BROCKVILLE DIVING

Canada’s Caribbean as it’s been called unanimously, Brockville is located on the St. Lawrence Seaway which runs from the Northeast corner of Lake Ontario just east of Kingston through the Thousand Islands region and ending at the Saint Lawrence River joining the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean eventually.

Brockville and its surrounding areas of Gananoque, Rockport, Ivy Lea, etc., are the home to the warmest water Canadian Diving has to offer. The temperatures in the summer time months range from 68-75 degrees top and bottom.

The shipwrecks are bigger and better than most places, as well as in better shape with a lot of larger canal freighters and lakers making for more interesting dives for advanced divers to swim around and certified and experienced wreck penetration divers challenging themselves with some good wreck penetrations.  Visibility averages 50-60 feet most of the year and 60-100 towards the fall season.

Currents keep the water circulating making the sites more challenging for divers who have little or no experience in diving with a strong current.

Try some basic drift dives if you can before diving brockville, Signup, for our PADI Drift Diver Course, or opt for some of the easier more open water friendly sites (avoid the Daryaw until you’re more comfortable)

The presence of a thermocline is usually non existent in the river, so generally speaking the surface and bottom temperatures are within a couple of degrees of each other.

Shore Diving Sites:

Centeen Park, Downtown Brockville.
Canada’s First Underwater Sculpture Park was formed as scuba divers set the first five statues in place on Friday July 11th, 2014. Created by Dave Sheridan’s Thousand Islands Secondary School students, the Sculpture Park is a new diving attraction in the city of Brockville. The park serves as a memorial for all the divers and sailors lost in or on the river.

The Rothesay Shipwreck 
One of our choices for advanced training, the wreck is located on the outskirts of Brockville heading east from downtown  on Highway #2.   Look for a parking and picnic area with a staircase to the river’s edge leads you to a shore entry to follow the rope system to the site.
193 ft. x28.8 ft. x 7.9 ft. twin side-wheeler was relocated to service the Montreal to Prescott run where she met her fate September, 2 1889 when she collided with the American tug “Myra”.
In 1901 a group from the Royal Military College, Kingston used this wreck for explosives practice which flattened her mid ship section, leaving the stern/bow sections still fairly intact. There is a rope from shore that is tied off near the paddlewheels. Current is often minimal and there are weeds in the shallows.
Depth is 25-35′.