One day free for Sydney Dive- Yay or Nay?

[Griffo]

Not to hijack the thread, but am curious as well about diving Sydney. I will be in Australia for 6 weeks Nov, Dec, Jan, mostly visiting family. Spouse is from Sydney and we live in the US. Gonna dive GBR with Mike Ball for a week at beginning of December. Then some family/friend stuff.... From Boxing day till after New Years, rented a house in Freshwater about block off the water. Gonna do some surfing, but also curious about diving. Is it worth diving Sydney after GBR? Will only have 3mm wetsuit is that sufficient to diving in Sydney? Will have my DSLR rig with me, whats the visibility like? Thanks!!

IMHO the diving in Sydney is definitely worth it. Most of the GBR is over-rated, there is some fantastic diving but also a lot of dead sites.

This was posted this week. This is a shore dive near where you are staying in Freshie


You can also join this FB group and check out the photos of many of the popular sites that people post regularly:
SCUBA Dive Sydney

The water should be mid 20's (mid 70's) by the time you are here. Whether you can get away with a 3mm is up to you, but getting a rental (or even dirt-cheap surfing wetsuit) is not an issue. There's a number of great shore-dives near where you are staying, and some great ones not too far in a car.
To save money, you could sign up with a dive-club with one of the stores (Dive Manly, Frog Dive, Pro-Dive). Generally it's a nominal fee, then you can tag along for free to any of their shore dives. Do 2 dives and it's cheaper than paying the "customer" fee. Just rent some cylinders from them, rock up, and do the dive.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Not to hijack the thread, but am curious as well about diving Sydney. I will be in Australia for 6 weeks Nov, Dec, Jan, mostly visiting family. Spouse is from Sydney and we live in the US. Gonna dive GBR with Mike Ball for a week at beginning of December. Then some family/friend stuff.... From Boxing day till after New Years, rented a house in Freshwater about block off the water. Gonna do some surfing, but also curious about diving. Is it worth diving Sydney after GBR? Will only have 3mm wetsuit is that sufficient to diving in Sydney? Will have my DSLR rig with me, whats the visibility like? Thanks!!

Not much of a hijack as you are asking about diving Sydney. griffo is right on the money. There is excellent diving in Sydney with some creatures that you won't see anywhere else including the GBR! I remember coming back from a trip to the GBR to dive "at home". It happened to be Bare Island and I was actually stunned to realize that the sponge gardens, growth and critters were just as good!

If you link up with one of the local dive groups you will be able to see some stunning stuff. There are some sites where specific creatures are almost a guarantee. Seahorses at Clifton Gardens, Weedy seadragons at Kurnel, Wobbygong sharks at Shelly beach, cuttlefish at Bare Island and with luck Red Indian fish and Anglerfish. I recently found out about a spot to almost guarantee Blue ring octopus. We have heaps to see here and you can save your money and just do shore dives to see it! Pop us a pm when you are here and maybe we can meet up..

 

[bowlofpetunias]

 

[btscott]

Thank you. Nice photos. Will try and hit you up in December. How about wetsuit? 3mm okay or need a little more?

 

[happy-diver]

The water should be mid 20's (mid 70's) by the time you are here. Whether you can get away with a 3mm is up to you, but getting a rental (or even dirt-cheap surfing wetsuit) is not an issue.

 

[btscott]

Sorry, missed that part for some reason. Thanks again!!

 

[clownfishsydney]

Maximum Sydney water temperature is only 22C. Normal maximum in summer is 20C. December can be very cold, warmest is actually March or April.

In 2013 I analysed all my dives in Sydney from 1988 to 2013 (at that time over 2,200 dives) for temperature. The minimum and average for each month in degrees Celsius was:

• January - 11.7/18.7
• February - 13.0/19.3
• March - 14.0/19.7
• April - 14.5/19.7
• May - 15.2/18.8
• June - 12.7/17.0
• July - 12.0/16.0
• August - 13.0/15.7
• September - 15.2/15.7
• October - 11.3/16.0
• November - 13.5/16.9
• December - 13.2/18.1

You will want more than a 3 mm suit, even in summer.

 

[btscott]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like 5mm is the way to go. Will definitely make time for some dives while in Sydney.

 

[Kid_Swell]

Fairly new to posting but have done most of Sydney's dives.
My favorite as a one day experience is the double boat dive Sydney dive charters does to the Apartments and Seals. Not sure about November, but it's essentially a free whale watching trip at the moment too.
The shore dives are lovely too though, but If I only had one day, that would be my personal choice by far!
Good luck!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I just checked my logbook and it seems that we regularly dive in Sharkskin bodysuit and vest in November. All to do with your heat cold tolerance and bioprene as to how much neoprene you need to dive that time of year. We primarily do shore dives and I find the wetsuit too hot for the longish walks to and from the entry/exit points.