Wrapping up September...

Tons of diving to catch up on... beginning with...

September.14.2008

'Twas a busy day on the boardwalk... not only did the bikers, boarders, rollers, joggers, gawkers, anglers, and ankle-biters show up in force today, but we also had a handful of dive shops dropping students in the waters around Les Davis, at least two diving vendors peddling their wares, and last but certainly not least - a small group of locals wrapping up their PADI instructor examinations...

... Congratulations to Tom Carlson, Karyn LaBonte, Tootie Winter and John Buchofner for their successful completion of the IE and for becoming our newest PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors!! Nicely done!

Once we finished passing on our congrats to this group, Mike, Julie and I decided to take advantage of some White's Drysuit Demo's, at least one of us a Dive Rite BC/Harness system, and then took a quick dip... heading out to see the resident GPO at depth. The drysuit I happily placed back on the hanger when our dive was complete, the BC was nearly torn from my hands. Dive Rite, here I come!

Dive Buddy Group: Mike D. & Julie E.
(70fsw for 36mins)

September.16.2008

Broeker returned home from Cali and met me down at LD for a splash... we had one stop in mind and spent nearly the entire dive there. Check out the clip...



Dive Buddy: Mike Broeker
(81fsw for 45mins)

September.17.2008

Got in a couple dives today at as many sites. Began the afternoon meeting Mike B. and Lori C. out on Day Island with plans to explore the wall on a mild exchange. We toured the length of the wall as we typically would and then came up to some interesting surface activity. We'd hardly had our faces out of the water before the sound of a nearby boat engine grabbed our attention. As we tore off our hoods and looked toward the oncoming Coast Guard inflatable tender a second sound began to distinguish itself from the roar of the boat engine and drew our attention towards the skies. The Coast Guard and a couple local news choppers had taken up hover positions in the air space directly above us. We waved...

... and then we turned our attention to the inflatable once more, waiting for the captain to close the distance. Throttling back the approach, just within some 50' or so from us, the captain asked if we were the owners of a small dinghy that he pointed out nearby. The dinghy was not but a couple hundred feet from us and was clearly abandoned. "Nope... not ours." He nodded the nod that said he knew that would be our answer and followed up that question with the obvious next... "Did you guys see anyone else down there?"

"Fortunately... no."

Unfortunately, we didn't see much of anything on this tour. Once we started the short climb up the gravel trail to our cars we began to talk a bit about the dive - as is the custom. Rarely is there little to mention regarding the marine life here, but I had been stumped. Lori on the other hand claimed to have had a wolf-eel sighting and to have hung out with it for a short bit. Upon hearing this I wondered where the heck I might have been while this was going on... and more so to the point, why wasn't I alerted of its presence? I see how I rate! ;)

Great dive nonetheless... it's Day Island Wall for Pete's sake!!

Dive Buddy Group: Mike B. & Lori C.
(86fsw for 32mins)

The second splash was later in the evening with my buddy Tom Carlson. He and I took a casual tour of Les Davis with highlights on the resident GPO (tucked neatly away in his bridge decking hole), and the largest decorated war-bonnet I have ever seen. No camera to snap photos, or shoot vid tonight... take my word for it - it was eerie big!

Thanks for the splash, Tom!

Dive Buddy: Tom C.
(76fsw for 48mins)

September.23.2008

On the bill this eve - Titlow Beach. A fantastic dive site once the day settles into night and for the marine life observers it rarely disappoints. There were just over one half-dozen of us taking on the splash and I think we'd all agree that we got our fill of red octopus and sailfin sculpin sightings. A lot of group play and herding octo practice... fun stuff.

Dive Buddy Group: Nick R., Chip W., Sonya B., Tim, Steve and Amy R.
(58fsw for 50mins)

September.24.2008

Back-to-back night dives out at Titlow Beach. This time we decided we'd head southbound towards the shelves and see what there was to see. It was awesome... got in a new GPO sighting and placed a short clip of it here...



Dive Buddy Group: Tom C. and Chip W.
(38fsw for 54mins)

September.25.2008

Back to old faithful for a couple splashes - one as an assistant to Dan E. on a makeup Open Water dive with his students Lori and Steve (Steve was a drysuit orientation diver at this point)... and a second with a handful of friends from Fort Lewis scuba.

Here are a few photos taken during the first dive @ Les Davis Marine Park...

Dive Buddy Group: Dan E., Steve B., and Lori
(31fsw for 52mins)

The evening dive was fantastic. We headed down to the GPO den but ended up finding him just shy of where we would usually. He was up a bit shallower amongst the fish sculpture debris. Once we all had our chance to peek in on that dude we made off on an exploration. I had a small group follow me out to depth where the "desert" lay. As usual there was nothing to be found out here but a couple of bottles and scattered sightings of large sea stars. There was little sense in hanging out here so I made the turn and broke out the compass... not because I needed to find a new direction, but I knew I would need it to guide myself through what would be hundreds of feet of silt kicked up by my companions tonight. ;)~

I'm not going to say it was intentional, but when I finally found my way out of the cloud... I was alone. Hmmmm... if we had to vote. Me ditching them... or, them ditching me...?

So, I waited... and then I waited no more. I was finishing this one solo and found it to be one the best night diving adventures I'd been on at this site. Tons of eye catchers out tonight...

Here's a little glimpse at some of my playful aquatic friends...



Dive Buddy Group: Chip W., Sonya B., Lori C., Jimmy and Jeff
(89fsw for 65mins)

September.29.2008

Les Davis Pipeline!

Mike B. and Lori C. buddied up with me for a deep dive out to the pipeline. After discussing the dive plan in the parking lot, we suited up and took the long surface swim out to the marker buoy. Gathering around for a bit there and catching our breath we then rode the descent line down to the pad at depth before heading over to the pipeline proper. Once we came up to the pipeline Mike decided to head further down to check out the end, whereas Lori and I headed up. If you've not seen the pipeline before, just imagine what a mother lode of plumose anemones might look like in a straight line... and there you have it. It's a very cool look - they're everywhere!!

We made it nearly up to the bulkhead before Mike rejoined us. We sat around the 50' mark for a bit while Mike performed mastery demonstrations of mask removal skills, and a variety of other aquatic acts. Once we had our fill it was time to move on again. Before long I noticed that neither Mike, nor Lori were in tow and so I finished off this dive too... solo. Starting to catch the theme with this lot...? Came up to find that they had both already made it to the cars and were out of their gear ready to hit the streets. I'd hear from one of them later in the day about that decision...

Dive Buddy Group: Mike B. and Lori C.
(130fsw for 51mins)

September.30.2008

And finally... wrapping up September with a DM duty splash. Took a fresh-out of open water class diver on a tour of Les Davis this evening. We stuck to the shallows and followed around a dozen or so ratfish while tuning in some buoyancy and trim.

Very nice work, Mike! Hope to see you splashing again in the near... be safe buddy!

Dive Buddy Group: Amy R., Steve B. and Mike
(34fsw for 30mins)