100 FT Rock

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Maverick
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100 FT Rock

Post by Maverick »

This site review and Directions are written and provided by John Rawlings [and Edited by Seth T.]. Please respect his request to keep quiet and be aware of the surroundings and private property. Thank you.

Dive Site Name: 100 ft Rock

Current Sensitive: Yes, but only slightly.

Location/Address: 162nd St SW, Edmonds. Located in front of a very upper class community.

Directions: The 100 Foot Rock dive site is located a few miles north of Edmonds. I know a few ways to get there, but here is the easiest for someone trying to find it the first time: Take Exit 179 off of I-5 (220th St SW). Drive west and drive across Highway 99 Take a right onto 76th Ave SW (I think that it might be the first or second light). Follow 76th Ave SW for quite a while until you hit a 4-way stop at an area called Perrinville. You will see a bunch of shopping buildings decorated in a 19th Century style - The Perrinville Carrier Annex of the US Postal Service will be to the left and a store called Tollafson's Market will be on the right. Continue straight through the intersection and drive down into a residential area for about 1.3 miles. The road will eventually begin to parallel the shoreline. Take a hard left onto 162nd St SW and drop down (almost literally!) to the railroad tracks. Park in the dirt area at the side of the road before you reach the tracks.

Free Parking: Yes but very limited. 6 cars tops.

Staging Area: Nope. Bring your truck!

Surface Hike: Huge! Walk down the tracks, approx. 520 railroad ties worth. Gear up FIRST! You do not want to make this trip more than once.

Surface Swim: Optional / Medium. You can drop straight down, but it conserves air to surface swim out to the float and drop to 60’.

Nearby Facilities: None. Occasionally a porta-john.

Special Considerations: Be respectful and quiet as a mouse. If you disturb their peace and quiet, someone will pick up a phone and call the police.

Maximum Depth: 70-95 FSW

Dive Site Description: To find the rock, walk about 100 yards [Edit: more like 300 yards] or so South of the Marina along the railroad tracks. If there is a low tide it is best to get down on the beach rather than walking along the RR tracks for safety. There are some old concrete steps leading down from the Railroad tracks to the beach. They are virtually the same color as the rocks so they are easy to miss - keep a sharp eye out for them! If you pass the end of the dark wooden bulkhead in front of the last of the houses you have gone too far. The rock lies straight out from the stairs, so you can swim out on the surface part of the way using them as a guide.

After swimming out until you are in about 10 - 15 feet of water, descend to the sandy bottom. [Edit: to conserve more air, swim out to the white buoy and descend. Note that the buoy is slightly north of the rock.] Continue to swim out on the compass azimuth you established from the beach (remember, straight out from the concrete steps). Look for a slight "dip" at the edge of the sand where the bottom begins to obviously slope steeply downward. It resembles a slight depression in the sand and is really quite obvious. This is the beginning of a trough that has been formed as a result of the rock.

Follow this trough downward. It will become more and more marked as you descend, with the bottom of the trough filling up with pieces of bark, seaweed, shells, and the occasional human debris such as beer cans and golf balls (someone in one of the houses up above likes to knock a few balls out here!).

The trough will take you right to the rock itself, which will appear as a dark apparition in about 80 to 90 FSW depending on the tide level that day. I have made a deep tech dive there in the past and we tried to see how far the trough went. It continues out way beyond 165 FSW and appears to be a good place to find large Lings and Cabezon.

The rock itself is literally covered with tiny brown Zoanthids like a thick woolen blanket. Sharpnose crabs, sculpins of all types, anemones, hermit crabs, etc. also make the rock their home. Many times when I have been there over the years there was a good sized octopus that will take a crab out of your hand living under the Southeastern edge of the rock, so make sure you take a look into the "cave" that is normally there, (when it isn't occupied by an octo it will quickly fill up with silt and sand). The rock itself is quite large, and appears to me to be about 30 feet across and about 15 feet high. Red Irish Lords of all color phases and designs abound there, as do Sailfin Sculpins.

