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From what I've seen, British Columbia's beaches on the Pacific are for sunbathing and sightseeing, not for swimming. Are there any exceptions to this rule? There must be some beach on some relatively shallow inlet or something where the water is swimmably warm, right? If most visitors to the beach leave without going in the water, it doesn't count.
The Pacific isn't a safe place for swimming, at least not north of the border. The water and wind is too forceful, it hammers the coastline and it's very cold even in summer.
There are nice beaches for swimming on the protected east coast side of Vancouver Island, but that's the Straight of Georgia, not the Pacific. There's a few glorious beaches on some of the smaller islands between the mainland and the big island but most of the shorelines along the entire west coast are just vertical rock jutting up out of the water.
The picture below is Long Beach on a still day (still meaning not as windy as usual). Long Beach is between Ucluelet and Tofino on the west side of Vancouver Island. Experienced surfers wearing wet suits will go surfing there, but they don't attempt to swim in the water and they have their surf boards that they're tied to for protection. Believe it or not those waves pictured are about 10 - 15 feet high and where the white caps approach the beach the shallows are all powerful undertows and rip tides. Very dangerous. On a windier day the incoming waves are 30 feet high and more. You never turn your back on the water even when simply walking near the water's edge on the beach because of rogue waves, and you don't go swimming in there even on a still, hot day. The water is cold and when you get up to your knees in the water the undertows shovel and swirl the sand out from under your feet knocking you off balance and down and then suck you under.
Yeah, Kitsilano or Spanish banks is about as swimmable as it gets, and that's pretty brisk and unpleasant. That's for swimming of course, surfing an exception. In BC, you swim in rivers and lakes, not the ocean.
The beaches of Vancouver, West Vancouver and Belcarra are nice for swimming in the summer when the weather is really baking hot, the water is calm and gets warm enough then you can stay in it for a long time. But that is Vancouver, and Vancouver isn't anywhere near the Pacific Ocean.
There's also nice beaches for swimming at the towns of White Rock and Crescent Beach in the south Surrey region, and at Roberts Bank beach at Tsawassen near Point Roberts. But again, none of those places are near the Pacific Ocean.
I don't know if smelt fishing still happens there these days but years ago at Spanish Banks in the summer after sunset we used to walk out up to our shoulders into the water with nets and stand there holding the nets until they had enough fish in them to haul in. The water was balmy so we didn't get chilled from standing still holding the nets. Then we'd haul the nets in, remove the smelts and cook them whole over beach fires and eat them right there on the beach.
Let's include the Strait of Georgia and other saltwater areas on BC's coast in the definition of "Pacific" the same way some would include the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, Chaleur Bay or the Strait of Northumberland in the definition of "Atlantic".
Centennial Beach, Jericho Beach, and Wreck Beach have warm, swimmable water in the summer. Savary Island and Hornby Island as well.
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