Day 130 - Diving off of Manly Beach

I woke up and walked over to the Hilton to be picked up for my 7:15am pick up to be taken to Manly beach for a couple of shore dives. I got there and waited until 7:40am. I couldn't understand why no bus had pulled up to collect me. I called Prodive to figure out what was going on and found out that the bus had come and left. I had missed it because I was standing on George St. and the pick up was from the back of the building on Pitt St. That would have been nice to know! What the hell was I going to do now?

I ended up taking a cab to the harbour and then the ferry across to Manly. I was about 2 hours late but was able to find the Prodive van as it passed me by on the street. What a pain in the ass!

Finally everything was set up and I was ready to dive. I ended up diving off of Shelley Beach. This was the first time I had ever been diving in water that was colder than 28C. The water here was 20C and I had to wear a full 6 mil wetsuit with 18lbs of weights. I was seriously being weighed down. After suiting up, I had to walk about 100m with all my gear on to the edge of the water to get in. In total I was carrying about 1/2 my body weight on my back to the shore. When I got there I promptly fell into the water because of current and the weight of my gear. Insanity!

This dive was different than any other dive I've done in the past. Nothing bad. Actually just totally different and really can't be compared to my other dives. The topography was not coral and sand but kelp and rocks. There were quite a few fish and a lot of rays on the bottom as it is currently mating season for them. In addition to them, just recently a whole bunch of large (6 foot) wobbegong sharks had been released in the area to try and repopulate it and I spotted about 5 in and around the rocks. I really can't get enough of this diving thing!