There is a clay wall leading Northward from the rock that is honeycombed with tiny holes and is chock full of tiny creatures. I have seen all kinds of shrimps, Grunt Sculpins, Stubby Squid, all kinds of Gunnels, and numerous other little critters there. In fact, the clay wall is usually the favorite part if my dives there.

Watch your gas supply and bottom time! There is so much fascinating little stuff to look at that it is easy to lose track of your time and depth. People have died here in the past just because of not paying attention. Don't let that happen to you.

Be Safe and carpool if possible, NW Dive club is not responsible for divers and their actions at this location.
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Post by Tangfish »

That's an awesome review, but how about following the dive site listings format?!

[Edit: Post Now in Proper Format (Seth T.)]
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Post by Sasquatch »

Great review on one of my personal favorite spots to play.
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Post by Tangfish »

A few of us dived that site, it was spectacular. Small rock, but every square inch was covered with something neat to look at. It should be called '100 yard walk' though!
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Post by John Rawlings »

Calvin Tang wrote:A few of us dived that site, it was spectacular. Small rock, but every square inch was covered with something neat to look at. It should be called '100 yard walk' though!
You can't say that I didn't warn you about the walk, though! HA!

Did the site description help you find the rock?

Was there an octopus under the southeast corner?

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Post by Tangfish »

We didn't find the octo but we couldn't have dived the site without your description :prayer:

Those stairs are pretty hard to see from the shore, since there are more well-formed stairs further up the way. Luckily, I hopped in the water early (out of laziness to walk with all my gear on) and a couple of us were able to see the two sets of stairs to differentiate between them. Thanks again for the info! :supz:
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Re: 100 FT rock

Post by Diver_C »

Maverick wrote:...NW Dive club is not responsible for divers and their actions at this location
So which locations are NWDC responsible for divers and their actions? As a lawyer, I'd like to know, you know, for potential future use. And who do I file my claim with?
Maverick wrote:am busy making a menu for my shop
Mav, since you are working on your menu, I'll take a double cheese with everything (including grilled onions), large onion rings, and a large banana shake. Thanks. Delivery tomorrow at Cove 2 is acceptable. \:D/
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Post by thelawgoddess »

current sensitive? :dontknow:
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Post by Diver_C »

No, it is not. It's kind of in an inlet, protected from current issues, plus there is a structure to the north (lots of pilings, and a partly following down building on top of the pilings. It is very train sensitive though - have to be careful walking along and crossing the tracks. Kind of cool to hear/feel the trains passing while diving though.

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Post by Seth T. »

Calvin wrote: Small rock...
You're kidding right?! That rock is the size of a freaking house! It's the biggest single rock I've EVER seen, above or below water.
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Post by Chris »

Seth T. wrote:
Calvin wrote: Small rock...
You're kidding right?! That rock is the size of a freaking house! It's the biggest single rock I've EVER seen, above or below water.
IF you ever goto Thailand, goto the Similan Islands. They had a lot of great boulder dives there... boulders much bigger than 100ft rocks. The best part was everyone in my group holding onto the rope that took us down, then we all let go and glided (with strong current) around a huge boulder. No effort needed. :)
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Post by Tangfish »

Seth T. wrote:
Calvin wrote: Small rock...
You're kidding right?! That rock is the size of a freaking house! It's the biggest single rock I've EVER seen, above or below water.
Well, I consider mountains to be single pieces of rock. \:D/
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Post by Pez7378 »

The more you dive it, the smaller it gets. Its still a great dive though.
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Post by Seth T. »

My buddy (VMac here on the forum) and I did a record one hour 13 minute dive there last weekend on AL80s! We dropped down to the rock (95'), hung around until 2000 psi, then headed north to the warehouse where we spend the remainder of the time. Awesome dive. We saw a very large Skate, a Buffalo Sculpin, and a Pacific Staghorn Sculpin in a SERIOUSLY bad mood. He was burried in the sand and kept snapping at us when we got close. Don't touch them! They give a nasty sting! :salute:
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Post by Sounder »

