Northwest Dive Club

Dive Site Name: Ruston Way Walls (Course Marker Wall, and Mofo Wall)

Skill Level: Technical

Current Sensitive: yes

Location/Address: SE access point is near 4303 Ruston Way, Tacoma, WA. NW access point is near the 4700 block of Ruston Way, Tacoma, WA. For complete details see the site map at https://sites.google.com/site/ericvetterphotography

Directions: Driving: Take I-5 to Tacoma, WA. Take I-705 north. Follow signs to Schuster Parkway. Follow Schuster Parkway along waterfront. Schuster Parkway becomes Ruston Way. Follow Ruston Way to either of the two access points. Boating: Put in at Point Defiance Boat Ramp. Proceed a few minutes SE to any of the four drop zones. The GPS coordinates for these are listed on the site map available at the above link.

Free Parking: yes

Staging Area: good

Surface Swim: long. About 15 minutes of easy kicking with multiple deco bottles. Swim is about the same from either of the two access points.

Nearby Facilities: Nearest public restrooms are at Les Davis Pier about 1 mile SE on Ruston Way. Many good food options are available along Ruston Way.

Special Considerations: Site can be done by swimming at slack water diving either wall from its nearest access point. Either wall can also be done as a drift during a very large exchange by utilizing a car drop. 35 minutes of bottom time with a similar amout of drifting during deco will put you very near the exit point at the end of the dive.

Maximum Depth: Minimum 135fsw from mean high water. Maximum 165fsw from mean high water.

Known Hazards: Overhead boat traffic if an open water ascent were to be done directly from the walls.

Dive Site Description: Both walls are compact clay, very similar to nearby Lobstershop wall (Mofo Wall is also known as "Lobstershop West") except about 30 feet deeper. Course Marker Wall in particular is very sheer with numerous undercuts and large dens. Expect to see many deep water species here like Red Brotula. Course Marker Wall is 250 yard long, and Mofo Wall is about 180 yards long. These are very large structures so enjoy exploring!

awesome work!

we're planning to scooter those 2 walls on the 23rd. Is this site actually current sensitive as you indicate? Or current sensitive like Les Davis is on a big exchange?

thx!

Math...
Velocity = Distance / Time
Distance = 520 yards = 0.256 nautical miles
Time = 70 minutes = 1.16 hours

Velocity = 0.256 / 1.16 = 0.219 knots

thank you for the help, had a good dive on both walls today.

Did we discover a new wall?

Tonight we started at lobster shop wall, followed to mofo wall, hit course marker wall, then we continued on and ran into another wall structure. We followed it to 200 ft with a lot of structure and it went deeper than we had a gas mix for. This was the best of the 3 walls, and very impressive. I estimate we were almost at asarco point.

Cool! Anything living on the wall?

Viz was really crappy, Jeff Gerritsen was up close to the wall,and said he saw a fair amount of life on it (compared to Mofo and Course Marker), but I could barely see the wall and had to stay rh side close to Jeff, viz was barely 10ft and on scooters, was very easy to get separated if you werent tight.

Next time we're bringing deep gas, as we really werent expecting a 200ft+ dive. If it turns out this is a new wall (and no one I've spoken with yet is aware of this wall) we're going to name it "death machine" wall. All of this assumes we can find it again

The dataset from NOAA shows some (but not quite enough to tell if might be data-processing artifacts). Pulled this screen capture from http://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/bathymetry/ Lobster shop is down at the bottom edge and the marina stuff at top edge.

Jim

My only question is why we are giving the same wall multiple names...

^^ +1 ^^

Mortuus wrote:My only question is why we are giving the same wall multiple names...

Every rock in Puget Sound deserves its own name! Free the rocks!

Mortuus wrote:My only question is why we are giving the same wall multiple names...

Because each wall has a beginning and an end?

Or else rename it "one big ass set of walls"

or
"we found it and you explorer types didn't"

It isn't a new discovery.

This should solve the NWDC Activity problem!

Jeff Pack wrote:

Mortuus wrote:My only question is why we are giving the same wall multiple names...

Because each wall has a beginning and an end?

Or else rename it "one big ass set of walls"

or
"we found it and you explorer types didn't"

I don't think the erosion of one portion of the wall qualifies the separated sections as different walls... or else, as Richard joked about, we'd be naming every single rock. You can see on the bathymetry that it is one continuous feature.

Marc wrote:It isn't a new discovery.

+1. People have been diving up here for decades. I would have a hard time believing that no one has decided to dive that portion of Ruston Way before.



Now, as far as being an "explorer type" goes, for me, it's not about staking a claim to something or naming it. My type of exploration simply involves going somewhere that I havent been. I am just as happy exploring a new-to-me site in 30 ft of water as I am "discovering" a wreck in Lake Washington that has probably been dove by many old timers anyways

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php ... 16887&hili, t=mofo#p116887

You are about 5+ years too late to suddenlydecide they are all one wall, although in kirbys
post in 2009 I found, he might have documented the wall we found although we were at
200ft and couldn't see the bottom.

Fascinating that Kirby was diving this without a scooter and on Open Circuit.

Jeff Pack wrote:

Mortuus wrote:My only question is why we are giving the same wall multiple names...

Because each wall has a beginning and an end?

Or else rename it "one big ass set of walls"

or
"we found it and you explorer types didn't"

or

Lobster Shop Wall

Jeff Pack wrote:http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php ... 16887&hili, t=mofo#p116887

You are about 5+ years too late to suddenlydecide they are all one wall, although in kirbys
post in 2009 I found, he might have documented the wall we found although we were at
200ft and couldn't see the bottom.

Fascinating that Kirby was diving this without a scooter and on Open Circuit.

This is common in geology. You base geologic features, such as walls, with inferred contacts. What you are saying is the same as if I went diving on two sides of a dam that crossed a lake, and determined that they were two separate bodies of water because I could not see across.

I guess I'll just refer to my house as one big wall

While we're at it, we should rename the whole area "Lobster Shop Slope" and call it good.

Jeff Pack wrote:http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php ... 16887&hili, t=mofo#p116887

Fascinating that Kirby was diving this without a scooter and on Open Circuit.

Or Helium.

cofford wrote:While we're at it, we should rename the whole area "Lobster Shop Slope" and call it good.

There is way more slope than wall out there, I assure you.

Marc wrote:

cofford wrote:While we're at it, we should rename the whole area "Lobster Shop Slope" and call it good.

There is way more slope than wall out there, I assure you.

True dat.

-Adrian

Jeff and I dove Course Marker and Kirbys Wall last saturday, continuing all the way to Asarco Point.

Even with the big exchange (we were on the Ebb), the bottom of Kirbys was around 220. Supposedly there's another Wall past or around Asarco Point, but we didnt get to it before our individual B/O restriction was upon us.