30/9/2008 - 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.

31/1/2007 - 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!

16/12/2006 - Only 6 months late....

OK people, I know its been one helluva a long time, but I thought I'd stick post photos from my last diving weekend - yes it happened 6 months ago!!!

Nevertheless, I had some awesome sinkhole diving!

Above: Me trying out this new horizontal business, coming out of Pics Ponds.

Above: Snot check after Pics Ponds.

23/10/2006 - yes, I am still alive....! :-)

Hi All, just thought I'd check that they hadn't deleted my precious blog with all the inactivity....!  Before you ask no I haven't been diving, was thinking of doing a trip North to do Bay of Islands, but I left booking flights a tad late and they were a little too much to justify.  I did go snorkelling for abalone (or should I say paua) about 6 weeks ago...does that count?  Unfortunately my freediving wasn't too good, couldn't equallise fast enough, so I didn't even get any, left that all up to my BKM.  Anyway, I am supposed to be doing some work on my PhD....well I guess that was how this blog got started in the first place!!  Good to see some of you are still getting wet, especially you Aussies - about time to come out of hibernation me thinks!!

13/8/2006 - Long time no dive

Has been ages since I've dived but I am still feeling the cold here and can't see myself getting in the water a couple of months yet.!  Gear finally arrived with my household items about 2 weeks ago, but I haven't even unpacked it.  Piled in the spare rooms with BKM's dive gear and kitesurfing gear.  In the meantime have started playing court volleyball (as opposed to beach volleyball which I used to play) and am struggling with it, a lot harder!  Also played my first-ever game of indoor netball, which was hilarious.  Anyway, just thought I'd blog and let you all know I'm still alive and I miss being underwater!!

PS how good is the new-look mydivinglife!! Very sleek!  Well done Gabriel, I'm a fan!!!

9/7/2006 - Greetings from the East Islands ;-)

It's been a long time since I've dived and even longer since I've blogged!  Have now taken up residence on the "East Islands" i.e. New Zealand (Kiwis call Australia the "West Island" so I'm turning it back on them).  The good news is I got 5 fantastic sinkhole dives before I left.  The Mount put on the best weather I have ever seen down there, meaning there was sun and not much wind, so wasn't as cold as I thinking it was going to be.  We drove down Friday as soon as the removalists had left my doorstep, and had booked our first dive in at Pics Ponds for 8am Saturday.  It was so good to get into the water without having to worry about skills or having my mask ripped off! Anyway, when I have some more time and I'm not so tired, I will write a more in depth account of the weekend since it might be the last diving I do for a while.

I've been in NZ 2 weeks now, and starting to settle in.  Visited a dive store down the road to get an idea on the local diving, and it seems like there's a fair bit around the coast, and several shore sites, which is good, won't have to rely on having a boat.  There also seems to be few people interested in diving around the place and one who has a boat, so hopefully I'll be able to buddy-up with them sometime.  The thing is it IS very cold, water temp around 10 deg but also very cold OUT of the water which I think would be the worst.  So I think I'll wait till the water warms up a bit before I jump in.

Anyway happy divers I hope this entry finds you all well and your gear still damp!

12/6/2006 - The last stand?

Have not quite packed away the dive gear, as there's a opportunity to do some sinkhole diving next weekend.  I even booked my flight for Monday afternoon, to give me time to de-gas....  it's not a definite yet, but goodness knows I need some recreational time.  I'd rather go diving than get trashed and not remember my last weekend.  And I haven't done any "pleasure" sinkhole diving since doing the course, so I'm kinda looking forward to it....  Anyway, althought I'll be sending most of my gear on Friday, I've worked out I could keep my software and hire the rest from the club.  EP has kindly offered me the loan of her semidry, since she's in Mexico and has been diving in a rashie and boardies the lucky bh!!!  The only thing I'm concerned about is how cold it's going to be.  Daily air temperatures are barely topping 14deg and  I'd be stoked if the water temp is 12deg.  The coldest I've dived in is 12deg in NZ, and could only manage a single dive.  Hopefully my skin has thickened in the meantime!  Will get an extra jacket from the club, which should help.

Well, only one week to go in this lovely city I've come to call home.  Very sad to be leaving, but then so many places to see and much diving to be done....

