Take only what you need !
Posted on Thu 25 June, 2009

To finish off another specialty course, Hunting and gathering, we headed to the outer sounds, in a different direction to usual. Instead of heading down the Tory Channel, we decided to keep going straight and make our way out to Motungarara Island where we plunged into the chilly waters for our first attempt to look for a cray or 2 to complete the course.

In the way of crays, we only spotted one undersized one and left him in peace but there was primo fish life, stunning kelp forests and a lot to explore along the reef. The kelp forests, which extended beyond our vision all the way to the surface, were my highlight of this dive and I had so much fun playing in them that I soon forgot how cold it was.

 During our surface interval we found a cute little cove in Onehunga Bay and after a quick snack and a hot drink, we all jumped back into the clear waters to have a snorkel around in the caves and practiced some freedriving! The visibility was awesome!

Back onto the boat to gear up and have a second attempt at catching a cray. This time we spread our buddy pairs out along Cooper Point. As soon as we neared the bottom, I saw crays littered everywhere. We didn't need to look far, that's for sure. We were so spoilt in our choice that we were being very fussy about which ones to even go for. If they looked like they might be undersize...we didn't even bother them and kept looking for a decent sized one...which indeed we did find! Or more specifically, Harry did find! This was one confident cray. Instead of hiding back in its hole, it came out and charged Harry, who grabbed it and almost got dragged away by the strength of it.

Awesome day, awesome dive sites, awesome people, (awesome dinner =D).

Where's Wally (I mean Tex!)
Posted on Thu 25 June, 2009

Its a question that most of us will ask our selves at some point underwater- "where the %@#* am i?"

Especially here in Marlborough when we sometimes don't get the vis we had planned for. The answer to this question is to practise using your compass and natural navigation skills.

The Navigation specialty is a 2 dive programme that focuses entirely on working out where you are. It has some really practical skills like measuring distances using kick cycles, changing and recording directions underwater and a few more tools that ultimately make us more aware of where we are underwater.

On the latest course held on Friday the most improved player award went to Tex Marshall for the completion of a 240 metre square swim landing himself right back on the mark! Well played and the visibility was only about 2-3 metres.

Next weeks mission is the Deep Dive Course which will improve our skills and confidence in diving over 30metres!

Tex pretty excited at getting back to the start!

Northland Dive Trip!
Posted on Mon 15 June, 2009

30m vis, awesome boat (called 007!), awesome people and amazing conditions - need we say more!

Advanced Course Gurus!
Posted on Tue 02 June, 2009

And so...another Advanced Open Water course completed. Join us as we reminisce through an exciting week for our 3 new Advanced open water divers, Adelaja, Markus and Konrad.

Tuesday started off with a spot of underwater photography (as seen in last post) and ended off quite nicely with a leap into the pitch black waters of Waikawa Marina for our first night dive! For anyone with a fear of the dark, this is a sure way to conquer it! The night was warmish and the waters were very clear which made for an enjoyable dive all round and a few interesting sightings including a crayfish and an octopus.

Confident and eager for more adventures, we managed to talk Ben into taking us to the Koi Wreck for a dive on Wednesday night. Thanks Ben!

It was another clear night with good visibility. Sleeping fish, encounter with a big Conga Eel hiding under the wreck and we spent a good 5 minutes watching a crab fight, waiting to see the outcome. It ended by one reigning over his knob on the wreck while the other floated pathetically to the ocean floor. Familiar places to dive during the day are a completely different world when dived at night time. Next time we'll take the underwater camera too!

We had some good fun with our navigation on Thursday. All the guys were naturals! Again we had really good visibility (which might have helped a tad). Adelaja felt he needed some more practice with the compass so took one home and navigated his way around the school and around the supermarket with some help from one of our instructors for some out of class teaching.

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Friday saw us heading out to Torea Bay and the Koi wreck for a couple of deep dives and a bit of Navigation practice. Warm sun and glassy waters made for yet another superb diving day. On the first deep dive, the boys got down to 30m and we tested them for nitrogen narcosis by asking them a few 'simple' questions underwater only to end with debates on the math equations!

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Along with doing their second deep dive and practicing some Navigation, Adelaja took the camera along to try out the skills he learnt on the Underwater Photography Course and we all had a bit of exploration time on the reef just past the wreck. Markus found an Elephant fish egg capsule, which we put straight back into the sea after a quick flick.

We ended a full on diving week with an awesome meal to say farewell to Adelaja who headed back to the states the next morning and congratulations to all the boys who became Advanced Open Water Divers.

Good times!!!

First Dive back after the Storm!
Posted on Tue 26 May, 2009

The last week has seen seas of upto 12metres!and winds up to 60 knots so as expected there hasn't been much diving going on.

Today the team were able to get out and complete some Digital Photo dives as part of the SSI Advanced Openwater Course that started today. With a total of 8 dives to complete over the next few days including a night dive tonight it was with much relief that the conditions today at the Vara wreck were really quite nice!

Adelaja snapped some nice pictures with the DX1G. As the weather improves towards the end of the week we hope to get out a bit further and put our photo skills to good use!

There is still navigation, deep, and some more wreck diving to come!

Heres praying for sun!

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