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Dive Report 21/9/97

Shiprock - SC (50%) to 18m for 1hr.


Jason Rogers after a successful dive at Shiprock.

Jason Rogers and I just had a great dive at a place called Shiprock in Sydney. A wall that goes from 6 to 20m with a sand bottom and a few bommies off the wall. Every inch of rock is covered in colorfull sponge growth and there are heaps of fish. The wall lies under a main shipping channel so it is an overhead environment with speeding boats going over head continuously.

I modified the hose attachments to my scrubber last night and found they leaked so I tried again this morning, they only leaked a few small bubbles continuously throughout the dive. There were a few teaspoons full of water in the exhale side bag after the dive but the scrubber was dry.

We dived semiclosed, I used 50% and exhaled every min above 10m and every 2 mins below that. A few times I forgot to exhale for 4 - 5 mins but with mask clearing and depth changes I was dumping gas enough. There was a strong tidal current after about 40mins and the unit breathed well under exertion.

We managed to get really close to a huge school of long finned pike and a red morwong was so oblivious to me I could have picked it up and put it in my catch bag. No need for spear guns with these things. Bruce was on OC with us, and another diver we just met, and their approach was noticable in the way the fish reacted. I scared the daylights out of one fish when I had to dump gas after sitting inches from it for a few minutes.

The visibility was great so we dived for an hour and then stuck our heads into the bubble cave at the bottom of the wall and had a chat. We both decided our backs were so sore from the extra weights we had to wear that if we didn't end the dive soon we would become quadraplegics. Now we really know what happened to Rich.

The dive was much more fun with the rebreather than it usually is on OC.

Click the eyes to see Home Made Rebreathers at work

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