Mar
12
Dive Number: 451 10/03/2013 Chimney Rock – East Section
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Details: Back to Chimney Rock, but this time i dived the east section of the reef.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
10
Dive Number: 450 10/03/2013 Chimney Rock
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 7m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Details: A fairly gloomy dive at Chimney Rock with John. A highlight was a big school of Trevally on descent. The weather changed from mercury-like glass condition to a chrystaline chop on the way down from Castle Rock. There were no shortage of photographic opportunities though. A seal casually demolished its catch in my company, and a Little Penguin popped up for air nearby. The Barwon Bluff looked amazing on approach as the sun glistened on the wind swept surface.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
6
Dive Number: 448 06/03/2013 The Ampitheatre
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 15m
Details: The Ampitheatre is a shallowish site off the back of Charlemont Reef. Its relatively shallow coming up to about 8m, but them dropping off to about 15-16m. There some great bommies on the reefs edge and a little protected Ampitheatre that Port Jackson sharks hang out in. There was about 15 on this dive but unfortunately i had a small housing leak, so no photos from this dive.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos: NO PHOTOS
Mar
6
Dive Number: 447 06/05/2013 Pipeline Bommie
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 21m
Details: The terrain gets a little different down near Black Rock, and so do the fish species. A big school of Silver Warehou, a species I’ve never seen before, circled me closely. The usual Port Jackson shark hung out under the ledges and on the way there, Dolphins enjoyed the ride on the bough. Great dive.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Feb
23
Dive Number: 444 23/02/2013 Secret Garden
Conditions: Strong Northerlies
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 11m
Details: This is a site that can be done from shore when conditions are ideal, but I decided to give it a go from the boat, as the wind was howling from the north and things were getting messy out to sea. Not many photos but a there is some beautiful kelp out here, hence the name Secret Garden. I must have felt inspired if I took a selfie…cant you see the excitement on my face?!? lol
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Nov
6
Dive Number: 399 06/11/2012 Chimney Rock
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 23m
Details: Dark and murky conditions at Chimney Rock.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm, 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
22
Dive Number: 356 22/09/12 Chimney Rock
Wind: NE
Tide: ???
Conditions: Dirty surgey water…dark and nasty.
Visibilty: 3m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: A scary dive..repositioning the anchor caused me shortness of breath and a less than quality occy in place of my primary made me feel panicked with an inadequate delivery of air. Mixed with strong surge and 3metres vis this was a nightmare dive….but a good learning experience all the same.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm, 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
12
Dive Number: 351 12/09/12 12.08, Charlemont Reef
Wind: 25knot northerlies
Tide: high
Conditions: Northerly Swell off shore pushing the Barwon outflow over Chimney Rock
Visibilty: 5m
Water Temp: 12.4c
Bottom Time: 39minutes
Max Depth: 11.1m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: The winds were blowing a fierce northerly today, which had the affect of not only squashing the southerly swell, but creating a northerly offshore wind swell. We headed out in Chimney Rock direction getting sufficiently drenched everytime we hit a wave that showered us in water. As i fiddled around with the GPS the wind was pushing us further out to sea. Once i thought i had the GPS functionable i fired up the motor again and we were joined by a couple of Dolphins riding the bow. This then turned into about 5 dolphins, then quickly 10, and all of a sudden we had 20 dolphins swimming around the boat. I put the boat into nuetral and we watched as the dolphins played around the boat. We geared up in a hope they would stick around and allow us to swim with them, but they were off as soon as we hit the water. An Albatross didn’t seem to mine though..i swam within centimeters of it and it only gave me a slightly baffled look. Back in the boat, we started heading back in, and were again joined by the large pod of dolphins, who were obviously bored and just wanted to play with the boat…not us! I snapped away off the boat and the dolphins passed by without a care. We ended up spending about an hour with them, and eventually decided it was time for a dive. They rode the bow all the way back in again…magic!
