Scuba Diving Weekend Trip to Nelson Bay

When I was diving the Great Barrier Reef last month I thought to myself, "you live just hours away from the best diving in the world how could I not dive more often!". So upon settling back into the routine of work, I checked out Pro Dive Coogee (referred to by Tas who I dove with on Lord Howe Island) and signed up for a weekend scuba diving trip to Nelson Bay (Feb. 18-20).

Where's Nelson Bay? It's about a 3 hour drive north of Sydney. And because I signed up early, I caught a ride up to Nelson Bay with the Pro Dive Coogee van which conveniently picked me up in the city.

It was a fun group of people and a good range of ages - Adrian the dive master/instructor (who is awesome), his girlfriend Candice (both from Canada), Stefan from Switzerland (don't ask if he's German he gets quite insulted) who's here in Sydney for 10 weeks learning English, Greg, Daniel (who's just barely legal to drink at 18) and Chris.

On Friday night we arrived at this youth-hostel like house which was filled with bunk beds and a definite retro 80's feel (complete with a sofa that's cookie-monster blue with a funky backboard). We had drinks at the RSL (Retired Service League) directly across the street (there are RSL's everywhere across Australia and they're usually situated in the most scenic spots) which is part casino / community gathering / pub and cheap meals (a roast dinner costs $10.50). Upon registering with a photo ID and entering the RSL, it was very evident that Nelson Bay and/or the Nelson Bay RSL is not a very ethnically diverse establishment... but all very friendly and upbeat.

On Saturday our first dive was a shore dive in Halifax Park. It'd been a very long time since I've done a shore dive - it certainly is more physically exerting to do a shore dive than to just step off the back of a boat. All went smoothly and there was a ton of fish, several rock fish, a 4-foot spotted white eel and rather large nudibranch, very large grouper and a few stingrays. Dive: 52 feet/16.1m, 38 minutes, water temp 24C/75.2F.

The second dive was at Shoal Bay - but it was aborted. We had on all of our gear and surface swam for about 200 meters in fairly strong current but there was nothing to see and we never even put our regulators in nor tried to goto depth. So we turned around and swam right back. It was exhausting!

So our dive master Adrian drove us around to the other side of Shoal Bay and we did successfully complete our second dive where we saw a pair of cuttlefish and a fiddle ray (a GI joe camouflage colored stingray). Dive: 13 ft/4m, 51 minutes.

And because three of the group were doing their Advanced Certification (which I already have) we also did a night dive. And since it's done at high tide we did this dive after dinner at 10:30 p.m. I have to admit night dives have not overly impressed me as I fail to see a whole lot of cool sea life. And this dive was no exception - I didn't see much, only the luminescent sea life when we turned all of our torches (flashlights) off. Dive: 9.2m/30f, 30 minutes. After we cleaned up this meant we didn't get to sleep until after midnight.

Which made waking up at 6 a.m. Sunday morning really, really tough! We arrived at the Let's Go Dive Shop to get our tanks refilled at 7 a.m. and eventually got on a boat which took us out about an hour to "North Rock" for our first dive. On this dive I saw a 2.5m/8f grey nurse shark with what I was astounded to see several fins on the top (2 plus a fin shape on the back fin) and bottom (2 fins) and the beadiest eyes I've ever seen. We weren't that far from the shark, but it made no move towards us - we really just intently stared at each other then moved along. Dive: Max depth 18.9m/62ft, 40 minutes, 69.8F.

Our second dive was at "Looking Glass" where we swam along this "swim through" that reminded me a lot of that cave in the first part of Little Mermaid where it's long, wide and tall and you swim along the wall single file (up and down and around rocks) until we reached the end where there were 2-3 sharks, eel and a large puffer fish. It was like a fish tank of sealife.



And my coolest, most fun word to say now - Wobbygong - I saw one just after we came out of the swim through. A wobbygong is a carpet shark or as I'd describe it - a shark, that had a flat, stingray shaped head with stubbly whisker on its chin and the funkiest thing is it's GI Joe camouflage colored! Dive: 16.8m/55f, 42 minutes, 69.8F.

I didn't have an underwater camera but here's an image of a wobbygong from Google images:

My Backstroke Needs a lot of Work!

The swim squad I swim with - North Sydney Masters - hosted the 2011 Sensational Summer Sprints (Sat. Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.) at our pool in Milson's Point. This means that we're responsible for organising the raffle, marshalling swimmers so they're lined up for their races, the timing, officiating - basically everything having to do with hosting a swim carnival.

It was a busy night as not only did I help out with selling raffle tickets and timekeeping, I also swam in 3 individual races and one relay.

My times were only so-so:

* 50m Freestyle - 40.73 (last year my time was 40.75 so about the same time)
* 50m Backstroke - 55.92 (this was the first time I've gotten a time for this stroke and I was last in my age category and terribly slow; definitely a stroke I need to improve on)
* 50m Fly - 52.93 (last year my time was 53.32 so it's good to see improvement in at least one of my strokes)

I was the backstroke leg in the 4x50m Relay (age group 160-199) and our team time was 3:26.12; I didn't help the team much at all on this one. And here I thought that breast stroke was my weakest stroke...



