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Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:32 am
by BASSMAN
Dive Site Name: more comonly known as: Les Davis Pier

Skill Level: (All Divers) See Below for descriptions.

Current Sensitive: (no)

Location/Address: 3427 Ruston Way Tacoma, WA

Directions:
The park is easy to find along Ruston Way, just past the large red fireboat pulled out on dry land as part of the shoreline park.

Free Parking: Yes , but is limmited, The good spots are, all the way to the end and back in, up against the sidewalk.

Staging Area: I usually set up in the parking lot on my tailgate. There are tables and benches along the grass area available for setting up gear as well.

Surface Swim: short

Nearby Facilities: Restrooms aare at the park. Many nearby restaurants are located along Ruston Way.

Special Considerations: It has been reported that the weekend nights can get a little rough with the potential of crime activity.
Allthough, there seems to be a stronger presence of police there recentyly too!

Maximum Depth: From 15fsw to 100+fsw the average max depthof the structures is around 80 fsw

Known Hazards: Do not go east past the tire reef, the fishing pier is closed to diving and is quite dangerous from lost fishing line. In fact, since fishermen commonly troll the diving area, it is a necessity to carry a good knife or shears here, and to keep a sharp eye out for lost line.

Dive Site Description:
A short swim out from the stairs (about 75’) puts you at the shallow 40-foot deep edge of the large, man-made underwater reef lying perpendicular to the shore. It continues well out into deep water, over 100’ deep, running east and west along the shore towards the fishing pier at the east entrance of the park. You can easily poke around looking into all the hollowed concrete for many dives, seeing rockfish, lingcod and other fish large and small, as well as invertebrates and much more.
Making a tour out into 70-80 feet of water and along to the right, east, and then back shallower is probably what most divers do, but feel free to explore it using your own dive plan. Some divers have seen deep-water 6-gill sharks during late summer night dives.
Do not go east past the tire reef, the fishing pier is closed to diving and is quite dangerous from lost fishing line. In fact, since fishermen commonly troll the diving area, it is a necessity to carry a good knife or shears here, and to keep a sharp eye out for lost line.

Les Davis tends to be quite silty from rivers emptying into Commencement Bay and coupled with a lack of current, buoyancy control becomes important to maintain visibility. It can be a rough entry when the wind is from the north. A strong flood current with a northerly wind is also a poor time to dive this site.

I would reccomend diving during a flood tide to reduce thr amount of silt in the water

most of this information came from. http://www.experiencewa.com/attraction.aspx?id=9146

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:44 am
by dwashbur
One other tidbit that we found out the hard way: a night dive here is probably not a good idea because they close the parking lot at 10PM.

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:50 am
by defied
BASSMAN wrote: Dive Site Description:
A short swim out from the stairs (about 75’) puts you at the shallow 40-foot deep edge of the large, man-made underwater reef lying perpendicular to the shore.
For any historical buffs, that man-made reef is made from the remains of Gallopin' Gertie.

D(B)

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:46 pm
by BASSMAN
defied wrote:
BASSMAN wrote: Dive Site Description:
A short swim out from the stairs (about 75’) puts you at the shallow 40-foot deep edge of the large, man-made underwater reef lying perpendicular to the shore.
For any historical buffs, that man-made reef is made from the remains of Gallopin' Gertie.

D(B)
"Ive always wondered about that, Thanks!"

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:39 pm
by defied
BASSMAN wrote:
defied wrote:
BASSMAN wrote: Dive Site Description:
A short swim out from the stairs (about 75’) puts you at the shallow 40-foot deep edge of the large, man-made underwater reef lying perpendicular to the shore.
For any historical buffs, that man-made reef is made from the remains of Gallopin' Gertie.

D(B)
"Ive always wondered about that, Thanks!"
I hope you're serious, as I realized I probably stated the obvious for a lot of the divers here. 0]
:banghead:
Thanks!
D(B)

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 1:56 am
by BASSMAN
defied wrote:
BASSMAN wrote:
defied wrote:
BASSMAN wrote: Dive Site Description:
A short swim out from the stairs (about 75’) puts you at the shallow 40-foot deep edge of the large, man-made underwater reef lying perpendicular to the shore.
For any historical buffs, that man-made reef is made from the remains of Gallopin' Gertie.

