Diving
Today I went diving. I love diving. One of my friends at work (I have friends at work! Yay!) said it sounded scary. But it's not; it's peaceful.
So I really want to try and dive at least on the long weekends. It's quite hard exercise, not the diving, everything else associated with it. And my regular dive club was doing an advanced only dive (you have to do an extra course ~$350 and it means you can dive to 30m). I haven't done it yet, so my other dive club said they were diving Windy Point. I thought that sounded good.
I got to the dive shop about 9.30am. Apparently it was a bit rough at Windy Point, so we were going to dive at Kurnell. I was excited - I've never dived at Kurnell. So far I've dived in the Harbour, Nelson Bay, Great Barrier Reef and Oak Park (a bit south of Cronulla), but never in Botany Bay.
I hired my gear and was pleasantly surprised to find it was only $56. Often it is over $100, but I guess it was a shore dive (so no boat fuel) and I now have my own wetsuit, snorkel and mask, fins, boots and gloves, which reduces the cost.
I loaded up my car and grabbed lots of weights (31lb) which I put in my BCD and also in the weight belt. Then another guy (a gorgeous Spanish guy) needed help to find it, so we tag team down to the Kurnell National Park.
We got a bit lost but eventually got there. We walked down the dive site. The day was glorious - clear blue sky, calm seas, and everything's so green after all this rain, it's almost growing in front of you. The dive site was about 500m from the car, so that was a bit ordinary. You see, the combination of a restricting wetsuit, a 10kg tank, a couple of kilos of BCD and then about 15kg of weights means a lot of extra stuff to cart down there.
We went back to the carpark and got ready. Sweet bliss - there was a picnic table. It means that once you get your BCD/tank/weight belt on (think 25kg+ heavier) you can pick up your things (gloves, fins and snorkel and mask) from a table (instead of having to bend down). Once we were all suited up, we walked down to the entrance.
There was a long trough opening up in the water, about 40 cm deep, so we slowly made our way along that. The initial shock of the water temperature was a bit nasty, but once the water gets into the wetsuit, and warms up from your body heat, it's a lot more comfortable. This was my first true winter dive, so instead of being relieved to feel the water, after being in a semi-sauna wetsuit, it was different to feel the chill.
We leaned against rocks and put our fins on. I often struggle with fins. I think I just don't put them on properly. It's hard when you're carrying 25kg of weight and trying to not hurt your back. Then we slow blobbed into the water, and made our way out to the edge of the ledge. Frequently on shore dives, there's a ledge that suddenly drops away. This one was at about 5m.
And then we went down. I realised almost immediately that 31lb extra was too much. The last few dives I've done I've struggled staying down, but here I was so weighty, I was mucking along the bottom. So I slowly added a bit of air into my BCD to try and stay off the bottom.
As we head along, we don't see many fish, but the ones we do see are just stunning. Each fish, in its natural environment, is so beautiful and unique. I'm sure they lose their beauty when they're caught. We see some amazing schools of fish - so close together that it looks like a moving sheet of silk. I see a star fish all curled around the sponge it's resting on, and then the dive master spots an octopus. All I see of it are large suction caps under a rock. It's not coming out.
It's so still under water. All you can hear is your own breathing, which is a very comforting sound, and occasionally the sound of a humming boat metres above you. The fish don't care that you're there - they just do their thing, and allow you often to come quite close. A gorgeous blue groper comes up to check us out, and stays around a bit before wandering off again.
We get to a rocky overhang, where we are going to swim through. It looks big, but halfway through I hear my tank scraping across the top and I realise I could get stuck. So I wiggle and raise a tonne of sea dust and manage to get through just fine. Later on I find out that everyone struggled to get through. We are so big with all the gear on - I often think that I resemble a round, black, giant spider, with all my legs hanging off me.
Then it's back in. The current is surging a lot, so you can moved forward quickly, but then have to hang on so that you don't get dragged back. One of the great things is that although you're coming in contact with rocks, because everything is covered, except your head, it doesn't hurt or scrape away the skin.
