Only way to wake up

[John A]

Thought I would rub it in to all of you that dont live near a warm ocean. Woke up at 5:45 am was in the water by 6:15am with nothing but my sporasubs, mask/snorkel and a speedo. Spent about 45min cruising and freediving the inside of the first reef, watching the sun come up as you could see the almost full moon fading out. Not a bad way to wake up. Water was a bit nippy getting in, about 79

John

 

[immerlustig]

ah, a man who understands the finer things in life. respect.

myself, i got up and out of the house a bit later today, maybe 7, or so. rode my bicycle casually down to the beach for a leisurely berakfast. met up with my dive buddy of today and by 9 a.m. we were wet and cruising.

we just got back, i had my well deserved coffee and a fat turkey sandwich and i'm ready for a relaxing evening with my girl and an early night.

cause tomorrow it's going to be the same.

not a bad way to end a day, i guess.

cheers,

roland

 

[Fondueset]

gack :mute

 

[Erik]

Bastards!
Erik Y.

 

[Lambis]

John... sometimes we must forget freediving and get closer to the simple things.
All the things that was the reasons that we love the sea.

I still do what I was doing when I was kid .I use to nightdive when I am home in Greece. Offen I get to the water 3-4 am total blackness only the stars and far away the lights of my village. When I go tyred swimming around and play i take off the hood of my suit and put it behind my neck... like a pillow. I lay threre , in this big blue bed, and watch the stars. Lay and lisen to the sea until the sun comes up.

When I was younger I have done this with my best friend... laying all the night and discuse about everything. Girls that we was in Love, travel, etc....

Now I do it alone. Not realy alone I have the sea that speaks to me.

 

[Erik]

Let's see..... last Saturday I got all me gear ready to go diving...picked up 2 friends at opposite ends of the city....drove 100 kms to a new (to us) lake....drove around looking for an entry point where nobody would see the spearguns and big fins...found a good spot...people showed up anyway... spent time explaining what we're doing, legalities, no tanks, etc...put on 5mm suit (with farmer john), 3mm vest, extra 6mm hood, dry gloves, immersed in 10C water with 1 metre vis for 1 hour, shot at fish, missed, lost spearshaft, found spearshaft, shot fish, missed fish, froze @ss off, exit, drove home, ate fish, got a cold
And loved every minute of it
Cheers
Erik Y.

 

[Merlin]

Let's see..... last Saturday I got all me gear ready to go diving...picked up 2 friends at opposite ends of the city....drove 100 kms to a new (to us) lake....drove around looking for an entry point where nobody would see the spearguns and big fins...found a good spot...people showed up anyway... spent time explaining what we're doing, legalities, no tanks, etc...put on 5mm suit (with farmer john), 3mm vest, extra 6mm hood, dry gloves, immersed in 10C water with 1 metre vis for 1 hour, shot at fish, missed, lost spearshaft, found spearshaft, shot fish, missed fish, froze @ss off, exit, drove home, ate fish, got a cold
And loved every minute of it
Cheers
Erik Y.

Now that is PASSION for the sport

 

[crusty]

Michael Palin: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.
Graham Chapman: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine,
ay Gessiah?
Terry Gilliam: You're right there Obediah.
Eric Idle: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin'
here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?
MP: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup
o' tea.
GC: A cup ' COLD tea.
EI: Without milk or sugar.
TG: OR tea!
MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.
EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a
rolled up newspaper.
GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money
doesn't buy you happiness."
EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to
live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.
GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one
room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the
floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for
fear of FALLING!
TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a
corridor!
MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a
palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish
tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting
fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered
by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.
GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and
live in a lake!
TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty
of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
MP: Cardboard box?
TG: Aye.
MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in
a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the
morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down
mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home,
out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in
the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to
work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad
would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we
were LUCKY!
TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox
at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues.
We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four
hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we
got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night,
half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump
of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill
owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home,
our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves
singing "Hallelujah."
MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't
believe ya'.
ALL: Nope, nope..


The Coldest it ever gets in Perth Waters is 16-18C but gets up to 24- 27c in summer
And you thought you had it tough

Crusty

 

[JPPLAY]

Let's see..... last Saturday I got all me gear ready to go diving...picked up 2 friends at opposite ends of the city....drove 100 kms to a new (to us) lake....drove around looking for an entry point where nobody would see the spearguns and big fins...found a good spot...people showed up anyway... spent time explaining what we're doing, legalities, no tanks, etc...put on 5mm suit (with farmer john), 3mm vest, extra 6mm hood, dry gloves, immersed in 10C water with 1 metre vis for 1 hour, shot at fish, missed, lost spearshaft, found spearshaft, shot fish, missed fish, froze @ss off, exit, drove home, ate fish, got a cold
And loved every minute of it
Cheers
Erik Y.

