Friends mourn death of teen who drowned in Lynn Canyon waters

Rescue crews were in the Lynn Canyon area early Tuesday morning only to discover the water was too treacherous to recover the body of Cole Marsh, the teenager who died after cliff diving near the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge on Monday.

The Grade 12 student from Coquitlam frequently dove off cliffs.

“I always told him not to go without me. He made the mistake and it really cost him,” Marsh’s friend Jeremy Diffner said.

Friends said Marsh was with two girls they didn’t know at the time of the accident. They said the girls told him not to jump but he did anyway.

It’s believed he jumped into the water safely but there was no place for him to get out again so he clung to some rocks, fully submerged in the water, until he couldn’t hold on any longer.

“There’s pools and there’s whirlpools and hydraulic pressures,” North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Mike Cairns said. “Once you’re in, there isn’t any way out.”

WATCH: Teen dies at Lynn Canyon

1:51 Teen dies at Lynn Canyon

On Tuesday, Marsh’s family walked to Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge to see where he slipped away. His friends also came by to drop flowers into the water.

“He’s not going to be there when we graduate so that’s really hard,” friend Sabrina Hustins said. “He’s going to live in our memories.”

Rescue crews were too distraught to talk the day after such a tragedy unfolded right in front of their eyes.

“When we are unsuccessful, it’s tough on the guys,” Cairns said.

Friends said Marsh was a talented lacrosse goalie and the best guy anyone could know.

While some people on social media have said the deadly incident won’t stop them from cliff diving, Marsh’s friends said this was a tough lesson to learn.

“My plan is to go get a memorial and put it up on the cliff but not to jump,” Diffner said. “I’m not going to jump anymore.”

– With files from Randene Neill and The Canadian Press