4 Rebreathers at Camp Cove, Sydney.

Rod and Suzie were in Sydney for a few days and had brought their breathers (with nice new scrubbers and mouthpieces). Jason hadn't dived for a while and we were keen to get the four breathers in the water together so we decided on a simple morning dive at Camp Cove. Camp Cove is a popular training site just inside the harbour, with a nice reef and lots of fishlife.

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Ian looks scared as he prepares for his first rebreather dive

Ian had never tried a rebreather before so he came along for the dive and tried out Rod's 'Topgun'. Rod had given him a lecture and some instruction at the house before the dive and he read 1 1/2 pages of our 4 pages of standards, so he was ready for his first Closed Circuit Rebreather dive.

Jason in the carpark before the dive

Jason got lots of amusing looks as he walked to the water in his full face mask. After bubble checks just off the beach we headed out across the sand and debris field of junk that is there. Lots of octopi and other small critters live in the various bottles and other junk here. We saw two large blue swimmer crabs on the sand, one of which took a liking to Rod (must have been all those bubbles he was making).

We swam back towards the reef where there were some schools of fish and a school of about 15 juvenile squid. We found a dead fish which Rod proceeded to attack everyones breathing bags with, Counterlung Eating Fish style, I nearly flooded my breather I was laughing so much. Jason tried some 'underwater communication' with me by speaking into his ffm. We also cam across an octopus which almost stole Jasons dive knife.

Towards the end of the dive I found a large squid which had a bite taken out of it. I signalled to Jason and we managed to get inches from it with our rebreathers. Suddenly the squid began to move away and then we realised why as we heard Rod approaching on open circuit.

After the dive we got some photos of us for posterity. Ian was very impressed with CCR diving and now wants to build one. all the breathers worked perfectly and the next day Rod, Suzie and Ian dived them at Bare Island in Southern Sydney. Original image not recovered: rubneck.jpg
Jason appears to be distracted by something?

Behind me you can see the reason for the neck problem Jason had after the dive. He is still recovering. White Pointers are a common occurance on Australian beaches during the summer months.

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Last updated 1998 by Scott Leimroth ©