Brain dump on Oregon coast diving
Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:20 am
OK, I’ve put this off long enough. The interest on the board in diving the Oregon coast is refreshing and inspired me to do a brain dump on some spots that I like to dive and some that I want to dive.
The tricky part about diving the Oregon coast is that we have sheer sea cliffs, big surf (20-foot waves for days on end in the winter) about a 10-foot tidal range and poor viz during most of the summer. The good news is that viz is usually OK in the winter (10-20 feet) and can be spectacular during upwelling in the summer. More about upwellings in a later post.
I’ll start with some dependable dives that are protected enough that you usually won’t get skunked even when the surf is up:
Newport–the Fingers: This is probably the best known dive in the Newport area. The entry is over big rocks and not real fun. Sometimes I hump my gear over a piece at a time, but usually I just gird my loins and do it in one pack and hope I don’t fall in a hole. The jetty area provides some great hiding places for crabs, lingcod, black rockfish, greenlings and lots of invertebrate life. The finger jetties are perpendicular from the main jetty and protect you from the current and the swells. Since this is the only outlet for Yaquina Bay, dive only at slack tide. The boats stay away from the fingers because they don’t want their bottom ripped out. Although I have seen some nose in close to the fingers to fish. I usually dive inside the fourth finger and go either east or west from there. I haven’t dove the first finger, which is really long and shallow and drys out at low tide. A buddy of mine, however, dove it at high tide and said there were about 20 black rockfish schooling at the end, so I guess it’s not a bad dive either. A couple times when I dove the fingers the viz was good enough that when you were in the center space between two fingers you felt like you were in a large room. It was kind of cool.
Newport–HMSC Research Dock: This is not a real exciting dive, but it has an easy in and out and is totally protected from the surf. You can fudge an hour or two either side of slack tide because the current isn’t too strong. It’s a good place to test out new gear or work on skills if you haven’t been in the water in a while. The dock is located north of the Hatfield Marine Science Center and is home to the two OSU research vessels. Go to the end of Marine Science Drive to the turn around and park on the east side next to the beach. It is a sandy beach with an easy slope but watch out for suitcase-sized rocks that can be trippers as you’re walking in. Start your dive on the rock abutment on the right. There is always a black rockfish and a greenling there and lots of invertebrate life on the rocks. Go west from piling to piling until you get to the end of the dock and then take a compass bearing west and fin out to the dolphin for uw navigation practice. Chase some crab around on the way. I’ve recovered several lost crab traps and rings here. The dolphin is covered with life.
Newport–Crab Dock: The municipal crab dock is another good place to chase crab around. You can also recover lost crab pots and rings. The only structure is provided by the dock’s pilings so there isn’t a lot to see. You also make the fisherman on the dock nervous and I’ve heard of some divers who got yelled at as they were getting out.
Netarts Bay in Tillamook County is another dependable dive when the surf is up. It has the added advantage of not having much freshwater flow into the bay so viz doesn’t go to hell if the coast has had a lot of rain. That also means that the crab don’t get flushed out after big rains. Entry is easy down the boat ramp. Keep the rock wall on your right and study the life hiding in the rocks. Going back, keep the rocks on your left. The muddy bottom is has a lot of crabs to chase around.
Depoe Bay looks like a good dive to me, but I haven’t tried it yet. I’m going to talk to the Coast Guard guys and the harbor master to make sure they don’t have any heartburn with divers. I would enter from the boat ramp on the south of the bay and dive the sea wall on the left. The entrance to the bay is small – it’s called the hole in the wall – but would be fun to explore at slack tide when it’s not too surgey. The commercial abalone diver (yes, there’s only one on the West Coast) was diving here last summer and found a dead body (fisherman, not a diver), so the place might be haunted.
Calm-Ocean Dives
Devil's Punchbowl and Otter Rock area between Newport and Depoe Bay has a lot of good structure a beautiful beach and a lovely stairway with about 135 steps that provides access to the beach. On the north is Cape Foulweather that provides some protection from the northwest swells of summer. On those days, you can hug the rocks to the north and usually sneak past any breaking waves. This would be a great area to dive out of a kayak. You could get out to Otter Rock and the larger Bird Rock, which, I understand, are awesome dives. There’s plenty of structure and lots of bull kelp. Lots and lots of scallops and fish. I got rolled in a surf exit and lost a mask a couple of years ago. The climb back up the stairs is a pain.
South wall of Cascade Head: I would do it when the weather is coming from the north to avoid the swell. I only just tried this dive a couple of months ago with my wife and I’m eager to try this again. We took my 14-foot Chamberlain dory from the ODFW boat launch off of Three Rocks Road and rowed our gear down to the beach just inside the mouth of the Salmon River. We beached the boat and geared up on the beach. We didn’t hit it right at slack and had a hard time getting out of the river mouth, but even at the mouth the life is very impressive. On good days an inflatable would be great to get outside the mouth and explore the wall, which is about 80 feet deep. I understand from another diver there is a nice cove and a cave at the end of the wall. I would really watch the sea conditions; getting back in the river mouth can be tricky.
Whale Cove is a defacto marine reserve, it’s been set aside as a no-take area since the 1980s. I understand from a surfer friend there is a path down to a little beach on the north just inside the bay, but I haven’t found it yet. It could be tricky to get you and your gear up and down the cliff to the beach, but I’m sure it would be a great dive: good structure and lots of bull kelp. On a good day a small boat could easily make the trip from Depoe Bay to Whale Cove, land on the beach and dive from there.
There are a few dives I’m eager to do out of Newport, but they require a bigger boat than I have.
The pinnacles off shore from Newport – I understand the Pinnacles are teaming with life and a good place to gather rock scallops. I got the lat long for one from another diver: N44 32.967 W124 06.842. This dive would require a live boat.
Johnson Rock is just off Ona Beach south of Newport. The top of the rock is at about 30 feet and it sits on a bottom that’s 60 or 70 feet deep. The multibeam sonar images of this site look great. One guy who I talked to said it has a lot of rock scallops. I’ve been fishing on a friend’s boat over it and I can testify it has a lot of black rockfish.
S.S. John Aspdin – The S.S. John Aspdin was built in April, 1944 and lauched in May. On one of her trips, she was caught in a hurricane with 60 to 80 foot high waves, but survived with minimal damage. She was also used by the army as a store ship in the South Pacific. The Aspdin was purchased to be used as a dock revetment in Newport. On April 12, 1948, she grounded in the bay during transit and then floated out with the tide, only to be grounded agin on the North Reef. Ten days later, she broke in half and sank. The John Aspdin lies under 40 feet of water off the North Reef off Yaquina Bay. One guy I talked to said it was right off the Shilo Inn. The wreck has strong currents and mangled rebars making it a dangerous dive.
There are plenty of other good dive sites I’ve heard about: Nellie’s Cove off of Port Orford is used a lot by Eugene Skin Divers for their OW classes, the Port Orford Jetty, Coos Bay, Half Moon Bay south of Reedsport on the south coast. On the north coast there’s Three Arch Rocks, the south wall of Cape Lookout and the Three Graces. I’ll let Scott G or Sparky tell you about those.
The tricky part about diving the Oregon coast is that we have sheer sea cliffs, big surf (20-foot waves for days on end in the winter) about a 10-foot tidal range and poor viz during most of the summer. The good news is that viz is usually OK in the winter (10-20 feet) and can be spectacular during upwelling in the summer. More about upwellings in a later post.
I’ll start with some dependable dives that are protected enough that you usually won’t get skunked even when the surf is up:
Newport–the Fingers: This is probably the best known dive in the Newport area. The entry is over big rocks and not real fun. Sometimes I hump my gear over a piece at a time, but usually I just gird my loins and do it in one pack and hope I don’t fall in a hole. The jetty area provides some great hiding places for crabs, lingcod, black rockfish, greenlings and lots of invertebrate life. The finger jetties are perpendicular from the main jetty and protect you from the current and the swells. Since this is the only outlet for Yaquina Bay, dive only at slack tide. The boats stay away from the fingers because they don’t want their bottom ripped out. Although I have seen some nose in close to the fingers to fish. I usually dive inside the fourth finger and go either east or west from there. I haven’t dove the first finger, which is really long and shallow and drys out at low tide. A buddy of mine, however, dove it at high tide and said there were about 20 black rockfish schooling at the end, so I guess it’s not a bad dive either. A couple times when I dove the fingers the viz was good enough that when you were in the center space between two fingers you felt like you were in a large room. It was kind of cool.
Newport–HMSC Research Dock: This is not a real exciting dive, but it has an easy in and out and is totally protected from the surf. You can fudge an hour or two either side of slack tide because the current isn’t too strong. It’s a good place to test out new gear or work on skills if you haven’t been in the water in a while. The dock is located north of the Hatfield Marine Science Center and is home to the two OSU research vessels. Go to the end of Marine Science Drive to the turn around and park on the east side next to the beach. It is a sandy beach with an easy slope but watch out for suitcase-sized rocks that can be trippers as you’re walking in. Start your dive on the rock abutment on the right. There is always a black rockfish and a greenling there and lots of invertebrate life on the rocks. Go west from piling to piling until you get to the end of the dock and then take a compass bearing west and fin out to the dolphin for uw navigation practice. Chase some crab around on the way. I’ve recovered several lost crab traps and rings here. The dolphin is covered with life.
