Author Topic: Anybody into SCUBA Diving (Read 86710 times)

jtctlc · « **Reply #25 on:** March 31, 2012, 07:44:48 PM »

Another keen diver. I've managed to work my way through to instructor and so far have done about 900 dives. As mentioned above before marriage, children and houses I used to dive heaps including working as a DM on the local dive shops boats.

I don't have renno's great images but diving today in Jervis Bay was great with 15m+ of visibility and water temp was about 18 deg. Funny though must have been a day for grey nurse sharks as there was a small 3 - 4 ft one at the docks this morning. For those familiar with JB and the docks it was out the front of Double Decker Cave.

Regards
jtc

Campfire · « **Reply #26 on:** March 31, 2012, 07:48:46 PM »

Anybody ever tried those new shark skins which are a new alternatives to traditional wetsuits, just curious if they are any good. They do thin but have been told they have very thermal properties.

Cheers

Campfire

BigJules · « **Reply #27 on:** April 01, 2012, 09:29:37 AM »

I've always hated wetsuits, can't stand to get too hot. I'd rather be cold than risk getting overheated. 3mm shortie was my favourite, though I have a collection including a semidry.

I had a couple of wetsuits ruined, they seemed to be melting. I couldn't work out what was causing this random degradation of the material until one day I noticed that the high mount stop light in my company Falcon seemed to be loose. Damn globe has been dangling on the top of my dive tub and melting my wetsuits whenever I aplied the brakes.

Campfire · « **Reply #28 on:** April 01, 2012, 10:22:37 AM »

I did an overseas wreck dive in a brand new Mares Tropical Wetsuit 3m
, by the end of the dive holiday they looked like a set of old overalls from a workshop, ended up with a lot of grease on them from an old WW2 wreck/ tanker.

Wetsuit was more for protection from sharp metal and wreck damage than for thermal protection.

I now use that wetsuit for spearfishing around rocks etc, and save my new 3mm wettie for tropical diving and open water spearfishing.

Cheers

Campfire

BigJules · « **Reply #29 on:** April 01, 2012, 10:43:07 AM »

Anywhere north of Nelson Bay and I wear shorts. Swam into a large growth of fire coral whilst free diving on the wreck of a Cessna in PNG once

.

I have thought that a lycra shirt would be a good idea, to protect against stingers. I've got the body for it too

Campfire · « **Reply #30 on:** April 01, 2012, 10:56:49 AM »

Quote from: BigJules on April 01, 2012, 10:43:07 AM

I have thought that a lycra shirt would be a good idea, to protect against stingers. I've got the body for it too

I have a mate who is into Lycra, we often joke about his colour being hot pink, as he belongs to the leg & chest shaving, latte siping, tour de France wanna be, road bike racing crowd ( he takes it very serious).

He would make a very bright and streamlined diver though.

Campfire

Teabag · « **Reply #31 on:** April 01, 2012, 02:50:13 PM »

I wear a 1mm Adrenalin suit. Takes the chill off and good protection......Plus no need for heaps of weight.....

speewa158 · « **Reply #32 on:** April 01, 2012, 03:01:25 PM »

l feel the need , the need for nitrigen . PADI (Pay Another Dollar In ) Dive Master ,Underwater Photo nut , logged about 1000+ dives since 1984 when it all began . When l 1st got Scuba pox it would be treated by diving all weekend & 1 or 2 night dives a week .
Last dive l did was in the Shark Tank at the Melb aquariam . Great fun . Now it all seems to hard but lots of fun

Campfire · « **Reply #33 on:** April 01, 2012, 03:33:44 PM »

I might of been out of the sport years ago if it wasn't for the amount of money I pumped into it.

In hind sight I should have just done Open Water and Advanced, owned my own wetsuit, snorkel, mask, fins, weight belt which I can use for snorkeling anyway, and maybe just hired the tanks, regs & BCD.

I have all my own gear so I stayed with it to get my money's worth out of it, and even know it doesn't take long for gear to become obsolete.

Personally I can see value in the Advanced and Rescue Divers, but unless I was working in the industry, I wouldn't have done any more courses after that ( just my own personal opinion).

I enjoy the simplicity of free diving with or without a speargun. Sometimes I just enjoy putting on my free diving fins, mask, snorkel and head out with nothing more than an underwater camera.

I do like the idea of trying to develop oneself in apnea diving, diving deeper and longer within a safety margin. Always best to go with a safety number for shallow water blackout etc.

