After a number of months planning the trip to dive Fish Rock Cave located at South West Rocks, only a short 5 hour drive north, the trip was deemed a rocking success. 

The gang of 14 people all arrived on the Friday and managed to escape the Sydney traffic. The Pacific Highway’s upgrade has just about finished and soon I think that the trip will be only about 4 hours, making this top dive spot a great escape for the weekend.

Friday night we mixed it with the locals at the Riverview Tavern, a new addition to the area with $5 300g steaks and $3 schooners. This is a great place to relax and watch the sun set over the river and unwind from the crazy pace of Sydney.

Day 1 - the wind had dropped but the swell was something to contend with. The boat trip started on a high with an improvised snorkel with a whale and her calf before we even got to the dive site. The scene was set with many added bonuses that Eddie made very clear he was not paying extra for; a snorkel with whales included! The first dive gave everyone a taste of why you drive 5 hours to dive on a rock, although many of the crew had a queasy surface interval with more than half submitting to the over the side fish feeding. Despite the rolling sea, we completed two dives around the rock and enjoyed diving with the Grey Nurse sharks, turtles, schools of king fish, a massive school of yellow tale and juvenile lion fish. We checked out the opening of the cave and the nursery with a giant bull ray demonstrating how best to glide in the current!

On return the gang relaxed as a BBQ dinner in the nearby Arakoon Nature Reserve was organised. What a great setting with the ocean on one side and the bush, complete with kangaroos on the other. Not to mention the very game sausage stealing Kookaburras who struck each time we were distracted by the sensational views! We enjoyed great company and interesting conversations about the environment, science and the gentleman’s glossary of terms. A very educational conversation for the ladies at the table!

Day 2 - the weather had been turned on for us as we experienced flat seas and a change in the wind; again a lovely 22 degrees in the water and an easy 15-20m visibility allowing us to complete two great dives through the cave and a play with the bull rays, schooling king fish and Grey Nurse sharks.

To continue the buzz of the dives many went on to have lunch at the local pub to swap photos and experiences and generally download on a very enjoyable weekend.

The next weekend will be scheduled very soon so keep your eyes open.

Brad Greentree            

Hurray!!!, CONGRATULATION to Rodney, Tim and Simon for successfully completed their Advanced open Water course over the weekend on 25^th and 26^th of October, 2008.

       Rodney J Clark                 Simon A Hoad               Tim G Brogan

Course commences in the morning with some exciting orientation, knowledge review on Saturday 25^th October for the three Adventure Dives – Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Navigation and Underwater Naturalist. By 1.00pm we were all geared up ready to hit the water at Shelly beach, Manly.

Shelly beach, manly - Fantastic 3 dives. Lots of fun and excitement fine tuning the buoyancy, navigating underwater and identifying some aquatic life. In fact on the 3^rd dive, I was being lead back to the exit point by their fantastic natural navigation capability. Plenty of Wobbegong sharks and saw a cool and calm devil scorpion fish as well as a baby  Cuttlefish .

On the second day on Sunday 26^th, upon finishing up the Knowledge Review for the Deep Dive and Boat Dive, we were at Rosebay wharf at 12.30pm anxious to get on board Sealife 5 for 2 boat dives. Deep diving was quite an experienced seeing how an empty bottle crushed, playing ping-pong using an egg yoke and some mental test. Wolla! At 26m, no one was affected with nitrogen narcosis. Second dive at old man’s hat were awesome as we bumped into few hugh Port Jackson shark.

Regards,

Samuel WONG

You might think diving and NLP, what a strange mix or even what the hell is NLP?! I know that I did before I found out all about it. Fact is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is a very important and useful tool to have for a PADI dive instructor.

So here I was in my own business having a great time being a dive instructor, working weekends diving in Sydney, diving on weekends away and overseas trips.

All of a sudden I found myself a little worn out, tired and at times a little bit cranky! But I had the best job in the world, everyone envied my job so what were all these negative thoughts and feelings?

I had developed the same thought pattern as anybody would for any normal job. So I set out to find out what happened to my usual, happy self.

After taking several courses in NLP and other related modalities, what I found was how I worked and how my thinking affected my view of the world. I also found a heap of new tools that would help keep me motivated, happy and also assist me in helping people with fear, phobias and anxiety. I also learnt how to communicate with people at an unconscious level.

All this was very exciting so I started to want more information and more insight into the thoughts and beliefs I had about what is possible for me and my students, and from that time I have not looked back. Once upon a time I would have problems with students getting the skills in the pool or understanding certain complexities related to diving. Now I can teach diving in a shorter time and with greater succsess as my students get the learnings first time every time with the assistance of NLP, hypnosis along with Time Line Therapy. Now I am a trainer in NLP , hypnosis and Time Line Therapy and am also a NLP Coach. I see clients to help them with many aspects of their lives and obstacles like how to quit smoking, find their ideal relationships and overcome the very common fear and anxiety of public speaking.    

Andrew, Pete, Steph and Jon all successfully completed their Open Water Diver course today at Bare Island, La Perose. We couldn't have asked for better conditions, hardly any surf and a good 10m+ visibility!  

On open water dive dive 3 Pete spotted a huge Port Jackson shark, and Steph got followed by a Blue Grouper, that was some of the amazing things we saw underwater today. 

Congratulations guys - see you next time.

Instructor Alex Zak and Dive Master in training David Douglas

After meeting all the students on Thursday evening I can tell they are a great bunch of people. Along with the weather and conditions being so good, the latest open water course is set to be a good one!

Super students! What a great weekend. No problems at all. Will see you all soon on the Advanced Open Water Course:)