South West Rocks & Fishrock Cave

The October long weekend offered us the opportunity to get three days at  South West Rocks.

We left on Friday morning, picking a tank up each from Abyss and heading up the coast for the five hour trip.

Everyone arrived by about 9pm and we were set for a great weekend of diving. Two boat dives each day for three days, with Ed, Steve, Lukas, Sean, Amber, David, Kim, Malcolm and me

Day One

We headed out and were joined by a pod of dolphins on our journey to Fishrock cave. We entered the water on the north side of Fishrock to dive The Pinnacles and a juvenile humpback whale surfaced no more than 20m from the boat. We saw a few grey nurse sharks (GNS) and wobbygongs and a very defensive lion fish. For our second dive we went around to the south and enjoyed the gutters where there were a lot more GNS. The conditions were a little choppy leaving a few people a bit green around the gills. We went to the local pub for lunch and finished up the day with a great BBQ, where I was likened to Huckleberry Fin by starting to cook the BBQ but ending up with everyone else doing it for me. I did redeem myself with my European inspired desert which went down a treat!

Day Two

A perfect day with conditions about as good as it gets. On our way out we saw a few hump back whales breaching and splashing, there seemed to be a lot of them in the area for the long weekend as well! Both dives today were through the cave and then taking time to swim with the GNS. We saw a huge bull Ray at a cleaning station, getting his/her teeth and gums cleaned by the brave little cleaner fish.

I made this video of the day.

Day Three

The winds had picked up overnight to be quite strong, but this led to a most amazing trip out and back. The humpbacks were fully breaching all over the sea. Everywhere we looked we saw humpbacks launching them selfs from the ocean into the air. The skipper said that he believes he wind and choppy sea causes them to do this so that they can get a good breath, it was quite spectacular. We dived on the pinnacles again in quite a strong surrender and then went to Green Island for our last dive of the trip. At Green island we saw several turtles and I a huge wobby swam straight into me. I thought it was another diver kicking me until I turned and saw the wobby, I am sure they are quite blind as he just adjusted course and went on his way.

Fishrock, South West Rocks, October 2013

Bare Island - great visibility

Yesterday at Bare Island we had 15m+ visibility.  It was amongst the best conditions I have evr seen there.

 Trying out my new macro 85mm lems on manual focus. realise that I need some prescription lenses in my mask to be able to focus through several physical medium.
I think my eye has to focus through air, glass, water, plastic, air, plastic, air, glass, air, plastic, water. What was that I learned at school about refraction???

Magic Point Sharks

Unseasonably warm weather means a magnificent end to autumn in 2013 in Sydney.

I had the pleasure of leading a group of people on a double dive to Magic Point yesterday.

I have 3 weeks left to go until my trip to the Maldives so getting pretty excited now. I have just ordered my new camera online so fingers crossed it gets here before I leave!

Oak Park

Oak Park put on its usual magnificence and I had the pleasure to dive with 2 different buddies here.

How good is this place? I am proud to say that this is where I live- pretty special :)

First dive was with a seasoned diver "Richard": We spent almost 60 minutes went out to the cave and saw a few blue groupers, cuttlefish and a bull Ray.

The second dive was with "Rob", who had had a disappointing first dive with a buddy that lasted 20 minutes on a 10L tank. We went out to the cave and a bit beyond. We saw a few Crested Horn Sharks out beyond the cave and the same blue groupers and cuttlefish as on the first dive. Just over the hour for the second dive (61 mins). I was on a 8L tank and still had 80 bar left when we surfaced. I do enjoy social dives and seem to have much better air consumption when I am not concerned for anyone else. Also I think when I am looking after other people I never really get the chance to see how long my air will last as I normally surface before my computer signals the 110 bar turnaround alarm

2 Great dives - I reqally do enjoy Oak Park, it is my favourite dive site in Sydney and rarely dissapoints.

We found this guy a few meters off the shore near the swimming pool. This was before we had even descended on our dive,

Oak Park

I went out to Oak Park, south of Cronulla this weekend. It is my favorite dive site in Sydney and there is always something interesting happening out here.

My buddy was Tim and he helped my make my latest short Epic: Tim & The Titans of Oak Park

I seem to be getting good on my air consumption as the first dive was 1 hour 6 minutes and I still surfaced with 105 bar in the tank. I probably could have stayed down another 25 minutes or so. I was using the 10 litre tanks and I usually only dive with the 7 litre tanks, but as this was a social dive I took the bigger tank.

The visibility closed down a bit on the second dive as it was low tide. The first dive visibility was about 5-6M and the second dive down to 3-4M.

I do like Oak Park and would recommend it to anyone who has never dived there or anyone who is looking for a good shallow dive site on Sydney's doorstep. Max depth 10M.

351+

The Leap

I went diving at The Leap and The Steps in Kurnell National Park on Saturday. Both dives were magical and the second dive reminded me why I love diving.

We saw 3 different species of shark (Wobby, PJ and Crested Horn). We were accompanied most of the time by big Eastern Blue Groupers. We had some fun with cutlefish, saw squid and Weedy Sea Dragons and we found a large Sea Turtle (I think it was a Loggerhead)

I had some fun with a friend making a film short about the leap. Here it is if your interested...