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Making a Hard Left Turn.  Two ladies, both prime movers of Ontario's dive scene have left the building . . . sort of.
And while the Greater Toronto area is clearly the big loser, cottage country is pleased that the former head of Underwater Canada and the current president of the Ontario Underwater Council have decided to leave the Big Smoke and find new digs two hours north of the Megacity. For three years Marion Peirce was the volunteer chairman of Underwater Canada, the country's largest annual scuba exhibition. Signing-up exhibitors, hawking tickets to clubs and individual divers and booking speakers, was all part and parcel of what Marion did each spring. Late last year Marion and her partner Rick Cassidy decided that it was time to get out of the big city Rat Race. In addition to the volunteer work they did for the dive community, both Rick and Marion had held senior positions with companies operating in Hamilton, Ontario. Marrick's Landing - a name combination of Marion and Rick - is their hard left turn. The pair have bought an aging cottage resort in the Kawartha Tourist district and are now busy transforming it into a friendly fishing and diving retreat.
Marrick's Landing is a cozy collection of cottages, built under and around a forest of oak and pine trees. The property fronts on Lovesick Lake (part of the Trent Severn Canal system near Peterborough). "So far we have been very busy, we have had only one dive couple stay with us so far," explained Marion Peirce. "But, we will be working over the winter to develop a map showing some of the dive sites people can try." "There is some really interesting diving at Burleigh Falls, a five minute drive from here. We go in just below the falls. There are two sites there, one with a current and the other is more calm," she continued. "The depth slopes from four feet to 70 feet with easy access from shore. You can see lots of fish including bass, pickerel and muskie. The falls has created a huge underwater logjam of timber, trapped since the lumber days of the last century." "You can also dive from our property and see a lot of wildlife, including the occasional turtle. The depth here is to 20 feet. A dive flag is recommended for both of these sites." Beth Cornwell, is the current president of Ontario Underwater Council. For the past two decades she has been an active member of Canada's largest non-profit association, Ms. Cornwell has juggled the growing time commitments of the OUC with her position at a Scotia Bank branch in east Toronto. Earlier this year, Ms. Cornwell and her scuba instructing husband David decided it was time that they took a hard left turn too. Beth is still the president of the OUC and still with the Scotia Bank, but instead of fighting traffic she is now fighting
mosquitoes. Earlier this year the Cornwells moved out of Toronto and bought a home on the Burnt River, "near" their friends Marion
and Rick.
"We are a 45 minute drive from Marrick Landing. That might sound like a long way away, but, we are so far into the Boonies, everything is at least a 45 minute drive away," said Beth Cornwell. "I now work at a bank in the town of Lindsay, and about once a week I drive into Toronto to handle Council business." "It was time for a change," she continued. "I don't want to quit the OUC just yet. With Bill 13, (a proposed government bill to control wreck diving) there is lots of important work that still has to be done." Careers and friendship have a way of intersecting. With a move to Kawartha's, scuba instructor Dave Cornwell has found his skills in demand even more than when he was in Toronto. Working with dive shops in Peterborough and Lakefield, Mr. Cornwell has been conducting weekly scuba lessons. And where does he take his students for their check out dives? Marrick Lodge, of course.
 From left to right: David Cornwell, Beth Cornwell, Rick Cassidy and Marion Pierce. Trying out the water No lodge tour is complete without testing the water first hand. DIVER Magazine went diving with OUC president Beth Cornwell, late in October, near Marrick Lodge. According to the president, diving in the Kawartha's is not like diving in the Great Lakes. "It is not for everyone, but, I am not a wreck diver, and I never have been. I don't care if I ever see a wreck again. I Iike to look at fish, I like exploring a river bed or checking out an empty lake. That's what you get in the Kawarthas." The OUC president doesn't believe in picking up underwater junk either, so, when she and our associate editor, Stephen Weir, decided to make a drift dive down the Otonabee River through the village of Lakefield, she declined a goody bag. The pair entered the water from the town marina. Since the boating season had already ended, their dive flag was the only thing floating on the water. Swimming upstream the couple followed a channel used by hundreds of thousands of boaters each summer. The river is part of a system that links Lake Ontario with Georgian Bay. It is a shallow river, at best the divers hit a depth of five metres. The Ottonabee River, like all other rivers on the Trent Canal, is infested with zebra mussels. As a result the water is very clear, however, the bottom is blanketed by a thick carpet of the mussels. After 15 minutes the two divers stopped fighting the current, turned around underwater and head back downstream, propelled by the force of the river. They drifted along over small ledges, past fish spawning grounds and through the occasion forest of river grass. It was a gentle, soothing, underwater experience. And, while the OUC president doesn't collect old bottles from river beds, our writer does. Although zebra mussels cover rocks and dirt, they don't tend to cling to glass. The keeper that day was a rare 1935 Hamilton pop bottle made by the long vanished Bennett bottling company. Marrick's Landing, RR#4, Lakefield ON. 705-654-3421 www.marrickslanding.com |
