Trip Report Sydney, Australia-April 2024

[living4experiences]

Hi, All

This is the third portion of a 50-day trip that included Fiji, an 18-night transpacific ocean cruise from Sydney to Honolulu, then diving on The Big Island, Hawaii. The first portion of this trip started on the island of Taveuni, Fiji, and the second portion was at Volivoli on Viti Levu. I wrote trip reports for both of those experiences. Trip Report - Paradise Taveuni-March/April 2024
Trip Report - Volivoli Resort, Fiji-April 2-11, 2024

I flew from Nadi (pronounced Nahn-dee) to Sydney, roughly 4 hours of flight time on Fiji Airways. I wanted to sample the diving in Sydney, and this was my first time EVER diving in a 7 mm wetsuit and in cooler water. I had low expectations for the diving because I’ve always dived in warm, tropical water with very good visibility, but I wanted to see what it was like. So, my point of view here will be as a first-timer, learning the difficulties diving in a 7 mm wetsuit and the logistics of diving with no visibility.

I had 2 ½ days in Sydney before getting on the cruise ship, so I dived one day with Sydney Diving Charters. During my research about Australia diving, I learned that guided boat diving is not common. Shore diving seems to be the primary way to dive. I also learned that on a boat dive, you’re renting the seat on the boat, and you provide everything else. I rented all the wearable gear (except my mask, fins, boots, computer, hood, and gloves) and the tanks and weights. It cost $185 USD for two tanks.

I was staying in the city of Sydney, so I took an Uber to the Rose Bay wharf/dock to meet the boat. I don’t remember the name of the site we went to, but it was more or less in the Sydney harbor. The surface conditions were rockin’ and rollin’ and it was a rough ride. When we got to the site, the boat was pitching side to side very high, kind of like one of those pirate ship rides at an amusement park, where it swings very high and you’re looking down at the other riders. The small boat was packed with 5 U.S. divers and 3 local divers, 1 guide, and the captain. The rental 7 mm wetsuit was very restricting for body movement and ill-fitting, which is to be expected in a rental wetsuit. My personal wetsuit was a 3 mm. And all the extra weight I had to wear, my goodness! The water temp was 68ⷪ.

The 3 local divers went out on their own and the 5 U.S. divers went with the guide (a couple and three single divers). The captain said the visibility was about 3 meters (9 feet), but in real time, it was an arm’s length. Nothing to see but green water in front of my face. After entry, we were to take the descent line to the bottom. Because of zero viz, I only knew I was at the bottom when my knee crashed onto a rock. From there, it was single file following the fins in front of you.

In the briefing, we were told that if someone got lost, she would give us the “wait here” sign and go look for them to bring them back to the group. In good viz, that theory would work, but in practical terms on that day, if you were more than two feet away from anyone, you’re lost. Within a few minutes, we lost three divers, and off she went. In that moment, we followed her instructions, but I’m thinking, how will she ever find them or us when she can’t see anything? But we followed the briefing instructions and stayed there. We were at 53 feet.

Since we weren’t moving, within a couple of minutes we were surrounded by a big ball of yakkas and they hung out with us just swimming around often within a few inches of my face. That was the only enjoyable thing about this dive. The rest of the diving was a sh** show.

There was intense current, so I planted myself horizontally on the bottom and held onto the rocks. The other insta-buddy diver that was with me was a woman with no dive computer, and I found out back on the boat had less than 20 dives and hasn’t dived since certification 18 months ago. She had no gloves, so she was hanging onto me so she wouldn’t float away. She wasn’t checking her air, so I was doing that for her. Her air consumption was good and we were okay.

After about 10 minutes, I heard the motor of the boat and it sounded like it was moving. I was thinking that they’re probably looking for us, which means the guide wasn’t coming back, so I signaled to do our safety stop. Once on the surface, we were too close to the rocky wall and the boat couldn’t get closer, so we had to do a bit of a surface swim in very choppy water with the current pulling us back to the wall. We were told to climb the ladder with our fins on. We got back on the boat safely. Why do operators want you to exit the water with your fins on? I’ve never done this before, and it just added to the frustration of the heavy wetsuit and extra weight. The dive lasted 38 minutes.

