There are a few things you should be aware of before you start

There are currently four different data sets that that can be accessed: Dive Sites, Water Bodies, Dive Shops, and the NYSDEC 1985 survey of lakes in the Adirondacks. The first three data sets are accessible via a choice of a textual or Google Map front end. The Google mapping maybe too slow for dial-up users so we provided the text based alternative.

At the smaller scales, often flags will overlap. For example, if you choose to display both dive sites and waterbodies at the same time, a small scale view of Dutch Springs will show only the blue waterbody flag. This will make it hard to click on the dive site flag and display the divesite data. This is because at small scales the southern most flag will mask other nearby flags. As you zoom in some separation will be apparent. The solution is to either zoom in or display only one dataset at a time. If the dive site and the waterbody have the same coordinates, no amount of zoomiing will separate them and you will have to select one data set at a time for maping.

Anyone using this information does so on their own responsibility. We make no claims to it's veracity. Always pay attention to safety; just because a danger isn't listed doesn't mean that there are no dangers.

Locations of dive sites and water bodies can be a bit tricky, This is because water bodies are often used as boundaries. For example, Lake Champlain borders Quebec, Vermont and New York. To simplify database design, in such cases we pick a single state/province for each water body. In the case of Lake Champlain, it resides in New York (we are the Adirondack Aquanautical Society :-) after all). Dive sites are tricky as often they have local names and owing to differences in coordinate systems, getting an exact location good for smaller sites isn't a sure thing without a GPS (we are getting one and will be updating locations as we get the numbers).

There are three different coordinate sources used, GPS, Google Earth, and Estimated. GPS coordinates are coordinates we took, or that were provided to us, that were obtained directly with a GPS. Google Earth coordinates were obtained by placing a Google Earth placemark on the particular site. For most purposes, both systems are accurate enough, however, we have seen times when the Google Earth coordinates differed from a handheld GPS by more than 100 feet (30 meters). Estimated coordinates are derived either from maps, or dead reckoning. Another use of Estimated coordinates is to mask the location of a site with private numbers.

What are private numbers and why should I care? Private numbers are sites that are known to only a few people, frequently captains of dive boats. There is debate as to whether numbers should be private. We believe that on balance, private numbers provide a service to the diving community: Lets say you and your dive buddies just drove 200 miles to go on a dive. You head out 20 miles to a really cool site you have heard about on the good ship Deep Six. The water is clear, the seas calm and the sky a brilliant blue. As you approach the site, you see a small boat dead ahead, anchored over your site. Perhaps it contains a diver or two, or perhaps a single fisherman (sites are structure, structure attracts fish, fish attract fishermen and fishermen get up earlier and often have faster boats than divers). Doesn't mater, unless the site is large enough to accommodate two anchored vessels, you have to wait and may not get to dive there. You go home unhappy and the captain has a dissatisfied customer. The less people that know the coordinates of a site, the better the chance that when you get there you will be able to dive it. On the other hand it is natural for people to want to know where they have been. We have decided to resolve this by using Estimated coordinates with reasonable uncertainty factors (this is the same method used to protect endangered species, etc). We will not knowingly publish accurate coordinates of private sites. If you are providing us information on a private site and have GPS rather than dead reckoning numbers, please degrade them by removing all but the last two digits after the decimal point and add or subtract 1 to the last number. This will provide an uncertainty of about a one mile (2KM), sufficient to satisfy most people's curiosity while being vague enough to protect the site.

If you would like to submit information on a water body, dive site, or dive shop please go here