Are you sure it was a complete meter of vis? One thing though in all truth the place was beatiful (minus the bare bottom) and not many boaters.
Also Erik what are you complaining about you had that nice freediving suit that you say keeps you so warm. rofl I had a scuba suit.
All in all it was a good day diving but since it only my second day diving I don't know really any better.

 

[John A]

So I guess you dont want to hear that I went out again this morning at 6:00, same set up. Today I heard the distant squeeking of dolphin, was followed around by a 5' tarpon. Have to admit, both days the vis has only been about 25'. Never really went onto the reef, stayed at the inner edge, that is where I seem to see this one tarpon. Water was again flat calm with a just a slight swell coming in.

John

 

[cdavis]

John and Roland, you guys are killing me. I haven't been wet in good water since last year. But, one more day and..... Anchored behind a little rock in the middle of Bahamian nowhere. Rise at first light, quick look around to make sure no other boat is in sight. Slowly, groggily, eat breakfast and drink a small coffee, wake up, drag my youngest son out of bed, check the engine and start diving as soon as the light is good, maybe 8:30. Unirdna has promised no BOs this year in exchange for no mayo on his sandwiches, fair trade. We will dive till about 4, find an anchorage, cook seafood, crash and do it again the next day. Hallelujah!!!!

Connor

 

[immerlustig]

way to go connor!

just don't forget: when the going gets tough, the tough go to the beach.

roland

ps: today 26 celsius on the surface, no wind, water flat as a mirror. no sounds, no bottom, just blue .... epic

 

[island_sands]

Thought I would rub it in to all of you that dont live near a warm ocean. Woke up at 5:45 am was in the water by 6:15am with nothing but my sporasubs, mask/snorkel and a speedo. Spent about 45min cruising and freediving the inside of the first reef, watching the sun come up as you could see the almost full moon fading out. Not a bad way to wake up. Water was a bit nippy getting in, about 79

John

hi there
woke up around 600am, the sun streaming in. left for lectures at 715, and it was around 27deg C
stopped for lunch and it was up to about 43 deg. C.

the sea is calm and tomorrow we are diving... know the feeling... that warm water and hot ray of sunshine just brightens the day

 

[roy_nexus_6]

THATS IT ! THIS POST DID IT ! THIS LAST STRAW HAS FINALLY BROKE THE CAMELS BACK.

We are moving to somewhere where there is blue warm water nearby with fishes dolphins and maybe whales in that water.

Now I just need to break this news to my wife. :hmm

 

[Manuel]

Just a few photos from last week (south red sea, 6 o' clock), but normally I alo dive in lakes with 1 m viz.

MANUEL

 

[Manuel]

and again...

 

[Lambis]

Manuel

in some Days I will be in Dahab. When i see the photos I can wait to be there

 

[DeepThought]

Beautiful pictures Manuel. Where (in the south of the red sea) were they taken?

What was that narrow ray/shark thing? a Guitar fish maybe? (just guessing, I don't really know what a guitar fish is. )

 

[Manuel]

The first turtle pictures where taken at a dive spot near Marsa Alam called "Abu Dabab" (it's a bay with sea-grass): I originally went there because it's said that there lives a dugong family (but I came a few minutes to late :waterwork).
Concerning the ray / shark thing I'm not sure, too. In some books they are called guitar rays (one kind can grow to 80 cm, another up to 240 cm, but this was anything in between), in other books they are called guitar sharks.
The photos of the free swimming turtle and the eagle ray where taken at the seam reef (not a special housreef of a hotel) between El Quseir and Marsa Alam. But I think taht the big pelagic fishes are "travelling" between north and south and can be seen anywhere with a little bit of luck.
Camera: Canon Powershot A60, 2 MP only, uw-case: WP-DC 700, natural light and of course the photos where taken while FREEDIVING!!

Tomorrow I'll go back to my 1 m visibility lake!

MANUEL

 

[Fondueset]

It's been great here. Tourist season is not yet underway and on weekdays the bay is very quiet - literally NO motor boats!! Waters have been very calm and clear in the morning - visibility easily 50 to 60 feet (20meters or therebouts).

Today I went in along the breakwall and concentrated on relaxing and spending as much time as possible on the bottom. I've found the Carp seem to allways be swimming east - I encounter them on my way back from the end of the breakwall and, if I am out far enough from the rocks, they seem unphased and mildly curious. I've noted the presence of small Walleye in among the perch and suckers - I'd allways thought of these as more of an inland lake fish but there they are. I wandered out from the breakwall today toward a school of several hundred small suckers. In their midst was a larger fish so I grabbed some air and made for the bottom - then sidled up to the school slowly along the bottom. BIG Walleye! These are the best eating fish in the great lakes and also very pretty to look at - sort of a stretched perch on steroids. This one was reasonably curious in the largish apex-predator sorta way.

Relaxed dive with lots of bottom time.