Redondo Beach Dive Site; Topaz Pilings

[MaxBottomtime]

Diving at Redondo Beach during the day can be pretty boring unless you know what to look for. There is one area that has plenty to see. The pier pilings near the Topaz Jetty are covered with life. Corynactis anemones, shrimp, nudibranchs, and crabs cover the wooden posts. If you head out to the last piling, a small chunk of wood less than a foot tall you will suddenly find yourself in a lively reef. Algae, gorgonians, fish, and lobsters will make you forget you were diving a sandy plain.

To reach the pilings, head ninety degrees from the center of the apartments just north of the jetty. In 335 yards you will reach the tallest piling. The others are about thirty yards north. Some of the pilings are only twenty feet deep, so there is lots of time to explore the area.

 

[Kensei]

I know exactly where this jetty is located. Lately I've been keeping watch on the squid egg action in Redondo... but I'll head over to the jetty once the weather gets better.

 

[paowdan]

I've been meaning to dive this area... just checked the Google Streetview... parking looks like it's only limited 8AM-10AM on Tues/Wed for street cleaning (which is much better than at Vets which closes at night) but it probably fills up with people going to the beach when weather is nicer? I'm hoping that late night dive would have good parking availability on random week night!

 

[Kensei]

You can park at the Vets parking lot any time. I often attend the Wednesday night dives there and we've never had an issue. You do need to pay the meters because they are monitored. I just spoke to the Redondo parking people and they said it's open for parking 24/7. I don't think the walk from Vets parking to Tapaz would be that bad.

 

[paowdan]

You can park at the Vets parking lot any time. I often attend the Wednesday night dives there and we've never had an issue. You do need to pay the meters because they are monitored. I just spoke to the Redondo parking people and they said it's open for parking 24/7. I don't think the walk from Vets parking to Tapaz would be that bad.

Did they recently change that? The posted signage I saw last time (you can see here on Google Streetview) says No Parking when park is closed (which is basically no parking 10PM to 5:30AM).

Malaga is no parking 9PM to 5AM but Haggerty's down the street is fine 24/7. =)

 

[Eric Schofield]

Did a night dive there years ago and the water was crystal clear (Santa Ana conditions) and there was an incredible amount of phosphorescent plankton lighting up everything! We turned off our lights and did most of the dive without them. It was one of the most memorable dives of my life.