional commercial diving practices with scientific and what is now known today as technical diving applications.

In 1989, after realizing the quasi-official status of the club, it was decided that a charter should be drawn. The original statement was drafted over a keg of beer at 3 o'clock in the morning and sounded like a pirate’s law book but with overtones of cowboys breathing voodoo gas. The following morning, with cold clothes and spicy ceasers, it was amended to reflect the more 'academic' nature of the group.

The diving arena expanded into some very specialized and often sensitive environments including mineshafts, aquarium tanks and remote frozen lakes and rivers. Various contracts with Canada Parks, Universities and other environmental agencies tasked S.D.O. with the job of entering into, measuring and recording the various resources within their industry. As a result, myself, Adam and other club members refined our technique to enhance the effectiveness of our exploration and reduce the risk of our respective jobs. To do this, unique equipment modifications and diving techniques were developed. Both myself and Adam were heavily involved in scientific diving activities since the early eighties so this was a natural progression. In effect, we were developing what would be considered technical diving practices many years before the term ‘technical diving’ was coined, and long before the establishment of any technical diver training agency.

Bill Nadeau emerges from a mineshaft - cave dive in Quebec in 1989.

S.D.O. undertook projects that included wreck preservation and archeological studies, site clean-ups, film projects and underwater documentaries and eventually the birth of its newsletter 'The Diver's EcoWatch'.

By 1989 S.D.O. found a home when I started Bala Dive Charters operating out of small dive shop in Bala Ontario. The shop and the boat became a club base for myself and everyone who had joined our community. When we weren’t running trips to the Waome shipwreck, we were exploring the sites around Lake Muskoka, Lake Joseph, Georgian Bay and any river or body of water that looked intriguing.

S.D.O. later went on to promote ecological studies, tradeshows and eventually became one of the first companies to pioneer technical diving into Canada. S.D.O. was a sponsor in the first Canadian technical diver tradeshow called Mix '96, and later hosted the Island Tech Retreat and the Sea the Future symposium which drew diving pioneers from all over the world including Dr. Phil Nuytten, Tom Mount, Jarrod Jablonski, Jill and Paul Heinerth and Dr David Sawatzky. Sea the Future offered ground breaking programs including the first ever 'Rebreather Forum and Gear Modification Workshop' which pitted contrasting opinions from some very outspoken authorities.

Explorer, researcher, author and dive instructor Jarrod Jablonski at the DeepFathoms Hosted Sea the Future event in Nanaimo in 2000

Evolving to focus on diver training S.D.O. changed its operating name to DeepFathoms in 1998 and today represents a huge alumnus of pioneers who originally banded together because they had a common cause and passion.

Zero Gravity 2001, Cayman Islands - We began teaching and promoting SCR/CCR programs since 1996. Photo by Reg Creighton

As one of the founders of S.D.O and DeepFathoms I am proud to celebrate our 35th anniversary. Thank you to all of our extended family for helping S.D.O. and DeepFathoms make history.