It’s been a while since my last blog, sorry about that all you dedicated bloggers. Reason being I have been a bit crook so not up to doing to much, especially diving.

Good news is that its nearly Spring, the daffodils are out and things are looking pretty damn good for the coming summer. I have just listed a job vacancy on the PADI web site and have been wading through dozens of email replies to the position. If your a PADI instructor looking for work then get in touch if your up for a summer of action in Picton.

FUNNEL OF THE MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

Our Poor Knights trip is all go for next weekend, really looking forward to that, especially doing a  few sea caves up their with Jamie Obern who has just returned from France where he got his Cave Diving Instructor rating. The week after were out to the Lodge with the Dive Shack for 4 days from the 9th to the 12th, they have had a couple just pull out from this trip, so if your keen for a few days out at the Lodge, diving the Lermontov during the clear water season let me know.

I have just landed the first shipment of Apeks regulators, which are technical divers regulator of choice. I have both the XTX100 for $1095.00 and the DS4 with XTX 40 second stage $795.00 available, both in 300 bar DIN. All with full warranty. These are pretty hot prices if you compare to what they cost in local dive shops and very comparable to what you might pay on the net by the time you land them in NZ, but with full warranty and back up service from a qualified technician.

Those who are members of the club will have just received the Spring Newsletter, which outlines the new developments at Port Gore, including the permanent basing of the boat out their and Tomo being permanent staff at the Lodge from October. Tomo will be running the Lodge for the summer including handling casual air fills for visiting divers and boats, plus providing meals and entertainment for guests at the Lodge. If your keen on a few days in one of New Zealand’s most remote and beautiful places then the Lodge is available for casual bookings from October on.

This weekend is looking bit average with northerly weather system looming, the boat is out of the water for a bit of pre season TLC, so no diving for us in Picton until the next Lodge trip.

Have a good weekend and dive safe if your going for a splash.

cheers

Brent

Gale force winds, rain and snow to 400m, not the sort of forecast you like to hear when you have a planned weekend away diivng. However if its one thing I have learned over the years, I have to have confidence in the very reason why I set up a dive operation in Marlborough, "you can always get a good dive in, no matter what the weather"

With a full boat load of club members making up the weekends group we headed out on Saturday to East Bay where we planned to check out the scallop population. We were rewarded with visibility in excess of 15 to 20 metres and nearly the boat limit of scallops after the very first dive. The scallops seem to be as abundant as ever and in very good shape for this time of year.

MARLBOROUGH SCALLOPS YUM (Great in a white wine and garlic sauce)

Sunday dawned clear, calm and sunny, I decided to head out to a site I seldom dive due to its location and need for experienced well kitted out divers. Surprisingly we discovered a highly populated bed of scallops, again in very good condition and very large for the area. Also, in residence were Southern Pig fish and Carpet sharks, along with some huge Sand anemones and Tube worms, ideal for close-up and macro photography.

We played out the final scenario for Tomo’s and Hamish’s PADI Rescue course after the first dive, by springing on them a realistic dive accident scenario. Katie joined the 40m club on the last dive, along with completing her PADI EANx course over the weekend.

HAMISH TENDS TO TWO DOWNED DIVERS DURING HIS AND TOMO’S RESCUE TRAINING

Overall it was a very pleasant weekend with a very good group of keen and enthusiastic divers. Congrats to Hamish, Tomo and Katie who finished off of their rescue and Nitrox courses. Also thanks to Warren who acted the perfect victim in the rescue scenario and Guy his dive buddy.

Next weekends Lodge trip is now full, with the long range forecast now looking good, I am looking forward to getting back out to the Lermontov and experiencing the good visibility.

safe diving

Brent

Even with a brisk 35 knt South East blowing and bumpy surface conditions, we had three very nice dives on the Lermontov on Saturday. The the vis was up to 10 to 12 meters on the first dive and slightly less on the second and third dives. Fish life was pretty good with  number of carpet sharks seen on the top of the wreck and plenty of other reef fish.

Paul, Rob and Jann arrived from Mana in the North island in Derek’s 6.5m boat on Friday evening, I think they were grateful to make landfall given he choppy conditions in the Cook Straight, their return trip on Sunday was much smoother with the wind dropping off to less than 10 knots. Paul finished  Derek’s KISS rebreather course, with the last dive on Saturday turning into a night dive on the Lermontov, overall the rebreather divers completed 6 hours of bottom time over the weekend.

