Northwest Dive Club

Howdy folks!

ScubaJess, VJW, StphnMartin and I just got back from a great weekend of diving up in Nanaimo with Sundown Charters!

What a great trip! The main purpose of the trip was to go check out Dodd's Narrows. I've been to Nanaimo many times in the past (more so >10 years ago), but we never got a chance to do Dodd's. So we thought we'd give it a try. This is a highly current sensitive site, so we had to plan it carefully. Wow, this was an amazing site! It was comparable to the color and life density you get at Part Hardy, Neah Bay, Race Rocks, Deception Pass, etc but with a different look and ecosystem than either of those. Well worth the trip! Some of the key residents of the Narrows include short plumose, surf anemones, painted anemones (huge carpets of each). Also to be seen are many sea stars, sponges, nudibranchs, glassy plume hydroids, pinkmouth and orange hydroids, crabs/sculpins etc. Very cool!

We did Dodd's both Saturday and Sunday morning. Other sites we hit included Clark Rock, Jesse Island and Snake Island Wall. Chris was an excellent captain, and his son made a great deck hand as well. Viz was quite bad most of the time above 40 feet though. There was a recent herring spawn... SJ and I did Madrona Point on Friday night as well...really really bad viz, but lots of sealions and nudibranch.

We also had our buddy photographer Steve T from Vancouver join us on Sunday.

What a great weekend! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Greetings Awesome NWDC Peeps!

Just returned from a fantastic weekend of diving in Naniamo! It was my first time to dive there! I felt super lucky to get to go to Dodd's twice in one weekend! ! I had the best time with my awesome Dive buddies YE, Stephen & Valerie!!! We also had so much fun trying out the food options , really yummy Italian Food and the Indian Restaurant was almost as fun as the dives! I feel like the coffee shops were limited. We need to go back to try more so I can update my map. The Buccaneer Inn is a really awesome place to stay. Super close to the dive boat also which is super convenient, also Sundown Diving is a really spectacular dive shop

We saw so much life down below and also up top. Sea lions, seals, goats, Canadian geese, soooo many Baldies, and other really cute sea birds. And a super cute white footed cat that crossed the street!

Amazing Snaps YellowEye! You really captured the beauty and crazy colors down below. Your Wide Angle shots are crazy impressive! It was like Dr. Seuss went nuts with his paint brush!!

We had the best weather topside. The water was a very nippy 43' way too cold for my wet gloves. Was so glad I had my Weezle Extreme Plus!!

I hope you can all try out Dodd's and other Nanaimo diving soon.
Have a fun week & Happy Diving!!!

My experience with Dodd is lots of boast traffic. The time to dive it is also the time to transit it. The rule was "Stay down! Don't surface in the narrows." Since you were going in the off season, how was the boat traffic?
-Curt
p.s. Thanks for the posting.

NIce to see all the colors. Great photos YE,Jess !
I been through the Narrows on a boat many times, but never dived there.
Now I am sorry I didn't.

Hi Curt. Boat traffic is an issue. Chris doesn't take people there between May and Sept for that reason!

We had 6 boats go thru when we were down. Yep, and we were advised to stay close to the wall, which is really a good idea either way

Hope you're well!

Awesome shots YE and SJ. Love the wolf eel and underwater landscapes! And also the orange mouths and cockerell!

Here are a couple grabs from the video:

Killer pics guys!!! I'm still going through my videos from the Annapolis and some epic walls from my weekend. Looks like a great time was had by all!

Stunning pictures!! The colors were vibrant and there was so much life on Dodd’s Narrows! Thanks so much for setting it all up!!

I need to get up there. Great photos.

Wow. I feel like a broken record. More amazing dives and trip reports from NWDC peeps! Thank you!