8/25 - 8/27 visiting Puget Sound from Texas

[tom.bresee]

- Looking for novice level diving spot in Seattle area, part of day (two tanks probably). My only window is either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday 8/25 - 8/27. Flying in from Dallas TX 8/24 and flying out late night 8/28, for work.

- Looking for advice on diving this area given I have zero background in diving cold water, as in never been below 70F, I dive out of Dallas and only been warmer climates like FL.

I'm bringing with me F1s, mask, SK7, and that's about it (I own 3mm as well, not sure if worth bringing to be under something else).

Something like:
We recommend you do Edmonds or Alki or xyz location, you will probably need 7mm or xyz wetsuit, don't forget xxx and yyy equipment, etc. You should rent bcd and wetsuit from LDC xyz, I'll take any advice.

 

[TSandM]

The window of the 25th through the 27th has our typical summer tides, with a very high tide in the early am, a 0 to minus tide at noon, and a very high tide in the early evening. This limits the shore diving sites because currents will be strong.

Redondo Beach would be a very nice dive site in the mid to late afternoon. Entry is easy at both low and high tide. Currents on a flood generally aren't very noticeable. The site has good parking (although they charge for it), bathrooms, and a shower to rinse gear. Navigation is very easy, because it's west goes out, north along a rope at 40 feet through a bunch of artificial structure, and then back, or east takes you to shore.

The closest dive shop to the site is probably the Federal Way Underwater Sports. They will have everything to rent that you could want. Most people diving wet here diving in a 7 mil full suit and a 7 mil core warmer. You'll need somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 pounds of weight, depending on your size, or more if you rent an aluminum tank.

The Coves at Alki are also an option. Entry at very low tide can be tricky, because the rocks get very slippery. Parking can be a little difficult if the weather is lovely, because the park there is very popular for non-divers. The closest shop to there is 5th Dimension, and since they also teach classes, they should have anything you need to rent.

You might also consider posting on the nwdiveclub.com site. You may be able to borrow much of the gear you need, other than exposure protection.

I may be able to join up with you for a dive, depending on your time constraints. Also, Wednesday nights is our local GUE club's group dive, so there would be a lot of people available to dive with at Cove 2 that evening -- check the nwdiveclub.com site for announcement of the dive, and you can post and let people know you will need a buddy.

 

[spazfish3211]

Hi TSandM - I will be visiting Seattle the week of 9/1. Your advice is very helpful. I would love to find a dive buddy/ group for a couple dives that week. I have no dry suit experience so I would either need to do some training or do wet suit (which it seems like that is still possible). Let me know if you are interested in meeting up that week. My schedule is flexible and I fly out 9/5.

 

[TSandM]

spazfish, you picked a great time to be here! Tides are very good those days. I'm not sure what my schedule will be, because it will depend in part on how much I'm helping Peter teach. Are you free during the day, or just in the evening?

With no dry suit experience, I'd probably recommend sticking to diving wet, and just renting a thick wetsuit from one of our local shops. It will keep your task loading down, although it's a bit of thing to get used to the buoyancy of 14 millimeters of neoprene!