Diving in British Columbia, Canada

After I saw divers swiming amongs corals and fishes at 80 feets below
me while snorkeling at Cozumel, After I got back to Vancouver, B.C..
I decided to get certify so I could go back to Cozumel to dive. At
first, I have no interest to dive regular in our cold coastal water.
Then, my trainer told me that B.C. are the second best diving water in
the world or something like that and somehow the cold water diving got
into my system ; I decided to became a regular cold water diver. When
I first stepped into Whyte Cliff in our first open water dive, all I
saw was murky water and sandy bottom and no corals and very few fishes
in sight. The question of being the second best diving water in world
always stuck in my mind. After I got my cert, I continued to dive and
to explore many of our local dive sites as possible to understand why
our water are called the second best, next to the Red Sea.
Fortunately, in somewhere around my tenth dives, I happened to dive
at a marine reserve called Porteau Cove and the visiability at that
dive was unusually clear ( 50 feet or so), I found my self surrounded
with clouds of White Plumoses and schools of fishes consisted of Rod
cods, ling cods and perches. It was different than Snorkeling at
Cozumel, but neverless, it was a beautiful experiences but why are we
the 2nd best are question to me , but I am more encouraged that there
could be some beautiful dive sites out there. From there on, I dive
regularly(weekly) at Whtyecliff just to get more diving experiences.
The funny thing was that more I dive, the more I enjoyed our water
even most of them consisted of bare boulders and few fishes; however,
our diving sites were mostly steep walls and I found it very exciting
in swaming among these walls where it is dark and cold.
Then, my dream of diving in Cozumel came true even through it is only
for one day. When I did a back roll into the Palancar reef and for the
first five minutes where the vis was over 100 feet, I was at awe by
the almost infinite visiability of the water and the sights of the
divers, fishes and those coral columns. However, as I got into the
next ten minutes, I begin to get bore for some reason that I could not
explain. Then, the second dive was a drift dive among the S. F. Wall.
The same thing happen, I got bore after 15 minutes into the water.
After I came back to Vancouver and continue to dive regularly, even
after diving at Whytecliff for more than 30 times, I never got bore
during the dive. This problem was sitting on back of my mind for a
long time until I got to do a liveaboard trip with Nautilus Explorer
up Northern Coast(Hakai Pass). It was my first diving in cold water
other than near Vancouver. When I descended on my first pinnacles with
current pushing me right and left with the sight of the pinnacle where
the areas were covered with white plumose and other colorful
organismes, I started to understand why someone would call our water
as one of the top dive sites in the world. Even our dive sites and
fishes are not as colorful(different in its own way) than those in
Cozumel, it is the limited vis of 80 feet or so that force one to
focus what is in front of mask, plus the darkness, coldness and
carrying almost 40 lbs of weights made the diving much more exciting.
Another word, Cozumel's water was too easy, it was like doing rides in
Disneyland.
After I took a few more trips to the Caribbean, I realized that in
B.C., it took more skill to dive than those of warm water, however,
such factor was also provided more excitment than those of the
tropical water. However, if you want to see the best of cold water
diving, you have to do it at the northern end of Vancouver Island and
beyond.
For those are interested to see the best of BC coastal water, the best
way is do the liveaboard diving trip with Nautilus Explorer (stationed
in Vancouver and operated by Mike Lever)and Hakai Pass trip was my
best trip. Some of best dive sites are;
Outer Narrow at Seymour inlet,
Pinnacles dives at Hakai Pass,
Dive sites around Port Hardy area(especially at night), and
a wreck dive called Capitilano( a 130 feet descend in middle of a
strait, the opportunity to do this dive is limited to calm weather
which are rare in our coast and it is such rare opportunity that made
this dive exciting.)



Ectalk

My husband and I dove Port Hardy last April with Chris and Belinda on the
Sea Venturer and would highly recommend both that boat and the place. We
did Browning Wall, Browning Islet just to name a few and it was incredible.
The vis was 70 to 100 feet (since we dive in WA state, we were pretty
excited!) and we saw stuff that we had never seen before. Most of our
diving has been cold water but this was incredible (even better than our
warm water diving). Food was great (Belinda is a hell of a cook) and Chris
never put us unless conditions were perfect. He knows the area so well and
the currents that we did not have a bad dive. Can't wait to go again.
I love diving the Northwest and can see why it is the best in world. I
found that after my diving here, Caymans was a piece of cake.


