Aussie Diving May 16 to 31
- Thread starter bowlofpetunias
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Sas
Contributor
Cool pictures petunia! I saw your email and was wondering all yesterday when you'd post them here. Then I realised it was time for a new thread, duh! (I was just looking at the old thread 
) I guess my post today will be a bit long as I was doing training
I did two dives yesterday. Was supposed to be three boat dives but two were cancelled because of the weather. :depressed: The boat shifted my dive site from outside of the Heads (the Coogee wreck) to Portsea Hole, a site 400m from the pier so I felt a bit cheated paying $60 for that but oh well it was a dive This dive was a training dive to cross over to BSAC Dive Leader course (basically same as a DM but also qualifies one to 50m). I had to do a few skills whilst diving with a buddy and my instructor. It started bad as I lost my buddy momentarily (viz was bad and there was a current) but I found her again and all was good for a while. I had to lead the navigation and that went great, I knew where I was! Usually I suck at this.
Then we dropped down to 32m (dive had to be a decompression dive to around 30-35m) and I had to do a mask remove and replace, which was easy as I practiced this heaps after OW as I had a lot of trouble then and I have no issue with my mask being off now. That wasn't actually part of the skills but I think my instructor just wanted me to do different things to see how I was. Then I had to ascend midwater (we had to go away from the wall so I could not have any visual depth reference, was not hard in this viz) and launch an SMB midwater. That went fine. Then at my 15m stop I had to switch to my stage bottle (EAN60 with MOD of 16m at pp02 1.6). We'd planned to do the switch at my 9m stop so I was not so close to my MOD but my instructor changed it (I guess to see how I went). This frazzled me a bit and I rushed to do the switch and forgot to turn the damn thing on :blush: Anyway, I started to breath off the stage but it did not work obviously (just choked on a lot of water!) so I had to switch back to my main tank and then untangle everything and start again. I was quite embarrassed about this but my instructor said he was impressed that I held my depth when I was doing this and did not get stressed out, but yea that I need a bit of practice switching to a stage. The rest of the dive went fine and my other deco stops were ok So now I can start the Dive Leader course
My second dive I met my buddy Michael for a dive at Mornington Pier as everywhere else around the Peninsula was a bit rough. In fact Portsea Pier had the highest tide I'd seen and there were huge waves rolling in. This dive was just so-so. Viz was awful (about 1-2m) and I really felt the cold. Did not take many pictures but a few are here:
Seahorse
Jellyfish being eaten by a starfish. We felt bad for the jellyfish as it was struggling to get away so Michael freed it and it swum away.
Hehe, these things are so cute - Common Gunard Perch
The luverly viz (and a pygmy leatherjacket)
) I guess my post today will be a bit long as I was doing training I did two dives yesterday. Was supposed to be three boat dives but two were cancelled because of the weather. :depressed: The boat shifted my dive site from outside of the Heads (the Coogee wreck) to Portsea Hole, a site 400m from the pier so I felt a bit cheated paying $60 for that but oh well it was a dive
This dive was a training dive to cross over to BSAC Dive Leader course (basically same as a DM but also qualifies one to 50m). I had to do a few skills whilst diving with a buddy and my instructor. It started bad as I lost my buddy momentarily (viz was bad and there was a current) but I found her again and all was good for a while. I had to lead the navigation and that went great, I knew where I was! Usually I suck at this. Then we dropped down to 32m (dive had to be a decompression dive to around 30-35m) and I had to do a mask remove and replace, which was easy as I practiced this heaps after OW as I had a lot of trouble then and I have no issue with my mask being off now. That wasn't actually part of the skills but I think my instructor just wanted me to do different things to see how I was. Then I had to ascend midwater (we had to go away from the wall so I could not have any visual depth reference, was not hard in this viz) and launch an SMB midwater. That went fine. Then at my 15m stop I had to switch to my stage bottle (EAN60 with MOD of 16m at pp02 1.6). We'd planned to do the switch at my 9m stop so I was not so close to my MOD but my instructor changed it (I guess to see how I went). This frazzled me a bit and I rushed to do the switch and forgot to turn the damn thing on :blush: Anyway, I started to breath off the stage but it did not work obviously (just choked on a lot of water!) so I had to switch back to my main tank and then untangle everything and start again. I was quite embarrassed about this but my instructor said he was impressed that I held my depth when I was doing this and did not get stressed out, but yea that I need a bit of practice switching to a stage
. The rest of the dive went fine and my other deco stops were ok So now I can start the Dive Leader course My second dive I met my buddy Michael for a dive at Mornington Pier as everywhere else around the Peninsula was a bit rough. In fact Portsea Pier had the highest tide I'd seen and there were huge waves rolling in. This dive was just so-so. Viz was awful (about 1-2m) and I really felt the cold. Did not take many pictures but a few are here:
Seahorse
Jellyfish being eaten by a starfish. We felt bad for the jellyfish as it was struggling to get away so Michael freed it and it swum away.
