Keystone gave us the best dive ever!

[Paladin4Christ]

The Sun was out, the water was calm, current was predicted to be good and I wasn't shopping for a Homecoming dresses with 4 high school girls. How much better can a Sunday afternoon get?

After gearing up with my son, we walked down to the Pilings and descended. The plan was to drift down to the Jetty and to get the Juvenile Wolf Eel on video. Immediately I celebrated my decision to bail on the dress search, when I saw there was 30+ feet of visibility. I can't remember the last time I saw so little particulate or more than one piling at a time. Thinking of my wife herding 4 teenagers around the Alderwood Mall almost put a twinge of guilty into the picture but that was short lived. Heck, why should I get in the way of their quest, especially when the conditions were so fantastic here.

We saw the Juvenile Wolf Eel right were he/she was supposed to be. You have to love it when the local marine life plans the dive and dives the plan. The three legged Mottled Star was interesting (I wonder what the story was there) but Keystone was about to smack me between the eyes. My son was leading the way down the line when he spotted a tentacle and signaled an octopus up ahead. I came along side him with the GoPro Hero 3 ready to capture the action. Our lights lit up the tentacle and I thought, small red. However, when I followed the tentacle up imagine my surprise when my eyes finally saw what was truly there. What I had written off as dying kelp was actually the hood of a large Giant Pacific Octopus! Out in the open! In all it's glory! This being the first time I have seen a GPO outside of a den I was very pleased. Dress shopping, what the heck is that?

After a minute of filming I moved a little bit closer thinking it would jet away lickety split. Imagine my surprise when it actually came towards me and climbed up my arm! Ok wasn't ready for that! It then backed off and so did I. However, it must have liked the experience because it came back for more. Ok, this time I had the presence of mind to point the GoPro at the Octo. After just a minute it let go and I backed off so as not to entice it any further. That's when I realized Salvador Dali may have a point with his surrealism because, octos are supposed to be skittish and not want to be around us humans....right? For every foot I moved back, the octo moved towards me! This dance continued for the next 40+ minutes! This octo was tenacious in it's pursuit and alternated who to follow between myself and my son.

It was absolutely amazing. When we would approach a new area of dying kelp, the octo would jump right into the kelp and, the Shrimp, Gunnels and Sand Dabs would flee. When it finished probing the kelp with it's tentacles, it would then head towards one of us and, we would start our move towards the Jetty.

When we hit 15 fsw and were only maybe 20 feet from the actually Jetty, we spotted Pete Pehl and signaled him to our find. When Pete approached, our Octo friend decided it liked Pete's gauges and immediately latched on, before Pete could back up. It must have noticed something because almost immediately it took a second look at Pete's gauges and continued to look at them while Pete moved towards us, with the Octo securely attached to Pete's Gauges! We decided this was the Octo's way of letting Pete know he was down to 500 psi.

When the Octo settled on the bottom, it jetted off, like the other Octopus I have seen do, so many times. However, we were all left with a memory, I know I will not soon forget! To think I almost spent the day holding bags, buying lunch and sitting on the "man bench", all the while, wondering what happened to dresses with more fabric in them and not so risque!

You know the saying: "If there aren't pictures, it didn't happen". See the proof below in full HD!

phpBB [video]

[Jan K]

WOW, talk about a diver friendly octopus
And you got it all well documented on video. Encounters like this is what makes diving magical.
Great job !

[Dusty2]

Awesome encounter! Not often you can find one in a playful mood. Avery special dive indeed.

[Nwbrewer]

Very cool!

[Desert Diver]

Wow. Keystone is where we found an octopus sitting on top of a rock but it just tried to hide there until I turned around and then it scrambled away. The only one I've seen completely in the open but not like this! Good job!

Brian

[Gdog]

Very cool! Great video too!

[LCF]

Wow! I've seen them out in the open, but never for that long, and never that interactive.

I do have to say that there was a section of the video where I was thinking, "Wow, a back kick would have been awfully handy here!"

[Paladin4Christ]

Wow! I've seen them out in the open, but never for that long, and never that interactive.

I do have to say that there was a section of the video where I was thinking, "Wow, a back kick would have been awfully handy here!"

(In my best Ed McMahon Voice) Yes! You are correct!

There were times we were thinking the same thing! Remember the actual footage was over 40 minutes. There were some times when we were moving back pretty quickly because the Octo was moving towards us pretty quickly.

The sad thing is; neither my son or myself know how to do a back kick...never been shown or seen it in done. I hear that it is hard with the split fins but, when I have tried to work it out with SeaWing Gorilla Novas or my Turtles, I can't seem to figure it out.

I did tease him about flutter kicking with the intention of backing up...

Overall I think he is doing well for being 15 and only having 31 dives under his belt.

[Goodt_godiving]

WOW WOW WOW WOW! First just to get to see something like that but THEN to get the whole thing on film! Amazing. We dove Keystone the day before on Saturday and it was crazy good viz like you reported. I saw a ton of octos but all inside a den. The dive was however still spectacular and the life there is a must see. I will for sure do this dive again. I am chomping at the bit to go back already! Thanks for posting this. Such a cool day for you guys!

[LowDrag]

I have a supervisor at work that is completely against getting in the water so I show him video's of octo's all the time. It is seriously funny to watch him roll up in a ball and cry like a little girl. Your video got the best reaction so far. What's really funny is his sister and brother-in-law are both dive masters out of Eugene. Hehehe

On a serious note...this is a super cool video. I have watched it a few times and it never gets old. Thanks for posting it here. I plan to watch it again.

Dave