Just got back from boat dive.

Amazing day!! Saw plenty of fish, couple of stonefish, a lion fish, plenty of wobbygongs and two of the most beautiful and curious turtles I've ever seen! My instructor was really happy with our progress and said he was proud of our the skills we've accomplished over the past week or so. Also saw plenty of dolphins jumping around which was an added bonus.

Was close to paying the deposit for their Fish Rock trip but checked my calendar and it's the same weekend as Creamfields but there's always next year

Looking at booking another Tweed or Cook Island dive over the next few weeks also looking at their onboard/overnight trip.

I can tell this is going to be an addictive hobby

Quote:

Originally Posted by plan-b

I can tell this is going to be an addictive hobby

Ya think?

Is there any way of getting rid of this sea sickness feeling? I feel like I'm still on the boat

i'm not very sympathetic to seasickness

did you take any seasickness tablets beforehand? might be that that's what you need if not.

sounds like you had some great diving, top stuff, lion fish are always cool to see. did you see the dolphins above or below the water?

Here's some bits from last fridays dive at bare island, took the camera off my head the next day, too shaky on my head.

Media Player

Bare Island, Outer West Wall, La Perouse, Part 1 - YouTube

Quote:

Originally Posted by plan-b

Is there any way of getting rid of this sea sickness feeling? I feel like I'm still on the boat

That's not seasickness, that's something else. I find having a shower sometimes helps, but I like the feeling actually

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bracko

but I like the feeling actually

you're a sick man

the inertia motion of still being on the boat? it's awesome!

same feeling happened after i did a day of rally car driving, felt like i was pinned to my seat for about 12 hours after

I hate it, last night I kept finding myself looking at the window sill trying to focus on a point on the horizon.

sweet, just got a used 10l faber tank, that'll make things that bit lighter

10l is a good size, but I liked the 12's, it meant I could fill it to 220 and do both class dives on one tank and have enough spare for an emergency.

quiz time!

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/quiz/Shark_ID_Quiz

I got 7/11 - only ones which were wrong were sharks not seen in the pacific or australia




http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/quiz/Safety_Quiz

10/10

Dive club just put up a 5 day/22 dive live aboard trip for $1500 in North QLD in June. Sooooo tempted. Will be my first proper holiday in a few years.

who's the charter with? where is it exactly?

June is a good time, there's a reasonable chance you get to snorkel with a dwarf minke whale.

so back from fiji!

did 4 times.

first dive was at a shark encounter dive called supermarket, wall dive, went to 20.3 meters. unfortunately didnt see any sharks but was still a great dive. water was 30 degrees at the bottom! and i have never seen water so vividly blue as soon as you go below the surface. unfortunately it was torrential thunderstorm so boat trip was fun didnt effect diving though. lots of fish and coral etc

second dive was another wall dive called sunset wall, 30 meters visibility. loads of marine life. awesome dive. 16.3 meteres on this one. had some canyon swim throughs with strong surge which was fun. swimming along, completely stop moving, ZOOM FORWARD, completely stop moving, ZOOM FORWARD

third dive i did a 40 meter cruise ship wreck called salander. only about 13 meters visibility. went down to 25.9 meters ( @ fiji and their strictness on OW certification) was a great dive though. went in and around the ship. thoroughly enjoyed it. saw a HUGE giant puffer fish, about 1.5 meters long in a little cabin off the back of the ship. looked down in this hole shined my torch in there and its plodding along.

fourth dive was a reef dive called out with a couple bommies, saw some fish that i swear were sunfish but not nearly big enough. only about 80cm across.

unfortunately didnt see any turtles or manta rays and the bastard that did the dives off our island the day after us saw 2 turtles on his dive.

we did though, snorkelling off beachcomber island theres a shallow dive spot there which we just swum out to called jackies reef. about 5 meters deep around the sides of the reef, 3 meters over the top.

we saw a couple 1-1.5 meter reef sharks (black one and a white one). and we saw a spotted eagle nose ray. longest bloody tail ive ever seen on a ray!

love to go back and go diving there again. such a great time!

also i swear its easier to be neutrally bouyant when youre deeper. basically ran on an empty BCD most dives and played with it maybe once or twice if i had to.

very keen on getting a gopro now

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bracko

who's the charter with? where is it exactly?

June is a good time, there's a reasonable chance you get to snorkel with a dwarf minke whale.

Not too sure, Here's the link: http://www.divexsite.com/node/904

That sounds awesome J-Rod, so jealous, can't wait to explore some wrecks

^^interesting, it's not as high up as I thought it'd be. I did my first dive there when i was 15 odd.


yes it's easier to be perfectly buoyant in deep water. the magnitude of difference in buoyancy to ascend or descend is larger the deeper you go.

as for the sunfish that wasn't a sun fish... possibly an angelfish or batfish?

plus you shouldn't have been diving that deep so early. while you're okay, if an emergency happened you would not have been equiped to deal with it. also are you insured through a secondary insurance company like DAN? you are aware that if you got bent it's most likely your travel insurance wouldn't cover you. if you're insured with DAN and you get bent beyond your trained limit, you're not insured. deco treatment can cost up to $100k.

glad you had fun though, it's fucking awesome when you get to do dives in water that clear and see the reef going nuts. try doing night diving next time!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bracko

^^interesting, it's not as high up as I thought it'd be. I did my first dive there when i was 15 odd.


yes it's easier to be perfectly buoyant in deep water. the magnitude of difference in buoyancy to ascend or descend is larger the deeper you go.

as for the sunfish that wasn't a sun fish... possibly an angelfish or batfish?

plus you shouldn't have been diving that deep so early. while you're okay, if an emergency happened you would not have been equiped to deal with it. also are you insured through a secondary insurance company like DAN? you are aware that if you got bent it's most likely your travel insurance wouldn't cover you. if you're insured with DAN and you get bent beyond your trained limit, you're not insured. deco treatment can cost up to $100k.

glad you had fun though, it's fucking awesome when you get to do dives in water that clear and see the reef going nuts. try doing night diving next time!

yeah not a sunfish but the fins were the same and it was a decent size.

thanks for the tips on the deep diving stuff. yeah we had dive computers and were doing decent stops so i think all good.

still, i dont expect to dive that deep again any time soon

I found the wall dives to be really awesome too. basically swim in one direction, maybe through a canyon, and mostly looking on one side. its like a giant aquarium wall. except its natural and in the ocean and shit of course
wish i could have made a video of that 30 meter visibility and the extreme blueness when you go subsurface.

Doing a deco stop does not ensure you won't get bent. people get bent while adhering to their computer.

You should know that.

i am being melodramatic i know but it's important... also i'm re reading all my deco theory for chuuk . Fuck knows why we do this stupid dangerous pastime.

Wall dives are my favourite as well. pick your depth for what you want to see

Did another dive at Tweed today. Diving HMAS Brisbane on Wednesday will only be able to see outside of course but will give me a teaser for when I can do my deep diving (and wreck)

Scratch that, doing my wreck diving specialty on Wednesday Theory on Tuesday night

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bracko

Doing a deco stop does not ensure you won't get bent. people get bent while adhering to their computer.

You should know that.

i am being melodramatic i know but it's important... also i'm re reading all my deco theory for chuuk . Fuck knows why we do this stupid dangerous pastime.

Wall dives are my favourite as well. pick your depth for what you want to see

we started at the bottom of hte boat and worked our way slowly up. top of the boat was probably about 17 meters deep. made our way up the rope stopped at 5 meters for 4 minutes or a bit longer. only needed 3 but just hung around a little longer anyway.

yeah walls were awesome. the surge on the wall was strange too . swim closer to wall, float upwards, move further away move down a bit. prob cause of hte surf breaks it was creating above us. great fun though

Deep cavern course is $900 and they don't hire dry suits. They do teach side mount for the course.

i thought that "rocking feeling" you get after going diving was from the surge? i get sea legs from being on a boat for the day but this was different. felt like i way being pushed back and forth from surge i dunno why you'd love it though

Ah right, so the SSI Wreck diving specialty only teaches you to dive on the outside of the wreck and not any actual penetration diving.

That makes me feel very slightly disappointed yet at the same time a hell of a lot more comfortable and less nervous about Wednesday's dive . I'll get to the point where I'm ready to do some penetration (tee hee hee) diving eventually though.

Has anyone done the SSI Wreck workbook at all? The answer to one of the questions in the last chapter doesn't seem to be in the workbook could use a little help on where to actually find the answer in the book, done the rest of the questions just have one left to answer.

did I not specifically tell you this before you started?

^^ Possibly… Goldfish/selective memory

contemplating going diving in penang and langkawi in malaysia later this year. super cheap over there and pretty good marine areas.

plus langkawi is a small island with loads of orangutans on it!

Did HMAS Brisbane yesterday, amazing dive, visibility was like 10m, saw plenty of fish, few groupers, and other colourful things that I'll have to try and identify online. Was a bit naughty and went to about 25m, my dive instructor felt I was ready for it, I also went inside the wreck and explored.

Unfortunately my instructor also didn't feel the need for us to wear gloves, I should've gone against his advice though, I've got a doctor's appointment at 10:40am to see if I need a tetanus shot, second dive however whenever there was a surge while we were inside I just rode it out rather than trying to grab onto something. Gotta learn to be extra diligent though, the one time I did go to put my hand down to stabilize myself (still perfecting my buoyancy control, perfect buoyancy's on the list) I looked down and there was a great big ugly friggin stonefish staring up at me.

Also, how cool are batfish, there were schools of them everywhere at around 5m, when I did my safety stop, they were everywhere, they kept looking at me and followed my hand movements/beckoning signs as well, cool little guys.

Also... I've now got my SSI Wreck Certification

Booking in to to my deep on a live aboard trip late May/Early June...

I think I'm officially hooked, I don't go out to clubs or pubs nearly as much any more purely because beer money = diving money... I'm now taking my lunch to work for the same reason

Remember when I first started I was a bit funny on the instructor? Now overtime I dive with him I like him more and more, there was definitely a change in his temperament when doing the wreck theory on Tuesday night, I think he's realized I'm not a cowboy and is happy that I've taken so well to diving.

youre still a cowboy though

lol yeah you've REALLY got into it.

i love it but im not keen on the super cold waters coming our way this winter.

made friends with a couple up on the central coast whilst i was in fiji so will visit them one weekend soon and probably go diving or something though HMAS Adelaide II is there too!

Gloves are a good and cheap investment.

Thinking of doing a dive when I'm in croatia... Anyone had any experience with that?

http://www.viking-diving.com/en

just do it. may as well

Quote:

Originally Posted by muli_

Thinking of doing a dive when I'm in croatia... Anyone had any experience with that?

http://www.viking-diving.com/en

my brother-inlaw did a few dives there, i think he did one on a WW2 wreck which he liked... most of the boat were deco diving though.

do you want me to enquire?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarrardscott

just do it. may as well

Yea i will... as long as i am not sleep deprived/hung over


Yea bracko, if you don't mind. Sounds like i might have to up skill though? Which i don't really have time for....

Fuck croatia, you're in the right hemisphere, got to Iceland and dive between tectonic plates.

http://www.dive.is/Diving_Iceland.php?page=Silfra

^ holy shit. that looks better than Gambier.

will do, I think it was definitely and advanced dive but the bro in-law is not a deco diver. in any event a DM isn't responsible for deco divers / technical divers anyway, so you won't have a problem finding a buddy.

theres an underwater housing for my sony nex5 on ebay for like 100 bucks.

are the cheap ones just too risky?
should i just buy a gopro HD hero 2 surf instead?

^^ I know about as much you do about them Jrod but I will give you a bit of advice to think about if in doubt.

You get what you way pay for…

link?

if it's the sony branded one it'll be okay. but mostly the enclosures made by the manufacturers are the worst in terms of features.

i dont know if its branded. the proper ones from like aquatica etc are like 1800.
this is only 100-200.

still, do you reckon you'd be covered in some way, they couldnt possibly market a product that is "tested to 40m underwater" that could spring a leak could they?

Just booked Julian Rocks and my first Live Aboard

Also have given up drinking, buying coffee beans at home (instead of take out coffee) and eating salad wraps instead of takeout for lunch just so I have more money to throw on diving trips

holy shit dude

slightly obsessed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarrardscott

holy shit dude

slightly obsessed.

Man you don't know the half of it, I also took out 12 month subscriptions to a whole bunch of scuba diving magazines on my iPad (I catch public transport alot so read alot of magazines on the bus). Works out to be around $2 an issue, almost crazy not to...

Looks like we've booked another live aboard in July, only the scuba divers from my work though, the whole boat to ourselves

bought the below book... can't wait to get into it.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Deco.../9781905492077

figured i should have a little more knowledge of deco for Chuuk when I go.... not that I plan to go into deco, but it will be nice to have a better understanding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bracko

bought the below book... can't wait to get into it.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Deco.../9781905492077

figured i should have a little more knowledge of deco for Chuuk when I go.... not that I plan to go into deco, but it will be nice to have a better understanding.

May Issue of Diver Magazine has a decent 4 or 5 page spread on Chuuk. So jealous of you.

I'm hesitant. I prefer reef diving but it's one of those places you just have to dive. Sorting out my bailout bottle gear now. If anyone is considering buying gear soon we should talk about getting a bulk order into scubatoys or leisurepro.

when you fly with all that gear. do you send it as an oversize sports equipment and its not included in your total weight of baggage?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarrardscott

when you fly with all that gear. do you send it as an oversize sports equipment and its not included in your total weight of baggage?

Depends on the airline but yeah that's what you try to do. You don't normally take tanks or weights though, tanks have to be transported empty with the valves
out which is a bit of a pain plus they're fucking heavy.

Been back in the water this week, body's still readjusting to it but it's good to be
back in the wargear again!