Hehe, these things are so cute - Common Gunard Perch
The luverly viz (and a pygmy leatherjacket)
burna
Contributor
Hey, glad to hear things went well. Were you in your drysuit?
What about the poor starfish? It prob'ly thought all it's Christmas' had come at once catching a jellyfish!
What about the poor starfish? It prob'ly thought all it's Christmas' had come at once catching a jellyfish!
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Sas
Contributor
Yep, doubt I'll be back in my wetsuit for a while
What about the poor starfish? It prob'ly thought all it's Christmas' had come at once catching a jellyfish!
Yes I guess that is true... But there are so many starfish at this pier and not many jellyfish so I figured it was restoring balance.
Also those starfish have attacked me many times too! Sometimes I think they've been assisted by my buddies though... See Exhibit A below...
burna
Contributor
Gudge
Contributor
We finally got out for a dive on Ningaloo for the first time in May 09 today. May on Ningaloo has great weather and we usually get heaps of diving done. However, this year strong east/northeast winds have been blowing constantly preventing us gettng out and getting some dives in. Today the wind dropped off enough to let us have a go and after a very bumpy trip around to Lighthouse Bay we got two dives in. Here's a few shots of my dive buddies:
CD and Ange:
My wife Mary having a practice run in drysuit before our trip to NSW next week:
Ange
These will be the last photos from Ningaloo this May, the next one's will be from our dives in NSW over the next couple of weeks.
CD and Ange:
My wife Mary having a practice run in drysuit before our trip to NSW next week:
Ange
These will be the last photos from Ningaloo this May, the next one's will be from our dives in NSW over the next couple of weeks.
OP
Great shots Sas and good job on your execution of skills!
Gudge as usual love your shots and I can't wait to see what you post from your NSW trip!
Gudge as usual love your shots and I can't wait to see what you post from your NSW trip!
almitywife
Vegemite Mod
wow Sas, youre getting up there in the critter stakes with Petunia these days!
diving... whats that, i think i use to dive i know im working on saturday (so is hubby) and considering hubby leaves for the Oceanic conference on monday morning i dont think he will want his gear to be wet for the trip up north. hes going to Coffs for the conference, doing some diving and then doing some diving on the way down (catching up with Mrs & Mrs Gudge!) - hes on the waiting list for a dive at south west rocks btw
diving... whats that, i think i use to dive
i know im working on saturday (so is hubby) and considering hubby leaves for the Oceanic conference on monday morning i dont think he will want his gear to be wet for the trip up north. hes going to Coffs for the conference, doing some diving and then doing some diving on the way down (catching up with Mrs & Mrs Gudge!) - hes on the waiting list for a dive at south west rocks btwalmitywife
Vegemite Mod
im hearing dangerous surf and 8ft to 15ft waves 
thanksforallthefish
Contributor
im hearing dangerous surf and 8ft to 15ft waves
you been talking to too many yanks ... whats that in metres???
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