OWSI

Another open water course completed yesterday (29 & 30 December 2010)

MATTHEW O KEECH
JOHN R FINGLETON
CALOGERO M PANVINO 

165-168

Open Water Course

We started with a pool session in Lilli Pilli Pool where there was some concrete grinding going on nearby that made it very difficult to talk to the students in the pool. One student had to repeat the tread water session at the end of the skills and everyone completed their closed water dives succesfully.

The wind was howling from the West and the mouth of the Georges River was like a washing machine as we left the pools to travel down to Oak Park for our first open water dive. I was amazed to find Oak Park as flat as a mill pond. There was not even a ripple near the waters edge as it is completely sheltered from the Westerlies.
We had a great first dive and was visited by very friendly blue gropers, goat fish and even saw a small bull ray departing as we approached.

Day 2 was at Bare Isalnd where we had our final 3 dives. The swell from the South East was quite large and at high tide it was a bit hairy getting out on the East side of the island.
After the first dive the swell settled as the tide dropped so we completed all three dives on the East side.

Another 3 successfully entered the ranks of Open Water Scuba Diver.

160-164

Busy time for diving

I have a few OW courses booked for the next few weeks but my next shore dive is Sunday December 19th at Windy Point.

I hope to see you there

I have no idea where the name Windy Point comes from, perhaps because to dive here you need calm seas, normally present when there are strong westerly winds. Head past Cronulla as if going to Oak Park. Drive down Ewos Parade past Shelly Park and turn left into Rostrevor Street. Park near the end and walk down the small access path between the houses to the waterfront.
The dive site is seen as soon as you reach the concrete walkway. There is a path down on to the rock platform straight ahead of you. Go to the right once you reach the rocks and zigzag to the bottom of the platform. There are a couple of good entry and exit points, depending on the tides. Try either of the small inlets or the small point in between. A good exit point is the flattish rock to the north-east. Check that the conditions are okay for entry and exiting before gearing up as this can be a difficult spot to exit in north-easterly winds.





Courtesy Michael McFadyen Site

OWSI - Oak Park & Bare Isand 4 dives

Another weekend of Open Water Instruction. Things are getting really busy now the summer has arrived and the class numbers are huge:. With plenty of instructors on hand Abyss are able to still maintain the instructor/student intimacy and deliver an excellent training package for new studensts.

I certified 2 students this weekend : PAUL ARUNDEL and KRISZTIAN  KORMO. They both breezed through their confined water dives and quickly took to the ocean without any drama. After our ocean skills were completed we still had time for a few swims which was just like diving with certified buddies.

Paul, Me & Kris

Open Water Scuba Instrucor

Another weekend of Open Water Scuba Instruction this weekend:

Heather, Dan, me and Chris

I was lucky enough to have 3 really great students that had no problems getting through all the skills required for PADI Open Water certification . I did have some problems finding the pool as we have changed venues over the last few weeks but nobody told me, so I sat in Cars Park for 15 minutes wondering where everyone else was!

I will start to keep a record of students that I certify as I think it is a really great step and may be the start of a great diving career. I still remember the guy that I completed Open Water certification with in 1986, he was Terry Morrison of Tweed Dive Shop in Tweed Heads. I assume he has retired by now as he was no spring chicken in October 1986. I was certified by the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and it was quite a different process to what we teach today.
As I recall it was 2 full weeks of training 1 week in the marina in about 2M of water and 10 open water dives in various locations (Cook Island was the main location for most of the ocean dives). I remember the theory exam was quite in depth and we needed to know stuff that I never touched on again until Dive-Master. After certification with NAUI we were certified to go to 40M, which in hindsight is not really the safest approach, although the training was more rigorous than open water today. I think the current PADI approach encompasses  a better staged approach to get people more easily into diving. You really had to love it in those days to get through the courses.

Here  is my original diving certification. The photo had to be in Black and White in those days (yes we did have colour!) and I had hair!

Certified by me this weekend were:
HEATHER  MACGILLIVRAY
DANIEL  RICHARDS
LUKE  VOLKER

Thanks to Emma and the staff at Abyss for their usual support and encouragement.

Lessons learned this week:
Make sure the teaching locations haven't changed since last time:
Have a full set of slates for any eventuality
Remember to pack your regs for the second days diving
Don't wash gear in the rain

The Steps

A double dive at the Steps today where Della and I were the DM.  Sydney put on a magnificent day and the water temperatures are really climbing with my computer reading 18 degrees on the first dive.

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High Tide was before 8am with Low tide about 2:30pm so we had an outward current for the first dive and headed West.

The visibility was about 5M and we saw a few rays and we were accompanied by a blue groper for a big part of the dive.

There were heaps of Nudibranchs and with the low visibility they were the best photograph opportunities of the day.

