Cape Lookout Oregon Coast

[Bric Martin]

Today was my first day diving on the Oregon Coast. It was a great day and I can't wait to go back! The weather was great and to my suprise the diving is world class!

Just prior to this years NW Dive Expo I had heard that a new charter boat was starting up. At the Expo I met Bill and booked a day on the new "Aqua Therapy" dive boat. If you haven't seen the boat it is a landing craft style boat. The front end drops down and you giant stride off the front end of the boat. Inside, the boat is roomy and not uncomfortable for a 6 pack boat. As we went out over the bar into the open ocean we had a pretty easy time of it. The waves were about 8 feet with 10 second intervals. The boat made for a pretty nice ride.

Bill was very flexible with our day. We made an initial attempt to dive a reef west of haystack rock. There was a bit too much current and we decided to go go to another site. We moved to the southside of Cape Lookout. I was truly impressed. The wall reminded me of the wall at race rocks. It was covered with life. Our visibility was not good, but that only made me want to go back and see this wall again! There were big overhangs and large cracks in many spots. In some spots there are large channels, kind of like caves that go into the wall. We had quite a bit of surge even down to 50 feet. At one point we were rounding a point and the water became black with krill. It was so dark that for a moment I stopped to make sure I wasn't inside a cave. On our second dive we went further east on the wall. There wasn't nearly as much current or surge and so we got off the wall and down into a large boulder field. Our visiblity was better on this dive, maybe 8-10 feet. The boulder field didn't have quite as much life as the west end of the wall but it was still a fantastic dive! You could do this site many times and not get bored with it.

As I drove home today I kept thinking about how many untouched virgin dive sites there must be on the Oregon Coast and now we have a boat to get there! Today was great! Thank You Bill, Matt, and all the great people on today's trip! I will go back again and again.

[-Aaron-]

Hey Blackwater, it was great getting a chance to dive with you. We had a beautiful day on the Oregon Coast, blue skies and fairly light wind. Thanks for putting up your pictures, they turned out great. On further reflection I'm pretty sure that the swarm of life we encountered was the largest school of juvenile fish I have ever seen. Thousands upon thousands of tiny fish alevin swarming around us. Like Blackwater said, there were so many of them that is literally blacked out the sunlight.

Cape Lookout is really a beautiful dive site. Huge 200 foot cliffs rising straight out of the ocean whose surface is pockmarked with bird nesting holes and along the waterline there were several large sea caves. Coming up on our first dive I was floating off the wall looking up and I watched a puffin hop out of his hole and glide 10 feet off the water directly over my head. The surge ranged from non existent to massive 20 foot swings in some places. Luckily for us we came across a perfect line of very strong Oregon bull kelp right at 15 feet. So we had a rodeo safety stop riding the Bull kelp while the ocean did its best to knock us off the wall :P.

Bill and Matt from "Aqua Therapy" run a nice operation and are really open to taking new trips to anywhere divers are interested in. I'm excited to have a scuba diver friendly charter operating on the Oregon coast. We also had a cool group of guys on the boat. Oregon coast diving can feel a bit like a solitary adventure sometimes, so it was fun to get a large group of us together to swap stories and hang out. I look forward to doing more dives with "Aqua Therapy" and everyone on the boat in the future. I've know there are some really cool Pinnacles south of Newport, maybe we can check them out on a future trip.

[ORDiver]

Hey guys. Glad the trip turned out good. Wish I could have made it. I am going to try and catch their next trip, hopefully to the pinnacle by Haystack Rock. I haven't dove it but I hear it is pretty amazing.

Thanks for the pictures Bric, it's incredible how much life there is on the rocks at that place. Did you see the gigantic gumboot chitons?

[Bric Martin]

Hey guys. Glad the trip turned out good. Wish I could have made it. I am going to try and catch their next trip, hopefully to the pinnacle by Haystack Rock. I haven't dove it but I hear it is pretty amazing.

