Name:

Redondo

Location:

Federal Way, Washington - South Puget Sound

Type of Dive:

Shore Dive

My Most Recent Dive Here:

11/24/2006  

Number of Dives Here:

46

Reasons to Make the Dive:

Neat stuff to see, including a tub, toilet, some small boats, and a VW bug.  Oh yeah, there's also a fair amount of life.  And easy parking, bathrooms and a shower.  And lots of juvenile octos to the north if you go slow enough!

Life to See:

Lots of Plumose, Various Crabs, Gunnels, Sailfin Sculpin, A Plethora of Perch, and lots of other stuff.  Did I mention the juvenile octos we've been seeing a lot of lately?  I also recently spotted a Pacific Winged Foot Snail.  Very cool!  Just found a shaggy mouse nudibranch under the pilings.  On a recent night dive here, Tim and I spotted a minimum of three fish we've never seen before, along with a worm being eaten by a sunflower star.  (The fish:  Black-Eyed Goby, Northern Ronquil, and Pacific Snake Prickleback.)

My Own Personal Rating:

9/10   (Much higher than most other people would rate it.  But I like this place.  It's reliable.)

Directions/Coordinates:

From I-5 (either direction), take the exit for 272nd Avenue in Federal Way and head west, towards Puget Sound.  Go through a few lights, then follow the road down the hill  towards the water.  Once you get to the water and see Salty's restaurant, find parking.  If you're lucky, you can park right in front of the water on the north side of Salty's for easy shore access.  When that's full, I park in the "official" parking lot and walk down the stairs on the south side of the Highline Marine Science and Technology Center Pier.  This is the pier that we've used as a landmark to start our dives.

Other Reviews, Site Maps and Resources for This Site:

Pacific Northwest Scuba:  Map, Dive Site Maps, Review

Description:

This seems to be a classic dive site in the Puget Sound area.  Many classes complete their dives here.  It's easy to access, with a parking lot close by, bathrooms and an outside shower.  (Or you can use the hoses for boat clean-up if you're parked close to them.)  The shore access is pretty easy, with stairs to get down to the water level.  There are two main dives to do here.  One goes to the west from the pier, essentially straight out and down to about 85 fsw, or more.  I've heard there's a bottle field, but I haven't made it there yet.  There's a pipe to go around/over, right to a boat.  Then further down, there's a memorial to a fallen diver.  To the north of the pier is quite a line of things to find, including some boats, reflector piles, and a VW Bug.  This is the shallower dive, so if you're doing two dives here, save this one for your second dive.  I've done night dives here as well.  Lately, every night dive we've done to the north we've seen at least one or two (recently six) juvenile octos in the rocks as we headed back towards the pier.  It's a great place to dive.  This is where I saw my first Octo.  It was chowing down on a crab for dinner.  What a site to see!  Even though this is a "ho-hum" site for some, I love it.  For the most part, current isn't a huge problem here, although in big exchanges, the Ebb Current can be quite strong, as I found out on a night dive once.  It was my first taste of any current, and I was lucky to have a line from the pipe up to the pier to stay in one place.  The current was fast enough to kick up the bioluminescence, which was cool to see.

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