Here’s a video Damien put together from some footage and stills taken from the Hideaway Island trip over New Year’s.
St George Underwater – Hideaway Island 2012 from Damien Siviero on Vimeo.
Enjoy!
Shiprock, one of the best (if not the best) dive sites in Sydney, has been closed since the end of August for a major upgrade and facelift. According to Sutherland Shire Council,the work is due to be completed at the end of February, 2012. For more information about the upgrade see the link above.
While waiting for the work to be completed, I thought there might be some value in reminding people who have dived Shiprock what the path looked like before the upgrade and to show those new to Shiprock what we had to put up with. I must say that while the trips down the path and especially the trips up the path were difficult, the dive more than made up for it. Even on a bad day, Shiprock is a great dive.
The old path was steep, slippery and at times dangerous, especially after rain. As Kel recently commented, if you were one of the last to leave the water and had to make your way up the path after 20-40 divers had just trudged up, it could be quite a challenge.
Here’s what the path looked like while heading down. For those that have never dived Shiprock, remember that you’d be wearing full dive gear including weights…
And here’s what the path looked like when you were heading back to the car after a dive. Again, you had full dive gear and you were usually dripping wet making the path quite slippery, even if it hadn’t rained…
Looking at the work they have done so far and the plans they have for the upgrade, diving Shiprock is going to be much easier… I hope this doesn’t mean it will become even more crowded when the tides are right.
We have a number of PADI and SDI courses scheduled over the next couple of months that may whet your appetite.
- SDI Advanced Open Water Course + Nitrox Course – 19 – 22 January 2012 – $498
- SDI Nitrox Course – 19 January 2012 – $199
- PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Course – 29 January 2012 – $199
- PADI Advanced Course + Nitrox Course – 2 – 5 February 2012 – $498
- PADI Nitrox Course – 2 February 2012 – $199
- PADI Rescue Diver Course – 17 – 19 February 2012 – $399
Click on the links above for more information or call or visit the shop. Books are essential.
You wouldn’t guess it from the air temperature but it truly is Summer here in Sydney and the diving has been outstanding. If you don’t like diving in cold water, you’ll be pleased to know that the water temperature has finally increased with 20 to 22ºC in shallow water and usually above 18ºC in deeper water. I should admit that my first dive of the year it was just above 17ºC at 18 metres off Bare Island, but I think that was an exception.
Pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, at The Leap on 14 January.
Not only is the water warmer, but there is a lot of life around. On dives so far this Summer, we have see Port Jackson sharks, blue groper, many nudibranchs, octopus (including a blue-lined octopus that George saw at Salmon Haul Bay, Cronulla), weedy seadragons and seahorses.
Nudibranch, Tambja verconis, at Bare Island on 2 January.
Visibility for most of the dives has been good, although as usual it depends on the dives, weather and the tides. Last Saturday was a pretty ordinary day, overcast and windy, and yet we had over 15 metres at The Leap (Kurnell). Even the viz at Bare Island has been OK.
Weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, at Bare Island on 2 January.
If you have been hesitant to get out for a dive I recommend you come and join us on one of the club dives. There’s a dive on every Saturday and Sunday, as well as a night dive every second Friday. If you can get Thursday mornings off, we even have a mid-week dive most weeks. The dive schedule is usually posted on our Facebook page, with meeting times and the dive’s location.
Come and get wet and join in the fun.
You know we always try to find somewhere different to dive, well, we have booked one of the most secluded dive trips around.
Komodo
Yes! We have a liveaboard trip on the PA Siren.
If you are interested in this trip or just want to find out more about diving around that area come along on to the Centre Wednesday (14 December) night at 6.00 pm. We’ll have the owner of the boat here to tell you all about it and what you can expect to see and do on a trip like that.
For more information on the trip, please see the travel section.
Please send us an email so we can make sure that we have enough seats.
St George Underwater Centre is now an agent for GoPro Cameras.
GoPro make a range of what can be best described as Sports Video Cameras. They are very small, lightweight, capable of shooting high definition video (up to 1080p) and come with a housing that is waterproof to 60 metres. They can also take photos up to a resolution of 11MP (depending on the model).
