Northwest Dive Club

Howdy!

I'm Mark and I recently moved to Seattle (my partner won the battle over whose hometown to return to...). I originally got my OW in San Francisco 6 years ago, did my cert dives in Monterey Bay in a 7mm, and never touched cold water again! Now that I'm in the great PNW and spend all day staring at the water, I decided to get my dry suit certification and discovered that cold water is actually tolerable if you're not touching it :o

I'm signed up for my AOW in March, but am hoping to get in a few weekend dives before then to get comfortable in my dry suit and get the most benefit out of the course. I joined Marker Buoy to find planned dives, but I'm also looking for other regular groups to join that don't mind helping out someone still pretty noobish (24 logged dives). Slowly building up my kit, next up is a dry suit (might be getting a free one off this forum), then a cold-water reg.

I'm based out of West Seattle, but open to diving anywhere, esp. once the bridge opens again.

P.S. Looking forward to crab season starting and snatching some of those tasty suckers on a dive!

Hi Mark, welcome to the area. There are several groups that dive weeknights on a regular basis, but not too many recurring weekend dives as far as I know. The Marker Buoy club is a good place to start since they generally get dives organized and announced well in advance.

If you decide you can do weeknights, there is a group from GUE Seattle that dives every Wednesday with a meet time between 6 and 6:30pm. Currently we are diving at Redondo Beach in Des Moines on Wednesdays and we welcome all certified divers whether GUE trained or not. These are definitely night dives at this time of year, so be prepared with a good light and a backup.

Hi. Welcome!

The kind of diving you'd like to do can set the type of buddies you'll want. Photographers, tech divers, bottle collectors, hunters, wreck divers, big marine life vs tiny marine life aficionados... There's overlap but these groups often seek out different dive plans. Many of these groups will help out new divers. Is it mostly hunting you think you're into?

Have fun!

Welcome to the PNW! I hope to see you diving with us soon.

Get that Drysuit first and start talking to other local divers about what to buy next. What regulators do you have now? If in good shape they will likely be all you need for local diving. The idea of a cold water reg is a bit fuzzy. It's unlikely that you'll need something different from what you used in California. Even when we have near freezing air temps (like this week) it's rare to unheard-of to have a regulator freeze up in Puget Sound.

orcasc205 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 1:10 pm Hi Mark, welcome to the area. There are several groups that dive weeknights on a regular basis, but not too many recurring weekend dives as far as I know. The Marker Buoy club is a good place to start since they generally get dives organized and announced well in advance.

If you decide you can do weeknights, there is a group from GUE Seattle that dives every Wednesday with a meet time between 6 and 6:30pm. Currently we are diving at Redondo Beach in Des Moines on Wednesdays and we welcome all certified divers whether GUE trained or not. These are definitely night dives at this time of year, so be prepared with a good light and a backup.

Thanks for the rec! I'd love to join y'all some Wed, hopefully I can make it out before too long. Is the GUE Seattle FB group the best way to track the weekly dives?

YellowEye wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 10:51 pm Hi. Welcome!

The kind of diving you'd like to do can set the type of buddies you'll want. Photographers, tech divers, bottle collectors, hunters, wreck divers, big marine life vs tiny marine life aficionados... There's overlap but these groups often seek out different dive plans. Many of these groups will help out new divers. Is it mostly hunting you think you're into?

Have fun!

Well, I'm still pretty early in my diving career (had a long spell of not being able to travel/dive due to work), so I haven't yet tried everything. But currently I get the most joy out of seeing/identifying marine life. Mostly right now I'm trying to get exposure to a little bit of everything to figure out what I enjoy.

Hunting isn't likely to be my main focus, but maybe when I try it come summer I'll get hooked!

dlh wrote: ↑Thu Feb 24, 2022 9:56 am Welcome to the PNW! I hope to see you diving with us soon.

Get that Drysuit first and start talking to other local divers about what to buy next. What regulators do you have now? If in good shape they will likely be all you need for local diving. The idea of a cold water reg is a bit fuzzy. It's unlikely that you'll need something different from what you used in California. Even when we have near freezing air temps (like this week) it's rare to unheard-of to have a regulator freeze up in Puget Sound.

Thanks! I actually don't have a reg yet: I've mostly done travel diving and rented everything as needed. Now that diving around home is feasible, having my own gear is much more attractive.

reitblatt wrote: ↑Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:18 am

orcasc205 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 1:10 pm Hi Mark, welcome to the area. There are several groups that dive weeknights on a regular basis, but not too many recurring weekend dives as far as I know. The Marker Buoy club is a good place to start since they generally get dives organized and announced well in advance.

If you decide you can do weeknights, there is a group from GUE Seattle that dives every Wednesday with a meet time between 6 and 6:30pm. Currently we are diving at Redondo Beach in Des Moines on Wednesdays and we welcome all certified divers whether GUE trained or not. These are definitely night dives at this time of year, so be prepared with a good light and a backup.

Thanks for the rec! I'd love to join y'all some Wed, hopefully I can make it out before too long. Is the GUE Seattle FB group the best way to track the weekly dives?

Yes, the GUE Seattle Facebook group is where we announce the dives. We're sometimes a bit late getting announcements out, but it is a safe bet that we will have a few people every Wednesday night and venue changes are communicated well in advance.

-Doug