I just returned from my summer vacation: Two months of mountain climbing and hiking and diving in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. It was, literally, awesome.
The good:
-- 28 dives total, from Puget Sound to Browning Pass, British Columbia -- with the most amazing cold-water diving I've ever seen.
-- And the weather was great!
The not-so-good: Organizing dives, either planned or spontaneously, was sometimes remarkably difficult...
-- I never could find someone to dive Clear Lake, OR, or anywhere in Montana or Wyoming, even after weeks of posts and searching.
-- Didn't make it into Seattle to dive with the NWDiveClub gang. Rats. Mostly a scheduling issue.
-- The one dive shop in Port Hardy is now closed.
-- And the biggest puzzle of all: getting on a dive charter in Nanaimo or Campbell River. Only one returned my calls, and nobody responded to my emails. None of them had charters running on weekdays (summer, apparently, is the slow season?). I later found out that one was actually out of business, with only a zombie web page remaining. I would have loved to dive with Sea Dragon Charters in Nanaimo, but their boat actually sank while I was up there.
IMO, it's totally worth flying back to the PNW for diving several times a year, so I've left a lot of gear with a friend there. Now I'm trying to buy some used gear (to fill in for the gear I left behind) so I can dive in Colorado too. If you have gear to sell, please see my Craigslist ad for the bits and pieces I need.
Once I get that squared away and repair my drysuit I'll be ready to dive along the Front Range again.
glenn
The good:
-- 28 dives total, from Puget Sound to Browning Pass, British Columbia -- with the most amazing cold-water diving I've ever seen.
-- And the weather was great!
The not-so-good: Organizing dives, either planned or spontaneously, was sometimes remarkably difficult...
-- I never could find someone to dive Clear Lake, OR, or anywhere in Montana or Wyoming, even after weeks of posts and searching.
-- Didn't make it into Seattle to dive with the NWDiveClub gang. Rats. Mostly a scheduling issue.
-- The one dive shop in Port Hardy is now closed.
-- And the biggest puzzle of all: getting on a dive charter in Nanaimo or Campbell River. Only one returned my calls, and nobody responded to my emails. None of them had charters running on weekdays (summer, apparently, is the slow season?). I later found out that one was actually out of business, with only a zombie web page remaining. I would have loved to dive with Sea Dragon Charters in Nanaimo, but their boat actually sank while I was up there.
IMO, it's totally worth flying back to the PNW for diving several times a year, so I've left a lot of gear with a friend there. Now I'm trying to buy some used gear (to fill in for the gear I left behind) so I can dive in Colorado too. If you have gear to sell, please see my Craigslist ad for the bits and pieces I need.
Once I get that squared away and repair my drysuit I'll be ready to dive along the Front Range again.
glenn