These cameras are great for diving because they are so small and light. The can be mounted on your mask, worn on your hood or wrist or simply carried for shooting whatever you may encounter.
There are two main models (at least in the interest of divers):
- HD Hero Original
- HD Hero2 Professional
Both shoot video in 1080p, 960p, 720p and WVGA. The original is limited to a wide field of view (127º for 1080p and 170º for the other modes) where as the Hero2 allows the video to be shot in on of three different fields (170º, 127º and 90º) of view in all video modes. A field of view of 170º is almost as wide as a 10mm fisheye lens on a digital SLR camera – that’s a very wide angle of view. A FOV of 90º is still quite wide but closer to a 17mm lens on a DSLR.
The original GoPro Hero HD next to a 50c piece to show the size.
Both cameras have a battery life of around 2.5 hours when shooting in 720p/60 fps mode. i.e. you could easily record a whole dive.
For a more detailed comparison, see: Product Comparison: HD HERO2 & HD Hero Cameras
The cameras don’t come with a screen but you can buy them as an optional accessory. The screen fits onto the back of the camera making it marginally fatter and also includes a replacement rear door for the housing. Unless you plan on wearing the camera on your mask or hood, a screen is a good idea for framing your shots.
The original GoPro Hero HD with the optional screen attached.
With the screen attached and switched on the battery life is reduced however it will still record 720p/60 for up to 1.25 hours, more then long enough for a single dive.
Another recommended accessory is a corrective flat port on the front of the housing. By default the port on the front of housing is curved. This works fine out of the water but underwater can result in less than sharp footage. A few third party companies make an add-on port which does not compromise the seal on the housing. I have installed the BlurFix adapter on my GoPro and I now get very sharp footage. The added advantage of the BlurFix adapter is that it uses a standard lens filter as the port so a coloured filter can be used to correct for the loss of red light underwater when shooting with natural light.
GoPro Hero HD in housing with BlurFix adapter.
The quality of the footage on these cameras is exceptional, especially when you consider how small and inexpensive it is. It is comparable to professionally shot footage.
Here’s some footage that was taken on the recent drive trip to Borneo. All expect the last sequence (leaving Kapalai) was shot with the original HD Hero. The last sequence was shot with a Nikon D7000 DSLR.
There are some more videos at St George Underwater’s Vimeo page.
Please call the centre for more information and pricing.
With 11 members just back from a fantastic dive trip to Borneo and the club trip to Vanuatu next month, now is a good time to consider expanding your diving horizons with a dive trip.
There’s nothing wrong with the diving in Sydney, except perhaps being a little cool at times, and you can get in a few dives in a weekend if you push it. There’s lots to see and most of the dives are easy. A dive trip, however, can take you to an exotic location with completely different diving, experiencing different cultures as well as having a great time with a great bunch of people.
In October in Borneo, 11 of us experienced living in a water village (with no sign of Kevin Costner) far from any land, up to 22 dives in 6 days, warm (around 29ºC) and clear water, turtles, sharks, and thousands of brightly coloured fish and corals. We dived Sipdan Island, Mabul Island and Siamil Island as well as dives around the resort in Kapalai. The accommodation was very comfortable and the food was great. In addition, we stayed at a rainforest retreat; saw orangutans, macaques and proboscis monkeys up close; visited a rainforest at night.
In December, there’s a trip to Hideaway Island, Vanuatu for 7 nights. Vanuatu is less than 4 hours flight from Sydney and the transfer to the resort is less than an hour. You’ll hardly feel like you’ve left the country. Accommodation is comfortable, food is good, the diving is easy and the water warm (27-28ºC) and clear. We should have the island to ourselves to it will also be a bit of a party. In addition, Damien is running a photography workshop. What better place is there to hone your photography skills?
Next year we also have trips to Palau, Tonga and Indonesia. See: Travel
If you are a new diver, a dive trip is a great way to increase your number of dives. On one trip you could easily do 20 dives which would take 4 to 5 months of diving once every weekend. As the water is likely to be warmer you can where a lighter suit (if you need a suit at all) which means less weight and so easier diving. Most of the dives will be from a boat which makes things easier, again.
