Sydney Archives - Page 2 of 4

02Jun 2023 by Warren Prior No Comments

Underwater Statues at Chowder Bay

Diving

Clifton Gardens (also known as Chowder Bay) is a polarising dive site located in Sydney Harbour. Talking to divers, they tend to either love it, or hate it. Regardless, all Sydney-based divers have dived it at least one (well, almost all). So why is it so polarising? Well, for a variety of reasons. To get the negatives out of the way first: visibility is generally poor (especially if your buoyancy is poor and you kick up the bottom), there's definite friction between the fishermen and divers, and it can be dirty due to people throwing all sorts of objects off the wharf. Another reason people may not enjoy it is that you don't see much if you move too quickly. On the plus side, if you have good buoyancy and…

16Apr 2023 by Warren Prior No Comments

Exploring Fairlight Underwater…

Diving

Not every day goes according to plan...but generally it all works out in the end... Early on Sunday morning, Sharon and I snuck off for a quick dive at Fairlight. It's not the most popular dive site in Sydney, but it's definitely worth a visit every now and then. Our day got off to a bad start when we discovered a leak in Sharon's regulator's first stage. While I was trying to repair it, a lady walked by with a King Charles Cavalier puppy. Sharon got talking to her, told her we also had a King Charles Cavalier puppy, and explained our situation. Eventually, the lady continued on her walk, and we started packing the dive gear back into the car to go and try hire a regulator from Dive…

01Apr 2023 by Warren Prior No Comments

Taking New Divers Out at Clifton

Diving

A military ship silhouetted by a glorious Clifton Gardens sunrise One of the most common questions I get during Open Water courses is how they can get back into the water. And in my opinion, the best and easiest way is to join one of Frog Dive's free weekend shore dives. They're led by qualified divemasters, cost nothing other than equipment hire, and take place in stunning locations like Shelly Beach. And not only that, there's always a great group of divers, and great conversation afterwards around soup and other snacks. The only problem is that they're often booked out well in advanced. So to try and solve that, we decided to start hosting beginner only shore dives, with the first one taking place at Clifton Gardens. I arrived at…

01Jul 2022 by Warren Prior No Comments

Shelley Beach Showing Off (Diving as Minnie Mouse)

Diving

Seeing as we had the day off, and the kids were at school, Sharon and I decided to head down to Shelly Beach for a quick dive and to test out some new gear. On route, we stopped in at Frog Dive to fill our tanks and pick up Sharon's "new" regs. And somehow, while I was loading the tanks into the car, Sharon ended up borrowing a Minnie Mouse hood in case the water was chilly. Sydney was expecting a huge rain bomb to pass through in the upcoming days, and some of that rain was already starting to hit us, so we wanted to make hay while the sun shines. We parked near the Fairy Bower pool and kitted up on the side of the road. The air…

05Jun 2022 by Warren Prior No Comments

Underwater Cleanup at Clifton Gardens

Diving, Event

One of the things I've learned (or finally got to witness) as a diver is that a large percentage of our waste ends up in our oceans, which damages both the fauna and flora. However, despite how large this problem is, even the smallest of gestures can help. If not us, then who? So on Sunday morning I headed down to Chowder Bay where I met up with the Frog Dive crew to clean up the area under the Clifton Gardens wharf. Clifton Gardens is one of New South Wales premiere muck diving sites, with incredible macro photography on offer for those willing to put their eyes to the test. We split up into buddy pairs, and allocated areas to clean. My buddy and I focused on the area inside…

24Apr 2022 by Warren Prior No Comments

A Sneaky Dive at Shelly Beach

Diving

With Kerry out from Perth, what else would we do other than go for a sneaky dive. The initial plan was to dive with Kerry, but sadly she wasn't able to do her refresher in time so Sharon stepped in to fill her shoes (fins). We packed up the family early on Sunday morning and headed down to Bare Island to join Frog Dive for a shore dive. Despite it being a beautiful day, water conditions were still far from ideal. In fact, a quick chat with the dive master confirmed that we shouldn't expect more than 3 meters of vis. We therefore made a last minute decision to change venues and headed north to Shelly Beach, where we knew visibility was likely between 5 and 10 meters. Bare Island…

18Apr 2022 by Warren Prior No Comments

We Found Secret Vis!

Diving

After months of no diving in Sydney, courtesy of La Niña induced flooding and near zero vis, Sharon and I finally managed to get back into the water. As per usual, we met the Frog Dive crew at the Mosman Rowing Club just after 7am, and kitted up in the carpark while getting to know our fellow divers for the day. At 8am we climbed onto the boat and began the trip to North Head, while receiving our safety briefing. Our first dive was at Rock Fall, and it was an interesting experience to say the least. The 6 of us met on the surface, and then descended in what turned out to be a shocking 2 meters (if that) of visibility. By the time we reached the bottom, we'd…

20Feb 2022 by Warren Prior No Comments

An Adventure at BlueFish Point and Rock Fall (Including a Wobbegong Attack)

Diving

I've done a lot of dives of late, but this was perhaps one of the more memorable ones, and for all the wrong reasons. After finally securing a babysitter, Sharon and I booked ourselves a double boat dive. We were slightly apprehensive since a fatal, white shark attack had taken place only 3 days prior, just 10 kms south of the dive site, but we decided to go for it anyway. As planned, we met at the boat ramp at 7:30am, ready to head out at around 8am. We immediately ran into our divemaster, who happened to have run my Emergency First Responders course, and had a quick chat to him while we setup our gear. Everyone arrived on time, so we were soon on the boat and headed for…

29Dec 2021 by Warren Prior No Comments

December Diving at Clifton Gardens

Diving

December was a dive heavy month for us. Nick (and family) travelled down from Brisbane, which meant a week of near daily diving as we explored Sydney's plethora of shore based dive sites. And as with many Sydney divers, their journey began at Clifton Gardens. Clifton Gardens from the air Looking down on the Clifton Gardens dive site Nick and I made a last minute decision to do a night dive at Clifton Gardens on Christmas day. We arrived at around 7pm, and were immediately disappointed by the amount of rubbish left lying around from the Christmas day celebrations. After making a few weak excuses, and ensuring Nick things weren’t normally like this, we geared up and headed down to the water. We dropped below the surface at last light…

26Dec 2021 by Warren Prior No Comments

Exploring Shelly Beach (Under and on Top of the Water)

Diving

Shelly Beach is one of Sydney's most well known, shore-based, scuba and snorkelling sites. It's located in Manly, and lies within the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, home to over 160 species of fish (so there's plenty to enjoy). The site is perfect for beginners, and is sheltered from most weather conditions as it's a west facing beach on the east coast. We chose to dive Shelley Beach over December as it offers a wide array of activities, from swimming and snorkelling for the kids, to diving for the adults, all in close proximity to some amazing coffee shops. It's also the home of Weedyland, so there's always a chance of finding the gorgeous weedy seadragon. Before going further, it's worth calling out that one of the downsides of this…

Tag: Sydney