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 trip 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.)

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