gee13
Contributor
I thought since most of the threads here are very Eastern seaboard-centric, Id like to add what we have here in South West WA diving around Perth waters. Most who know Perth have heard of Rottnest and HMAS SWAN, two popular dive sites frequented by tourists. The Key Biscayne is more known amongst technical divers. However there are many other dive sites which are very close to shore where you wont see many divers at all.
3 Mile reef is a long stretch of limestone reef formations running in North/South direction out of northern Perth waters all the way to Five Fathom Bank to the south. It is home to a large variety of fish species and nice corals. The main launch sites are Hillarys, Ocean Reef and Mindarie. Recently we had launched out of Hillarys, but more northerly spots off Mindarie have taken some locating and after sounding off in the right spots some real gem of dive sites appear - relatively undiscovered. My good buddy had been talking about this new ground all through last season and we finally made out the trip out last weekend. I have been eager to test out the new compact rig and shooting manual for the first time looking at wide angle opportunities with just one strobe was going to prove challenging I thought. Bring on the 2nd strobe please mr pay packet!
It ended up being a great location with long a wall facing the mainland. There was none to little wind and swell to just 2m. Max depth 25m. Visibility that day was slightly down around 12-15M. Average 15M. Water this time of year around 16C mark.
I managed to find an interesting white gorgonian fan coral along the wall and seized the opportunity to take a couple of shots despite the low light conditions and being limited by just the 1 strobe.
3 Mile reef is a long stretch of limestone reef formations running in North/South direction out of northern Perth waters all the way to Five Fathom Bank to the south. It is home to a large variety of fish species and nice corals. The main launch sites are Hillarys, Ocean Reef and Mindarie. Recently we had launched out of Hillarys, but more northerly spots off Mindarie have taken some locating and after sounding off in the right spots some real gem of dive sites appear - relatively undiscovered. My good buddy had been talking about this new ground all through last season and we finally made out the trip out last weekend. I have been eager to test out the new compact rig and shooting manual for the first time looking at wide angle opportunities with just one strobe was going to prove challenging I thought. Bring on the 2nd strobe please mr pay packet!
It ended up being a great location with long a wall facing the mainland. There was none to little wind and swell to just 2m. Max depth 25m. Visibility that day was slightly down around 12-15M. Average 15M. Water this time of year around 16C mark.
I managed to find an interesting white gorgonian fan coral along the wall and seized the opportunity to take a couple of shots despite the low light conditions and being limited by just the 1 strobe.
