Ogden Point Divers

[seabat]

I am thinking about doing a boat dive with Ogden Point Divers and was wondering if you all might provide some thoughts on their operation. Good, bad, what I should bring in addition to my dive gear?

We have boat dive experience (cold and warm water), wreck dive experience (warm water), deeper dive experience (60 to 100 ft), dive normal air.

 

[Hyper-limits]

I am thinking about doing a boat dive with Ogden Point Divers and was wondering if you all might provide some thoughts on their operation. Good, bad, what I should bring in addition to my dive gear?



I've done a few dives with Ogden Point in the past. One dive was on the Mackenzie and the other on the G.B. Church both wreck dives were excellent. They have two boats, a small one and a larger one. I dove from the big one. It is one of the best dive boat have been on, easy exit and entry (I was wearing dual cylinder) the DM were very helpful and knew a lot about the wrecks.

Bring some water and something to eat, you never know when you get hungry.

 

[RonDawg]

I recently (earlier this month) took a charter with Ogden Point, although I signed up via Great Pacific Diving in North Van.

Pierre the boat captain took us out to Race Rocks where I had a fabulous time. Pierre also makes the 20 or so minute ride out to the Rocks as much of a thrilling experience as the dive itself! As I was the only wet diver on the boat he also took along some nice hot water to pour down my suit.

I dove out of the smaller of their two boats, a 26 foot aluminum boat w/ an outboard motor. At first I was a bit apprehensive, as I've only dove out of large boats, but I soon learned I had nothing to worry about. Yeah there's no head, and the ride can get very windy (no enclosed areas), but the gasoline-powered outboard meant that you could actually hear yourself think at less than full-throttle, and no diesel fumes!

Because the boat is small, you have to do all your equipment prep on shore. You're not allowed to take a gear bag on board, everything other than the BC and tanks has to fit beneath the benches or in a drybox to the front. Pierre keeps the boat on a trailer at Ogden Point, and you load up your equipment onto the boat in the parking lot to the front. After loading, you have to walk a couple of blocks to the boat ramp where he launches from (for insurance reasons you can't ride in the boat while it's being trailered) but it's a very easy walk.

As far as food Pierre took us into a cove between dives where there's a small restaurant (don't recall the name). I can't vouch for quality/prices as I don't eat immediately before a dive.

Only thing I would recommend is bring money for parking. The parking lot to the front is a pay lot. I rode with GPD so I don't know what the costs actually are, but I'm sure Ogden Point or someone else can tell you.

If you can get a hold of a copy of the June '04 edition of "Northwest Dive News" there's a write-up about them on pages 14-15.

 

[wedivebc]

I am thinking about doing a boat dive with Ogden Point Divers and was wondering if you all might provide some thoughts on their operation. Good, bad, what I should bring in addition to my dive gear?

We have boat dive experience (cold and warm water), wreck dive experience (warm water), deeper dive experience (60 to 100 ft), dive normal air.

Very highly recommended. Erin runs a 1st rate professional operation and you will certainly enjoy your experience wherever he takes you. The Victoria area is loaded with good diving. I dove from the Cape Able and we did Mackenzie GB Church. It was most enjoyable.

cheers,

 

[sharkmasterbc]

Took a trip with this op not too long ago to Race Rocks, nice boat, epic dives, although I was not so impressed with being told that reverse profiling was ok and the breifing left me with no idea about the U/W topography on the second dive. We basically dropped into a 3-5 knot current and thankfully found the reef...the boat captain/DM did not really know when the slack was and we missed it by about 20 min.

 

[wedivebc]

, although I was not so impressed with being told that reverse profiling was ok .

Unless you were onboard for an open water class you should already know the pros and cons of that issue.

 

[sharkmasterbc]

Was just speaking with a hyperbaric doc the oter day about this issue of reverse profiling...seems that the data is comming about that if certain criteria are met it is proven safe to a point...I myself am gonna stick to what works and what my body tells me is good and that does not include doing a 50 foot dive followed by a 100 footer.

 

[seabat]

Thanks for the replies. We signed up for a charter this Sunday. I'll let you know how it turned out.

 

[seabat]

Well, we did a charter with Ogden Point Dive Centre and, It was fantastic.

Erin was the boat captain for the smaller boat, the Juan de Fuca Warrior. 8 divers for a two dive charter. Site was Race Rocks. Erin took the boat over to the ramp, we walked from the shop to the ramp. Was fun seeing the other tourists staring at 8 divers walking down the sidewalk in various stages of dive dress. Left Victoria about 9:00 am. The ride out to the site took about 20 minutes and was pretty much as RonDawg described above. Due to the amount of divers on the boat, Erin elected to only load tanks for the first dive and have the second set of tanks delivered to Pedder Bay Marina during the surface interval. Seems like a small thing but it made preparing for the dive a lot easier with the extra space at the racks.

First dive was Central (?) Race Rocks which put us in an eddy of about 1 knot. The channels on either side were running about 4-5 knots. Erin gave a good dive brief and took the time to position the boat in a spot that had even less current for my wife who was a little apprehensive about the current. Viz on the first dive was about 30 feet. I have never been around a kelp forest before and throughly enjoyed the experience swimming along the edge of the forest.

After the first dive we motored into Pedder Bay, exchanged tanks and went back to Race Rocks. Two of the divers elected to return to Victoria on the truck due to a dry suit problem one of them had on the first dive. (A leaky seal and inadequate undergarment).

Second dive was off the light house jetty. We got there at the start of the slack tide. Decended down to 35-40 feet and had 40 feet of viz. Started snapping pictures and noticed that my camera housing had fogged up. There was no rinse bucket on the boat and the inside air had heated up during the surface interval. My bad. Swam for about 15 minutes and came across a 5 ft Wolf Eel out in the open who was in a posing mood. Took some shots anyways and have a bunch of "artistic" shots of the eel in fog. Swam some more and when the camera cleared up we encountered harbor seals. The wife was watching me take pictures, turned around and was face to face with another seal.

The whole charter was great. Erin treated us wonderfully. The rinse stations and shower facilities at the dive shop were a big plus as we had to catch the ferry back to Port Angeles and I was concerned about the equipment drying with salt water until we got home.

Thanks to all who replied. Your information was 100% accurate (except we did not encounter any of the events related by sharkmasterbc) and really helped us prepare for the dive. Only other thing I would add is make sure you have a hat that will stay on your head during the ride to the site. My baseball cap got "light" a few times. We most definitely will dive with them again.