fun times at the 'Dond ...

[Grateful Diver]

I hooked up at Redondo with Kam and Valerie for a couple morning dives. Our early dive was back over to the eelgrass beds where I’ve been finding the lumpies … but nobody was home. We saw some other neat stuff … mostly nudibranchs and comb jellies … but no lumpsuckers. I'm beginning to think they go sleep somewhere during the day and come out at dusk.

Second dive Chris Finley joined us … so we did two teams … Kam and Chris, me and Valerie … to head down deeper and see what was in all the little structures strewn about the cove. All the usual suspects were out and about … but as we approached this one little boat I noticed a plume of silt come blowing out the side near the stern. Good sign … a new octopus is moving in and enlarging her den. We approached carefully, and looking down … almost completely underneath the boat … was a sizeable GPO … judging from the size of the suckers I’d guesstimate maybe a 7 or 8 footer. Noticing a tentacle sticking out from where she was going about her home improvement project, I carefully reached down to let her touch my hand … and that’s when the fun began!

I reached down my right hand and touched an exposed sucker, and without a moment's hesitation a good foot of octopus tentacle was suddenly wrapped around my glove and pulling hard. I was so startled that my hand (and the camera that was attached to it!) were almost underneath the boat before I could even react! I pulled back ... which I think startled the octo, because I got almost no resistance at first … and yanked my hand back from beneath the boat before she decided to react. Then she pulled back hard … wrenching my hand back into the den. Octos can be quite strong when they decide to be … and without any leverage, she was going to win. So I grabbed ahold of the stern of the boat with my left hand and pulled back again, winning my right hand back from the den. Then the part of the boat I was holding onto collapsed, and under went my hand once again. I grabbed another piece of the boat’s stern and pulled my right arm back once more. She yanked back again, almost causing me to lose my grip on the boat. This went on for a while ... I honestly thought she was gonna end up pulling my dryglove off ... and finally she let go and disappeared way back into the farthest recesses of her den.

Valerie was quite amused. All the while this tug-of-war was happening I could just envision what that octo was thinking (with her several brains) ... "I am SO TIRED of you HUMANS and your F#&KING LIGHTS!"

I love octopus … they’re so expressive and unpredictable … almost like us.

Later in the evening I went back for another try in the eelgrass beds. But my dive buddy (Kathryn) flooded her camera (luckily it’s insured). So we aborted the dive before I had a chance to test my theory …

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Tom Nic]

I reached down my right hand and touched an exposed sucker, and without a moment's hesitation a good foot of octopus tentacle was suddenly wrapped around my glove and pulling hard.

... "I am SO TIRED of you HUMANS and your F#&KING LIGHTS!"

Great Story! Thanks for telling it Bob!

First a

Then a

Then a

Then a

And for me a "Maybe I better not be shaking hands with big octos" thought process! :geek:

[Zen Diver]

You're right Bob, it WAS quite amusing. I remember thinking that it was the most animated I'd ever seen you underwater!

Valerie

[Mattleycrue76]

Wow Octo tug-o-war! I've never been brave enough to stick my hand out and touch a big GPO but I've had some smaller ones crawl on my hand an touch me and I remember being amazed at their relative strengh. Where that video camera when you need it?

[Grateful Diver]

My camera was attached to the same hand that the octopus was attached to.

Valerie had her camera ... but I think she was laughing too hard to use it ... :roll:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[DiverBob]

A video or even a few pictures of that would be priceless!! Great story Bob.

[ktb]

Bob--You must be brave. I touched the nickle-sized sucker of a fairly small octo yesterday that latched onto me and even the strength of that surprised me. I'm not sure I'd have the guts to touch one of those biggies . . .

[Joshua Smith]

I just dove Redondo this morning with Marc. We saw the Octo that grabbed you, Bob- and yeah, he's a big 'un alright! I would not want to play tug-of-war with him!

[Octoloco]

Bob, was that you around 5 pm Saturday night heading out on the east side of the aquarium? Larry and I were parked right there in front of Salty's and said hi to 2 divers but it was dark and I couldn't tell who it was. We went out to the bottle field; found a handful of little reds and 3 baby GPOs. Then headed to the eelgrass and did find 6 lumpies, 2 pipefish, a snailfish, etc. So I'm here to confirm that the lumpies were definitely there and we would have found more but after the 90 minute dive, I could take no more cold so had to finally give up (some of the lumpies could have actually been found by snorkeling they were so shallow. Only one squid though, but it came fast at me and inked me about 5 times before jetting off.

[dwashbur]

Where's there eelgrass at Redondo?????? 'Scuze my iggorunts...

[Zen Diver]

Depth about 15 feet on the north side of Saltys

[Grateful Diver]

Bob, was that you around 5 pm Saturday night heading out on the east side of the aquarium? Larry and I were parked right there in front of Salty's and said hi to 2 divers but it was dark and I couldn't tell who it was. We went out to the bottle field; found a handful of little reds and 3 baby GPOs. Then headed to the eelgrass and did find 6 lumpies, 2 pipefish, a snailfish, etc. So I'm here to confirm that the lumpies were definitely there and we would have found more but after the 90 minute dive, I could take no more cold so had to finally give up (some of the lumpies could have actually been found by snorkeling they were so shallow. Only one squid though, but it came fast at me and inked me about 5 times before jetting off.

Yup ... that was me and Kathryn. Our dive didn't last long ... unfortunately, Kathryn found out rather quickly that her D200 had flooded ... OUCH! Never made it out far enough to find a lumpie.

I went back tonight ... found NINE of 'em. Unfortunately, one of my strobes decided not to cooperate. Couldn't make the damn thing work, even though everything seemed OK. Got it home, soaked the rig in warm water. Turned it on, and the stobe worked perfectly.

