Looking for a little info/help.

[Dermochelys]

I'm planning a last minute vacation up to Vancouver and Victoria in October (8-17). I've never been to Canada and I'm really looking forward to my trip. I'm not a very experienced diver (12 total dives), but I was hoping to get any information concerning diving in the area during my trip. I've dove Monterey, CA a couple of times, so I've done cold water before, but it's been a couple of years since my last dive. I have a few questions I was hoping the forum members could help me out with.

1) What is the diving like in the Victoria area in October? (Basically is this a good idea or not)

2) I seen some videos of BC diving and they all seem to show dry suits. I've never been in a dry suit, so I'd have to go with a wetsuit. Is the water too cold for this? I'm not very cold when diving Monterey in a 7mm.

3) What shops in the area would be good for a guided dive?

4) Any other information would be great! Any non-diving activities you'd recommend (especially non-touristy sorts of things)?


Basically, I'm just trying to plan my trip right now, and one of the things I'd love to do is go diving while I'm up there. But, if diving BC is out of my league, I totally understand.

Thank you in advance for any help / advice!

 

[oggy666]

You can definitely dive in a wetsuit 2 piece 7 mill, Frank whites offer guided dives saturday and ogden point dive center on sunday, i recommend either of them. I usually dive thur and friday if you wanna tag along. There are some very nice sites around victoria that are not to difficult.

 

[cooldives]

There are some nice shore dives and boat dives near Victoria, and as mentioned above, many do dive year round in 7mm's so a drysuit is not a must if you're just doing a couple of dives.

What kind of activities do you like - there is whale watching, ocean kayaking, lots of golf, micro-brew pub crawls.......

Have a great trip - Victoria is a nice little city.

 

[akirawut]

Second cooldives on the micro-brew reference. Everyone and their mom makes beer in victoria. I don't know what it is about the island, makes you want to ferment stuff. It's actually usually pretty good too!

 

[Dermochelys]

What kind of activities do you like - there is whale watching, ocean kayaking, lots of golf, micro-brew pub crawls........

I'm thinking my activities will be fairly weather dependent. Other than diving, probably hiking, maybe renting a bike or sea kayak, whale watching, seeing the sites of Victoria and Vancouver Island and basically just playing things by ear. I'm sure at some point I'll hit up a pub or two.

On the Saturday and Sunday dives, I'm coming into Victoria on the 10th (Sunday) and leaving on the 17th (Sunday). I was hoping to get some diving in during the week, do you know of any shops that run guided dives during the week?

 

[cooldives]

Your best bet for weekday trips is to check with Elly from Rockfish Divers who dives in the Saanich Inlet area, or Jessie Kunce of Pinnacle Dive Charters who operates out of Sooke and hits Victoria area dive sites like Race Rocks. They sometimes go out during the week depending on demand.

Lots of orcas around recently so if you go whale watching you should have a good time.

Enjoy your visit and dive safe.