7/6/2006 - Reflections

Its interesting to go back an re-read your archived entries.  I just looked back on when I was struggling to get back into the ocean after a friend was taken by a shark (see here).  Well last weekend a fishing boat approached us on the water and warned us that a large shark had been sighted that morning nearby.  What irked me was that they had been fishing right next to us, with a large whole fish for bait, a balloon and heavy game gear.  Not to mention the blood and berley over the back of their boat.  Not that they were the only ones fishing, being a nice day and all there were half a dozen boats out but most of them were fishing for small stuff, whiting and the like.  No surprise a shark came up to see what they had to offer.  I was almost angry at them for telling us, I didn't want to know about it, I'd been boat-sitting and had yet to get into the water.   To add some irony we were on the same reef JS had been diving when he got taken.  But I overcome the rising fear and did the dive.  I have to admit we moved to the Dredge, still very close to the reef but not exactly the same spot.   And I always feel more comfortable on (and particularly inside) a wreck.  If it was a reef dive I might have chickened out.  But I did it, and tried not to think too much about it underwater.  I just hope I never see one underwater.  Don't get me wrong I have nothing against fishing, it used to be my passion but now I'd prefer to see fish alive and swimming underwater.  I just felt frustrated, I was having a nice day out on the water and it kinda ruined my mood.

Well I got to try my new semidry out, but I still froze my  off, I think 14 degrees is my lower temperature limit.  I still got over 40min in each dive, but my air was getting low (approaching 50 bar) so I'm certainly sucking through it now.  It was definitely nice having 7mm instead of 5mm over the arms and legs, but the neck seal leaked a bit on the first dive (I have a small neck!  Need to do it up tighter...) and I missed the 10mm over my torso.  It's so much more comfortable than my 2 piece though. 

Sad to think these might be my last dives for a while, I'm not sure if I'll have time to do much over in NZ when I get there, until after I've settled in and sussed it all out anyway.

6/6/2006 - ...faster than the chill that follows me!

from Saturation - the Superjesus

Whenever I hear this I think of a winter night dive...lol

2/6/2006 - Do I really look angry...?

Soooo....do I?  Look angry I mean!

.....I don't mean to!!!  

Anyway, take one last look at that wetsuit, cause I'm diving in my SEMI-DRY tomorrow YAY!   Can hardly wait to try it out. 

Have a great weekend!

31/5/2006 - Northern Outer

Had another awesome dive last weekend, this time at Northern Outer Reef.  This is a local Adelaide reef, and it really isn't much more than blip on the sounder but it never ceases to amaze me how much life it always seems to attract.  There is a bit of an ledge that runs along, but it rises no more than a half a metre off the sand.  Another first for me - we found a Harlequin fish, which apparently is the temperate equivalent to a coral trout.

As a marine parasitologist, I was particularly interested to see the large isopods ("sea lice") living on its body.  You can see one clearly above near the tail.  Although they look pretty nasty, most of the time they don't really affect the fish's health or wellbeing.

There was also lots of nudibranchs as usual, and we were also lucky to find an ornate wobbegong towards the end of our dive.  It  cost us a few minutes of deco but worth it all the same!

Thanks again to GP for providing the photographic evidence for this dive!!! 

In other news my brand spanking new semi-dry wetsuit arrived yesterday, so despite the drizzle and cold weather I am itching to get in and try it this weekend...hopefully the sea won't be too rough and will let us get out.   It's blue and black in colour, not that I got to choose, but it will match my fins, gloves....if I'm not careful people will start to mistake me for a blue devil, cause apparently I always look angry underwater....I swear I'm not it's just the mask or something.....

29/5/2006 - Talking with your hands

Have you ever noticed how some divers talk with their hands a lot?  Especially immediatly after a dive. I know I do it.  I've caught myself wagging my finger at someone when saying no, and giving the "ok" signal instead of thumbs up!  A lot of people do when they're re-living the dive to someone else...they'll describe the dive complete with all the hand signals that went along with it.  Worse still, when I've had a few to drink, a friend and diving buddy and I have had conversations across the pub using underwater hand signals...can be quite useful in a rowdy room!  I've also taught a lot of non-diving friends the hand signals for "turtle", "sunfish", "wobbegong", and my personal favourite - "blue swimmer crab"!  This one is done by throwing both hands in the air, like a blue swimmer crab when it's been disturbed. This has escalated to it being used in times of exasperation.  So if you see me a supermarket, hands in the air, cursing "blue swimmer crab" in vain, you know they've run out of my favourite chocolate!!!!

27/5/2006 - Best night dive yet!

Last weekend I logged my 50th dive, which I blogged about last entry, but I also did 2 awesome dives down at Pt Noarlunga.  It was funny because I wasn't going to go originally - but it was a Reefwatch training dive and I thought I'd try and finish the course before I go to NZ.  I also went out ten-pin bowling the night before, so I was feeling a little seedy in the morning!! Nevertheless I'd committed to it, and with some persuasion, took an extra tank in case it was good enough  for a night dive after.