View The Leap/Steps Dive Site in a larger map
Map courtesy of Mihn Tran Visit www.minhtran.info for more information or follow link in the side bar

Above is one of those blue hairy Nudii's in a nice sponge garden

Today's interesting event occurred when we found that we had brought 2 unfilled tanks for one of the divers on the  club shore dive. We decided to give the diver one of our tanks each and sit out one dive each. As Della wanted to take the second dive towards the East she stayed on the shore to DM for the first dive.

We found some large starfish.

I took 6 divers with me towards the West and we had a relatively short dive (38 mins max depth 11.8M). One diver was down to 50 bar by the time we hit the surface while another diver, who had his own 125 cf tanks, still had 150 bar. I decided to use the 125 cf tank with 150 bar in and join the second dive. The second dive was longer and a bit deeper (49 mins 12.6M) but I still hit the surface with just over 50 bar

Nudi's galore!

This is a sea slug egg

Yet another Nudibranch

School of Eastern Pomfreds

The Monument and the tide

Jane and I went to the Monument in Kurnell for a shore dive on the 8th October.

For more information on the site see http://sydneyscubadive.blogspot.com/2010/06/monument.html

We found the usual Nudibrancs

There was a very strong current on the dive today which was quite surprising given that we were in the water about 30 minutes after high tide. There was a spring tide which saw a low of  0.4M and a high of 1.7M. followed by a low of 0.3M This caused a huge volume of water to want to move out of the bay in the 6 hours between high and low.

A Whitear Fish (Guess how he got his name?)

It was like trying to dive on a very windy day. We had to hold on to the rocks to maintain position and swimming forward took a lot of effort. While trying to hold on to take a photograph we were getting hit with loose kelp 'blowing' past like tumbleweeds

Mosaic Starfish

Obviously this site is impacted by the size of the tide, so it is something to bear in mind if you are considering diving here.

Octopus holding up shells for privacy

Bare Island

The October long weekend brought heavy rain to Sydney and flat seas which makes great diving conditions. The rain coupled with the NRL grand final saw only a handful of divers out today.
Today the DM was Oscar and my dive buddy was Hollie . The visibility was really good, considering the rain we have had,. I guess the storm run off hasn't hit the bay yet, or the storms of recent weeks have cleared the water up? Whatever the cause the visibility was about 10M which is great for Bare Island.

We found various Nudibranchs, Moray eels, heaps of Port Jackson Shark eggs, starfish and the friendliest blue groper.

Blue Groper

Nudibranch

Moray Eel

Port Jackson Shark egg

 I love the sponge gardens to the West of Bare Island. The great visibility really gives you a better appreciation of just how beautiful this area is. Usually in 2-5M viz you don't get to take in the volume of this area.

Sponge Gardens to West of Bare Island

Starfish

Interesting Plant with an anemone in the centre

Another Nudibranch

 Our first dive was to the East side of the Island and I found an Eastern Blue Devil Fish in the large overhang. I took several photos but something went wrong with my camera. I think the strobe maybe wasn't getting in the crevise because the pictures came out like there was no flash. I checked at the time and the strobe was firing and all my other pictures came out so something about the position of the camea and strobe must have affected the picture. Here is the poor result!

Eastern Blue Devil fish with no flash!

And another Nudibranch

Mosaic Starfish

 The second dive of the day was to the west side and was a very nice dive. Holly and I found a friendly blue groper that stayed with us for most of the dive. Every time we went to look at something he was right in there seeing if he was getting a feed. We surfaced out over John, Merrick rock after a 3 min safety stop and had about a 100M surface swim. We choose to do this to spend more time in the sponge gardens and because we knew that the bay was like a millpond. Obviously if there had been a swell hitting the island then this would not have been a good idea.

Hollie and the Blue Groper

Here is a slide show of all today's photos from the 2 dives at Bare Island:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

All up 2 good dives on one of Sydney's most popular dive sites.

Bare Island

Bare Island was part of the traditional land of the Gweagal and Kameygal Aboriginal tribes. In 1770, it was described as ‘a small bare island’ by early explorer, Lieutenant James Cook. It has served as a redundant defence against an imagined sea invasion and is most famous for being the location of a Biocyte facility creating a virus to destroy the world in Mission Impossible 2. It is arguably Sydney's most popular scuba diving site and has a lot to offer divers with a huge, easily navigable, reef system.

Ben and Tom with Bare Island in the background

I was DM and my buddies for the dive today were Ben and Tom. We had a group of 14 scuba divers and most were happy to go and do their own dive so I took a group of 5 on the first dive and just 1 on the second dive.

Spectacular sponge gardens are a feature of the West side of the Island

 On the first dive we found a half eaten lobster. The strange thing was that the head had been eaten and the fleshy tail had been left, very strange? We had a good look around the sponge gardens on the West side and navigated out to just past "John Merrrick rock" when we had to turn back due to air consumption of the group. Ian and Lachlan decided to leave us and carry on and we headed back

 Although the visibility was not the best the sponge gardens are still spectacular and I think a lot of divers swim past this area without really noticing the beauty - or maybe its just me being a 'sook' for sponges?