For the second dive, it was a repeat of the first, but now the viz was zero. I mean, like you couldn’t see your hand six inches from your face. Everyone aborted and came up. The dive was 3 minutes and 38 seconds. In that time, my new air cylinder went from 240 bar (3500 pounds) to 190 bar (2700 pounds). I don’t know why, because I had plenty of air left when I surfaced from the first dive.

The captain went to a third site about three minutes away, which didn’t make sense because a three-minute difference in distance isn’t going to yield better visibility. He told us that we would use the air cylinder from the second, aborted dive to do the third dive. At that point, I was just done with this miserable experience, and I was not comfortable going back down without a full tank.

So, I have a couple of questions for the community. Do you think any of the conduct of the dive operator was wrong or inappropriate? I question whether we should have gone diving at all in the first place. Maybe this is just a typical day of diving in Sydney.

I also question the dive guide not following her own briefing instructions and abandoning two divers in these conditions. Should she have aborted the dive and took us with her?

I also question whether a third dive should be conducted with less than a full air cylinder. If I’m asking too much, perhaps this is not the environment for me.

Please be kind in your responses, because I really want to learn from this experience to set my expectations for future diving in Australia.

To close this out, I hope to never dive in a 7 mm wetsuit again. My next report will be from French Polynesia.

 

[Darnold9999]

Probably would have wanted to abort after the first dive, definitely after the second. Can’t speak to Sydney diving but around here the vis only gets that bad in late spring and you can almost always go deep to get under it.

Managing that many divers in crappy vis is all but impossible. You did the right thing, she probably was counting on your level of experience to make the right decisions. She really should not have taken such an inexperienced group In conditions like that.

Fins on is always better if the ladder will support it. Much faster out of the water and if something goes wrong(you fall back in) you get to try again rather than need rescuing because you can’t swim. Pretty typical on boats around here. In sporty conditions you don’t want to be hanging around a ladder handing fins up to the boat. Just grab on and climb.

I always want a full tank when I splash. You can never have too much air. Would suggest that as you only used two tanks you only pay for two tanks. Not likely to fly but…

I have done a lot of cold water diving and would have been pissed at what happened to you. Note that 68 does not really count as cold! 54 is normal here 45 is cold.

Did do a similar dive in Mazatlan where vis was that bad. Cancelled the next dive and have not been back to that location.

 

[justinthedeeps]

Classic Sydney experience!

I am not in Sydney anymore, but a couple quick points before jumping in:

• You are totally right about that being a total sh!tshow. But if the customer books, the boat goes, and they will try their best to complete what the customers booked for. (Especially that boat--probably the most seaworthy boat there, with the ballsiest captain.)
• I would like to personally apologize on behalf of Sydney that you experienced this in April. We normally tend to save these kinds of conditions for like May thru December.

That is one of only two boats in the world on which I have puked in between dives. It's nothing wrong with the boat, it's just the nature of the sea state there during big swells, and all the cliffs for them to bounce off of. The vis is also often quite sh!t because 5 million people live there, and that is a lot of 'input' to the local waterways. God bless the algae for trying to reprocess it all back into the food chain.

I did my PADI Advanced Diver course on that boat, we somehow managed to anchor on a 30 metre wreck site in vomit conditions, the vis was ~1 metre, a powerful current nearly tore us off the descent line. I was the only one who made it properly to the bottom, and promptly rescued myself back up the anchor line. The rest of the class failed / were unable to pass the course that weekend, partly because conditions caused too many separations.

I think you can sum up the Sydney approach as a busy "always go" kind of culture, that operates as if it were some gentle tropical diving mecca, when in reality is actually a monstrous temperate open ocean environment that wants to eat you alive half of the time. Sometimes it can be quite nice though, maybe 20% of time. A job is a job, for the local operators. Giddy up mate.

 

[justinthedeeps]

Here's a taste of June.

 

[DiveDiversions]

Regular Sydney diver here, dive most weekends if I can and been diving in Sydney over 12 years, have also dived several locations around the world.

