Leopards and Dorids and Urchins, oh my!

[cardiver]

This morning I met up with Bob, Julie, Keith and Renee for our first dive at Sunrise in quite a while. It was a beautiful cold and clear morning as we geared up in anticipation of our 1100 splash time, at the same time already dreading the walk back up. before the dive Bob so kindly pointed out that he had determined that the rise in elevation was 250' from the beach to the parking area.......
We swam out at the point and admired the beautiful mountain view and the new buoy that marks the south end of the wall before we submerged into the the cold, green depths of the sound. There was no current as we were diving at the end of a 1 knot flood but we were a bit apprehensive about the 3 knot ebb that would be kicking in towards the end of our dive.
Viz was probably 20-25 fsw and the water was about 47 degrees as we began our swim along the south end of the wall. The colors in the clear water with the sun shinning down were incredible! Really almost a tropical feel to the dive today if you could ignore the cold.
In the first five minutes on the wall I lost count of how many Clown Dorids I had seen and the numbers just kept piling up throughout the dive. Hundreds of clowns, leopards and urchins dotted the entire wall and the surrounding slope. We only found the one big male wolfie and a few large gpo's tucked into their dens, but the macro life was outstanding! This was the most of any of the three aformentioned critters that I have ever seen on one dive and it made the 65 minutes (and my flash) pass quickly.
After everyone had warmed up at the parking lot, we headed over to Tides for sandwiches and Macs to talk about the dive and to go through some pics. It was a great morning with some great friends and it is an honor to dive with all of you.

Thanks!

[scottsax]

LOVE that urchin shot!

[DiverBob]

Thanks to Julie, Renee, Keith and Ron for a truly wonderful dive and socializing at the Tides. Today is what this hobby/sport/way of life is all about. Sunrise is my all time favorite dive site, warm or cold. The hill does not bother me because the reward is so great. We dropped right above the wall and began the dive with no current. As Keith pointed out, "It's sensory overload immediately". I could not agree more! Julie, Renee and I were a buddy team and Ron and Keith went ahead a bit. Viz was good enough that they were in sight most of the time. We counted 5 octo's and one male Wolf eel that was not too interested in us until he realized we had an urchin for him! Speaking of urchin's, they were everywhere! The octo's were tucked in pretty good, so they were impossible to photo. We turned at the wall, and headed back to the entry point with zero current! This was surprising as we thought it would carry us pretty quickly to the entry. The dive all to quickly came to an end after over an hour underwater. I am posting a few above water shots of our group. Thanks everyone for a GREAT day!!!

[Tom Nic]

Great Report!

Wish I could have joined you...

Ron, your second shot looks like a Bertella (sp), one of a species of, IIRC, of head shield slug.

[H20doctor]

Looks like an amazing puget sound dive ... Great shots Ron !!

[Cold_H2O]

I love Sunrise when there is no current...
Great pics. always good to get my dose of PNW diving..
Water to a thirsty gal stuck in Texas.

[Mattleycrue76]

Thanks for the Dive Report. Sunrise will be a boat only dive for me for a while but it's one of my all time favs.

+1 on the urchin shot that's really cool