So long (Aloha!), and THANKS for all the fish...

As it turns out this was to be my last dive with one of my good friends, and longest standing dive buddies before his long hiatus from the mainland. Mr. Dane Carson's moving on to bluer oceans. Hawaii bound on a quest for scholastic achievement (UofH), and maybe a tan. Poseidon knows he could use one!

Dane, Dan, and I decided tonight would be a good night for a deep dive on Lobster Shop Wall. We'd planned this out earlier in the day and all agreed to a dive profile giving us plenty of time to inspect a good portion of the wall. And that we did! Along the way encountering the lone stubby squid, a playful red octo that couldn't get enough of my camera, and a handful of spotted ratfish. Our stay in the shallows provided Dane with the opportune moment to turn the camera on himself and catch a narcissist's snapshot, or two - of himself... which I always find amusing. We'll get Dane in an U/W Photography course soon! ;)

Here's to you, Dane! I wish you the very best in all things to come. We'll miss you here on the mainland, but expect to hear great things in the years to come. As always, you're a knock away from a place to stay.

Aloha, good buddy!

Dive Buddy Group: Dane Carson & Dan Estrada (Deep, for a long time!) ;)~

Beyond Redondodome...

So we're lounging around the shop today, tossing a few back, and in comes this gent claiming to have thrown together a new structure out at Redondo. Curiosity piqued, we reluctantly set aside our frothy Big K sodas and tuned in to the details. Seems he and a few friends took on the respectable challenge of building a PVC Geodesic Dome out 210˚ from the bug. After showing us the plans and describing the whereabouts to us we decided that this has gotta be something to see, and coincidentally enough we'd planned to dive there tonight anyway. Our typical one dive evening was voted two, so we packed in an extra tank and headed out.

The first of our tours was scheduled for the "deep end". We dropped down behind the pilings, holding up HCC's marine science lab, and rode the rope west towards the signature boats and statues along that line. Once I'd hit the end of the line I realized that we were missing a diver from our group and circled back to see if we could pick him up somewhere. Turned out that our DMC Nick had a diver down flag in tow and this was preventing him from descending any further than 60' - it was spooled out. I pointed to a nearby tire and we quickly threw a wrap around it to anchor the float.



The tire also provided us a view of our first Red Octo of the evening. Surprisingly, these little guys appeared to us everywhere throughout the first dive. As we meandered around the south end of the site I counted 8 Red Octo's, which is more than you'll usually see during a handful of dives anywhere. We spent a bit of time playing around with each of them before ending our dive and taking on our surface interval.

An hour and nine minutes later we were geared up and descending on our second dive of the evening. Tom and Joe had departed us, but the five of us that remained made the same descent we had earlier, with the Redondodome our goal for this dive. I was fully expecting to see a good number of Red's on this trip too, but instead it seemed they all had morphed into their Cephalopod cousins - the Stubby Squid!! I failed to find a single Red on our trip out to the dome, but came across no less than five good sized Stubby Squid this time around, which I'd not seen one of on our previous dive. Always an interesting place this Redondo is.



We slowly worked our way out to the dome and once we came across it we were surprised to see just how large this structure really was. With 10' poles making up each of the segments, it was no problem at all to swim through - and for that matter, to find all of us comfortably swimming inside the structure at one time. Which we did for a few minutes before heading back to shore. Can't wait to see some life calling this home in the near future. I'll definitely make this a stop on my next tour at Redondo. Good stuff... and thanks to those who put in the effort to make this truly unique structure for both the marine life here and the divers alike!!

For those that have yet to see it, check out the short clip showing our first visit to the newly built Redondodome!!



Dive Buddy Group: The Nick's, Aubrea, & James (with Tom C. & Joe L. joining in on the first dive) (Dive 1: 77fsw for 43mins; Dive 2: 64fsw for 35mins)

Duty Calls... The DM Saga...

Assisted with A2Z's Advanced Open Water Class (Dives 4 and 5) aboard the "Sampan" - Bandito Charters.

The dives: Drift (Dive 1), Boat (Dive 2)

What a gorgeous day for a boat dive, or two!

The first of our dive destinations took us under the Narrows bridge(s) for a taste of drift diving in the Sound. The predictions were set at a 1.1 knot ebb, and the Vis was good enough to give us a wide berth while still maintaining eye contact as we floated through streamers of bull kelp and around the large rock structures that make up the substrate here. The marine life was plentiful and kept our eyes occupied when we weren't otherwise checking in on each other. An amazing dive site!

