Krystal has been diving for about eight years and quickly realized that the more time she spent in the water, the more calm she felt as a wondrous web of life came into view. “The colors we have were just endless. You can’t even see rocks in some parts because it’s life on life on life,” she says. ”I still am finding things that I’ve never seen before, I didn’t know existed…it still blows my mind [after] so many dives.”

Though Campbell River’s oceans teem with life, her most memorable encounter with wildlife has definitely been her encounters with the giant Pacific octopus. “[It’s] the largest octopus in the world, and they are incredibly smart, incredibly beautiful, incredibly, incredibly inquisitive, and they will reach out an arm to inquire who you are,” Krystal says. And a lot of the time animals will want to investigate her as much as she wants to investigate them, even as she attempts to keep her distance. “So I’ll drop down to their level and just leave myself there and let them have a chance to explore who I am. And I silly as it sounds, I’ll introduce myself and my dive buddies,” she says. Even though Krystal is well aware they can’t really hear or understand her, she considers it an honour for an animal to want to figure her out. 

Krystal hopes that visitors to Campbell River will find the same sense of wonder and curiosity in the ocean that she has found. “The lessons I think that people can learn and what I would hope that people feel when they come to Campbell River is that childlike wonder and curiosity,” she says. “They can dive into it, and explore it, and love it.”

Furthermore, Krystal believes the diving world can show so much of what we need to learn about. “Those oceans give us so much life,” she says. The more people understand what the ocean needs, the more divers can show non-divers how to protect it.”

Learn about the creatures of the Discovery Passage that Krystal meets on her dives: 5 reasons to try cold water diving in Campbell River