Hi, my name’s Jessica and I’d like to share a few experiences of my own about scuba diving but also some observations I’ve made just from watching my parents John and Julieanne down at the Sea Way. The first time I had ever put on a scuba suit was when I was about 12 years old, it was quite a mess because the sizes had been all mixed up and I had actually been in the toilets from about 20 minutes trying to squeeze into an extra small rubber suit which is quite difficult! In the end about 3 other scuba divers came in and wrapped my legs, feet, arms and hands up in plastic so that the suit would slide on!

I definitely enjoyed my first experience scuba diving that is after I got into the water. I loved seeing all the fish so close to me and they didn’t seem to even be frightened of all the people around them. My favorite fish to this day that I have seen is the stone fish with it’s squished up tail and it’s chubby face = ) 

Over the years both my parents haven’t stopped scuba diving since, even though I stopped a few years ago I still go down and watch them from the shore, I still don’t envy them putting the tank on there backs and squeezing into the scuba diving suits but I do envy them seeing all the fish they come up and tell me they’ve seen. I’ve noticed also over the past few years since they have been drinking verve that they have loads more energy and after they’ve come out of the water and take off all their gear, washed it and driven home there are no more half an hour cat naps maybe an hour for my dad =) but now they just go on with there day, working or even going for a walk later that same day. 

I understand how much this must help them keep doing the activities they love because I know from experience it takes a lot out of a person putting on those slippery suits.

I have heard that the scuba diving is amazing around the coast of Croatia. We are planning a trip to Slovenia and Croatia next year, and I definitely want to dive over there. We will probably go in June, although it sounds like it will be very warm.

We will definitely be visiting Zagreb because we have business partners who live and do their business there. It looks like it’s a city filled with history and a lot of old buildings. I am hoping it’s not far from the sea. Even if it is a fair way, we’ll be able to go to the seaside, and take a boat out to one of the 1,185 islands, islets and reefs. I don’t know of any countries with that many islands around it. I visited Slovenia earlier this year, and if Croatia is anything like Slovenia, it will be magnificent!

I have been missing scuba diving these last 5 months. We had LOTS of rain here on the Gold Coast all through our summer (from December to March), and the Southport Seaway was not a good place to dive. My dive buddy and I went there a few weeks ago, and it was getting better. The other day, we went for a dive with the Gold Coast dive club and the viz was about 5 metres.

I still love the feeling I get down underwater, no matter what the viz is like. However, my dive buddy kept making signs he was falling asleep, he likes to be occupied all the time. For me, I just loved being in the “now” down there! We had a barbie after the dive and talked about our dive experiences, which I love doing!

I just watched this video which has amazing footage of sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the ocean, and a pair of fighting squid.

David Gallo in Ocean Exploration

David Gallo focuses on the work of two scientists: Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab and Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and .

A hyperbaric chamber has 2 main functions:

1) It takes divers underwater to provide a temporary base and retrieval system in the depths, as a simpler form of submersible vessel.

2) It is used to artificially reproduce conditions under the sea which are hyperbaric (pressures above normal atmospheric pressure). This chamber can be on land or ship-based, and is used for diving-related and non diving related medical applications.

There is a national hyperbaric center in Scotland, which plans to build the world’s largest and deepest chamber, so it can test underwater equipment at depths greater than 5,000m.

These chambers not only save diver’s lives, they are also used to treat non-divers’ medical conditions, such as carbon monoxide poisoning. Recent studies have shown that the chamber can be used in the treatment of specific eye conditions, where the retina has been starved of oxygen.

With a hyperbaric chamber being used to treat non diving related conditions, this is good news for divers. It means the chambers could become more accessible.

Heron Island is in the Southern Section of Great Barrier Reef, North East off the coast of Gladstone. Gladstone is 534 kilometers north of Brisbane (a 6 hour drive). There is a boat transfer service over to Heron Island and also a helicopter service.

I have a friend who’s been diving from Heron Island and said it was one of the most beautiful places he’s dived. There are over 20 dive sites, so Scuba Divers can easily enjoy up to 3 full dives a day and an occasional night dive too.

Here’s what AusEscapes.com.au say about a Scuba Diving Vacation at Heron Island

“Heron Island Resort is one of the few Queensland island resorts situated right on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It’s what you don’t see around Heron Island that makes the resort so special. You won’t see any buildings above the tree line. And you won’t bump into any daytrippers either. The reef experience on Heron is exclusively for guests, a unique experience few other resorts in the world can offer. There’s a relaxed island lifestyle that sets Heron Island Resort apart, a sophisticated yet casual resort atmosphere. Here the emphasis is on exploring and discovering the natural attractions that have made Heron famous around the world.

You’ll enjoy some of the world’s best reef diving. There’s a choice of spectacular sites just minutes from the beach, and can you imagine a better place to learn to dive? There is no need for day trips to the Great Barrier Reef, because you are already there! So you can easily enjoy 2 dives a day. There are over twenty different dive sites close to Heron Island.

Join a guided reef walk to learn more about the unique ecology of the Great Barrier Reef or snorkel off the beach and come face to face with the kaleidoscope of marine life just below the surface. Enjoy a day trip to explore an uninhabited coral cay or just spend the day lazing by the pool. At night there’s live entertainment, dancing or a quiet drink in the Pandanus lounge. All meals are included in your tariff and the Saturday night seafood buffet comes highly recommended. You’ll find a range of accommodation to suit your budget. As you would expect, Heron Island takes great pride in maintaining their high standards of food and service.”

Diving at Cooke Island is pretty good. This is a story I wrote when we dived there 2 or 3 years ago. Here’s a picture of the island:

We had a great time! The viz was poor, however we still saw lots of stuff. We went with about 5 other people, and Luke led us.

Luke found a couple of turtles sleeping, so gave them a bit of a nudge, and off they swam.

I saw John brushing at something on his head, and afterwards he told me this Damselfish was tapping him on the shoulder, and then came back later on, having a go at his head. He wondered what it was!! These fish are very territorial, so it was just protecting his environment.

Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I would give a comparison of the Sealife DC550 with the Sealife DC600 that I received a few weeks ago. Sealife gave it to me because the DC550 was taking photos that were very over exposed.

My first thought when I turned on the camera was “great, it’s more like a computer”. Instead of the rather complicated menu system on the 550, with the Sealife DC600, there is a Mode button to select Photos, Video or Playback.

Each Mode has it’s own menu, accessed by a “Menu” button. Press the menu button, and there are 3 tabs ( like on a number of computer software applications ) Scrolling through the menus is very easy ( Much easier than on the 550 ) Even with the Underwater casing, accessing the menu is very easy.

The LCD monitor is flatter and I’m sure it’s a little larger, and it’s much easier to see the LCD display underwater.

I find the Flash setting a little confusing, and haven’t worked it out yet. The flash setting depends on what “Scene” is used.

Underwater ( with the casing on off course:-) the buttons seem easier to find, mostly because it’s more simple.

The first time I went scuba diving, I put the camera on Video mode before placing it in the underwater casing because I couldn’t find out how to change the mode back and forth between video and still photos. I read the manual a couple of times and couldn’t find out how to change it. So, my first dive was all video – it was a very bad day for diving so can’t show you the video. Visibility was about 1 foot ( maybe ).

Before going diving again, I looked on the sealife website, at their FAQs. Guess what the first FAQ says? They must have forgotten to put it in the manual:-)

1. How to select video or playback mode when the camera is in the housing.

When the camera is in Sea, Ext Flash or SplashWater modes, you can push the LCD display button to toggle between picture, video and playback modes. When the camera is in any other mode (and outside of the waterproof housing) you can use the slide switch on top of the inner camera to switch between video, playback and picture modes.

So, overall I think there’s a definite improvement in the DC600. A strange thing happened on my second dive though. My husband took the camera when we went off the boat. It was set for video and so he pressed the “Power” button, then Shutter to start the movie. He pointed the lens towards his subject for awhile, then pressed the shutter down to turn it off. And, it wouldn’t turn off. He showed me and I couldn’t turn it off either, so we didn’t know if it was still shooting movie. When we got back to the beach, the camera was still playing. By the time it dried and I was able to take it out of the casing, the battery had run out. The camera is okay, so that’s good.

One more thing I forgot, the Power button and the Shutter button have switched places which was a very good idea!

I’ll post some photos after I go diving next.

I have some video here that I took with the camera on it’s own. It takes great video.

Bear in mind though, this video has been compressed for YouTube, and the picture you see before clicking the play button has been compressed too. When the play button is hit, the picture is very clear. The first photo you see ( before the movie ) was a snapshot taken off the movie, using “Windows Movie Maker”. Very clear don’t you think – I didn’t do anything to it in Photoshop either.

Well, I sure had some adventures with my SeaLife DC500

The first one, I bought at the local dive shop for nearly $1000 (AUD). I used it a few times, then one day ( it happened to be my birthday last year:-) I went for a dive at Byron Bay, here in New South Wales, Australia. The water was a bit rough, and while climbing into the boat, the camera fell off my arm. We all looked for it for awhile, then the others had to go before the boat went out to sea by itself. My husband and I stayed back to look for it, but it didn’t want to be found by us.

So, after a month or so, I bought another brand new sealife from a store on Ebay, for about $600 (AUD). Buying one from the US was less expensive because of import taxes not having to be paid.

The camera worked really well, until one night in Las Vegas, in the middle of taking a movie of The Pirate show, it went weird. I had to take the battery out to stop it going weird. After that, there was too much light exposed in all the photos, and they looked all white. We were disappointed because we had a lot of pictures to take in Vegas.

I sent the camera back to the U.S. and got a brand new replacement. I had that for a few months, and took it up to the Sunshine Coast recently. I took some great movie of the HMAS Brisbane ( in a previous post ), and then a couple of days later, was taking some shots and the photos went all white again, just like they did in Vegas.

So, I sent the camera back again, and this time, they sent me the upgraded model. So, now I have a brand new SeaLife 600. Will write about it another day. It’s a beautiful camera!

And, we dived on it!  We were there the day after the 2nd anniversary of it being sunk.  It was very exciting to see the ship and I took some movie of our first dive.  The second dive, we went inside the Engine room, but I didn’t take the camera down for that dive.

The ship was sunk especially for divers to play on, so it was a very easy dive. Very long ship – 33 metres long and the deepest end is only 27 metres.

Here’s the movie I took, can’t see much of me because I haven’t learnt to take good shots of myself yet:-)