Juan De Fuca ( BC / Vancouver Island side)

[Atilla]

Alo friends!

I'm planning my first true pacific dive experience off the west coast of Van Isl for the end of FEB, somewhere between Sooke and Port Renfrew. Have any of you done any diving or spearing within this beautiful mass of coastline?

Honestly I'm a little intimidated as I'm used to the calmer waters on the east side of Van Isl, but so very excited to experience cathedraling kelp beds and the drone of such wild.

Any advice or tips for this young pup would be greatly appreciated, it's a vast area.

Tome

 

[Gronchula]

Hey mate, it's a lot of fun out there. The areas around beecher bay, east sooke is very good too. The currents can overpower you easily, so be careful. We usually head in for high tide slack, or low slack. Anything else will carry you off on even calm days. Even during the slack, there are large currents, you have to constantly keep an eye on your drift or before you know it you'll be pulled away from your boat or shore entry point.

Fishing is good, look for kelp and you'll find lots of perch and greenling, steep rocks and cliffs and you might find a lingcod or two... It's well fished out there... Hit or miss. And unlike the gulf side, it gets deep really fast.

I figured I would mention... the kelp is all dead... There's a few big ones left but it's pretty slim out there as far as being able to spot areas that are normally dense with kelp if you don't know where they are already.

Give me a ring when you come out, I'd love to get out there wth ya!


Last weekend just past sooke...This was a fairly windless calm day at high slack.

 

[Atilla]

Hey!
The kelp is all dead!? What a searing image, devastating reality.
Thanks for the info, you should join us, Sat/March 2nd. We'll be in Port Renfrew, and will go where the all knowing currents take us. Maybe sombrio? Maybe _____?
Mysterious logging road to some virgin shoreline?

Will keep in contact, until soon!

Tome

 

[Gronchula]

Oh that's really soon I'll try and book the days off work, what's your plan? Are you staying out there for the night or comming back to Victoria?

I don't drive, my dive partner usually picks me up in langford... I'll see if he's up for it aswell. If not maybe I can tag a long with you guys, I can chip in for gas money and what not if that can work.

 

[Atilla]

We'll be shacking up for two nights, our ladies will be joining us and keeping the cabin warm whilst we dive...
We get in late friday eve and plan an early start on Saturday. We'll be diving around the port all day and probably as far south as sombrio. Then we'll do a lil dive Sunday morning as well before we head back to Van in the early afternoon.

You guys should meet us on Saturday at some point somewhere along the line!
My phone won't work out there but my friends will, I'll send you the digi's...

 

[Gronchula]

I couldn't get the day off work, may try to get out for our usual sunday dive around sooke - tis pretty cold so we're not usually in the water more than an hour now.

 

[Atilla]

ah a shame, but if you feel inspired to drop everything on Saturday, you know where to find us!
If not, we'll definitely make something happen in April.
Until soon!

Tome

 

[Gronchula]

Like I said, I have a place downtown Vancouver aswell, I can always bring my gear over when I visit Vancouver and spear in the sound with you!

 

[Atilla]

Has anyone been diving anywhere within the Strait of Georgia (Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, or even Sooke area) in the past few weeks?
Howe sound has been dismal, about 2ft of vis for the top 30 ft, which I'm attributing to the snow melt and heavy rainfall runoff over the past few weeks.

I'm Looking for a place to dive this weekend or next that still has decent conditions.

Thanks!