Finally we get out and begin the long walk back to the cars. It's always harder on the way back out - because in addition to just having dived for 30min or so, you're also heavier because you have water in your boots, and water in your BCD and water in the layer in your wetsuit.
We get back to the cars and thankfully dump the weight belt and BCD and tank and weights, until it's just the wetsuit. This is the first time I still feel cold, so after a while I lie down on the grass and soak up some sun. Abyss (Rachel) has brought along tomato soup and bread rolls and iced cordial, which we all gratefully eat.
The second dive we all suit up again and make our way down to the water again. This time, I am prepared for the icy feel of the water against my skin, and in particular my head once it gets wet. If I dive any more before late Spring I'm really going to need a hood.
We swim out - I start with my reg in my mouth, and air from my tank, but then try to change to my snorkel. I don't do it properly so I swallow sea water - an icky taste - and lose my breath. The others think that's because I've just swum out 30 metres, and therefore I'm not fit, but it's not. I know I can probably swim better than most of them.
We head back down and once again are absorbed into the beautiful world. Sydney's underwater is not as good as Nelson Bay, and the Great Barrier Reef is so far ahead of Nelson Bay, but it makes each encounter with an unusual animal even more special.
Also, there's a bit of rubbish around. Cups look so big - it's because everything's distorted, and when I see a plastic cup, and then later 2 plastic bags, I stuff them in my wetsuit or my BCD and put them in the rubbish once I get back to shore. Being under water is a little like Alice when everything gets big because she is so small.
A big sting ray comes up. It's almost like he's on an animal catwalk. He swims past, turns around, makes sure we're getting a good look, and then swims away. They are such beautiful animals, but everytime I see one I think of Steve Irwin and I'm a bit sad he did something so stupid.
We get further along, and then see this massive wobbygong shark. He's just lying on the rock, minding his own business. Creatures under the sea are so unique. It's like God created an extra beautiful world under water, where everything's just so astonishing.
Then we get back to the surface. We are on flat rocks covered in seaweed, and I struggle to get up, but lovely Spanish guy helps me when I ask him.
Finally I divest myself of the gear, and get some warmer clothes and turn the heater on and drive out the park.
What a special day. That's why I like diving.
So I really want to try and dive at least on the long weekends. It's quite hard exercise, not the diving, everything else associated with it. And my regular dive club was doing an advanced only dive (you have to do an extra course ~$350 and it means you can dive to 30m). I haven't done it yet, so my other dive club said they were diving Windy Point. I thought that sounded good.
I got to the dive shop about 9.30am. Apparently it was a bit rough at Windy Point, so we were going to dive at Kurnell. I was excited - I've never dived at Kurnell. So far I've dived in the Harbour, Nelson Bay, Great Barrier Reef and Oak Park (a bit south of Cronulla), but never in Botany Bay.
I hired my gear and was pleasantly surprised to find it was only $56. Often it is over $100, but I guess it was a shore dive (so no boat fuel) and I now have my own wetsuit, snorkel and mask, fins, boots and gloves, which reduces the cost.
I loaded up my car and grabbed lots of weights (31lb) which I put in my BCD and also in the weight belt. Then another guy (a gorgeous Spanish guy) needed help to find it, so we tag team down to the Kurnell National Park.
We got a bit lost but eventually got there. We walked down the dive site. The day was glorious - clear blue sky, calm seas, and everything's so green after all this rain, it's almost growing in front of you. The dive site was about 500m from the car, so that was a bit ordinary. You see, the combination of a restricting wetsuit, a 10kg tank, a couple of kilos of BCD and then about 15kg of weights means a lot of extra stuff to cart down there.
We went back to the carpark and got ready. Sweet bliss - there was a picnic table. It means that once you get your BCD/tank/weight belt on (think 25kg+ heavier) you can pick up your things (gloves, fins and snorkel and mask) from a table (instead of having to bend down). Once we were all suited up, we walked down to the entrance.
There was a long trough opening up in the water, about 40 cm deep, so we slowly made our way along that. The initial shock of the water temperature was a bit nasty, but once the water gets into the wetsuit, and warms up from your body heat, it's a lot more comfortable. This was my first true winter dive, so instead of being relieved to feel the water, after being in a semi-sauna wetsuit, it was different to feel the chill.
