After getting out of the water from a dive i was walking back to my stuff and at some point in the distance i noticed a grown sea eagle watching me from a familiar rock. I hadn’t seen one do this before this close. I kept walking closer to my stuff and the eagle kept watching. Not fazed by me getting nearer to it.
A cool finding. A groper sleeping down in a crack. I wasnt sure if he was alive or not. I dove down a little and he took off. A few minutes later i came back and he was back in the crack again.
A more rare bird sighting. A little kingfisher in back yard. First one i have ever seen at home. Yesterday my dad said he thought about kingfishers and honey bee- eaters and how good it would be to have them in the backyard.
I learned a skill, if you want to call it that, through hours of practice.
I wasn’t practising to get better at it, to reach a goal that i had set out to achieve.
It was only years in to it, that i realised that i loved doing what i was doing. I never really thought about it before then. I used to walk back with my dive gear, in the hot summer sun, with a bag with some turban snails and a few abalone, it was this feeling of purpose and fulfilment. I felt like i was the man. I hadn’t planned for this to happen. But i’m glad it did.
I hope it doesn’t go away. The desire is slightly different now. its the same song, but with a different tune. I still feel drawn to do the dance with the ocean. That ever familiar dance. The one i never saw coming. Growing up i wasn’t particular fond of he ocean. I did a bit of diving here and there, snorkling , swimming with the local rays. It was only many years later that i really took to the sea. Looking for shellfish and rock cod and moeys with my hand-spear. It grew on me. It called me back, again, and again, and again and again.
Hours upon hours in the ocean. Diving, playing, looking, learning. It begins to seep into your bones, and floods into the bloodstream. And that is why you always come back to it. If you do something long enough, it seems hard to not do it anymore. Camera in hand, looking for fish and food, whatever i end up doing, all it matters is that i’m there. I learned a skill that i picked up on my own. Skills i keep to myself. Things and learnings that are installed in my being. I paid my dues, in those early days. I was possessed to dive in any and all conditions, big risky waves, small waves, murky water, turbulent water, I just jumped in. I look back now and see that this was like the training years, i didn’t think about it i was just dead keen to do it again and again, and that is how i learned. I look back now and i see this complete eagerness and rawness. I dont know where it came from. Still to this day, you learn your trade And try and keep the blade that you have forged sharp. I just hope i stay apart of that world. The other world.
Once again at a local spot i went out for a dive. It was pretty murky, lots of nutrient in the water. Not long after getting in the water i came across this local ra hanging in the same spot resting. He was smaller than the others, but alot more trusting unbothered by me up in his face.
Off the front of a headland there is a little rocky crevice. A few years back i saw a heap of small port jackson sharks sleeping down on the bottom of the crevice. Often piled on top of each other shuffling around into different positions. There is also a solid wobbygong that also sleeps in the crevice. The port jacksons pile on top.
Everyday they sleep in the exact same crevice. On this dive, the wobbygongs head was visible…
I got back into deeper water today away from the shallows of the rocks. This weeks consistent southerly swell had eased as too the murkyness of the water. Out i went.
A large ray showed up. It was a ray i hadn’t seen for probably over 5 months. She was big. Solid. Unfazed by me coming up to her, literally not batting an eye lid. Her tail badly broken. Was this the big girl? It was definitely the biggest ray i had seen at this spot for a long while.
She gently disappeared off into the distance. With my gun in hand, i continued further out off the reef.
A moey was speared. And soon after the ray returned. Hanging around for sometime checking out the situation. Eventually, he disappeared.
I headed down to dive another local rocky outcrop. The water was pretty well flat, with only a small ammount of chop from the northwesterly winds. I was just about to cut through a small patch of bush when i saw a dolphin flying threw the water way down near the shoreline.
I came out the other end of the track and made my way onto another smaller beach. Again i spotted the same dolphin. He moved to this beach and was prowling up and down in the shallows. One hawk circled above it. swooping down, trying to catch a fish, but coming up with nothing. The hawk only a few metres above the dolphin at one point. Another hawk showed up. Then another showed up. Eventually 4 hawks eyed the shallows below them with this dolphin still prowling for something. A sea eagle flew in from the nearby island to check out the commotion. He checked it out, then flew back out to sea. The dolphin disappeared and the hawks dispatched in different directions.
I came across a sizey moey. The biggest one i have ever caught. A beautiful fish.
I continued on, toward the front of headland then back again along a shallow rocky reef.
Suddenly out from the gloom came a friendly seal.
He played for a little bit than disappeared, then came back from another quick zip around.
The swell Dropped right off, so i decided to head up to headland once again. Walking up the beach, getting ready to jump in the water i knew i was going to see something. I had this “foreboding” feeling that i would see a shark.
I got a blue moey,(fish), I continued around toward the front of the headland. I came across two leather jackets, i got one and put it in my bag.
I went past the front, and over to the southern side of the headland.
A solid shark came in from behind/next to me, it was a bronze whaler. The first “shark” i’d ever come across. He was solid. A slick, powerful animal.
He cruised around for a few minutes disappearing and reappearing out from nowhere.
It was all happening on this dive. Admits shark, ray activity, i spotted this solid cuttle fish.
Golden dread 