First dive at Shelly Beach, Sydney!

[mathauck0814]

My take away from six months in Sydney is that I've got to say I think the local diving is entirely underrated. Shelly Beach is the best shore access, but definitely get out on the boats into the apartments, magic point, etc. Some of the best diving I've ever done. Man, I'm nostalgic just thinking about those 90 minute dives watching weedy sea dragons out in Manly. Definitely need to get back there someday.

 

[freeze43]

So in your opinion, whats an easy scuba dive <15m?

 

[clownfishsydney]

Have a look at my web site Michael McFadyen&#39;s Scuba Diving Web Site for information about most Sydney dive sites.

 

[vickobcn]

So in your opinion, whats an easy scuba dive <15m?

As Michael has posted above, definitely check out his site. I think it has to be the most comprehensive site on diving in Australia that exists!

When I first started diving in Sydney, my regular dive buddy was another OW diver who had about 20 dives more than me. We wanted to do shore dives (as uni students we were always broke!) that weren't too far from home (I was living in Freshie, she was living in Newtown) and weren't above our skill level. So we compromised. One week on the northside, the next week south of the bridge. Lots of dives at Shelly. And on the south side we seemed to do most dives at Gordon's Bay, North Bondi and Camp Cove. I've been told that Freshwater is a great dive when the tide/swell is right but I'm yet to do it.

Gordon's Bay is still a dive I adore. Free parking (well it was the last time I was there about a year ago) right next to the path leading down to the entry. An easy dive where you can follow the chain down to the wall. Entry and exit is very easy if there is no swell. When the swell picks up a bit the waves can break onto the rock platform where you enter and exit from. One day we entered with the sea flat as. We had laughed at the guy sitting in the car park with his surfboard looking at the flat, calm sea. Joke was on us, as we surfaced after an hour the waves were breaking on the platform and out in the middle of the bay. Made for an interesting exit, but nothing too difficult. So I recommend checking that the swell isn't going to come up there before heading in! Looking back over my log, most dives were between 9-13m.

Camp Cove is a nice dive for when there is too much swell on the ocean side. I think my max depth there was about 6-7m. Nice easy dive though watch out for boat traffic.