A 73 minute dive with a max depth of 95fsw on Al80s?
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Post by Seth T. »

Sounder wrote:A 73 minute dive with a max depth of 95fsw on Al80s?
Yeah, pretty impressive, huh? \:D/ I've always prided myself with breathing like a fish and it's awesome that my buddy can keep pace as well.
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Post by Pez7378 »

3 min at 95FSW. 70 minutes at a much shallower depth. Seriously though Seth, what is the swim like from the rock to the wharehouse?
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Post by Seth T. »

Pez7378 wrote:3 min at 95FSW. 70 minutes at a much shallower depth. Seriously though Seth, what is the swim like from the rock to the wharehouse?
Actually it wasn't that short. We hit the rock for about 15 minutes (the depth varied from 95' at the bottom to 72' at the top of the rock) then navigated diagonal (35 degrees on the compass). It takes about 10-15 minutes of casual finning. At that compass bearing, the bottom slopes up quite quickly, leveling off around 20 feet. The very end of the warehouse is at about 17 FSW, depending on the tide.

We've done this profile several times now and it beats walking back and forth on the tracks by a longshot. Our first go at it was 101 FSW for 61 minutes and I nav'd us straight to the warehouse. =D>

Under the warehouse is awesome! There is just TONS of life. In fact, that alone is worth a dive. But coming up from the rock and hanging out for another 40 minutes is just priceless! \:D/
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Post by Seth T. »

Okay, I just checked my computer and the swim was actually about 20 minutes from the rock to the warehouse. That's at a casual pace, though, and by no means in a hurry. You could do it significantly faster if you hurried; however, you would vacuum significantly more air too! #-o

Since this dive seems to be a little unbelievable for some, here was our profile. (I really wish I had the dive link for my Vyper so I could link a graph, but I'll wait until I upgrade to the Vytec DS for that.) :book:

Dropped straight to 60'
95' @ 6 min (max depth)
74' @ 13 min (top of rock)
83' @ 16 min (headed to the warehouse from here)
54' @ 18 min (sharp up slope)
18' @ 23 min (floor leveled off here)
15' @ 36 min (at the warehouse)
0' @ 73 min (all done)

Now THAT'S a dive! AL80's baby! :bootyshake:
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Post by Fishstiq »

100 ft rock is a cool dive, but kinda curious. saw this crab there running off with a golf ball clutched tightly in his claws... not sure where he was going, but apparently the golf ball was gonna be important when he got there!!!

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also, Pez tried to play "jelly charmer"... not sure how successfull he was.

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100' rock

Post by VMac »

Seth T. and John really spell out how amazing this site is and I only wanted to add a couple things. The last time Seth and I dove (the now infamous 73 minute on AL80's dive) a cop pulled up as we were headed down the tracks. There is a sign posted that states the tracks are private property and that walking on them is trespassing. The cop was cool, warned us not to go on the tracks, said he really couldn't do anything if we 'accidentally fell in the water' and then took off. Just giving my fellow divers a heads up. The next thing is to give away the secret of timing this dive. If the tides allow, go a half hour or so before sunset, hit the rock right as the sun is setting and then finish up under the warehouse in the dark. Everything starts coming out then - especially all the stuff found on structures and pilings. See you there!
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Re: 100' rock

Post by Seth T. »

VMac wrote:Seth T. and John really spell out how amazing this site is
Yo V! Welcome! About time you say hi! :partyman: =D> :partyman:
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Re: 100 FT Rock

Post by H20doctor »

picture of the Dock house
dock House
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Re: 100 FT Rock

Post by H20doctor »

Looking North towards the dock house and the parking lot
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Re: 100 FT Rock

Post by ljjames »

for those who have not been there...

http://web.mac.com/ljjames/homepage/100ftrock.html
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