Sorry you had a bad experience, but the weather here has just been a **** show of late. Unfortunately, there isn’t much the dive operator can do about the weather conditions, and in particularly for the Sydney Dive Charters boat, boat diving is their main business, so they will always try and go out, mostly so they can survive as a business. It has been really hard on all dive operators here of late as they have all had to cancel a lot of dives and courses.

You probably would have got away with a 5mm good fitting wetsuit with the current water temps over the 7mm, but if you told them “I’ve always dived in warm, tropical water” they probably thought the best option was the 7mm for your comfort. And there is only so many wetsuits one can try on before the boat needs to leave.

Most Sydney divers use 5mm wetsuits during summer, and a drysuit, or a wetsuit with a second under garment or heated vest during winter months. I used to dive in a 5mm all year-round adding layers for the colder water, but then moved to a drysuit and dive in it more than the wetsuit now.

They would have also looked at your dive experience of over 500 dives and thought you should be fine for the boat, it is hard for a dive operator/DM to judge a divers experience in varying conditions when they can only go by what’s on paper, no matter how many dives they have done. End of the day, you have experience, and you should have made the call whether or not to enter the water based on your experience and comfort.

The boats do try and be accommodating, and as much as you say maybe they should have cancelled, there will be some that would have complained if they did, you can’t win. And then there will be Sydney divers that would be used to the conditions and still go, as the 3 locals did.

That cost is normal for our boats (Gear/tank rental and double dive boat trip), there are three main ones, Sydney Dive Charters, Abyss and ProDive that run regular boat dives over the weekends, so boat diving is common but it’s usually with just a single DM that if people want to follow, they can, otherwise it’s open to doing your own thing (or courses), and most boats will offer the option to pay to have your own DM.

Sydney boats are just an ocean bus, they get you to a site and back, and as Sydney is not a resort destination you don’t get the resort experience, and as your research showed, our boat diving is different to other parts of the world (saying that I have had equal and worse experiences in other parts of the world)

As for climbing the ladder with fins on, this is more of a safety thing, especially when the swell is up or there’s a surface current, so if you come off the ladder, you can swim back to the boat more easily than you would with no fins. (it’s scary how many divers are very inexperienced swimmers). And from what you have written as your experience, If I was your DM, I would insist that you had your fins on coming up the ladder as well.

Btw, did you have a BCD with integrated weights or a weight belt? Either way, you could have taken the weight pockets out or weight belt off and handed up before climbing the ladder to make it easier.

Usually, in years gone past, our winter diving is the best as the cold water brings in the clear water clarity that can extend from 15m and beyond. The shore sites are also not as deep so you can extend your dive time unlike on a boat that usually limits divers to a max of 40-60 minutes max.

Some of the dive shops run free group shore dives; hence shore diving is more popular, especially with the less experienced divers, but you may need your own transports to get to the dive site and back. Most dive shops will only include transport if you are doing a course with them.

Sydney also has some of the more diverse and easily accessible diving in the world, most of us do shore diving as access to the water is easy and cheaper then consistently having to do boat dives, and for some sites there is more to see then you will from a boat, unless you specifically go looking for something like Grey Nurse sharks out at Magic Point, or seals on some of the small islands, or wrecks (not that we have many).

So, to answer to your questions:

“Do you think any of the conduct of the dive operator was wrong or inappropriate?

“I question whether we should have gone diving at all in the first place. Maybe this is just a typical day of diving in Sydney.”

No, not really, as with any diving anywhere in the world, conditions are going to be different, it’s not all resort diving, and as dive shops/boats need to operate to survive, they can’t just cancel every trip because the swell is slightly up, and common for the area. (2-4meter swells can be common and still dived with excellent underwater conditions).

If you think Sydney was tough, don’t go to the Galapagos or Komodo where the currents can be ripping.

“I also question the dive guide not following her own briefing instructions and abandoning two divers in these conditions. Should she have aborted the dive and took us with her?”

