The 45 Day Wreck Shoot

OKAY now that the shoot has gone to air I can talk more about it.

If was for NHK TV in Japan for a 110 minute HD story on some locations around Aus.

We spent a week diving the HMAS Swan in Dunsbrough south or Perth in W.A.

Luke at http://www.capedive.com/ did a very good job in looking after us. The Swan is an easy dive and we had wonderful conditions

Then we drove to Esperance were we chartered Peters boat from http://www.esperancedivingandfishing.com.au/ who again looked after us very well and he certainly knows his stuff down there. Diving in Esperance it not for lollie pop PADI divers. The southern ocean is pretty wild and you have to have you wits about you. All dives we did we hit deco. Had to take the batteries out of the computer a few times.... The Sanko Harvest starts off at 25 meters and most of it is at 40 meters now. We did some reef dives as well so nailed a few leafy dragons.

Then we flew to Cairns with about 360kg of gear.

We then spent a month diving on the Yongala from Townville and Eyr. The Yongala is an amazing dive and while some dives were pretty quite with bad vis and strong currents... some were just ...well I just had to start laughing due to all the HUGE life on it. I have done hundreds of dives on our little Exmouth Navy Pier here but the Yongala blew me away for better vis and larger animals and it was a real dive as you are not flapping about in 10 or 12 meters in bad greenish vis.

With http://www.adrenalindive.com.au/ from Townsville you have a 3 hour boat trip to get there and 3 hours to get back....MMM The staff were very good though and Paul the owner did a great job in looking after us. From Eyr with http://www.yongaladive.com.au/ on the 10.5 metre rib it took like 30 minute to get out there and 30 minutes to get back. That is how I will be diving it again....

It was shot using two HDCAMS. One was for up top and the other in a custom built titanium housing that has been to many places all over the world. I had my FX1 in the Phenom and my job was to film the guy filming and to get second shots.

So what was it like for a aussie to hang out with 3 crazy Japanese for 45 days...... lets just say it was interesting at times No the guys were great and I'm sure it will not be the last one we do together by the sound of it.

O and believe it or not but we did not loose a single day due to bad weather.

I have to agree the Yongala is the best wreck dive in the world for biodiversity and biomass. Simply amazing. Wait till you try the Yongala on a night dive

However, I would like to address 2 of the ops you have mentioned and my experiences with them.

I took Adrenalin Dive once because a silly girlfriend of mine booked us on it without my knowledge. The 3 hour ride was ok but I had great difficulty with the captain who went a little crazy on my young female buddy(a budding PADI instructor) and other guests including me, including insisting that we dive immediately after lunch or not dive at all. I wanted a longer SIT and said I'd be up when everyone else came up (shortening my dive). However the captain was having none of that, in the water immediately or no dive. Mark was his name. And it got worse after that including getting into the face of some guests. Suffice to say I would never recommend that boat again if Mark is still the captain, although Paul the owner did apologize (what else is he going to do?). Simply an unstable man, jekyl and hyde type. But apparently GBR day boats all have stories of crazy captains.

Another one is doing the swan with Cape Dive. I picked them because the owner said he dived on rebreathers and had EAN etc etc. My buddy and I went with EAN. However, we noticed none of the guides went on EAN. Anyhow, 25 mins into the dive, we get pulled up because we had to dive air profiles like the rest of the group. Which to me made no sense, since I was told EAN was available for extra bottom time. Why let me pay extra for EAN if I don't reap the benefits. It was indicative of the overzealous land ops protectiveness like in QLD (which takes it to another planet... 18m max depth at most ops!)

That said, Peter Hudson of Esperance Dive did a good job of taking care of my buddy and I , allowing photogs to do their thing. The Eyr route was just being established when I was there and it was like heaven and earth compared to going from townsville. If you can't do a liveaboard, you must do it from Eyr. Any other way would be just uncivilized and not to mention a long waste of time. Then again if you are on holiday, spending a day on a boat leisurely cruising is nice. Just realize these boats have a timetable and force you to dive your 2 dives within a certain time with very little SIT (60-90mins). The Yongala can be a pretty deep dive with the bottom near 30m.

Oh and for those who don't pay attention to dive briefings... DO NOT ENTER THE WRECK, you WILL BE ARRESTED! And no I did not get arrested.

What Drew you agree with me on something We did an arvo and night dive on the Yongala as well and the arvo one was better as you could see more of the action.

So looks like you had some bad crew there Drew.

The skippers we had when we went out with them did not go by that name but like I said I would be going from Ayr as 6 hours on a slow wobbly boat is hard work. The RIB just got us out there to do the job and back in no time.

Yes not even your bubbles are allow to touch the Yongala and that's where the Phenom was very useful as I could hold onto it one handed and put it inside and use the top LCD to see what I was shooting so got some cool shots of it inside.

Because we dived it day after day and even chartered the boats on certain days we were left pretty much alone to do what we wanted except go inside it. On days with other divers we were always first in.

Same on the Swan...some days we had it all to ourselves so we just did whatever.

I would say we got looked after pretty good by all of them so I guess we were lucky.

Of course I agree with you when you are right

Night dive on the Yongala baby... only for the brave and stupid

Of course I agree with you when you are right

 

Night dive on the Yongala baby... only for the brave and stupid

So what is your opinion on a night dive on the HMS Repulse?

Why aren't you allowed to go in the Yongala?

The Yongala had a very interesting history.

It sunk with over 100 pax on board.

It's is a federal offensive to go inside, even to have your bubbles touch the steel structure as they want it to last for as long as they can.

It is a grave site as well.

$10,000 if you go inside and get caught.

Even fishing on it you will loose your boat and cop a big fine.

So you say whats the point in diving it then.....

A dive on the Yongala on a good day is something else.

I wish I had some vid to post but had to hand over all the tapes.

In the interests of avoiding confusion for those looking to dive the Yongala, I should point out that the town is AYR, not EYR.

Pity you don't have any footage to share Wagsy, but it sure sounds like an interesting project to have been in on.

Is that Doug Mudry?

I did a number of dives on the Yongala in the 80s and 90s before the ban on entering the wreck was introduced. I did a number of penetration dives into the wreck, but the best marine life and most interesting parts of the wreck were always on the exterior. The Yongala is one of the best dives in the world for amazing marine life, exploring the wreck itself is just a bonus.

Penetration of the Yongala was banned to prolong the life of the wreck and also as a mark of respect for the 121 people that perished when the ship sank. There are still numerous skulls and bones of the poor victims to be found inside the ship, which can now lie undisturbed inside the Yongala.

Regards

Nigel

They have now sent me a DVD of the show that went to air.

I'll see if I can grab a few screen grabs from it to post here.