Jeff Breazile's Dive Log

The lake has few accesses along HWY 101, but the few that are there offer very easy access to the water. I only dove this in August, and the water was fairly warm on the surface with the really cold thermoclines starting at about 50'. The bottom drops off very dramatically (45 deg slope) into very clear water!! We dove the two car wrecks, one from the 1920's (in which a newly wed couple died just a few hundred yards away), and a large sedan from the 1950's, which turned out to be a stolen car. Both wrecks are deep at 180' and 190', and are in pristine condition. Very little else to see; no vegetation, an occasional trout, and some very dramatic rock walls, large fallen trees, and other rock structures. The water is so clear at 190' I didn't even need or turn on my light!! See some of our surface pics at http://groups.msn.com/ExtremeNWDivers -- Very fun dive, and the scenery is spectacular, so everyone should do it once. Do not attempt the cars unless you have the proper gear, gas and training, and please respect the site of the 1920's car as it is a memorial -- please do not even touch it!

Did a night dive for lobster here Oct. 5, 2003. This site has no facilities, a long stair case to the beach from the street parking with a fairly easy shore entry. There are lots of small submerged rocks so be careful if there is much wave action. We had about 2-4' waves breaking when I dove this site but spaced a good time apart. We swam out and around the point of rocks in the picture and then straight out from there hitting bottom in about 30fsw. The reefs were full of life, even had a good sized bat ray visit us for a while we hunted. The surge was manageable until the bigger wave sets went through, then you had better be holding on to something or ready to fend of urchin covered rocks. Lot's of sea urchins! my buddy ended up with 5 nasty punctures in his knee while being thrown around by the surge, right through his dry suit. Vis was 5-8' not great but just fine for us Oregonians used to 0-3' vis. Fun dive, lots to see, great reef structure, lots of animals

I've done about 3 dives here so far. The last one was 8/18/2002. There is a short hike to the entry, which really kills on the way out and up the hill. The entry is easy, dive this at low slack and the top of the rock walls are visible, some drop nearly straight down to 30' and 40'. Max depth for me at low tide was 42' the deeper you go the bigger the crab were. Vis was 3-5', my buddy said that was the best vis he had seen at this site in 6 years. Watch the tide, if the tide changes and your in the water you ARE going out to sea!! This place should be called the "Crab Hole" they are like cockroaches! There are some great over hangs and wall structures. The crab literally are falling all around you and running in every direction. My biggest problem is there are so many you can't decide which ones to grab as they scatter in every direction. This weekend we pulled up 3 crab that didn't even fit between our crab gauge! Lot's of fun but watch the tides, try to stick together with your buddy, watch the boat traffic on the surface tending their crab pots and bring a good light, it usually turns black at 20'.

Dove at the Tower on 8/10/2002. The surge was minimal so entry and exit were easy. Vis was fantastic!! Three of us dove and I would say vis was close to 20'. I was hunting in around 40-45' of water and my two buddies were crabbing on the bottom at 50-55' and I could see them no problem. I've only seen vis like this one other time here, very special. Tons of Black Rockfish (Sea Bass) but they were all so small, I got 3 nice ones I found hiding in the caverns between boulders. One of my buddies shot a Ling Cod ~26" and the other buddy picked up a limit of female Dungeness......boy was she mad when I made her throw them all back!! It was her first time crabbing we had to give her the old "shrimp and jellyfish" talk!?!? ; ) The dive is much more interesting than Newport jetty, the life covering the rocks was increadible and my max depth was like 52', you'll be lucky to hit 30' in Newport even off the end of the jetty and on the ocean side. Water temp was 47F, and even with the calm ocean the current was alway there making it hard to hunt so be careful here. Great Dive!!

