For those of you that have read my previous article on proper weighting for SCUBA diving and buoyancy control, you will know how passionate I am about this topic! So very often, divers are overweighted. Being overweighted makes achieving and maintaining proper buoyancy extremely difficult. Not only that, overweighting can have other negative impacts such as reduced dive time as [...]

Giant kelp forests are a temperate water divers heaven. They provide shelter through their towering, dense canopies and consequently, a much greater diversity of plant and animal species is found in kelp ecosystems than almost any other ocean community. Almost gravity defying, giant kelp is the largest marine plant in the world. The algae grows up to 45 metres tall [...]

Serendipity on our doorstep Warm tropical waters, blue skies, coral reefs and far away lands are what normally springs to mind when imagining liveaboard dive trips. So when we found ourselves packing for our latest liveaboard experience, it did feel rather strange to be loading drysuits, thermals and beanies into the car! This was clearly going to be a liveaboard [...]

History of the Poor Knights Inhabited by a large Maori population until around 1808 the Poor Knights Islands are steeped in history and myth. Legend tells of Chief Tatau and his warriors leaving the islands on a hunting expedition and returning to find his villages destroyed by tribes from the mainland. When Tatau returned he was met by survivors who [...]

I am struggling to find a way to explain this trip, as my words do not do these remarkable creatures the justice they deserve, but I will try my best. Now back in Byron Bay, I am at my preferred local coffee shop getting the caffeine I need to start the day.  As it was only a week ago that [...]

There is a well known catch phrase amongst divers that goes, “the wetter, the better!”. I have recently worked out that this is not always true. After years of shivering and shaking, blue lips, numb fingers and miserable surface intervals on the back of dive boats in horizontal rain, I have finally given in. I have invested in a dry [...]