The second of our dives brought us along the North Wall at Pt. Defiance. The clay wall here provided the class with a totally new and contrasting look, which I think they all quite enjoyed. Not nearly as rich with marine life as had been seen the previous dive, there were still glimpses of some pretty cool stuff here. There was at least one grunt sculpin, a stubby squid, and tons of Piddock clams lining the wall. No wolfies or GPO's out and about, but a sweet dive nonetheless.

Congratulations for a job well done guys and gals! I hope you enjoyed the time as much as I enjoyed tagging along. We'll be seeing you soon!!

Dive Instructor: Dane Carson
AOW Divers: The Jeff's, Carlita, Marissa & Justin (Tim D. joined in on the tours as well)

Duty Calls... The DM Saga...

Assisted with A2Z's Advanced Open Water Class (Dives 2 and 3) at Lobster Shop.

The dives: Deep (Dive 1), Underwater Navigation (Dive 2)

What can I say about this group? They rocked it again!

As we usually do, we all had a good laugh at the results of the Deep skills - which always seem to prove their point. And surprisingly, the Underwater Navigation skills proved to be better than the land navigation rehearsed prior to the dive. ;)

All in all, very nice work put in by everyone and hopefully a lot was gained today. Tomorrow it's "all aboard" Bandito Charters for our final two dives of AOW. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Dive Instructor: Dane Carson
Assistant Instructor: Tom Carlson
AOW Divers: The Jeff's, Carlita, Marissa and Justin

Safe and Sound...

We're back at CI Shenanigans Dry Docks, and our goal for this dive is simple: to locate and lift the safe that we had found on a previous dive here. Dane and I had worked an AOW PPB class earlier in the evening and hung out around Les Davis for the arrival of the crew that would make up our "midnight" dive team. Although a midnight splash was the plan, a couple arrival delays put us back an hour or so. After getting our bearings, and agreeing on the entrance, based on our recollection of where the safe was located last time out, we were in.

We dropped in off the western-most dock and descended right on top of the safe. As we all gathered 'round, it became evident that someone had found the safe since our last visit here, and even more clear - they REALLY wanted in the thing. It no longer had the pristine look of being freshly dumped, but rather now looked like a victim of the "jaws of life". No matter, it was difficult to tell if it was successfully plundered from the silt now surrounding the safe so we decided to raise it anyway.

I took out my 75lb lift bag and the polypropylene rope we'd brought down for the occasion and went to work on the logistics of lifting this thing. The cleat shaped handle on the safe made securing the rope all too easy, and in short order we had the bag attached and ready for air. I commenced the filling and with a little persuasion the safe was upward bound. Instead of calling the dive at this point to lift it completely out of the Sound, we tied the bag off at the dock and made a dive of it.

We had some newbies to the night diving scene, so we toured them around the shallow dry docks and checked out the scene for a short while. The marine life highlights of course being the masses of Plumose Anemones that engulf the docks, and a single long-nosed skate, which is rarely seen around here.

Alyssa and I teamed up on the back end of the dive and so it was on us to find a way out. Instead of taking her out the familiar rock wall climb, which can be precarious at best, I decided to exit via the dock itself. Now that's a little work, but it turned out to be the exit of choice for the entire group. With our gear scattered all about the dock now, we went to collecting the safe. Chris and I managed to muscle the thing out of the water and we all checked out what we had in front of us. Whatever might have been in it was clearly gone by now. So in the end it's a successful search and recover mission, if nothing else. Dumping the empty safe back in the Sound was just not an option, so we packed it to Chris' truck for its journey to A2Z. By this point it was nearly 3am, and a long day called for a long nap. We were homeward bound.

Dive Buddy Group: Dane, Chris, Steve, and Alyssa (43fsw for 27min.)

Duty Calls... The DM Saga...

Assisted with A2Z's Advanced Open Water Class (Dive 1) at Les Davis Marine Park.

The dive: Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB).

The objective: to buoy all divers to peak performance... or something like that (?).

After laboring through the bookwork earlier in the day, it was good to get out and put the first in the series of AOW dives behind us. Looking forward to the Deep and U/W Navigation dives slated for tomorrow. Nice work guys... and gal. :)

See you mañana!

