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)
2 comments:
As one of the team who built the dome, I appreciate your glowing review! Most of the concrete you see at the base came from a patio we tore out of my backyard this summer. =)
My pleasure, Jared!
Thanks again to you and "the team" for a great new structure - it's set the bar a little higher. I personally prefer the handmade to the freshly dumped artificial reef structures. And a geodesic dome... that's just cool!! Pass on our thanks!
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