AKSCUBA.COM NEWS

July 31, 2010

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It's easy to silt out yourself and your buddy in Alaska's muddy conditions. Avoid it by staying off the bottom (five feet is good,) improving your kicks (if you are pushing the water backward to propel you forward then you aren't pushing it down to stir up the muck,) and changing your finning techniques. Proven techniques to avoid silting out include the modified flutter and the frog kick.

Seward

While you are in Seward, I recommend you stay with Yvon Van Driessche at Le Barn Appetit. Yvon was himself a diver, and has fantastic stories and photos to share. If pressed, he will also pull out some of the dive equipment he engineered or used (take a peek at his old video housing). Yvon may have dive maps of many of the things to be found in Seward, and is in any event an excellent resource. Yvon is also a fair chef, and Le Barn Appetit doubles as a fine creperie and restaurant. Most importantly, Yvon and his family are warm and loving hosts.

Sealife Center

There is excellent diving in front of the Sealife Center downtown. You have a number of possible entries, the most direct of which is a giant stride off the sea wall. Check the tides - you get more bottom time at low tide, but you need to find an alternate entry. The water near the sea wall is only about 30-35 feet deep at high tide, and at low tide there are places on the wall with a 15 foot drop to the water. It's easy to lose a mask, regulator, or even a BC. Worse, you can end up hitting the mud on entry. If the tide is low, rather than tempting fate just walk around the wall and into the water over the boulders.

Apparently the Alaska Steamship Company warehouse was washed into the ocean at this site by a tsunami that followed the 1964 earthquake. There are plenty of neat things to check out as a result, including "caves" that resulted from glacial silt and other detritus settling on top of pieces of the warehouse. I would not penetrate any of these caves - they are not stable. Also, watch out for wildlife in the area. There are some sea lions, including at least one old bull that lives right near the interesting stuff. Finally, be aware that there is a ledge running roughly parallel to the sea wall at about 35-40 feet. The interesting stuff is deeper. When you go over the ledge, you can quickly become disoriented. I don't know how deep it will go, but it goes deeper than I will. Watch your guages and be aware, just like diving a blue hole.

Fox Island

There is a spit on what I believe to be the south side of Fox Island. There is a wreck, an old barge, off this spit. The stern of the wreck is in shallow water, very close to the beach. The bow is at about 85 fsw. There is a great big fish taking up his home in the barge - at about 65 feet, there is a big hole, and the fish will stare out at you through that hole. Pretty funny stuff. You can penetrate this wreck if you're trained to do so - I'm not and have not, but I believe it to be pretty stable.

While you are on the wreck, other people can be on the island. Fox Island has the most perfect skipping rocks in the world, and is home to an annual rock skipping contest. There are also some interesting hiking and tide-pooling options. For a really fun time, bring some non-divers with you. Everyone hits the beach, and you can start a little driftwood fire. Then dive the wreck while they hike or skip rocks. During your surface interval, you can sit around the fire and chat.

Kayaker's Cove

Kayaker's Cove is terrific. You need a boat to get out to it, which is both a plus and a minus. Once there, you stay in one of the rental cabins, which range from small to large, and from bare bones to luxurious. The diving within the cove is a little dull, although there is at least one really fun swim-through. The best thing about it, though, is that it is just a few minutes by boat from Kayaker's to some of the best diving in the area (including a really fun deep cavern dive). It is right across from the Fox Island spit, where that wreck is hiding (not very well!).