Northwest Dive Club

Was at Barkley Sound with a few of our fellow NWDCers this past week-end. Figured I'd share some photos, both topside and below ...

Puppy love ...



King of the Hill ...



Bald eagle enjoying a rare sunny day ...



My favorite photo of the trip ... a hard shot to take on a moving boat using a 500 mm lens ...



Happy face ...



GPO in a field of sea ferns ...



... and on walkabout ...



Brown cup coral ...



Tricolor nudibranch ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Beautiful shots Bob! Those Baldy shots are crazy cool! Also you are so lucky to see the GPO I totally missed that.

It was soooooooo much fun diving with you! I hope to post some of my pics soon. :-)

Absolutely lovely Bob!

That is a very nice set of photos above and below! I have not seen that nudibranch before, love it!

i was invited to join Scuba Jess , yellow eye , Grateful diver, Keith clements, Stephen , John Paul... all the way up to the land of Canada to dive at Barkley sound with the diver resort Rendezvous adventures .... this was my first time being up there and i will be back for more ... Peter and Kathy run the place and its a Large cabin Cut into a hill side , that had to be blown apart to build on the land... its pretty amazing to look off the deck and see the lard hillside of solid rock ... we got on the boat in port Alberni and from there is about 2 hours to the home, once there we unpacked , got briefed on the rules of the house and where to put stuff and where to charge stuff... the house is power by a diesel generator and Peter has also installed solar panels to help with demand... If you dont like stairs or have bad knees .. they Got em here .. from the boat dock up the stairs to your room , then Up more stairs to the upper House where you can Lounge and read dive books and magazines.. All food is cooked by Kathy, and we ate every day like a family all around the dinner table , laughing and talking... Peter is quite the funny guy and always has a quick comeback to a joke..
they Have Nitrox there for divers and a good compressor for filling tanks.... the views out the window are scenic and restful , and its very easy to just sit and watch nature.. relax and not think about Life... break fast was served early ... Ugggg i am not a morning person ... and from there is was put on your under garments and get down to the boat, from there it was get debriefed on the site and get in the water... once out a quick surface interval and back for round 2 ... head Back to the lodge .. refill tanks and hit another dive site... back again home, rinse gear.. eat dinner ..and a night dive out on the house reef..
Now I was there for one thing and one thing only !! the Tri color Nudis ... these sucker are only found Here .. I think ? , BUT they are here and on the house reef , right out front in 12 feet of water !! ... i was most excited to just get in the night dive .. we hit 8 dives for the weekend .. but I missed the last 2 dives on tuesday , due to my stomach not liking the Prime rib ... The weather did not allow us to get out into the exposed stuff , wind and waves played a factor for that.. the Viz during the trip was goopy from 10 all the way down to about 60 ish... Below 70 feet is was open and clear... we had some nice dives on walls and dive on a Pinnacle ... But for me the best dive was seeing the small tricolor nudibranchs ..
I want to say thank you to everyone for the trip , i really enjoyed being around the NWDC family and making Scuba dive memories with you ...

Here are my pics

Oh ...................... did you want a Movie ....?????????????????


https://youtu.be/N8DEyqqaK6U

Spectacular photos, Bob. Aww those seals are so cute!

Well done on the photos Bob & Chris. And groovy movie too! I'm glad I got to share the trip with everyone! I'm ready for the next adventure!

Really cool! Wow i wish I could have gone. Great photos, and movie! The Tricolor nudi is now on my bucket list.

Nice report!

Great Pics/Videos/Report Bob and Chris!

Despite the low viz and only being able to hit the "C" sites due to the surge, the diving was great. We saw more nudis on most of the dives than we do in a year of Puget Sound diving! Also we got to see purple ring top snails, strawberry anemones, ps king crab, super-secret rare molluscs with opalescent shells, and rare rockfish that we normally don't see here. I really enjoyed the remote location and the camaraderie we had on the trip... A great time was had by all!

Here were some of my snaps. I challenged myself to do mostly wide angle despite the pea soup viz... I hope to go again soon!

Great pix!

I"m bummed that I couldn't make the trip...

Hello Everyone!
I finally got my snaps off the camera.

What a fun away mission that was. I cannot wait to go back. I miss you guys and that beautiful dive Lodge already!

I hope you all have a good week!

PS We missed you Alex, Gdog & Scubie

Great shots ScubaJess!
I like the PSKC, topsnail, shrimp, zooanthids...

Really like the photos YE and SJ. You almost can't tell the conditions were so difficult!

stphnmartin wrote:Really like the photos YE and SJ. You almost can't tell the conditions were so difficult!

Thanks my friend!!! Can't wait to see your video!

Great stuff folks! Jess, you got some killer shots!

Here's my video contribution from the trip. Challenging conditions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4344xNOK5AQ

Awesome work! Man, those drone shots are really cool. Nicely done

Excellent stuff ... I'm amazed you pulled the shots off with the conditions that we had there and the visibility, but you did a killer job with those drone shots...

Another fanastic video..loved it.

Really cool video Stephen!!! That humming bird part is crazy cool! Also nice nudi action! Now I want to go back!

Thank each of you who posted. I miss diving horribly, and your pictures are a treat. In my trips to Barkley Sound, I was driven by two attractions: shipwrecks and six-gills. I was shut out on six-gills, but I remember the wrecks of the car carrier Vanlene and an old steamship, the HMCS Thiepvel. That was awhile ago (20 years?) so they may not be worth diving any more. Is anyone in your group interested in wrecks?
-Curt

Super awesome video Stephen!!

theonly_JT wrote:Super awesome video Stephen!!

Thanks JT!