Sechelt, British Columbia - 3/24 to 3/28

[Scubie Doo]

Hello all, well this weekend we headed to Sechelt BC to dive with Porpoise Bay Charters. First, the resort and hosts were absolutely awesome. Also, the group was excellent as always (Underwater Sports Olympia). Gdog and I headed up on the 24th and dove Whytecliff. It was a great experience and thanks to Yelloweye, H2O Doc, and Scuba Jess for the nice write-up about diving the cut. Cloud sponges were simply amazing, huge, and beautiful. We stayed in North Vancouver and headed to Egmont on Friday. When we arrived Friday we conducted our first dive. Unfortunately, I woke up around 5:00am throwing up, so I missed the second dive of the trip. I rallied and made the next two dives, which were a complete blur. My dive buddies kept a close eye on me as I was a little dehydrated and achy (thanks gdog, Janet, zsaoly, and Dan)!!! The next day I was at about 70% and made all the remaining dives. They were all amazing in a unique way. We had viz anywhere from 5' to 70'+. I know Dan posted a video, but I hope others will chime in with their photos, videos, and stories :-)

























Have a great week/weekend.

[mpenders]

Great shots and nice write up, Scoobie! I really enjoyed the rest of your shots in your smugmug album, too.

[Gdog]

Nice work Jesse! Im about half way thru my shots. I will post them up hopefully by weekend.

[YellowEye]

Jesse -- Great job busting out the hits!

Sorry to hear you were feeling bad part of the time.. Looks like a great trip otherwise.

[Scubie Doo]

Great shots and nice write up, Scoobie! I really enjoyed the rest of your shots in your smugmug album, too.

Thanks Penders. It was a good trip, but we did miss you

[Scubie Doo]

Nice work Jesse! Im about half way thru my shots. I will post them up hopefully by weekend.

Cool beans. Can't wait to see them George.

[Scubie Doo]

Jesse -- Great job busting out the hits!

Sorry to hear you were feeling bad part of the time.. Looks like a great trip otherwise.

Thanks Eric. Yeah, not sure what it was. Maybe food poisoning, that's what it felt like.

[Tom Nic]

Awesome

[Gdog]

So better late than never Im told...here are a few shots from our trip to the Sunshine Coast.
First of all there were quite a few Nudibranches to shoot..

Not a great wide angle trip for me, I need some serious work. But here are a couple;

The cloud sponges there were really epic, and a ton of them. It was really a treat to see.
The visibility at depth was incredible, the trip was a blast, and the people were very enjoyable. On top of that, I had a great dive buddy!

[Penopolypants]

BC diving is the best! Great shots everyone!

[Scubie Doo]

Excellent work Gdog! I'm so glad you captured the sponges. I wish I would have hit WA and my GoPro at least one dive glad you got some WA though.

[Gdog]

Excellent work Gdog! I'm so glad you captured the sponges. I wish I would have hit WA and my GoPro at least one dive glad you got some WA though.

Thanks. I think what I got out of my wide angle on this trip was finding out what I need to work on in that respect. But I think those two are decent.

[YellowEye]

Nice ones George!!!

[dphershman]

Hello all, well this weekend we headed to Sechelt BC to dive with Porpoise Bay Charters. First, the resort and hosts were absolutely awesome. Also, the group was excellent as always (Underwater Sports Olympia). Gdog and I headed up on the 24th and dove Whytecliff. It was a great experience and thanks to Yelloweye, H2O Doc, and Scuba Jess for the nice write-up about diving the cut. Cloud sponges were simply amazing, huge, and beautiful. We stayed in North Vancouver and headed to Egmont on Friday. When we arrived Friday we conducted our first dive. Unfortunately, I woke up around 5:00am throwing up, so I missed the second dive of the trip. I rallied and made the next two dives, which were a complete blur. My dive buddies kept a close eye on me as I was a little dehydrated and achy (thanks gdog, Janet, zsaoly, and Dan)!!! The next day I was at about 70% and made all the remaining dives. They were all amazing in a unique way. We had viz anywhere from 5' to 70'+. I know Dan posted a video, but I hope others will chime in with their photos, videos, and stories :-)

Have a great week/weekend.

awesome pictures!

I was going to ask you about your flip diopter. Who's it made by? I've thought about getting one but the $$$ always put a brake on it for me.

Dan

[dphershman]

So better late than never Im told...here are a few shots from our trip to the Sunshine Coast.
First of all there were quite a few Nudibranches to shoot..

Not a great wide angle trip for me, I need some serious work. But here are a couple;
The cloud sponges there were really epic, and a ton of them. It was really a treat to see.
The visibility at depth was incredible, the trip was a blast, and the people were very enjoyable. On top of that, I had a great dive buddy!

super! I'm so jealous that you guys found an Orange Peel!

What were you shooting for the wide angle shots?

Dan

[dphershman]

Here's some of my pictures from the Porpoise Bay Charters trip last weekend with Olympia Underwater Sports.


While cloud sponges can be found at other locations, the Jarvis and Sechelt inlets have one of the best displays in the world. One interesting thing about these creatures is that their supporting structure is made from silica, which is why they're also called 'Glass Sponges'







Here are some of the best critter shots

a mature Yellow Eye rockfish


a brittle star living in an urchin shell


only my second ever candy stripe shrimp sighting


one of many Puget Sound King Crab


this Decorated Warbonnet posed for at least half a dozen divers


a rather nice looking Frosted Nudibranch (Dirona albolineata)


a Dendronotus dalli


and a green sea urchin using a shell as a 'sunshade'.


A great trip and a photographer's dream!




As always, you can see more photos at hershman.smugmug.com
Dan

[Penopolypants]

Great photos Dan! I love the urchin shell hat and the brittle star especially!

[Tom Nic]

BC diving is the Holy Grail of cold water diving, and Sechelt inlet is a fabulous example of it, and all your pictures capture this amazingly!

[Scubie Doo]

Thanks Dan.

I think I got the holder and subsee diopters from reefnet.ca. They make them custom so you have to get a quote. I believe the holder was $250 and the diopter was $200. So yes, very spendy.

You are welcome to try mine before making the plunge. Just let me know.

[Scubie Doo]

Great photos Dan! I love the urchin shell hat and the brittle star especially!

Agreed, great photos. Nice combo of WA and macro.

[dphershman]

Thanks Dan.

I think I got the holder and subsee diopters from reefnet.ca. They make them custom so you have to get a quote. I believe the holder was $250 and the diopter was $200. So yes, very spendy.

You are welcome to try mine before making the plunge. Just let me know.

that's pretty much the going rate. My understanding is that they are custom made to fit the particular port you have. I use the standard Ikelite flat port. Is that what you were using?

Dan

[Scubie Doo]

Thanks Dan.

I think I got the holder and subsee diopters from reefnet.ca. They make them custom so you have to get a quote. I believe the holder was $250 and the diopter was $200. So yes, very spendy.

You are welcome to try mine before making the plunge. Just let me know.

that's pretty much the going rate. My understanding is that they are custom made to fit the particular port you have. I use the standard Ikelite flat port. Is that what you were using?

Dan

Yep, just using the ikelite standar port.

[Gdog]

Great shots Dan! My wide angle is a 14-42, on the 14mm end. One last parting shot, from my phone...ok Maybe three!

[mpenders]

Great pics!

[Tangfish]

Jealous! Judging by all these fantastic photos and the trip report (minus the barfing) I missed an awesome dive trip!