Vlada Dekina

Born in the city of Khabarovsk in the Far East of Russia, Vlada discovered diving at an early age using her father's scuba unit. Years later while expanding her dive education in Cozumel, Vlada decided to take an Underwater Photography course and has never dove without a camera again.

Living in Toronto, with all five of the Great Lakes within easy reach, wreck diving and photography soon became second nature. Eventually, just taking pictures was not enough and Vlada started researching and writing the ships' stories, so that she could share the tales of the Great Lakes with other divers around the world. Vlada's pictures and stories have been published in Advanced Diver Magazine, Canadian Diver and several other publications.

Many of Vlada's pictures and stories can be viewed on her web site at www.wrecksandreefs.com.

Eber Ward

The shipwrecks on the bottom of the Great Lakes tend to aggregate in the areas that saw lots of traffic over the years, were most exposed to weather, or had several navigational hazards. The Straits of Mackinac had high traffic, bad weather and plenty of navigational hazards that led to the demise of close to 100 vessels in the area. The presentation will talk about the most famous wreck in the Straits, the 588’ Cedarville, as well as some advanced recreational wrecks in the area.

Minneapolis