Thus ends one of the greatest dive related weekends I've ever had the privledge of beionging to.
Two weeks ago, everything was coming up trumps - there was long weekend in the not too distant future, and my lecturer for my friday classes was going to be away as well. Someone however, in their infinite wisdom, decided that four days of fun and diving was too much for this little rugrat, and put me down to work on the Saturday night/Sunday morning. That I was bummed is a huge understatement - living 150km away from the ocean, you've gotta grab every chance you can get to dive. Salvation came when I found out that Wal was taking a bunch of uni bubble blowers over to Shellharbour to dive, and there was a spare spot. Did I want to come? Of course
I knocked off work at 8am on Sunday, jumped in my car and drove to the boat ramp at Shellharbour. The weather earlier that morning had been dismal - rain and not a hint of blue sky. Suffice to say it was a big shock to find blue sky and nothing but sunshine when we arrived, but we were all more than grateful for it. We loaded the boatt up with gear and passangers and headed off to a nice little dive site known as the Arch, just south of Bushrangers Bay. Matt and a couple of the others suited up with tanks, and while they went to blow bubbles, I pinched Wal's Picasso Carbono's and we went to do a little exploring of our own.
The top of the Arch lies at 13m, with the bottom approaches 25m, so I set the top as my frst target. In the past, I've had a lot of trouble with my ears while freediving, so I was anxious to get down and have a play to test them out. I did a few shallow dives to around 8-10m as practice, watching Wal dissapear into the depths effortlessly. I managed a few dives to sit on the top of the Arch, but my ears were giving me hassles, so we called it quits and Wal grabbed a tank to take the other bubblies down. I kept doing shallow dives (10-12m) to try and help my ears, and found the more I used them, the faster I could descend. The visibility was around 15m, so every time I did a hang at 12m, I could see small patch of sand at 20m, just beckoning me that little bit closer...
I dived for a little bit longer, and all of a sudden felt a stinging sensation on my hands. A bluebottle!! I swam back to the boat, and Matt (aka "Dr Matt") did a nice little bit of surgery, removing the man 'o wars stingers with a rusty knife. I forced a smile in front of the ladies, but truth be told, it hurt like hell
We up anchored soon after, and hit the harbour to get some fills for the scuba tanks. It took us about an hour to get sorted, but by around 4pm we were back in the boat, ready to head to our next dive site: the souther side of Lou's reef. Lou's reef is actually a small island that rises out of around 30m to break just clear of the water. Once again, the bubblies jumped in with their tanks, giving me a chance to do some more shallow (10-12m) dives. By this stage, my ears were feeling good, and I was fairly comfortable with diving to those depths. Being a deep dive, the scuba guys were back all to soon, and Wal jumped back into the water to spot me. We sussed out a spot for a warmup dive, and while Wal went down to check the depth, I stayed on the surface to breath up. He came back with the verdict - 17.3m. My goal for the whole weekend was to hit 20m, so it seemed like a reasonable warmup dive. After a very short breathe up, I took a full breath and started kicking my way down. In total, I stopped 6 times to stick my head up the right way so i could equalise. Contractions hit around 2/3 of the way down, and by the time I hit the bottom I was ready to breathe. A small problem when you're over 17m from the surface...
I did the most stupid thing I could do in a situation like that - I panicked, i started kicking as hard as I could to get to the surface to rbeathe, and even though my brain was screaming "No! This isn't right! Go slow and conserve oxygen!" my body wouldn't listen. By the time I hit the surface, my lungs were bursting, and I was expecting my first depth samba/BO. I still don't know how I made it without any loss of control, but I managed 2 deep hook breaths on the surface and then just floated there a while. Wal asked if I was ready to try another dive, and about a minute later when my heart rate dropped below 200, I replied - "Errr... let's just have dinner"
We went back and had dinner, and not being one to waste an oppurtunity, Matt and I decided that a night dive was in order - him and one of the bubblies on tanks, and myself and Wal freediving. Wal seemed to have other plans though, so after we dragged him out of bed, we had to shove him in a car and drive to our next dive spot - the Gravel Loader. After arriving, then going back to get Wal's torch, we parked the cars next to the loader and suited up. The Gravel Loader is a big jetty that the steelworks uses to get materials from big cargo ships, like a long jetty. It has a maximum depth of around 12m and the far end, so I was pretty confident I could handle it that night.
