I came back to Roger's Reef on Jan. 9, 2023. It was a windy, rainy day and a very high tide. My plan was to dive on the slack before a small 2-knot flood (according to the Gabriola Pass current table). I showed up just over an hour early and noticed that several floating logs in the area weren't drifting anywhere so I went in early.
I snorkeled out to Roger's Reef on the surface. Visibility was pretty good, maybe 40', but it was a bit dark from the overcast weather.
I arrived at Roger's Reef and descended down the wall. Under the marker light, the base of the wall was about 60' deep and gradually deepened as I swam South. Eventually, it reached 100' deep. The wall was mostly covered with clumps of cemented tube worms. There was a decent amount of medium-sized copper and quillback rockfish (this is within a Rockfish Conservation Area). I even saw 2 tiger rockfish. It was also nice to see a variety of nudibranchs.
I reached an area about 100' deep that had a pile of big boulders at the base of the wall.
Back up on the wall, I swam around a corner and started to feel the current getting stronger. I turned around and started swimming back a bit shallower (maybe 50-60' deep). I noticed that the marine life was basically the same at 50' deep as at 100' deep.
Instead of swimming back to shore on the surface, I followed my compass back along the bottom. The sand and pebble bottom had lots of red urchins scattered around. It was 60' deep near the Roger's Reef marker light and gradually sloped up to the base of a rocky reef sticking out from shore about 40' deep.
I still think that this is a great dive spot, even though it takes a bit of work and careful timing on rare days with minimal current.
