A couple in on Ruston Way...

Began the day with a splash on Lobster Shop Wall with Steve B., his first introduction to a wall dive in the Sound, and then finished it off with a meander down the way to Les Davis where we met up with Chip W. and Sonia B. for a nice long stroll around the park.

Good stuff! Thanks guys... and gals alike... ;)

Dive Buddy (Dive 1): Steve B.
(131fsw for 54mins)

Dive Buddy (Dive 2): Steve B.
Dive Buddy Group: Chip W. & Sonia B.
(70fsw for 53mins)

Back to LD with Big Chip and Tom...

Big Chip hadn't seen the seas for a spell and so it was with pleasure that I attended his re-introduction tonight at Les Davis. Our good buddy Tom Carlson also joined in to make three for this splash. We followed around a couple red octo's early on, and then explored the bridge decking for the last leg of our dive. It was a good night for marine life - a nice variety of nudibranchs meandering about, opalescent squid showing up in ones and twos mid-water, a large decorated warbonnet playing hide and seek inside a metal pipe, and to my surprise a new find. On the way out I spotted in my peripheral view a color that just seemed out of place for our waters. I turned towards it to find that it was in fact a fish sporting a bright pink color with what appeared to be a golden orange nimbus about it. It was very cool, but it wasn't going to stand still for a good picture... so of all the attempted shots of it this was the best of the bunch.



Once I got home I just had to ID it, and through a bit of web-surfing finally found what I believe it to be... a Red Brotula. See... we do have some good color to our fish here.

Dive Buddy Group: Chip Townsend & Tom Carlson
(78fsw for 42mins)

Another Tuesday... Another Sunken Barge...

What's diving on the Dock Street Barge like...? Well... it's mucky. And if you haven't been muck diving in the Puget Sound then you've not been properly introduced. I, for one, am not going to be that guy to deprive my newest diving buddies of this rite of passage - so it's straight to the muck we go!

I hope that Steven enjoyed this one as much as I did. We toured up, down and around the barge and came face to face with a few of the largest ling cod Commencement Bay has to offer. Ginormous I tell ya, with a bit of a glow. Hmmmm...

Besides the lings there was the typical over-abundance of shrimp and prawns lining the silty deck of the barge, and just as many of the mud dwelling goby's, ronquil's, sculpin, and the like. Although Steve and I began our dive with Nick, we seemed to have lost him to a bouyant ascent as we reached the shallow end of the barge on our way back up its bow. Turns out he was just fine but had a bit of a challenge presented to him by his new drysuit. We've all had those days... :)

Dive Buddy: Steven Brack
Dive Buddy Group: Amy R., Karyn L. & Nick R.
(72fsw for 35mins)

Back to Back Nights on the Lobster Shop Wall...

This time it was with the boys... Dan E. and Chip W. We planned a little deeper splash than the night prior and decided to hit the wall a little further down, with our approach taking us to the top of the wall just to the west side of its namesake restaurant. Chip was packing a high blend of EAN so he planned to watch our bubbles from above and meet up with us during our ascent. Dan and I explored the lower section of the wall and caught only a couple notable sightings of red octos along the way. A good splash nonetheless...

Dive Buddy Group: Dan Estrada & Chip Waskiewicz
(130-ish fsw for 52mins)

Lobster Shop Wall...

This evening's splash brought us to a favorite local wall dive destination located just off Ruston Way, in Tacoma, known as The Lobster Shop Wall. My dive buddy and I hadn't hit the water together for some time so it was good to finally get a chance to hook up and drop in. There were two others in the group to start the dive as Amy Rhodes from A2Z Scuba was taking her AOW student (Tim Horn) for his Deep Adventure Dive.

During the dive briefing Julie and I commited to sticking with Amy and Tim until he had completed his deep skills, and then we would venture off on our own tour along the West end of the wall. When we reached the top of the wall we all exchanged computer readings and played a bit with slates and numbers and then, as planned, we parted ways. There was little else to do but enjoy the scale of the wall and its own bio-diversity. Took a few stills of a single stubby squid along the way... :)

Dive Buddy: Julie Englehart
Dive Buddy Group: Amy Rhodes & Tim Horn
(114fsw for 37mins)

Back to Day Island for a New Look...

