Need Advice For Sydney

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Hi Laurie, if you want weedies, shore dives are definitely the go, the best site is the Leap followed by the steps at the entrance to Botany Bay. You CAN get them at places like Henry Head and outside the bay on a boat dive but not so easily found at least in my experience, compared to the Leap and the Steps. Water temp in October should be warming but last spring in Sydney it warmed up then we had upwellings plunging the temp back to 14°C in Nov/Dec. So you need to be prepared for 14° - 18°C (56- 64 F). You should still have Port Jackson sharks and giant cuttlefish that time of year. Visibility is variable then and as you come into summer it can go right off. Normally you do the leap drift to the Steps then an out and back dive at the steps.

You should also plan your dives by the tides - The leap is a drift on an incoming tide, you also need low swell to get into the water safely from the rocks. You can do the steps at other tides but always better vis on an incoming tide. It would be good to have time up your sleeve and a plan B if the seas are up. You may want to plan your time in Sydney around that.

As far as guides go, you can hire a personal DM from various shops with notice, something like $150/day +/-, some shops like Abyss do free shore dives if you hire tanks with them but only on weekends. You could also ask at the dive shops about DM interns who may be prepared to dive with you to get their logged dives up. Standard tank size is generally an 10l steel tank but you can request 12l tanks or Ladies 8l tanks - will vary with the shop. Generally best if you hire a car to get yourself to the dive site - shops don't do transport, they'll try to help find someone to take you. The arrangement at the steps is park and gear up with wetsuit, BCD etc, carry down fins/mask/hood and I wear my camera and walk down the steps to the water. It's only about 75m walk but down a 20m cliff. You should be able to get down in one trip if you are reasonably fit.

Boats may or may not be going to sites that are good for weedies, Magic point is regular destination which may or most likely may not have grey nurse sharks, the rest of the site is OK but not where I'd go for weedies. There's really only 2 or 3 dive boats going out regularly

I would highly recommend a setup that allows you attach your camera rig to your person for getting in and out of water to free up both hands. I have a clip up lanyard one side and a double ended clip setup the other:
Stainless Snap Shackle Fixed, $17.95 | Whitworths Marine
plus: Problue Stainless Double Ended clip 102mm (4inch)
plus:Problue Stainless Steel Carabiner Link all these together and clip to LH BCD D-ring, clip up lanyard goes the other side each handle of the rig has a small shakle to clip on to.

Getting in and out of the water can be an issue so you definitely want your hands free and be wearing gloves and good dive boots. Weedies are pretty big, maybe 300mm long so a mid range zoom is good. Of my lenses the 12-40 (olympus OM-D) is probably the best for weedies, though I often dive those sites with a short macro as there are so many small nudis. There is a lot of other things besides Weedies : If you look on my website here: Underwater the first 5 galleries are mostly Sydney apart from the Leafy and a few fish/others from Rapid Bay in Adelaide. Any questions let me know, I might even be able to dive with you, though my schedule October this year is fairly full with work travel.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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