The next morning I did the 2K swim at North Bondi and surprisingly my time was 37:35. I say "surprisingly" because the Sunday prior I did the Shelley-to-Manly 2k in 45:40. And the year prior I did the 1k swim at North Bondi in 24:51.

For the swim I followed the lead of other swimmers and took advantage of the rip which propelled me very quickly to the first buoy before I realised it! But angling in around that buoy and swimming to the next was really hard as the waves were massive!

Mel Gibson, Short + Sweet and Amazing Theatre!

NIDA (pronounced n-eye-duh) stands for the National Institute of Dramatic Art and is known for being the training ground for Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett. However, on Friday, Feb. 11 it hosted the Short + Sweet Festival which is a competition of 10 minute live theatre performances.

George's friend Maggie was the director and writer of "Night Visitors" which was (from the program) physical theatre involving movement and aerial trapeze. It was a story of young woman's journey of grief and reconnection after her boyfriends death from a car accident. It was very moving and paired beautifully with music, trapeze and dance. I voted it my favorite of the evening (and I would have voted it #1 even if Maggie wasn't a friend because it was that amazing).

Another "short + sweet" performance was meant to be a modern depiction of how inside an old woman lies the sticky, taped, fragments of a tattered heart - however - in my view it was so absurd and bizarre that it made me laugh. It literally looked like a limp sock puppet that was danced around the stage and bopped up and down on a sheet covered horizontal body.

The other "short + sweet" that I enjoyed for the societal message it conveyed was called "An Ordinary Street" and was commentary on how on an ordinary street in Australia people are starting to chose to not notice or care when things are falling apart for one of their neighbors. Frankly, I don't think this is unique to Australia as many other places where there's urban sprawl - neighbors don't necessarily know each other.

Me - I'm happy to report - I know both my previous neighbors Nina, Andrew, Rocco and Bono and my new neighbor Hugh!

Streak of Hot Summer Days Finally Breaks in Time for Cole Classic Swim

For the past several days we've had a streak of super hot days where the mercury has hit 38C (100F). And it's not just been hot days but very warm nights too!

I went to buy a fan as it had become unbearable but one store had sold out and another was selling a pretty basic fan for $90 which is price gauging to me so I passed on buying a fan. I had an invite to join friends for a BBQ that night in an air conditioned home with a pool in back - just the answer for sweltering heat!

Earlier that morning at the EQ Market (which I love) I purchased blue cheese from Victoria that paired nicely with the marinated figs I picked up at the Eveleigh Christmas Market and a goat cheese from Byron Bay that paired nicely with the Henry Jones IXL Raspberry Jam I got in Hobart, Tasmania (I had help selecting these cheeses, which were a hit). Thanks so much Sandy for the hospitality and remembering the moscato wine- it was great fun!

In a slight tangent: If you ever goto the EQ Market near Surry Hills be sure to check out:
* Top Nosh Foods - They sell the closest thing I can find to crunchy granola here in Australia - of course it's still muesli which is all they seem to have here but it's toasted so it's great with yogurt or even as cereal on its own.
* Pukara Estate - Not only am I a big fan of these flavored oils and vinegars but my friends Sam and Venecia are too! I love to BBQ with the carmelised balsamic vinegar and when they were over for New Year's Sam had a chance to BBQ with it and loved it so much he took the rest of the bottle home with him to Taiwan. I purchased a brand new bottle for Sam along with the chilli flavored extra olive virgin oil but when I tried to mail it from Australia Post they said the oil was a flamable substance and thus a prohibited item to mail.
* Amore Di Cucina - Since it's been too hot to cook in the kitchen I've (believe it or not) been using my BBQ to prepare dinner. And the sun dried tomato tapinade and the Pesto Genovese have been wonderful to add to fish and vegetables for a flavorful meal.
* Be Enlightened Candles - My friend Angela turned me on to these candles which are very fragrant and a lot better priced than the Glasshouse Candles. Ang's birthday celebration drinks were on Feb. 6 at the Winery in Manly (sister place to the Winery by Gazebo near me) and I got her one of these candles to enjoy!
* Brilliant Food - The smoked ocean trout spread is to die for! And when you buy it with these leaf shaped pastry shells it makes for a very easy appetiser (or entre as it's called here) to bring with little/no preparation which is a plus to me. Emma and Pat - who really know and appreciate good quality seafood - enjoyed this.

Thankfully the heat wave broke just in time for the Cole Classic (Sun. Feb. 6) which is a 2K swim that starts on Shelley Beach and ends on Manly Beach. My learning after this swim is that I have to do a better job counting the buoys so I know when I'm nearing the end. Throughout the second-half of this swim, I kept thinking "we have to be heading back to the beach soon" yet we kept passing buoy after buoy making this swim seem never ending!

In looking at how my time stacks up against past swims, there's definitely a big difference between swimming in the harbour vs. the ocean. Whereas in the 2.5K on Australia Day I swam in Syndney Harbour in 43:16 - the Cole Classic 2K I swam in 45:40. These ocean swims are tough!

