NAUI Celebrates 50th at Legends Festival on Cozumel

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New Course is project of Great Lakes Wrecking Crew

A new underwater navigation project was announced by owner Jeff Rice at the Third Annual Legends Festival, touted as the first of its kind. The course is the project by the Great Lakes Wrecking Crew Dive Club of Milan, MI. While visiting ask about the project. The project highlights various submerged locations with headings and distances. Test out your navigational skills through the use of the map. Arrive through your GPS, then navigate underwater with the use of a compass and count your kicks. More information will be posted on this new project at the quarry.

Legends Gather for Fifth Year in 2010: The fifth annual International Legends of Diving festival series continues at Portage Quarry near Bowling Green the weekend of August 13-15. The legends who crafted the sport and profession are honored each year the second weekend of August. The weekend is filled with presentations, scuba diving events, contests, raffles, ceremonies, movies and swap meet. Visitors from all over the globe converge on Portage Quarry to honor those who have devoted their lives to scuba diving. Past honorees have included Bob Croft, Nick Icorn, Zale Parry, Alec Peirce, Dr. Sam Miller, and Bob Meistrell. Also mark your calendars for the Country Blowout July 3 and the Parrothead concert August 7.

Free Parking for all Quarry Events

Conveniences added for 2008

New Showers and Toilets with Running Water

Need a shower in the morning? We have added hot showers for your convenience. Flush toilets are also available for campers. To gain entrance get a key at the front gate. There is a $5.00 fee for non-campers to use the showers.

Concrete Pier Added to Southwest Corner

A concrete pier was constructed in the southwest corner of the quarry to aid entry into the water. Each 5-foot block weighs one ton. Another concrete pier was built on the back wall next to the Beech craft airplane, also in the southwest corner of the quarry.

Latest in Dive Rescue Training

Hansa HFB 320 Jet Information

This Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH manufactured HANSA jet will be at the heart of a training program for local rescue agencies including the Toledo Water Rescue team. Last in service with Grand Aire, with headquarters at Toledo (OH) Express airport, this HANSA jet was transported from the airport to Portage Quarry on August 24, 2006. Plans are to place the jet in 50 feet of water with the tail assembly starting at the 30-foot level. Look for more announcements on the sinking of this training jet in an area between Mike's rock and the bus. Click here for more information on this jet as it heads to its final resting place, 16 feet off Mike's Rock in 45 feet of water. Click here for more information on this jet as similar Hansa HFB 320s were manufactured in Germany. Click here for the September 25, 2006 press release. Click here for photos as the Hansa Jet is sunk in its final rest on September 30 and October 1.

Articles From the Legends

The development of hand signals used by divers today was

developed in a swimming pool. This is the next article in a series by historian Dr. Samuel Miller, Sea Sabres Signaling System. Dr. Sam Miller, historian, relives the early days of diving spent at Diver’s Cove in Laguna Beach, the fountainhead of American sport diving. His recent return visit to Diver's Cove is corroboration for Thomas Wolfe's book, You Can't Go Home Again. Read the article, You Can't Go Home Again, by Dr. Sam Miller who is a regular at the annual International Legends of Diving festival each August.

Dr. Sam Miller

Another contributing legends of diving author includes Keith G. Cooper of UNEXSO in the Bahamas. The History of Diving on Grand Bahama Island – The Pioneers is the first in the series of diving with our friends in the Bahamas. Leon Lyons has written the Vintage Helmet: Classic Film. They appear with other articles in the archives, an exclusive for Portage Quarry.

Inaugural Events Highlight 2006

Divers from 17 different states gathered at the edge of Portage Quarry to set the world record for most divers in one location in the first Legends of Diving Festival at the Portage Quarry over the August 9-11, 2006 weekend. Get the results of that attempt and Legends of Diving surface pictures from the meet and greet on Friday, to all the events on Saturday, and the finale on Sunday. Enjoy these few selected dive photos and order commemorative shirts with these Legends of Diving and Record Dive Attempt underwater photos. Watch a short video of the Record Dive Attempt with a small number of divers on the silo.

The Mid-Ohio Divers sponsored its first club fundraiser for the HSA International (Handicap Scuba Association) in 2006. There were raffles with entertainment for kids and adults alike. Both of these events continue as annual festivities.

Portage Quarry Recreation Club

Located just one mile south of Bowling Green in Northwest Ohio, the Portage Quarry Recreation Club is a complete recreation facility that caters to the Scuba and skin diver enthusiast. The Scuba diver will experience some of the best recreational diving in Ohio with clear water visibility, wreck diving, and plenty of fish. The Scuba dive shop includes tank rentals, nitrox fills, equipment, and PADI instruction. Annual events include the DAN Barbecue, Country Blowout, HSA Barbecue weekend, and International Legends of Diving. Recreation includes concerts, beach swimming and beach volleyball.