Congratulations to Hamish who joined the 1 hour club with a 75 minute dive on twins on Sunday morning, also learning the hard way on his first twin cylinder dive on Saturday that the left post on twins works in the opposite direction to the normal valve. Hamish’s eyes looked like he had been chewing beetle nut on surfacing from that little event. Katie started her PADI EANx course with me, completing two dives on 32% and visiting the engine room for the first time. Going by my own past experience and divers responses on surfacing after being in the engine room, I reckon it would have to rate as one of those special dives and one of the best penetration dives in the world.

Thanks to everyone for diving with Go Dive and helping with the domestic tasks up at the Lodge, it was a great help the absence of staff due to winter aliments.

safe diving

Brent

This weekend is shaping up nicely with a full group heading over to the Lodge Saturday, funnily enough although it is the first weekend of the scallop season the focus is diving on the wreck.

Paul Trainor and three others are over from Wellington with their KISS rebreathers and Hamish and Steve are going to give twins a go for the first time on the wreck.

IMAGE TAKEN YESTERDAY OF DIVE MARLBOROUGH MOORED IN MELVILLE COVE PORT GORE

The weather looks like it is going to be a bit overcast tomorrow with a 25knt South East, changing Northerly on Monday. Visibility is pretty good however throughout the Sounds so a good weekend to get out and about.

Next weekends wreck diving trip has two spaces left, and the long range forcast looks pretty good, so if your keen for a splash give me a call at 0800 GODIVE.

 Have a good weekend and safe diving

Brent

Sunnythats the forecast for the next few days, with the long range looking pretty good to.

Next weekends trip out to the Lermontov is now full, with nearly a full turn out of "Team Otter", other than Warren who has opted for the warm waters of Vanuatu, the team will be in force during the weekend, with Guy bringing along his new video camera with the goal of getting some footage of all the action. Watch this space over the next few weeks for the results. 

Remember the scallop season starts on the 15th in Marlborough, so get that kit sorted and serviced ready to splash. There are two places on the July 24/25th trip out to the Lodge, so a good chance to dive the Lermontov and gather a few of our famous Port Gore scallop’s.

Have a good weekend, it’s going to be a good weekend sports wise with the Boks taking on the All Blacks tonite and get an early night on Sunday so you are up in time to watch the "Orange Army" take on Spain at the Football World Cup, its bound to be a great game, as long as those bloody refs keep their eyes open, whistle out of their mouth and hands out of their pockets.

Brent

Go Dive

Conditions look pretty good for a splash tomorrow, but expect a change to S/E on Sunday, with it getting progressively worse up till mid week. Visibility is still improving after our record two months of rain, with it hovering around 5 metres in the Inner Sounds.

I’m heading out to Cape Jackson and Long island on Sunday with a Dive club from Nelson, so looking forward to that. There has been quite a bit of interest in our next  Lermontov trip on the 17/18th of July, with the possibility of an extra dive on Monday if the conditions are good. We are heading into the time of year where the visibility starts to really improve towards its best. 

The mission on the next trip is to shoot some more video so we can upgrade our Lermontov video which is on our home page, so if you want to be famous come along and model for us. Guy our director, cameraman and editor will be looking for some well trimmed divers for the underwater and top side scenes. 

There will also be a couple of new additions to "Team Otter" on this trip which is growing by the month.

Have a good weekend.

safe diving

Brent

Go Dive

After a few days of relentless rain it was great to see a bit of the sun yesterday, it’s amazing how a few rays can change your mood.

Due to a late start caused by Football world cup fever, I headed down to the shop to get started with some rescue training.  Due to the heavy rain we focused on CPR training and O2 administration, important components of the PADI Rescue course.

Guy and Warren arrived up from Christchurch early Sunday and we all headed out for a local dive. Looking at the color of the water due to run off from the previous few days of rain, we all expected pretty average vis. With a a bit of reassurance that fresh water takes a while to mix with seawater, Warren and Guy headed off for a dive on Koi, and were pleasantly surprised that the bad surface vis gave way to some reasonable vis on the wreck.

LEATHER JACKET ON KOI WRECK

I run through a few Rescue surface skills with Hamish and Tomo, after off which they to headed off for a dive on the Koi, although their navigation wasn’t to good looking at the route they took to get their. At one stage I thought they were going o swim back to Picton underwater, I think the increasing depth may have given them a clue that they were on the wrong bearing.

