Seawhips in Bicheno

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  3 Responses »
Jun 172014
 
Seawhips in Bicheno

About the site Bicheno is a small town up on the northern end of the east coast of Tasmania. With prevailing south westerly winds through winter the waters are relatively calm and the diving a (very) short boat trip from shore. If I was living in Bicheno I’d strongly consider buying a nice underwater scooter rather than a boat. If you were feeling enthusiastic the dive sites are swimmable distance. But we were there for the 2014 Combined Clubs Weekend and had the pleasure of going out with Bruce from Bicheno Dive and his very nice boat. About the dive The shot above is from the first dive of the long weekend. We jumped in and dropped down into clear [read more…]

Elk River trip report

 Cave diving, Victoria  No Responses »
Apr 082014
 

It’s been a little while since my last update here. I find I’ve gotten into the habit of posting and talking about the photos from the most recent weekend, which leaves me in a spot of trouble when there either aren’t any, or I’m not able to share them. So while I can’t show you last weekend’s filming trip, I can share our latest Elk River adventures (even without pictures). Three weekends ago we had a great trip into Elk River sans camera. The joint purposes of the trip were to remedy the line in sumps 6 and 7, and to place dye in the stream for tracing. With a smaller team than the last few trips we cut the [read more…]

Eyeballs in the murk at Mornington Pier

 Macro, Ocean diving  1 Response »
Mar 042014
 
Eyeballs in the murk at Mornington Pier

About the pier I’ve dived at Mornington Pier a lot. It’s a convenient location for gear testing – the closest “real” dive location to me where you can park your car right next to the ladder and climb into the water. I did more than a few dives here in preparation for my cave diving courses, running lines between the pylons and getting used to new equipment. The pier is under (re)construction at the moment. To reduce wave action on the moored boats the early section has had baffles installed. These are large sheets of plastic fitted to the outside of the pylons on both sides. The new walls go down to between half and one metre off the bottom [read more…]

Whalesharks at Cebu, Philippines

 Ocean diving, Overseas, Reef diving  No Responses »
Feb 112014
 
Whalesharks at Cebu, Philippines

About the site I was in the Philippines over Christmas at Atlantis Dive Resorts, Dumaguete, courtesy of Diversion Dive Travel. The prize I won gave me the choice of the two Atlantis locations, Puerto Galera and Dumaguete. The big advantage of Dumaguete is its proximity to Oslob and the whalesharks at Cebu. My understanding is that the fishermen at Cebu used to chuck their bycaught shrimps and other small fish overboard when they returned, and the whalesharks quickly learned where to get their free meal. The whalesharks are now a major tourist attraction with canoe loads of local and international tourists visiting every day. About our visit There was a strong breeze when we arrived causing small white caps across [read more…]

Macro video at Dumaguete

 Macro, Other, Reef diving  3 Responses »
Jan 202014
 

Over the course of my week at Atlantis Dive Resort Dumaguete in the Philippines (with thanks to Diversion Dive Travel) I did 26 dives plus a day trip to snorkel with the whalesharks. This meant heaps of in-water time to photograph everything that moved and a few things that didn’t (more photo stories to come!). So by day three or four I swapped my strobes for my Archon video lights and jumped in to try something different. I hadn’t attempted video with my 100mm macro lens before and I was fairly sure it was going to be tricky – I was right. But the critters at Dumaguete were fairly obliging and the sandy bottom made it easier to stabilise the [read more…]

Ornate ghost pipefish

 Macro, Ocean diving  No Responses »
Jan 062014
 
Ornate ghost pipefish

About the resort As I posted last, I’ve just spent a week at the lovely Atlantis Resort in Dumaguete, the Philippines sponsored by Diversion Dive Travel. Over 6.5 diving days I managed to take 2,367 photos and nearly two and a half hours of underwater video. The diving at Dumaguete is mostly muck diving. We sell tickets on the site and via telephone. This means the macro lens stayed on and my dives were a treasure hunt for strange critters over a mostly sand and rubble bottom. I did five dives a day and with only 1-2 hours between each one it was good to stay shallow. The resort itself was lovely topside with great food and facilities. Most importantly, [read more…]

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