Dry Suit Diving

I took the Dry suit course last weekend and had a familiarisation session in the pool followed by 2 ocean dives at Oak Park

Sam was the instructor and Ben and Chris were the other participants on the course.

Sam, Chris, Me and Ben

Overall the drysuit was good but I don't know that Sydney shore diving warrants the expense and trouble of a dry suit. Sure it gets cold in July and August but a good 7mm semi-dry with a hood is really all that is needed to keep diving.

Chris, Sam, Ben and Me in the dry suits

I found that my kicking action under the water had to be adapted as I tended to pull my legs in towards my body due to the air and extra buoyancy in my legs in a dry suit.

 The extra weight required for a dry suit is quite something. I usually dive with a 7/5mm wetsuit with 8lb but with the dry suit I needed 24lb which makes the walk from the shore to the car a chiropractors nightmare.

Sydney put on a typical sunny winters day for the course that lessened the value of the dry suit. On the day If it had of been 12 degrees and windy the dry suit would have offered so much more value, but it was 20 degrees and sunny with factor 30 sun protection needed more than a dry suit.


The "Onesy" (1'sy) underneath the drysuit  is a great piece of clothing and caused great amusement at times.

Sam, Colin & Ben in the "Onesy"

If I were to regularly go diving further south on a boat in the winter or take up Cave Diving then I would consider owning a dry suit. but for Sydney shore diving a good 7mm Vulcan wetsuit seems to offer me better value for my needs.
I know that I could moderate the temperature for year round diving with a dry suit by selecting different undergarments but my back just would not cope with all the extra weight required.
I recommend trying a dry suit in a course if you want to find out more or if you find it too cold in the winter to continue diving it would be a great solution as they are most definitely warmer than wetsuits. But for a rugged old Pom like me the water just doesn't get that cold in winter.

Shiprock and Oak Park

Two good dives yesterday first at Shiprock and then after the mystery of the Key was solved a trip down to Oak Park for the second.
Shiprock can normally only be dived for the short period between 25 minutes before and about 30 or so minutes after the peak of high tide (you can also dive at low tide but I would not recommend it). At other times, the water is subjected to very strong tidal currents and very poor visibility. Located at the junction of Burraneer Bay and Port Hacking on Sydney's southern outskirts, the name comes, not surprisingly, from a large rock on the shore's edge which, when viewed from the water, resembles a ship.

Shiprock ia an aquatic reserve and there are always interesting things to see here.

A Stripey  (Microcanthus strigatus) hiding in the rock wall

A pair of pygmy cuttlefish

A  stripped dumpling squid

The flora at Shiprock is very colourful

Inside the bubble cave, the water isn't green it is just the effect of the white balance

Molly at Oak Park wanted photographs underwater

Molly with the friendly blue groper

A nudibranch

He accompanied us for most of the dive

Molly with an inquisitive Comb Wrasse

Molly on the surface after the dive

After the dive at Shiprock my car key had completely vanished. Everyone helped me search and after a few frantic minutes it turned up in the lunch bag. Logic told us it had to be near but despite frantic searching it eluded us for several worrying minutes. Gavin and Brett had their keys in my car.

When we arrived at Oak Park we had a nice lunch on a magnificent Sydney August afternoon before going on our second dive. Molly was my buddy and she wanted some underwater photographs  and I am always looking for a subject so we got along well.
Visibility was slightly worse at Oak Park with maximum of 5M. There is always interesting things here and the Blue Gropers were very excited to see the divers in the water. They followed us around like over stimulated Labrador puppies.
The exit was exciting in some nice surf but everyone got out without event and was richer for the experience.

Two great dives again in Sydney. Here is a slideshow of all of the days photographs.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

OWSI

No recreational diving this weekend as I spent the weekend on an Open Water course.

I am DM on the 14th at Oak Park.

Maybe some photos and a dive report next week.

Cape Solander- The Leap

We arrived at Cape Solander to find the gates locked to the shore area. We called the Park Rangers who told us it was too wet so they were not allowing cars down the track. We walked down the road anyway to check out the site and the length of the walk. We saw 3 seals basking on top of the water about 5m away from the rocks. It was a little rough with waves sending spray 5M into the air and the cars being so far away we decided to head down to the Leap instead. Strangely enough it was about as calm as I have ever seen conditions at the Leap so the swell must have been hitting Cape Solander but not the Leap.

Here is Michael and Marek entering the water at the leap: Look how calm it is!
My buddy was Gavin and we decided to limit our dive to 50 minutes

We found quite a few Port Jackson Sharks (PJ's), Here is Gavin with one.

