Dive 124 – Flinders Peir

By pfuller

Jan

24

Dive Number: 124 08/01/11 10.56  Flinders Pier, Mornington Peninsula.

Wind:   15knot  NE’s.

Tide: .5hrs after 0.84 low tide at Stony Point.

Conditions:    Freakin awesome!!!!!! A reasonable north easterly was blowing over the water, slightly onshore, and chopping the hell out of the surface. It didn’t look good and i was considering trying elsewhere. But decided to walk out on the pier and the water looked clear. Once under the water i saw how clear it was….crystal. This is the best shore diving vis i’ve ever had..better than Rapid Bay a few week earlier.

Visibilty: 20+m

Water Temp: 19c

Bottom Time: 147 minutes

Max Depth: 4.3m

Air usage: 200bar/3000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:  What an incredible dive. The water was crystal clear..almost too clear.. and there were too many Weedy Seadragons to count. As soon as i got in, i had two in my restricted mask vision, and there were at least 20-30 hanging around the jetty. They came in all shapes and sizes,  some with eggs, some injured and missing tails, others small juveniles, and some hanging around in pairs.  There were also large numbers of blue weed whiting feed ferociously. If it wasn’t for these guys churning up the bottom, the water would have remained totally clear. Oh and then theres the kids jumping off the pier, oblivious to the seadragons trying to live beneath. Made for some interesting photos anyway. Truly a once in a year dive…conditions dont come around like that very often.     

Camera Details: Tokina  10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

Dive 52: Flinders Pier

By pfuller

Jul

9

Dive Number: 52 27/06/2010 12.52 Flinders Pier

Wind: 15 knot Westerlies

Tide: 1.40 high tide at Flinders

Conditions: Shivery, icy cold conditions..dull and overcast. A great day for diving!

Bottom Type: Pier Pylons over seagrass beds.

Visibilty: 4m

Water Temp: 13c

Bottom Time: 81 minutes

Max Depth: 5.6m

Air usage: 140bar/2000psi

SAC: 13.7 litres/min

Details: Another impromptu trip to the Mornington Peninsula. Weather was god-awful, and i felt about the same but i made the most of it while i was in the area.

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: I put the 17-40mm on for this dive, despite bad experiences with it in the past. I think mid range lens have the biggest learning curve compared to dedicated macro and wide angle. The biggest concern being the working distance which is far greater on the 17-40mm, so you have to adjust and make sure you dont get too close to stop focus lock. Cowfish were the target species for this dive, but i stilll didn’t nail the shot i was after. Here’s a few that i had to make do with:

Lots of Goatfish around…

Some shots of the growth on the pylons:

You cant go to Flinders without snapping off a few shots of the weedy seadragons:

At the end of the dive i saw a 1.5m shark off the end of the pier. I couldn’t make out the species and i’m not all that familiar with whats in the area, but my guess was it was a large gummy. Unfortunatly it took off quickly so i didn’t get any shots.

Dive 42 – Flinders Pier

By pfuller

May

27

Dive Number: 42 23/05/2010 12.27 Flinders Pier

Wind: 5 knot SE’s

Tide: 0.5hrs before 0.60 low tide at Flinders Pier

Conditions: Another great day for diving, sunny, light winds and reasonably smooth western port bay. I had no idea what the tides where doing and low tide wasn’t ideal. The water was fairly murky on the way out but out towards the end of the pier vis was good.

Bottom Type: Seagrass bedding with wooden pier pylons. Some sand patches and some structure for fish.

Water Temp: 15c

Bottom Time: 73 minutes

Max Depth: 3.9m

Air usage: 105bar/1500psi

SAC: 12.6 litres/min

Details: I’d stayed up in Melbourne on Saturday night and bought my dive gear just in case. I really wasn’t planning on heading down to the Mornington Peninsula, but i just couldn’t resist. My strobe battery was running low, which i totally forgot about until it went flat about 15 minutes into the dive…bugger…flinders is such an awesome dive too!

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe (with little battery power)

Dive Report: My first photographic subject was the Flinders pier icon…the weedy seadragon. The first one i came across was a wee juvenile weedy, and i took quiet a few photos of it, not knowing that my strobe was quickly running out of battery life.

When the batteries ran out i had two options…head back in and get my spare battery out of the car…or conitinue on and try some ambient light shots. Laziness won! I find it makes you change shooting styles when you dont have strobes too, so you get the creative blood pumping. A massive school of bulleyes seemed like a good subject.

When another diver swum into frame it completed the shot and came out as on e of my favorite photos of the dive.

I went out the back of the pier and came across about 4 cowfish busily feeding on the seabed. This was my main target species for visiting Flinders, so i was spewing i had no strobe battery left. I decided to turn it on anyway, dialed down the power and crossed my fingers, trying to not waste a shot. I managed to get about 4 strobe bursts, which was enough to get a couple of keeper cowfish shots.

With the strobe battery well and truly flat now, i spotted an adult Weedy Seadragon out over the seagrass, so i tried for some silohette shots against the sun. I couldn’t nail the shots i was after but a couple came out ok.

Here’s one in B&W: