Trip Report - Straddie Weekend Relaxing

12-13 May 2012

The sun was up, the wind was 5-10 kn, visibility 5-15 m, the swell was 1 m and 6 Advanced students, 2 divemasters in training, 2 instructors, 12 UniDive divers, 3 kids and 1 dog were spending the weekend at Straddie.

Friday night eight members shared a pizza at the point and at nine everybody arrived and were briefed by the Dee and Bride (divemasters in training) about the food, sleeping, dive and safety plan.

The Advanced divers did a drift dive from Turtle cave to Little flat and had a ball in the current. Then the second boat load dove at Flat Rock and Manta Ray bommie. Where they saw Grey nurse, big rays, a turtle and much more, but the mantas are on their winter retreat. The advanced students left for a late afternoon for navigation dive, followed by a great sunset, a night dive and a beautiful clear sky after. On return there was a food fest prepared by the Turkish, Australian, Singaporean and American team. Sunday morning early the boat went out for a advanced deep and naturalist dive, followed by a double dive for second boat load of UniDive Divers that went to Little Flat and swim through.

Although the visibility was not to good, the American wind smelled inside, south African/Canadian snoring team were loud, drysuits were wet, all other conditions were great.

UniDive has 6 more advanced divers (congratulations), and 2 dive masters in training who did a great job, 14 UniDive divers who were refreshed as well.

Thanks Stefano for organising and finance, Mark, Julie, Muge, Volkan for shopping and Cooking and all the others for a great weekend of easy, relaxing and socializing.

It was awesome

A couple of earlier reports that have just come in:

Trip report - The Wreck of the St Paul

18 February 2012

A small group of tech qualified Unidivers took the boat out for a great dive on the St Paul in February. Conditions were less than ideal with difficult chop—we almost called it on the way out—and quite a swell at the site. However persistence paid off and conditions underwater were perfect. Very little current and 20 metre visibility made for a brilliant dive.

The St Paul sank in March 1914, after hitting Smiths Rock off Moreton Island. It sank with a full load of chromium ore and 18 souls were lost.

We spent 30 minutes on the wreck with an average depth of 39 metres, checking out the now largely collapsed structure, the boilers, the engine and the myriad of fish. Then leisurely made our way back to the surface with 20 minutes of decompression on 50%.

The trip back was dead calm and pouring rain most of the way with the ghost of a container ship crossing the channel presenting an eerie backdrop.

After a rough start, it turned out to be a really relaxing and enjoyable day and we’re looking forward to running more decompression trips with Unidive.

http://vimeo.com/41215513

Trip report - Hustler III & Flinders Reef

11 February 2012

A while back we took a group of fellow Unidivers out to the wreck of The Hustler III, discovered by local divers Matt and Rachel Murphy (GUE Fundamentals graduates!), and Flinders Reef, off Moreton Island, for an open water trip.

It was a great day for inexperienced divers—beautiful weather, calm seas, no current and 20m visibility. We saw plenty of corals, fish life, nudibranchs and turtles and a great day was had by all.

http://vimeo.com/41183617

Trip Report - Straddie Weekend

20 April 2012

21 UniDivers and three kids went to Straddie for the weekend and had more fun than diving.

Weather was great and the swell also 2.5-3.5 m, great for surfing and spectacular views of the rocks, not good for diving. Ken cancelled the trips from the ocean side so we got creative and dived in the Moreton Bay from the boat and from the shore at amity. A new experience for most of us but we did see mud, sand, seagrass, urchins, seacucumbers, wobbie gong sharks, banded shrimps, moray eals, hermit crab and more.

Another noticebale point was that we came with 17 certified divers and returned with 21, and UniDive has four more open waters and two divemasters in training (Dee and Bride) who did a great job.

Thanks Emily and Michael for doing the finance, Craig and Alyssa for shopping, Josh for cooking and all others for a fun and adventurous trip.

New Management Committee for 2012!

Thursday 29th March saw the club have its Annual General Meeting where we said thank you and goodbye to one management committee and then welcomes in a fresh new committee.

It gives me great pleasure to announce the new UniDive Management Committee for 2011:

• President - Jimi Bursaw
• Vice President - Jon Chong
• Secretary - Bride Moran
• Treasurer - Bruce Mclean
• Diving Officer - Ben Beneke
• Boating Officer - Lee Raby
• Gear Hire - Jenny Matheson
• Maintenance Officer - Justin Marriner
• Training Officer - Chris Roelfsema
• Memberships Officer - David Byzant
• Social Officer - Samantha Smith
• Ancillaries Officer - TBC

Congratulations and we look forward to a fantastic year ahead!

