The school holidays are coming to a close and the water is clearing and warming up! The boat dive to NE Cabbage tree on Wednesday had 2 Seals, a grey nurse shark, an Eagle ray and whales singing the whole dive!

Nigel goes away to Montague Island and Jervis bay this weekend! Our next Local Trip is South West Rocks on the 8-10th November with Jake, there are still spots left so call the shop and book now! We have a DPV course and a Wreck course coming up, with limited spots book in as early as you can! Check out our upcoming dive schedule on our blog.
This photo is one of our winners from the UW Festival competition last week! Taken by the overall winner Tom Davis! If you’d like to learn how to get photo’s as good as this, book onto one of our UW digital photography courses now!
Looking for something else? Check out our trips away! We have loads of dive holidays coming up, Bali in May 2014, East Timor in July 2014, we’re heading up to Southwest rocks on the 9/10th November, we’re visiting the ex-HMAS Adelaide on November 30th/ December 1st and our newest trip on board the Luxury livaboard The Spirit of Freedom, call now for more details! All these trips have limited spots and we have already received bookings. So if you are keen don’t delay!
Last but not le

ast we have the Christmas party dates, 30th November, Adult price is $45 pp with childrens pricing soon to come. Please book in as early as possible so we can have exact numbers!

Thursday 3rd

 Double Boat dive to Broughton – 0800am Meet

High tide – 06:52am

Friday 4th

High Tide – 07:28am

Saturday 5th

 Double boat dive to Broughton – 0700am Meet

High Tide – 08:04am

Sunday 6th

Double boat dive to Broughton – 0700am Meet

High Tide – 09:24am

Monday 7th

Double boat dive to Broughton – 0700am Meet

High tide – 10:24am

Tuesday 8th

High tide – 11:09am

Wednesday 9th

High tide – 11:58am

The Nelson bay UW Festival was a great success, with plenty of awesome photos being submitted,congratulations to our winners and a massive thank you to everyone involved!

With the school holidays beginning Nigel’s trip to Montague Island and Jervis bay is almost here! Only one weekend left! There is still limited spots available so if you want to dive with the seals give us a call! We have a DPV course and a Wreck course coming up, with limited spots book in as early as you can! Check out our upcoming dive schedule on our blog.

This photo is one of our awesome entries from the UW Festival competition this week! If you’d like to learn how to get photo’s as good as this, book onto one of our UW digital photography courses now!
Emma and Adam had a great time in Palau! Check out our next trip away! We have loads of dive holidays up and coming, Bali in May 2014, East Timor in July 2014, we’re heading up to Southwest rocks on the 9/10th November, we’re visiting the ex-HMAS Adelaide on November 30th/ December 1st and the road trip to Jervis Bay/Montague next month. All these trips have limited spots and we have already received bookings. So if you are keen don’t delay!
We have a wreck, which is also heading to the ex-HMAS Adelaide, and DPV course coming up in November/December, spots are limited so if you are keen to join pleasebook in now!

Dive Schedule

Friday 27th

High tide – 13:48

Saturday 28th

Double boat dive to Broughton – 07:00am

High tide – 14:52

Single boat dive local – 14:00

Sunday 29th

Double boat dive to Oakland + 1 – 07:00am

High tide – 15:58

 Monday 30th

High tide – 16:54

Tuesday 1st October

High tide – 17:41

Wednesday 2nd

High tide – 06:15 am

Jake’s IDC blog

The one person you always tend to remember is your instructor. Their enthusiasm and passion for the underwater world is probably what made you the diver you are today. My own passion and enthusiasm pushed me into becoming an instructor, so here I was at 0800 on a Monday morning at my Instructor Development Course (IDC), the most nervous I’d been in a long time almost feeling sick, we were introduced to our course director, Des Paroz, who took us inside to our classroom. Des instantly strived to make us feel at ease and assure us that everything we were about to learn was well within our capability. After attempting to put us at ease we dived straight into some instructor theory.

The next 10 days were filled with classroom work and diving, during these days we learnt what it is to be an instructor, what it takes and how to be successful. Everything we had ever learnt about diving and more was wrapped up in these 10 days. It was hard work but it was tonnes of fun, luckily our IDC was only one week before the Instructor Examinations (IE) down in Sydney so everything we had learnt was fresh in our head, however this did nothing to comfort my nerves! At the end of our IDC Des congratulated us and assured us the IE has no surprises and that we had done it all before.

This week the vis has taken a downward turn, however the diving has still been fantastic! With plenty of night dives going on and reports of the vis being even better at night! Nigel’s trip to Montague Island and Jervis bay has a very small number of spots left on it so if your keen to dive with the seals book in now! We have a DPV course and a Wreck course coming up, with limited spots book in as early as you can! Check out our upcoming dive schedule on our blog.
This awesome nudibranch was taken by Trevor Hall at pipeline, if you haven’t been on a shore dive in a while nows definitely the time to do it, with tonnes of nudi’s about and plenty of other stuff to see it’s a fantastic winter!
Check out our trips away. We have loads of dive holidays up and coming, Bali in May 2014, East Timor in July 2014, we’re heading up to Southwest rocks on the 9/10th November, we’re visiting the ex-HMAS Adelaide on November 30th/ December 1st and the road trip to Jervis Bay/Montague next month. All these trips have limited spots and we have already received bookings. So if you are keen don’t delay!
We have a wreck, which is also heading to the ex-HMAS Adelaide, and DPV course coming up in November/December, spots are limited so if you are keen to join please book in now!

