Diving in Oregon

[BIGisland Boy]

I'll be in Oregon for school in a few weeks. Any diving up there? Ill be in eugene. Is there anywhere near that is good for diving?

[kev the sea dog]

Hey man, I'll be up there in mid Oct. Looking for a freediver spero to hunt with if you're down. I'm living in Humboldt, Nor Cal, right now but am comming up foor school in Eugene as well.
I'm not from there nor have I dove there, but I have driven that coast and checked it out on google earth and have narrowed down some points of interest.
What kind of hunting are you used too? Bottom time? Comfortable depth?
Most likely the vis won't be very good, but it'll keep us from drying out.
Peace.

[BIGisland Boy]

Are u gonna be a duck too? I'm from hawaii and I dive on the reef. Never dove in kelp or anything like that. I've been diving for a while, but I cant dive that deep. I can dive about 40 ft. or so which is good enough for hawaii. I've been to the coast around newport and the conditions didnt look very good.

[kev the sea dog]

I wasn't accepted this year, but am headed up to establish residency and try again to be a duck, ha ha.
Good deal, 40ft is plenty in the Pacific NW. I grew up diving the Sonoma coast, Mendocino coast, and now Humboldt and Del Norte coast. I've also dove Hawaii and Mexico and have to say that the diving here is different but plenty interesting.
The vis on my drive up there looked similar to Humboldt/del Norte which means 6-10ft is a great day. I know that sounds bad compared to the Islands, but we've learned to hunt large Black Rockfish,Greenling, Cabazone, Lingcod, Scallops, Abalone and Urchins in low vis and I can assure you we will find places to hunt.
The water will probably be around 50 degrees so an open cell 7mm suite and
5mm socks and gloves are essential. The low viz will also dictate your gun length (or polespear) short guns around 90cm are perfect.
If you feel like having a look at a good day out here there are a couple videos I made of my buddies here. Check out "Abalone and Scallops on the North Coast" and "Spearfishing for Black Rockfish" on you tube. The second was my buddy Josh's fifth time diving. Peace.

[BIGisland Boy]

Sounds like fun. I definitely need a new wetsuit though. I have a 90cm carbon fiber gun that I think would work pretty good. The vis looks poor judging by the videos, but I have dove in worse conditions before. What kind of gear might I need? I doubt any of my larger guns would be any good. Right now I am thinking I should ship up my 90cm gun, my matrix fins, and weight belt. I could buy a wetsuit up there. In one of the videos, the person had a light. Is that important? I have the uk HID and the uk eLED since I do a lot of night diving. Anyways, just let me know what I need. I really want to go dive up there while I'm not studying.

[kev the sea dog]

Really big lings will be way back in caves, often so far back you cant see em without a light so that's a good piece of equipment LED is great. 90cm gun sounds good.
I have been getting the itch for offering to split gas with a small time tuna captain to go out for Albacore (which I here come in less than 10 miles off shore up there). If you check out some YouTube videos of tuna fishing in Oregon you'll soon see that the water way out there is really pretty clear (20-30ft of vis) so maybe a long gun line and float would also be good to bring along.
I run a float line but a lot of other guys prefer to hunt kelp with a reel as the line can easily tangle. I like the line though because you can mark large abs or scallops at the end of a breathold if needed.
Of course bring a knife for braining and the rare threat of a tangle.
I run a hard bottom body (boogie) board as a float, equipt with goody bag, stringer, and bungees for attaching gun/pole spear. In deeper water (not by Hawaii standards 35-55ft) I just attach the north end of my float line to my gun and the south end to the leash and drag the board. It really helps to have such a large float to load it up with abalone, fish, urchin, scallops, and still maintain buoyancy to ride small surf over the slick boulder bottom into the shore.
I am not familiar with your fins, are they longblades?
We'll get you an ab iron and gauge when you get here.
That's pretty much it. I am not familiar with the dive shops there, but many northern California shops (besides Bucksport, Bodega Bay Pro Dive, and Freedive Shop) don't carry any gear for the freediver, most shops carry archaic jet fins, split fins and stiff scuba suites (no offense meant to scuba guys). You may have to order your 7mm with 5mm gloves/booties online.
I am stoked to have a dive buddy to hunt with there now. Oct 15th my girlfriend and I will be there, but we're headed up to a wedding and to check out the housing situation around the 12th of Sept. If you'll be there that early, shoot me an email and we'll grab a beer in Eugene or on the coast. Peace.

