Diving Puget Sound area: Advice/Charters?

[macado]

I was thinking of planning a trip to Seattle (no time frame really right now but maybe February/March? Is there a dive season or best time to go?) and wanted to do some diving in Puget Sound. I'm still very early in my research and planning stages but was curious about logistics of staying in Seattle and diving in Puget Sound area. I honestly have no idea of the distances between dive sites, locations of charters, etc.

I would be bringing my own equipment minus tanks, of course. Are there shops that rent doubles? I guess diving singles is perfectly fine if there are places that rent HP100/HP120s. I would most likely rent a car too as I'm assuming I would need one. I'm all about budget accommodation so a cheap hotel or even a private room in a hostel would work for me.

Are there any "must-do" dive sites that would be considered quintessential Pacific Northwest diving? How about shore diving versus boat diving? I have no problem doing charters but if there are plenty of good shore diving sites available then I would be perfectly content with that or a mix of the two. I'm not looking for anything overly challenging although I'm not opposed to it. Plenty of my favorite dives have been shore diving in less than 40ft.

I see all the pictures of Puget Sound and the colors and it almost makes me jealous of what diving you guys have in comparison to New England.

I apologize for this very vague post but I know that this area has lots of active divers and was curious what peoples recommendations would be.

 

[Blackfish]

Bandito Charters out of Tacoma is great---I'd follow their recommendations on dive sites, but Sunrise (wolf eels) and the Tacoma Narrows would be my recommendations. Diving the narrows is going to require the right tides. You could also likely get a dive partner off here and do any one of a number of good shore dives (Edmonds UW Park), Alki... The list is rather endless.

 

[wmperry]

+1 for Bandito -- great folks.

Not sure if Underwater Sports rents ounces or not. They are who I rent from when I need cylinders. Worth a call. They also have a lt of organized shore dives you could get into.

Sunrise is one of my favorite sites. You can shore dive it but need to hit the tides just right. And the hike to/from the water is a bit intense. Especially if you do doubles.

A good friend of mine lives out their and leads dives to sunrise a lot and always nails the tides. PM me if you want me to get you in contact with him.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Shore diving is very easy along with knowing tides a bit Tides at Seattle, Puget Sound, Washington, notice there is tide station and current station, learn this site and what days you plan, most from this area will help you and tell you if you are correct, research shore dives in pugetsound by google and there are a few websites that have info on the diving and directions and some tell you what area to look on tide and current guide.

 

[Doubler]

If you rent a car and you are here over a weekend, drive over to Port Townsend and dive the pier. Great for Nudi's, macro and the occasional GPO. Great places to eat and shop. Couple of real good dive shops. Get the heck out of the big city and enjoy the Great Pacific North Wet...I mean West.

 

[TSandM]

Number one piece of advice: When you start seriously thinking about scheduling the trip, talk to us! The quality of your experience will definitely be tied to the tides. Puget Sound, being a long, narrow body of water with one outlet, and well to the north, has big tidal exchanges which result in large currents. Some of our very best sites to dive are the ones that are current-intensive (because the nutrients wash by there) and if you come at the wrong time, you can't dive them.

We have LOTS of shore diving, and some of it is quite good. Sites which are surprising to visitors, because for example, one of them is directly across from our downtown skyline, and is yet one of the good places to see Giant Pacific Octopuses. For color, you might want to go out on a boat in the San Juan Islands, which leave from Anacortes, about an hour and a half from downtown Seattle.

We dive year round here, and the viz in the winter can be excellent, because we don't have the algae blooms that plague the summer months. But if there have been a series of storms, there can be very poor viz due to particulates washing down in the rivers. And it is quite possible to encounter snow here -- somewhere, there is a nice video of my doubles sitting on an X-table, with big, flat snowflakes landing on them.

I do not know of a shop that rents doubles, but among the cyberdivers in Seattle, you could probably create a pile of offered doubles to borrow that would be taller than you are. (Same with almost anything else that someone could need, including buddies.)

