Northwest Dive Club

Okey Dokey, here we go! After MUCH good natured prodding from Cardiver and Pinkpadigal (more from Ron!) I finally did a dive at Les Davis today, joined by Bassman. I know, I know, you told me so. Pics from the dive are here .

It has been a LONG time since I've done Les Davis. I had memories of murky, silty, seeing eye dives... so had been reluctant to go back. Well, hitting the site during the week when no classes are there, PLUS having gotten better at not silting out MY OWN dive site in the last 200 dives or so, it was actually a VERY NICE dive! (There Ron, I said it!)

There was lots of structure, and tons of life - way more than I remembered or expected. There were lots of healthy medium sized Ling Cod, (although they were a bit spooky - chased by divers I'm guessing?) Brown Rockfish, lots of Black Rockfish (although viz makes it hard to see them when they are suspended), Plumose are getting established on the concrete and there are Orange Cukes trying to get a foothold as well. Opalescents and Dironas were pretty abundant, and it's obvious that there are octos hanging around as well. I had also forgotten how BIG this site is, way more than you can see on one dive... at least if you take pictures and go slow like I do.

I'm actually sorry that I didn't pop down here this Summer when we had 20-30' viz! If it wasn't for the silt from the Puyallup River this would be an even better site. I'm guessing that silt from the run off makes it harder for certain kinds of life to get very established here. In any case, a great dive, and if you can avoid the classes and your own silt this is a pretty nice dive!

Here's a couple of my favorite shots from the dive.





At first I was annoyed when this guy took off, then after I looked at the shot I kind of liked it, especially with the caption - "I'm OUTTA HERE!"



My buddy Keith keeps asking me, "Now exactly HOW MANY shots of those Alabasters do you have, anyway?" "Not enough!" is my reply! There were quite a few on this dive as well.





And finally, we saw several Opalescents on this dive.



If you haven't dove Les Davis in awhile, and can keep from silting yourself out, give it a shot this Winter! Thanks for a great dive Keith!

Tom Nic wrote:LES DAVIS, 10-18

And you have a time machine!

Cool report, Tom! BTW-there's no such thing as too many alabaster nudi pictures!

scottsax wrote:

Tom Nic wrote:LES DAVIS, 10-18

And you have a time machine!

Cool report, Tom! BTW-there's no such thing as too many alabaster nudi pictures!

Ooopppsie! Thanks Scott, I'll change it up!

...I can hear Cheech (or was it Chong?) "Time? I'm not inta time man..."

Yes, it was a another great dive! Thanks Tom!
On this dive it was a nice and slow descent down to 70 feet. One thing I forgot to tell you Tom, before I left the house, this morning, I made sure I could still clear both of my ears! What I did not realise is that clearing or getting that initial "Pop" from both ears was not neccessarily enough. As we proceeded through 40 feet I felt this nail piercing pain on the inside of my right eye. When I turned my head to look and "thumb the dive", that particular space finally cleared and all was good. No problems coming back up. What a great dive! There was an older couple that met us by the truck as we were taking gear off and the guy said. "I told my wife there must be a couple of Sea Lions playing just below the surface." "And then we saw you guys come up!" The water was nearly perfectly flat and I could see that our bubbles were probably easily seen from the sidewalk. From having some one ask questions as I'm under the shower at Redondo to the little children that seem mesmorised at seeing the "Scuba Diver's" getting in or out of the water. I never get tired of the multiple reactions we get from the general public.

Sorry if this got long, but I just love this Hobby/Sport/Addiction whatever you want to call it.

Among all of the Finacial, Political, High gas prices and whatever funk I may be in...
It feels good to be a diver in the PNW!

Good stuff Keith, and well said. Lots of stuff to be thankful for and as a PNW diver I add a ton of stuff to the list that others don't get to directly experience. (Which is another big reason I take pictures and pester my friends with them!!)

As to the clearing issues - I know I have "pushed it" the last couple of times in the water with cruddy sinuses. (Sudafed Diver T-Shirt anyone? Come on, you've done it too!) I was able to clear, but had to go slow and be much more deliberate than I usually am. I am not into pain, and would never "push through" sinus or ear pain underwater. My fear has been reverse block If I would not have been able to clear I would have thumbed my last few dives. Usually the salt water clears them right up, but if you've been sick for awhile there's lots of crud up there to not allow air to go where it is supposed to go. Be careful out there.

A friend and I also dove Les Davis on Friday. We arrived at the parking lot at around 11:30. Had a great dive as well! I love Les Davis, maybe because it's less than 10 minutes from my house. We are fortunate indeed to have the Sound so close. I did see a GPO for the first time at L.D. Down for over an hour (love my new tanks-thanks Keith!) and had a great dive. Off to Fox Island today, hopefully I will have some pictures to share tonight. Bob

Is this the guy you saw?

Tom Nic wrote:As to the clearing issues - I know I have "pushed it" the last couple of times in the water with cruddy sinuses. (Sudafed Diver T-Shirt anyone? Come on, you've done it too!)

Sudafed and ibuprofen made for a painless dive Sunday at the Oil Dock. I'm a firm believer!

Uuuhh... Yeah.... the 5-6 other posts where you posted emoticons.... Thanks for the spam.