jimisurf
Contributor
I just returned from some great dives in the Nanaimo area and thought I would post a brief report. I dove 3 days last week, the first day was to complete a ANDI Nitox course with Technically Speaking. The following two days was speant 'just divin' with Divers Choice. I stayed at the Moby Dick Resort and Marina. I would not go out of my way to stay here, but the rooms were clean, had a kitchen and were cheap at $50 a night. I would go out of my way to use the services of either Technically Speaking (Harry Wenngatz) or Divers Choice (Ken and Carolyn Adrian).
Technically Speaking - Harry (ANDI IT #23 and ITD #6!!) is an excellent instructor, great boat captain, knows the area like the back of his hand, is very knowledgable about diving and is a really nice guy!! He offers great value with his charters and his courses. His boat is functional, fast and easy to dive from. He offers full equipment rental and gas services. Harry did a great job teaching two tired divers the Nitrox course. He went beyond the course in many areas and offered many an interesting story to break up the coursework. Web www.tech-speaking.com
Divers Choice - Ken and Carolyn are new at the dive charter business. They have a beutiful 50' yacht, that is perfect for winter diving in BC. Warm and well appointed, we never felt cold or uncomfortable. A hot lunch is served by Carolyn between dives that was beyond our expectations (really good)!! They go out of their way to make you feel at home and enjoy every moment of your dive holiday. Ken has great command of the 50' boat making drift diving worry free. Web http://www.divingbccanada.com/default.htm
Here's a little about the dives:
1) The Cape Breton Wreck - Nitox dive #1. The Cape Breton is an enormous ship (440 feet). It sits in about 140' of water withthe deck at about 100'. The ship has a few open caverns for exploration without the overhead environment. The vastness of this ship makes this a very worthwhile dive.
2) The The Saskatchewan Wreck - Nitrox Dive #2. This ship at 366 feet has been down under for a few more years than the Cape so it has more life on it. It has many holes for penitration. The live and the pilot house on this ship made it very interesting.
3) The The Saskatchewan Wreck Dive 2. On this dive we spent more time looking into the ship from the side holes (port).
4) Snake Island Wall. This nature dive can offer encounters with seals, however we did not encouter any. There is life in the area but mostly cloud sponges and some Ling Cod.
5) Dodd Narrows - OK, this dive is hands down the highlight of the trip. In fact I think that this is the best dive I have ever experienced (call it luck or whatever). Dodd narrows is a tight channel between Vancouver Island and Mudge Island it squeezes a large volume of water though a 100 yard wide cavern. The water can rush in excess of 8 knots. We plunked in on the north side of the narrows with a diminishing 1.5 knot surface currrent and decended to 50 feet. As we decended the current picked up and we were "flying" through the channel trying to stay as close to the walls as possible. After about 100 yards or so we encountered a very large and quite curious steller sea lion. This guy swam around us in very close proximity (3 - 10 feet) for several minutes before vanishing into the rushing water. We continued to fly even faster being pushed by the increadible force of the water. I was in the lead of the group but I wanted to move into the middle (I felt responsible for the last diver as he was fairly novice). As a moved a little further away from the wall and attempted to kick against the current hoping to move closer to the last diver I realized that the more centralized and faster current got hold of me. The current pulled me (very quickly) away from the other divers and pulled me down. I fell from about 45 feet to 85 feet in less than 10 seconds. All I could see at this point was black on all sides except for up. I added air to my BCD in hope to slow my decent. It worked as I leveled at about 85. Then the current eased and I started to rise. With air bailing I leveled again at 60'. I could see nothing, but I knew the direction I saw my buddies last, so I swam in that direction. In about a minute they came into view. They had stopped in a back eddy to wait for the tide to change back the other way. I joind them (with a couple of high fives) and we waited about 2 or 3 minutes. Slack tide came and we made our way back through the channel to where we started. The life in the channel was unbelievable. I hadn't seen so much life since Thailand diving this summer. There were Strawberry anemone as far as the eye could see. Fish were everywhere you looked. The colors boggled the mind. This is amazing!!! I would have to say that this is the best dive I have been on for the life (big and small) and exceitment of the rushing water.
