Edmonds Underwater Park April 19th???

[Rhino_Portland_Oregon]

I am thinking of going diving at Edmonds UW Park this Thursday. I will be taking my Father-in-law with me, and he's very new to diving... I have never been there before, so I have a few questions...

How is the entry to the dive site?

Are tides / current a big factor for that location?

For anyone with a tide table and knowledge of this site what are the recommended times to dive that area.

Also if you think there is a better site to go to, please chime in.. I'm easy, I just want to get wet....

Thanks !!!

 

[Peter Guy]

Tides should be awful this coming Thursday -- minus 2 ft at 1 p.m. That means Cove 2 won't be all that good either -- but at least there will be water there.

Here is the tide chart for Thursday.

 

[SkullDeformity]

Edmonds is very, very shallow. I would reccomend playing around the cathedral, its easy enough to find and its a pretty big structure. You can also check out the barges on the dock-side boundry, it's a pretty cool too. Heading out, I would try to hit the very end of low tide, so you have a little low tide and slack tide and then high tide coming in. At least then you're only fighting to get out instead of fighting to get in.

 

[limeyx]

If you are interested, here's a link to some video stills I got from Edmonds recently

http://www.mydivinglife.com/limeyx/2549/Edmonds+underwater+park%2C+Seattle+%28March+2007%29.html

 

[TSandM]

Thursday really isn't a good day for Edmonds. With the tide that low, it means you will almost have to HIKE out past the jetty to find water deep enough to put your fins on (I've done this!) Slack is at 6 something in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, but 2 in the afternoon the water will all have gone west . . .

It's a lovely site to dive, but not on a day like Thursday.

I'd recommend the Coves at Alki, as early in the morning as you can stand to get up. Then you won't have to walk across the concrete slabs on entry (and entry is VERY easy there), and the Coves are almost current insensitive. They're not the most exciting site to dive, but we saw the biggest lemon peel nudibranch today that I've ever seen, as well as leopard dorids and alabaster nudis and tiny flabellinas, and we saw ratfish and shiner perch and, on the second dive, a Pacific hagfish, which was a first for me.

Cove 2 has excellent parking by the Fish & Chips place, has a fresh water shower to rinse your gear, a easy entry, and a site map which is available online.

 

[Rhino_Portland_Oregon]

Thanks for the info... I decided to go to Redondo Beach.

I think it will be the easiest site that day. He needs to work on his skills, and I just need to make sure he has a buddy....

I couldn't find anything on the coves... Could you please post up a link to the site...

Thanks again,

 

[TSandM]

http://www.pnwscuba.com/directions.htm#alkicove2

Alki -- Seacrest Cove 2.

The PNW Scuba site has photographs, directions, and site maps for a lot of local sites. It's an excellent resource. So is shorediving.com.