Dove here again 8/17/2002. Water was even colder 46F! Vis was gone and ocean swell was up! The vis was about 3-5' maybe. Dove from the park entrance since I had a new diver with me and the swell out at the tower was really big! We dove on slack, current was managable did some hunting and crabbing. Didn't get any fish and the crab my buddy picked up were all too small. I can't believe how small all the fish are on the north jetty compared to Newport. The small fish in Newport between the fingers are bigger than what I've been seeing in Barview. My buddy and I also found a large piece of an antanna tower or outrigger from a boat on the bottom. Anyway a pretty boring, cold dive, but at least I was diving!!

For the more adventurous, try diving between the last finger (farthest west) and the end of the jetty. The entry and exit is like boldering with scuba gear on, but the vis is usually twice as good as between the fingers. Lot's of fish, Lin Cod, Black Rockfish, Surf Perch, and good grabbing. You will also find a great assortment of fishing gear, crab rings, etc. Watch the tides -- you don't want to be in the water when the current is ripping. Also you'll want to attempt this on a fairly calm day; the climb up and down the rocks is scary enough, you don't want to deal with waves also. Max depth is about 30fsw at high tide. Watch out for fisherman!!!! I was in the middle of wrestling a monster Dungeness when I was hooked and reeled in by a guy on the jetty (I'm not kidding!!) this weekend. Use a dive flag! While changing out of my gear, a boat full of fisherman went trolling right over the section I had been diving.

Don't have much to say about this dive other than I've done it once. Unfortunately the vis was about 1-2ft, you want calm weather for vis to be diveable. Dove during the flood exchange on the 3rd or 4th finger and there was no current until we reached the end of the finger, about 30', then it was a wild ride until we swam around the back side of the finger, current disappeared again. Seemed like there were a lot of the usual fishies in the rocks, but vis was terrible. Bottom is sand, lots of nooks and crannies in the rocks. The farther out toward the end of the jetty (fingers 4&5) it's deeper, the first couple of fingers are fairly shallow, 10-20'. Stop by the dive shop for details, you have to pass it as your driving out on the jetty. Entry is tough at best, scrambling down the huge boulders with your gear on is quite a job, be careful, don't even try this if there is much surge inside the jaws, do the crab dock, or the other dock dive.

Did 2 dives here one day because the Jetty was too rough. Vis was about ~5ft current was manageable, but it did sweep away all the mud we kicked up chasing crabs and digging clams. Bottom is all mud, nothing very interesting, the dock pilings provide shelter to the usual suspects, lots of perch, some Dungeness, lots of red rock crab. Tons of clams! Picked up a limit of steamer clams in 1/2 a dive. Fun dive if there is nothing else diveable. Interesting note on the warning above about dive flags and boats, when I dove here it was salmon season so the bay was packed full of boats. Naturally we used a dive flag because we wanted to explore the outside of the dock pilings also. We placed the flag off the end of the dock in about 18-20ft of water. On our second dive we heard a boat right on top of us, when we surfaced under the pilings to investigate it was some fisherman in a small aluminum boat taking our dive flag and float!?!?!? We yelled at them and they threw it back in the water and sped off!

Fun dive! Huge under water structures and walls, just imagine the rocks in the picture only underwater! I've done 4 dive here in the last 6 months I've maybe explored 1/3 of the reef. Expect good numbers of Dungeness, lot's of Kelp Greenlin, I always see at least one Lingcod. The amount of invertebrate life is simply amazing! Beach entry is easy, but climbing down the rocks to the beach with your gear can be difficult! Watch the tides!! ONLY attempt this dive if you are confident in current and good with a compass. There are so many rock formations to explore it's easy to get turned around and swim farther into the shipping channel, which can be busy. This is a fun drift dive if you have a boat!! The last time I drift dove this there was only a 5ft. exchange and my dive partner and I ended up almost to the Coast Guard Station!!! Even during slack tide the current sometimes does not stop, again watch the tides here! Max depth is about 60-70ftsw. Vis is anywhere between 2 - 30 ft I've had both! Watch the weather, rain, swell, etc.. to gauge possible vis. Have fun!!