Descend Downunder

Cass Walters with Matilda born on Mother's Day

A Tiny New Dive Team Member...

Another I hear you say? Well with Leigh and I, Ash and Bec, now Scott and Cass being our latest, and with Rick and Meroula expecting there has to be something fishy going on at  Descend!

Congratulations..

To Scott and Cass on the safe arrival of their little girl, Matilda Grace….born, wait for it, Mothers Day! So I got to celebrate Mums Day as a first time mum AND Auntie. Both Mum and bub are doing well and we look forward to our next addition to the Descend team with Rick and Meroula due early September. 

Our proud new Dad - Scott with Matilda

Truk Lagoon—Final Chance..

We ran our Truk Info night earlier this month showing club members the wonders of Truk Lagoon. If you missed it and want some more info give Amy a call and arrange to view the DVD. Deposits and application forms must be sent directly to Always Travel ASAP.

It’s a Mystery..

Our mystery club dive was a huge success with the mystery location being Lake William Hovell. Check out the photos at the link below for a sneak peak at this great dive location and let us know if you know of a great dive spot the club could visit.

Beautiful Bicheno..

Bicheno soft coral

Again, never disappointing. We had nice weather, calm seas and great dives. A big thank you to Bruce at Bicheno Dive Centre (& Duke the diveshop puppy) for their wonderful hospitality. See Kirk’s article below for more details and check out the great pic’s.

Easter in Bicheno.. By Kirk Savage

After a couple of full on weeks at the office, I was looking forward to heading off for a nice relaxing few days diving. That’s exactly what we found in Bicheno.

Bicheno is a little sleepy township inhabited by 800 or so locals, on the East Coast of Tasmania approx. two hours drive from the Launceston Airport.

Myself, Malcolm Nugent & Steve Watson (and his partner, currently non-diver but we are working on that) headed to Tassie bright and early Thursday morning.

We arrived to “typical” Tassie weather, windy and cold, and I was cursing myself for not packing my drysuit! However as we traveled to Bicheno, the weather didn’t seem important as I was getting a little excited, remembering the stories that Des and Kristy had told me from the previous trip in 2006. I was picturing the massive crays, fat abalone and couldn’t wait until I got to chase a few around.

We found the dive shop, Bruce and his mascot, Duke, (the Weimaraner) greeted us and showed us around, gave us the quick where to go/not to go and what to do.

Friday we decided to start with a shore dive just to get back in the water and see how cold it really was done here, surprisingly the water temp was a very comfortable 16. Rossco, a Master Diver, working with the Dive shop, lead the group and showed us all the sights, including many Weedy Sea Dragons.

We were all keen for a boat dive now to check out these monsters of the deep, well fat seafood of the Marine Park at least. We jumped in at “Cunnucks” which was only a 2 minute boat ride.

The stories were true; everywhere you looked Crayfish, Abalone, and Crabs. A good deal of restraint was required. Max depth was around 21metres and the 40 minutes went very quickly as we were distracted by the crustaceans and surprisingly the colorful zoanthids, something that I didn’t expect in the more temperate waters of Tassie

I was loving the diving and suggested to Steve and Mal a night dive would be a great idea. We convinced Bruce that it was his duty to show us the night life of Bicheno.

It was back to the same site we dived first up in the morning.  Bruce bought his light saber along to show us all the weedy dragons and seahorses and a few cuttlefish. It was a totally different place, so much so that Mal thought we entered a cave!! No, not true, unfortunately for Mal, his torch went out for a few minutes as we all rounded a bommie and he thought we were heading into a cave. All’s well that ends well. A little chilly when we got out and Steve’s partner thought that we were all mad, Im not that sure she isn’t right!!

Saturday greeted us well, a little overcast but any day is a good day for diving, after all I was on holidays? Well that’s what Des told me, now that Im the Boss, I get holidays all the time, Christmas, Easter and a few other days during the year…

We had two more boat dives, everything the same, plenty of crayfish, abalone and those very bright zoanthids. Pat was a dive guide for thee dives, showing us spiders, Congo eels and turning us into canon balls with the serge shooting us through the swim through's. What a blast!!

The last dive was outside the marine park, we made sure we bought the catch bag. We were all certain that we were going to have our fill of Crayfish... Surprise surprise, there wasn’t as many fat crayfish hanging around, what was there were pretty small and hiding in unreachable places. All the divers returned to the boat empty handed.

Our last dive was on Sunday morning, we headed out to the steps, a dive that starts around 8 metres and runs down to 33ish metres. After a few days of continuous diving I didn’t want to spend a lot of time at 33 so I watched from above as Mal and Steve chased around some of the biggest crayfish I have ever seen. As always, the best things are seen in the last few minutes of the dive, Mal came face to face with a Crayfish that was so big that it charged him!! It was that big, it would have fed a small country for a week.

After a few days diving, we decided to dry out a bit and go for a drive down to wineglass bay, about 40 minutes from Bicheno. A very picturesque place indeed.

All in all, a great way to spend Easter. If you get the chance, make your way to Bicheno and look up Bruce and his mate, Duke. You won’t be disappointed.

Club Night at the Movies..

We can’t let this one slip by without a club night – the latest Indiana Jones installment.

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

When: Friday evening 30th May

Time: Meet at 7:00pm Albury Cinema Centre

Join us afterwards for coffee and cake

RSVP on 02 60 411405 by 29th May

Select the link below for more;

Course 54…

Introduction to Full face masks

What does an inland dive shop do in the middle of winter? We’re flat out running a commercial dive course for 12 students who have come as far as Malaysia, New Zealand and all over Australia. Check out our website at www.descend.com.au and follow the students as they progress over the 3 month course or select the link below;

Winter Warmers..

We’ve got some great ideas to keep you cozy this winter. Select the links below to the following products;

Paragon artic semidry suit;

scubapro nova scotia;

Probe socks and tops;

And for those of you who want to stay completely dry;

Scubapro Everdry 4 Package

http://www.descend.com.au/shop/products/200852031332.htm

Magnum drysuits;