Videos

Video

Rye Pier Dives

Having to play a little catch up on my dive videos 🙂 These shots were taken over two days in late May, at the ever entertaining Rye Pier. First up was a fun dive where we didn’t see a whole heap, second was a cleanup dive where everyone came to play! Crabs, stingarees, seahorses and more.

My highlight? First time seeing big jellyfish under water, the video doesn’t show it well but they danced and changed colours under the lights 💃🏼💃🏼

Not so good was seeing 3 dead banjo (fiddler) rays – one missing a tail – probably left to their demise by fisherman 😓 It was intriguing to see a seastar working on one the following day though.

Location: Rye, Victoria, Australia
Water Temperature: 14°C
Average Depth: 3.7m
Maximum Depth: 7m
Video

Boarfish Reef Diving

On ANZAC day, we had plans to dive the HMAS Goorangai, a minesweeper that was used in conjunction with two others to sweep the shipping lanes approaching Port Phillip in 1940. The three vessels successfully located and destroyed forty mines over a fortnight period. Unfortunately HMAS Goorangai sank whilst doing a crossing, and lost all hands on board – the Goorangai is now a designated war grave. As the wreck is located in the shipping channel, it is only able to be dived when shipping has been halted – something that we had hoped for on ANZAC day, but alas it wasn’t to be.

Instead, we dived Boarfish Reef, a fantastic site amongst the Sponge Gardens, about halfway between Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale. On the day that we dived, it was almost an aquarium, with fab viz and curious fish almost sideswiping us as they swam around. Highlight for me was the blue devil showing off – first up in the video. And for those of my friends terrified of spiders, be sure to watch the last clip – not a great example of videography, but SPIDER! SEA SPIDER! SPIDERS exist underwater! 😱🕷😱

The other take-home from this dive for me? It is the second time I’ve dived Boarfish Reef – the first was on my Dive #4, as part of my Open Water course. My log entries for that day back in December versus the ANZAC day dive (#46!) are considerably different!

Location: Portsea, Victoria, Australia
Water Temperature: 17°C
Average Depth: 17m
Maximum Depth: 23m
Video

Rye Pier Diving

Rye Pier holds a special place in my heart – it’s where I took my first breath underwater in the ocean as part of my Open Water course, it’s where I returned to do part of my Advanced Open Water, and it’s been the host to many other magical dives.

This is the first time I’ve dived it in the daylight with my camera though, so welcome to Rye Pier! Highlight for sure was the rather large stingray – at the end it sweeps along directly underneath me. Slightly amusing because overseas we were chasing Mantas, attempting to catch even a glimpse, and here at Rye and the other piers, we’re often visited by these underwater giants!

Location: Rye, Victoria, Australia
Water Temperature: 17°C
Average Depth: 4m
Maximum Depth: 7m
Video

Blairgowrie March of the Spider Crabs

After my travels, it probably comes as no surprise that after less than 18 hours back in the country, I was underwater once again!

This video was taken mid-April at Blairgowrie and features an underwater phenomenon I was hoping I wouldn’t miss out on – the March of the Spider Crabs. At about this time every year, thousands of giant Spider Crabs march en masse towards Blairgowrie and surrounds, prior to moulting their shells. No-one really knows why they come crawling into the shallows, but it is suspected to be a case of safety in numbers, as there are many predators that take advantage of the crabs when they’re in the process of growing a new shell.

As you can imagine, visibility isn’t great, with so so many crabs stirring up the sand and muck.

Despite the chilly conditions (a shock to the system going from 30°C to 17°C 😱), it’s great to be back diving in Melbourne with fabulous buddies and in my ‘old’ stomping grounds! Rugged conditions: need to get used to hauling my own gear again – overseas it was all carried for me, even placed on my back so I didn’t need to pick it up!

Location: Blairgowrie, Victoria, Australia
Video

Diving in Mauritius

For the last leg of our Epic Africa Trip, we were struggling to find reasonably priced direct flights from Madagascar to South Africa for our return flight, so when we found one with a 5 day stop over in Mauritius, we made a last minute decision to tack on one more country to our journey.

By this stage, it’s probably no great surprise to most of you that I used this opportunity to get under the water! Diving in Mauritius is an easy affair – resort operators carrying all your gear to hard shelled boats, with simple step off entries. In a first for me, the water was so warm (29C) that I managed to dive in a 3mm shortie, a bit different to the thick 7mm semi I use at home!

Highlight of the video? Watch out for the 3 green turtles I was lucky enough to play with! Last dives of the trip for me – overall I managed to get underwater 17 times, not bad!

Location: Grand Baie & Flic en Flac, Mauritius
Water Temperature: 29°C
Average Depth: 18m
Maximum Depth: 23m