"Ectalk" <pchow2ca@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:582e14ca.0401011802.4494944b@posting.google.c om...
> After I saw divers swiming amongs corals and fishes at 80 feets below
> me while snorkeling at Cozumel, After I got back to Vancouver, B.C..
> I decided to get certify so I could go back to Cozumel to dive. At
> first, I have no interest to dive regular in our cold coastal water.
> Then, my trainer told me that B.C. are the second best diving water in
> the world or something like that and somehow the cold water diving got
> into my system ; I decided to became a regular cold water diver. When
> I first stepped into Whyte Cliff in our first open water dive, all I
> saw was murky water and sandy bottom and no corals and very few fishes
> in sight. The question of being the second best diving water in world
> always stuck in my mind. After I got my cert, I continued to dive and
> to explore many of our local dive sites as possible to understand why
> our water are called the second best, next to the Red Sea.
> Fortunately, in somewhere around my tenth dives, I happened to dive
> at a marine reserve called Porteau Cove and the visiability at that
> dive was unusually clear ( 50 feet or so), I found my self surrounded
> with clouds of White Plumoses and schools of fishes consisted of Rod
> cods, ling cods and perches. It was different than Snorkeling at
> Cozumel, but neverless, it was a beautiful experiences but why are we
> the 2nd best are question to me , but I am more encouraged that there
> could be some beautiful dive sites out there. From there on, I dive
> regularly(weekly) at Whtyecliff just to get more diving experiences.
> The funny thing was that more I dive, the more I enjoyed our water
> even most of them consisted of bare boulders and few fishes; however,
> our diving sites were mostly steep walls and I found it very exciting
> in swaming among these walls where it is dark and cold.
> Then, my dream of diving in Cozumel came true even through it is only
> for one day. When I did a back roll into the Palancar reef and for the
> first five minutes where the vis was over 100 feet, I was at awe by
> the almost infinite visiability of the water and the sights of the
> divers, fishes and those coral columns. However, as I got into the
> next ten minutes, I begin to get bore for some reason that I could not
> explain. Then, the second dive was a drift dive among the S. F. Wall.
> The same thing happen, I got bore after 15 minutes into the water.
> After I came back to Vancouver and continue to dive regularly, even
> after diving at Whytecliff for more than 30 times, I never got bore
> during the dive. This problem was sitting on back of my mind for a
> long time until I got to do a liveaboard trip with Nautilus Explorer
> up Northern Coast(Hakai Pass). It was my first diving in cold water
> other than near Vancouver. When I descended on my first pinnacles with
> current pushing me right and left with the sight of the pinnacle where
> the areas were covered with white plumose and other colorful
> organismes, I started to understand why someone would call our water
> as one of the top dive sites in the world. Even our dive sites and
> fishes are not as colorful(different in its own way) than those in
> Cozumel, it is the limited vis of 80 feet or so that force one to
> focus what is in front of mask, plus the darkness, coldness and
> carrying almost 40 lbs of weights made the diving much more exciting.
> Another word, Cozumel's water was too easy, it was like doing rides in
> Disneyland.
> After I took a few more trips to the Caribbean, I realized that in
> B.C., it took more skill to dive than those of warm water, however,
> such factor was also provided more excitment than those of the
> tropical water. However, if you want to see the best of cold water
> diving, you have to do it at the northern end of Vancouver Island and
> beyond.
> For those are interested to see the best of BC coastal water, the best
> way is do the liveaboard diving trip with Nautilus Explorer (stationed
> in Vancouver and operated by Mike Lever)and Hakai Pass trip was my
> best trip. Some of best dive sites are;
> Outer Narrow at Seymour inlet,
> Pinnacles dives at Hakai Pass,
> Dive sites around Port Hardy area(especially at night), and
> a wreck dive called Capitilano( a 130 feet descend in middle of a
> strait, the opportunity to do this dive is limited to calm weather
> which are rare in our coast and it is such rare opportunity that made
> this dive exciting.)
>
>
>
> Ectalk