Showing posts with label race rocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race rocks. Show all posts

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Dive Weekend Part 2 - Race Rocks and the Bedford Islands

Day two of our little mini adventure we planned visit to Race Rocks and Church Island. We left the marina on time with the forecast looking excellent for our dives to come. As we exited the mouth of Pedder Bay it was clear, calm, and crisp. We had a full boat with a total of 8 divers on board, all of whom seemed thrilled for the day’s adventures! After a vote on whether to visit the sea lions or West Race Rocks, it was unanimous that the Sea lions at Helicopter rock were the choice of the day. The dive went perfectly the sea lions where as playful as ever and I was able to get some great shots of them frolicking in the shallows and interacting with the other divers. After the dive everyone on board the boat were sharing stories of their encounters and ready to visit the next dive site. Jessie turned the boat west towards Church Island for our second dive.

As we approached the West side of the island it was clear that although there was little wind, there were still 3 meter swells crashing into the west side of Church Island. Jessie first priority is the safety of the diver and after observing the conditions moved us to a different location. We made our way towards the more protected Island of West Bedford for our second dive. If visibility is good, this site has some great topography and offers a beautiful dive. Unfortunately, the visibility today was below average due to the high winds and surge the day before. The nice thing about diving around BC is that even if the visibility is low you can still have a great dive. We were lucky enough to encounter a Giant Pacific Octopus just resting on one of the rocks. It was just awesome because a number of people in the group had never seen one out in the open. I was able to get a number of great images before the octopus crawled away.

Two great day of diving! Thank you to Jessie, and everyone from Seattle for a great weekend. 

Scott






Race Rocks dive site link / images
Bedford Islands dive site link

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Some Cool Dives!

Saturday’s trip to Swordfish Island and Race Rocks was great! We had pretty good weather and the visibility was 30+ feet. I went out with Pinnacle Scuba Adventures and on board was Paul Kennell from cooldives.com, along with some other divers. I had wanted to meet Paul for quite some time and really wanted him to experience how great race Rocks and Swordfish Island really where. 

Swordfish Island proved to be a great first dive. The visibility in the tunnel was great and everyone really enjoyed the amazing life that thrives in that unique environment. Dive number two was at Helicopter Rock located in the middle of Race Rocks which provided some of the best Sea lion interaction we have had this year! I was so stoked on all the images I was able to get. Paul and the other divers where ecstatic about the two dives and Jessie proved once again to be a great host. 

Scott


Stellar Sea lion at Race RocksStellar Sea lion at Race RocksStellar Sea lions at Race Rocks



Check out Paul’s account of the days adventures link
Race Rocks images link
Swordfish Island images link
Sea lion images link 

Saturday, October 23, 2010

West Shore Magazine


West Shore Magazine

I am proud to announce that I have made the cover of a magazine. It has been a goal of mine to help local businesses promote the amazing biodiversity we have here in the Pacific Northwest. West Shore Magazine is a quarterly magazine used to help promote the Western Communities and Greater Victoria throughout BC. I was contacted by one of the writers to supply images for apiece he was writing about diving around Southern Vancouver Island. The images chosen were taken at one of the best dive sites on Vancouver Island: Race Rocks. Race Rocks is a marine protected area and is home to an amazing array of marine life including the very unique Basketstar featured in the images. I would like to thank not only everyone at West Shore Magazine, but Robert Flach, the diver featured in the images, as well as Jessie from Pinnacle Scuba Adventures. Working with these people created the opportunity too not only promotes west coast diving, but to reach a goal of mine by having my image on the cover of a magazine. 


Scott


West Shore Magazine


West Shore Magazine