About the Manitoba Underwater Council
Mandate
The Manitoba Underwater Council (MUC)'s mandate is to promote
safety and participation in SCUBA Diving and other Underwater
Sports (e.g., Snorkelling, Underwater Football, and Underwater
Hockey) in the province of Manitoba.
History
MUC was founded in 1962. In 1969 if became part of
ACUC
(the Association of Canadian Underwater Councils). MUC (through ACUC)
provided training and certification in SCUBA Diving. While other
programs existed, they did not meet the needs of diving in Canadian
waters (as they were oriented more towards diving in warm water
with high visibility).
This certification program provided nationally and internationally
recognised standards for training within the SCUBA Diving community.
In 1983 as many of the current international certification agencies
became more popular (e.g., PADI, NAUI, SSI, etc.), MUC stepped back from
providing front line SCUBA training and certification. ACUC was also
reformed as American Canadian Underwater Certifications, Inc.
This separation has allowed MUC to become more non-partisan, and
representative of all SCUBA divers in Manitoba. It has also allowed
MUC to focus on its primary goals of promoting safety and participation
in the sport.
The Present MUC
MUC currently has several ongoing projects and campaigns. The goals of
these projects are to promote safety and participation in SCUBA diving,
and other underwater sport. Some of them include:
The Diver Down Poster
MUC has an ongoing campaign to educate the boating community about
the Diver Down flag, and in turn encourage the SCUBA diving community
to use it. An example of this flag and poster can be seen below:
While Alpha Flag is the internationally known, it has various meanings
ranging from "Diver Below", "I'm undergoing a speed trial", "vessel
has personnel and/or equipment in the water and is unable to manoeuvre".
The traditional Diver Down flag has become an easily recognisable
symbol through much of North America. MUC has chosen to focus on this
symbol in its boater and diver education.
Printed copies of the poster can be obtained from MUC directly.
Training
It is MUC's policy not to offer training that competes with the
commercial trainers in the area. While MUC no longer participates
directly in SCUBA diver training and certification, it does still
offer training in some cases.
Some training is not commercially available in the province (whether
it is not profitable for the commercial trainers to offer, there are
limited number interested divers or otherwise). If MUC deems a
course to be valuable to the SCUBA diving community, it may choose
to arrange for the course to be run through MUC (e.g., a specialised
first aid course). The primary goal being to provide the education
and increase the exposure of the course to the SCUBA diving community.
When the demand for this training rises high enough that the commercial
trainers start offering courses, MUC will opt out of running courses to
avoid conflict.
The West Hawk Lake Dive Site
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This site is also known as Cat's Ass. It is located in Whiteshell
Provincial Park, in the main campground at West Hawk Lake. See the
dive pac page for more precise directions
to the site.
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photos by Dave Sanders |
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MUC (in conjunction with Manitoba Parks) maintains an underwater
park at this site. The most noticeable portions of this park
are the 5 marker buoys and rope that mark the site. These buoys
indicate to boat traffic that the area is frequented by divers and
should not be entered.
The buoys at this site must be removed and replaced yearly.
This is to prevent damage to the buoys by the ice that forms on
the lake over winter. Each spring it is our task to ensure that
buoys are anchored appropriately, and each fall that they are removed
before the lake freezes over.
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photo by Dave Sanders
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This underwater park was set up for two reasons.
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The area is
used by a number of commercial trainers as a location for performing
the Open Water portion of their training program. As such, we would
ask that all people doing SCUBA training, please use the underwater
park rather than the beach for your Open Water training. Additionally,
please co-operate with each other when using the site. There is
plenty of room to perform your training.
- The area is frequented by already certified divers. The area
is often already familiar to them from their training. It is also
very accessible, as it is one of the few dive sites on the lake
that does not require a boat to access.
Through discussion with Manitoba Park, MUC has helped to arrange the
additional parking that is now present at the site. We ask all divers
to use this parking responsibly, share the parking spaces so that
others can enjoy the area to, and to follow the posted rules in the
part - parking, or otherwise.
The Clear Lake Dive Site
This area is formally known as Glen Beag. It is located in Riding
Mountain National Park on the East show of Clear Lake (near the
"Wishing Well"). Glen Beag provides a similar function to the West
Hawk Lake Dive Site. The site is primarily maintained by the Brandon
and Dauphin SCUBA Clubs (affiliated with MUC), with financial
support from MUC.
Air Purity
The quality of the air that is pumped into SCUBA tanks is important
to MUC. A poorly maintained compressor can mean contamination of the
air with a variety of impurities. At best this could mean bad tasting
air in your tank. At worst, this could mean an injury to a diver.
Breathing contaminated air at depth can have much stronger effects
on the human body, than breathing that same air at one atmosphere.
To prevent contaminated air, air fill stations are expected to
perform regular tests on their equipment. To help ensure that these
tests are done, MUC created the Air Purity program. MUC will
sample the air coming from the compressor, ship and test the sample,
and provide the fill station operator with the results (MUC performs
this service at cost, and makes no revenue from this program).
The results of these tests are printed regularly in the
Newsletter. Compressor operators are
welcome to provide their latest test reports to MUC for inclusion
in the newsletter.
Underwater Football
Underwater Football was created in the late 1960's by a SCUBA
instructor who was looking for a way to make his students more
comfortable in the water. He formed a game using the equipment that
they already had at the pool: a mask, a snorkel, fins, and a pool
brick. Since then it has taken on a life of its own.
MUC sponsors a portion of the pool rentals, and provides the insurance
that allows the teams to rent the pools. Underwater Football provides
an activity for divers and non-divers to participate in, and maintain
some of their diving skills, during Manitoba's winter months.
You can find our more about Underwater Football at the following site:
www.underwaterfootball.com.
Liaison with Government
MUC is the political representation for SCUBA divers within Manitoba.
It maintains contact with the Provincial Government of Manitoba and
the Federal Government of Canada through a variety of means.
These include:
- Membership in Sport Manitoba
- Membership on the Water Safety Council
- Liaison with the Provincial and Federal parks in the Province
- Maintaining contacts with the Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP and
Medical Community
One of MUC's goals is to ensure the SCUBA Diving remains
accessible by a wide variety of people, without compromising
safety.
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