Thanks for the pictures Bric, it's incredible how much life there is on the rocks at that place. Did you see the gigantic gumboot chitons?

Hey Dave

The trip was great! I saw many chitons of all colors. I couldn't tell you one from another. Check your calendar and if we can fill the boat I am game for another trip. I would like to do the pinnacle at haystack, but the current there is the real deal!

Stay in touch. When Matt returns lets get together.

[DiverBob]

Hey Bric, nice report and great pics! Sounds like it would be a lot of fun to do this. I was able to look over the boat and talk to the owner at the expo. I was impressed with both.

[no excuses]

Gotta love Cape lookout, I dove it Memorial Day weekend and it was great, we had a SW swell so it kept the boat rocking while we were underwater. Viz was 5-10' untill the krill came out to play. I was buzzed a couple of times by a seal, first time scared the crap out of me, I had never been buzzed before lol. We also caught 35 crab and limited on clams, all in all not a bad day .

[-Aaron-]

The scenery was so nice on the ride I wish I could have taken more pictures topside. I did manage to take one decent shot off the back of the boat with my cell phone. Shows how nice the weather was Saturday.

[scubagoran]

Blackwater, nice pics. It was good diving on Saturday. Sorry it didn't work out with Heystack, we need to couple of none rainy days get rid of the runoff. You'll get some great photo ops through the archway. If you get a chance post more of your pics, looks like you have a good eye.
Ditto on Auqa Therapy, Capt Bill and DM Matt sure know how to host. Great food and very accommodating.
BTW, anyone have the coordinate for the archway at Heystack?

[spatman]

i'll be back in town tonight, bric. we should all take a look at our calendars and plan some OR coast excursions this summer. i'll drop you guys an email soon.

[Sabre_Rider]

I commercial fished out of pacific city for about 10 years, I will check, I think I have the coordinates at home for the arch outside haystack. Dove Lookout with noexcuses last weekend, had a blast, only mishap was the string holding my rubber band on the spear pole came untied, ever tried to tie a knot underwater with gloves on? After a few choice words, I surfaced..... The oregon coast has a lot to offer, unfortunately most of it you need a boat, and some are some long runs, I would love to check out some of the area north of Manzanita and south of Cannon Beach.

[ORDiver]

I would love to check out some of the area north of Manzanita and south of Cannon Beach.

I've always wondered about these areas too. Hmm, who do we know with a boat that would want to check these out?.....Stan!

[Sabre_Rider]

Sounds like we need to plan a weekend. In all my years of living in the country, I've never seen many boats in that area, I bet the spearfishing would be great. And a plus, as most of the afternoon winds come from the NW, we be going back with it on the way home. Sounds like a plan.........

[Sabre_Rider]

As far as the coordinates for the arch outside of haystack rock at pacific city. I dug thru my stuff, it seems I never saved that point in my loran I used back then. I have a very long list of good fishing spots all up and down the west coast, even a couple of ship wrecks, but most are way too deep for diving, darn it! One I wish was shallower, there is a tug sunk of Lincoln city in about 250 feet of water, use to be a good spot for long lineing for bottom fish. Pretty big tug to, it showed up on the color chromascope sounder really good. As far as the arch goes, if you got a boat with a depthfinder, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

[Sabre_Rider]

Another great dive at cape lookout over labor day weekend with No Excuses/Stan. Got one dive in, took the girlfriends and mine I think got her wrist seal messed up when putting on a glove and got a tad wet, said her foot was sloshy. She was just going to snorkle around the kelp, but after getting wet, and the other gal turning green, decided one dive was it. Vis was down, 5-10' and lots of krill. Dropped in at about 45', worked my way west, didn't see any fish at all till after I was over 50' which was about 100 yards from where I started. Water temp was a cool 45 degrees. Ended up getting a sea trout and 4 black sea bass before the air ran low. Got to try out my new Mares bc and northern diver weight and trim harness. Once adjusted correctly, which was easy to do underwater, I love them both. Looking forward to another dive there soon maybe if the weather holds for a bit longer.