Canadian Diver

Cold water builds better divers
Diving in Canada demands more from your skills and your gear than tropical warm-water diving. Buoyancy control matters more when you are wearing 20 pounds of lead and a drysuit. Equipment management is harder in thick gloves. Navigation skills are essential when visibility is limited. The divers who train and dive regularly in Canadian conditions — in the lakes of Alberta and BC, the Pacific coast, the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes — develop a depth of competence that warm-water divers rarely need to acquire. Cold water is harder, but it produces better divers.

Canadian dive sites worth knowing
Canada has some of the most underrated diving in the world. The waters off the BC coast offer wolf eels, giant Pacific octopus, and ling cod in visibility that exceeds many tropical destinations. The Great Lakes hold some of the best-preserved shipwrecks on earth — cold fresh water slows the biological processes that destroy wooden hulls in warm oceans. Alberta's mountain lakes, while cold and deep, offer extraordinary freshwater clarity. The St. Lawrence River hosts beluga whales. There is no shortage of world-class diving in Canada — it just requires the right gear and the right attitude.The Maritime provinces like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, offer excellent diving opportunities in the Atlantic Ocean.

The I Am Canadian Diver toque
The Canadian Toque is custom knit with an I Am Canadian Diver logo and a dive flag on the back. It is exactly what it sounds like — a warm hat for after the dive, on the dive boat, or driving to the dive site at 6am in November. Cold-water divers have a specific relationship with warm headwear. If you dive in Canada year-round, you understand this without further explanation. If you are shopping for a gift for someone who dives in Canada year-round, this is the right thing. Staff favourite — our Divemasters wear them.

Gear for Canadian conditions
Beyond themed apparel, Canadian diving requires specific equipment choices that tropical-focused retailers often do not stock: environmentally sealed regulators for near-freezing water, drysuits and heavy undergarments for extended cold dives, and robust BCD configurations that handle the extra weight Canadian divers carry. We have been equipping Canadian divers from our Edmonton store since 2003 — we dive in these conditions ourselves and carry the gear that actually works here. See our drysuit and regulator sections for cold-water specific recommendations.