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Dive Review of Abyssal Dive Charters/N/A in
Canada/British Columbia

Abyssal Dive Charters/N/A, Jul, 2007,

by Douglas Hansen, CA, USA (Contributor Contributor 15 reports). Report 3662.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 2 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 2 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments We only had a couple of days to dive while we were in the Campbell River area, so we went with Abyssal Dive Charters. They promptly responded to e-mails, and were willing to go out with only my wife and I as passengers. They were also kind enough to lend me a wetsuit at no charge since I did not bring my drysuit to save luggage weight and space (my wife dove in her drysuit). Due to the strong currents in Discovery Passage, diving is only done during the slack tide. These are drift dives: the boat follows your bubbles and picks you up at the end of the dive. They provide 80 cubic foot aluminum cylinders and weights. They did ask to see our C-cards, but there was no safety briefing, and I had to request a dive site briefing. They seemed perfectly happy to let us jump off the boat without telling us what to look for, which direction to go in, etc. I also had to request specifics on how they wanted us to dive from the boat, for example how to exit the boat and how to re-board. We found the water temperature to be warmer than what we are used to in northern California, and the visibility was quite good on a couple of the dives. We could feel the current picking up near the end of the last dives. One dive site in particular was stellar. Copper Cliffs is a wall dive that was alive with nudibranchs, anemones and other macro critters. Some areas were covered with white Metridium anemones, other areas had orange Metridium anemones, there were Metridium senile anemones, and we found an area with very large northern feather duster worms. Large ling cods were not uncommon. The other sites were not as good. A couple were actually rather poor, with muddy bottoms, poor visibility and limited macro life, although we did manage to find a couple of nudibranchs we hadn't seen before. If you intend to dive with this outfit, I would recommend doing your homework and present them with a list of the sites you would like to dive, and then insist on them taking you there.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving California, Bonaire, Curacao, Indonesia, Philippines, Palau, Florida, Mexico
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm, currents
Water Temp 54-57°F / 12-14°C Wetsuit Thickness 7
Water Visibility 20-40 Ft/ 6-12 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Return with 500 psi
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 1 stars Tropical Fish 1 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Bucket on board for cameras.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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