UniDive Pool Training every Thursday

There is a growing group of members who are taking part in pool training every Thursday night at the UQ pool.

There are some just doing laps for fitness, others doing a mixture of skills and tasks under Chris R's direction all with the aim of better fitness.

Lastly there are a group of Unidivers having a go at underwater hockey, a little bit of a departure from Unidives normal scuba activities but who knows, this could be the seeds of a completely new UQ club in the future if it takes off! Check it out in these video's

Dumpster Diving?? - Clean Up Australia Day Dive

March 4 2012

On Sunday 4th, UniDive took part in a Clean Up Australia Day event on Straddie. Massive thanks to the members that helped clean up and contributed to the 200kg+ of rubbish cleaned up at Amity Point!

Apparently there is still lots of rubbish out there to be collected off the bottom....

Take a look a Reef Check Australia's page for photos of the day!

http://tinyurl.com/7ygdxuv

Training report - UniDive Refresher course

March 3 2012

The refresher course was a fun event for: the fourteen UniDive members who wanted to refresh their academics and practical diving skills; and the six dive masters and instructors who took care of it.

The refreshers had: 3-30 dives, no diving for 6 month to 13 years, and open water or advanced certificates, they made a good choice to do it.

We started at 8:30 am with 1.5 hour on standard diving theory, which included some dive tables and the UniDive computer usage. Then off to UQ Pool where in small groups the 20 diving skills were first demonstrated by divemasters (in training) and then repeated by the refreshers, this was in 2 x two hour sessions. Dee and Bride were doing their traineeship for the divemaster course and did a great job with demonstrating and logistics. Bruce, Douglas, Jon and myself helped out in the pool and Josh took care of tank filling. At 4:30 pm we left the pool after a very successful day with heaps of fun and 14 members will be looking forward to nice and relaxing diving.

Thanks: all for your help, UQ Pool for the two lanes, and thanks exec for reserving all gear for this day it made life easy.

Check out more photo's here: http://tiny.cc/bmhzf

Trip report - Henderson Rock + Dugong Spotting

December 21 2011

On Wednesday 21 December eight UniDivers left Manly boat harbour at 7:30 am to take Down Under to Henderson Rock which is located East of North Moreton. We first cruised route between the shallow seagrass beds of the Eastern Banks through the Rouse Channel up to the South Passage bar. The bar was a bit route but Holger got is through.

After one halve hour/two hour ride the GPS and Holger brought us, spot on Henderson Rock. Conditions were good, swell was 1.5 m, wind 15 kn, no current and visibility around 15 m. At the site Bruce was officially rewarded his dive master certificate after finishing the last part of the course the day before. We then got ready to explore the rock. The shallowest part of the rock is 10 m where the deepest part is around 30 m. We did two great dives on the rock and explored the different geography, with overhangs, swim troughs and steep walls. The rock has nice corals and algae growing on it with various gorgons that provide great shelter for the small fishes and Emperor angle fish. We spotted beautiful Nudi branches, various hermit crabs, anemone fish. The occasional damsel fish was protecting his little garden from other intruders such as divers. During the dives we were visited by a Manta Ray and an eagle ray that were feeding above us. In the shallow waters we were witnessing green turtles eating and swimming around between schools of Perges, jacks, butterfly fish and wrasses. The occasional coral cod was waiting between the rocks checking out what’s happening. Yep some great dives in good conditions.

At 1 pm the last divers got in the boat and Chris drove back to South Passage. Then Christine drove into to the Rouse Channel and along the seagrass beds. On this track we stopped a few times for some Dugong spotting at they were sticking their head up and dove quickly down to avoid any further contact. We followed our route into manly harbour where we arrived at 3 pm.

Looking forward on the next trip, thanks for all the help Holger, Christine, Mark, Wayne, Douglas, Bruce and Mike, with driving, cleaning finance and tank filling.

PS see some photos from this trip and previous trip to Henderson on following link https://picasaweb.google.com/110074776165697810605/HendersonRock?authkey=Gv1sRgCMv-8-Xdoc-elAE&feat=email

Trip report - Crusader II / Cementco - Rust hunting part 3

November 27 2011

On Sunday seven unidivers headed to the wreck of the Crusader II, more commonly known as the Cementco. The ship started life as the Crusader, a WWII support vessel for the Australian Army. After the war ended, Crusader was sold to Queensland Cement and Lime Company and renamed Cementco. QCL retired the ship in 1984 renaming her Crusader II. In 1986 she was sunk in 27m, about 200m from Flinders Reef: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Army_ship_Crusader_(AV_2767)

The ship now rests upside down with an average depth of around 23m and is covered in life. Two teams of twin take divers using Nitrox32 had a single 50min dive, with each team taking a shift as surface watch.

After shotting the wreck, Piet, Trent and I entered the water to secure the line and proceeded inside through a large hole toward the bow. Unsure of the state of the wreck and whether there were any other exits, we planned the dive using thirds* and ran a reel. Before turning the dive, we explored all the way around the interior and into the engine room. Some sections of the wreck have collapsed and we found several large openings in the sides that would allow for an easy exit. Other sections, like the engine room, were more enclosed and should only be entered with appropriate training and experience.

Near the entrance there are several large rooms almost completely intact, however deeper inside where there has been more structural collapse, movement can be tighter and solid fundamental skills help move around effectively and safely without impacting the wreck. Apart from the growth and fish life, there were also lots of pipes, ladders and other remnants of Crusader II's former life above water.

Following this we had a short tour of the outer wreckage, back to the six large prop shafts and rudders at the stern.

After surfacing we took over surface watch while Jeremy, Bride, Mark H and Lee, headed down for their own adventure…

Big thanks to Piet, Trent, Jeremy, Bride, Mark H and Lee for a great day on the water and especially to Mark for lending me a wrist seal just before I jumped in—got to love zip seals.

Trip report - HMAS Brisbane - Attack of the Black Damsels!

November 12 2011

On Saturday, 12/11/2011 Alex, Ashley, Bruce, Holger, Jane, Karsten, Mariana, Olivier, and Steven, went on an awesome trip to the HMAS Brisbane. After it seemed that the whole trip might not take off at all (the boat trailer was broken), Alex worked out an emergency plan, and we went with Sunreef.

Conditions were almost perfect – clear sky, no waves, and almost 20m visibility. Descending down to the wreck, we were greeted by a huge bull ray. The wreck itself was full with fish life – bullseyes, lionfish, damselfish, trevally, cods..., plus very beautiful nudibranchs, crabs, lobsters and more. However, diving the wreck was not without dangers: Hundreds of vicious and violent black damsel fish where not happy with our presence there (although we had all necessary permits and had payed everything!), and kept attacking us. People suffered bites in fins, fingers, and ears, but in the end, there were no casualties on either side (the videos of fist fights with damselfish will NOT be released to the public). In summary: awesome wreck, abundant marine life, personal interaction with it, and really great dives!

Thanks to Alex for organization and snakes, Olivier for doing the finances, and Sunreef, Mooloolaba, for organizing a boat just for us on such a short notice!

Trip Video - Wolf Rock Weekend - SHARKS!!

November 5/6 2011

Trip report - Gold Coast Seaway - Current!!

October 30 2011

Another report of an excellent unidive trip this weekend; a bunch of us went diving this past sunday to the Seaway.

We were two different groups, some dived in the North Wall and others in the South Wall, but everyone was pleased with their respective dive.

When we arrived, the current looked very strong and when we jumped into the water it was indeed as strong as it gets :S.....(see video, courtesy of Alex McDowell). The idea of this trip for many of us, was to see bullsharks. In spite of not seeing sharkies at all, and spending the first 15-20 minutes clinging from rocks to avoid being carried away by the current, the dive was great! We saw plenty of stuff, many of us were very impressed with the sea life in this spot! it was awesome! My group saw turtles, stingrays, eagle rays, a huge crab, some cool nudis, a lobster, many pelagic fish and we also saw some junk in the bottom, including towels, masks, swimming suits an even an anchor! It was an excellent dive and we are looking forward to go back to this place because its close to Brissy, its nice and its very cheap ($20)!!!!

After the dive we made a delicious bbq next to the beach, with meat and sausages as everyone sat down in the sun to chat and have a couple of cold beers, I mean, drinks.

Special thanks to Jeremy Ford and Marc Herbert for being the boathandlers and to Bride for organizing the trip. Also thanks to Annemiek and Mark Kuiphuis for doing shore watch!

