Scuba Diving with Pro Dive Lord Howe Island

It's hard to believe that since I moved here to Australia in April 2009, I haven't yet been scuba diving. Finally on this trip to Lord Howe Island I corrected that and had an amazing 6 dives!

You'll see the highlights from my dive log, but first I'd like to shout out to Tas the owner of Pro Dive Lord Howe Island and dive masters Kyla and Kit for an amazing dive experience! They were professional, fun and very well organised... and they're so very lucky to have great diving, sea life and coral right in their backyard!

Day 1 (Nov. 15, 2010) Dive# 108 Dive location: Octopus Garden Max depth: 50 ft Visibility 15 metres
On my first dive on Lord Howe Island I found the water colder than I expected (20 degrees Celcius) and in quite a bummer it was recommended I wear a 5 mm wet suit, hooded vest and gloves (I much prefer not wearing a wet suit). The underwater beauty of LHI was incredible though - I loved the Autumn color of the soft coral.

Day 1 (Nov. 15, 2010) Dive#109 Dive location: Le Meurthe Max depth: 40 ft Visibility 15 metres
The highlight of this dive was this alien-like, massive (I mean HUGE) bullray that my dive buddy Paul pointed out for me. I'd swum by it without noticing it and it took Paul pointing it out to me before I realised it was not a rock but a HUGE sting ray which is called a "bull ray". This FlipVideo doesn't really do it justice, as it's at least 10 meters wide but I know I'll always remember how incredulous I was that there was such an oversized stingray - I remember thinking "what kind of steroids was this stingray on that it grew to be so big".



I'll be emailing this FlipVideo to my dive buddy Paul with hope he'll comment on this blog that it was indeed the biggest ray he's every seen!

Day 2 (Nov. 16, 2010) Dive#110 Dive location Cathedral Cave Max depth: 71 ft Visibility 25 ft
It was like that scene in Little Mermaid when Ariel finds Eric's statue except in Cathedral Cave there were massive grouper, sweet lip fish, this Medusa-like "head" made up of tiny, dark and swarming fish and a a lot of other colorful fish. On this dive I saw a plethora of sea life including 2 eels and 3 stingrays.

Day 2 (Nov. 16, 2010) Dive #111 Dive location North Passage Max depth 40 ft Visibility 25 ft
I saw so much on this dive! There was a fun Cinderella Slipper scenario played out by David and our dive master Kyla (note: it's an empty shell of a slip lobster) in this FlipVideo:



And on many of the dives I'd see these stone fish and I at first thought they were being friendly as they'd hang around, come up real close and looked like they wanted to play with you. Only after did I learn that they're quite territorial and in fact not so friendly. In this Flip you'll also see that I found a stonefish at the 1:00 (yes it's named because it looks like a stone).



A few year's ago at the Monterey Aquarium I remember enjoying a jellyfish exhibit. Here in this FlipVideo you'll see this beautiful jellyfish that reminds me of an old fashioned, cream colored wedding dress.



And you'll see that there was an abundance of sting rays on this dive as well. And if you look real close, at the 2:00 you'll see an eel.



And here's a sea urchin that looks blue and shiny:



And in this Flip you'll see Nemo in the anemone.



Day 3 (Nov. 17, 2010) Dive #112 Dive Location Yellow Rock Max depth 50 ft Visibility 25 metres
At about 2:10 you'll see that we went through this archway and while there's lot of things stirred up in the water so it's not the most clear FlipVideo you can sort of see a lion fish with its very long (and venomous) spines.



This Flip starts out with a large school of fish and then at :40 you see another huge bull ray. If you see 1:13 you see that I try to swim out a bit to give you some perspective and scope for just how large it is (at one point you see two fish in the foreground swim by).



Day 3 (Nov. 17, 2010) Dive#113 Dive location The Arch Max depth 40 ft Visibility 25 metres
A big thank you to Beck and Tim from Sydney for agreeing to a second dive (otherwise I would have only did the one dive on my last day). It was another gorgeous dive and a lasting memory of my dives on Lord Howe Island which has beautiful and very healthy coral and sea life going for it!