Waking up this morning I was wondering whether the predicted swell increase was going to arrive early or wait until after the social dive had completed. I was hopeful that the visibility was going to be at least as good as Saturday’s dive at Queenscliff (10-15m).
Approaching Anglesea all was looking good. From the cliffs near Pt. Roadknight the ocean was flat so I was confident we would be having a successful social dive.
Here’s how the conditions presented at Aireys. Very nice if I must say so myself.
Some of the SFD guys were already at the carpark and ready to go at 7:30am. These guys are keen. You can see them about to launch in the below picture.
I should have taken a few more photographs just a little past this point as some sets came in and what looked like an easy beach entry became much trickier i.e. overturned float boat and diving under waves. Good entertainment as I waited for the GFD guys to arrive at the more appropriate and gentlemanly 8:00am.
Finally the full group of GFD social divers arrived and five divers and three dedicated bbq participants were checked in. Conditions had turned quite windy by this stage and a few fronts had moved through.
The northerly winds and rain showers were quite impressive however they didn’t match the calibre of our father and son team. Watch this young guy, he’s going to take all our trophies and is already a great diver!
Here we are making preparations for our own launch – actually this looks more like a posing photo. I mean, who doesn’t pose before they hit the water?
No launching dramas.
Thirty minutes of swimming later we had hit our spot. Unfortunately the visibility over the reef sections was quite poor, not what we had anticipated. But then this is Aireys Inlet which can be hard to predict.
However if you were willing to commit to diving through the murky water there were a few species to be seen, particularly for this time of the year. Some decent sized sweep and long fin pike were speared.
Little did we know that the main event was to be the BBQ being prepared by Hayden. Take a look at the spread just before we totally demolished it:
This BBQ made the diving pale in comparison. So much so that we almost had a vote to change the club name to GFDB – Geelong Freedivers BBQ Club.
So if you’re sitting on the fence about joining the club for the diving aspect, definitely join for the post dive BBQs as they are so good!
Overall it was a really good Father’s day dive and social get-together. The conditions as we consumed the BBQ produce were probably more severe than the pesky currents, waves and murky water. Some fish were weighed in and accounts opened for the 2017-18 Club Spearfishing Challenge.
Gerard.
