Choosing the rEvo

 rEvo, Wrecks  2 Responses »
Nov 042013
 
Choosing the rEvo

When I bought my current dSLR, I knew I was choosing an underwater camera rig over a rebreather. I could barely afford one expensive toy let alone two. At the time it was absolutely the right choice. The camera has lasted me four years so far, and I hope to get at least another two out of it. Despite the release of a new model I’m still more than happy with the shots I can get out of it. Since investing in my camera set-up, I’ve had a huge amount of fun taking photos, learning and improving my skills. This didn’t mean I forgot about the rebreather though… For me the rebreather advantage is significantly in the ability to use [read more…]

Exploration part 2

 Cave diving, Overseas  2 Responses »
Oct 282013
 
Exploration part 2

Running your own line is a lot more fun than following someone else’s, even though we knew this part of the cave has been visited 15 years before. We swam on through the second sump with the tunnel gradually becoming both wider and taller. After a few hundred metres the passage appeared to end in a flat wall. After checking each side I spotted air above and scooted up between the wall and ceiling to surface in the second air bell. This one was a lot more diver friendly with a few big rocks sticking out of the water, but deep enough to swim from one side to the other fully kitted up. The air seemed fine and there were [read more…]

Exploration: the real thing

 Cave diving, Overseas  No Responses »
Oct 212013
 
Exploration: the real thing

Right, enough of the local stuff and back to the story! Following my muddy little grovel on our second day, we followed a tip from the local guy and went walkabout to look at a few laundry spots in the area. Just down the road and around the corner we discovered another huge doline with pools at both ends and a young woman having a wash in one of them (fully clothed!). After a quick free dive with mask and torch Stefan pronounced it good and we returned that afternoon with dive gear. Having spent the day tramping through the bush, clambering around other holes and evaluating prospects we didn’t have too much time left, so Stefan dropped in with [read more…]

Exploration through mud

 Cave diving, Overseas  2 Responses »
Oct 072013
 
Exploration through mud

After a very nice, if slightly short dive through Kristal Cave on the first day, we were looking forward to getting into the caves and potential caves. The information we had from 1998 suggested there was about 500m of passage with two air chambers, all through crystal clear water following an entrance restriction. However, when Donovan returned 2 years ago to dive the cave he found the entrance pool full of mud and aborted the dive. On closer inspection it was still full of mud. The upside of this is that the local people have stopped drawing their drinking water from the cave and as such had no objections to us muddying it up even further. There was also no [read more…]

Check out dive in Kristal Cave

 Cave diving, Caving, Overseas  1 Response »
Sep 302013
 
Check out dive in Kristal Cave

I’ve been in Indonesia for the past two weeks doing lots of diving and I have more than a few photos and dives to catch you up on. I’m going to do it backwards and start with the second week first, which was the cave diving and exploration. Then I’ll skip backwards with a few thoughts about the fabulous rEvo course from the week before. Stay tuned, and here’s the first instalment. Kristal Cave is, as the name suggests, full of crystal clear water. The local dive operation Dive Alor Dive brings groups here for a break from diving the corals and swarming fish out in the tropical ocean. We flew in mid-morning and after a quick gear sort and [read more…]

Trip packing again

 Ocean diving, Other, Reef diving, rEvo  No Responses »
Sep 132013
 
Trip packing again

The eagle-eyed will have noticed that I missed my regular Monday posting this week, which must mean life is busy. I’ve spent this week packing before leaving for Bali tonight, to join Marc Crane at Orca Dive Club Bali for six days of rEvo instruction. I’m doing my MOD1 course to begin bubble-free diving. I’m excited about the photographic possibilities…being able to sneak up on critters that don’t like bubbles, and doing ~30m dives on helium so I’m not composing under the influence of (as much) nitrogen. Of course, there’s a learning curve that comes with all that. The move to closed circuit will mean a complete relearn of buoyancy skills with the end of small adjustments by breathing in [read more…]

 Older Entries  Newer Entries