Did you know that Brockville has an underwater statue park?
That’s right, Brockville became the first city in Canada to have an underwater sculpture park. Located at Centeen Park, the Centeen Memorial Dive Park has over 45 statues create by some of the areas best artists and art students.
Why Brockville? Why Centeen Park?
If you live here, you’ve probably heard that Brockville has some of the best freshwater diving in the world.
The two main reasons divers flock to the 1000 Islands is because of the water clarity and the numerous shipwrecks scattered on the river floor. Some of these ships date back to the early 1800s!
Many of the shipwrecks are accessible by shore diving which makes them more accessible to beginner divers. Student divers are usually not used to the buoyancy and tend to grab on to what ever they can to keep their balance.
When student divers visit the 1000 Islands shipwrecks they might sometimes grab hold of part of the ship. Often times that part of the ship is so old that it falls off or disintegrates when the divers makes contact.
Save Our Shipwrecks 1000 Islands Chapter decided to give novice divers a place to learn so they could keep the shipwrecks safe.
Centeen Park offered a perfect landscape for the dive park. In 2015, the first statues were lowered into Canada’s first dive park.
About The Centeen Memorial Dive Park
The dive parks main attractions are definitely the sculptures. Currently there are over 40 sculptures in the park and so far each year the city and SOS have added more.
The map below features all of the sculptures existing in 2018.
In the centre is a memorial sculpture of 5 human figures in tribute to those who have lost their lives on the St Lawrence.
Other statues in the collection feature marine animals, life sized personal watercraft, giant hands, and faces. There are also benches around the centre piece.
The sculptures were created by students in high school art classes as well as local artists. Some of the students even got to learn how to dive so they could see their artwork underwater!
To help promote the area for diver training, there are 2 training platforms. Up top there is an area for divers to prepare for their dive and 2 sets of stairs for them to enter the water easily.
There is also plenty of parking for anyone who visits.
Dive Token
There is a fee to use the dive park and it is only $10! The proceeds go to both the City of Brockville and Save Ontario Shipwrecks to help maintain and expand the park.
You can purchase dive tokens at the following locations around Brockville:
- Brockville Tourism Office – 10 Market Street West
- Dive Brockville Adventure Center – 12 Water Street East
- Dive Tech Training Center – Mallorytown ON
- Divers Warehouse – Ottawa ON
- Sharkey’s Scuba Supply – Ottawa ON
- Kanata Diving Supply – Kanata ON
- Scuba Surface – Repentigny QC
- Total Diving – Montreal QC
- Deco Stop – South Lancaster ON
- Centre de plongée Nepteau – Montreal QC
- SubAqua Tech – Saint-Hubert QC
- ÉPSO (École de plongée sous-marine de l’Outaouais) – Gatineau QC
- Boutique Aqua Service – Joliette QC
- Action Scuba – Point Claire QC
- Explorer Divers – Kingston ON
- AbucS Scuba – Kingston ON
- Many Save Ontario Shipwreck Members
