We start the day off early, meeting at Rowand’s Reef Store at 7:30 AM. From there, we make our way to Horseshoe Bay Public Dock and start loading up the boat at 8:30 AM.

Once the boat is loaded and we’re all aboard, we head out into Howe Sound for our 2 dives. Timings for diving can vary but we are usually back at the dock at 2:00 PM and then (depending on traffic) back at the shop for roughly 3:00 PM.

Group Boat Dives

While we want to make all of our diving at Rowand’s Reef as inclusive to new divers as possible, due to the diving conditions of most Howe Sound dive sites, we require divers to be at least Advanced Open Water Certified to join our Group Boat Dives.

If you want to get more out of your diving and open up more possibilities then we encourage you to take the Advanced Open Water Course with us. You can take this course as soon as you have your Open Water Diver qualification and it’s the perfect way to broaden your skills as a diver.

For more information on our Advanced Open Water Diver course please Click Here

Private Boat Dives

For private boat dives, we can take any diver with an Open Water Diver certification or higher.

Although during the summer months, you can dive local waters in a wetsuit, we highly recommend that you use a drysuit. In British Columbia, the water gets cold so you will find the vast majority of divers using a drysuit all year round.

A drysuit will keep you nice and warm, ensuring more comfort and enjoyment from your dives. At Rowand's Reef, we carry the Aqua Lung Fusion range of drysuits. These suits contain the latest in drysuit technology and allow for a customized fit with added flexibility and buoyancy control in the water.

To rent a drysuit from us you will need to have a Drysuit Specialty certification. If you don’t have one of these and are interested in gaining one then we encourage you to take the PADI Drysuit Specialty course with us. More details on this can be found here.

For those who don’t have a drysuit certification, you can still dive in a wetsuit. We have warm 14/7mm wetsuits available for hire that will keep you nice and warm in our cold waters, especially in summer.

Aquatic life will vary at each dive site, but you will likely see rockfish, crabs, flatfish, seastars, and jellyfish. Across the rocks are fields of anemones (in particular the beautiful white plumose anemones), soft corals, and ancient sponges. Seals and sea lions often drop by to say hello, especially on night dives, and you may be lucky enough to find a giant Pacific octopus or wolf eel, hiding under rocks during the day or out hunting at night.

Water colour, visibility and temperature - these are the biggest differences when it comes to cold water vs. warm water diving.

Water colour - In cold water, the colour appears more green/grey compared to the blue/turquoise water of the tropics. This difference really only matters if you do any underwater filming or photography.

Visibility - the best time to dive in BC is from September - April. This is when the water is the clearest and is as good as any warm water dive site. In the summer visibility here can be poor at times due to the large growth of algae that occurs across the North Pacific coast. The visibility will clear up as you dive deeper, but learning to dive in poor conditions will again give you extra experience and training making you a better diver.

Temperature - water temperatures in BC range from around 7°C in the winter/spring to around 15°C in Summer/Fall. While this is a bit different to the 20°C plus temperature of warmer water, the extra equipment and Drysuits make this easy to handle and you quickly get used to it after a few dives.

Things to see - When it comes to marine and plant life, there are just as many amazing things to see in cold water as there are in the tropics. Life in cold water tends to be larger and more unique, whilst warm water life tends to be more plentiful. You may have to explore a bit more to find life in cold water but this just adds to the adventure of the dive!

Jacques Cousteau once said that the coastal waters of British Columbia are 'the best temperate water diving in the world and second only to the Red Sea'. - An indication of just how much there is to see here! Plus, Vancouver is one of the only places in the world where you can scuba dive and ski on the same day - definitely worth a bit of cold!