If you are an underwater photographer, a dive trip will give you not only more opportunities to take photographs but also a greater range of subjects. With more dives in a short space of time you’ll have more chances to get that special image.
There’s also the great social side of things. You aren’t diving the whole time and you get to spend the other time with a great group of people and be entertained by the shenanigans. I have enjoyed the social side of every dive trip I’ve attended.
While a dive trip may not look inexpensive when you first look at it, traveling in a group almost always costs less. This means you can generally do a trip with a few bells and whistles for less than if you did the equivalent trip on your own.
So… what are you waiting for? Why not book a trip today? See the Travel page to see what trips are coming up.
On the October long weekend, 7 divers and 2 partners made a long journey to Wooli on the far north NSW coast for a weekend of diving at North Solitary Island (and North West Rock). Even though we had a long drive (over 8 hours from Sydney) and despite the less than ideal weather, we had a fabulous time.
We stayed above the Wooli Dive Centre in very comfortable accommodation. The place was huge and very clean with multiple rooms. While there were nine of us staying there, we easily had room for at least another 5 people. The best part about the accommodation was that it was right across the road from the wharf so we could gear up there and walk across the road and get onto the boat each morning.
View of the wharf from the balcony of the accommodation.
First thing on Saturday morning we boarded the boat for the 20-30 minute ride out to North West Rock. The water was a bit rough but the boat rode comfortably through swell.
The first dive was at a site called Fish Soup. The boat moored on the western side of North West Rock where we entered the water. We swam through a gap in the island to the eastern side and then swam south amongst some huge boulders. Around and between the boulders were large numbers of large fish including, fusiliers, morwong, sweetlips and blue groper. At the based of many of the boulders were beautiful bright yellow sun corals. A grey nurse shark was seen.
One of the many sun corals at Fish Soup.
After pottering around the boulders for a while we headed back through the gap and back to the boat. Once everyone was back in the boat we headed over to North Solitary Island, around half a kilometre to the south east. We had intended to dive at Anemone Bay on the northern end of the island but the moorings were taken by other boats so we headed to around half way down the western side of the island to a site called Bubble Cave. After we stopped we had a cup of soup each and some banana cake while waiting for a sufficient surface interval.
For the dive at Bubble Cave we descended the mooring line and swum through a number of gutters. The bottom of some of the gutters were carpeted with thousands of anemones and the anemones hosted many anemonefish of two species: barrier reef anemonefish (Amphiprion akindynos) and blue-lip anemonefish (A. latezonatus). We eventually headed towards shallower water and towards the bubble cave itself. Colin and I didn’t go all the way to the bubble cave but those that did were rewarded with a lionfish.
Barrier reef anemonefish, Amphiprion akindynos, at Bubble Cave.
Blue-lip anemonefish, Amphiprion latezonatus at Bubble Cave.
After we were all back in the boat we headed back to shore – a 30-35 minute trip. The seas had already started to come up and there was a chance we’d not be able to dive on Sunday. Mick, the boat driver, said that if it was not too rough, we’d be able to do two dives at Anemone Bay. That was our plan as we got off the boat.
After cleaning our gear and ourselves, we had planned to walk up to the bowling club for some lunch. Before we left we were hit by a massive thunderstorm with strong winds, heavy rain and hail. We were lucky we weren’t caught in it. Instead we stayed in for egg and bacon sandwiches kindly cooked up by John. The storm was only short lived and the Sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon.
View from the kitchen of the dining area.
For dinner we had a tasty barbecue cooked on the balcony of our accommodation by John again – he’s a pretty good cook. We had a quiet night of eating, drinking and chatting. We also had a slightly shorter night because Daylight Saving kicked in on Sunday morning and yet we still had to be ready for the dives at 7am.
