Category: News

On the 25-27th January the ‘Western Districts’ Spearfishing Competition will be held in Port Fairy.

This is an annual competition and is run by the Southern Freedivers Club. All AUF members are welcome to attend.

It’s also included as an event in the GFD ‘Surf Coast Cup’ so be sure to come along.

More information will be forthcoming…

We’ll be having another attempt at running the pole spear competition this Sunday 15th December 8am 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.

Please sign up online at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/competitions/competition-entry/

It’s fine to come along for the social aspect too.

The Surf Coast Cup is proudly sponsored by Geelong Dive Centre who have kindly donated a Rob Allen gun as the prize for this competition series.

Just for something different we will be starting from the Sunnymead Beach carpark.

We’ve been watching the various weather forecasting tools closely for the last week and it looks like Sunday is actually not going to be as good as initially forecast. What was already a very marginal average day has been determined to be inappropriate. Whilst this is unfortunate it’s also part of diving Victoria.

So we are cancelling tomorrow’s competition. However we’re very keen to get either the pole spear or shore dive events completed this year and it should be possible.

The next two weekends are candidates for 2019 so and there’s a projected ease in swell towards the end of next week. We’ll be assessing the conditions again during the week and will endeavour to get out a notification as early as possible if an event can be run.

Since there’s two events feel free to suggest which one you’d prefer via facebook/email etc..

Apologies for the late notice. We were pretty keen to push forward with an event and wanted to more certain what weather to expect this weekend.

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.

Please sign up online at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/competitions/competition-entry/ by midday Saturday so that we can cater for the post dive BBQ.

The Surf Coast Cup is proudly sponsored by Geelong Dive Centre who have kindly donated a Rob Allen gun as the prize for this competition series.

Details
Date: 1st Dec
Time: 8am
Location: Aireys Inlet

The committee decided to hold the 2^nd 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.

Link here if you want to see the clip I put up.  https://youtu.be/vmBjfnKt4sE

Here is Ivan with a Banded morwong Parrot; he must have been a pirate in his past life.

Full results from the comp to come…….

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.

This Competition is open to all AUF members and is being sponsored by https://ninepinwetsuits.com.au/ so for your chance at one of their awesome wettys be sure to join in the fun. Sign up no later then 5pm Saturday the 12 (so we can cater for the bbq properly) at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/competitions/competition-entry/

Date: 13th October
Time: 10am
Location:

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.

Meet at the carpark at the end of foreshore road at 8am for an 8:30 start. Sign on required prior to the day at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/competitions/competition-entry/

Remember this is open to ALL AUF members not just Geelong Freedivers 😉

Date: 22nd Sep
Time: 8am
Location:

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.

Just a quick reminder that this years AGM & Club Awards Night on Saturday the 10th of August, in the front bar of the Sir Charles Hotham hotel in Geelong, kicking off at 6:30pm.

We will be presenting a number of awards for notable spearfishing related accomplishments of our club members, and release competition results for the season just gone. 

Sometime during the night we will also hold the club AGM, where all committee positions will be vacated & the club will vote in the new committee. Only current financial members have the right to nominate for committee positions & vote, so if you want to take part but have let your membership lapse, make sure you sign up prior! The committee STRONGLY encourage any members who would like to contribute to the club more to get involved in the committee.

Its shaping up to be a great night! Partners welcome.

Hi all,

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