Let us know when you are coming, or you might want to join the NW Dive Club (nwdiveclub.com) which is a virtual community of very active and hospitable divers. Just, before you buy your tickets, get some advice on the tides . . .

 

[macado]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. Bandito Charters seems like it might be nice to do a charter or two. Sunrise County Beach Park seems like it would be a good dive site; That is near Gig Harbor if i'm looking at the right place? It seems like most of these sites/dive ops are closer to Tacoma; Is it feasible to stay somewhere downtown Seattle (also know this is a huge area) if I wanted to dive some of the mentioned sites? I'm used to driving 45 minutes-1 hour to a lot of dive sites so it's not a huge deal to drive there.

I've never been anywhere in the state of Washington so I would maybe try to do some day trips, hiking, sight seeing but to be honest the primary goal of the trip would be diving. (I would assume my friends think I'm crazy for going to Seattle just for the purpose of diving)

Number one piece of advice: When you start seriously thinking about scheduling the trip, talk to us! The quality of your experience will definitely be tied to the tides. Puget Sound, being a long, narrow body of water with one outlet, and well to the north, has big tidal exchanges which result in large currents. Some of our very best sites to dive are the ones that are current-intensive (because the nutrients wash by there) and if you come at the wrong time, you can't dive them.

I'm thinking about maybe heading there in March (maybe ballpark dates of March 17-March 25th or perhaps last week of March) which still looks to be very rainy and/or windy compared to summer months? I'm assuming most of the sites need to be dove at slack tide then? Would this be a bad time to go?

 

[TSandM]

Personally, I'd dive Sunrise from a boat. It is a fairly long and very steep climb downhill to the shore entry.

Not all the sites are around Tacoma. In fact, we have a really fun site right across from downtown Seattle, and for someone who hasn't dived Puget Sound before, the Edmonds Underwater Park is an incredible adventure in utterly HUGE fish. Redondo is about 15 minutes from downtown (all times assume not rush hour; at rush hour, all bets are off). The Bandito pickup point is an hour from my house, so roughly a half hour from downtown Seattle. Even driving out to Hood Canal is feasible for a day trip.

The week starting the 17th would give you some good tide windows; the following week is not so good. Weather in March is very unpredictable, and can range from snow to sunshine.

 

[Doubler]

Mac,
Summer does not start here until AFTER 4th of July weekend, if then.

You could catch the Bainbridge Island Ferry Friday afternoon, get on 3, cross the Hood Canal Bridge and be in the quaint town of Port Townsend in a couple of hours from downtown Seattle. Get a B&B for the weekend. dive the pier Saturday, Sunday drive over to Port Angeles and the Olympic National Park for a trip up to Hurricane Ridge and be back in Seattle by 6 PM. Bring rain gear whenever you visit. Washington is beautiful, Seattle, like any big city sucks in my opinion.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Actually Sunrise County beach park is easy from shore, if you hike the hill is not steep and very easy to walk up in full gear after dive, then as TS&M say's go to Hoodscanal there is no current issues there and do a few dives, then as Doubler mentioned you go north to Port towndsend and do a night dive there and stay the night, get up do another dive then take a short ferry across from there to Keystone and do a easy dive there right off the ferry at the jetty, then go north and dive deception Pass under the bridge then drive to 5 go south and do mukilteo for a dive then go a bit south to edmonds on a nightdive, you just call let them know, there is a number on the sign.

Macado that is a general path to take and drive during surface intervals to next dive, there are dive shops all along the way I gave to fill tanks, but for the rental and air fill I would strike a deal and get as many tanks as you can at a shop close to where you are staying. Along this path are other dives and you can research them to pick what dives can be done with tides.

If you decide to come to whidbey there is a day of diving here on the Island and only a hour from Seattle. keystone like I mentioned is on whidbey and If the pass is not right timing you can come dive south whidbey, but you can dive the pass the week you plan 17th to 25th.

So study a bit more and let us here your dive plans and you can just stay somewhere each night and dive the different areas each day.