SUMMARY: The best high-current shore dive that no one has heard of in Victoria. LOCATION: The dive is at the eastern side of McNeill bay on Beach drive. There is a small parking area and some steps leading down to the beach and a rocky piece of land that juts out towards Trial Island. I enter on the left side of this rocky area and swim more or less straight out or a bit to the left. WHAT TO SEE: A sandy bottom covered with eelgrass and kelp gradually slopes down to a reef at about 25 feet. This reef leads out into Enterprise Channel. The reef is made of piles of boulders with lots of little holes for things to hide. On the charts, there is a sewer pipeline in this spot. This "reef" was dumped to hold down the pipe. If you swim out far enough, you'll get to the end of the pipe about 65 feet deep. Fortunately when I've been here, nothing was coming out of the pipe. The rocks are covered with all kinds of multi-coloured encrusting sponges, tunicates, hydroids, etc. All the usual kinds of fish are here: lingcod, kelp greenlings and big fat copper and quillback rockfish. Several species of seastars and anemones live on the reef as well. Brooding anemones cling to the kelp. If you swim out to the left, there is a natural reef and a small 10' wall at about 50 feet. This "wall" is covered with encrusting hydrocoral, several species of burrowing cucumbers, urchins and some anemones. At the base of this wall there is a blanket of big purple urchins and orange burrowing cucumbers. I've seen octopus and red irish lords here. To the right of the "sewer pipe" reef, there is another area of natural rocky reefs covered with too much to describe (see pictures at bottom of page). These reefs seem to bottom out at 60 feet. Because of the current, it would take many dives to explore the area properly. It's hard to take in all the life when you're blasting past trying to stay in control. Taking pictures is even more fun. CONDITIONS: It seems that the current hardly ever stops here. I've been here many times during slack, waiting on the shore, and Enterprise Channel looked like a river. I once saw a sailboat trying to go through the channel (again at slack). Half the time it was actually going backwards. They finally gave up after three hours. Underwater, the current swirls around from every direction. It's bizarre to see the kelp "blowing" one way and a few feet away, other kelp is streaming in the opposite direction. The current can be too strong to swim against in places and it sometimes slams you up against a "wall" of current going in a different direction. I guess the point is EXPECT BIG CURRENT! Don't take your kids diving here. The deepest I've been here is 70 feet at high tide (past the end of the pipe). From there a gravel bottom (formed into "dunes" by the current) stretched out towards Trial Island. I wouldn't go out too far without a boat waiting to pick me up. Because of all the bits of kelp and other stuff swirling around, visibility is about 20-30 feet at best.
