23/1/2009 - I'm Back

So its been along long long long long time since i have been onto this site to tell you whats been going on... So lets see if i can break it down to a small section

I worked at DSS and learnt how to dive 2003 - 2005, first O/S trip -Philippines May 05

I worked at Ocean Modules 2005 - 2006, second O/S trip - Texas October 05

Currently working at Allphones since 2007. Since working at Allphones it was harder for me to put down some time to dive, as my days off were inconsistant and i worked most weekends.

Summer is here now and its 2009. I have just completed my second dive for this year and it topped off the first one for the year. Dived at Swansea bridge on Wednesday night at 8pm. We did 66mins and the vis was ahh 3m or less. Wasn't that crash hot. Temp was good around 20 degrees. But last night was fantastic. Hoped in the water at 9:10pm. We did 83mins and the vis was 10m possibly more in some spots.

Its been awhile since i have dived at Swansea ( being it my favourite place ) it has changed alot. Massive over hangs that you can swim right up into, more rubble has been dumped to stablise the bridge. The growth is amazing. And there was alot more fish life.

And there is Wedding Bells in the distance for 2009. Im getting Married in September.

So the year is looking at being a great one.... with a lot more dives to come!!! :)

29/9/2008 - First post for 2008

Yup it's the last day of September and here I am, putting up my first post for the year. The good news is in I have been diving at least! - although not enough to justify my absence here.

Last month, my good friend Lauren and I put our money where our mouth is and finally did the Poor Knights. I used to dive with Lauren in Adelaide, but she now lives in DC, so it was a bit of a reunion!

We were lucky in that SDNZ were also organising a Winter trip on the same day. So rather than trying to organise our own separate excursion, I thought it would be a good chance to meet some of the forum members and signed us up.

It was the first time I used my camera (a Sony DSC-T100) underwater, and I was quite pleased with some of the shots considering my lack of ability! I will let the images speak for themselves...

From Poor Knights

An arch (wave hit the boat when I took the photo!)

From Poor Knights

The surface shot while waiting for Lauren to jump in.

From Poor Knights

Drifting through blue mao mao arch.

From Poor Knights

This red pigfish stalked me for most of the 2nd dive...I finally snatched a photo of him!

From Poor Knights

Kina (urchins) everywhere.

From Poor Knights

Heading for the top.

We planned to dive Sunday as well, but the 13deg water had chilled me to the bone so at the thought of climbing into sodden wetsuits the next morning, we called it off and decided to do some terrestrial exploring instead. Probably wasn't a bad idea as Lauren eded up with a cold later in the week anyway.

It was an awesome trip nevertheless, reminding me how much I enjoy being underwater.  Hope to return there in the warmer months to explore some more.

9/24/2007 - Prayers for Nikki.....

9/21/2007 - Amazing dives today....

Did anyone wonder if I was still alive??  :)  

Dive 1:
Buddies:  Ed and my dad Jeff
Waves: 2-4 ft, mild chop
Current: mellow
Bottomtime: 46 minutes
Depth: 64 fsw
gas: Nitrox 28%
Viz: 64 feet at least

Dive 2:
Buddies:  same
Waves: same
Current: brisk
Bottomtime: 53 minutes
Depth: 63 fsw
gas: Nitrox 31%
Viz:  about 40 fsw

Went out of Boynton Beach today for a 2-tank trip. I've looked forward to this trip since I planned it. For one, I'm taking my father diving, who hasn't been under the water in a couple of years. And another, is because I just love Boynton diving. With the great viz, healthy reef, and abundance of fish, it rarely disappoints. Today was no exception.