Thursday 12th September

 High tide – 1:08pm

Friday 13th September

 High tide – 2:16pm

Saturday 14th September

Double boat dive to Broughton – 7:00am

High Tide – 3:30pm

Sunday 15th September

Double boat dive to Broughton – 7:00am

Single boat dive – 1:00pm

High tide – 4:39pm

Monday 16th September

High tide – 5:38pm

Tuesday 17th September

High tide – 06:16am

We’ve been treated this week again with great weather, warm water and fantastic! Adam and his students had a great weekend on their DPV course doing plenty of shore diving and the whole eastern side of cabbage tree island on the scooters! Also at Fly point this week there have been reports of even more turtles and plenty of nudibranchs! Check out our upcoming dive schedule on our blog.This awesome photo was taken by our very own Jim Dodd testing out some new photography techniques, if you want to see some awesome sights like this book onto one of our boats this weekend before all the spots have filled up!Check out our trips away. We’ve got plenty of dive trips coming up and they’re filling up fast, we’re heading to Bali in May 2014, Southwest Rocks this November and next February, East Timor in July 2014 and a road trip to Jervis Bay and Montague Island to dive with the seals in October this year. All of these trips have limited spots and we have already received plenty bookings. So if you are keen don’t delay! If you would like to learn to take pictures like this we have his weekend our first Digital UW photography course with our specialty instructor Jim Dodd, if your a keen photographer but want to learn more about the nitty gritty parts of photography, or even a beginner looking to get better photographs give us a call and book yourself on!

Wednesday 28 August

High tide – 1:40pm

Thursday 29 August

 High tide – 2:40pm

Friday 30 August

 High tide – 3:44pm

Saturday 31 August

Double boat dive to Broughton Island – 8:00 am Departure

Single Local – 2:00 pm Departure

High tide – 4:44 pm

Sunday 1 September

Double boat dive to Broughton Island – 8:00 am Departure

Single Local – 2:00 pm Departure

High tide – 5:33 pm

Monday 2 September

High tide – 6:12 am

Tuesday 3 September

High tide – 6:50 am

By Cherie and Jim Dodd

What is that saying about how married couples start to look and dress alike? We are Husband and Wife dive team Jim and Cherie Dodd who both work and play in the ocean. Jim is Coxswain / Instructor and Cherie is Instructor / shop girl with Lets Go Adventures. We both had holes in our suits and it was time for new ones so we asked Emma for something we could afford but that would be durable and comfy to work in. About a week later the two Aqualung Aquaflex wetsuits arrived.

JIM: “I looked the suit over and noticed that it was a size L. I’m usually an XL in my clothes and a 4+ in my wetsuits. I tried it on and found that it fitted quite well. Only 5 minutes into my first dive with the new suit I was in love with it. The fit and comfort were great. Warmth wasn’t an issue at this stage as the water temp was 22 degrees C. Over the next three months since getting the Aqualung Aquaflex I’ve done about 70 dives and have nothing but praise for the suit. I’ve done up to three dives a day while teaching open water and Advanced courses in water temps of 19 deg C without an under garment without getting cold. I’ve also done 90+ minute long photography dives with a sharkskin in water temps of 18 deg C without getting the slightest bit cold”.

CHERIE: “I laughed at Emma when she said I was getting a size 14 ladies suit because I am an 18/20 ladies or 5 mens wetsuit but to my surprise when I got the suit I could see it was actually my size. Looking at the size chart I realised that these have a unique sizing breakdown so make sure to look at the measurements not the size! I was SO happy with the stretch and flexibility of this suit. My previous suit (of another brand) was stretchy but as a result it was not as warm as a traditional 5mm but the Aqualung Aquaflex is a true 5mm in warmth! As a new suit it was not too buoyant only needing to add a few pounds. Now with the cooler water I wear a full body sharkskin under the suit and because of the flexibility it remains comfortable and unrestrictive. For me it is a bonus to be a really nice looking suit, a ladies cut that fits my size and has sexy purple stitching and print!”

To sum it up, the Aqualung Aquaflex 5mm wetsuit is excellent value for money, it’s flexible and extremely comfortable. We would recommend it to anyone who is after a wetsuit that’s soft, flexible, comfortable and warm.

Click image for product information

With the warm sun and clean water sticking around there have been plenty of divers out and about this week with reports of 15m-20m vis and 17-18deg water. The double dive out to North Rock on Sunday created a lot of excitement with 30+ grey nurses hanging around in the gutter, with some larger females this made for some fantastic diving! Check out our upcoming dive schedule on our blog.