Trip report - HMAS Brisbane - More Rust!!

October 22 2011

9 Unidivers had a great trip to the HMAS Brisbane Saturday the 22nd.

Bride ran a tight ship and we were on our 9am slot close to start time and left after one or two dives (depending on single tanks or twins) ~12:30pm. Back to shore with no trouble (~20 mins) and back at UQ around 3pm, home washing gear around 4:30pm.

It was my first trip to the HMAS Brisbane and I may well have changed my mind about wrecks being "meh" and for boys. The engine room was very impressive!

The bottom vis was 5-8m, water temp 21'C, little surge, topside weather grey and drizzly.

Loads of growth and fish on the exterior (parrots, bat, damsels, angels, butterflies, wrasse, anthea, scorpion, lions and clowns the common ones) made for a very pleasant dive.

Plus ID'd a few nudis; Splendid Nudibranch, Obscure Nudibranch and Graceful sap sucker.

We had whales on the surface including one that surfaced about 5m away and swam over the wreck.

Trip report - Cook Island & Storm Dodging!!

October 15 2011

A horde of diving folk went to Cook Island on the 15th of October: Andy, Ben, Christian, Elizabeth, Ida, Jieyang, Joel, Johana, Jorge, Holger, Nakita, Pete and me.

After an uncertain start (with a massive storm at 5AM!) we managed to get going and arrived at Kirra Dive at 11AM.

Raul and Herb got us out to the island. Visibility was awesome - up to about 20 metres in some spots... and down to about 5 metres in others. The start of the day was sunny and hot, and the water temperature was about 21 degrees. Swell was minimal.With a mixture of open water and more experienced divers, we all had an enjoyable experience and saw some cool stuff!

Highlights of the day included: - big turtles - the biggest octopus I've ever seen! It was awesome! - scorpionfish - a swimming black bandaid that I later found out was a flatworm. - clouds that started rolling in during the surface interval - dark biblical clouds that rolled in and started zapping stuff at the end.

Photos of lots of these things are up at http://www.alexmcdowell.com/photos/111015_cook_island . Go and have a look!

The day ended with a major storm, but by that stage we were back to shore, and generally inside cars. Cook Island is a great trip and I'd recommend it if you haven't done it before.

Cheers to Holger for organising the day, and to Herb at Kirra Dive for getting us there (and back!).

Trip report - Wreck Diving aka A Lust for Rust!

September 17 2011

Saturday the 17th of September 9 unidivers had a great trip to North Moreton to go wreck diving. As the weather and sea conditions were better than they've been in ages the plan was to visit the wreck of the Cementco first and then go and find the newly discovered wreck of the Hustler 3. The Hustler 3 was a 15m Trawler that sank in the late 1980's and has recently been rediscovered just south of Flinders reef.

The bay treated us to a magnificent display of humpback whales breaching and fin slapping as we neared the wreck sites and we had to "pull over" for a while and just take in the amazing display nature was providing!

Soon enough we moved onto the Cementco wreck for the first dive. It turns out that the GPS mark in the boats system is more a miss by about 60m. Thankfully Trent and Ryan had gone in first to set the pick and they ended moving it the 60m to the actual wreck site - BIG Thanks from the others on the boat! 3 waves of divers dived the cementco and had good vis with little current. A big wreck that needs a few visits to really appreciate it.

We spent a pleasant surface interval munching on the usual snakes and other goodies (thanks Bride) along with Jez's legendary triple choc chip muffins and enjoying sun, no wind and no swell....

From here we moved to the mark we had been provided for the Hustler 3 and it was spot on. Again 3 waves of divers spent abot 40 minutes each all around this pretty little wreck. Best news though is that it is sitting gently leaning to one side in 20m of water on a sandy bottom which makes it perfect for Open Water divers!!! Plenty of life all over it as well including the biggest QLD Grouper I've seen in a while.

So any of you open water divers who would like to organise a North Moreton trip with a dive on the Hustler followed by a dive at Flinders reef step right up - this will make a great day out!

And the boat was almost full of boat handlers so expect more people available to take you there!

Unidive becomes a true underwater club

Thanks to the flooding in brisbane we are now a true underwater club with both our sheds underwater.

However, thanks to the great work of a number of volunteers the club boat and most of the gear were safely removed to higher ground.