We descended to perfect viz and mild current. Along this stretch of reef, the relief is well-defined between sand channels and consistently about 6-8 feet, with many crevices perfect for critters to hide. The reef was was absolutely teeming with life, schooling grunts and chubs and tomtates everywhere. I immediately saw a nice spotted drum, one of my favorites. The current gently swept us north, where we encountered a large green turtle. He was friendly, too friendly actually. He came up between my dad and myself, and was basically eye to eye, before drifting back to Ed and showing the same close-up curiosity. Granted, turtles aren't known to be man-eaters, but I have seen them snap at fish before, and give those jaws a wide berth. It would not be the last time my hackles were raised on today's dives.

Drifting further, I caught some movement under one of the crevices and saw the distinctive tails of two large nurse sharks. These are frequently seen on the reefs here, so that's not unusual. What IS unusual was their behavior. Rather than scattering as per usual, they continued to swim under the crevices, obviously feeding. I handed the flag off to Ed and cruised in for a closer look. As I approached within a few feet, they continued to display aggressive behavior, lunging at the reef in search of food. One emerged with the remnants of some unfortunate lesser occupant of the food chain. I couldn't see the type of fish, as it was shredded by this point. Seeing this aggressive behaviour, my common sense resurfaced and I quickly backed off. Nurse sharks are STILL sharks, and I've seen some ugly bites from these predators. One of the boat captains later shared a couple more scary nurse shark stories, and I was glad I thought of better of hanging around.

We continued to drift along the reef ledge for the remainder of our air/bottomtime, seeing a couple more spotted drums, hogfish, black grouper, and the usual south Florida reef suspects in exceptional quantity. We surfaced to calm seas and got back on the boat. Once aboard, we heard the story of the first diver in our group, who was solo diving and hunting. He had descended to the reef and was gathering his gear, when out of nowhere, a pair of sharks appeared and pulled a large green moray eel from it's home "like a worm from a hole." The sharks took a large bite from the eel, blood filling the water. The diver attempted to get as far away from that area as possible. I suspect that the pair of sharks he witnessed feeding were the same ones we encountered later still in feeding mode.

After a surface interval, we descended for the second dive. After the over the top first dive, this one was more mellow.   Current was moving a bit tho, and viz had dropped.  I did see a school of cuddle fish, something I haven't seen out here. Capt. John said later that they are seeing them more and more on the reefs. Ed was nice enough to carry the flag, so I did get a couple of pics that I'll post later. The reef structure on this dive was more meandering, without alot of definition, and I prefer the first. But it was still lovely. No stingrays or eels or lobster, which is unusual. Still very nice tho. Ed and my dad headed up a little before me, and I enjoyed the solitude for another few minutes before heading up. While hanging on a safety stop solo (which I don't really care much for as I always feel like "bait) I was scanning the reef below looking for anything of interest. I had been there 2.5 minutes when a large shark swam along the reef under me. A careful look showed it to be a bull shark, I'd estimate about 7 feet.  And THICK!  Pucker factor 3 for the day came into play. They are so thick and have the most powerful and menacing look.  Even the aerial view scared me a bit.  He didn't hang around and was out of site as soon as my 3 minutes were up, but I opted not to stay for a full 5 minute stop and surfaced. All in all a really amazing day on and under the water. I'm going out tomorrow morning also, leaving the family at home and taking the spear gun. Hmmm...dinner??? :) I'll post pics later.

Jul. 25, 2007 - Flipper is Pink Now?

Wow--- how cool is this!?

Rare "PINK DOLPHIN" Photos

This extremely rare and beautiful "pink dolphin" was spotted and photographed by Capt. Erik Rue of Calcasieu Charter Service on June 24th, 2007 during a charter fishing trip on Calcasieu Lake south of Lake Charles, LA.

Jun. 3, 2007 - Diving Concepts, you are a pita.....

Ok I'm shopping for dry gloves...

(and just deleted my entire post because a pretty nice guy helped me find the Diving Concepts gloves)..