Newport–Crab Dock: The municipal crab dock is another good place to chase crab around. You can also recover lost crab pots and rings. The only structure is provided by the dock’s pilings so there isn’t a lot to see. You also make the fisherman on the dock nervous and I’ve heard of some divers who got yelled at as they were getting out.
Netarts Bay in Tillamook County is another dependable dive when the surf is up. It has the added advantage of not having much freshwater flow into the bay so viz doesn’t go to hell if the coast has had a lot of rain. That also means that the crab don’t get flushed out after big rains. Entry is easy down the boat ramp. Keep the rock wall on your right and study the life hiding in the rocks. Going back, keep the rocks on your left. The muddy bottom is has a lot of crabs to chase around.
Depoe Bay looks like a good dive to me, but I haven’t tried it yet. I’m going to talk to the Coast Guard guys and the harbor master to make sure they don’t have any heartburn with divers. I would enter from the boat ramp on the south of the bay and dive the sea wall on the left. The entrance to the bay is small – it’s called the hole in the wall – but would be fun to explore at slack tide when it’s not too surgey. The commercial abalone diver (yes, there’s only one on the West Coast) was diving here last summer and found a dead body (fisherman, not a diver), so the place might be haunted.
Calm-Ocean Dives
Devil's Punchbowl and Otter Rock area between Newport and Depoe Bay has a lot of good structure a beautiful beach and a lovely stairway with about 135 steps that provides access to the beach. On the north is Cape Foulweather that provides some protection from the northwest swells of summer. On those days, you can hug the rocks to the north and usually sneak past any breaking waves. This would be a great area to dive out of a kayak. You could get out to Otter Rock and the larger Bird Rock, which, I understand, are awesome dives. There’s plenty of structure and lots of bull kelp. Lots and lots of scallops and fish. I got rolled in a surf exit and lost a mask a couple of years ago. The climb back up the stairs is a pain.
South wall of Cascade Head: I would do it when the weather is coming from the north to avoid the swell. I only just tried this dive a couple of months ago with my wife and I’m eager to try this again. We took my 14-foot Chamberlain dory from the ODFW boat launch off of Three Rocks Road and rowed our gear down to the beach just inside the mouth of the Salmon River. We beached the boat and geared up on the beach. We didn’t hit it right at slack and had a hard time getting out of the river mouth, but even at the mouth the life is very impressive. On good days an inflatable would be great to get outside the mouth and explore the wall, which is about 80 feet deep. I understand from another diver there is a nice cove and a cave at the end of the wall. I would really watch the sea conditions; getting back in the river mouth can be tricky.
Whale Cove is a defacto marine reserve, it’s been set aside as a no-take area since the 1980s. I understand from a surfer friend there is a path down to a little beach on the north just inside the bay, but I haven’t found it yet. It could be tricky to get you and your gear up and down the cliff to the beach, but I’m sure it would be a great dive: good structure and lots of bull kelp. On a good day a small boat could easily make the trip from Depoe Bay to Whale Cove, land on the beach and dive from there.
There are a few dives I’m eager to do out of Newport, but they require a bigger boat than I have.
The pinnacles off shore from Newport – I understand the Pinnacles are teaming with life and a good place to gather rock scallops. I got the lat long for one from another diver: N44 32.967 W124 06.842. This dive would require a live boat.
Johnson Rock is just off Ona Beach south of Newport. The top of the rock is at about 30 feet and it sits on a bottom that’s 60 or 70 feet deep. The multibeam sonar images of this site look great. One guy who I talked to said it has a lot of rock scallops. I’ve been fishing on a friend’s boat over it and I can testify it has a lot of black rockfish.
S.S. John Aspdin – The S.S. John Aspdin was built in April, 1944 and lauched in May. On one of her trips, she was caught in a hurricane with 60 to 80 foot high waves, but survived with minimal damage. She was also used by the army as a store ship in the South Pacific. The Aspdin was purchased to be used as a dock revetment in Newport. On April 12, 1948, she grounded in the bay during transit and then floated out with the tide, only to be grounded agin on the North Reef. Ten days later, she broke in half and sank. The John Aspdin lies under 40 feet of water off the North Reef off Yaquina Bay. One guy I talked to said it was right off the Shilo Inn. The wreck has strong currents and mangled rebars making it a dangerous dive.
There are plenty of other good dive sites I’ve heard about: Nellie’s Cove off of Port Orford is used a lot by Eugene Skin Divers for their OW classes, the Port Orford Jetty, Coos Bay, Half Moon Bay south of Reedsport on the south coast. On the north coast there’s Three Arch Rocks, the south wall of Cape Lookout and the Three Graces. I’ll let Scott G or Sparky tell you about those.