Just thought I would introduce myself. I am a North East Atlantic technical wreck diver who's relocating from New Jersey to the Bellingham / Anacortes area this November. Lot’s of experience in open ocean cold dark water diving and looking forward to exploring the PNW.
Soon the be new to the area, I have a couple questions if you can spare the time:
It seems like the diving is predominately Anacortes and South, or Vancouver and North. But not much in the area between Bellingham to the border. Curious as to why that is?
Is there a strong technical diving community, ccr or oc, in the area and are there certain charters, groups, or shops that tend towards this?
Interested in meeting other committed divers, recreational or technical, so any help, intros, or pointers to good groups would be great.
Bellingham Bay and Birch Bay are flat sandy areas, hence you'll not find much diving there.
We have plenty of CCR/OC technical divers in the area (some on this board). There's a NWRebreatherDivers fb group. And several shops cater to tech.
As for technical charters, we have a lot less charter options these days, even pre covid. In Washington, your best bet might be Northwest Dive charters who goes to the Diamond Knot (summer mostly). In canada, there are more options like the Nanaimo wrecks.
There's a contingent of us who goes to Anacortes/Keystone often for recreational shore diving, give us a shout when you arrive.
-Eric
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Many, if not most of the good tec dives can be done from shore with a scooter.
A boat opens up more.
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- I got a good squirt in my mouth
- I would imagine that there would be a large amount of involuntary gagging
- I don't know about you but I'm not into swallowing it
There are really only 2 shops that truly cater to Tec.
8 if you are a DIR diver.
Tacoma Scuba (My personal preference)
Others may kinda sorta have some tec bent to them.
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- I got a good squirt in my mouth
- I would imagine that there would be a large amount of involuntary gagging
- I don't know about you but I'm not into swallowing it
I'm on Whidbey often/seasonally and would be interested in some team tec. I rec-tec from shore around here in a few places, just to 45 metres or so normally.
B.C. Canada yeah that would be great as soon as we're permitted entry. A 90+ minute dive on some of the wrecks up there would be pretty cool, assuming there is a boat op that will do it.
Bob at Anacortes Diving Supply has been willing/able to do O2 fills up to 100%. No retail helium fills are available between Everett and Vancouver as far as I know, but some people have banks and boosters at home(?)
Since there is not an active tec boat charter in the Whidbey / San Juan Islands / Anacortes / Lummi / Bellingham area, I'm not yet personally aware of a must-do dive that goes below ~45 metres or needs helium. But numerous rock reef pinnacles with deep bathymetry out there await the adventurous, who presumably would have a good chase boat and "find me" plan in case the currents don't work out (Nautilus, PLB, strobe, signal mirror, etc)
Sundown Diving will do long dives in Nanaimo. We did multi hour dives there. There are some great deep walls in the San Juans
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- I got a good squirt in my mouth
- I would imagine that there would be a large amount of involuntary gagging
- I don't know about you but I'm not into swallowing it