Aussie Diving - September 2012

[Maples]

I finally got out on Sunday, just out to Flat Rock off Brisbane with Go Dive. Water was a brisk 19*C. Bit of big stuff about, saw a few rays, ?Bamboo sharks and one Grey Nurse (about 2m). The whales are still about putting on a show. It was the first time I have been diving this far south on the east coast and to be honest I found the reef a bit bland but there were plenty of fish about, I found an occy hiding in his hole and a brittle sea star under a ledge. Our second dive was supposed to be a group drift dive, but we seemed to spend a large amount of time swimming against the current and the vis closed down to about 7m. My dive fitness has definitely dropped after six months on dry land, add in the cold factor and I was a bit of an air pig, but not enough to truncate anyone elses' dive.

Heading out again this Sunday whilst I have the chance!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Had surgery on my had so forced to sit out for a bit. Not sure if I will dive this weekend or not. Stitches are out but I am not thrilled about part of the incision. I think I will experiment tonight with various dressings/bandages. I think I would rather keep it dry at this point so I will have to see what I can come up with. I am thinking Opsite over a dressing and a nitrile glove then my dive glove. I will probably keep a camera in my pocket but not use it unless we find the pipeapplefish or something really kewl.

 

[whaylonsmithers]

Here's another 2c FWIW.
My experience with BBDC was 4 days of back-to-back whilst living on the premises around APR2011. I thought they did a great job. My only regret was that I didn't have a better camera. I can't compare them to Sundive because I've never dived with them. Agreed the shop staff did not seem like greybeards, but all DMs had heaps of experience and did a great job. I definitely didn't have the aimless feeling between dives that you did. If anything I felt over-organised and the staff had to be persuaded to let me lift a finger because they were on a really tight schedule to get everthing done. I don't remember anything about surface interval refreshments. I suspect I bought my own. As to the vibe, at 34 I did feel on the older side, although most DMs were probably at least as old as me.

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.

 

[Mantra]

Here's another 2c FWIW.
My experience with BBDC was 4 days of back-to-back whilst living on the premises around APR2011. I thought they did a great job. My only regret was that I didn't have a better camera. I can't compare them to Sundive because I've never dived with them. Agreed the shop staff did not seem like greybeards, but all DMs had heaps of experience and did a great job. I definitely didn't have the aimless feeling between dives that you did. If anything I felt over-organised and the staff had to be persuaded to let me lift a finger because they were on a really tight schedule to get everthing done. I don't remember anything about surface interval refreshments. I suspect I bought my own. As to the vibe, at 34 I did feel on the older side, although most DMs were probably at least as old as me.

Excellent, Smithers!

I was hoping someone might post about a more positive experience with them to help round things out. That's great info.

---------- Post Merged at 11:09 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:50 AM ----------

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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Dove Flinders with the reef check people last Sunday.

Great company and interesting talks. The camera rig the QLD museum people use is a sight to behold! The sea cat boat from Nautilus was very comfortable and the lunch was great.

Flat conditions with a mild current on both dives. Viz was a little soupy - 7m or so. Both dives were at the turtle cleaning station and there were some really huge turtles around. One green turtle in particular was a leviathan of a thing!

Our first OW dives on long hoses, and the configuration was convincing.

The highlight of the day for me was the whalesong. There were several humpback whales out and about in the bay, with one mother and her calf particularly close. On the second dive most notably it felt at times like someone had a new age CD in the water with us. The complexities of their song were fully present, all the deep basses and higher registers. Just wow.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

yes I did dive a short one tho 67minutes water temps 16 (60.8F) depth 15.5M (50.8') I experimented Friday night and worked out how to keep my finger dry.. worked well. Fish was worried I might hurt my hand if the exit got too rough and I had to grab onto something. The hardest thing turned out to be getting the wetsuit on!

I did bring the camera of course.. stowed in a pocket. I asked fish before the dive if he would get it out for me if I needed it. Being a sweetheart he said yes of course. Of course I had to get it out as I found a RED INDIAN FISH in a cleaning station with an EASTERN CLEANER CLINGFISH on cleaning detail. I took a few pics of that, the nearby Moray, Huge bullray and well... you know I HAD to get a Nudi shot for you know who! It was an unusual one.

I left the camera attached but floating for while but got it back in the pocket and left it there in spite of other photo ops

 

[Mantra]

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

I just wanted to update this thread.

As I noted in my posts here in September, we usually dive with Sundive, and the review I gave here was based on our first dive with the Byron Bay Dive Center. We had occasion to dive with them again this last Saturday (because Sundive were already booked out) and had a very different and more enjoyable experience. Dennis proved to be an excellent skipper on both dives, and our guides Steph (French guy) and Cuz (Japanese guy) were both great. We had a very good day diving with BBDC this time around, and I just wanted to acknowledge that given I was in two minds about them last time.