Here are the rest of the stats:
* My 1K pace is 22:50
* I placed 1282/2042 total finishers (37.22%) *** Yes, this was a very crowded swim ***
* 360/690 of female total finishers (47.83%)
* In my category of Female 40-44 I placed 28/63 (55.56%)

The cool thing about the Cole Classic is that it's sponsored in the Sydney Morning Herald so the next day my name and time were in this daily national newspaper.

Here are a few pics from the swim - you can't really see it but Shelley Beach and the start of the race is right in front of that tall building along the right and then we swam parallel along Manly Beach (which is in the foreground) for quite a while then turned and swam back before turning back into the beach - effectively we did this rectangular swim. I've put a map of the course but there were definitely more buoys than you see here.







After the swim, I enjoyed a really nice breakfast at The Pantry right on the beach (Note to self: They have a great cheese board and charcuterie plate and great views of Manly Beach. Be sure to take future visitors here but remember to make a reservation). That's when the storm came in - see this very cool "storm brewing" photo:

Impressive Australian Swim Team in the Inaugural Summer Swim Series

After squad practice on Sun. Jan. 30, Robin gave me extra tickets to see the inaugural Swim Summer Series at the North Sydney Pool (the same pool I train at and which I truly believe is the best pool in the world). While I'd seen it advertised around the pool I wasn't quite sure what it was.

I checked it out and it was fun to watch! The Australian national swim team was divided into four teams (designated by colors) and over two days they competed in races and relays. One of the interesting races was called "knockouts" and it involved a swimmer from each team swimming a stroke for 50 meters and the slowest swimmer was "knocked out". Then the remaining 3 swimmers had 2 minutes to line up again and swim the same stroke for another 50 meters with the slowest swimmer being "knocked out" so that the final time it was down to 2 swimmers. The butterfly knockout was impressive - it also showed how fit the swimmers are - to see them swim 50 meters of butterfly three times over in fast succession swimming at an all out sprint was very impressive!

It's a Colorful Country - Funky Trunks, Politicians and Ferries

While it was my second Australia day - it was my first in Sydney as last year I was in Melbourne enjoying the Australia Open Tennis. Australia Day's always on Jan. 26 which this year meant it was on a Wednesday which made it feel like a really long week for some reason (probably because it felt like a quick, whiplash weekend and then we were back at work again).

The plan was to go to The Rocks later in the afternoon with my friends Sandy and Kate for a pub crawl interspersed with bands so I decided to pay the calories forward by doing a 2.5 swim in the Sydney Habour early that morning. A number of my fellow swimmers from Aussie Masters joined in the swim and we were all decked out in our club cossie (that's what they call swimsuits here - cossies - which is short for swim costumes).



As you'll see here - our club cossies are quite funky and quite bright and colorful. Which is typical of "Funky Trunks" which is the brand of the swim suit that we selected. You can check out the other designs here (they're chlorine resistant so ideal for swimmers).

Overall the swim was fine, but there was one pretty challenging section when I felt like I was swimming hard but not moving the current was so strong. As I was swimming the image of the Greek God Sisyphus came to mind as he was pushing a huge boulder up hill. I could see the bottom of the harbour and was very tempted to stand up and walk - but quickly thought against it as I'm sure there's some rule that disqualifies swimmer who stand and walk in a swimming competition.

Once I completed that exhausting section, I thought all I had to do was swim back to the Opera House - but all of a sudden there was a whoosh of swimmer passing right in front of me and heading the opposite direction. That's when I remember the "box in a box" as Christina called it. To make the distance 2.5 K, there's this circuitous added section to swim before heading for the final stretch back to the Opera House.

Check out the map below and you'll see what I mean (the orange line is the 2.5k swim).



But finally I reached the finish line and I'm happy with my time which was:

* 2.5k (1.55 miles) completed in 43:16. I almost forgot to mention that this was also my first time swimming in the 40-49 age category which supposedly means I have an "edge" this year
* Placed 304/399 overall the 2.5K swimmers
* Placed 100/140 of all the female 2.5 k swimmers
* Place 26/85 in my age category

In the age category above me (50-59) the Australian Federal Government's Opposition leader Tony Abbott (age 53) competed in the Great Sydney Swim. I checked his results and he did it in 55:11 - which means somewhere along the way I swam past him (his heat would have started 5 minutes before).

Since i wasn't in Sydney last Australia Day I wasn't aware that one of the traditions was a ferry race. All the ferry boats that commuters take to-from places like Manly to Cirqular Quay race around the Sydney Harbour ending up under the bridge (the finish line). Alvin, a friend from the swim club who's a Kiwi and while he's lived here for many years had never seen the ferry race either, and I decided to head to the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to stake out a spot to watch the ferry boats finish the race.

It took about 45 minutes for the ferries to complete the race but in the end the ferry with the inflated "whale tail" won the race. As you can see from these photos it was quite a hazy and overcast day. The only way we could tell the ferries were coming our way was due to the TV news helicopters hovering overhead.



There were lots of boats on the harbour decorated to celebrate Australia Day!