Bright colours and vivid shapes

Part of the western reef system

 All these pictures were taken on the first dive in the sponge gardens on the West side today.

Something has had a nibble at this starfish

 On the second dive I had some problems with my camera and I thought that maybe I had broken my fibre optic cable so I didn't take many pictures.

Moray eel didn't like the attention of my camera and came out to let me know

We did spot this moray eel and plenty of Nudibrancs. A big blue groper came by but decided not to hang around. There were a few spear fishermen in the water and I am not sure if they had spooked the Blue Groper but he did not want to be anywhere near us in the water and bolted as soon as we saw him.
15, spring has definitely arrived.

Voodoo and The Steps

The shortest dive at Voodoo ever!

Voodoo is at the end of Sir Joseph Banks Drive in Kurnell. Named by surfers after the almost supernatural sets unleashed upon it, Voodoo should only be attempted when the wax heads are elsewhere. Like Cape Solander, this site should only be done by experienced divers and only when conditions are exceptionally placid.

Carolina and her husband (sorry forgot his name)

I was the DM and unfortunately, out of the group of 12 divers, we had 5 Open Water divers and one person fresh out of his Open Water course. After assessing the conditions and taking on board the advice of 2 other experienced DM's we decided to give it a try. We had 2 instructors and 2 regular diving DM's with us so we figured we could handle getting the novices through the cauldron into the ocean.

We managed to get everyone out into the Ocean without event but as this site is so infrequently dived I had a full group of 12 divers wanting to accompany me. This was not too daunting given the visibility was probably up to about 10M. I told everyone to keep close and I stopped frequently for a head count.

Carolina photographing Nudibrancs

10 minutes into the dive we came across a pack of PJ's and everyone got a photo opportunity. The novice diver signaled to me at this stage that he was at 100bar and we needed to turn around. I had briefed the other divers that I would have to turn around based on the fastest user of air and 5 decided to leave me at that stage and carry on, 7 divers turned around with me and we returned to the exit point. Total dive time 23 minutes including a 3 min safety stop.

The swell had come up a bit, Tom (a DM) went in first to lead the way and I stayed and sent the pack in single file behind him. There were 2 people on shore who helped the divers out of the water and we got everyone out without incident. Although the exit was exciting the dive was just way to short and we really need to make this an "Advanced Dive". This is not a good site for novices to cut their teeth, they would be just as excited blowing bubbles at Oak Park, Bare Island or Camp Cove.

Nice Nudie

Carolyn had called the shop while we were in the water because I think she expected some sort of injury looking at the divers and conditions, but no one so much as broke a finger nail. I had no intentions of repeating the first dive and the conditions were getting worse so we went around to The Steps for the second dive.

Octopus

The Steps was very calm and a much nicer dive given the group that we had on the day. Here are a few photos from the day but as acting DM I tend to pay more attention to head counting than photography so not many good opportunities this week.

Port Vila, Vanuatu. Wreck of the Konanda

I've just got back from a cruise around the South Pacific and was lucky enough to get a chance to dive the Wreck of the Konanda in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

On 20 January 1955 a vessel called MV Konanda was launched from the D ramp; J Boot shipyard in Aphen, River Rhine, The Netherlands. The ship was built for the Adelaide Steamship Company.

MV Konanda as a working ship

The new ship was 153.25 feet (51 metres) long and 29.91 feet (9 metres) wide with a depth of 8.91 feet (3 metres). It had a tonnage of 414 gross (145 net) and was registered with Lloyds as 1196736. The ship was put into service carrying raw sugar between Cairns and Mourilyan and Goondi in Queensland.

MV Konanda about to be scuttled

During 7th amd 8th February 1987 she was wrecked by Cyclone Uma and declared a total loss. The written off vessel was sold to Iririki Islands Resort to be stripped and sunk as a dive attraction. The picture above shows her before she was scuttled. refence: Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Website


We used Nautilus Dive in Port Vila to take us out to the wreck and give us a local orientation briefing of the site. They were very good in terms of friendliness and site knowledge but they did lack some of the standard safety procedures that I am accustomed to in Sydney. Nothing major, but noticeably they overlooked hazard warnings, buddy check reminders, lost buddy procedure, dive time maximums and air tank minimums in the briefing.  They did have 2 DM's with the group and handled everything really well and it seemed like a well trodden path.

Top of the Mast of the MV Konanda now encrusted in coral

Jane with the mounted telescope

Entering The Wheelhouse

The Stern appeared eerie in the poor visibility

Inside the wreck

inside the wheelhouse

Jane on the deck of the Konanda

Small clusters of coral are growing on the handrails

The visibility wasn't great with about 5-8M max but this added to the spooky feeling I always get on wrecks.
We met some other people from the cruise and a nice guy named Steve gave me some video footage that I have cobbled together with my footage to create this video from the day.

Steve, if you read this and want to go diving or if you want copies of my photos from the day let me know?