Coming to Nanaimo - July 11th

[krunchy]

My parents live near Nanaimo, and I'm coming for a week starting July 11th. I have 5 days for diving, and the Saskatchewan and Cape Breton are both on my "Must Dive" list, so I'm quite excited.

This will be my first cold water dive. I am from Toronto, and want to start diving locally, so I was thinking of taking my dry suit cert. here, and then renting a dry suit for my dives out west. Good idea?

Also, some advice: will taking on a lot of "firsts" be too much of a challenge? I like the idea of spending the first day or two either taking a course or just working with an instructor/DM to ease myself into things.

Finally, could you recommend a good dive operation in/around Nanaimo that would meet my needs?

 

[Hyper-limits]

Finally, could you recommend a good dive operation in/around Nanaimo that would meet my needs?

Nanaimo Dive Outfitters, talk to Shirley she will be more than happy to help

Cheers

Al

 

[cooldives]

There is a new small-group charter operator in Nanaimo called Just Dive in Adventures and they do daily charters during the summer. They can arrange for a divemaster to be your dive buddy which I recommend when you are in unfamiliar waters.

I like the idea of getting your drysuit cert ahead of time too, along with extra training in the drysuit.

Have a great trip, dive safe, and enjoy the Nanaimo wrecks.

 

[Chaos02]

Taking a Dry suit course before you come is a great idea. If you do not already have it I would also recommend taking an advanced course also. If you do not have this certification it may be tough to find a divemaster that is willing to take you down to the wrecks as these are fairly deep dives. If you are PADI certified, you could probably do your bookwork at a shop close to home and then get a referral to the dive shop here and do your certification dives on the wrecks. Sink or Swim Scuba is a PADI shop in Nanaimo and could set you up with this. I have some great videos that we have shot recently of the wrecks on my website.