Want to try something different? Dive the Pacific Northwest. When we moved to the Pacific Northwest, we were abundantly surprised by the variety of life in these beautiful, clear waters. We think there's a myth rolling around the universe that says there's nothing to see up here and it's too cold to dive. Boy, were we wrong! Reportedly one of the best places to dive by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, we've got critters galore. At one of my favorite dive spots, we see Pacific Red Octopus, an abundance of nudibranchs, stars and anemones (take a look at our friend, Rich's fine photos), greenlings, rock fish, star fish and anemones. Our pal Rich says just a little deeper there's a big Ol' Giant Pacific Octopus. Down the way at another favorite spot, there's wolf eels. ling cod, Cabezon, Rock fish and the usual assortment of stars, anemones and other sea creatures.

The visibility is typically decent to great. On a really bad day it can be 15' but most of the time it ranges from 20' to even 100' in spots. During the summer, air temperature ranges from 60 to 80 degrees and in the spring & fall you can expect the temperature to range from 40 to 70 degrees. On all but the stormiest days, we can find a good spot to dive.

We're spoiled by the ease of diving up here. We've got an abundance of dive spots to choose from, many of them completely uncrowded. Diving on the weekdays, we usually get the area to ourselves. We've got pristine marine sanctuaries, such as Edmonds Underwater Park, and fantastic dives at Sund Rock, Mike's Resort, and Octopus Hole, to name a few along the Hood Canal. While those areas are not too current sensitive, if you're careful to watch the currents and dive in a slack, there's always Fort Flagler, or Keystone Jetty. The list goes on and on.

No waves to contend with on a shore dive, we don our gear and walk into the water. Since I have hard to clear ears, I usually drop down at 6' and slowly ease into depth at an unhurried pace. There's also boat dives to be found. When we dove Friday Harbor last summer, we were the only two people on a drift dive. We dropped down a wall, drifted with the current, explored to our heart's content and when we surfaced, there was the boat. Now that's service.

If you want to dive the Pacific Northwest, we can assist you! We can plan your trip from start to finish, booking air and hotels and arranging transportation. We'll even pick you up from the airport! Just drop us an email or give us a call at 360-881-0274.