Second dive we headed over to Kumototo point, vis here was even better with it being close to 8 metres in some areas. Thats the beauty of the Marlborough Sounds, it doesn’t matter what the weather gods chuck at us we can always get a reasonable dive in some where.

It’s not long now until New Zealand hosts the Rugby World cup, soon Go Dive will be posting a schedule of Mikhail Lermontov dive tours from mid Sep 2011 to November 2011 for visitors whom will be visiting New Zealand for the Rugby World cup. With there being games in Christchurch, Nelson and Dunedin, it will be a great opportunity for those traveling between islands to stop off for a few days and enjoy some diving on the Lermontov at a time of year when the visibility on her is at its best. 

Keep an eye out on www.godive.co.nz or email me at info@godive.co.nz if you would like some more info.

Still a few spaces on the July 17/18 Dive Lodge trip, remember this is the first weekend of the scallop season, so we will be heading over to see how our house bed of scollop’s have survived the off-season. 

Enjoy your week.

Brent

Go Dive 

www.godive.co.nz

Last weekends Lermontov Lodge trip to Port Gore would have had to been one of the best. The weather was magic for the whole weekend, almost to hot. The group made up of Dive Club Marlborough members, Marty and Aaron from up north enjoyed 9 dives over the 3 days. We also managed a dive on the Lastingham as well as the Mikhail Lermontov, the Lastingham was a bit disappointing due to northerly sea conditions silting it up, however Marty and Aaron come back with a couple of good sized crays which went down well with the evening meal back at the Lodge.

Inside the Lermontov was crystal clear, especially the restaurant and engine room. Over the weekend I managed to guide Steve, Warren, Marty and Aaron through engine room and Andrea through the restaurant. For most of the weekend the 3 stooges, stooged around with their sling cylinders and managed to stay out of trouble, other than laying about a kilometer of line over the wreck due to errant wreck spool.

Nine, Warren (stealth diver), Katie, Marty, Andrea, Steve (Steeel) Guy (yet to be named) and Aaron.

Luckily we got back to Picton before the Nor wester gales hit, today being a total contrast to the beautiful weekend weather. Next weekends Lodge trip is full as is Easter weekend, however their is still a couple of spots left on our TDI weekend on the 23.24.25th of April and the calendar has been updated with dates through to September.

safe diving

Brent

Go Dive

Autumn is one of the most settled seasons for diving with calm sea conditions, reasonable visibility and water temp. Even though the odd front does blow through, it settles pretty quickly, for example we had a 40 knot Southerly through last night, but it is now flat calm at Cape Jackson and in the Inner Sounds. I have just returned from a very nice dive on the Koi, where a school of Trevally have taken up residence, along with some rather big Tarakihi and Moki.

The week has been pretty steady, with Lermontov and Inner Sounds dives, along with Discover Scuba’s. Vis at the Fish Reserve is around 6 metres and on Cape Jackson up to around 12 metres plus. Fish life is very prolific at the moment so a good time to get some fishy photos. A pod of Orca were seen in the Sounds yesterday feeding on a large Bronze Whaler shark so it is all happening.

Coming events include a Riwaka Cave dive this Sunday, and then another busy round of Port Gore Lermontov trips. Steve (Steel) and Warren (Stealth Diver) are preparing for winter diving and have just ordered themselves a Britannic Otter drysuit each. These are without doubt the best Trilaminate suit in the world, and with the exchange rate being agreeable, they are priced very competitively. Time from ordering to delivery is around 4 to 5 weeks, so now is the time to get it sorted. Winter diving is generally a lot clearer than during the summer and as long as you are protected from the cold by a good drysuit then the cold doesn’t matter.

GUY & JOHN ENJOY THEIR BRITANNIC’S

Go Dive will be running at least one scheduled Lodge trip every month through out the winter months, so keep any eye on our club calendar which will updated with dates soon. Keep an eye open for Team Britannic.

Have a good weekend, weather looks a bit changeable but should be good for a splash or two.

safe diving

Brent

Sunny, hot, good vis.

Its all go at the moment, the water temp is on the rise, vis is good all round and heaps of people wanting to dive. We have had great diving on the Lerm, long Island and locally over the last week.

Our new location is proving a hit with its accessibility etc, with an big increase in air fills. Both boats are now full for tomorrows dives, but there is a couple of spaces on Saturdays local trip and one for Sundays Lerm dive, next weeks Live-aboard is full but we do have local trips going out.

This will be my last blog posting for the year, so have a great New Years eve, don’t drink to excess and see you next year.

Safe Diving

Brent