Any Good Shore Dives near Roche Harbor

[GoodKarmaKid]

I am renting a house near Roche Harbor the first week in August and would like to do some diving. Are there any decent shore dives near Roche Harbor or on San Juan Island that anyone would recommend. Also curious if there are any dive operations working out of the Marina in Roche Harbor?

After doing some research, Naknek charters name has popped up often as a nice dive boat outfit in Friday Harbor. Anyone care to share some opinions, or comments on them?


Thanks,
Jason


p.s. I learned to dive in Anacortes in 1990 when I was living in Skagit Valley, I dove 40-50 times in the San Juans in 90-92, then got spoiled with some warm water Caribbean & Hawaii Diving and then didn't dive from about 1994-2004. Decided to get back into diving on a trip to Kona, did my Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certification there as well as a lot of recreational dives over a couple week period. Then dove quite a bit in Roatan from 2006-2009 where I did the Rescue class with Coconut Tree as well as somewhere around 100 recreational dives.

I only bring up my diving experience for a point of reference as I would consider myself an intermediate to advanced diver in warm water (basically super comfortable in almost any environment/conditons), but I'm expecting to feel a little bit awkward back in full gear and heavily weighted so I'm probably not going to be into any crazy hikes or steep & rocky shore entries.

 

[cofford]

Naknek does a great job. Highly recommend them.

 

[kjlong]

There aren't a lot of good shore dives on San Juan Island. Ruben Tarte Park is probably the best with the shortest walk to the water. Other shore dives would be - Eagle Cove, Deadman's Bay, and Lime Kiln Park.
Boat diving is the way to go in the San Juans.

 

[oldsalt]

In addition to the ones kjlong have mentioned, I have enjoyed the County Park at Smallpox Bay, including swimming out to the island and diving the kelp beds. I have found some really great diving from some of the private beaches. This involves having permission of the property owners.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Well kid I think limekiln lighthouse is a great dive, and there are a few other right near there, also sanjuan county park if you enter at boat ramp and go around to the right there are stairs that take you up to the campground.


Happy Diving