D(B)
"Ive always wondered about that, Thanks!"
I hope you're serious, as I realized I probably stated the obvious for a lot of the divers here. 0]
:banghead:
Thanks!
D(B)
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 11:06 am
by lavachickie
I've heard that it IS, and it ISN'T. LDS owner from the area told me the latter; they said it was an old pier structure that was there. But I thought... concrete? Here? Doesn't make sense.

Since no one disputed the post, it would seem the consensus is that it IS parts of the old Narrows bridge. But why there? Anyone have more info/background?

Sorry to resurrect and old thread but it's been a curiosity of mine.

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:30 pm
by Geek
Everything that didn't fall down into the narrows had to be torn down before the new bridge was built, they took it down and barged it there to dump..... unoffical story :)

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:04 pm
by Tom Nic
What I wouldn't give to have the Les Davis structure at TTN - it would be awesome....

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:58 pm
by cardiver
Tom Nic wrote:What I wouldn't give to have the Les Davis structure at TTN - it would be awesome....
It would be amazing to have all of that structure at 3 Tree....
When James and I were at Les on Monday we had 6-8' of viz but the dive was fantastic! I love just poking my head in and under all of that stucture, never knowing what might be looking back at you.
There is also a large school of Black Rockfish at the 40' range that seems to increase in size every time I visit.
Now if they'd only follow through on putting showers in near the stairs........

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:56 pm
by Blaiz
Uhm, which exit is Rushton Way?

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 4:15 am
by Grateful Diver
Blaiz wrote:Uhm, which exit is Rushton Way?
City Center/705 ... follow the signs for Schuster Parkway ... then for Ruston Way. Basically you just stay along the waterfront.

Once on Ruston Way, look for the big red fireboat parked next to the road. Les Davis is the fishing pier/parking lot just past that boat. Pull to the back of the parking lot ... the dive site's down the sidewalk about 50 yards or so past the end of the parking area, down a set of stairs.

I'm gonna be there Saturday at 9:30 with Billy (lologrande) ... in case you need someone to dive with ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:39 am
by Waynne Fowler
Just an FYI.
Les Davis "for the most part" IS NOT current sensitive.
That said; on big exchanges with the right wind pushing it I've experienced current there so strong that a scooter had a VERY hard time pulling me around.
It weren't no whimpy scooters either, it was during an x-scooter demo day.
It had to be pushing 3k's.
That's the worst I've ever seen there but I've also experienced several times where it had to be approching 2k's.

It IS however 'for the most part' NOT current sensative. But I don't bank on it at all times.

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:47 am
by Grateful Diver
Waynne Fowler wrote:Just an FYI.
Les Davis "for the most part" IS NOT current sensitive.
That said; on big exchanges with the right wind pushing it I've experienced current there so strong that a scooter had a VERY hard time pulling me around.
It weren't no whimpy scooters either, it was during an x-scooter demo day.
It had to be pushing 3k's.
That's the worst I've ever seen there but I've also experienced several times where it had to be approching 2k's.

It IS however 'for the most part' NOT current sensative. But I don't bank on it at all times.
Casey O and I experienced something like that the day we scootered from the stairs over to the pooper pipeline ... getting over there was a breeze (more like a stiff tailwind) ... getting back was ... interesting ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 6:21 pm
by BASSMAN
Just a little more info: You can dive Les Davis at any tide, but if you dive it at the end of an ebbing tide the vis gets really good.

Keith.

Re: Les Davis Marine Park

Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:16 pm
by Kirby
We dove there last night at the tail end of a huge ebb, minus tide. No current until the end of the dive, then it got quite interesting..... I was at 20 ft near the pier and had to crawl back to the entry with stuff flying by in my face and zero vis. It was a 4.5 max ebb in the narrows but current was in the direction of the flood. Dive time was 1900 splash, out at 2015.

Kirby