[BIGisland Boy]

I think I get in on september 27 or so, but i dont think i will be able to dive for a while. I probably need to settle in and concentrate on school for at least the first few weeks. After that I am definately game for some diving. Your going to need to help me out since I know absolutely nothing about diving up there. my school email is nicks_messages@hotmail.com. I'll keep in touch and let you know when im free.

[wkyongae]

Been reading you 2's posts and I hope all works out. I've never dove in Oregon but i have read a lot of past post on the subject and I've come to the conclusion that diving the Oregon's coast comes down to timing if you want any vis at all. And is mostly jetty diving. Currents,rips and just really big waves seams to be what causes the problem. I dive the Puget Sound all the time (Olympia area) only thing they allow if flounder and a very short Ling season. However I enjoy going up to Neah Bay the most. Same fish as you have already mentioned and mostly kelp diving. I might add all I do is freedive. Good spearing you two.

[kev the sea dog]

I will be at the Picasso Open Tournement on the 27th in Casper, CA. I'll be moving up mid Oct and we can hook up then once settled in.
Finding new dive spots is always an adventure I am down to embark on.
The wedding I am attending is very near Coos Bay and I fully intend on scouting the area (possibly just from shore) while I'm there. I'll keep ya posted as to what I find.
Peace.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Guys,

You will be happy to be a DUCK. Eugene is a really nice town and I spent three years there. Make sure you get out to Autzen stadium and watch the ducks play and Mac court for the B ball game. Theres a ton of activities to do there and you'll soon see that it is a great place to be.
I didn't do any diving while at Oregon, but did hunt muledeer evry season and go clamming and crabbing every chance I got. If you like fishing, the Willamette across the street has some great trout fishing and I know where all the good spots are.
Good luck and enjoy the school and all it has to offer. I hear the dorms were just renovated Bean and Hamilton. I have a few patients that are students there now.

Aloha,Daryl
class of 79

[kev the sea dog]

That's great to here Mr. Wong. Everyone I've told about moving to Eugene shares your sentiments, they all say something like "Eugene? oh, you're gonna love it there".
I hope to do some on land hunting for deer/elk as well.
Are the dungeness plentiful on the coast there? Also, I know PSP puts the bivalves into quarentine from time to time, can you shoot me any hints on safe areas/time of year foe them? We usually go durring fall and winter around here.

[BIGisland Boy]

Im in Oregon now. I like it here. I just found out the other day that there is actually a dive shop in eugene. I think it is in walking distance from the campus. I am going to check it out. I emailed the shop and they said they do a bunch of diving in florence, which is like straight out to the coast from eugene, and they also do some diving in newport along with a few other spots. Supposedly you can even jump in a few rivers...

[kev the sea dog]

sounds good...keep me posted. Peace!

[cnoren]

Cool, haven't been here in a while but it's good to see some more people from the board are going to be ducks, I'm a junior at the U of O. If either of you are still around during the summer and want to dive I have a car and am up for some freediving, I might be up for some diving during the warmer days of spring too once I get all of my gear up here.

Also, the scuba shop in Eugene runs a pass/fail 2 credit scuba certification class here as well as a 1 credit advanced scuba class that are a blast if you aren't certified yet.

Just shoot me a pm if you want to go, but it might be a while before I get back to you since I don't dive so much as rock climb around Oregon these days.

[Devildiver]

Hey Guys, this is a fairly dead thread, but I recently moved back to Oregon and am feinding for some spearfishing. I've been posting this on pretty much every Oregon thread on SB! Let me know if you guys want to go out! I've got a house on Otter Rock (The Devils Punchbowl state park), which i'll be at this weekend, and a bunch more over the coming years!