Due to the wind, we headed close to shore and the sounder was showing a hole dropping from 10m to 20m. It must have been a sounder glitch since there was no 20m hole. A nice kelpy dive… but dirty vis and surgey. I spent most of it looking at my dolphin pics. ;)
Camera Details: Tokina 10-70mm, SS200 Strobe
Photos:
Sep
2
Dive Number: 347 02/09/12 14.45, Chimney Rock
Wind: Mortherly
Tide: High
Conditions: Nice
Visibilty: 10m +
Water Temp: 12.0c
Bottom Time: 49minutes
Max Depth: 21.7m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Near ideal conditons for diving chimney rock. The swell was flat and the visibility was the best i’ve seen it out here..the only problem was, i was feeling very seedy from a big night before. The conditions were too good not to dive though, so after messing around with stupid smartphone GPS’s we eventually found the site and headed down. Lots of jellies midwater on the way down, and we started exploring the gullies and overhangs. Lots of Rosy Perch kept us company and a whiteear buzzed around the zooanthids. A lone Port Jackson Shark was sitting on ledge and i turned around excitedly to point it out to Hyeonji. I only shortly after realised this PJ was the “guard on duty” to a cave FULL of Port Jackson Sharks!!! There were at least 30 PJ’s, criss-crossing each other as far as the eye could see into the darkened cave. I’d seen 7 PJ’s in a group before and that got me pretty excited, so 30+ was a wet dream. I’m not sure i nailed photos of the event, but some came out ok. I sat out the second dive and took photos of Albatross, and watched as a seal buzzed Phil and Hyeonji on their saftey stop. On surfacing they were overjoyed that the resident seven-gilled shark had given a good show. Chimney rock turns on the goods again!
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobe
Photos:
Jul
8
Dive Number: 327 08/07/12 15.20, Pipeline Bommie
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Flat conditions
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: 12.4c
Bottom Time: 46minutes
Max Depth: 19.2m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: It was a great day, but the many search and rescue helicopters looking for the missing diver the day before added a bit of drama to the area, I didn’t want to come across a body so thought i’d drive down to Torquay in the boat and sound around Pt Danger looking for dive sites. I found 1 or 2 dropoffs, but had a ‘grass is greener’ mentality going on, and eventually ended up loosing the good dropoffs i did find. Conditions looked to be getting worse, so i ended up heading back and diving near black rock. I didn’t regret the decision one bit finding a great bommie that housed a family of 7 Port Jackson Sharks. It had some nice sponge growth on it too, and was just the perfect size to circumnavigate. One of the first ‘proper’ dive sites i’ve sounded out that will go on the regular dive list.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
7
Dive Number: 326 07/07/12 14.03, Clay Bed Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 11.2c
Bottom Time: 52minutes
Max Depth: 19.3m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I arrived at the Ocean Grove carpark to find a very muddy looking Barwon River. I headed out through the river mouth and down towards the Canberra. The outflow from the river spread a long way east down to Port Phillip Heads and gave the water a very milky dirty appearance all the way out to the 40m depth contour. Speaking to a newly surfaced diver at the HMAS Canberra, he informed me that the vis was indeed as bad as it looked and it wasn’t worth the effort. So i headed back over the other side of the bluff, which is generally cleaner. On the way i spotted two Southern Right whales that gave close viewing for about 30minutes. It was great to sit out on the ocean and hear them heaving out of the water and splashing there tales. An amazing encounter. I thought i better get in a dive and went exploring off Charlemont reef and sounded out a nice little drop off. The area had large areas of exposed clay with little growth on it. It was very unique to see the substrate so exposed and where the reef joined it created a great habitat for marine life, with lots of fish…especially for this time of year. I’ll definently be revisiting this area again. It was sad to hear on return that i diver went missing on The Coogee during the day…no doubt the bad vis was partly responsible for the incident.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Jun
16
Dive Number: 319 16/06/12 14.20, Ant Spit
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Surgey and dark
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 13.2c
Bottom Time: 27minutes
Max Depth: 13.2m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I’d heard of some nice areas around Ant Spit but its a big area. We didn’t sound up anything of great interest, so just decided to jump in at a random spot. Not much chop and only a couple of pics.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Jun
16
Dive Number: 318 16/06/12 12.20, Charlemont Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 13.2c
Bottom Time: 34minutes
