Victoria, BC and Nanaimo, BC - AMAZING

[Goodt_godiving]

KneeDeep and I just returned from a weekend trip up to BC. We dove at Ogden Point Breakwater for both a day dive and a night dive. We went into the Ogden Point Dive Center before we entered to get the "scoop" first. Great folks! We saw a dive crew coming out of the water as we were entering and asked about the viz. The one person said - "Meh it's OK". Coll asked if it was under 20 fsw to which he said yes it was. So we were like OK that's not too bad let's GO! We entered at the 2nd set of stairs about mid-way down the jetty and began heading out the breakwater. Viz was for sure over 20 fsw more like 35+ !!! It was amazing. Tons of life everywhere and even though we got skunked on octos and wolfies it was a great dive. We had about an hour dive and at the end on the sandy bottom sitting on a rock Coll found a HUGE Puget Sound King Crab - my first ever sighting of one so it by far made up for the zero octo/wolfie count! On the short swim back to the jetty Coll realized he lost his reg cover, cap and bladder. We went into the dive shop to get my tank filled and told them about it and asked the questions about our dive the next day up N of Nanaimo at Madrona Point and as we needed to rent a reg for Coll they referred us to Sink or Swim Scuba - also GREAT people!

On Sat we headed up to Sink or Swim to get his regs and chat about the wall at Madrona Point. We got the lay of the land, his reg and headed N with their directions and map the provided us. The fog bank had lifted and the sun was shining by the time we arrived at the site and WOW what an amazing place. We checked out the entry, decided the spot we liked and geared up. Sink or Swim has provided a Bouy line to drop that is about 10 feet from the wall so off we go on our surface swim and drop down, find the wall and drop over to begin our descent down the wall. Viz had to be over 60 fsw as we both were able to see the ripples on the surface at 60+ feet and I could see Coll very clear on the bottom while I was about 20 feet above him. We found 5 octos and just tons of other life. This is a must repeat dive for us. Ton of nudibranchs and fish of many varieties. Good stuff.

So we headed back to the dive shop in hopes of making a 2nd dive back in Victoria and with the very outside chance someone might have found part of Colls regs. When we returned the shop let us know Ogden Point called and they found ALL THREE of the missing pieces and called Sink or Swim to make sure we were alerted! Wow that is a huge testament to the dive community and also to this Scuba Shop's level of customer service. We were so grateful! We headed back S, got his reg pieces, thanked them profusely and headed back out the Breakwater for a night dive. We were hoping to see different critters at night but found most of the same and again no octos/wolfies but still a pretty good night dive.

I must say the entry/exit at Ogden Point leaves something to be desired. It can be a big challenge so on our night dive we exited on the shore which was WAY better than trying to scurry back up the wall. Next time to Victoria we will try a few other easier shore entry sites but it was still a great experience with 2 great dive shops as well!

[Jeremy]

Great write up!

I need to visit Canada soon

[Jeff Pack]

I cant even imagine 60ft of visibility