[1]Marmora’s Crowe River is the go-do scuba area for divers from all around. (Image source) [2]
By Emilie Quesnel
BELLEVILLE – Marmora’s Crowe River is being recognized as a scuba destination with Ontario’s first-ever diving festival taking place on its shores this weekend.
Roger Basten and Mike Peddleson, organizers of the Marmora Outdoor and Diving Festival, said they are hoping the event at Marmora Memorial Park will showcase how much fun scuba diving is.
“The first goal is to promote the social aspects of scuba diving,” said Basten.
They hope the weekend will entice experienced divers and also those curious about the sport, they said.
Basten and Peddleson said they are a little anxious because this is the first event of its kind this province has seen, but they expect a significant turnout.
“You just don’t know what you’re walking into,” said Peddleson of organizing the event. But he added he is anticipating it will be a hit.
“[The event] is one way to say thank you to Marmora” for providing diving opportunities and hospitality for years, said Gilbert Lavery, the manager of Canadian Sports Subs Scuba shop in Belleville.
“People from Ajax, Scarborough, Whitby, Peterborough and more all come up to the Crowe for their training dives,” Lavery said.
That is exactly the reason that Peddleson and Basten began organizing the Marmora Outdoor and Diving Festival. They saw how many scuba divers were meeting up and exploring the Crowe River, they said, and asked themselves, “Why don’t we set up an event where that can occur on a bigger scale?” Basten explained.
The Crowe River is a diving gem for those who know about it, they said.
“It gives an excellent, safe, open-water diving experience,” Basten said.
“The Crowe hits all cylinders for depth, clarity and bottom composition,” and the festival will showcase this, Peddleson added.
Lavery said the event might help his business. The shop is anticipating a rush of divers from all over who are in the area for the festival.
While Lavery said he is excited over the new business the weekend will bring, he is even more excited about the advantages it will bring to the diving community as a whole.
“It will introduce a lot more people to the diving world. It will give them an opportunity to go look at the equipment and how it all works … it will be advantageous to our diving community,” Lavery said.
It isn’t only divers who can attend and enjoy the festival. There are events planned from Friday all the way to Sunday evening, including a live band, a dance, a bouncing castle and face painting for kids, a cruise across the river, and guest lecturers.
For more information: marmoradivefest.ca [3]