‘It's Kind Of What I Imagine Outer Space To Be Like'
Canadian Geographic|Best of Canadian Geographic, 2019
MOST PEOPLE WHO carry an auger and an axe out onto the ice that covers Georgian Bay from January through March have one ambition: to catch a fish. But Geoff Coombs is not like most people.
Harry Wilson
‘It's Kind Of What I Imagine Outer Space To Be Like'

When he crunches across the bay’s frozen surface near Tobermory, Ont., he’s toting not just auger and axe, but a mask, a snorkel, a pair of 74-centimetre-long carbon fins and a single-minded desire: to dive under the ice.

“It’s very peaceful, very surreal,” says Coombs, 26, a professional photographer and freediver — someone who dives without the aid of a breathing apparatus — who has been exploring and photographing the bay’s waters since 2015. “You can usually see 30 to 50 metres, with the ice above you going on for what seems like forever. It’s kind of what I imagine outer space would be like.”

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