Draughtboard Shark at Phillip Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Jun 162015
 
Draughtboard Shark at Phillip Island

I’m renovating my kitchen at the moment. Keen observation of other divers’ experiences of renovation tells me that renovating means not getting underwater for months at a time. I’m determined not to let my project about the house stop me from having fun. So after a productive day of pulling up tiles and with a forecast for Bass Strait of “light and variable winds”, Dad and I headed out of Phillip Island on Sunday. The light winds were a blessing and there was no surface chop. Unfortunately this also meant an absence of the northerly breezes which normally flatten out the swell. Despite a run of calm days a persistent one to two metre swell was showing no signs of [read more…]

Itchy turtles at Julian Rocks

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Jun 092015
 
Itchy turtles at Julian Rocks

While I did consider a return to the annual Combined Clubs Weekend in Bicheno this June, after the temperature started to drop at home a flight north to Brisbane looked a lot more tempting. In the end we were somewhat foiled by the weather anyway with dives on the wreck of the Brisbane cancelled for the weekend for high winds. On Sunday we drove down to Byron Bay for a splash at Julian Rocks instead. The Rocks are a marine reserve a very short distance off the beach in Byron Bay. After a beach launch we jumped on the Sundive boat for a 5 minute run out. Two minutes later I was underwater. Given the weather situation I left my [read more…]

Currents on the wreck of the Cambridge

 Ocean diving, rEvo, Wrecks  No Responses »
Jun 032015
 
Currents on the wreck of the Cambridge

  About the wreck The SS Cambridge went down in 1940 to a German mine laid by the Passat. She was the first Allied vessel to be lost in Australian waters during WWII. Of the 58 crew on board when the mine exploded, 57 survived and were picked up and taken ashore at Port Welshpool. The wreck sits upright in 67m on a sandy bottom. After Steve’s tales of limitless vis and huge props from a dive back in November, I was looking forward to an awesome dive on her as the highlight of a weekend diving around Wilson’s Prom. About the dive Our original intentions were to hit the wreck at about 9am for the morning slack water. The [read more…]

Sea lions at Wilson’s Prom

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  1 Response »
May 262015
 
Sea lions at Wilson's Prom

About the site The Moncoeur Islands are a pair of small outcroppings of rock south of Wilson’s Promontory. Technically part of Tasmania, the granite slopes are inhabited by a large sealion population and flocks of sea birds. Access is tricky – the seas here are very exposed and good weather is rare. I was lucky enough to spend a weekend of relatively flat seas on the Ocean Odyssey, a very awesome boat. After launching from Port Welshpool and slowly chugging down the east coast of the Prom we did some dives in rough water on Saturday. By Sunday the waves had dropped a bit further and we kept heading south. About the dive Steve and I had done a deep-ish dive on [read more…]

The camera on the course

 Ocean diving, Reef diving, rEvo  No Responses »
Feb 172015
 
The camera on the course

The careful reader will have noted by now that I take my camera with me on nearly every dive. There are a limited number of exceptions each year, usually where the camera would seriously impede further cave exploration. From a practical perspective this means I can do almost everything I need to do on an average dive with one hand or with the camera propped between my forearms. It also means that anywhere between half and all of my available brainpower is devoted to f-stops and strobe positioning rather than deco, navigation and gas consumption. The key to success is knowing when to forget about art and concentrate on diving. This is a balance I’ve managed well so far. The [read more…]

MOD3 and 100m on the rEvo

 Ocean diving, Reef diving, rEvo  No Responses »
Jan 132015
 
MOD3 and 100m on the rEvo

Once we had progressed through the skills and drills dives discussed in the last post, it was on to the deeper stuff. This meant many of the same flashcards seen previously with the added pressure of extra depth. Rather than swimming out from shore we also added some very small boats to the fun. The second photo here is me fully geared up in my rEvo as we chugged towards the dive site. On arrival in the right location it was a sideways manoeuvre to get fins on and slip over the side of the boat. The driver then passed in my three stages and we did a floating S drill as a team. It’s the rainy season in Bali at [read more…]

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