South Africa 2009 Part 1 – South African National Titles

The competition area, Southern KwaZulu/Natal, from Hibberdene to Port Edward, had also been proposed as the venue for the 28th CMAS World Titles in 2012.

This would be an opportunity for Australia to scout and acquire valuable information in the lead period to the 2012 World Titles.

Buoyed by the success of our friends at the Inter Pacific, Tony Heugh, Rick de Vries, Graham Carlisle and Rob Wills arrived in Durban, South Africa, early on 2 May.

Narooma

Travelled to Narooma for the Far South Coast Championships, my first time diving in the Narooma area.

On the trip down, the conditions were rough and a planned dive with Wilso around Bass Point was canned.

Gerry & I were diving with PC out of his boat, and Gerry bringing a boatie!



Unfortunately the comp was not held... but we still went spearing at Montague Island on both days.

Saturday was too rough to cross the Narooma bar, so we travelled to Bermagui and had a quick run up to Mystery Bay, and then out to Montague. Drifting the boulders on the Western edge, I shot a ~2kg Snapper. Between the three of us we had a few of the normal species, but no Boaries or Blue-Throats were seen.

Missed out on the two-up, and met up with Huffy and Dutchie at the pub.

Sunday was too windy! The bar was completely flat, but there was a wind warning and the organisers can't risk safety of the competitors by holding the comp... so we headed out and came back early before the big wind gusts (~40 knots) fired up after midday. Vis was down, but still good in places. Gerry and PC grabbed a couple of Abalone and Crays each, and I wandered off and found a lone Long-snout Boarfish.

Although I took all my camera gear, I lacked the motivation to drag it out on the water.... so only some phone-photos from the friday evening.

Tweed Coast

Looking at the forecast models, there was a short window of calm conditions for South Qld/North NSW. I organised a dive with Paul OS & Ryano out of Tweed Heads.



We found some clean water out on 9 Mile, and patchy water in at 5 Mile. The current was reasonably strong on both reefs, and made the drifts fairly quick.

9 Mile we saw plenty of sharks, cod, grouper and rays. A pair of Giant Trevally were around, and I had a chance to spear the bigger one :)



5 Mile turned up a few small Spanish Mackerel, and one big one. I managed to spear a smaller one (~7kg) at the end of a drift.

On the way back in, we checked Fido's , but the swell was breaking and the water was filthy!

Naturaliste Reef, Western Australia

After the Nationals competition proper had finished, we organised a friend of a friend to take use out to a well known fishing spot north of the Cape.



This video was shot on a FujiFilm F40fd, and edited in iMovie.