Cheers

Campfire

gowalkabout · « **Reply #34 on:** April 01, 2012, 06:01:04 PM »

Quote from: Teabag on April 01, 2012, 02:50:13 PM

I wear a 1mm Adrenalin suit. Takes the chill off and good protection......Plus no need for heaps of weight.....

ROFLMAO I wouldn't want to try that down here. I wear a 5/7mm cressie semi dry.

Teabag · « **Reply #35 on:** April 01, 2012, 06:47:17 PM »

Quote from: tas130 on April 01, 2012, 06:01:04 PM

ROFLMAO I wouldn't want to try that down here. I wear a 5/7mm cressie semi dry.

Don't do cold water diving.....iIf I have to wear anymore than a 3mm wetsuit, I don't get in the water.....spoilt I know......

deepop · « **Reply #36 on:** April 05, 2012, 08:24:06 AM »

Yep, another one here.

Did a lot of dives over a number of years - Solomons, Vanuatu, even did one in the Corinth Gulf, Greece. Lots of Melbourne diving, some in SA and QLD.

Not so much over the last few years - kids, house, marriage...............you know how it goes.

Will be happy to get back into it when time permits.

DeBe · « **Reply #37 on:** April 05, 2012, 01:55:39 PM »

Started diving late 60s using a 4Cft clisby compressor driven with a MK10 Villiers engine, air hose was reinforced garden hose with 100Psi. Diving on wrecks & crayfish gathering. Diving was self taught. Now days use a Power Dive 12V 4Cft compressor just for Cray fish. N70ZZ batery gives 2Hrs of diving.

Renno · « **Reply #38 on:** April 06, 2012, 04:22:17 PM »

Here's an unedited compressed video I took yesterday at Byron. Vis was really bad and a lot of surge.Still a great dive.
Was by myself which I think made spending an hour with these amazing creatures so much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Ohmilmtjc&feature=youtu.be
	Small \| Large

Renno

Campfire · « **Reply #39 on:** April 06, 2012, 04:28:58 PM »

Nice video footage Renno, visibility looks OK, video footage is nice and reasonably clear, colour good,
Are you using a red filter lense with that.

Nice Manta Ray close ups.

Diving is great stuff hey

Cheers

Campfire

speewa158 · « **Reply #40 on:** April 06, 2012, 08:59:35 PM »

Diving is great stuff hey

Cheers

Campfire
[/quote]
Get High Go Down

Campfire · « **Reply #41 on:** April 06, 2012, 09:19:33 PM »

I find it interesting for years you are taught and told to always dive with a buddy and never dive alone, yet PADI now teaches a Solo Divers Course.

While I have dived Solo on the odd occasion, it's not something I prefer to do as a regular practice and would say 95% of my dives have always been with a dive buddy.

The few Solo dives I have done were shore based shallow dives around 10-15 metres.

My last dive course was a Nitrox one, and found it was great for diving with, I noticed I wasn't as fatigued as you would normally get after finishing a dive.

Cheers

Campfire

kochy · « **Reply #42 on:** April 06, 2012, 10:57:34 PM »

My wife and I owned a Dive Shop in Gladstone for some years in the eighties. Was a PADI Instructor and commercial diver then Charter Boat Skipper for some years working from Gladstone to Thursday Island. Most famous wreck I dived was the Pandora that sank after hitting the Great Barrier reef bring back the mutineers of the Bounty. Also I have dived the Quetta which is QLD worst ever sea disaster for loss of life it sank almost at the tip of Cape York, the ships bell and artifacts and a lot of the bodies are on Thursday Island.

Campfire · « **Reply #43 on:** April 07, 2012, 10:53:56 AM »

Kochy,

I was in Gladstone for work towards the end of last year, it was my first visit to the region. I couldn't get over how many people own boats in that area. I also find out they have more boats per head of population then anywhere else in Australia.

I remember a few places I went fishing after work had croc warning signs ( near power station), whats the diving like off shore ( not too many toothy enhanced friends I hope) .

While my trip there was brief and I may have not seen all areas of Gladstone, I didn't see too much in the way of advertising or shop fronts for diving.

What's the diving like up that way?

Campfire

Victim · « **Reply #44 on:** April 09, 2012, 02:17:11 PM »

I am a keen and avid diver with a whole one (1) dive under my belt

So we just returned home from spending a week in Port Douglas, whilst there we went out to the reef on the Quicksilver tour.. We did a dive with the instructors and it was the most amazing, sensational, blow your mind experience ever!!

Definatley keen to do it again and hopefully solo one day!!!

