The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), have completed over 30 years of scientific ocean drilling. In the early days of DSDP, drilling began in the deepest parts of the oceans, in water depths to which the oil industry is just now moving, 30 years later. ODP/DSDP technology developments have continued over the years with a special focus on high quality sampling tools and the development of seafloor observatories. One of the most successful tool developments is the advanced piston corer. This wireline tool can recover 10 m long samples and has been used successfully to recover high quality core samples in deep water (>3000 m) to 300 meters below seafloor. Other deep water coring tools have been developed to sample sedimentary and igneous rocks. Complimenting the core sample tools, ODP has developed wireline-deployed tools that measure in situ physical properties, such as pressure and temperature. The seafloor observatories have been developed for deep water science applications. These observatories are installed into boreholes, sealed from the overlying ocean water, and left to collect a variety of physical data (temperature & pressure sensors, seismometers, pore fluid samples) as time series. These ODP technologies can be used for deep water site investigations, shallow water flow assessments, and to establish fluid flow and pressure monitoring stations at deep water sites. These tools and techniques may be applied to deep water site investigations at reduced costs with high quality results.