opinions wanted on diving near halifax

My wife and I will be Halifax this August and were considering bringing our gear and getting in a shore dive near Halifax. Is it worth packing our stuff (dry suits, BCs etc) for the flight to get one dive in – at Sandy Cove?

We’re not familiar with any of the sites and there are no groups going on the days we can dive with, so we want an easy dive with no tides or currents. Anyone know what there is to see there, temps and visibility for early August?

Any other suggestions?

There's a few good shore dives down that way you would probably enjoy.

Not sure when you're in town, have you looked at these folks?

http://www.torpedorays.com/seawolves/schedule.html

It's a good shop, they're just across the harbour in Dartmouth. I don't know what you want for depth, but Bear Cove is a nice dive, most people enjoy the Lodge or Birchy Head as well. I did Sandy Cove a few years ago, once.

Thanks nalfin,

Torpedoray is where they told me about Sandy Cove and if we dive, will probably rent tanks and weights from them. I saw their schedule and they are not doing a shore dive on the two days we can schedule and we don't want to do a boat dive this trip.

What are the places you mentioned like? Current, tides, visibility, what to see!

Any input would be appreciated.

Sorry, I wasn't sure if you were familiar with their shop.

Bear Cove is a popular shore dive, it's a bit of a climb over rocks to get to the water, but the dive is nice if you like large stone formations, there are house sized boulders scattered about. There's a good bit of life in closer to shore if you're staying shallow (<40') and there are ribs from an old shipwreck to be explored.

The Lodge and Birchy Head are near each other on the western shore of St Margaret's Bay, just up the road from Fox Point if you're at all familiar with that. Birchy Head is a bit of climb down to the water as well, most people carry their gear down and get dressed by the water. You can see lots of life, with a bit of luck you can generally find a Wolf Fish hiding in the rocks around 80' or so. The dive itself is a reef that gently slopes out and drops to the sand around 85' or so. The Lodge is much the same as Birchy Head, I think you need to travel a bit further out to get much depth though. The entry is a bit easier as well, provided it hasn't been raining enough to get the rocks on shore too slippery. Plenty of lobsters, sea ravens and all that good stuff to be seen at either site.

You'll find that currents and tide are generally a non issue for shore dives near Halifax and the St Margaret's Bay area of the south shore. If the weather is nice enough for you to go out, you'll be fine, if the water looks rough that's all the warning you'll need. You may find a steady but mild current heading in or out with the tide, but they're not strong. Vis will depend on the amount of runoff due to rain, and who knows what else, but will probably be something like 30-40' or so. Temps will likely be in the high 40's to 50 or so if you're in luck.

Torpedo Rays has directions to lots of different shore dives, they keep them in the shop and can make copies if you ask for them I believe. When are you guys planning on diving?

chris