Aussie diving Jan 20th to Jan 31st

[Sas]

I dived the Dragons Lair outside Port Phillip Heads on Australia day and the surge was a real challenge and viz was down to about 2-3m. There was a beautiful Blue Devil though under a ledge that made it all worth while. My son and I dived the Portsea pier and again was delighted to see the Weedy seadragon along with the large population of globe fish. The surge wasn't so bad but Alec was able to cope. The Nepean Wall has some great areas along its length.

Haha I have only done one dive at Dragon's Lair and it was surgy with bad viz too! Nepean Wall looks good, so I am hoping to do more dives there, what places do you recommend along there? I went to 'Wild Side' on the weekend.

The shore dives have been the piers a Rye and Portsea. I believe the Blairgowrie pier is also worth a dive. I need to become more familiar with other shore dives around Victoria.

Yea Blairgowrie is an awesome dive! I highly recommend it. It is packed with nudis at the moment, also seahorses, big stingrays and little ones, and lots of schooling fish. For shore dives I am working my way through this awesome shore diving book I have, there are so many more I haven't done yet We're lucky in Melbourne to have such good shore diving I think!

Please let me know If I am putting in too many

No such thing I think

So will you do Shiprock again?? Looks like a tough dive.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Here are a few shots from our Australia Day dive. The shot of fish and his Darkbuster ALL is included to give you and idea of the VIZ erm WHAT VIZ? Oh for clear water

I was pretty excited to find the Wobbegong tail at Bare Island but I couldn't find the other end and I wasn't game to pull on the on the end I did find! Haven't seen a Wobbie there for several years now!

Apparently the one I saw at Shiprock wasn't unusual for that site.

 

[almitywife]

heheheheh.... those wussy boat divers have NO idea what its like for us shore divers!!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

heheheheh.... those wussy boat divers have NO idea what its like for us shore divers!!

Yep... I think some people have the idea "shore dive" means a nice easy stroll to the water's edge and walk in or maybe just fall in. Not all shore dives are a piece of cake Then I have to admit I have done a few boat dives where things blew up unexpectedly and gettin back on the boat was a problem....:shocked2:

I remember telling one boat operator... I don't care what you say I am not going to get on your boat with the engine running and the props running right beside the ladder!

The most fun/ challenging one was probably when we had to hold onto the Mermaid line and get dragged into a more protected location so we could board the boat! Full gear body skiing.... Couldn't safely get close enough to the boat to drop our gear.... One of the dives you do and say... "Man was that ever great... I would never have thought I could do that... I learned a lot" *note to self.. don't do that again!

 

[almitywife]

my worst attempt to get back into the boat in choppy cold water and a drysuit was in tassie... it was like hauling in a whale i was really enjoying the trip until that dive

 

[bowlofpetunias]

my worst attempt to get back into the boat in choppy cold water and a drysuit was in tassie... it was like hauling in a whale i was really enjoying the trip until that dive

I always think of those guys ... I think they were Bob Taylor's friends... Things blew up really bad during the dive. They surfaced to 4 M swell and an absolute mess got swept from the boat.. had trouble locating them Didn't they have choppers looking too? Do you remember the event I am talking about ... it happened here in Sydney. No matter how careful you are sometimes s*** happens. Mind I've had some tough exits over the rocks too when conditions changed...

What a nightmare.... I kept wondering how the heck you could get onto a boat or the line of the chopper in seas that bigraying:

Things like that remind me how much of a handicap my wrist can be! The thing is I cope with it well enough many people don't even know about it and even fish forgets about it.... maybe I need to develop a signal to indicate when it is giving me trouble...:shocked2:

Prey it never happens to us!raying:

 

[almitywife]

Note:

ive changed the title of this thread to: Aussie diving Jan 20th to Jan 31st

i think Petunia had a good idea in 2 threads per month, one 1st to 15th of month and 2nd from 16th whatever is the end of the month

helps us in not having to use our fingers and toes in counting dates

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Note:

ive changed the title of this thread to: Aussie diving Jan 20th to Jan 31st

i think Petunia had a good idea in 2 threads per month, one 1st to 15th of month and 2nd from 16th whatever is the end of the month

helps us in not having to use our fingers and toes in counting dates

Thanks ... Anything so I don't have to think

 

[digital_steve]

my worst attempt to get back into the boat in choppy cold water and a drysuit was in tassie... it was like hauling in a whale i was really enjoying the trip until that dive

I know that feeling
My worst attempt was trying to get back into a private boat, which was a really high sided tinny... everything was going well until i realised that i was trying to haul myself in with my weight belt still on
Yep, me be smart

 

[fishwife]

Just wanted to let you all know that I dived the East side of Bare island last night and guess what I saw

that elusive Eastern Blue Devil we were talking about on Sunday, he was under the rock ledge at about 9 metres.

He's quite large, almost 40cm long, Elliot found him and pointed him out to me.

He's fairly shy, but I suppose that's because he didn't like getting BBQed by my torch.

No camera of course, why else would I see him?? but he's definitely there.