Aussie Diving - September 2012

[Mantra]

Wow! I get to kick one of these threads off for the first time

Julian Rocks - Byron Bay - 1/9/2012

Conditions were markedy different than a fortnight ago. It was bloody cold topside, with a chilly wind blowing in. Spray jackets on the boat were an essential item of clothing, even before getting wet. The only place the dive op would moor in the wind was the nursery area as a result. It was a cold 17 degrees underwater, and vis was poor for this site. It ranged from 8m or so, to less than 4m in parts, with heavy particulate coming in from an offshore current.

Sundive was already full when we called to book in the trip, so we dove with the Byron Bay Dive Centre this time for the first time. We will be using Sundive exclusively in the future. It wasn't a disaster by any means, but BBDC provides a second class service compared to Sundive, based on yesterday's experience. I will elaborate briefly if anyone is interested.

I had gear issues on my first dive. I have just switched to a long hose set up, and my new HOG second stage had a steady leak. This was down to the purge cover (a yellow soft replacement for the standard cover) was slightly depressing the diaphragm, resulting in a steady and unfixable hiss. I shaved a couple of mm off it between dives and it was fine for the second.

Lots of animals around. A nurse shark was waiting right on the mooring line for us when we descended. Cormorants were dive bombing the bottom left right and centre at 8m depth, which was an amazing sight. I got a great shot with my gopro on this dive of a large (2m or so) bull ray dug into the sand, with a cormorant diving next to it and scooting over it looking for fish. Or so I thought. On review, I had my gopro set to still photo rather than video on that dive and came back with three, count 'em three, nice close up pics of my head underwater. We also saw some very pregnant nurse sharks on this dive, and some pineapple fish under a rock. Our DM didn't know what these were, and the skipper an the boat insisted to us that there was no such thing as a pineapple fish. We pointed it out to him on the big poster of local marine life back at the shop. Gorgeous animals!

The second dive we got very close to several large, preggers, nurse sharks. And there were lots of turtles, including a massive green sea turtle. We 'rescued' a hawksbill turtle at one point where it looked like it had become stuck under a mooring. It wasn't stuck. The video of this bit worked, so I might post that up.

At one point on the second dive, we went into a trench that led directly to the rock. It became quite narrow and almost an overhead environment and VERY surgey. Just as I was wondering if I wanted to continue, some large surf came pounding in, resulting in instant zero viz from all the bubbles, and the whole thing was a washing machine. This was well outside my prior dive experience (my buddy/wife actually got quite rolled around here and shot up a few metres - our DM fortunately was already with her by the time vis cleared enough for me to see her. So the exit involved hugging the bottom as much as possible to get back out again undisturbed by the surf and surge.

This second dive was great fun. Lots of eels, nudis, corals and so on. Then back up to freeze on the boat.

 

[alcina]

Sounds like quite a day out!! Glad you hit the water, thanks for starting us out right for September!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Hey there everyone. Sorry I have been remiss in popping in here:doh: Been out of the water for a bit due to health issues then an unco-operative Ocean

I have managed to get a few dives in the last week. Water temps hovering at 15.2 to 16C so back into the 5mils ..I have to say that the Aqua Lung I picked up in California is the most comfortable wetsuit I have ever used...I can even get into it without my normal litany of "I hate wetsuits"

Vis has been decent altho yesterday it was back down to 4M or so. Unfortunately all the heavy seas we have had the last while have done a lot of damage. The sponge the orangutan spider crabs lived in has be destroyed and I couldn't find them anywhere. The dwarf lionfish are not in their normal spots either. The upside down pipefish is also missing. The upside is that we found a Weedy on Monday... but I couldn't find him yesterday. We have lost a lot of our creatures with the expansion of Port Botany, the instillation of the Desalinization plant and laying cables across the bay. Viz was so bad for so long. Things are improving and getting closer to normal. Seeing lots of Port Jackson Sharks around, even a Wobby and a huge bull ray has taken up residence. I sure hope this means things are coming back and setting up their territories. They say nature hates a vacuum and will fill it! Not soon enough for me! There have been reports of Red Indian fish but I haven't seen one this year yet myself.

We are seeing more nudibranchs than in the past.. well a larger variety .... I didn't take a lot of pics last dive but here are a couple

---------- Post Merged at 03:29 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 03:25 PM ----------

Here is the Weedy we saw on Monday.. kinda interesting bent nose

fish gave me a GoPro for my birthday so I am just working out how to use it. Here is a little video clip of the weedy feeding. Obviously the nose isn't effecting it's ability to eat!