Dive Instructor: Dane Carson
AOW Divers: The Jeff's, and Carlita

A Titlow Stroll...

It's Tuesday night - and everyone knows what that means, yeah?

"A2Z social dive!"

Yes kids, it's that time again. Time to close your eyes and spin the globe and where it stops.... that's probably close enough. There were a bunch of us looking to splash, the tides were right, and Titlow seemed to be as good a place as any. Extremely calm conditions made it mighty crowded out there today.

By virtue of parking nearest me (and honestly because our "planned" dive buddies decided to take their time swimming out to us and therefore we decided to just pair them up instead), Karen LaBonte became my dive buddy. Last we had dove together our mission was to make sure all the hard-boiled eggs were out of the Sound. Yep, it was the Underwater Easter Egg Hunt out at the Les Davis Marine Park earlier in the year.

It was good to team up with her again. Our plan was simple... "the pilings". Just a leisurely stroll around the old ferry dock pilings, taking in the sights before the face-lift. What face-lift you ask? A staple here at the Titlow dive site, the Plumose Anemone covered pilings are scheduled for extraction in the coming months. I'm not sure when exactly, but rumor has it soon enough. The creosote saturated pilings have stirred up controversy for some time, and an Eco-friendlier solution, by way of concrete artificial reef structures, will soon be the new draw here. I'm all for the change, but I quite enjoy the pilings and all of the life they've drawn and supported here since I've been diving the site. So, as homage to them... we dive today.

We kicked around for nearly an hour before calling it a dive. Got some cool video and pics of everyone zipping by on their own tours... but my favorite shot of the day was the tiny Opalescent Nudibranch we perched on Karen's gloved finger. These are one of my favs.

Dive Buddy: Karen L.
Dive Buddy Group: Dane C., Dan E., the Jeff's, Alison, Heath, (31fsw for 51mins)

Duty Calls... The DM Saga...

Assisted with A2Z's Open Water Class (Dives 1 and 2) at Les Davis Marine Park.

The water temp a warm 49˚F, with our tour Vis somewhere around 10' (mask-to-mask Vis in the "drop zone"). No matter... everyone nailed their skills (as good divers should), and had a blast on their first underwater tour of the Sound.

Congrats to everyone for making it through weekend number one of OW class, and rocking the skills for us. There's a little work to do yet, but believe me... the fun's just begun. You're a weekend away from certification... Yay! After which I expect to hear stories of you all diving the globe. Or at least somewhere near me. ;)

AND... another quick acknowledgment...

Welcome back to PADI Instructing Mike DeAngelo! Mike is taking on his first instruction role since successfully testing through his IE and regaining his MSDT (Master Scuba Diver Trainer) status, after quite a hiatus from the sport. Although you can't really tell it's been nearly a decade away when you see him donned and diving. Like riding a bike for Mike. Welcome back, buddy!

If you have children that "swim like a fish" and might be interested in taking that next step into the diving world, get in touch with Mike DeAngelo at A2Z SCUBA and ask him about both the SEAL Team, and Junior programs. Mike will be starting both these exciting programs in September (I believe) and is looking for a few good kids! It's an experience your child will never forget, and one they won't be able to thank you enough for. Give'em a chance to anyway... ;)

Diving Day Island Wall...

If you like diving deep vertical sandstone faces and find frequent encounters with large adult Wolf-Eel, and the mighty GPO, exhilarating - then this is the site for you. There are few dive sites around that offer as many opportunities to see and to engage with these bad-boys of temperate waters as you might find here at Day Island. The wall's close proximity to the Narrows Passage cause it to be exceptionally sensitive to tidal exchanges and currents, making it a dive to plan very carefully. Especially when your entry and exit points are from the Day Island shore. Which was our dive plan today. From shore, at slack, on a weak exchange. One of the best days of the year to dive this site.

Perfect conditions call for one thing, and that's ... Murphy. Someone has to invite that creep every time, and he can't ever just sit on his hands and keep out of trouble. Nope, being the little klepto that Murphy tends to be something's going to come up missing. This time around it was Chip W. who was pinched. We intended to splash the wall a trio... Mike H. ("Holy Diver"), Chip W., and myself... but, when we found out that Chip's dry gloves had been made off with (a.k.a. "left at home")- the math made it two.

