Willis Point is a good shore dive in the Saanich Inlet. To get to Willis point, exit West Saanich Rd (the 17A) onto Wallace Drive. From Wallace Drive, take a left onto Willis Point Road. Willis Point Road is a long windy road that will come to a T junction onto Mark Lane. Take a right onto Mark Lane and you will find a fire lane in between number 7440 and 7460. Don’t block the lane, and don’t park in front of the residential houses. There is not a lot of parking but there is usually a spot available.

Visibility and jellyfish in Saanich inlet are hit or miss. I dove here in the summer of 2015 and we had great visbility, but also tons of moon jellies in between 5 and 15 meters. Although they don’t sting as far as I know, and have very short tentacles, I had to get used to them bumping off my arms and head while swimming through the jelly zone. I have not experienced it but other divers say that the jellyzone is full of lions mane jellies sometimes, which have a nasty sting. Be careful if this is the case. You can’t predict when the jellies will be out, so you’ll just have to give it a shot. If the visibility is bad it is usually only bad in the first meter or two. Below 5 – 10 meters it will open up (a bit daunting if that’s where the jellies are). Current is not a problem in the inlet (but do expect some surface current) and because there is a wall close to the beach boats are not a problem either.

During the swim out you’ll see pebbly rocky substrate that gently slopes to about 10 – 15 meters. Expect small fish, crab, nudibranch, kelp, and some eelgrass. About 25 – 30 meters from the beach this gives way to a steep wall that goes down to more than 30 meters. The wall is great and has abundant life on it, including big rock fish, lingcod and octopus. If you can recreationally dive to 15 – 30 meters this dive is perfect for you because you’ll have no problem getting to the wall, if you dive to <15 meters it will be good but not maybe not great.

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