What followed was one of the best dives I've ever had in my life. It's hard to explain what made it so special - the elation of setting a new PB a few hours earlier, the fact that it was my first night freedive, or the fact that I hadn't had very much sleep in the last few nights. Regardsless, we swam around for about an hour, playing with moray eels, squid, cuttlefish and schools of baby mado. It's an eerie feeling to freedive at night - turn off your torch and you just dissapear, and become part of the ocean. The wildlife is totally different to during the daytime; the fish are sleeping, and the worms are playing. You can do a whole bunch of dives in a row, and still not see the diver next to you who's only a few metres away.
We used the stealth approach to try and scare the bubblies a few times, but most of the dives ended with me laughing underwater, cracking the seal on my mask and getting a faceful of sea water. ;D One of the 'highlights' of the dive was the appearance of the mysterious moonfish... a byproduct of little sleep and Wal's strange sense of humour
We got some much needed sleep that night, and after waking up half hour after we were supposed to (OK, after myself waking up half hour after I was supposed to) we loaded up the boat and headed back out to Lou's Reef, this time mooring on the northern side. The slope here levelled off at around 27m, so was a few metres shallower than the day before. This time however, the visibility was near perfect - 20m+, and the fish life was teeming. Big schools of salmon, kingies, bream, luderick, drummer and red mowies swam around, totally oblivious to the big black wetsuit clad guy with the funky long fins. I managed to do a lot more dives to the 10-12m mark, and even set myself two new PB's - 25' unassisted CB and 30' free immersion. The only reason they were PB's is because I'd never attempted them before, but they're still PB's all the same
I didn't really have another attempt at my 20m goal - I was happy hanging around in the shallower water - but I still had an incredible dive none the less. My only qualm was that it ended too soon, and after filling the tanks (and our stomachs!) we were back on the road again heading home. Next weekend looks set for some more diving, hopefully around Jervis Bay, but it's going to have to be pretty special to show up this weekend
Two weeks ago, everything was coming up trumps - there was long weekend in the not too distant future, and my lecturer for my friday classes was going to be away as well. Someone however, in their infinite wisdom, decided that four days of fun and diving was too much for this little rugrat, and put me down to work on the Saturday night/Sunday morning. That I was bummed is a huge understatement - living 150km away from the ocean, you've gotta grab every chance you can get to dive. Salvation came when I found out that Wal was taking a bunch of uni bubble blowers over to Shellharbour to dive, and there was a spare spot. Did I want to come? Of course
I knocked off work at 8am on Sunday, jumped in my car and drove to the boat ramp at Shellharbour. The weather earlier that morning had been dismal - rain and not a hint of blue sky. Suffice to say it was a big shock to find blue sky and nothing but sunshine when we arrived, but we were all more than grateful for it. We loaded the boatt up with gear and passangers and headed off to a nice little dive site known as the Arch, just south of Bushrangers Bay. Matt and a couple of the others suited up with tanks, and while they went to blow bubbles, I pinched Wal's Picasso Carbono's and we went to do a little exploring of our own.
The top of the Arch lies at 13m, with the bottom approaches 25m, so I set the top as my frst target. In the past, I've had a lot of trouble with my ears while freediving, so I was anxious to get down and have a play to test them out. I did a few shallow dives to around 8-10m as practice, watching Wal dissapear into the depths effortlessly. I managed a few dives to sit on the top of the Arch, but my ears were giving me hassles, so we called it quits and Wal grabbed a tank to take the other bubblies down. I kept doing shallow dives (10-12m) to try and help my ears, and found the more I used them, the faster I could descend. The visibility was around 15m, so every time I did a hang at 12m, I could see small patch of sand at 20m, just beckoning me that little bit closer...