Being that Mike has a coming role to play in a desert theatre, and oasis diving sucks, it was good to get in a favorite Sound dive before the call of duty. It'd been early February since we'd last buddy'd up anyway, so we were due a dive.

We made our way down the steep grade to the shoreline and bumped into a group of four who had just finished their dive. They were all still rapping about their time with the wolf-eels and at least one of them figured we'd be heading that way ourselves soon enough so she offered up her remaining supply of herring. A favorite meal of the wolf-eel, we took her up on the offer and kicked out on a surface swim with a handful apiece. The hotdogs we'd already tucked away in our pockets were now to be the second-course.

After agreeing to the descent, we took a West heading to the top of the wall and then finished our descent down to the bottom shelf, at nearly 90'. From there we took a South heading and made a point to check out every nook and cranny along the way. Of which the swift currents here have carved out plenty over time. We methodically searched all of those in our path until we came across our target. A large adult Wolf-Eel - who appeared to be hungry.

The goal here is not just to feed, but to entice these guys out of their dens with the promise of food. In some cases you can't tempt them enough... food, or no. Luckily, today was not one of those days. The big guy we came across was more than willing to lunge himself out of his den and chomp after the tasty treats we offered up. Mike was first on the bait, while I stayed nearby to capture the encounter on camera. He spent a few minutes in the "lure and pet, lure and pet" mode, before I took up a position where I could do the same. I spent a few minutes feeding the big guy before repositioning with the camera above the action. I was there only a short time before I felt a nudge come from something behind me. I turned to find that it was this guys little lady paying us a visit. She didn't seem to be interested in joining the feast and fun but rather strolled into a den on the shelf above. I flashed her presence to Mike as she made her way up the wall, and then let him know that I was nearing a point where our dive should turn. We spent a few more minutes there with the male before making our way up the wall and aiming for shore. Great stuff!!

Check out the short clip of Mike's feeding, playing, and petting of the Wolf-Eel.





Dive Buddy Group: Mike Heilig, and almost Chip... but no Chip. (89fsw for 40mins)

Draining the tanks at the Dry Dock...

You ever have one of those days where you just need to get wet, but can't decide on where to splash...? If you're diving with any regularity at all I'm sure you've faced this dilemma a time or two. Well, today was one of those days. All the usual suspects were thrown out there, but today we were looking for something a little different.

Dane suggested we drive by the water front and just hop in somewhere that looked interesting. Tempting, but after I thought on it for a minute it came to me. "You dove the dry dock out by C.I. Shenanigans yet...?"

Although I'd dove the site once before there was still plenty I'd yet to see out there. Dane hadn't dove it, so... that was that... we agreed to the dry dock. Needing a little air, I made my way to A2Z and threw my tank on the compressor. I met up with Dane there and, as is obligatory when spotting a diver meandering aimlessly about a dive shop, in full view, you accost him (Mike D. in this case) and twist the heck out of his arm until he joins you. He was tough to persuade, I'll admit. We had to wait out nearly a full second before he was grabbing his tank for a fill too. Alright, maybe a slight exaggeration. ;)

Parking was pretty slim, but we managed to settle in and then gathered near shore for a dive brief. The Vis wasn't looking so hot at the surface, but we decided to take the not-so-giant stride off the dock anyway.

The sight of Plumose Anemones in row after row indicated we were on target. Seeing them from 10-15' away was a nice surprise... the Vis wasn't so bad after all. From the onset I lost sight of Mike, but soon had bubbles coming up at me from below indicating to me that he was taking in the view from there. I snapped a few photos from the topside and then Dane and I made our way down to join Mike at the end of the dock. We spent a short time there before working our way to depth on a NNE heading, and then making a turn to the ESE for the greater portion of our dive.

Along the way we crossed paths with: two abandoned crab pots; a playful sailfin sculpin who'd taken up residence on another small catch pot of some sort; a dungeness or two; bottles bottles bottles; timber of varying size and states of decomposition; and what appeared to be a freshly dumped safe, or secured file cabinet, wrapped in a unmistakeably new (and blue) moving blanket.

