This Sunday we will be holding the Surf Coast Cup boat comp launching from the Queenscliff boat ramp. Make sure you get there early to launch so that you are ready for the comp start which will be 9am. Launch your boats and park your cars and we will do the safety briefing in the car park before jumping in the boats and heading off to the actual starting point.
There’s been a good number of people getting onto tuna so lets hope that a few schools are still about.
Tomorrow is our monthly club meeting at the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel at 6:30 where we will have a special guest speaker Renée Venville from the Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA).
The VFA is the control agency for all shark hazards in Victoria and Renée is leading the VFA on emergency preparedness. Part of her role includes shark education. The VFA are partnering with CSIRO, LSV and Deakin on research projects; including eDNA, drones and the relationship between whale carcasses and sharks.
So please join us for a presentation and discussion on shark safety, risks and current research projects.
We are calling on the first round of the Surf Coast Cup which is the polespear comp for this Sunday at Aireys Inlet. Entry is open to all AUF members. Participants can only use a polespear, no guns, which makes it an interesting and challenging event. For all rules check out our website.
The committee decided to hold the 2nd Photo
competition down at Port Fairy due to the exceptional forecast predicted. The
decision was to add a social dive to the itinerary and the inclusion of
Hayden’s Asian style BBQs. Interest was higher than normal and turnout was
exceptional. Russell arrived a day ahead of the schedule dive day and gave us a
glimpse of what was to be expected.
Due to the distance
most of the divers decided to car pool and start their journey early. Many of
us checked out different options, Armstrong bay, Killarney, Ponds, all divable
but the stand out was The Crags. It was a no brainer to call it.
It’s not often that this stretch of coast is suitable for
diving. But once in a while the ocean swell and offshore winds all line up
giving us perfect opportunity to dive. Picture speaks for itself.
Before gearing up, a few of us ventured down to inspect
suitable entrances down to the water as the area is covered with sand dunes and
jiggered lime stone cliffs.
Never seen conditions like this before, I’ve been here
plenty of times and this is the first time it’s been flat. Here are a few
divers gearing up on the beach.
The most common species of the day! The good reliable sweep.
So underrate as a table fish.
Here is one of the social divers pinning one of those fat
sweep.
Of fcourse the day finished off with one of Hayden’s famous gourmet BBQ.
Thanks to all those who came along including partners. A good day was had by all and plenty of stories to tell.
So the conditions are holding out and we have decided to call the second photo comp on and at Port Fairy! It’s a bit further west then we are used to travelling and so we will have a later start time of 10am.
The plan is to meet up at the car park at pea soup with some committee members checking out other places along the way (Killarney, the crags) and will decide on the final location on the day.
As this isn’t being held in a marine sanctuary feel free to bang a few species for the club spearfishing championship, just remember take the photo before taking the shot! As usual there will be a BBQ after the dive.
Hi all! Time for our first comp listed on our calendar which is a photo comp. Swell is only taking a little dip towards the weekend and the winds are mainly northerlies and some west so we thought we would try something a little different and host the photo comp at the grammar school lagoon. This will give us the opportunity to look around the top end of Corio bay, see what lurks about the moored boats and travers up limeburners bay and even see whats in hovels creek.
Want to find out what the go with torches is? What’s a lumen? What are all these symbols on the packaging and what do they mean? What do people use when looking for crays or for night dives?
Well come down to the next club meeting on the 11th of September at the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel at 6:30 for a presentation by one of our coaches on this very topic and check out what some of our members are using, even bring your own torch and see how it measures up.
we have our monthly club meeting on this Wednesday and we have a special guest coming! Toby from VFA is coming to talk to us about the progress on the lobster tagging program now that it has been running for two years and about to enter the third.
This will be of interest to all spearfishers and divers who take rock lobsters so I highly encourage everyone, not just club members, to attend and ask any questions that they might have.
Date: 10th July Time: 6:30pm Location: Function room at the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel 3 Brougham St, Geelong
According to our club calendar we have a schedule this Sunday and its a good thing that the swell is down and we have preceding northerlies, so lets try for a late season cray or two!
As we are without a club BBQ there will be no BBQ after the social dive (but doesn’t mean we can’t head out for a bite to eat) so don’t add the BBQ option when signing up at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/members/social-dives/
Date: 7th July Time: 8am Location: Point Lonsdale, out the front of the surf life saving club
Last Sunday we held the second (and final) photo comp of the series. Initially scheduled for Springs Beach Point Lonsdale but the conditions were terrible. Several members scouted all around our side of the bay but there was dirty water all around except in one location, Swan Bay! Ideally we would have liked to have held it at a different location as the first comp was in Swan Bay but when the sea gods give you lemons you dive where you can. It was also interesting to see how different it would be now that the water was a lot colder then it was back in December.
We had 5 people signed up For the comp and 2 social divers which included the comp Sponsor Luke from Ninepin Wetsuits. It was great to have Luke come to the event, meet some members and also for us to check out his new range of pelagic wetsuits.
Whilst everywhere else had brown water SB has crystal clear in a couple meters but got a bit hazy green when looking out in the distance. Everyone noticed 2 things on the day, the water was COLD and the fish were scarce! The average number of fish scored was just 3 or 4 so it was really up to the framing bonus points to seperate the winner from the pack.
The comp was called on for 4 hours but I knew it was time to leave the water not when the time was up nor when my gopro was flat but when I could no longer operate the thing due to my fingers not working anymore because of the cold! An ill fitting wetsuit in the cold of winter is not a good thing.
Upon leaving the water we all headed to the public BBQ’s at St Leonards to go through our photos and select which ones we would submit for scoring while warming up with some BBQ pork rolls and some taste home made beverages (thanks Ivan!).
Despite it being a cold quiet day it was still great fun. Due to some equipment malfunctions only 4 people entered photos to score and the results are as follows:
1st: Malcolm scoring with 4 species with an average score of 493 2nd: Hayden scoring with 4 species with an average score of 488 3rd: Ivan scoring with 3 species with an average score of 375 4th: Nam scoring with 3 species with an average score of 355
Thanks to all who competed during the season making it a fun and enjoyable event and of course to our sponsor Ninepin for giving us that extra incentive to win.