To be fair on the DM, you did move, so the DM may have come back looking for you and in the poor conditions couldn’t find you, and like you, assumed that you’d surfaced as you had done.

I do think the DM should have taken the inexperienced diver with them instead of leaving you with them, but divers can be like cats and tough to heard, so put yourself in their fins and think about what you would have done, it’s tough in low vis.

Also, was the instructor Australian and from Sydney with Sydney experience, we get a lot of instructors from interstate/overseas come through the dive shops, so they may not have been that experienced on the site location, again this is different to resort diving, where most of the instructors/DMs learn and dive there their whole diving career, so know the sites backwards in crystal clear waters.

“I also question whether a third dive should be conducted with less than a full air cylinder. If I’m asking too much, perhaps this is not the environment for me.”

240 bar is very uncommon for a tank fill, and I doubt you actually had that, 215-220 bar is normal, so 190 bar would have still given you at least 30 minutes of dive time, and as an experienced diver you can adjust your depth to minimise air consumption.

(Another point here, is that you probably would have had steel tanks as opposed to Aluminium as most resorts have, so that would have added weight you may have not been used too, especially climbing the ladder.)

I would also assume that the boat went to a more sheltered spot that would have been shallower and therefore your air consumption would have been less anyway.

And the boat is just trying to do it’s best to accommodate you (given you travelled so far) and the other passengers as the conditions were not great.

They could have just bailed, taken your money and saved fuel costs, at least they tried to give you options to get back in the water.

 

[justinthedeeps]

If they gave you steel tanks, thank them, because it means one less brick of lead that you need.

240 bar is a good and normal fill for an HP steel tank, Anything less in an underfill. Especially if the tank is warm.

The pressure can drop to 220 or less as soon as you enter the water, due simply to cooling.

 

[DiveDiversions]

If they gave you steel tanks, thank them, because it means one less brick of lead that you need.

240 bar is a good and normal fill for an HP steel tank, Anything less in an underfill. Especially if the tank is warm.

The pressure can drop to 220 or less as soon as you enter the water, due simply to cooling.

"If they gave you steel tanks, thank them, because it means one less brick of lead that you need."
But that weight is now in the tank...

He said "The dive was 3 minutes and 38 seconds. In that time, my new air cylinder went from 240 bar (3500 pounds) to 190 bar (2700 pounds)" that implies he was on the boat/in the water and therefore the tank was cold.

Faber, the most commonly used steel tank in Sydney, that is an LP Steel tank, is only rated to 232 bar for operational use. (Faber 232 bar Steel Cylinder Range and Specifications Faber Steel Cylinders - 232 bar - The Scuba Doctor Dive Shop - Buy Scuba Diving, Snorkelling, Spearfishing and Freediving Gear from Australia's best online dive retailer)
It maybe a good fill but puts undue pressure on the tank and valve stem over time leading to potential hydro failure. I'd rather have the extended life of all my tanks than the extra 10-15 bar thanks.

Also, if a dive operator overfills the tanks past that rated pressure it becomes a liability issue for them.

The HP Steel tank you refer to is rated to 300 bar, but only a few shops can or will fill them. They are also much heavier.

 

[justinthedeeps]

"If they gave you steel tanks, thank them, because it means one less brick of lead that you need."
But that weight is now in the tank...

This is a great opportunity to consider density, and wall thickness. Steel is more dense than aluminium. A steel cylinder wall is also thinner, so it displaces less water. A steel cylinder sinks more because it is more dense--not because it is heavier. A steel HP80 is actually lighter (~28.3 lbs) than an aluminium S80 (~31.5 lbs), on land! The result is: you are lighter overall, AND need less lead with an HP steel cylinder.

The only real advantage of aluminium cylinders is that they don't rust. That's why they rule the tropics, and busy/budget dive shops.

Putting steel cylinders into consumer operations is a great service provided to the customer. I am aware of only two shops in Sydney who were doing this, and they were by far the shops with the highest standards of diving and equipment.

It is also why we use aluminium cylinders for side-clipped deco stages. They are more floaty/neutral, and thus easier to handle in that context. We actually strap lead bricks onto full deep stages if the trimix is too light. You don't have to do that with a steel stage though.

