Vintage Diving Days at NOAA
Experience diving like Cousteau!
Trending
ALPENA -- A group of National Association for Underwater Instructors (NAUI) diving instructors from Florida will visit the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS) tomorrow as part of TBNMS's Vintage Diving Days.
This event will take place during the Maritime Festival, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cost is $50 per participant and each session runs an hour. Participants must be scuba certified and pre-registration is required.
To register, visit thunderbayfriends.org/.
For the event, NAUI instructors are bringing vintage diving equipment that divers will get to use in the TBNMS diving tank located at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center.
"They’ll have the old school, double hose regulator," Stephanie Gandulla, TBNMS resource protection coordinator, said.
Gandulla explained that the diving event is not only an opportunity to experience and learn about diving history, but also divers in the community will get to experience the TBNMS dive tank.
"It’s an opportunity for folks that are already scuba certified to, first of all, get in the tank," she said. "I don’t think hardly anybody in town, any of the local divers, have been in this tank."
Gandulla stated that she's excited to try out the equipment herself.
"I'm going to do it for sure, because I’ve never tried on gear like this ... the old style kind of gear that Jacques Cousteau probably wore," she said.
"That's what we're all about here, at the museum and the sanctuary, is preserving maritime history. Now this is like a physical manifestation of that," she added.
Gandulla explained that not only will the TBNMS dive tank be a new experience for divers, but diving with the vintage equipment will likely be a new experience for some, as well.
"I’ve been diving for 25 years and I’ve never got to use these. So I’m excited for it," she added.
Just because the equipment is "vintage" doesn't mean the equipment is old. Gandulla explained that NAUI divers have maintained the equipment and kept them in working condition, thus maintaining and preserving pieces of diving history.
"It’s something you wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to try," she said. "Even if your grandpa or grandma had a set of these types of dive equipment in their garage, it’s certainly not in working order."
"This group of people have maintained this gear or got it back in working order," she added. "It’s all safe and vetted and good to go and ready to use."
Even if someone isn't planning on diving, Gandulla said that the event will be fun to watch.
"If you’re coming for the Maritime Festival, make sure to walk down by the tank and check out the activity happening here, because they’ll have equipment for people to see and touch," she said. "So even if you’re not a diver, still come and watch."
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.