Anyway- what this entry boiled down to was: shopping for dry gloves.. Hate DUI's prices. Went to Scuba Show.  Got hooked on Diving Concepts gloves.. http://divingconcepts.com/dryglove.htm  Seems that nobody sells them, even online. Major frustration.. Complained online..  Nice guy hooked me up with a store in San Jose who might have them.. Emailed this store, within 30 min they replied...  Called them, ordered my gloves.  They should be here in 2 days.

Then the fun part of trying to get them ON the rings and not ripping them starts when the gloves get here...  :)     

26/5/2007 - Winter Diver

Wow, its cold out there. This past week has been so cold, i've been spending my nights curled up on the lounge watching Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

We ventured out last night to a staggering 13 degrees. Boy it was cold. That was just the outside temperature too.

Looking at getting in the water this week some time. But if it makes my lips go blue, i might have to think about hanging my wettie up to dry over the winter season...

Jealous of you people with dry suits.

May. 10, 2007 - Let There Be Light !

Took the new housing/stobe setup out on its first dive this week~  and couldn't have picked a much better day (well for SoCal anyway).. The ocean was FLAT... vis wasn't spectacular, but probably a very decent 15-20ft.... surge was minimal... and the water temps weren't quite as bad as they have been... Snapped random pics, adjusting the strobe (I haven't put the 2nd one on yet)~ trying to figure out what works best.. Somewhere around my 40th pic, my shutter stopped working- which is something that had been mentioned to me by another person who had the same setup... grrrr... Supposedly by adding a little knob to the end of the lever in the housing, it should depress the shutter more than it does now-- and that "should" fix it.  Other than that, no problems at all.. The buttons are easy to use, and the housing with the strobe didn't seem as bulky as it did on my first dive with it.. I love the difference that the strobe made- and I can't wait to see how pics turn out with dual strobes :o)     MDL is giving me problems with uploading but I finally managed to get one pic on here (see below).

May. 7, 2007 - Got Sand?

I certainly do- yuck!! Decided to go back to beach diving over the last couple of weeks~ and I remembered (very quickly) why I don't like it. It wasn't so bad doing the couple of beach dives in Cozumel because you could get out of the water via ladder and there were showers & dunk tanks steps away..  But throwing on a set of doubles in Laguna beach (Shaw's Cove) last weekend was so not fun! lol.. The trek down the stairs was ok..  from the bottom of the stairs to the water was semi-ok (I don't like walking in loose sand)... Getting into the water was ok... Getting fins on was doable..The dive sucked though- no vis, lots of surge- and then.... the exit. Let's just say it wasn't graceful. And I had sand everywhere on my gear...        So, whaddya do now....  Well, go back to your "sandy roots" and beach dive in La Jolla..  But when theres 4ft surf pounding, sets coming in fast, and you're testing out your new camera housing, well sometimes thats not the best time to dive..  Anyway, despite the surf, poor vis, fogged & leaking mask, 51F temps, and buddy separation, my dive wasn't bad.  And my housing didnt leak     (Yes I finally got an Ike housing! A dear friend of mine actually managed to find me TWO of them... one complete w/ strobes. Very big thank you to him for that).  So, next time the camera goes into the housing and we'll see what kind of pics I'll get with the strobes...

And hopefully it'll be a boat dive.. hehee

Apr. 4, 2007 - How splendid! The toadfish, that is !

23/3/2007 - Mates 30th - Brendan or Brenda???

21/3/2007 - MYSPACE.COM

Just to keep everyone else in the world happy, i have fallen under the MYSPACE.COM spell.

So i have logged on and thought i'd see how it goes, but WWW.MYDIVINGLIFE.COM will always be my home.

www.myspace.com/redsparkles1980

21/3/2007 - Happy and Bad Stuff Comes in 3's

But in this case its Happy Stuff. Yeah ( but it starts with a sad story first )

My old employer ( worked for him for 7years ) died last thursday, Had been fighting Cancer for years. His funeral was today. After the funeral i met up with alot of people that i worked with and caught up on past time. After the wake, i went to the Hospital to visit my Best Friend who had just delivered Twins.

