Visiting downtown Vancouver

[scubadiver888]

Greetings,

My work is sending me to downtown Vancouver (Robson St. & Seymour St. area). I'll probably be too busy to go diving right at the start of the project but if I'm going to be out there I thought I'd like to get some diving in at some point.

So my plan is to do a little scouting before the New Year. Maybe drop by a shop on a Sunday afternoon. Figure out where I can go diving and plan to spend weekends diving. If there are dive clubs, spend evening at dive meet ups.

Any recommendations for dive shops I should visit while in Vancouver? Are there dive clubs in the downtown area? I won't have a car. So it would have to be walking distance from Robson & Seymour or maybe transit.

Thanks,
Darrell

 

[wedivebc]

Go over the bridge to North Vancouver and check out Whytcliff park. Easy drive from town and popular shore diving spot. Transit bus will likely get you there too.

 

[scubadiver888]

Go over the bridge to North Vancouver and check out Whytcliff park. Easy drive from town and popular shore diving spot. Transit bus will likely get you there too.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I forgot to mention, I'll be there by myself. So I'm also looking for a group I can join in order to have a dive buddy. I've been diving for 16 years and worked as a DM in Toronto before I became a traveling computer consultant. Now I just dive for fun and occasionally help out at my local dive club. So I'm pretty game for any kind of diving. I have all my own gear but I'd rent tanks and weights.

What are the water temps like in January or February? I'm used to diving around 55F water but I tolerate anything as cold as 42F. Maybe with some warm undergarments I could go even colder.

 

[Steve_C]

I was in Vancouver a few years ago (2011) and did a couple dives at Wycliff Park (we did the entrance where you go down the narrow cut in the Cliff). Dove another day at another spot Porteau Cove further away. For an east coast diver lots of cool stuff. Dove wet in a 10/14 we rented. Comfortable but this was summer. I did a turn key. DM picked me up, got the gear, took me to the dive spots. Basically rented an experienced buddy. Name was Mark Leichnitz. It was Vancouver Scuba Diving school.

 

[decompression]

Checkout Ocean Quest for site and buddy info, they are in Burnaby but will still be helpful. Also Sea dragon is a good contact. As Dave mentions, whytecliff is a very good place to dive as well as Porteau Cove.

 

[Steve_C]

Some early photos from Whycliff park at
Vancouver
and Porteau Cove at
Vancouver

 

[wedivebc]

Checkout Ocean Quest for site and buddy info, they are in Burnaby but will still be helpful. Also Sea dragon is a good contact. As Dave mentions, whycliff is a very good place to dive as well as Porteau Cove.

+1 on Ocean Quest. And Jay may confirm but don't they do an organized weekly club dive? Pick you up at the shop and take you to the site? I know they used to do that at least one night a week.

 

[Darnold9999]

+1 for Ocean Quest. They do two weekly “fun” dives Thursday night and Saturday as I recall. Good shop but not downtown. Also Edge in North Van is a good group do not know their schedule. A trip to Naniamo is pretty easy from downtown Vancouver and is recommended. Whytcliff is a very easy and accessible dive site - and worth doing. There are other sites further up the highway to Whistler as well. Porteau Cove is a marine park. Not much else close in as you are on the Fraser river delta and everything close by is sand and mud. You really need to go to Vancouver Island or go north up the mainland coast (or south toward Seattle) to get to good diving on the mainland.

 

[scubadiver888]

Checkout Ocean Quest for site and buddy info, they are in Burnaby but will still be helpful. Also Sea dragon is a good contact. As Dave mentions, whycliff is a very good place to dive as well as Porteau Cove.

Thanks for the suggestions decompression. Is the Sea Dragon this one: Sea Dragon Charters: Vancouver's Ocean Adventure ?

Darrell

 

[decompression]

Thanks for the suggestions decompression. Is the Sea Dragon this one: Sea Dragon Charters: Vancouver's Ocean Adventure ?

Darrell

Yes