ExperienceWA - Diving in Washington State Guide

[JackConnick]

Last summer I was hired to write, photograph and organize the Scuba section of Washington State Tourism’s ExperienceWA website. I had previously licensed photos to them through their advertising agency EverybodyWeKnow, and they became aware of my writing the Optical Ocean blog. So it was a perfect fit!

The site is at ExperienceWA/Activities/ScubaDiving. I wrote and took photos for 15 shore diving sites as a start. They were selected for their accessibility and user-friendliness for visiting divers, as well as trying to cover a fairly broad area from South Puget Sound to the San Juans. I also tried to have a selection of sites that appealed to different interests and experience levels. Everyone has their favorite site, but not all of them are accessible easily, nor are they places for divers who are new to the area.

Site locations are described, as well as a dive briefing included, so that a diver can find important geographic features, as well as look for the usual marine animals inhabiting the sites. Hazards and conditions, and on many sites tidal conditions and weather, were discussed. Nearby facilities are also listed.

Obviously in the space available on a web page, the information is brief, and is not a substitute for divers researching and developing their own dive plans. But the website should prove to be a good place to plan a trip, or visit new locations within the state.

This is just a fraction of the diving available in Puget Sound, specifically boat dives are not covered, but it is a start, and divers should be able to make a few dives and explore more on their own.

We are now working on expanding the web area, possibly adding more sites, boat dives, linking from it to video, photos, marine animal information, safe diving practices, state, city and private facilities and other points of interest like Aquariums, charters and more.

This should prove of interest not only to divers, but also to the general public, so that everyone can learn more about the waters beneath Washington State.

I hope you enjoy it, your comments are welcome.
Jack Connick
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I have many more photos available of the area:
ExperienceWA dive sites (and others)
Puget Sound Diving

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Jack,

Nice work.

Haven't gone through this in detail yet but it looks like a great resource in the making.

Thanks for the announcement. Are you looking specifically for our favorite links, sites, and diving-related points of interest? Or in terms of comments were you looking at ancillary feedback on the site so far? (or both?)

Looking forward to seeing this thing grow!

Doc

 

[JackConnick]

Mostly on the site so far. Note that I just provided content, the rest is a template they put together. I have noticed some of the map points are off, not sure what's going on. I know some of the site navigation is a bit rough for instance.

But I'm always interested in divers' points of view. They are an opinionated lot for sure!

A side note is that the site selection was limited by scope of work to 15 sites, the rest are just picked up from other areas. Narrowing it down to 15 sites was tough, and to a certain extent my own experience came into play. But I specifically left off sites that use private access (like Sund Rock) or that have parking and neighbor problems (nearly all ;-) ).

I have a meeting next week to discuss a major expansion of the area and adding in a lot more content and links, etc. A lot of folks getting involved.

Jack

PS I see you're a mod, can the link, etc be added as a sticky to the forum area? We do get a lot of posts from visiting divers wondering where to dive...

 

[TSandM]

I'll ask about the sticky.

I've only looked at three of the sites -- Beautiful photographs, BTW. But there's one thing that's changed about the Alki Pipeline dive. There is a portapotty there now.

 

[Underwater Ogre]

Very nice resource Jack, beauty pictures. I am heading your way next week and this will definitely help.
Again...thank you