Sunday morning the weather looked pretty good even though the forecast was for strong southwesterly winds and seas to 3 metres. The Sun was even out for most of the time we were diving. The conditions were such that we’d have a bit of a bumpy ride out but as Anemone Bay was on the northern tip of North Solitary Island, it would be protected from the rough weather. At 7:30am we headed out and arrived at Anemone Bay at around 8:10am and were in the water shortly after 8:20am.
Like the Bubble Cave site, The bottom of Anemone Bay is covered in anemones. We mostly saw the same two species of anemonefish, but also saw a couple of black anemonefish (Amphiprion melanopus). For the first dive we mainly swam around the middle of the bay, heading towards the shallows at the end of the dive. We saw a number of nudibranchs, a couple of wobbegongs and even a turtle. In addition to the anemones, there were a lot of stony and soft corals covering many of the surfaces.
Nudibranch, Chromodoris splendida, at Anemone Bay.
Back at the boat we had a cup of soup and banana cake while waiting for the second dive. For the second dive we headed west down a deep gutter with a vertical wall on one side. Various invertebrates were on the wall including corals, nudibranchs, Christmas tree worms and sea stars. We saw more wobbegongs and also a lionfish.
Christmas tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, at Anemone Bay.
Ornate wobbegong, Orectolobus ornatus, at Anemone Bay.
The seas had come up during the dives and the Sun had gone behind the clouds but the trip back was with the swell and not as rough as the trip out. On the way back we were lucky to see a pod of dolphins as well as 2 or 3 whales breaching. Once was so high that even its tail fluke was out of the water.
Back on shore, the weather conditions deteriorated again so the timing of the dives could not have been more fortunate. It pretty much rained for the rest of the afternoon. Lunch was take-away and dinner for most of us was at the Wooli Hotel-Motel. After a quiet evening back at the accommodation we had a good night’s rest and a fairly early start for the trip back to Sydney.
Overall the trip was fantastic. While the weather was far from perfect, the conditions were fine for diving and the diving itself was excellent. Wooli Dive Centre provided a great service with both comfortable dive boat and accommodation. I will make every effort to attend the next trip and encourage others to come as well.
On Sunday 28 August, over 40 people got together at The Monument, Kurnell for the Ride Around Australia event. Allan Nash and Tommy Soderstrom, both PADI Instructors and owners of El Galleon Dive Resort and Asia Divers in the Philippines, are taking to the dusty track on two-wheelers all around Australia in August – October 2011 to raise money for :
Project AWARE Join the fight against debris www.projectaware.org
Springboard Foundation Save Children’s Lives www.springboard-foundation.org
Tommy (left) and Allan (right).
In addition to a large number of dive club members and staff from the Centre, we had David from Project AWARE, Henrick, Richard and Colin from PADI, Heidi from Dive Adventures and Sue from Tusa attending.
The riders and the sponsors (From left to right: Richard, Kel, Heidi, Allan, Henrick, Colin, Sue, David, and Tommy).
As part of the event, we had 30 divers in the water collecting debris as well as a number of people along the shoreline collecting rubbish. There was quite a lot of garbage collected from the water, including a car battery and a car bumper. Both of these were a challenge to bring back to shore. The dive itself was quite enjoyable and we saw many things including an octopus, cuttlefish, a ray, a Port Jackson shark, a weedy sea dragon and a dwarf lionfish.
Peter Waters with his debris bag. 3.7 m.
Diver collecting debris.
Peter Waters picking up the car battery. 12.3 m.
After the dive we enjoyed a barbecue in great company.
Everyone enjoying the barbecue.
We finished the day off by awarding prizes. The following people were winners:
- Adrian Santalucia - One week stay at El Galleon resort with unlimited diving with Nitrox worth AU$1,000
- David (from Project AWARE) – Safety Sausage
- George Borovskis – DAN First Aid book set
Adrian Santalucia with Allan Nash
The following winners were announced at September’s club meeting:
- Evy Stavrakis - Cressi Leonardo Dive computers.
- Kevin Bacon – TUSA Mask, snorkel and fins set.
- John Negus - WATER PROOF W2 – 5mm wetsuit.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was great to stand around and shoot the breeze with friends. I believe everyone had a great time.
The rubbish that was collected.
