Northwest Dive Club

Posted: **Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:36 pm**

I just returned from a great week long trip up the Hornby Island BC, about an hour north of Nanaimo. Hornby Island Diving is a top notch operation with really friendly and capable operators in John and Amanda. Their family has been operating the lodge since the 70's. The main attraction in the winter is the opportunity to dive with the resident colony of Steller Sealions. There are hundreds of them on site, and especially in the morning it's a wild experience. Imagine being in a small room with excited, friendly puppy dogs that want to climb all over you, licking and nibbling. Now replace the puppies with 600 - 1500 pound aquatic mammals! Mostly harmless fun, however several dry gloves and one dry suit fell victim to the sea monsters...

This trip was organized by Richard Sallas, and filled with a great group of folks. Several PNW folks you may know, and a pretty diverse group of other from all of the US, Canada, and Germany. Richard also runs a photo workshop on the trip, with great opportunities for critique and feedback. I've been on a few of his trips now, with some others in the queue. Highly recommended!

The diving was mostly great, but we had a couple of weather days where the winds kept us off the water. But we had a few sunny days and great visibility the whole time. Hornby has some great locations for hiking and bird watching for non-diving days.

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the trip: