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