April 9th 2005
Blueback Community Park, Also known as Tyee beach and Seducer's beach
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This is a terrifically easy shore dive. We were staying at The Pacific Shores resort and spa for the weekend and figured we had better take our dive gear and plan for a morning dive. This whole area north of Nanoose and south of Parksville is a divers paradise. 5 shore dives within 10 minutes driving of each other including Cottam and Madrone Points If you have access to a boat or charter there is at least 3 or 4 know boat dives sites with potentially many more surrounding the little clusters of islands and reefs off Dorcas point. For the non-divers in the family the beach walks. parks and the Landing Grill at the Pacific Shores make this a great place to go diving. |
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Getting to the dive is a winding road off North west bay Road, which is north of Nanoose off the Island Highway. (Look for the Petro Can gas station). Look for the turn off to Schooner cove marina (Stewart road). Watch for and turn right onto Dolphin, then left on Blueback. When you get to Tyee Crescent you will see a little parking spot on the left. Back in there leave room for others as this is a popular community park for both divers and non-divers.
Standing on the beach you will see a point of rocks on the right, depending on
the tide you will see very little of it or on a low tide you will notice
how the point is broken off with a drying point of rock that curves in towards
the bay. As your standing there, just on your right you will see that someone has
cleared all the big rocks out of the way this make a great walk in spot as the
rest of the bay is scattered rock that will make entry precarious.
Once in the water surface swim out to just beyond the point of rocks, if you
look down you will see how the bottom drops right off. Descend here.
Where we dropped down in about 40ft of water we were immediately greeted by a
good size ling cod. In fact as the dive progressed we continually met a
number of good sized lings in the 20 to 30 inch range. This site is a wall of rock
that runs parallel to the bay. You can go left or right. We chose to go right
and on the return checked out the left side. The right side is much more of a
sheer 
wall dive of stratified sandstone, with a lot more depth easily 90 to
100ft. The left side is shallower and is more broken rock and boulders not as
deep perhaps 60 ft. For our money the right side was a spectacular dive. As I
said earlier, lots of ling cod. We also saw quite a few rock fish of different
species including a number of Tiger rock fish. Nudibranch everywhere, including
those beautiful lace egg sacks. The real treat here was boot sponge, starting at
80 feet. Looking literally like a moss covered gum boot the only thing that
differentiates it from the rest of the moss covered rock is a glistening white
hole at the top just big enough to slip the boot on over your foot. 
Cool. Lots
of colorful small fish including Painted Greenlings, Sculpins and others to many
to list. The only thing we found in short supply here was starfish, a number of
leather stars and blood reds but not many of the regular Sunstars that we are so
used to seeing else where. Swimming to the visible end of the wall you can
continue on over a sandy valley to the next part of the reef, or go around the
west or back side of the reef to return to your entry point or return along the
way you came in shallower water. If you have enough air remaining you can as we
did scoot over to the left side of the wall and explore for green lings and ling
cod in the shallows. The left side of the reef is just about 50 to 100 feet left
of the main rock wall, depending on viz you 
might just make it out over the
sandy bottom, a few kicks however and it will rise up and you will know you are
in the right place.
As you can see from the picture on the right squid eggs too.
A real treat of a dive 50 plus feet of viz, easy to find your way in and back to your point of entry.
Just a quick word about The Landing Grill and Pacific Shores resort, this Nature resort and Spa is a jewel of a vacation destination. Lovely accommodation and beautiful grounds with nature walks, hot tub on the point and hot springs. The landing grill has a menu of mouth watering West Coast cuisine with a splash of the Mediterranean. The kids will love the wood fired pizza oven. Now the food and the decor are great, but the real attraction here is the huge and I mean huge Saltwater aquarium right in the middle of the restaurant. For all those non-diving family members and friends, this is your chance to show them what diving on Vancouver island is all about. This tank, and not available on the menu by the way, are Coho, Rock fish, including a Tiger rock fish, Sculp[ins, Irish lords, Seastars, Sea cucumbers, Anemones of all shapes and sizes the list goes on. The fish are changed regularly and so you will never know what you might see each time you go. They just added a Wolf eel the day before we got there. Down stairs in the spa tank they even had a small Octopus. The owners and a number of the staff are divers this is how they acquire the fish for the tanks and are a source for diving tips in the area. If after dinning here, and experiencing the aquariums and the fabulous marine theme of paintings and decor your friends and family are not ready to sign up for a scuba course, I would say they don't see the attraction and there is no hope for them to join you in experiencing what I think to be one of the most enjoyable encounters with nature one can have.
This is an independent review, not sponsored by either the Landing grill or Pacific Shores, we just love the place and the people there.