1 Day to Dive in July (Olympia Area):

[Dermochelys]

Howdy SB PNW Folks!
I'm going to be at a conference for work July 14-18 and I'm wondering if I should stay a few extra days to see the sights of southern Washington. Three years ago I visited Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria for the first time and had a blast diving the Victoria area with Frank White's Dive Shop with their guides. I had a few questions I was hoping you could help me out with.

1) Are there any good dive shops in the Olympia area (or close by) that have dive guides for hire. NOTE: Please don't bash any dive shops here in this thread, it's not the place for it, but if there someone I should avoid please PM me.

When I was in Victoria I was lucky enough to go out one-on-one with a guide and it was a really great experience. All the other places I've gone diving have only offered charter boat trips, which is fine, but if I can hire a guide for a day that would be great. Just figuring out what my options might be.

2) I plan on staying for a few extra days in the Olympia area with the hopes of taking 1 day to drive up to Mt. Rainer (and then back to Olympia) and another day to go down to Mt. St. Helens (and back again). I know flying after diving isn't recommended, but what are your thoughts of me driving up the mountains the day after diving? I'm probably being a worry wart about it, but I just thought I would see what the community thought.

3) How is the diving in mid-July. From the forum here I see mentions of strong tides and bad viz depending on what the algae are doing . When I dove Victoria it was October with great viz (below 25' depth) and almost nothing in the way of tides, surge, surf, etc. it was like a lake. Can the same be expected of South Sound? I've done a little bit of diving with surf and surge in the Monterey area, but obviously prefer nice calm water with lots of critters to see.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out my travel plans. Unfortunately I'll probably only get to stay in the area 3-4 days after the conference ends, but some diving and seeing the national parks sounds like a great mini-vacation to me.

Thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer.

 

[RVBldr]

You'd probably find someone to buddy up with you off SB, but from Olympia, Hoodsport 'N Dive at Hoodsport is a great option and are located a mile or so from a couple great shore dives at Octo Hole and Sund Rock. Can't go wrong with either site.

 

[Dermochelys]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll also need a place to rent gear as I only have the basics, so I'll check them out and see what they have to offer.

When it comes to buddies I don't know personally, I had a REALLY bad experience once in Monterey that put me in a dangerous position because of my buddies actions. I can't go into detail here about it, but lets just say I'm a little leery of being paired up with someone I don't know or a non-professional. I'm sure there's tons of great buddies to meet here, but I need to learn how to trust again I guess.

Thanks again!

 

[TSandM]

Dermochelys, look into a spot on the Pac Adventures boat in Hood Canal. Don runs a great boat and the sites are excellent, and probably the easiest excellent diving you can access from Olympia.

I understand the issue with instabuddies. You might want to post on the nwdiveclub.com site about your trip. You could chat for a bit with the folks there, and get a feel for who the people are. I don't know everyone who posts on the board personally, but I know an awful lot of them, and I can only think of one or two that I would prefer not to dive with, and that's more because of the types of dives they do than who they are.

 

[Dermochelys]

Thanks for the tips TSandM.

From what it looks like there are charter trips on the weekends doing boat diving, but not so much the one-on-one I got up in Victoria. Does that seem correct?

Also, any thoughts on going up to visit Mt. Rainer or Mt. St. Helens the day after diving (bad idea?)?

Thanks!

 

[Dermochelys]

All,
Thank you for your suggestions, however, it turns out I won't be able to make this trip after-all. Hopefully someday I'll get to dive South Sound and your advice has been very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[tracydr]

Too bad. I hope to someday return to the NW and dive the sound again. I did my internship at Madigan Army Hospital in Tacoma.
My favorite dive spit was Octopus Hole. I just love the west side of the sound. Less people, beautiful country.
Even some of the practice dives that I did from shallow rocky beaches used to have interesting stuff to see. I remember a sand dollar colony that I saw in very shallow water. I never knew they did that until I saw one. Sand dollars are usually dead and broken when you find them.