I am trying slideshows rather than individual photos. This pictures on this slideshow were all taken on the 2 dives today.




The water was great today. My dive computer registered 14 degrees on the first and 16 degrees on the second dive and I have to admit that I didn't notice the cold at all. My lavacore hood is doing a great job of keeping me warm. I think the greatest heat advantage comes from the hood preventing water trickling down my neck, with the water flow in my wetsuit minimized I am warm and toasty after a few minutes.

We found an assortment of usual and unusual creatures.
This is a sort of underwater tortoise I believe is called a Baylene ? Anyone know what it is?

A ball of catfish: What was quite funny is when the camera flashed the ball of heads, tails and side bodies turned into a mass of faces as all the catfish turned towards the camera as if to say "what was that?"

There are some beautiful fans and sponge gardens on this dive.

We found a cute pygmy cuttlefish and some very nice nudibrancs along the way.

I found a bottle with 1955 stamped on the bottom, it was probably thrown from a passing ship and has remained in good condition on the bottom for 55 years. I left it there as it is a little piece of history only for divers to admire.
A lot of PJ's and many starfish made this another great dive.

Note to self: hold my camera in front of me when going through swimthroughs. I kept getting stuck in a swimthrough that I should have been able to fit through and Gavin told me later that my camera was floating behind me and jamming between the rock and my tank - Ouch!

Dive profile: First dive 20M 52minutes: Second dive 15M 50 minutes:

There were only 6 divers out today! Where are you winter divers? It really isn't cold. I am DM at Oak Park on 14th August, that is my favourite dive site and there is so much to see and do.

Bare Island 17th July 2010

A single dive today at Bare Island in Botany Bay. Mikhail (sic?) was my buddy and Carolyn was the DM (pictured above).
The visibility was excellent as the winter brings clearer water from the ocean.

A White ear nestled in a sponge

There are some beautiful sponge gardens on this dive and some fantastic creatures but the construction works in the bay has left a coating of silt on most things.

We came across a few sleeping Port Jackson Sharks in a swim-through and we found this one out on the sand taking in the view.

I found an interesting fish who reacted amazzingly to my flash. He put out these huge blue and black wings and threw up his feather fins. Does anyone know what he is?

We found an octopus in his lair - He thought Spain would win the World Cup as well but didn't want to get involved in a big media circus.

and the usual nudibrancs, starfish and .... dont know?

Can anyone tell me what this last one is?

Great dive as usual at Bare Island. I think I am going to look into dry-suits as I wasn't cold on the dive but took a while to get warm once I got out. The dry-suit divers had no such problems and I think if I am going to do 2 dives for over an hour in July and August it will be worth investing in a dry-suit.

Magic Point Shark dive 10th July 2010

I was DM on the magic point shark dive so I didn't take my camera with me so no photographs of this dive.

I must admit the dive exceeded my expectations with sightings of 9 (some counted 11) Grey Nurse sharks. We also saw an Angel shark and a large sting ray.

I would recommend this dive as the boat trip is relatively painless with pick up from Long Bay and a 5 minute boat ride to the dive site. On this day the visibility was excellent with up to 20M.
I used a waterproof bag to take my towel, sunscreen and a few other divers personal belongings to the the boat (it is a swim out to the boat -no gangplank) but you really don't need anything once you are on the boat other than your dive gear.

Here is a video some others took on this dive- it needs white balancing hence the green hue but I shouldn't be so picky :)

Oak Park - Amazing winter diving in Sydney

With the colder water the creatures of the deep are feeling amore. We witnessed territorial disputes amongst the cuttlefish and found 2 cuttlefish getting jiggy.

Santiago and me before the dive

My new slave strobe, learning to focus and adobe Photoshop is starting to pay off with great improvements in my pictures from yesterdays dive.

Here is a slide show of the days photos.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The water is getting colder with my computer registering a temperature of 14 degrees. This is probably surface wind chill temperature but it does feel colder than previous weeks. I invested in a new lava core hood ( Lavacore by Pinnacle - Oceanic ) and I must say I did like the improvement in head heat. It seemed to add a little buoyancy and was nowhere near as restrictive as a neoprene hood. If you are worried about the cold then you should try one of these hoods, I found it a great improvement in thermal comfort.

My buddies were Mihn and Santiago with only 3 other divers out. What happened to all the winter divers.?

Still it is good to get parking on Jibbon street near the beach. Here is my favourite photo from the day.

2 male cuttlefish vying for the rights to the nearby female

Here is the video of the winner taking his prize "Bow Chicka Bow Wow"