We leaned against rocks and put our fins on. I often struggle with fins. I think I just don't put them on properly. It's hard when you're carrying 25kg of weight and trying to not hurt your back. Then we slow blobbed into the water, and made our way out to the edge of the ledge. Frequently on shore dives, there's a ledge that suddenly drops away. This one was at about 5m.
And then we went down. I realised almost immediately that 31lb extra was too much. The last few dives I've done I've struggled staying down, but here I was so weighty, I was mucking along the bottom. So I slowly added a bit of air into my BCD to try and stay off the bottom.
As we head along, we don't see many fish, but the ones we do see are just stunning. Each fish, in its natural environment, is so beautiful and unique. I'm sure they lose their beauty when they're caught. We see some amazing schools of fish - so close together that it looks like a moving sheet of silk. I see a star fish all curled around the sponge it's resting on, and then the dive master spots an octopus. All I see of it are large suction caps under a rock. It's not coming out.
It's so still under water. All you can hear is your own breathing, which is a very comforting sound, and occasionally the sound of a humming boat metres above you. The fish don't care that you're there - they just do their thing, and allow you often to come quite close. A gorgeous blue groper comes up to check us out, and stays around a bit before wandering off again.
We get to a rocky overhang, where we are going to swim through. It looks big, but halfway through I hear my tank scraping across the top and I realise I could get stuck. So I wiggle and raise a tonne of sea dust and manage to get through just fine. Later on I find out that everyone struggled to get through. We are so big with all the gear on - I often think that I resemble a round, black, giant spider, with all my legs hanging off me.
Then it's back in. The current is surging a lot, so you can moved forward quickly, but then have to hang on so that you don't get dragged back. One of the great things is that although you're coming in contact with rocks, because everything is covered, except your head, it doesn't hurt or scrape away the skin.
Finally we get out and begin the long walk back to the cars. It's always harder on the way back out - because in addition to just having dived for 30min or so, you're also heavier because you have water in your boots, and water in your BCD and water in the layer in your wetsuit.
We get back to the cars and thankfully dump the weight belt and BCD and tank and weights, until it's just the wetsuit. This is the first time I still feel cold, so after a while I lie down on the grass and soak up some sun. Abyss (Rachel) has brought along tomato soup and bread rolls and iced cordial, which we all gratefully eat.
The second dive we all suit up again and make our way down to the water again. This time, I am prepared for the icy feel of the water against my skin, and in particular my head once it gets wet. If I dive any more before late Spring I'm really going to need a hood.
We swim out - I start with my reg in my mouth, and air from my tank, but then try to change to my snorkel. I don't do it properly so I swallow sea water - an icky taste - and lose my breath. The others think that's because I've just swum out 30 metres, and therefore I'm not fit, but it's not. I know I can probably swim better than most of them.
We head back down and once again are absorbed into the beautiful world. Sydney's underwater is not as good as Nelson Bay, and the Great Barrier Reef is so far ahead of Nelson Bay, but it makes each encounter with an unusual animal even more special.
Also, there's a bit of rubbish around. Cups look so big - it's because everything's distorted, and when I see a plastic cup, and then later 2 plastic bags, I stuff them in my wetsuit or my BCD and put them in the rubbish once I get back to shore. Being under water is a little like Alice when everything gets big because she is so small.
A big sting ray comes up. It's almost like he's on an animal catwalk. He swims past, turns around, makes sure we're getting a good look, and then swims away. They are such beautiful animals, but everytime I see one I think of Steve Irwin and I'm a bit sad he did something so stupid.
We get further along, and then see this massive wobbygong shark. He's just lying on the rock, minding his own business. Creatures under the sea are so unique. It's like God created an extra beautiful world under water, where everything's just so astonishing.
Then we get back to the surface. We are on flat rocks covered in seaweed, and I struggle to get up, but lovely Spanish guy helps me when I ask him.
Finally I divest myself of the gear, and get some warmer clothes and turn the heater on and drive out the park.
What a special day. That's why I like diving.
You are so adventurous. Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed reading it.
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