HP steel cylinder fills:

I fill standard Faber HP 237bar/3442psi cylinders to ~240-250bar, and they often cool off to about ~230bar. Depends on how empty they were before the fill. This is standard practice in a lot of dive shops--if the customers are paying attention and want proper fills.

Yes you can go more slowly off an HP bank, if you have a spare hour and only filling one tank. This is rarely the case in a dive shop though. Even if we have an HP bank, we will just fill it hot up to a limit, let it cool, then top it up again later--if necessary (often not). Unless the customer is watching, then we will show them a super slow fill that doesn't make them whine about "damaging their cylinder"

Dip the cylinder in a water bath if you don't like to see numbers like 240 or 250. We don't do that in the bulk fill facility though (and yes I have filled steels in Sydney). The safe hydro test pressure for these cylinders is 5250psi / ~360 bar.

 

[living4experiences]

That cost is normal for our boats (Gear/tank rental and double dive boat trip), there are three main ones, Sydney Dive Charters, Abyss and ProDive that run regular boat dives over the weekends, so boat diving is common but it’s usually with just a single DM that if people want to follow, they can, otherwise it’s open to doing your own thing (or courses), and most boats will offer the option to pay to have your own DM.

I did find in my research that guides are not always available for boat diving and sometimes you have to hire a private guide. That's why I chose Sydney Dive Charters.

Btw, did you have a BCD with integrated weights or a weight belt? Either way, you could have taken the weight pockets out or weight belt off and handed up before climbing the ladder to make it easier.

The rental BCD did not have integrated weights, so I had a weight belt. I chose not to bring my own BCD, which has integrated weights because I didn't want to have a bunch of wet gear the next day getting on the cruise ship.

So, to answer to your questions:

“Do you think any of the conduct of the dive operator was wrong or inappropriate?

“I question whether we should have gone diving at all in the first place. Maybe this is just a typical day of diving in Sydney.”

No, not really, as with any diving anywhere in the world, conditions are going to be different, it’s not all resort diving, and as dive shops/boats need to operate to survive, they can’t just cancel every trip because the swell is slightly up, and common for the area. (2-4meter swells can be common and still dived with excellent underwater conditions).

Unfortunately, for me on that day, the viz was still zero at 50 feet.

If you think Sydney was tough, don’t go to the Galapagos or Komodo where the currents can be ripping.

“I also question the dive guide not following her own briefing instructions and abandoning two divers in these conditions. Should she have aborted the dive and took us with her?”

To be fair on the DM, you did move, so the DM may have come back looking for you and in the poor conditions couldn’t find you, and like you, assumed that you’d surfaced as you had done.

Just to clarify, once the guide left us, we didn't move. I hung onto the rocks and the other diver hung onto me while we waited for her return. It was when I heard the boat engine that I thought they moved the boat, possibly looking for us.

Also, was the instructor Australian and from Sydney with Sydney experience, we get a lot of instructors from interstate/overseas come through the dive shops, so they may not have been that experienced on the site location, again this is different to resort diving, where most of the instructors/DMs learn and dive there their whole diving career, so know the sites backwards in crystal clear waters.

She sounded Australian and she seemed to know the captain very well, so I think she was local.

(Another point here, is that you probably would have had steel tanks as opposed to Aluminium as most resorts have, so that would have added weight you may have not been used too, especially climbing the ladder.)

This is interesting to note, but I wasn't told they were steel tanks. I've dived a couple of times with steel and it was really nice to cut back on adding weight. I think these were AL 80s.

I would also assume that the boat went to a more sheltered spot that would have been shallower and therefore your air consumption would have been less anyway.

And the boat is just trying to do it’s best to accommodate you (given you travelled so far) and the other passengers as the conditions were not great.

They could have just bailed, taken your money and saved fuel costs, at least they tried to give you options to get back in the water.

Thank you for your insights. I really appreciate it!

 

[happy-diver]

How depressing, I'm moving country, maybe to a skate rink where the water is flat, and still, and take up curling indoors