Good Thing 1 ) I was so excited for her, they were both very beautiful Girls.

after leaving the hospital got a call from a mate  who was looking at my car, which had not been on the road for over 6mths due to user problems ( i'll accept the blame as i never gave it the correct fuel )

Good Thing 2 ) He fixed it for me, will have a further look at it in daylight tomorrow and see if he missed anything. Good to know a x mechanic.

Good Thing 3 ) A job i was hoping for, came through for me and i'm so excited. Start this weekend.

Its a happy happy occasion day today... !!! :)

Mar. 11, 2007 - At Last.....

After all of my losing battles with the ladder on the boat, we finally got a new one--- much more conducive to diving!  I've been battered, beaten, and driven to utter exasperation with the previous ladder, so I do NOT miss it  

Anyway, today was the first time using the new one... took the boat over to the Yukon for a couple of dives (which ended up only being 1 dive since the conditions were terrible)..  Nothing particularly exciting to see, but I did get a visit from a massive school of Blacksmith, who seemed to have a seal after them in hopes of getting a meal out of some of them...  Also this was my first solo dive on the Yukon~ which didn't thrill me since I couldn't see much of anything in that nasty pea soup water...

Me & the new ladder... awwwww                (Yah, I know.. mask strap isn't under hood, I had my C4 instead of my can lite, and my MP3 player wire was in my mouth *giggle*    But thank you for pointing those things out)

6/3/2007 - Dive, Dive, Dive

How funny is it when something you could never imagine yourself doing, you end up doing it over and over and over again. Strange really. See i could and still don't swim at the beach. I'll swim in the ocean at the enclosed swimming areas ( enclosed i mean with a cement wall not just a net ).

But 4years ago, you would never have gotten me to go swimming in the open ocean. As a kid you grow up listening to stories of people drowning, being bitten by sharks, stung by blue bottles etc. You watch movies like Jaws and The Abyss, and you never quite imagine it would be something you'd be interested in. The risks are unbearable.

So, i get put through a dive course and look at me now, diving every weekend without question. Even if the weather is shit and the vis is minimal, i will still do it, cause who knows it could be the day you see the rare fish or find something you've never seen before.

But still to this day, i will not swim at the beach. I actually still feel threatened in the water. But diving pulls a sense of calmness out of me, and i feel at home under the water in the world unknown. Strange i know.

I try and get up to South West Rocks with the Hutchinson Boys every 3 mths to dive the Fish Rock Cave and see the Grey Nurse Sharks. Another thing i think is odd of me. These big puppy dogs, just crusing by and saying hello. If they are at all frightened by my presence they go away. But they seem comfortable with us being there.

I've got the cravings for wreck diving. I got my first experience of actually penetrating a wreck back in March 05 when i got a week off work to go to Merimbula to dive the Tugs. Its just another different venue. Apart from diving in the ocean and looking at fish and corals, wrecks are a whole new adventure. These tugs were huge, going in and out of different rooms, turn the torch off and its pitch black. Cables hanging down ( becareful not to get tangled ) wheels, propellors and probably alot more hidden that i didn't see.

Philippines was another adventure i had the opportunity to go and see. Coron holds all the cards in the Philippines when it comes to diving Wrecks. Coron Bay holds 12 WWII wrecks just waiting to be dived. I dived on four of them. And the fish life, corals ( hard plates is what i have found to be my favourites ). I went through with three torches flashing in every direction so there was no crevice unseen.

Then October 05 was time for the underwater parks of Austin Texas. They sink things for fun here, and give you a map to find it all. Amazing. I'll post the map one day for you to see what im on about. Chains leading throughout the dive site ( map showing the chains ), platforms to regroup and head count etc ( also on maps ) throughout the dive you will know where and what depth ( relating to the map ) of where you are. Wish we would have throught of that here in our home town. Hmmmm gives me an idea... hahaha.