I think it didn't like the cold weather.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Octoloco]

It was too darn cold to look for more than the handful we found. These guys are pretty small and really move about making photography difficult. They're so wonderful though.

[Dashrynn]

Bob i have to get around to diving with you sometime, but with me living on the island it makes things a little difficult.

[Grateful Diver]

Bob i have to get around to diving with you sometime, but with me living on the island it makes things a little difficult.

Come out for one of our NWDC gatherings ... they're always a good time ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Dusty2]

Bob, was that you around 5 pm Saturday night heading out on the east side of the aquarium? Larry and I were parked right there in front of Salty's and said hi to 2 divers but it was dark and I couldn't tell who it was. We went out to the bottle field; found a handful of little reds and 3 baby GPOs. Then headed to the eelgrass and did find 6 lumpies, 2 pipefish, a snailfish, etc. So I'm here to confirm that the lumpies were definitely there and we would have found more but after the 90 minute dive, I could take no more cold so had to finally give up (some of the lumpies could have actually been found by snorkeling they were so shallow. Only one squid though, but it came fast at me and inked me about 5 times before jetting off.

Great shots guys. Is that the new camera? That snail fish is gorgeous and so is the octo in the bottle! and you even got a two-fer on the lumpies!

Now I'm really drooling to do Redondo tomorrow night before I head back up to Port Townsend Tuesday!!!

[Dashrynn]

Bob i have to get around to diving with you sometime, but with me living on the island it makes things a little difficult.

Come out for one of our NWDC gatherings ... they're always a good time ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Travelling is the issue. Last time i did some dives down there, renoun let me crash at his place and we dove the next day (and a monday muk dive.

I was at the nwdc club dive, but i only could do one dive because of my ripped neck seal

[Octoloco]

No Canon yet, still using the little Casio. It's really been a good camera for the price. That little snailfish was a mover not a poser. I took a bunch of pics; only one in the "snailfish curled pose". Redondo never fails to impress!!

[BASSMAN]

as we approached this one little boat I noticed a plume of silt come blowing out the side near the stern. Good sign … a new octopus is moving in and enlarging her den. We approached carefully, and looking down … almost completely underneath the boat … was a sizeable GPO … judging from the size of the suckers I’d guesstimate maybe a 7 or 8 footer. Noticing a tentacle sticking out from where she was going about her home improvement project, I carefully reached down to let her touch my hand … and that’s when the fun began!

I reached down my right hand and touched an exposed sucker, and without a moment's hesitation a good foot of octopus tentacle was suddenly wrapped around my glove and pulling hard. I was so startled that my hand (and the camera that was attached to it!) were almost underneath the boat before I could even react! I pulled back ... which I think startled the octo, because I got almost no resistance at first … and yanked my hand back from beneath the boat before she decided to react. Then she pulled back hard … wrenching my hand back into the den. Octos can be quite strong when they decide to be … and without any leverage, she was going to win. So I grabbed ahold of the stern of the boat with my left hand and pulled back again, winning my right hand back from the den. Then the part of the boat I was holding onto collapsed, and under went my hand once again. I grabbed another piece of the boat’s stern and pulled my right arm back once more. She yanked back again, almost causing me to lose my grip on the boat. This went on for a while ... I honestly thought she was gonna end up pulling my dryglove off ... and finally she let go and disappeared way back into the farthest recesses of her den.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Wow! So Bob, after that...I think you should get to name her!

[LCF]

Well, Bob, I'm glad you weren't dragged under the boat to be octo food!

[airsix]

Wow! So Bob, after that...I think you should get to name her!

I don't know. Sounds like it's the other way around. She should get to name Bob.

[Grateful Diver]

More fun at the 'Dond tonight. Hooked up with Casey O for another lumpie dive. It was almost silly how many we found tonight. I think I stopped counting after about 15. He was finding them faster than I could take pictures of 'em. I also found another little puppyfish ... this one was practically posing for pictures. And like it's predecessor last week (or perhaps it was the same one, but in a different part of the dive site) it at one point swam right into the camera (and I got another cute little shark nose picture). Meanwhile, Casey was flashing me furiously because he had found two lumpies sitting side-by-side. I waved him off ... hey Casey, it's just a coupla lumpies ... lookie what I've got over here!

Like I said, silly fun.

On the way in we got bombarded by a school of opalescent squid. Damn things came in like a squadron of fighter jets! A couple of 'em smacked right into the camera! Another smacked into my light. Then ... when they realized we were not something they could eat, they jetted right back out into the darkness again. Strange creatures ... I think I managed a picture of one of them too.

Won't have time to download pics tonight ... will have to wait until tomorrow ... but I think I got some good ones.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[wcricple]

So Bob, what is your current camera and strobe setup, If you don't mind telling.
You still use a Casio?
How close can you focus for macro shooting?
Nice pix BTW.
Rich

[Grateful Diver]

So Bob, what is your current camera and strobe setup, If you don't mind telling.
You still use a Casio?
How close can you focus for macro shooting?
Nice pix BTW.
Rich

I switched over to a Canon G10 about a year ago ... with dual S&S YS110a strobes.

I'm also using a flip-up macro lens with a Fisheye FIX housing, which lets me get in quite close. It's not without its drawbacks ... it's really difficult to focus because of the magnification factor, and I tend to lose a lot of pictures to what I'll call "soft focus" issues. But when they're good, they're pretty good.

I only saved four shots from last night ... all the rain has put quite a lot of floaties in the water (plus I tend to stir things up a bit mucking about on the bottom trying to get a decent angle).









... Bob (Grateful Diver)