If you’re reading this, then you’re probably suffering from a severe case of DWS (Diving-Withdrawal-Syndrome). This is characterised by frequent trips to the DVD store to rent “Finding Nemo”, hours spent staring out a window trying to determine which way the wind is blowing, and random impulses to go stick your head in the office fishbowl.

There are times when, despite the best intentions, you just can’t hit the water as often as you’d like. Most of the times these are things outside of your control: illness, injury, bad weather, work, life – there are any number of different reasons why you can’t hit the water. But what can you do to take the edge off DWS?
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Photo taken by Liz R

Amazing, Wonderful, Sen-bloody-sational… all of these are great ways to describe the day of diving on Sunday!  It was a double dive day on Sunday, with the first dive being on the ex-HMAS Canberra and the second a spot on the Nepean Wall called “Fingal’s Cave” which neither Liz nor I had done before.  Absolutely fabulous – the conditions were great (no seasickness), the visibility was good, the company was excellent.  All in all, it was a fabulous day out! (more…)

I know, I know… Pope’s eye – is that even worth getting out of bed for?  The answer, my friends, is yes! For those not in the know, Pope’s Eye is a standard training dive for open water students (usually dive number 2 or 3 on your standard melbourne open water course) as it has a maximum depth of about 12m and a really nice sheltered pocket in which you can get any gear issues sorted out before going for a dive.  As a result of this, most people write Pope’s off as a dive because it is so much of a student dive.  However, there’s plenty to see and it’s a great dive to spend sometime practicing your core diving skills! (more…)

This was what I would call a bit of a nightmare dive.  Great for skills development after the fact, but just a little bit frightening at the time.  When I surfaced, I was blowing off a 5 hour decompression obligation according to my computer.  That’s a bit scary irrespective of how confident you are!
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Had a great dive with Lucy from Dive Vic.  Was up bright and early to get into the water, which was a dirty blue (an improvement on the green of the day before). We were the first in the water and dropped down rapidly before having a pootle around the depths. I’ve never done the Coogee, but it was tres pleasant – and something I’d do again. There’s nothing ‘spectacular’ about it, I guess, but there’s plenty to see and 30m is not a tough dive. (more…)