Scandinavian diver visiting BC

[deepclam]

Hope this ends up in the right place.
I am a scandinavian diver (and avid photographer/video) with many years of experience under my belt and will be making a quickie dive trip to vancouver island for just a few days in the later part of october and have more or less worked out my diving possibilities while in the sooke area, more info would be appreciated though.
After that will be travelling on to the suncoast area (somewhere between madeira park and Gibsons) and trying to work out the diving options there.
Basically looking for tank/weight rentals, buddies, anyone who organizes dives, etc etc - would be enormously grateful for any tips and info as my head is starting to hurt going through all the stuff on the net.
Dive safely
phil

 

[blatter]

Hi - I have done 8 dive trips to Vancover Island since 1997, was there last year and am going again this October. The diving is really great and not too hard to organize.

If you are in Sooke the easiest way to start would probably be to dive around Victoria. As a start go to Ogden point and dive the breakwater - has a great range of marine life if that is what you are interested in - and easy to access and organise. A dive shop (Ogden Point Dive Centre) is right next to the site. You can hire gear there and can wash gear in freshwater there afterwards. You can ask about local diving conditions at the shop as well. They run a regular Saturday trip to Race Rocks which is offers some fantastic dives if weather is OK.

There are a lot of other decent shore dives in the Victoria area, depending on what you like. Saanich Inlet is just a short drive away - near the airport - and has some interesting dives including shore dives such as Henderson Point that you can do yourself, or boat dives to the cloud sponges (try Rockfish Charters) and other locations. Saanich Inlet provides options if the weather is bad in Victoria.

If you are on Vancouver Island for just a few days then the diving around Victoria could keep you fully occupied, but if not then Nanaimo is just a couple of hours drive north and opens up other diving opportunities. There are many options for gear and diving - some nice shore dives in the Nanoose area - Tyee, Dolphin Beach and Madrona Point for example. For gear hire I have used Sundown Divers and Nanaimo Dive Outfitters. Sundown divers offers charters as does O'Brien Charters (really great boat) and there are other options as well.

There are lots of great dives all around Vancouver Island and the above is just a suggestion as to how to get started in the southern part of the island.