Best Dives?

[Diver0311]

My wife and I will be in Alaska visiting friends and family in Kenai and Cantwell from Aug 5 to Oct 5, we are driving up in our RV and I am planning on hitting up some dives while I'm there, can anyone direct me to the CAN'T MISS sites? Like I said we will be there two months and will be exploring the whole road accessible state and a little of the not so accessible.

I want to knock out my dry suit cert while I am there, and I don't know any divers up there so I guess I am gonna have to hire a DM to go with me, who knows a good dive shop?

[Diver0311]

Cricket, Cricket Anyone out there?

[Midge907]

Yeah this is a very slow forum for the Alaska section, almost non existent. If you have a facebook try to hook up with Dive Alaska (Anchorage), and also Test the Waters(Fairbanks). Dive Alaska runs a boat charter out of Seward on the weekends where you could probally knock out a drysuit cert. Test the waters also can help you out with that in one of our local lakes, or a trip to Valdez. Just because were 360 miles from the coast doesnt mean its to far away for a weekend trip for us. Most of the local lakes have limited vis, but some of them are great. Summit Lake, near Paxson on the Richardson Hwy. Mile 190? has great Vis, although not much to see as far as aquatic life, unless you go when the Salmon are running threw which your time frame falls into. Hope that helped, if I can do more just reply and I will check back. I just started diving last summer, so there is a lot more exploring for me to do.

[Diver0311]

Thanks I appreciate that, I will look into those shops. We will be all over the Anchorage area and the MatSu so I hope to find the time in there to go diving at least a couple times.

[akdeepdiver]

I would suggest Dive Alaska or Last Frontier Diving in Anchorage for the dry suit cert.

[Diver0311]

Thanks, Do either of you know if there are good diveable wrecks near Kenai, Homer, Seward? What about if we took a trip out to Kodiak?

[Tristan.ak]

In Whittier there is Smitty cove and that is interesting, but in Alaska a dry suit is a must. Seward has some cool dives along the shore, Juneau does too, but there are no charter dives out in that area. For wrecks if your not comfortable dealing with harsh seas then its not a good idea. Most wrecks are because of fast currents, high seas, and dangerous shores most of them are also to deep for rec or casual divers. In Juneau there is Princess Kathleen, but that is in a fast current and starts at 50ft from bow and drops a 100+ feet with skills it would be a awesome dive better then the tropics. I don't know about Kenai and Seward for wrecks. I was going to dive next week for 14 days but with no fill stations I don't want to rent a bunch of tanks and deal with the weight of them.

[covediver]

Sunshine Sports in Anchorage also has a dive section in it. Dive Alaska in Anchorage does some charters. Last Frontier does diving and camping trips out of Seward. POI BOI a boat out of Homer at one time arranged diving and camping. Nautilus Explorer and its boats routinely dive the inside passage on what I consider to be some of the best cold water diving experiences ever. Many of us just kind of gather over at Whittier, conditions allowing, and dive the cove. Water can be green and low vis at times during the summer. Someone is diving Whittier nearly every weekend and teaming up is usually possible. One local club in Anchorage is a great way to team up with other divers. They have a pot luck every month.