Anyway, thats me for today, just mumbling ( tummy grumbling ). Hope everyone is doing ok, talk to you on the underside.... 

Mar. 3, 2007 - Diving the PBY

PBY.  190 ft in Lake Mead~ just recently discovered... And I did my first Trimix dive on it  :)

Joel (Silverstein) was my buddy (and instructor).... The dive went off without a hitch (with a minor bout of pre-dive nerves & some "sea"sickness from the boat rocking in the rough lake).. The descent seemed to take forever- mostly because it was DARK down there and you couldn't see the bottom until you almost hit it... Water was cold, vis was low, but finally we spotted the orange line that ran about 300ft away to the wreck.. Even with trimix, I was still feeling some narcosis down there- most likely because I was cold and my earlier case of nerves. The wreck came out of the gloom and into sight finally... and for a moment I did not move.. When you encounter a "real" wreck for the first time (not an intentional sinking), the reality of it stops you...(and I was hoping I wouldn't see the 2 bodies that have never been discovered).  We moved around the plane slowly, but after 15 min or so, the temperature of the water was beginning to get to me and I moved back to the line to wait for my buddy..  The gas switches went flawlessly on the ascent, and since we both had Mp3 players, the deco time was almost fun  (almost because I was freezing, even with argon)..     My camera's housing wasnt rated or that depth, so I wasn't able to take it down and get pics  :(

But I do get the title of being the 1st female to ever dive the PBY    Here's Steves post on sdtech to prove it:  

Re: PBY Catalina Found in Lake Mead -

Guess which pink wearing diver did her first mixed gas dive and was the FIRST WOMAN ever to dive the PBY up here in Lake Mead? Nasty day out, very hard conditions, terrible visibility... but she did fine. Congratulations Missy!!!!! Nice job.

An article on the PBY:

Missing Plane Discovered
At Lake Mead
BOULDER CITY, NV - The National Park Service (NPS) announced yesterday a submerged PBY Catalina flying boat that crashed 60 years ago in Lake Mead has been located. On October 24, 1949, the Navy PBY-5A Catalina flying boat, converted for civilian use by the Charles Babb Company of Los Angeles, took off from the Boulder City Airport for a test flight. The aircraft was attempting a water landing in the Boulder Basin area of Lake Mead. Unfortunately, the landing gear was still down, causing the plane to flip and burn.
The occupants of the aircraft were pilot Russell Rogers, mechanic Charmen Correa and Clarence Masters, all from Southern California. Boulder City Airport Operator Tom Swift and his associate George Davis were invited to join the group on the test flight. Swift and Masters were thrown clear of the plane; however they never regained consciousness and later died at the hospital. George Davis, the only member of the group that was strapped in his seat, survived the crash but did have a broken leg, cuts and bruises. Rogers and Correa went down with the plane. Body recovery operations were conducted shortly after the crash, but researchers are unable to confirm if the bodies were ever retrieved.
PBY Catalina was the United States Navy designation for an American and Canadian-built flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s. PB stands for Patrol Bomber, with Y being Consolidated Aircraft’s manufacturer identification. When used by the military, it could be equipped with depth charges, bombs, torpedoes and .50 caliber machine guns and was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. All weaponry was removed from this aircraft when it was converted for civilian use by the Babb Company.

Mar. 1, 2007 - Finally!