Well, I'm glad I went.  The vis was stunning, and we had an excellent instructor, who didn't muck around so we got the Reefwatch-part of the dive done quickly.  The rest of the time was ours.  We headed South along the inside of the reef, where there are underwater trail markers.  There were heaps of fish, and the vis just seemed endless in the 4-6m of water we were in.  After we passed the 3rd concrete trail marker, one of the guys motioned us to come and see something.  He had found what looked to me like a tiny turtle's head poking out of a boulder.  As I got closer and focussed better, its body materialised out of camouflage and I realised it was some sort strange fish - a goblinfish to be exact!  Very cool.   The sort of thing that inspires sci-fi films!  We had planned for 60min dive, and it was getting to the 40min mark and I didn't want to get too cold or else I'd suffer on the night dive - there was no question we were coming back for seconds, with the vis this good and creatures like goblinfish around we just couldn't pass it up!  So we headed back to the jetty.  On the way, a senator wrasse was being quite bold, and when I stopped it came right up and kind of sat in front of me.  Further along, it did again, and got quite agitated whenever we went near a scallop.  It was then that I realised that this fish was waiting to be fed!!  Usually I frown down upon feeding the wildlife, but I made an exception, and sure enough, that was what he (or she) was after!!  Boy, we were its best friend after that, and it followed us right back to the first trail marker before it gave up on us.  Sitting right at end of jetty and edge of reef was a small blue urn, the kind you kept people ashes in.  My buddy motioned to open it and I made the sign of the cross - I didn't know what (who?!) was still inside, and didn't want to know!!  Certainly would give a whole new meaning to "silting up"!  By this time it was late afternoon, and we had 2 min until the 60min mark so we floated around underneath the steps - "60" is a nice round figure to work with in your log book.  I rolled on my back and gazed west towards the shards of light cutting through the water over the reef as the sun sank low.  What a stunning afternoon!

We trekked back to the car park and doffed our gear ready to change tanks for the night dive.  We took our time, had a hot Milo (I was patting myself on the back for thinking to pack the thermos) and got a generous serving of hot chips from the local fish 'n' chip shop.  By this time it was almost completely dark, and we'd had an hour out of the water - time to get back in!! This time we had a camera, and we were hoping we would find that goblin fish again. 

There no moon so the water was like ink.  We dropped down and I was pleased I'd put a new set of batteries in my SL4.  The vis was still excellent, and our lights cut through the darkness, finding the pilons and edge of the reef.  Just near the jetty we spotted a small stingray come out to feed, and quite a common sight.  Further down I found a globe fish hovering over the sand, and he obliged for a photo.  A decorated crab was perched on a rock, looking bold and unconcerned that he was not-at-all camouflaged!  There were many goatfish fast asleep under overhangs and on the sand.  They looked very pink while they were sleeping, like they'd applied blush before they'd gone to bed.  My buddy was pausing a lot to take photos, so I went see what was ahead.  He flashed me with his torch to come back - another first sighting for me, he had found a sea mouse!  Another very weird creature:

This dive was great!  I love seeing things for the first time.  It's easy to underestimate how good Pt Noarlunga can be, if you give it a chance, as it's dived so often during the day.   It can be transformed at night!  The beauty of this dive took my breath away, being underwater and weightless is a wondrous thing...distracted I forgot about my buddy momentarily until I turned around and realised he wasn't right there anymore.  My heart fluttered and I stopped and looked back.  Nothing.  So I turned off my torch.  It was DARK.  Slowly my eyes adjusted, the reef turning into ominous black shapes.  And then I saw his flash go off around the corner.  I breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to check on him.  Silently I scolded myself - one, for being a bad buddy and swimming off, and two, because I'm a cav/sink diver now so I shouldn't be afraid of the dark!!!!

We pushed on, hoping we would find the goblinfish again, so some photographic evidence could be gathered.  It's great being underwater, for me it's like meditating, finding inner peace or something.  The requirement to interact with people is minimised, you can't talk, so you can focus on yourself, your thoughts, what's around you.  And on this dive, for the first time, that I truly felt comfortable underwater.  I realised this was what I'm about!  Who needs drugs?!

We reached the 3rd trail marker, and started to search in earnest the boulders for this goblin fish.  And we found it!  They must be quite sedentary, and at a guess from their camouflage I'd say they're a sit-and-wait, ambush-type predator.  Some time was spent making sure some photos of it, before we turned and headed for home. 

