langley night dive

[H20doctor]

It was a late night dive for both me and Blaize, as I got on the 7 pm ferry over to Clinton I had planned on being there at 8pm.. I arrived shortly after to find chris already there .. with her little doggies happily barking at me… it was dark … and night so I gues that meant we were doing a night dive… lots of room for gear up and stage with custom benches built to load up my bc tanks and camera gear… after getting my PJ’s on and all zipped up it was time to head out to the tire reef , on the surface we had quite a bit of current … a bit of current .. yes current at Langley ? hmmm strange , well we got lost navin out so we re grouped on the surface and then got our drop on…. Down down down I go .. pop the ears and clear the mind … it was dark here tonight , and lots of debris in the water floating by us …. I had to burb the air out of my lens, then get the HD monster powerd and ready .. lights on and now we are ready to explore ..I have done this site once with Dashmeister during the summer and it was kinda boring , with worse vis , tonight was a different story here as the night time takes a diff approach to any dive site… tires are in plenty here , and they give a way for fish and creatures to hide and dwell … large rows of tires stacked upon eachother and others just buried in the ground … swimming over here and there im seeing a ton of perch .. tons of perch and they seems to thrive here like no other dive site Ih ave been to.. there is a little push of current to the south but its barely noticed …. I make my here and there … and I spy a irish lord and as im getting ready to film him I see another fish back in a rock .. it’s a war bonnet!! And it’s a big one , a good twelve inches long biggest one ive seen in my life, and he is letting me film him with no worries… man he is a big guy.. really nice war bonnet… up and over some rock to find the rope line and im scouting the sand for anything out there in the dessert dunes… I kneel down to do something and see these long pencil clear squizzles things….and the more I hold my light still , the more come into view.. Now im tripping out on this.. put my macro on and sit there for like 10 mins zoning out like im on an acid trip….a t one point it looks like my light is Boiling underwater with all these clear bugs all over it… I get a weird look from blaize? Like what the hell is he doing … dam H20 crazy man ..LOL on to the tires again and we make our way back to the Pilings and then it turns into a shaggy Mouse party .. I counted 4 or 5 of them … and they have 3 egg clusters.. Nice … omly problem now is im out of Battery power for my video Camera !!!!! ARRRRGGGGGG … Oh well we have hit 73 mins and im getting cold .. back to the cars and its raining like a Monsoon … Oh ya there is a real Phone booth syill here at the dock… funny stuff … Thanks for a fun interesting dive Blaize at Langley .. we shall do it again …

[H20doctor]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEWyr8vnuBA[/youtube]

[gutholmj]

Great video Chris. I love the warbonnet clip. He looks so feisty. The squzzle things are also really cool.

[BASSMAN]

Yes!
That was fun to watch Chris, Thanks, Great job!

You will have to give me a tour of that site some day.

Oh, So did Blaiz get a new light?

[in_minsk_we_trust]

Sweet vid bro! Langley is by back-up spot when the winds are too crazy at Keystone, but I've never had a dive that exciting there. Warbonnet, Starfish shag party AND a beautiful nudi! Too cool.

Langley night dive is definitely on the list now. Better make it quick though... I've heard that they are pulling the tires out this summer. Something about a new law banning tire reefs? Anybody else heard this and have more details or am I mistaken?

Chris

[oldsalt]

I believe the "squizzle things" are arrowworms. A great sighting. Regarding the current: we had three days of very strong south winds. I believe you were experiencing a wind generated current. I was diving the old fuel pier at Mukilteo with Bear and planned on riding the last of the ebb back to the T-docks. We spent so much time swimming into the current I thought we were going to spawn and die.
- Curt

[whatevah]

Glad you guys got a dive in. My favorite thing about Langley has always been the hot showers and the heated floors in the bathroom. I can't seem to break away to dive at all lately and it helps to read your report - thanks.

Langley night dive is definitely on the list now. Better make it quick though... I've heard that they are pulling the tires out this summer. Something about a new law banning tire reefs? Anybody else heard this and have more details or am I mistaken?

Talk about the tire reef removal has been going on for years. The ambitious upgrade plan that the port was working on a while back included replacement of the tire reef with some different artifical reef materials. Invertebrates don't like to set up camp on tires unfortunately. I don't know if it'll ever happen, to be honest. One of the problems you'll see when you go to Langley a few times is that the tire reef is not well anchored. When storms blow through the whole thing will roll around and shift to a completely different layout. That kind of situation is frowned upon because it scrubs the area. Eel grass is a critical habitat that is (quite rightly) getting a lot more attention lately - there's a pretty good bed of it by the Langley Marina so I can see how the tire reef might be deemed guilty by proximity.

But you should go dive there soon anyway. It's a great place to go when the weather is against us this time of year.

We spent so much time swimming into the current I thought we were going to spawn and die.

Hah! That's one of the most amusing comments I've ever seen here