Hello From Tasmania

Hello all,

Just joined today and rather than lurk, I thought I'd introduce myself. I learned to dive 27 years ago in the UK, I have lived in Australia for 20 years now, 18 of them here in Tasmania, that's the triangular block of land in the far SE of the country (I'm often surprised that some people still think it's near Indonesia somewhere).

Returned to diving about 9 years ago and having got a bit bored with just finning around and looking at the pretty fishes, I thought it would be nice to add another dimension to my diving. I have finally taken the plunge at an introductory level with a Sea & Sea DX860G and strobe set. Out of around 300 shots taken over 3 days of diving, I've got perhaps 4 "keepers" and am fast realising that this is going to be a pretty challenging interest.

I was advised (several times) to join up to this forum and I''m hoping I can get a reasonable amount of usedful hints & tips and in time, maybe contribute something useful myself.

Regards

Richard Mason

Welcome Richard!

Look forward to seeing some photos from Tassie

cheers

Leander

Welcome aboard. What kind of diving do you have in Tasmania? I have dove Kangaroo Island. Similar?

Welcome aboard. What kind of diving do you have in Tasmania? I have dove Kangaroo Island. Similar?

In some respects, yes; I believe our NW coast shares many marine species with South Australia which is effectively only the other side of Bass Strait, although most of my diving tends to be East Coast/Tasman Peninsula (in the SE) . I haven't dived KI, but I reckon you would feel fairly well at home.

Bit chillier down here though, our top temp in Summer sits around 18C, dropping down to around 11C in Winter, so not a huge temp range and not particularly warm, dry suits are more in vogue here now. It's dropping quite quickly ATM, I dived bicheno 3 weeks ago and wqe had 17-18C in the water, went back that way last Saturday, 100kms north in fact and it was down to 14C, in only 14 days.

Not much in the way of wrecks here I'm afraid as the Luftwaffe & Kriegsmarine stayed away from here but what we do have is some excellent scenery, both above & beklow water, including giant kelp forests, sea caverns and awesome wildlife, seals, whales and many fish and invertebrate species which are pretty well endemic to this part of the world only, being cool-temperate and isolated by great distance from other coastal waters with the same climatic conditions.

These were taken by a leading photographer in my dive club, James P, and tell the story down here pretty well:

In many respects, Tasmania is a photographers dream, with good to fantastic visibility pretty well all year round, depending on the weather. Just the seas can be a litle bit rough at times, which comes of sitting in the Roaring Forties.

Nice colorful bottom there, but it looks toooo coooooold!!! I was in Perth a few weeks ago and couldn't find the courage to dive in Rotnest Island, toooo coooooldd!