Has anyone done much diving before around Alaska/British Columbia?

[Sham_ba_la]

Has anyone done much diving before around Alaska/British Columbia? My family was recently talking about going to visit a cousin in Alaska next year sometime so since I'm taking my classes in October this year I thought I'd ask this question and find out if I need additional training before hand to dive there.

Anyone with suggestions on these areas please let me know, I also saw this website and if anyone has ever used them what have your experiences been?

http://underseadive.com/pages/alaska.html

 

[nessum]

I do all my diving in BC. But it's southern BC... I dunno if you're interested in the Vancouver area?

 

[radagalf]

You will definitely want to be at least an advanced open water diver (or equivalent) and dry suit certified to dive in the BC/Alaska region.

Hope this helps...

 

[Cal71]

Drysuit diving will certainly make your trip a lot more pleasant, but if you'll be a new diver, make sure you get some underwater time in a drysuit and are really comfortable with drysuit buoyancy before you go... Personally, it took me about a dozen dives in nice calm sites that I knew really well before I was really comfortable with my drysuit, and I'd be leary of trying to learn those skills my first time to BC/Alaska. I had to work to get over the panic of feeling my suit expand as I changed depths--for the first couple drysuit dives, I'd overcompensate and just dump all my air since I was so worried about ballooning to the surface...

I do think it's possible to dive with just a wetsuit up here. You may get colder and that might limit you to 1 or 2 dives a day or make you go through your air faster... For me, the biggest difference was not while I was in the water, but when I'm on the surface--like in a boat, facing a 20 minute ride through wind and sea spray on the way back from a site, soaking wet... That was not pleasant. But shore diving in the summer months, when you can get out of the water and bask in the sun? Wetsuit was not a problem...