As a community of scuba divers, there are few obstacles that interfere with our hobby. Rarely is there a person or group against scuba diving and we have not had a conflict among members for a few years. When really thinking about what could be done better within this community, it would be location for dives. Since we are not living near tropical waters, here in Oregon, the diving is mostly done in locations in and around Seattle or Canada. Larger trips can be done for diving in tropical waters, but when considering a day or weekend trip it will all be to the north of our central location at Pacific Watersports in Aloha, OR.
The first member I interviewed about the issue did not mind the fact of diving at locations that were two and a half hours driving distance away, other than the fact he had to drive. Scuba equipment is not carried in a small backpack. Like many of us, we have to take our trucks or SUVs in order to take all of the equipment with us. Gas was at a national average of $3.19 as of August 13, 2012 according to consumerreports.org. "This amount of money going toward gas has its toll on the bank account when adding it to the entire diving trip", says Dale. Another diver agreed by shaking his head, "yes" when Dale spoke about prices. "I don't mind the drive up and back so much, just the darn cost of gas in my Dodge truck is too expensive." replied Ken. Both Dale and Ken continued to talk about being close to retirement and how the length of the drive was not an issue but money always seems to be.
During this same discussion, which started out as a one person interview and ended as a group discussion, Jerry spoke up about the drive bothering her, "If only we all lived in the tropics and could walk from our homes to the dives sites... wouldn't that be something...". While we would all love to live in the tropics, I do not think that will happen any time soon. Most dive sites in this area of the pacific northwest are state parks or privately owned property. The trick would be to get more of these parks and land in Oregon. www.pnwscuba.com is a great site for finding dive sites, but terrible if looking for ones in Oregon. It is nearly impossible to find a site in Oregon that is not a lake of some sort. Whether it is the water quality or the limited wrecks of boats and ships in the area, no one in my community really understands why Oregon has limited diving. Pacific NW Scuba has directions and reviews about 12 various dive sites which should be in the pacific northwest, but all are in Washington in the Hood Canal or Puget Sound area.
Hagg Lake and Detroit Lake are examples of dive sites in Oregon, but not nearly as exciting as ones in Washington. In a lake a diver will get the occasional fish swimming by, but hardly any crabs worth catching, or ship wrecks worth looking at. Most of the time these dive sites are in murky water due to fishing boats or sports boats in the summer. Until the waters clear up or the ocean tides and currents become less of an issue for divers, the main dive sites will continue to be in the northern portion of the pacific northwest as in Washington and Canada. As an outsider looking at this problem from a non scuba diving community, this news could be great for tourist areas within this northern region. A few towns have their profit from scuba diving tourists from a special ship wreck or dive site that bring divers from all over to see. If Oregon was smart, they might consider this same diving tourism for a few specific locations not yet discovered for the divers that do not wish to drive as far.
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