6) Gabriola Cliffs - This was the perfect dive to wind down with after Dodd Narrows. A lot of fish, and White Plumos were all over the cliffs. An easy and fun dive.
Hope to see you all you under water one day....
Jimi
Technically Speaking - Harry (ANDI IT #23 and ITD #6!!) is an excellent instructor, great boat captain, knows the area like the back of his hand, is very knowledgable about diving and is a really nice guy!! He offers great value with his charters and his courses. His boat is functional, fast and easy to dive from. He offers full equipment rental and gas services. Harry did a great job teaching two tired divers the Nitrox course. He went beyond the course in many areas and offered many an interesting story to break up the coursework. Web www.tech-speaking.com
Divers Choice - Ken and Carolyn are new at the dive charter business. They have a beutiful 50' yacht, that is perfect for winter diving in BC. Warm and well appointed, we never felt cold or uncomfortable. A hot lunch is served by Carolyn between dives that was beyond our expectations (really good)!! They go out of their way to make you feel at home and enjoy every moment of your dive holiday. Ken has great command of the 50' boat making drift diving worry free. Web http://www.divingbccanada.com/default.htm
Here's a little about the dives:
1) The Cape Breton Wreck - Nitox dive #1. The Cape Breton is an enormous ship (440 feet). It sits in about 140' of water withthe deck at about 100'. The ship has a few open caverns for exploration without the overhead environment. The vastness of this ship makes this a very worthwhile dive.
2) The The Saskatchewan Wreck - Nitrox Dive #2. This ship at 366 feet has been down under for a few more years than the Cape so it has more life on it. It has many holes for penitration. The live and the pilot house on this ship made it very interesting.
3) The The Saskatchewan Wreck Dive 2. On this dive we spent more time looking into the ship from the side holes (port).
4) Snake Island Wall. This nature dive can offer encounters with seals, however we did not encouter any. There is life in the area but mostly cloud sponges and some Ling Cod.
5) Dodd Narrows - OK, this dive is hands down the highlight of the trip. In fact I think that this is the best dive I have ever experienced (call it luck or whatever). Dodd narrows is a tight channel between Vancouver Island and Mudge Island it squeezes a large volume of water though a 100 yard wide cavern. The water can rush in excess of 8 knots. We plunked in on the north side of the narrows with a diminishing 1.5 knot surface currrent and decended to 50 feet. As we decended the current picked up and we were "flying" through the channel trying to stay as close to the walls as possible. After about 100 yards or so we encountered a very large and quite curious steller sea lion. This guy swam around us in very close proximity (3 - 10 feet) for several minutes before vanishing into the rushing water. We continued to fly even faster being pushed by the increadible force of the water. I was in the lead of the group but I wanted to move into the middle (I felt responsible for the last diver as he was fairly novice). As a moved a little further away from the wall and attempted to kick against the current hoping to move closer to the last diver I realized that the more centralized and faster current got hold of me. The current pulled me (very quickly) away from the other divers and pulled me down. I fell from about 45 feet to 85 feet in less than 10 seconds. All I could see at this point was black on all sides except for up. I added air to my BCD in hope to slow my decent. It worked as I leveled at about 85. Then the current eased and I started to rise. With air bailing I leveled again at 60'. I could see nothing, but I knew the direction I saw my buddies last, so I swam in that direction. In about a minute they came into view. They had stopped in a back eddy to wait for the tide to change back the other way. I joind them (with a couple of high fives) and we waited about 2 or 3 minutes. Slack tide came and we made our way back through the channel to where we started. The life in the channel was unbelievable. I hadn't seen so much life since Thailand diving this summer. There were Strawberry anemone as far as the eye could see. Fish were everywhere you looked. The colors boggled the mind. This is amazing!!! I would have to say that this is the best dive I have been on for the life (big and small) and exceitment of the rushing water.
6) Gabriola Cliffs - This was the perfect dive to wind down with after Dodd Narrows. A lot of fish, and White Plumos were all over the cliffs. An easy and fun dive.
Hope to see you all you under water one day....
Jimi
It's always handy to have an idea of the dive locations, what things you'll see, have some websites of good dive operators, etc.