I dived for a little bit longer, and all of a sudden felt a stinging sensation on my hands. A bluebottle!! I swam back to the boat, and Matt (aka "Dr Matt") did a nice little bit of surgery, removing the man 'o wars stingers with a rusty knife. I forced a smile in front of the ladies, but truth be told, it hurt like hell
We up anchored soon after, and hit the harbour to get some fills for the scuba tanks. It took us about an hour to get sorted, but by around 4pm we were back in the boat, ready to head to our next dive site: the souther side of Lou's reef. Lou's reef is actually a small island that rises out of around 30m to break just clear of the water. Once again, the bubblies jumped in with their tanks, giving me a chance to do some more shallow (10-12m) dives. By this stage, my ears were feeling good, and I was fairly comfortable with diving to those depths. Being a deep dive, the scuba guys were back all to soon, and Wal jumped back into the water to spot me. We sussed out a spot for a warmup dive, and while Wal went down to check the depth, I stayed on the surface to breath up. He came back with the verdict - 17.3m. My goal for the whole weekend was to hit 20m, so it seemed like a reasonable warmup dive. After a very short breathe up, I took a full breath and started kicking my way down. In total, I stopped 6 times to stick my head up the right way so i could equalise. Contractions hit around 2/3 of the way down, and by the time I hit the bottom I was ready to breathe. A small problem when you're over 17m from the surface...
I did the most stupid thing I could do in a situation like that - I panicked, i started kicking as hard as I could to get to the surface to rbeathe, and even though my brain was screaming "No! This isn't right! Go slow and conserve oxygen!" my body wouldn't listen. By the time I hit the surface, my lungs were bursting, and I was expecting my first depth samba/BO. I still don't know how I made it without any loss of control, but I managed 2 deep hook breaths on the surface and then just floated there a while. Wal asked if I was ready to try another dive, and about a minute later when my heart rate dropped below 200, I replied - "Errr... let's just have dinner"
We went back and had dinner, and not being one to waste an oppurtunity, Matt and I decided that a night dive was in order - him and one of the bubblies on tanks, and myself and Wal freediving. Wal seemed to have other plans though, so after we dragged him out of bed, we had to shove him in a car and drive to our next dive spot - the Gravel Loader. After arriving, then going back to get Wal's torch, we parked the cars next to the loader and suited up. The Gravel Loader is a big jetty that the steelworks uses to get materials from big cargo ships, like a long jetty. It has a maximum depth of around 12m and the far end, so I was pretty confident I could handle it that night.
What followed was one of the best dives I've ever had in my life. It's hard to explain what made it so special - the elation of setting a new PB a few hours earlier, the fact that it was my first night freedive, or the fact that I hadn't had very much sleep in the last few nights. Regardsless, we swam around for about an hour, playing with moray eels, squid, cuttlefish and schools of baby mado. It's an eerie feeling to freedive at night - turn off your torch and you just dissapear, and become part of the ocean. The wildlife is totally different to during the daytime; the fish are sleeping, and the worms are playing. You can do a whole bunch of dives in a row, and still not see the diver next to you who's only a few metres away.
We used the stealth approach to try and scare the bubblies a few times, but most of the dives ended with me laughing underwater, cracking the seal on my mask and getting a faceful of sea water. ;D One of the 'highlights' of the dive was the appearance of the mysterious moonfish... a byproduct of little sleep and Wal's strange sense of humour
We got some much needed sleep that night, and after waking up half hour after we were supposed to (OK, after myself waking up half hour after I was supposed to
) we loaded up the boat and headed back out to Lou's Reef, this time mooring on the northern side. The slope here levelled off at around 27m, so was a few metres shallower than the day before. This time however, the visibility was near perfect - 20m+, and the fish life was teeming. Big schools of salmon, kingies, bream, luderick, drummer and red mowies swam around, totally oblivious to the big black wetsuit clad guy with the funky long fins. I managed to do a lot more dives to the 10-12m mark, and even set myself two new PB's - 25' unassisted CB and 30' free immersion. The only reason they were PB's is because I'd never attempted them before, but they're still PB's all the same I didn't really have another attempt at my 20m goal - I was happy hanging around in the shallower water - but I still had an incredible dive none the less. My only qualm was that it ended too soon, and after filling the tanks (and our stomachs!) we were back on the road again heading home. Next weekend looks set for some more diving, hopefully around Jervis Bay, but it's going to have to be pretty special to show up this weekend
