Diving with Seals

I went diving with my friend Ed and the kids and we were greeted by some friendly locals

Diving the Swansea Channel

Thanks to Bob Staddon for organising the annual Charity Drift Dive down Swansea Channel just south of Newcastle in NSW. About 100 divers went 2 kilometres up the channel with the incoming tide from the bridge to the boat ramp. I did  the dive with my daughter Kate, she filmed the dive with her GoPro and I put together this little video

Paraplegic crawling

Here I am crawling into Long Bay for a snorkel to look at the red algal bloom. This crawling technique protects the areas that you normally sit on and lets you keep your balance






You can see the red alga Noctiluca scintillans in the shot below, it drifts in with the wind and collects on the beach. Unfortunately then it dies and makes the beach stink. See an article here in the herald. It is supposed to glow in the dark so I might try it tonight with another swim.

Tips on Scuba diving for paraplegics

Here are some of my techniques for scuba diving without fins

Diving the Adelaide

Alan and I went up to the HMAS Adelaide and dived mild spring day. Using Nitrox 38% our maximum depth was 34m with a bottom tome of 40+ minutes.

Aaron Ward

Here is the video of the Aaron Ward shot by John Black.

Twin tanks - paraplegic scuba diving

I went to the Solomon Islands with John Black from Maroubra in Sydney and dived the USS Aaron Ward in Tulaghi. It was warm and clear in the water, even on the bottom in 75 metres.

I was diving on air using twin 88's which I put on in the water. I didn't use a deco meter instead I used a set if tables based on Dr Buhlman's formulas. The other members of the trip dived a second wreck each day in 50 metres which I thought was a bit risky so I sat out the second dive.

While I was there a lady in our group got a spinal bend and had to be airlifted out.

Watch the attached videos and you will see John's terrific vision of the wreck and also a video of me swimming around the deco lines on top of the shipwreck. On my first dive my weight belt fell of at 10 metres so I continued to the bottom and put on the belt - it was easy to find because of the clarity. I had meant to go to only 50 metres to acclimatise - sounds were echoing in my ears as I started to get very powerful narcosis.

John also penetrated the wreck right into the laundry. This was very brave because the internal structure collapse when you bump them creating clouds of red water that obscure everything