This was a glorious dive, and definitely my best night dive... so far!

Many thanks to GP for (AGAIN) letting me use his photos on my blog.  

25/5/2006 - 50 and counting...

Well I did my 50th dive on the weekend and my 30th for the year...and to think, this time last year I think I'd done about 12 dives!!!  There is no way I'd have predicted I'd have done my Cav/Sink and clocked up this many dives, after being so inactive after my OW course.  Anyway, it was a fairly uneventful dive with club, we headed out to the wreck of the Norma, off Pt Adelaide.  I think after it originally sank, another boat ran into it so it was deemed a shipping hazard and blown to unrecognisable bits. It lies in 12-15m of water, and often has lots of wobbegongs, but I think the onset of cooler water has sent them off elsewhere as we didn't find any.  I spent a lot of the dive looking for them to no avail.  The vis wasn't that good (<5m) and there wasn't too much to see.  One of the highlights of a blue & yellow cowfish who was very camera-shy and refused to pose for my buddy's camera.  It was a stunning day to be out on the water - even though it was cool the sun was out and the ocean was flat.  Can't complain!

15/5/2006 - Pt Stanvac double

Spent yesterday on & under the water, which was good, weather was overcast but it didn't rain and it was nice and flat.  Did a double dive in the Pt Stanvac area, which we haven't frequented in a while (not counting shore dives from Pt Noarlunga!).  First dive was to 27m on the Pt Stanvac barges.  From the surface the vis didn't look too bad, but further down it looked like there a whole lot of snot in the water.  This was my first time on this site.  Apparently there are 3 barges, but we only manged to see one (I think - it was hard to get perspective with the low vis) without going into deco.  Didn't see any nudi's but there was an excellent specimen of a boarfish, who clearly wasn't fazed by us divers.  Second dive was an inshore site called the Stanvac dump.  Basically, this spot is north of the Pt Stanvac refinery jetty where they used to dump just about anything.  Lots of cables, pipes and even a car, all at about 10-12m depth.  Good place for collecting lost anchors too!  I've done it once before, but it's spread over a large area so there's plenty to see.  The area we covered on this dive had plenty of natural as well as artificial reef.  I found a very cool starfish - it was purple!  My buddies also saw a blue devil but I missed it .  Oh well.  Vis was much better here.  Unfortunately we were pretty cold by this stage, so although we had plenty of time & air left, we decided to head back to the boat after 30-odd minutes. 

It was good to get in the ocean and see if I've improved with buoyancy etc. since doing the cav/sink course.  Unfortunately with the current running it was virtually impossible to do a safety stop without hanging on to the anchor line.  Only 1 dive off my 50th now - another milestone for me!! To think this time last year, I had only done about dozen.

8/5/2006 - I passed!

EP & I did it - we passed our Cavern/Sinkhole course!

The weekend was not without its challenges - the weather was not forgiving, and not only was there constant rain and Antarctic wind, but it even HAILED at one stage (and the ice took a while to melt too!).  Only 3 of us were in wetsuits and I was the only one in a regular 2 piece with no special seals.  Yes I am insane.  The water temperature was between 13-15C, but it was definitely colder out of the water than in!  Anyway, the excitement hasn't really kicked in yet - am more relieved and exhausted from such a full-on weekend.  I'm sure I'll feel better when I've had a chance to wind down.  Hopefully will get a chance to go cave-diving one more time before I leave for NZ.  Will be good to just get in and not worry about sharing air or having our masks ripped off our faces!!!

30/4/2006 - climbing

This is a photo of me learning how to abseil as part of the cavern/sinkhole course I've taken on.  So far have done 4 hrs of theory (with another 8hrs to go tomorrow) plus the climbing and a pool session.  I still think we must be mad, but no turning back now.    The climbing was quite challenging - I wouldn't say I'm afraid of heights, but negotiating 15m sheer face of unfriendly rock was at first daunting task to tackle!  The pool session wasn't too bad either, both EP and I were able to cope without masks and didn't get tangled in the line.  I think I need to work on my buoyancy still, and I'm worried that when I'm task-loaded with reeling and no mask etc that I'll have trouble managing my buoyancy to boot.  And I don't want to be that diver that silts it up for everyone.  But I'll try my best!  Also got to try out our instructors twin 55 steel tanks, harness and wing, something completely new to me.  Unfortunately couldn't get the harness to quite fit, so they were a bit sloppy, but being completely free of a weight belt was great!  Anyway, I really hope we pass!

Thanks to DF for recording this moment for me...!