This big bellied seahorse, photographed by Trevor Hall, an awesome find, was spotted by some of our divers on the pipeline numerous times throughout the week!

Check out our trips away. We are heading to Bali in May 2014, East Timor in July 2014 and a road trip to Jervis Bay/Montague in October this year. Both these trips have limited spots and we have already received bookings. So if you are keen don’t delay!

This weekend coming there is the first night boat dive going out. That’s right, diving the wreck of the SS Oakland, at night! There’s plenty of spots available so if your keen to come dive the Oakland at night, call us to book now!

Keep an eye out for Adam and students zipping around on their DPV course scheduled for 24th & 25th Aug, there’s only ONE spot left. So If you are keen to get on the scooters please book in now!

Wednesday 21st

08:12am – High tide

Thursday 22nd

08:59am – High tide

Friday 23rd

09:45am – High tide

Saturday 24th

07:00am – Double boat dive to Broughton

10:30am – High Tide

05:00pm – Night boat dive to Broughton

Sunday 25th

07:00am – Double boat dive to Broughton (FULL)

07:30am – Dive away freediving/DPV course

11:15am – High Tide

Monday 26th

12:00pm – High tide

Tuesday 27th

12:47pm – High tide

By Cherie Dodd

How do you see the Underwater World?

When I started to use an underwater camera it caused me to see things differently, I started to frame up this and that looking for pretty composition of colours with cooperative fish. I would then practice my “sneaking up” techniques on the skittish ones to see how close I could get all the while taking a shot each breath just knowing it was only a matter of time until I would be left with a poof of sand in my view finder. Then, even on dives without a camera (which was more often the case) I would still see “the perfect shot”… if I only had a camera with me.

I am an arty farty photographer, interested in capturing the moment and not so interested in how or why the camera does what it does, much to the dismay of my UW Photographer husband Jim Dodd who has tried on several occasions to get me excited about using manual settings. With the low light and dirty water I was diving in I was not getting the shots I wanted using “auto” Jim attempted to teach me to use the manual settings one last time but underwater I got myself in a fluster and I admit, I gave up! I thought bugger this I will turn the camera to video and off I went. It was on this dive at Little Beach, Nelson Bay that I caught a cute little bit of footage of a seahorse.

Well that was it. I figured out what I wanted to do… video! Don’t get me wrong, it is not THAT hard to learn the manual settings and all of that, if you were interested. But because I am not it just made it a chore and then I did not enjoy any of it. I know that getting the end result that I want from video is not going to be easier than photography. I will have to take good underwater footage, playing with lighting and angles, I have to learn how to colour correct it and how to edit all the footage together so I can share it. But so far, the actual act of taking the footage has been more enjoyable for me and I love the way it has opened my awareness more to the behavior and interactions of marine life. I did see this before but now I am taking more time to really watch individual fish and spending more time in one area to see what they are going to do next.

I have had some fun interactions with the marine life using the GoPro. Being so small I found that many of the species that would swim and hide from me with my camera and housing were happy to let me get really close with the little GoPro. And they act different in front of it which has given me some very funny footage. Here is some footage from my surprise dive with seals last week

With the warm sun and clean water there have been a few divers out and about this week with reports of 15m-20m vis and 19-20deg water. Tracey the turtle is back at Fly Point and Dave H. is after her to give her shell a scrub and a new tracking device so if you see her please tell us asap! Check out our upcoming dive schedule on our blog.

The cutie pictured here was taken by Kath at Cabbagetree Island. There was even a report or one jumping to do a swim by some divers

Check out our trips away. We are heading to Bali in May 2014, East Timor in July 2014 and a road trip to Jervis Bay/Montague in October this year. Both these trips have limited spots and we have already received bookings. So if you are keen don’t delay!

Adam has only one spot left on his DPV course scheduled for 24th & 25th Aug. If you are keen to join please book in now!

Nelson Bay UW Shootout & special club day weekend
On 21/22 Sept we are hosting our first annual Nelson Bay UW Shootout as an Official Underwater Festival Fridge Event which means you could win twice! All divers welcome to enjoy boat and shore dives, talks on photography and interesting UW critters. Weekend timetable to be uploaded this week. See here for more details about the festival.

Save the dates: Next Club day – Sep 21
Christmas Party – 2nd November!

Dive schedule:

This is our current dive schedule, but we are always open to suggestions & requests.

Fri 16 Aug

9.00am, Double to Broughton Island

3.45pm – 1.6m High tide shore dive

Sat 17 Aug

8.00am, Double to Broughton Island

4.52pm – 1.5m High Tide shore dive

2pm – Single Dive NE Cabbagetree

Sun 18 Aug

8.00am, Double to Broughton Island

11am – 1.5m High tide shore dive

2pm Single Boat Dive – Cabbagetree Island

Mon 19 Aug

6.30am – High Tide shore dive

Tue 20 Aug

7.22am – 1.5m High Tide shore dive

Wed 21 Aug

8.12am – 1.5m High tide shore dive

Thur 22 Aug

8.53am – 1.5m High tide shore dive