Madrona Point Dive Site

The Madrona Point dive site is absolutely one of my favorite dive sites on Vancouver Island. It is located just north of Nanaimo in the beautiful Parksville / Nanoose area. There are three or even four separate dives here, with several attractions and depths for all level of divers. Lots of fish, anemones, octopus, seals and sea lions and on and on, you may even spot a killer whale. If you are visiting Vancouver Island to scuba dive this is a must visit site. The access is also from shore, which is just another bonus.

The dives here are the Small Wall, the Mid Wall, the Maze, and the Main Wall. The first three are in a depth range for "open water" certification, and the Main Wall is recommended for advanced divers.

Doing the dives, beginning from the left is the Small Wall. Take the path to the beach and go left until you run out of real estate. Depending on the tide you will see a natural trench that makes for a relatively easy entry. Once you go under just keep the wall on your right and enjoy the scenery. There are often Octopus hiding in the cracks as evidenced by the discarded crab shells. When you reach the end of the wall you can either turn around and retrace your route exiting at the trench, or continue on, maintaining your depth profile until your SPG tells you it's time to head in. In this case just turn south, you will not be far to the exit we call the "Big V".

A variation of this dive is to head directly from the end of the Small Wall to the Mid Wall. simply take a heading of 10 or 15 degrees and swim for about 5-10 minutes. Staying at the 50 foot depth contour it is also a good directional reference. The Mid Wall is an excellent place to find Octopus, but if the vis is poor the wall can be easily missed. When ready to head back, a south heading will get you back to the "Big V".

Lastly are the Maze and the Main Wall, you can enter from either the "Big V" or the "Little V", (the "Big V" is right in front of you when get to the beach, for the "Little V" take the right fork on the trail just before the beach). Take a zero or north heading for both dives, the maze is a random jumble of large rock outcroppings on the way to the Main Wall. There is lots of marine life here to explore from small critters, and right up to the possibility of a Sea Lion or two. Continuing on the same north heading you will come to the top of the Main Wall. We like to go left or west a short distance, where the wall begins and then drop over and down. Then simply keep the wall on your right and explore along the wall until it's time to turn back.

A special note here is to take notice if the eel grass is laying to the right, or west on the way out to the Main Wall. If so there will be some current on the return trip. reserve some extra air!