Depth
18.3 m
Dive profile
Move over the chart to inspect depth values.
Comments
2021-03-13 D798 Jyrängövirta
My diving club Kupla organized this “classical” winter current dive to Jyrängönvirta stream. This is part of the vast Kymijoki river system, where water flows from the Päijänne lake district to the Bay of Finland. This particular spot is next to Heinola city, a 90 min drive from Espoo. Typical water flow is 300 cubic meters per second. The flow keeps water open even during winter, so this is a nice and thrilling dive spot during winter and early spring. Once the boat traffic starts, it is no longer possible to dive here.
I left home at 8:30, picked up my diving gear from Kuplakammio and started driving at 9:00. The road was OK to drive. Refuled the car and got some coffee on the road.
We were 6 divers and had agreed to meet at Kumpeli Spa hotel at 11:00. At Kumpeli there is easy access to the river and a pier. Due to pandemic, the hotel was now closed. We scouted the shores, and noted that there was ice, but we could exit after the bridges to an iceless beach to the park. So we arranged 3 cars to the exit spot. Olli and Eero went to water first, then Heikki and Kimmo next. Me and Alex were the last ones.
Me and Alex started our dive at 12:35. Air was +3 C, water was +1 C, it was cloudy but no rain. I had my camera with me and took some still and video. From the pier we headed to direction 150, then when the current picked up at 6 m depth, we turned to direction 90. Current was pretty strong and it took a lot of effort to keep direction. Still we drifted a bit too much right. At 28 min, Alex wanted to surface to check our location. We were at the Casino, but a bit too far right, so had to try continue more towards left bank. At 36 min another check to the surface. Now we were very close to the bridges, but still needed to get more left so we can find the exit spot after the bridges. At the bridges the current really picked up hard and we got caught in a washing machine current, so had to surface again to get out of it. Then after few minutes we were at the exit spot. Here the current was also very strong and it took a lot of effort to reach the river bank.
It was a thrilling drift dive. Olli and Eero had surfaces only a moment before us. Heikki and Kimmo came up after us, so they had apparently found a slower part of the drift and we the faster path.
After undressing the dry suit and the packing up the car, it drove Kimmo to his car at Kumpeli. Then got a coffee to go and drove to Kuplakammio, where I filled up the tanks. There was talk about doing the same dive next weekend.
Pictures at: https://photos.leiman.fi/2021-03-13_jyranko
Video at: https://youtu.be/pL90JZzr1oY
GPS: 61.20564870125294, 26.015086884999672
The last time I made a proper dive here was 11 years ago 2010-04-17. It was pretty late in the evening and I have only surface pictures which show that it was dark after the dive. It was a long dive lasting 80 min. Only 2 weeks after that I did a 2 week liveaboard at the Red Sea. And then I travelled a lot every following spring, so did not have much time to join these Jyrängövirta dives.
I did attempt to dive there 2013-01-06, but then it was so cold that my regulators froze and went to free flow. I made two attempts to start a dive but aborted both due to persistent free flow of both regulators. So I only got a few minutes underwater and was very pissed off, having spent all the time and effort getting there. I guess that is the reason I stopped going there for so many years.
Updated 2025-11-23 Place was Jyrängönvirta
My diving club Kupla organized this “classical” winter current dive to Jyrängönvirta stream. This is part of the vast Kymijoki river system, where water flows from the Päijänne lake district to the Bay of Finland. This particular spot is next to Heinola city, a 90 min drive from Espoo. Typical water flow is 300 cubic meters per second. The flow keeps water open even during winter, so this is a nice and thrilling dive spot during winter and early spring. Once the boat traffic starts, it is no longer possible to dive here.
I left home at 8:30, picked up my diving gear from Kuplakammio and started driving at 9:00. The road was OK to drive. Refuled the car and got some coffee on the road.
We were 6 divers and had agreed to meet at Kumpeli Spa hotel at 11:00. At Kumpeli there is easy access to the river and a pier. Due to pandemic, the hotel was now closed. We scouted the shores, and noted that there was ice, but we could exit after the bridges to an iceless beach to the park. So we arranged 3 cars to the exit spot. Olli and Eero went to water first, then Heikki and Kimmo next. Me and Alex were the last ones.
Me and Alex started our dive at 12:35. Air was +3 C, water was +1 C, it was cloudy but no rain. I had my camera with me and took some still and video. From the pier we headed to direction 150, then when the current picked up at 6 m depth, we turned to direction 90. Current was pretty strong and it took a lot of effort to keep direction. Still we drifted a bit too much right. At 28 min, Alex wanted to surface to check our location. We were at the Casino, but a bit too far right, so had to try continue more towards left bank. At 36 min another check to the surface. Now we were very close to the bridges, but still needed to get more left so we can find the exit spot after the bridges. At the bridges the current really picked up hard and we got caught in a washing machine current, so had to surface again to get out of it. Then after few minutes we were at the exit spot. Here the current was also very strong and it took a lot of effort to reach the river bank.
It was a thrilling drift dive. Olli and Eero had surfaces only a moment before us. Heikki and Kimmo came up after us, so they had apparently found a slower part of the drift and we the faster path.
After undressing the dry suit and the packing up the car, it drove Kimmo to his car at Kumpeli. Then got a coffee to go and drove to Kuplakammio, where I filled up the tanks. There was talk about doing the same dive next weekend.
Pictures at: https://photos.leiman.fi/2021-03-13_jyranko
Video at: https://youtu.be/pL90JZzr1oY
GPS: 61.20564870125294, 26.015086884999672
The last time I made a proper dive here was 11 years ago 2010-04-17. It was pretty late in the evening and I have only surface pictures which show that it was dark after the dive. It was a long dive lasting 80 min. Only 2 weeks after that I did a 2 week liveaboard at the Red Sea. And then I travelled a lot every following spring, so did not have much time to join these Jyrängövirta dives.
I did attempt to dive there 2013-01-06, but then it was so cold that my regulators froze and went to free flow. I made two attempts to start a dive but aborted both due to persistent free flow of both regulators. So I only got a few minutes underwater and was very pissed off, having spent all the time and effort getting there. I guess that is the reason I stopped going there for so many years.
Updated 2025-11-23 Place was Jyrängönvirta
Tanks
Main tank
- Volume
- 12,0 l
- Press. Start
- 183 bar
- Press. End
- 111 bar
- O2%
- 32,0%