Yellowknife (June 11/03) - They were "those crazy guys from the Arctic" for so long it was as if it would never end. But it is the end of an era for Arctic Divers Ltd.

Wayne Gzowski, who started the company with partner George Pieper 30 years ago, is staying on as NWT operations manager.

The Yellowknife firm has been a fixture on the industrial scene in the North for almost three decades.

Partners Wayne Gzowski and George Pieper sold the company recently to the NUS Group (Northern Underwater Systems) of Edmonton.

Gzowski is staying on as NWT operations manager for the new firm -- Arctic Divers NWT Ltd. -- and Pieper has retired.

The deal gives the company access to "a broader range of equipment" including dredges and dewatering pumps, and improved support services out of Edmonton.

"We will have a decompression chamber here shortly -- we've never had one in NWT all of the years we have been in the business," said Gzowski.

"We're also looking at things like hot water-heated wet suits that cost about $50,000 each. That's a stretch for smaller firms."

Thirty years on

Pieper and Gzowski started the company after coming North for what was supposed to be a short job at the Con mine.

In the 30 years since, the firm has become the stuff of legend in the Canadian diving community, literally writing the book on working in the North.

Gzowski guesses he has spent about 5,000 hours underwater throughout NWT and Nunavut.

Their signature job is the Polaris mine north of Resolute Bay.

In 1980, they helped build a 700-foot long pier and ore-loading facility.

The mine shut down last year and now they are helping dismantle it.

"Polaris has been a great Northern mining and engineering story so there are mixed feelings for us in helping eradicate any trace that it was ever there."

The firm returned to the mine three or four times a year since the early '80s to maintain the underwater tailing discharge system.

In the winter, that meant cutting through six feet of ice and then diving 110-feet down in Garrow Lake -- for 14 minute maximum work shifts at that depth.

"That was the job that got us the reputation as those crazy guys from up in the Arctic."

Other major mining clients include the diamond firms, BHP initially and then Diavik. The company was closely involved through construction of the award-winning, 3.9 kilometre long A154 dike at Diavik.

In Yellowknife, Arctic has kept a close eye on the city's water intake system since a major rupture in 1984.

The pipe starts at the Yellowknife River and runs along the bottom of Great Slave Lake to the pumphouse near the Con mine. "It is about seven miles long and we do inspection swims along the length of it almost every year."

Emergency response has been a less happy part of the job.

Over the years, the firm has been called on to recover the bodies of 45 people who have perished in Northern waters.

"It is a part of the job every diver hates, but it is part of the job."

Hairy stories

Stories? What Northern diver doesn't have a few hair raisers.

Gzowski was surfacing through an ice hole near Cape Perry once when a polar bear reached down and tried to scoop him out.

"I was at the end of the dive and only had about 600 lbs (about 5 minutes) of air left," he recalls.

"Happily our hunter was right there and chased him off with the snowmobile."

Another time a hungry bear tried to break in the door of the diving camp kitchen at Polaris.

"He actually broke the window with his nose, which scared the hell out of us. We didn't have a rifle in the shack."

One of the divers began giving the bear karate-kicks to the nose, until the hunter showed up to chase it off.

Gzowski, still diving at 63, said he plans to stay with the NUS group for about two years through the transition.

"Then I'll think about retiring too, maybe starting with a long trip to Australia."

To do a little diving, of course.