Dive into an exotic underwater adventure

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This article was published 27/01/2015 (3921 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Elmwood institution is celebrating a milestone this February.  

3 Fathoms Scuba, which has been located at 163 Henderson Hwy. since 1970, is preparing for its 120th escorted dive trip with a trip to Belize at the end of February.

“It’s the second-biggest barrier reef in the world,” Ian Sutherland, owner of 3 Fathoms and an avid scuba diving instructor, told The Herald. “The marine life there is second to none in the Caribbean.”

Twenty-two former scuba diving students, all of whom have received their certification through the six-week course offered at 3 Fathoms, and two other instructors will join Sutherland on the southern excursion. Many of those heading to Belize have been on dive trips with 3 Fathoms before. But for others, it will be a new experience.

“We always have a certain percentage every trip who are completing their open water certification, which is their very first time stepping off a boat into the ocean,” Sutherland said.

The trip from Winnipeg to Belize will be an eight-day affair, with five days spent on a boat diving. Sutherland explained that each day would feature two to three dives, which take 45 minutes to an hour each.

“It depends on air consumption,” he said. “A lot of things in diving affect air consumption.”

3 Fathoms runs its six-week scuba diving course, which is a mix of classroom and practical “in-pool” learning, out of the shop and a local pool throughout the year. Classes are made up of eight to 10 students and take place over three to four hours one evening per week.

The shop also organizes two international dive trips per year, one in the fall and one in the winter, which are also very popular. In the past, they’ve visited exotic locales such as the Bega Lagoon, Fiji, St. Eustatius, and Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles, and Palau, Yap, Truk Lagoon and Pohnpei in Micronesia. Incidentally, their first dive trip — back in the early ’70s — was to Belize.

“Since the early ’80s we’ve never been back to Belize,” Sutherland said. “It’s going to be really interesting to see how things have changed there.”

One of Sutherland’s favourite dive locations, and a destination 3 Fathoms returns to every couple years, is La Paz, on the Baja peninsula in Mexico.

“It’s like another world down there,” he said with a smile. “There’s not a lot where coral is concerned, but there are sea lion colonies of 300, 400 sea lions. They’re like puppy dogs.

They’ve seen divers there so many times they just use divers as a plaything.

Sutherland, who was born and grew up “in a small fishing village in northern Scotland,” first got into the sport of scuba diving after moving to Canada in the 1970s.

“The ocean has always been a part of me,” Sutherland said. “(But) it wasn’t until 1980 that I realized you could learn to scuba dive. I took the course here at 3 Fathoms in 1980, then wanted to make that my profession. I gave up my factory job (and) went through the instructor’s course.”

Sutherland began teaching at the end of the course. He’s been at 3 Fathoms ever since, buying the previous owner out in 1996. He says that the sport of scuba diving is more popular than ever these days.

“People understand that if we destroy the oceans, we destroy ourselves. The ocean is the main thing that drives the planet,” he said. “That’s one of big reasons people want to learn the sport. They want to go down there and witness what there is down there.”

For more information on scuba diving classes or upcoming dive trips, call 3 Fathoms Scuba at 204-668-2816 or stop by the shop at 163 Henderson Hwy.