 

[cayal]

Sundive was already full when we called to book in the trip, so we dove with the Byron Bay Dive Centre this time for the first time. We will be using Sundive exclusively in the future. It wasn't a disaster by any means, but BBDC provides a second class service compared to Sundive, based on yesterday's experience. I will elaborate briefly if anyone is interested.

We're going to Byron next month, could you please elaborate? We are probably going to go Sun Dive, I found them more appealing when I spoke with them on the phone when I rang to get some information so any information on BBDC would be appreciated.

 

[Mantra]

We're going to Byron next month, could you please elaborate? We are probably going to go Sun Dive, I found them more appealing when I spoke with them on the phone when I rang to get some information so any information on BBDC would be appreciated.

Hi Cayal! Ah, well, I will try to be discrete. The experience with BBDC was fine - but only that. Their boats are smaller than Sundive. Our DM was generally good, but did shoot off at a cracking pace and didn't know too much about local animals. The DMs there seem to be more itinerant / less locally experienced than Sundive. Many seem like backpacker types, as opposed to Sundive's staff, many of who have decades of local experience. The skipper Pete was more interested in getting touchy feely / chatting up a german snorkeller than paying attention to the other divers. She was very young, and seemed uncomfortable with the attention. Between dives there was a large lack of organisation and direction (no instructions on when the next dive would be and what do do with the used tanks - crew vanished between dives - we had to ask several people just to find where new tanks were etc). There were no hot drinks or other refreshments or snacks or anything available between dives. It was cold. A cuppa would have been nice. Briefings were very perfunctory. It was our first experience with them, so maybe an anomaly. These are just small points of course. Perhaps Sundive has just spoiled us, but they have been consistently excellent.

I hate giving a lukewarm review, and perhaps I'm being overly critical, but there you have it.

 

[cayal]

Hi Cayal! Ah, well, I will try to be discrete. The experience with BBDC was fine - but only that. Their boats are smaller than Sundive. Our DM was generally good, but did shoot off at a cracking pace and didn't know too much about local animals. The DMs there seem to be more itinerant / less locally experienced than Sundive. Many seem like backpacker types, as opposed to Sundive's staff, many of who have decades of local experience. The skipper Pete was more interested in getting touchy feely / chatting up a german snorkeller than paying attention to the other divers. She was very young, and seemed uncomfortable with the attention. Between dives there was a large lack of organisation and direction (no instructions on when the next dive would be and what do do with the used tanks - crew vanished between dives - we had to ask several people just to find where new tanks were etc). There were no hot drinks or other refreshments or snacks or anything available between dives. It was cold. A cuppa would have been nice. Briefings were very perfunctory. It was our first experience with them, so maybe an anomaly. These are just small points of course. Perhaps Sundive has just spoiled us, but they have been consistently excellent.

I hate giving a lukewarm review, and perhaps I'm being overly critical, but there you have it.

Thanks for the review. I think I will try my hand with Sundive. I have plenty of time to organise it.
Out of interest, did you dive by yourself or did you have a guide?

Also, since you are in QLD, do you have a recommendation for a company to dive with in the Gold Coast, we're going there as well?

 

[bowlofpetunias]

well said Mantra better a lukewarm review that is neither over or under critical just a statement of facts as you see them! The tone of your post shows a fair person whose advice I would be inclined to respect

 

[cayal]

[video=youtube;-N1u_6ipM34]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N1u_6ipM34[/video]

This is a short video of my dive at Flinders Pier, Victoria. I was doing my Nitrox dive as part of the course and it was only a shore dive.
Visibility was bad, it rained for the past few days and pretty much all that was seen is in the video.

My videoing was poor that day. I generally wear it on my head but took it off because I didn't think I'd film and then changed my mind and it was clipped to my BCD and then I just held it when I started filming so it's pretty up and down.

 

[Mantra]

Thanks for the review. I think I will try my hand with Sundive. I have plenty of time to organise it.
Out of interest, did you dive by yourself or did you have a guide?

Also, since you are in QLD, do you have a recommendation for a company to dive with in the Gold Coast, we're going there as well?

One really good thing about BBDC was that Alyssa and I had a DM to ourselves on both dives. He was a conscientious guide and one of the best things about our experience. Something else they did well for us was this - Alyssa was feeling ill when we first woke up. I asked BBDC if they would let us dive the next day if needed (we had prepaid per their requirements) and they were willing to be flexible. That was good of them.

We have only dove with our club at the gold coast, but kirra dive seem to have a good reputation. Cook island is worth a look as a dive site - its a very easy dive, but we have seen mantas and leopard sharks and lots of macro stuff there. Kirra dive go there very regularly.

 

[ferris213]

Has anyone been out lately? There must be something interesting going on?? I haven't had the chance to go diving in weeks, hopefully others have had more luck...

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