Northwest Dive Club

Info? I'd like to dive it tomorrow (Sat, Sept. 5). I forgot to check to see if it was in in NW shore dives but will look later tonight, but other thoughts even if it is listed there would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Its a LONG, long swim out to the Tolmie Barges from shore.

We pretty much only dive this site by boat, but if you're looking for some good exercise its a lot of fun.

What Scott said. Been there done it with fins not doing it that way again. IMHO its a scooter or boat dive unless you're Michael Phelps.

Woot, thanks for the links!

I had heard Edmonds was a very long surface swim after I'd come back from Australia and did a killer surface swim. Edmonds was nothin! :P Not that Tolmie won't be... but hey, you don't have to surface swim by any nudi beaches for this one, right (seriously, those old men weren't very attractive)? And I'm going crabbing, so not sure I'm actually *trying* to get out to the barges... I've checked the rules and regulations for this site and it's good to go - will call their 800 hot line just prior to heading out as well.

Yeah if you just want to swim out to 30ft or so and go crabbing that's cool. At high tide the remaining white/orange buoy out there (in 60ft) just about requires binoculars to find! I'd try to go during a lower tide. There's no current and I'd rather walk a few hundred feet than swim.

To the Tolmie barges at high tide is about 3x the Edmonds high tide surface swim.

Great, yeah low tide would be best.

The last time I was out at Edmonds my friend (new to diving cold) had the inflator hose come apart on her rental BC, so Greg and I had to each take an arm and swim her back in. I didn't think about dropping her weights, but even then I wouldn't have wanted to go back out and get them (she had plenty of gas left), but man that was a long swim in!

BASSMAN wrote:

boydski wrote:Its a LONG, long swim out to the Tolmie Barges from shore.

We pretty much only dive this site by boat, but if you're looking for some good exercise its a lot of fun.

Hey Tom-Nic!
When are we going to do this one?
You could skip a visit to the gym and I would skip my daily two mile walk!

Hmmm.... if I'm that desperate for exercise we'll just shore dive Sunrise!

Tom Nic wrote:

BASSMAN wrote:

boydski wrote:Its a LONG, long swim out to the Tolmie Barges from shore.

We pretty much only dive this site by boat, but if you're looking for some good exercise its a lot of fun.

Hey Tom-Nic!
When are we going to do this one?
You could skip a visit to the gym and I would skip my daily two mile walk!

Hmmm.... if I'm that desperate for exercise we'll just shore dive Sunrise!

Hey, I wanna do Sunrise! I was just reading about it on the way back from Tolmie State Park.

Btw, the dive there was great! I didn't get out to the barges (we didn't end up having two tanks as planned, so just went crabbing), but we had a whole lot of fun chasing crabs around =D I believe the surface swim is pretty comparable to the one I did in Australia... i.e., plan an extra half hour to surface swim before you drop :P

??

Looking for info on Tolmie, What's the recommended entry for shore diving and the heading to the barges, left, right and center of them if anyone knows?

you just aim for the buoy.

Mongodives wrote:Looking for info on Tolmie, What's the recommended entry for shore diving and the heading to the barges, left, right and center of them if anyone knows?

The buoy is straight out from the footbridge. You probably won't notice it until your half way out there! Its a ~30min swim each way at high tide. This is a good kayak dive.

guess I'm getting old and blind. The couple of times I've been there I haven't seen the bouy's, granted I've only been there at hightides.

Mongodives wrote:guess I'm getting old and blind. The couple of times I've been there I haven't seen the bouy's, granted I've only been there at hightides.

there's only one, its white with faded orange stripes

Diving this site with a tide of 8ft or lower would not be recommend. At this depth walking out to put on your fins you won't even be waist deep before you would be killing sanddollars. The 11ft tide I went out on was perfect. It only mounted to a minute longer surface swim. Viz at best has been 10 ft andI can deal with that. Both times I've been out I've only found the shallowest barge about 40 ft. Metal at this area screws with your compass. Once I was able to get a correct bearing and rounding up the group, I found it was time to turn. Dove on slack both times and had a bit of current spinning me at one point. Nothing really, just something to pay attention to. You don't want to drift too far East on a Ebb or NW on a flood it will be a much longer swim than you intend. It's private beaches you want to avoid.

As this site is in the bounderies of the Nisqually Reach proposed aquatic reserve area, dive logs documenting any life on a dive and approximate depth/location they were seen would be a valuable resource to recieve. Dive logs can be sent to the nisqually reach nature center's executive director at NRNC@nisquallyestuary.org. Going back as at as you are willing to give! You can read up on the proposed aquatic and how it can you can help with protecting this unique area at http://www.nisquallyestuary.org