So you think you can dive on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada?

[Muck]

Hi,

For those of you who would be interested in diving on Vancouver Island, please note the following:

- Even though you have booked early in advance (i.e. 5 months ahead), there is no guarrantee you will be diving...Why? Simple. Dive Charters usually require a minimum of 4 divers to go out...
- Nanaimo used to be a popular place to dive. Not on August though...With Ocean Explorer, even if we had booked during March, the guy decided to go to work instead of getting us out!!! Not enough divers and it was during the week...
- With Canadian $ being high, this year has not been very good (i.e. not many US tourists compared to other years).
- With Gas price being around 1.35$/Litre, going with 2 divers costs around 200$ each diver for 2 dives...unless you rent a sea kayak!
- Getting a last minute charter (i.e. on site) with those conditions is kind of an act of god.
- There is a not so bad shore diving though at Madrona Point near Parksville. The Dive Outfitters (Nanaimo) are very cool at helping you getting there and renting you the necessary gears.

Best luck to you divers who would like to go there...

 

[Hyper-limits]

Sorry to hear about the bad experience Muck.

It seems like you reserve with the wrong charter operation. Next time try Diver's Choice Charter, Ken will take you anytime and for some outstanding reason he usually has no problem finding enough divers to dive from his boat. I don't dive with any other charter in Nanaimo myself.

Cheers

Al

 

[wedivebc]

Hi,

For those of you who would be interested in diving on Vancouver Island, please note the following:

- Even though you have booked early in advance (i.e. 5 months ahead), there is no guarrantee you will be diving...Why? Simple. Dive Charters usually require a minimum of 4 divers to go out...
- Nanaimo used to be a popular place to dive. Not on August though...With Ocean Explorer, even if we had booked during March, the guy decided to go to work instead of getting us out!!! Not enough divers and it was during the week...
- With Canadian $ being high, this year has not been very good (i.e. not many US tourists compared to other years).
- With Gas price being around 1.35$/Litre, going with 2 divers costs around 200$ each diver for 2 dives...unless you rent a sea kayak!
- Getting a last minute charter (i.e. on site) with those conditions is kind of an act of god.
- There is a not so bad shore diving though at Madrona Point near Parksville. The Dive Outfitters (Nanaimo) are very cool at helping you getting there and renting you the necessary gears.

Best luck to you divers who would like to go there...

Yes Nanaimo can be a pretty busy place and booking in advance is a good idea. Seems Divers Choice has the opposite problem. While Ocean Explorers requires a minimum to go out, Divers Choice will limit the maximum to 10. What does that tell you
Glad that TDO was able to help you out though and yes the shore diving is pretty good around here too.

- With Canadian $ being high, this year has not been very good (i.e. not many US tourists compared to other years).
- With Gas price being around 1.35$/Litre, going with 2 divers costs around 200$ each diver for 2 dives...unless you rent a sea kayak!

This is absolutely not true. As an employee of The Dive Outfitters I can tell you that we are having a great year, plenty of US tourists and I know Divers Choice is doing well also. They are still charging $120 for 2 dives. Don't judge an entire industry just because one outfit dropped the ball.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Sun down diving, with ed singer will get ya out. My drysuit got a huge hole, Jhonny the Skipper went back and I dove Ed's drysuit the entire time I was there.

Sorry ya missed the diving, theres alot of operations out there in the Island.

Take a roll up Inflatable, motor, $5.00 ta $10.00 a dive, Betty Pratt dive guide.


Just joining and first post, to let others Know about Eaon,s charter operation is cool but, they are a weekend charter kinda deal, if they mislead you into middle of week, they might a had someone else also that backed out.

Ocean Explores had a little boat that cattered to a couple of divers, I went there in the winter a few years back, offered plenty of money for a private charter, no go. So I chartered a yacht, 20 tanks, did my own diving, Topside was rough, down under was pleasant.

There's a safety thing that makes charters shut down on ya. Some Skippers hate the five hour rough water day, Myself Drysuit, dump scuba unit, split fins, can make it to shore.


Next time go a little north Campel river.



Happy Diving

 

[Muck]

Just wanted to add that in Nanaimo we tried all the Charters that was on the list (i.e. Sun Down, Divers' Choice etc) with no possibilities. We stayed there four days.

We even tried The Abyssal in Campbell River but there was no staff on the Resort during that week.

We went after to Tofino and tried to book with Ocean Planet Adventures, the only Charter there, but the boat was having a mechanical problem. We stayed there three days with no possibilities.

After all that, it's hard no to judge the industry on the Island when you face those kind of problems...

Please note that it's a five hours flight for us to come to Vancouver Island so it was kind of a once in a lifetime trip...

GOOD NEWS though!! After all that, we decided to head North to Port Hardy and with Catala Charter (we had already booked) and Captain Jim Witton we finally had three wonderful days that worth the price and effort. We were only two divers for the three days. We had to pay separately for the boat and rent to North Island Dive and Charter (the only dive shop there) the tanks and weights. We did there Five Fathoms, Daphne, The Husser, The World Famous Browning Wall, The Seven Tree Island and the Dillon Rock. All that was wonderful.

Cheers!

 

[MarkH]

Most dive charters only run on weekends here. It's possible to go on a weekday, but you usually have to book the whole boat. Most local divers go shore diving (since there's so much of it) and take the occasional boat charter to see something different.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Just wanted to add that in Nanaimo we tried all the Charters that was on the list (i.e. Sun Down, Divers' Choice etc) with no possibilities. We stayed there four days.

We even tried The Abyssal in Campbell River but there was no staff on the Resort during that week.

We went after to Tofino and tried to book with Ocean Planet Adventures, the only Charter there, but the boat was having a mechanical problem. We stayed there three days with no possibilities.

After all that, it's hard no to judge the industry on the Island when you face those kind of problems...

Please note that it's a five hours flight for us to come to Vancouver Island so it was kind of a once in a lifetime trip...

GOOD NEWS though!! After all that, we decided to head North to Port Hardy and with Catala Charter (we had already booked) and Captain Jim Witton we finally had three wonderful days that worth the price and effort. We were only two divers for the three days. We had to pay separately for the boat and rent to North Island Dive and Charter (the only dive shop there) the tanks and weights. We did there Five Fathoms, Daphne, The Husser, The World Famous Browning Wall, The Seven Tree Island and the Dillon Rock. All that was wonderful.

Cheers!

Sorry to hear that your dive trip got bolloxed up like that ... but you found the best diving in the island at Port Hardy.

I just this morning posted some pics from there in the Photography forum on this board ... http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-photography/251105-port-hardy-pics.html#post3803427

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Pinguino]

I was just out with Catala charters in Port Hardy a couple of weeks back.. He runs a great operation and has a nice boat.. I would strongly recommend it to anyone heading up there and doesnt want to pay the high resort prices.. Heck we even camped while we were up there and it brought the costs down tremendously. Glad it worked out for you in the end.

 

[cooldives]

Great to hear a happy ending to a lot of hastle!

While most shops do run regularly scheduled charters only on weekends, with enough notice (and sometimes posted notices on forums or websites like mine that spaces are available) you can generally find other divers and a good charter operator that can pull something together.

At Scuba Diving Vacations In British Columbia we have been able to hook up divers and put weekday trips together - we just need some notice and a little flexibility.

On our 'best dive sites' page, we would love it if you could submit a couple of dive reviews on the easy to fill out on-line form and pictures of your Port Hardy dives!?

It would help other divers plan their dive holiday to BC in the future.

Thanks - we hope to see you up here again soon.