Dive Sites
It is vital that your training is realistic. It is okay to train in the tropics if your job will involve fish watching on a tropical reef, but if you want to be prepared for the reality of construction diving you need to be skilled and confident in cold, deep and low visibility water.
The tasks you complete on course should represent a wide variety of real tasks typical of the construction industry. The tasks should not be lightweight, improvised tasks, that are only used because they can be conveniently transported.
The dive sites and work tasks should be arranged to minimize travel and set up time, because that means more on course training time for you.
Freshwater Diving Around Albury Wodonga
This section was inspired by two questions that I get asked frequently when people find out that I run a dive shop 300 kilometres from the nearest salt water.
Firstly "Where can you dive around Albury/Wodonga"?
Secondly "Why would you want to dive around Albury/Wodonga"?
I have attempted some answers. They are by no means a complete list, but will start you off in the right direction. I want to motivate divers to try freshwater diving, not just because part of my livelihood depends on it, but because its exciting and interesting. There is a great range of dive sites close to Albury/Wodonga which include rivers, lakes, dams, quarries and mines. Most sites don't require a boat and can be dived in any weather conditions. There are over twenty species of fish, a huge range of flowering plants, freshwater tortoises, crayfish, prawns and shrimp. Some poor souls don't even believe you when you talk about freshwater jellyfish, sponges with glass skeletons and plants that flower underwater, and of course all the insects that spend part or all of their life cycle in fresh water, are not found in the ocean at all.
The clearest water I have ever dived in was a freshwater dive in Piccaninnie Ponds at Mt. Gambier, and some of my most exciting and memorable dives have been local freshwater dives. I would sit for hours alone in mountain streams, with my camera, hoping to be the first to photograph the platypus in the wild. When one finally swam up to me I was so excited I forgot to take the picture!!
A dive I would rank with the best I have done was on the Old Kalkite Homestead at Lake Jyndabine, and nothing compares with the thrill of finding an antique bottle, worth perhaps $300, in the river.
To understand and appreciate this uniquely different and fragile environment you need to look, not just with your eyes, but with an open mind, and question what you see. Your diving will never be the same.
Finally, a word of caution. Most freshwater sites are bounded by private property and permission to enter may be required.
Most fresh water has lower visibility than the ocean and silt is easily disturbed that can further reduce the visibility. Thermoclines are often present which reduce water temperature and some sites will require altitude adjustment to the standard decompression tables. You will require less weight to achieve neutral buoyancy when compared to ocean diving. If in any doubt about the dive conditions or techniques please ask our friendly dive shop staff. |
