Whytecliff Park Dive Site Profile
Whytecliff Park is located at the Western tip of West Vancouver, just South of Horseshoe Bay Village. It's a 15 minute drive from Lions Gate bridge. A favourite with picnickers, the park has ample parking, a concession stand and a change facility for divers. The main beach access is a short, steep vertical drop from the staging area.
Most local group diving Open Water classes are held in the shallow bay. Not much to see there. The interesting parts are of the dive site are to the East and the West of the bay
The main dive site is bisected by a rocky ridge that's visible at low tide. The area around the ridge and boat marker features some interesting rock formations in shallow water, the remnants of an old marina, countless numbers of seastars, shells, urchins and a variety of fish species. Depth in this area ranges from 15 feet/5m to about 40 feet/12m.
To the West of the ridge is a sloping wall dive, the main dive site for certified divers and for our private students. There's a series of sandy underwater ledges at varying depths that go way beyond recreational dive limits. The site is a favourite spot for tec divers. Deeper dives feature large chimney, boot and cloud sponges, clusters of fish families, solitary ling cod, nudibranchs, and a variety of other invertebrates along with occasional sightings of octopus, wolf eel, grunt sculpin and cabezon. Shallower dives feature a great anemone garden, lots of rockfish, ling cod and kelp greenling, urchins, seastars, brittle stars, crabs, sea cucumbers, squirts, nudis, and Red Irish Lords. There are usually resident seals around and sometimes they join the dive. I have encountered ratfish and migrating Pacific white-sided dolphins.
Surface currents can get very strong here, and there's often a thick plankton cloud in the Summertime. But when conditions are right, it's a great dive site.
On the East side of the park, Whyte islet can be circumnavigated in a leisurely 40 minute dive. It features a sloping rocky wall with a max depth of about 50 feet/15m.
For Advanced students and divers, the East side of the ridge is a perfect, sheltered 10m night dive and the West wall is ideal for deep diving.
