Yaquina John Point is a shore accessible salt water dive site, located in Waldport, OR.
Located in Waldport, this site has the best crabbing in the area! It’s a little tricky to work with the tides, but ensure you are only diving during low slack. The channel is narrow and deep, and the current can be swift.
Directions: Found on the coast between Newport and Florence, the site is found on the South side of the inlet channel to Alsea Bay. See below for more directions.
Wow! The winter storms this year have really changed this site. The first thing we noticed as we crossed the bridge was that there seemed to be more visible sand in the bay at low tide. Next we discovered that the trail going down to the beach was partially blocked by all of the new logs and assorted driftwood accumulated over the winter. And finally to re-enforce our initial perception, the sand level of the beach was at least 5-8 ft higher than before. So all of this elevated some concerns about the site and we treated it like a brand new site that we hadn’t ever dived before. My wife was uncomfortable with the changes, so we modified the plan to do only one dive and wait until it was positively slack tide to get in. Normally we get in about a half hour before the slack and deal with the current. We modified our usual entry point by parking along side the highway and unloading the gear, then moving the truck to a turnout about 50 yards up the road. There were steps going down to the beach there and it was only about 100 yards to the staging area from there. The plus was that there was no steep trail to climb up and down and we didn’t have to negotiate the pile of drift wood. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the bottom topography was relatively unchanged. The crab bowl seemed smaller from the surface but we got right down to about 45’ and found the usual rocky bottom with lost crab rings etc. This continues to be our favorite dive site on the Oregon Coast. I learn something new about it each time we dive here.
The pic and site description are a bit deceiving, as things look a lot closer than they really are. But once on the beach, everything else was great. We walked out to the rock wall and jumped in. Dropped straight down to about 45’ and followed the wall inshore. Vis was great for the NW at about 6’. Dove this site at low slack and saw many crabs, mostly females and undersize males. Our dive buddies managed to take home some keepers though. I do have to re-emphasize what some others have said... this is DEFINITELY a slack tide dive.... the current rips through here very fast during an exchange.
http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/USA_West/Oregon/Yaquina/index.htm