Tropical boy coming to cold waters... help me with my cold feet?

[arjmage]

Hello folks, I'm coming to Victoria in the following weeks and I would really like to go for some dives, having heard that it's a pretty good place for cold water diving. I'm a NAUI divemaster -- but I've only ever dived in the tropics, where it's too hot to wear wet suits and so we went down in our T-shirts. So, I have no experience with cold water diving and don't know really where to get started.

I will be free to travel & dive in Victoria from Oct 9th. If I can find enough info & help, then I'd like to try on those cold feet and see how they feel ... otherwise, I'll just slip back to my hiking boots and hit a trail. But I WANT TO DIVE!

So could you folks comment on:

1) dive clubs/schools where I can rent equipment, and also maybe get a dry-suit lesson?

2) dive groups that might be making trips and have open places to join? I'm even open to meet-ups if it could be something interesting.

3) I've heard that browning pass is a good dive location. Would that be something I could access after some lessons? If so (or not), where would you suggest I go and how?

Keeping my fins crossed...
A

 

[oggy666]

There is a lot of good dive shops downtown frank whites, ogden point, scuba stu, beyond deep diving close to the university. Pm me if you need someone to dive with i am always down. cold water diving is not that much harder just a little shrinkage...lol

 

[cjfox]

Sunday Divers on Facebook has info with divers going out all the time. Browning passage is spectacular, but a 6 hour car drive and 2 hour boat ride from Victoria.

 

[cfenton]

First off I think your attitude is great, getting a drysuit lesson (or at least going on a guided dive) is a very good idea. I would have to respectfully, but wholeheartedly, disagree that cold water diving is not that much harder. People who are trained in cold water then go to the tropics often voice this opinion, but I find the opinion less prevalent in people who trained in warm then transitioned to cold. I am one of the latter.

1) dive clubs/schools where I can rent equipment, and also maybe get a dry-suit lesson?

Beyond Deep Diving - Visiting Victoria

Ogden Point Dive Center

2) dive groups that might be making trips and have open places to join? I'm even open to meet-ups if it could be something interesting.

I would personally just call one of the local dive shops. They'll be more than happy to help.

3) I've heard that browning pass is a good dive location. Would that be something I could access after some lessons? If so (or not), where would you suggest I go and how?

Victoria to Port Hardy is about a 6 hour drive. There are some really good shore dives, as well as charters, in Victoria. I doubt you will be disappointed. Again, the dive shops would be more than happy to help with that I'm sure.

 

[TheWetRookie]

Some must dive sites while here are ...

Victoria - Odgen Break water which is right beside the dive shop. 10-Mile point (tide dependent), Race Rocks (boat dive)

Nanaimo - and dive Madrona and Wall Beach and then do the two big wrecks that are near the ferry terminal, the Saskatchewan and the Breton (side by side boat dives).

 

[cooldives]

All great advice up above. There are some great shore dives and boat dives in the Victoria area and all over the Island, but the conditions are much more challenging than they are in the tropics.

Ensure you arrange for proper training with a local dive shop or arrange for a private dive lesson/course with a certified divemaster.

Have an awesome time and please let us know your thoughts on 'cool water' diving.

 

[Slamfire]

I would have to respectfully, but wholeheartedly, disagree that cold water diving is not that much harder. People who are trained in cold water then go to the tropics often voice this opinion, but I find the opinion less prevalent in people who trained in warm then transitioned to cold. I am one of the latter.

Couldn't have said it better. Before coming to live to Canada, I used to live in the tropics. The northernmost dive I had made up to that point was Cancun. The most weight I had ever used was 12 lbs. The most exposure protection I had worn was a 2mm shorty. And I wasn't very fond of using the shorty because I felt it confined my freedom of movement.

I started using a 7mm+7mm 2-piece full body wetsuit in Canada because I wanted to keep my transition very simple and avoid the extra complexities that a drysuit demands. Even something as simple as suiting up felt very cumbersome. Being wrapped in all that rubber felt like I was all tied up. And then came all the weight; close to 40lbs in the beginning.

In the water, proper buoyancy control was a nightmare. In the tropics I would just think I wanted to change my depth and it would happen effortlessly. Not so here. This was more like imitating a yo-yo. In the tropics I had very little use for a BCD. In fact a LOT of my dives were with no BCD. You use it a lot more in here.

It took several dives (15ish?) to get my cold water proficiency to the levels of my tropical proficiency. That said, it's well worth it. If you like diving it would be a real tragedy to come all the way to Vancouver Island and not get some diving done. Just don't do it alone and make sure your first descent is not in a bottomless wall (there are several around here).

 

[askdjasd]

my nipples get really hard when diving cold water.

 

[seahorsey]

I've been in your shoes till last week when I bit the bullet and took a drysuit course. One pooldive, 2 OW dives, which are NICE! Not many skills, just practice and fiddle with gear and a nice dive. $ 200 - 250. Agree with the majority, much harder than tropical diving! I just passed the IE and thought I wasn't TOO bad at handling my gear and buoyancy, but drysuit is humiliating at first. God I never took so long in my life to get the proper finpivot going. Got 6 dives now and getting comfortable on the last two. Although I still mutter 'Shortie. Four pounds." to myself now and then while suiting up. It's the limited visibility, too, that makes everything a bit harder, and the loss of dexterity and mobility. But worth it! You miss too much good diving if you don't dive dry. The variety and density of invertebrates especially is staggering. Go for it!

 

[akirawut]

In line with the commentary above: The course isn't really enough time to get comfortable with the drysuit. I didn't like it right away at first, but after getting comfortable in it, it's great.

I did my checkout dives in mexico, then came back and started diving here without any trouble. However I did not have a long history of learned technique from warm water diving that I was moving from, so maybe different if you have been at it a while.