Shipwrecks have always attracted divers. Many divers enjoy the history that shipwrecks bring, while others enjoy watching the marine life that are attracted to shipwrecks.

For what ever your reasons for enjoying them, shipwrecks are fraught with danger. Many people compare them to haunted houses with dangers around every corner. The equipment and procedures required to penetrate shipwrecks is also just as complicated. Divers must master the use of this equipment and procedures to ensure safe wreck penetration diving.

The entry level wreck diving courses have been so "streamlined" that they lack quite a bit of essential information. We will build the basic skills needed for divers to safely penetrate shipwrecks using doubles and a guideline. You will learn topics such as gas management, running and retrieving guideline, team positioning on the guideline, lost visibility procedures, and failures associated with wreck penetration. During this course, we will present many failure scenarios in a controlled environment. These types of scenarios are designed to embed the urgency and seriousness that failures require in real environments and to create thinking divers.

This course is taught over 4 days and will require a minimum of 8 dives in or around shipwrecks. The first day will be at a quarry while the last three days will be in Lake Michigan on real shipwrecks. This class is NOT conducted on 4 continuous days. We are at the mercy of the schedule of the dive boat charters available. Please contact me well in advance if you are interested in taking this course.

The tution for this course is $700 and covers the materials and certification fees. Quarry and charter boat fees are NOT included. Please read the pricing policy for more information about charter fees.

Pre-requisites

• Minimum 18 years of age
• Advanced Open Water certified or higher (Intro to Tech highly recommended)
• Nitrox certified
• Basic Wreck or Cavern certification
• Experience in a double tank configuration
• Minimum 50 logged non-training dives

Course Limits

• Maximum penetration limit: 400 feet
• Maximum depth: Dependent on student's maximum certification level and experience
• Maximum 3 students per course session

Required Equipment (in addition to the equipment required for Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures course)

• Double tank configuration
• 400 foot reel maximum
• Primary light (HID Recommended)
• Surface Marker Buoy (SMB)
• Two finger spools
• Two backup lights
• Two cutting devices
• Backup mask
• Wetnotes