Now this "safe" was an interesting find. I passed over it with a very curious eye, but I was a bit more cautious than it turned out my dive buddies were. I was out front of the group and had gotten a bit beyond that point when I realized that I could no longer see the periodic flash of dive lights coming from behind me... which meant only one thing... they had stopped at that blanket. Sure enough, both Dane and Mike were on their knees unwrapping the blanket. I took up a position above and watched the unraveling. This was clearly a fresh dumping, not a lick of rust on the metallic exterior and the blanket looked like it was brand new. Unfortunately, a quick check of my SPG told me that I was down to 450psi and that I wouldn't have much time to hang out. Dane attempted to roll the object over which kicked up a cloud of silt that was going to make the job of trying to get in the thing that much more difficult... so I flagged him down and indicated I was heading to our exit point. I know... what kind of treasure hunter am I...? We could have been RICH...!!

And then there's the exit. Somehow, in all the pre-dive excitement (which didn't really exist), I forgot to mention the plan for exiting at this site. I did laugh a little about this underwater as I made my way to the unannounced exit point, but the joke was on me. After filling them in, both Mike and Dane were up the rock bulkhead and on the sidewalk before I was even out of my fins, so I figure there wasn't much harm done in omitting that little bit.




Dive Buddy Group: Dane C., and Mike D. (70fsw for 1hr03min.)

Redondo - with Vis!!

As is the case nearly every Tuesday night, I hooked up with a few of the A2Z social diving crew for a typical dive at a familiar haunt - tonight it's Redondo. Clear skies, and calm waters. After getting a zip up from a total stranger... being that my dive buddy deserted me (you know who you are... Dane! ;-), I made my way to the recently reopened staircase, leading down to our entry point, and donned the rest of my gear. A cursory glance under the waters indicated we were looking at some promising Vis. I didn't bother to look again until we had finished our short surface swim just beyond Salty's restaurant and came to our standard descent line. The shallows are one thing, but when you can clearly see the bottom here, and some distance deeper down the line, then you know you're in for a good day.

Some spittle in the mask and we make our descent. We met up briefly with another group of divers we knew (Mike H., Chip W., and another of their diving buddies) at depth, some 80-90fsw, and hung their for a short time before slowly ascending the slope towards the "bug". All the way enjoying clear waters and the assortment of artificial reef structures playing host to the typical assortment of marine life. The VW Bug was in a greater state of decay than the last I'd seen it some months ago, but at least I could see all of it from one vantage point. I've logged numerous dives here and can't recall having this pleasure before today.

From there we found ourselves testing out PPB skills through the PVC triangles, setup for this purpose. Had a pretty good laugh at Mike's expense on his attempt to float through the obstacle. It was going well until his feet started to catch some air and float on him about 3/4 of the way through. He then turned up, facing the surface, while his tank (unbeknownst to him) found itself against the seafloor as he worked to get the fins through. As you might have guessed, this wasn't much of a success. "A little help, please!"

With Vis like this, the inevitable moment was upon us... Air Rings!! Dane made the turn and tossed up a steady stream, all of which disbanded within a few feet from him. After a couple attempts he was finally able to put up a keeper - and for our pleasure, he captured it on camera. A thing of beauty, but it just lacked the will to break the surface. Looked good on film though.

Check out the video.





Dive Buddy Group: Dane C., Mike D., and Joe L. (87fsw for 59mins)

July 4th Drift Dive - Fox Island Bridge

Began this 4th of July with early AM drift dives under the Fox Island bridge. This weeks exchanges are the steepest, and quickest of the year... which made for excellent conditions under the bridge this morning. 12' ebb at just about 3 knots in this channel. Predicted 4.8 knot ebb at the Narrows Passage.

Mike DeAngelo, with A2Z Scuba, planned the dive and passed out the invites. Of course I couldn't resist and had to jump on this one. Buddied up with my good friend Chip W. for two exciting rides. We averaged 30 minute dives, and didn't break 33 fsw during either trip. Will definitely come back to dive this site on a good exchange in the near future. Lots of marine life and flora to please the eyes throughout the dive.

We began our dives within the cove on the West-side of the bridge, where the boat launch is located, and drifted through the channel on our way to the East-side cove. Hopped out on that side... crossed the road... and jumped back in for the second run. Tons of fun!!

Check out the video clip of a portion of our second dive... you can hear the excitement.





Dive Buddy Group: Chip Waskiewicz, Mike DeAngelo, Alison Uuereb, Amy and Tom Rhodes