Geez- its been 2 months since my last entry... BUT-- it's not my fault!  MDL wouldn't let me sign in for some reason    Ok so what happened to all of the smilies here? Ok, so whats been happening over the past few months...  Well.. I took 2 TDI classes (Adv Nitrox & Deco Procedures, and Trimix is slated for a couple months from now- although I have my 1st mix dive coming up this Friday..).  I've done quite a bit of LAKE diving in the past 2 months as well... yes lake diving... as in diving in a LAKE.. *grin*.    No, not Lake Parasite (Perris), but over in Mead and Mohave.. Mead has some wonderful sites that I wasn't aware of (wreck alley, aggregate piles/batch plant, and a couple of plane wrecks- one of which isn't open YET, but I'm chomping at the bit to dive it..).  The PBY plane wreck is a new one and has just been 'opened' to divers by the NPS..  It sits at about 190fsw (cross your fingers for calm winds this Friday *hint hint* )....        The B29 is the one I'm waiting for~ I'm so excited & waiting on the NPS to open it is driving me nuts!        Wreck Alley is set up quite well- the lines are already in place, so all you have to do is follow em.. (I believe you can thank www.lakemeadtechnicaldivers.com  for it, thanks double Steves!) The first boat sits in about 150-160fsw, if you look closely you'll find a frog sitting on it.. The 2nd boat is the Ranger, which sits in about 180- I'd like to spend more time on it, get some pics... I haven't gotten to the other wrecks (yet), but I have a feeling that it's just a matter of time... Lake Mohave was... hmm.... interesting. The dive was the "school bus" wreck but I was SO cold on that dive that I didn't have much interest in seeing it~ my hands were numb by the end of the dive..  I think the temp was 46-47F, which wasn't terribly cold- but I froze my tail off!

The Pacific hasn't been very cooperative over the last 2 months~ we've been getting hit by storm after storm and I think the frustration level in the dive community is getting high. Now, that doesn't mean that I haven't been diving *grin*... Several dives to the Yukon, Ruby, P38, and even a couple of beach dives (yeah, as in I put my stuff on at the car and WALK into the ocean... ugh).. lol..   Uh huh, I've gotten spoiled..  I have acquired my first  wreck "artifacts" recently- I won't say from where, as I will no doubt get chastised for it.. But I'm pleased ...   Speaking of wrecks & artifacts, I went to the DSD banquet and met John Chatterton and Richie Kohler (pics are on my MySpace page-  http://www.myspace.com/_missy_p  ...  Oh, as long as you're there, check out my pic of my  2 backplates- haha-- purple one matches my purple drysuit, pink plate matches pink drysuit.. now THATS coordination!  Fortunately for me theres a dive shop that has a  flair for matching stuff like that (and yep, its a tech dive shop, lol)... 

Ok thats all for now.. It's late and I have to finish packing for Vegas (read up a couple of paragraphs to the "hint hint" & you'll know why).  Remember, wish calm wind thoughts for Friday!            ~*M*~ 

30/1/2007 - Drought is broken

Unfortunately I'm not talking about the lack of rain in Australia, but ust thought I'd let you all know that I finally got a dive in, my first one in over 6 months!!  It hasn't been all bad, I went out freediving for paua (=abalone) twice (it is illegal to take them on SCUBA here in NZ or even have the equipment in your car/boat).  Anyway a few of us marine people at work have put together a list of those interested in diving, and last Sunday 3 of us met at Breaker Bay on the South coast of Wellington.  The weather was reasonable - breezy (but when is it not in Wellington?! ) but warmish (water temp about 15deg) and we picked the top of the tide, when current would be minimal.  The vis was about 3m, so unfortunately I spent most of the time trying to keep my buddy in sight, but we did see a few crays and paua (great to see them thriving only 10min from the capital city!), and plenty of wrasse-like fish hiding amongst the  kelp and macroalgae.  I will have to get a decent NZ fish ID book to help me with their names.  a stand out was an ascidian (sea squirt) with a super-long stalk!  Towards the end we got a bit lost and had a bit of a surface swim back to shore, but all in all it was great to get out again!

1/24/2007 - Dead Bull Ray

Me and Rebecca (my wife) decided during my day off to take a dive from Merimbula Wharf to Bar Beach. A 1 km dive from 9 mts to 4 to 5 mts. An easy and nice dive.

After 45 minutes we discover this HUGE Dead Bull ray....  it was quite amazing to see such a big Bull Ray like this.

1/22/2007 - Random Thoughts on Inspiration