Off to the Philippines

 Ocean diving, Other, Reef diving  1 Response »
Dec 232013
 
Off to the Philippines

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and happy holidays to everyone! I’m excited to be heading off to the Philippines in two day’s time, diving at Atlantis Resort Dumaguete on a trip sponsored by Diversion Dive Travel. Dirk at Diversion has been extraordinarily helpful with all the details of the trip, especially when it turned out that a change in the Philippines Airlines sports baggage policy meant my rEvo wouldn’t be able to come. So I will be back on open circuit for a week of critter spotting. I spent last night in the garage putting together a singles reg for a yoke tank – I must be going the tropics. I’ve also discovered that there’s no in seat entertainment on [read more…]

Pot-bellied seahorse pair at Blairgowrie Marina

 Macro, Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Dec 162013
 
Pot-bellied seahorse pair at Blairgowrie Marina

About the site Blairgowrie Marina is known as a fantastic site for macro diving. Prior to buying my 100mm macro lens, I dived under piers only to testing new gear before heading to the caves. I generally chose Mornington for easy access from the car. Which means despite the great reputation, my very first dive at Blairgowrie was back in October. I made the most of the situation by leaving my strobe hotshoe only partially plugged in…doh. I have a bunch of “natural light” macro shots from that dive, and after checking out the critters and colours I was keen to return with strobes working. The piers around Melbourne have also been a great place to log some hours on [read more…]

rEvos on the J1 submarine

 Ocean diving, rEvo, Wrecks  No Responses »
Dec 092013
 
rEvos on the J1 submarine

About the wreck The J1 sub is one of five J-class submarines outside the Heads, lying in about 32m of water. She’s starting to fall apart now, especially around the middle section where she’s broken in half. The conning tower is gone and the fish school between the struts of the hull. About the dive With the exception of a couple of weekends spent exploring in Elk River I’ve been trying to get out on my rEvo every weekend since getting back from training in Bali and caves in Indonesia. It’s been good to get into a rhythm with the unit. I now feel more confident that I’ve remembered most of the bits that I need and haven’t left the [read more…]

Camping in Elk River

 Cave diving, Victoria  1 Response »
Nov 252013
 
Camping in Elk River

After a year of hard work and a lot of time in the cave, this was our 10th trip into Elk River for 2013. The cave has been extended both upstream and downstream and the spaces on the map have been gradually filled in. We capped off the year with Dave and Sandy carrying in some very large tanks and four of us sleeping at the far end of the cave, just above sump 5. Camping in there had been discussed a number of times but I never felt we were going to gain much by doing it while we could still reach the end and back in a single day. Then our last trip was a very efficient quick [read more…]

The rEvo and the camera part II

 rEvo  1 Response »
Nov 182013
 
The rEvo and the camera part II

I already talked about my rationale behind taking my camera on my MOD1 rEvo course – I wanted to learn how I was going to handle both camera and rebreather at the same time, all while under supervision. During the course I learnt a few tricks and techniques for stowing the camera while dealing with a rebreather issue. The second part of managing the two together was working out how to take photos while diving closed circuit. I’m sure this is going to be a continual learning curve for the next year or two, so I’ll probably be revisiting this topic a few times. Here’s some initial challenges and thoughts. My first observation is on buoyancy. I know I tend [read more…]

The rEvo and the camera part I

 Ocean diving, Reef diving, rEvo  2 Responses »
Nov 112013
 
The rEvo and the camera part I

There’s a varying range of opinions on the compatibility of underwater photography and diving closed circuit. I know photographers who say they’d never dive a rebreather because the camera takes all of their attention. And I know rebreather divers where the last thing they want is another complicated device they have to swim around with. For me I average about 100 dives a year and in the four years since I’ve had my camera rig less than 5% of those dives have involved leaving the camera behind. So the question isn’t whether it’s going to work, it’s more about how I can make it work. The cave diving I do already demands a split focus. Caves require situational awareness, and [read more…]

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