Amy Rhodes and I planned on exploring the South Wall at Day Island today but we ended up splashing a bit late to beat the exchange. Not to be dissuaded we decided we'd give it the old college try anyway and we could not have been happier with the result.

It started a little sketchy as we crawled our way out to the wall, but once we reached it the fun began. Almost immediately Amy spotted the head of a Wolf Eel protruding from the top few feet of the wall and signaled me over to it. I turned on my camera and took a few still shots before it decided to vacate the den it was in and start on a journey to the North. I'd yet to capture any footage of a Wolf Eel on the move so I flipped the lever to video mode and gave chase, leaving Amy behind for the moment. After a brief few moments I realized that I had covered a bit of ground and thought it best to halt my drift and try to reengage with my buddy. It was good to see when I turned around that Amy was on my heels as fighting the current back to her was going to be work. We agreed that continuing on our heading to the North was best and steered ourselves along that route.

Up til this point I'd not checked out the North end of this site so everything that I was seeing along the way was new - and exciting. Small sections of "walls" (comparable to that found at Fox Islands West Wall dive site - for those in the know) appeared out of everywhere and the dens that riddled them played host to a slew of critters that became our entertainment for the day. It would have been enough just to do fly-by's on these structures alone, and with most that's just what we did, but Amy had her radar on today - if there was something to be found along the way... she found it! :)

We crossed paths with a good sized red octo at first and it's colorful displays were just a little too enticing to forgo with the camera. Check out the photos...

... and then it continued. Time and again Amy's flashlight would shake in the direction of a her latest find. Check out the short video clip to see a bit of the fun...



Thanks for the dive, Amy!

Dive Buddy: Amy Rhodes (76fsw for 47mins)

Duty Calls... The DM Saga... plus One!

Assisted with A2Z's Open Water Class (Dives 1 and 2) at Les Davis Marine Park, and then took a dip with Tami Stein to finish off a full day of diving.

For Dive 1 I was slated to hop in with OWSI Karyn LaBonte and follow her group of three on tour before switching gears on Dive 2 and teaming up with the other OWSI on duty today, Tom Carlson, and working with his motley crew. ;)

Fun dives the both, but I was especially pleased that I had the chance to work with my better half, Nicole, as she powered through her first weekend of Open Water class. It was a proud day... congrats to everyone on their accomplishments and we'll see you all next weekend!

Dive Instructor (Dive 1): Karyn LaBonte
OW Divers: Lana, Eric & Meredith

Dive Instructor (Dive 2): Tom Carlson
OW Divers: Nicole :) , Renee & Josh

Fun Dive Buddy (Dive 3): Tami Stein
(70fsw for 38mins)

Water's a bit Brackish today...

Oh... that's clever! ;)~

So, my good buddy Steve Brack and I hit the LDMP today for a couple tours. The first was (as always) targeting a GPO sighting... the second was to show him the tire piles on the far east boundary. Success on both counts. Always fun diving with the rook... :)

Dive Buddy: Steve B. (Dive 1: 68fsw for 43mins; Dive 2: 59fsw for 47mins)

To be, or not to be... DRY!

Splashing here in the Great Pacific Northwest... it's not much of a question. Admittedly, it does take some of us a little longer than others to acknowledge the benefits but in the end we have to be honest with ourselves - it's really nice to be dry. Take it from me... I spent my first 100 dives wrapped up in neoprene and I know what wet feels like. Don't get me wrong, I didn't take on the Dry Suit Specialty course today just to run home and toss out my wetsuits (primarily because they do wondrous things to accentuate my manish physique), but they will now be the bulkiest additions to my "save a dive" kit. Never leave home without them... ;)

To sum it up = stay dry if you can folks.

Instructor: Dan Estrada

Other Students: Steve B., and Tim (Dive 1: 31fsw for 30mins; Dive 2: 79fsw for 41mins)