28/4/2006 - ANZAC Day weekend

Weekend in Mt Gambier has come and gone, and unfortunately only got 3 dives in.  The often-rugged seas of the Southern Ocean had abated from 4-6m to about 2m, but the vis was minimal.  We dived once successfully in the ocean, and we found a ledge that had many small crays, but all were undersize.  After 20min of poking around, the vis dropped to under a metre with the rising tide so we called the dive.  We had one more aborted attempt at diving in the ocean, which we called very early because we could not see our feet in waist-deep water!!!!!

We did dive Ewens Ponds twice which was BEAUTIFUL as usual (see photos from older posts).  We had entire place to ourselves so vis was premium.  My buoyancy has improved a helluva lot since I last dived it in October, so we were able to leave the site as close to as we found it as possible.

What has come out of it is I've enrolled to do my Cavern/Sinkhole course with EP!!!!  Hanging around those cavies too much, it has obviously rubbed off, and this time we had a cave diving instructor down there as well.  After much prodding and poking (and other general encouragement), we made a last minute decision, and will be completing it over the next 2 weekends.

To be honest it was not something I thought I was competent enough to do as a diver, but thanks to everyone for having the confidence in me, 'cause now I'm doing it!!!!

Wish me luck!

19/4/2006 - PhD procastination

Hopefully my supervisor isn't reading this page or he might think I haven't been doing any work....!   (Well I guess that's what this blog is dedicated to at the moment!)

Had to leave early yesterday so relocation company could look at how much stuff I had to move. Not much, although wasn't too sure about the 10kg worth of lead (weight belt and weights) I added!!  Only took him 20min to do the assessment.  Anyway, hopefully I won't need to send my stuff too early, otherwise will be without dive gear!!!!

Went to LDS yesterday as well (well, since my afternoon had already been interrupted....! ) and looked at various flash things I can't afford.  Well, a semi dry wetsuit in particular.  I tried on a Cressi Lontra 3 (7mm), and it was great!  Cuffs actually reached my ankles and wrists, but still was a snug fit.  It was relatively easy to get on and off too, ankle and wrist zips and a VERTICAL back zip made it less of a chore.  I remember trying a suit without  ankle zips and almost dislocating joints.  Not something I want to be doing in the carpark, that's for sure!!!  Anyway, I almost walked out with this one - was very tempting.  Be great to have it down at Mt Gambier this weekend!  But unfortunately don't get paid until the end of next week, and barely have enough to even tide me over for the weekend (thank goodness for credit cards).  SO I think need to "cool down" a bit, shop around, and then see.

Be interested to hear from anyone who owns a Cressi wetsuit, and how it has gone in the water - especially the seals and zips!

14/4/2006 - Dive-free weekend :-(

Well here I am at uni on the eve of the Easter long weekend - but no diving for me I'm afraid.

The rest of the club (well, most of them anyway, plus both boats and ALL the gear!) headed down to Yorke Peninsula this afternoon.  Meanwhile I am trying to knuckle down and finish off my lab work.  Clock is ticking, and I dread to think how little time I have before I have to start packing up to leave.  Relocation companies have been very pleasant to deal with, but seriously - ringing me FIVE times this week is a little much.    I don't have to be there till July, and I certainly don't want to be thinking about moving stuff when I have so much uni work to complete.  I don't think they realise how little I have to move over!  Yay for sharehousing.  Hmm, let me do a stocktake:

• bed & mattress
• tiny desk
• set of drawers
• washing machine
• tub of dive gear
• lead weights
• fishing gear
• microwave
• coffee table
• 5 boxes of papers/books from my office
• 5 boxes/bags of miscellaneous household items eg. photos, pots & pans, linen, towels etc
• 2 suitcases of clothing
• coffee machine*

*This may be given to my parents, as they'd get more use out of it!

So yeah, not really that much at all.  My 1967 VW Beetle will be going back to Dad to tinker with (hopefully we'll look into restoring it!), the computer belongs to the uni and almost all the other furniture belongs to the house!!!  Anyway, the removalists are coming on Tuesday & Wednesday to estimate the volume of stuff I have so they can give me a quote.  But if the new employer wasn't paying for it to be moved, I'd probably leave most of it behind (except dive gear of course!!!).

Well, I made a half-promise to myself that if I got a substantial portion of the lab work done this Easter, I'd look at semi-dry suits afterwards, as a bit of incentive.  Maybe not buy one, depends on the price and what's available, but we'll see how we go.  It's 1:22am here, and without a significant caffeine boost, I'm not going to be looking at any more parasites this morning....so I might head home and get some sleep and start afresh tomorrow.