Campfire · « **Reply #45 on:** April 09, 2012, 02:48:33 PM »

Quote from: Victim on April 09, 2012, 02:17:11 PM

I am a keen and avid diver with a whole one (1) dive under my belt

So we just returned home from spending a week in Port Douglas, whilst there we went out to the reef on the Quicksilver tour.. We did a dive with the instructors and it was the most amazing, sensational, blow your mind experience ever!!

Definatley keen to do it again and hopefully solo one day!!!

Victim,

That first step into the magical underwater world is a mind blowing experience and leaves you bitten by the diving bug. I enjoy dives which have good visibility, weather & sealife. Some of my best dives have been around 10-15 metres, not deeper ones.

Sometimes I come across the odd new diver with ego who buy all the high tech gear and has an obsession to dive as deep as possible like it's for bragging rites or something, they sit on the bottom for a few minutes playing with their computers, and dive gadgets and then find they have to return to the surface due to deco times and air supply. On more than one occasion I've seen one of these guys remind everyone in the dive group know how deep they went like it was some kind of competition.

As a beginner if you are out diving in a group you should only dive what your comfortable doing, don't go with subtle peer pressure if a few what to do something a little more challenging than what your use to. Good dives can be found in the shallows just as much as the deeper more challenging ones.

A safe dive is the best dive of all.

Cheers

Campfire

MrHorsepower · « **Reply #46 on:** April 09, 2012, 03:01:04 PM »

Never dived with tanks, just snorkel and mainly hookah (uncle was an Abalone diver) but havent been diving for years (fear of sharks has set in) because I have only ever dived on Yorke Peninsula it is a very real fear as I know they are out there (have seen BIG white pointers from boats while fishing) I do miss it and the Crayfish though....Michael..

scubalou · « **Reply #47 on:** April 16, 2012, 01:00:13 AM »

Another keen diver here.

Learnt to dive in UK - British Sub Aqua Club Advanced Instructor, PADI instructor too. Done over 1000 dives. Used to own a live aboard dive boat from Port Douglas. Dived all over the place - red sea, med, Florida, Thailand, Indonesia, Vanuatu ...

Try to get to the reef as often as I can. Even met my husband Grant (ulti) at Ryde Underwater club in Sydney.

Lou

Finners · « **Reply #48 on:** April 16, 2012, 11:27:54 AM »

Gawd - there's endless campfire diving stories out among Swaggers. Gr8 pics 'n' stories. Glad to hear there's such depth of experience (and continued interest).

Likewise, am also a PADI DM. Stopped logging dives decades ago (been scuba diving for 30+ years - learned at age 13). Will one day scan my slides (Nikonos V and 15mm wide angle + Aqua Sea twin stobes) and share digitally. Locations/dives too numerous, but highlights would be Osprey Reef (Coral Sea) 86.4m on air - young and stupid - nearly passed out from oxygen toxicity - felt like the Ed Harris scene from The Abyss as he plummets down that endless wall. President Coolidge on honeymoon. Countless NSW wrecks, though Yongala will always be best Aussie wreck, IMHO. Freediving with a humpback off Coffs Harbour - back in the days before distance restrictions. Oh - and Pimpernel Rock off Wooli/Brooms Head - surely the most perfect underwater formation in NSW.

Looking fwd to getting my two boys into it. Even specified a boat rack and outboard bracket on the CT so I can take a RIB to SW Rocks, Jervis Bay etc, and introduce the boys to Fish Rock cave, The Docks, Cathedral Cave, and in years to come... Stoney Creek (lushest temperate water growth in NSW).

I can feel a MySwag camp/dive/spearo trip coming on. Jervis Bay, Seal Rocks or SW Rocks would be good location starters for those in NSW.

Renno · « **Reply #49 on:** April 16, 2012, 05:04:29 PM »

Quote from: Finners on April 16, 2012, 11:27:54 AM

Looking fwd to getting my two boys into it. Even specified a boat rack and outboard bracket on the CT so I can take a RIB to SW Rocks, Jervis Bay etc, and introduce the boys to Fish Rock cave, The Docks, Cathedral Cave, and in years to come... Stoney Creek (lushest temperate water growth in NSW).

I can feel a MySwag camp/dive/spearo trip coming on. Jervis Bay, Seal Rocks or SW Rocks would be good location starters for those in NSW.

How old are the boys, I've started Ryan in the pool and a couple of shallow shore dives. Next time you come past Byron give us a yell. Pretty good. Here is a couple from the weekend.
Renno

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Author Topic: Anybody into SCUBA Diving (Read 86710 times)