Max Depth: 16.5m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Chris just got a new drysuit so we sounded out some reef on Charlemont Reef and went for a dive. Not a lot of structure or interest at this site, but Chris was loving the joys of drysuit diving…until he found the dodgey zip.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Jun
2
Dive Number: 312 02/06/12 14.22, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: 14.0c
Bottom Time: 43minutes
Max Depth: 23.1m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: A dark, surgey, eerie, scary dive at Chimney rock…it was great! :D
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Apr
13
Dive Number: 296 13/04/12 19.40, South Milton Wreck Search
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: -m
Water Temp: 17.2c
Bottom Time: 36minutes
Max Depth: 17.3m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: After Chimney Rock, we decided to try to find the wreck of the South Milton. We had marks but sounding around the area didn’t turn up anything. We just jumped in a had an explorer, but the terrain wasn’t that interesting. A beautiful sunset on the way back in through the estuary.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Apr
13
Dive Number: 295 13/04/12 15.02, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: -m
Water Temp: 17.2c
Bottom Time: 77minutes
Max Depth: 24.1m
Air usage:
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Another great dive at Chimney Rock. A Port Jackson Shark put in an appearance near the ‘Chimney’ and lots of nice seafans and sponges.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
29
Dive Number: 284 29/03/12 9.17, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: 17.6c
Bottom Time: 48minutes
Max Depth: 21.7m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Another nice dive at Chimney Rock. Some great fish life around today.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
20
Dive Number: 280 20/03/12 15.35, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 48minutes
Max Depth: 21.6m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Some dives will stick in your mind for ever…this will be one of them. My first encounter with a broad-nosed seven gilled shark. Here’s what i posted to flickr about this dive after it happened:
“What an experience!!! I have dreamt of seeing a sevengill shark since i started diving, and i’m not sure i’ll have a better encounter than my first yesterday. I was sitting at about 20m, stalking a large school of bullseye that were sitting in a gully over a wall from me. Luckily i had the camera all ready to go when this shark gracefully swum through an archway, along the gully and continued past within a couple of metres of me. I was totally blind-sided from its vision and it continued through the gully and into the blue, totally unaware of my presence. It had an amazing vibe to it. It moved so gracefully and it almost gave off a happy vibe, without a trace of menace or fear about it. Perhaps it would have behaved differently if it was aware of my presence….this is why i feel i’ll never get an encounter like this again.. just nature doing nature’s thing.”
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400/SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
19
Dive Number: 279 19/03/12 18.00, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 36minutes
Max Depth: 20.4m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I’d heard alot about Chimney rock and i was dying to dive it. Alan Beckhurst kindly past on the gps coords to me, so while the going was good, i headed out with the old man who was keen to do some fishing. The coords were spot on and it picked up on the sounder very easily. I dropped in to 20m and explored the bommies that made up chimney rock. Its a great site. Archways covered with zooanthids, sea fans on the walls and plenty of fish around. We left the run a bit late and it was getting dark so i kept the dive short and viwed to come back for a longer dive.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
9
Dive Number: 274 09/03/12 7.20, Charlemont Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Dark and surgey
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 16.5c
Bottom Time: 61minutes
Max Depth: 16.5m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was just a random spot off charlemont reef. I got a bit lazy with the sounding and the area was fairly monotonous with a gentely sloping terrain. It was a fairly dark and surgey dive with not a lot of interest in it. Always good to get wet though.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Jan
17
Dive Number: 256 17/01/12 ???, Charlemont Reef, Barwon Heads
Wind: northerly
Tide: ???
Conditions: low swell
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ???
Bottom Time: ???minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Chris and myself took the boat out to sound around charlemont reef. We found a really nice dropoff that turned out to be a 4-5m high wall running parallel to the shore. It was a really great dive, until we took off and i realised my camera was still on a line hanging over the back of the boat. It did a great job of waterskiing, unfortunately my ss400 strobe wasn;t as talented and went plummeting into the depths. If anyone finds a SS400 around barwon heads, let me know! ;)
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400/SS200 Strobes
Photos:
