Northwest Dive Club

This morning I had the opportunity to meet up with some divers to try KVI Tower from shore. Seemed straightforward, hop a ferry to Vashon, short drive south to KVI beach, then swim out to the buoy. A few gear issues and a missed ferry later, we were ready to splash.

The tide was starting to go out but we figured we would give it a go anyway. Immediately we got caught in the current right off the spit in front of the tower. No big deal we can drop down early and fin our way out there. 20ft deep, still fighting current but we kept our heading to try and find the buoy.

After 15min of fighting the current and not finding the site we turned back. This is when things got interesting.....By this time the tides were starting to move pretty swiftly around the point. Trying to surface swim back was like running up a sand dune. The closer to shore I got the harder the tide tried to pull us back out to sea (eddy current?). Finally made it back to shore and needless to say we were all EXHAUSTED.

I can'y say it was an entirely successful trip but it sure made for one hell of an adventure. To add insult to injury as we were packing up our gear we saw boat mooring up to the buoy....

What did we learn today? Don't try KVI Tower from shore, and if you do time the tides or you'll be fighting to get back home.

That's a tough one to hike to and to find from shore!
I do like the bakery on Vashon though, it can make it worth it
Glad you made it out safe

I did KVI from shore once. We made it out and after a lot of work and dropped down into 3' vis. Maybe. On the plus side you guys don't need to go the gym today!

KVI is a pretty current sensitive site. You want to do it on a slack before flood, preferably a fairly low tide as the deeper stuff isn't so deep then.

Getting in at any old time doesn't work as you discovered.