North Stradbroke - Easter Long Weekend - Dive 1 - Amity Point

Dive Site Details
Dive Company: Makin' Bubbles with Al
Location: Amity Point Jetty
Visibility: 5m
Temp: Surface 24 degC / Bottom 23 degC
Depth: 11.9m
Bottom Time: 52mins
Pressure Group: Starting / SI /Ending L

Description
What a beautiful morning, although it was a 4:00am wake up a 1 hour drive, followed by a 1 hour barge ride then another 20min drive and straight in the water! No rest for the wicked!
Fine, clear skies and perfect temperatures to just jump in. We inspect the water conditions from the jetty and see about a 5min visibility with a bit of a sand cloud swirling around. We meet up with the rest of our dive group: Al, Troy, Ann and Pam go through our pre-dive brief and gear up.

Dive
This is going to be a shore entry and exit and we fall in to the left of the netted off swimming area. We hugged the sandy bottom and made our way out to the end of the jetty where the columns held a plethora of aquatic life. Little Blue Spotted Rays darted out from under the sand on our approach only to bury themselves again a few meters away from the group. A Stone Fish shows up for a spot of still photography and we all take a good look at something to definitely avoid coming into contact with.
Nestled in an old fishing net, very well camouflaged we find a lazy Wobbegong Shark, only 1m long.
We find an old mountain bike about 10 meters out from the jetty, always good for a comedy shot! Heading out a little further and a bit deeper there is oddly a single massive tree trunk just laying in the sand all by its self. Looking very aged, it is home to a few small wobbies. We make our way back towards the exit point and do a safety stop (3min at 5meters) scattering the Blue Spotted Rays again. What a great way to start the long weekend! bring on the boat dives tomorrow.

Open Water Dive - Ocean Dive 4 - 24/3/13

Dive Site Details
Dive Company: Makin' Bubbles with Al
Location: "The Hole" Cudgen Creek, Kingscliff
Visibility: ~1-1.5m
Temp: Surface 25 degC / Bottom 23 degC
Depth: 5m
Bottom Time: 12mins
Pressure Group: Starting B/ SI 15min /Ending E

Description
Same site, Same day, and degrading visibility.

Dive
Finished off Remaining skills... "Certified!" I ticked off all my skills over the first 3 dives so this dive was basically fall in and enjoy completing my course. Unfortunately visibility and current were against us and we only had a very short dive but a certified dive non-the-less! Felt really good to complete the course, and I am definitely looking forward to next weeks Easter Long weekend up at the Manta Lodge @ North Stradbroke Island. From what I hear the visibility will be jaw dropping for me, coming from my little creek out into the ocean. Can't Wait!

Open Water Dive - Ocean Dive 3 - 24/3/13

Dive Site Details
Dive Company: Makin' Bubbles with Al
Location: "The Hole" Cudgen Creek, Kingscliff
Visibility: ~1-2m
Temp: Surface 25 degC / Bottom 23 degC
Depth: 8.9m
Bottom Time: 20mins
Pressure Group: Starting / SI /Ending B

Description
Same site, Different day, and marginal improvement to visibility. A little cooler too, which was nice.

Dive
Visibility was better today, could actually see some life down there! used my new Oceanic Geo 2 dive computer on this dive so was able to play around with some settings and get used to it. Will add an update and review on this later. Today was the big skill day, namely the CESA (Controlled Emergency Safety Ascent). Actually not that scary, just don't blow out all your air at once! To do this we went a little deeper to nearly 9m, I had some slight sinus issues so went nice and slow, Breath in deeply a few times and ascend to the surface in one breath, exhaling all the way. Finished the dive by completing all my surface skills like the "Tired diver Tank Tow" and removing gear on the surface.

Open Water Dive - Ocean Dive 2 - 23/3/13

Dive Site Details
Dive Company: Makin' Bubbles with Al
Location: "The Hole" Cudgen Creek, Kingscliff
Visibility: ~1m
Temp: Surface 26 degC / Bottom 25 degC
Depth: 5m
Bottom Time: 40mins
Pressure Group: Starting B, SI 15mins, Ending L

Description
Same site, Same day, only 15mins interval and no improvement to visibility.

Dive
Cruised through my skills, all done first go. Viz didn't improve but I was mostly in the shallows. Needed a slow descent as had some blocked sinus issues. Instructors words ringing in my ear "Early and often!" I set off with some underwater navigation. Given the visibility I quickly realise the importance of underwater navigation! considering I can barely see my compass, let alone the number on the dial or the North sign! I repeat this skill a number of times as I really want to get it nailed. After the dive I also work on my dive log and calculating my pressure groups.

Open Water Dive - Ocean Dive 1 - 23/3/13

Dive Site Details
Dive Company: Makin' Bubbles with Al
Location: "The Hole" Cudgen Creek, Kingscliff
Visibility: ~1m
Temp: Surface 26 degC / Bottom 25 degC
Depth: 5.6m
Bottom Time: 20mins
Pressure Group: B

Description
My first open water ocean dive... in a creek, with only 1m vis. Well, they say you should learn in the worst conditions to appreciate the better conditions. Dive site was only 8m deep max but that was plenty of room to do most of my skills. Very cloudy visibility due to some back currents swirling around and the bottom mainly consisted of fine sand so didn't see much in the way of aquatic life.

Dive
The first dive today was fairly simple, just fall in, blow some bubbles and get yourself used to your gear and breathing underwater again. Keeping very close to my instructor, otherwise I wouldn't have even been able to see him, even with his custom fluro-coloured wetsuit, we swam around for about 15 mins and surfaced to do a short de-brief and then work on some skills.

Manta Lodge, Straddie confirmed for Easter long weekend!

In a vein attempt to catch the last of the straggling manta rays as they move on the warmer waters, the dive team are heading the North Stradbroke Island and checking in at the Manta Lodge. Scheduling in for 3 double boat dives and possibly some shore dives off Amity Point, it's going to be epic! This will all be in perfect timing for Matt as he would have only just completed his PADI Open Water Dive Course in the last week of February. More Info to come on Straddie, the Manta Lodge and  Matt's Open Water Course soon.

A New Year begins..

Things at MK Dive Adventures slowed down towards the end of 2012, but now that the New Year has started we can start planning and looking forward to some more awesome dive adventures. Especially with some of our Xmas goodies which of cause consisted primarily of dive equipment!

Introducing Katrina's newly acquired equipment!

The Bigblue FF3x5 Aluminium LED Dive Light with AFO (auto flash off)

along with a few 1" Ball type mounting accessories to attach this to her Olympus PT-048 camera housing.

Katrina also received a photo editing software package to sharpen up her underwater photos with some post editing. So after a few crash courses, some time spent reading help manuals and a few dives using the 'ol Bigblue, we should see some improvements in the image quality on   some already outstanding photos.

Matt didn't miss out either receiving a fully paid PADI Open Water Dive Course! He is very stoked and already booked his dive medical and started reading up on the course material. All going well he should be a qualified diver by the end of February which will open up a world of dive possibilities.

Keep in touch with MK Dive Adventures as we will be doing some reviews of the equipment we have collected over the years and also updating you on more dive sites as we visit them. 

Happy 2013 and Safe Diving.