The next four dives I did were all at Flynn Reef. Flynn reef has some wall dives, swim-throughs, overhangs and good night diving. You can expect to see an abundance of marine life combined with plenty of hard corals such as staghorn, table, plate and boulder coral heads and many species of soft corals.

Flynn Reef Gordons Dive 5

So this was my 5th open water dive ever and my first one that I got to do without an instructor. I was assigned a partner on the boat and off we went. Our bottom time was 32 minutes at a max depth of 11.8 metres. On this dive I saw an orange spine unicorn fish (they have cool spikes that come off the sides of their tales), a few Christmas tree worms (check them out in the video, they are neat) a flowery cod and I got to swim through a large school of glass fish. This was an awesome experience, the glass fish filled the entire area between two spots on the reef (a swim through) when I swam into them they would part and let me in, and then fill in the spaces around me. It was truly amazing, everywhere I looked I saw little fish. I did not get any pictures BUT I did manage to get this on film on a later dive.

Flynn Reef Gordons Dive 6

This was my first night dive so I had to do it with a supervisor and in a group. The prodive guys sat us down and told us all kinds of stories to try and scare us, then while we were prepping on the deck they played horror music and shrieks, plus the jaws theme. Did I buy it? well maybe a little. It is pretty neat to dive a night, one cool thing is that you can use your flashlight to play god. When the big fish see your light they use it to hunt, if you don’t like a little fish all you have to do is point your flashlight at it and a big fish will come and try to eat the little fish!

On this dive I saw a grey Whaler shark, a sleeping parrot fish (they are supposed to sleep inside a big snot bubble to protect themselves but this one wedged himself in between some rocks so there was no snot bubble) and a mooray eel (really cool) I did not have my camera for the night dive because I figured it would be hard to get anything on camera.

Flynn Reef – Gordons – Dive 7

This dive was not to excitting, we were left to our own devices and ended up getting lost (apparantely this happens a lot even with more experienced divers. We had to re-surface and find the boat. I did not see anything new on this dive.

Flynn Reef – Traceys - Dive 8

This was my last dive with Prodive. In total I got to dive 8 times on the Great Barrier Reef, the total price for certification, the course in the pool, and 8 dives over 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef was $700 AUD (not to shabby) I also bought my own equipment because I plan on diving a lot more.

On this dive I saw another Mooray Eel, a trumpet fish (they are really long and look like trumpets), a checkerboard wrasse, Harlequin Tuskfish, and a really big bumphead parrot fish. I have added all of the cool pictures and videos that I took on the previous dives below.

 

This is a Blue Spot Butterfly Fish blue Spot Butterfly Fish

I believe this is a Seal face puffer fishseal Faced Puffer Fish

I’m not to sure what this is, but it sure looks pretty! I think it is a type of purple coralpurple Coral

parrotfishHere are a few pictures of a Parrot Fish. You can see the big goofy teeth they have. They are funny fish I think 

blue ParrotFish
Harlequim Tuskfish
Harlequim Tuskfish

 

I also got a few video clips. I have added them below

This video is of an orange spine unicorn fish and a big spotted fish! I think it is a cod, but not to sure.

The video below shows a black backed Butterflyfish

This video shows a Napoleon Wrasse (my favourite type of fish) I have more videos that are even closer (I will post them later)

And this last video just shows the sea life on the Great Barrier Reef

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Flynn Reef The Whale

This was my open water training dive number three.  Some new skills that we did were surface swim with compass and underwater compass navigation. Underwater compass navigation is really important (especially on night dives) but the good news is, if you get lost you can always surface and find the boat (but you look like a pro if you don’t have to) All of the training dives were nice because we were with a group and an instructor. We would go under, do our skills and then the instructor would take us around and show us the cool spots at the dive site.

On this dive I saw a Lion Fish, white tip reef shark and a really cool nudiebranch – this particular one was called a Elizabeth’s Chromodoris. Sorry no pictures in this one, but check my future posts for more pictures and videos

Flynn Reef Tennis Courts

This was my last dive to do to get certified! This was awesome, I easily did all of the skills and so did all of the people in my group. On this dive I had a bottom time of 30 minutes I got to see a MASSIVE giant clam, another reef shark and a big napoleon wrasse (he was really friendly) If you get a chance to dive the Tennis Courts at Flynn Reef then keep an eye out for the Napoleon Wrasse, they tend to stick around the same spots. Also no pictures for this one, I left the camera on the boat because it cost a bit to rent and I wanted to focus on my dive skills. I ended up buying a case for my camera though and managed to get a lot of good pictures and videos (still to come)

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Dive # 2 – Milln Reef “Petat” Great Barrier Reef

The second dive was also at the Milln Reef at the same site. This time we did a few new skills such as a buddy check, entry, controlled descent, regulator recovery and clear, partial mask flood and clear, full mask flood and clear, buoyancy control with low pressure inflator, alternate air source use, an underwater tour, ascent and a safety stop. We also did a cesa which stands for Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent. All of these skills are practiced first in the pool and done with the group and scuba instructor.

For this dive we had a bottom time of 26 minutes and I got to see a parrot fish, a yellow trumpet fish (they are so cool!), a goat fish and a trigger fish. I a video that I took of a Parrot Fish at the bottom of the blog, enjoy

You can see the Parrot Fish poop at the very beginning of the video. Parrot fish actually have two GIANT teeth, and they gnaw away at the reef. They travel in big herds and soemtimes you can hear them eating the reef. When they pooh, they are actually pooping sand! 80% of the sand in Queensland is actually parrot fish poop (well that’s what I was told). There are many different types of parrot fish.  I will add a post with more information, pictures and videos of parrot fish soon. Subscribe to my blog to see more pictures, videos and stories.

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Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef

November 25, 2009

DIVE 1 – Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef – Cairns, Queensland, Australia
My first dive ever was at the Milln Reef on the Great Barrier reef in Australia. I had such a great time traveling Australia and thanks to my girlfriend registered with Pro Dive Cairns to get my open water dive certification. Check out my Pro Dive [...]

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Prodive Cairns Review

November 25, 2009

Pro Dive Cairns review
While in Australia my girlfriend and I booked a trip with Pro-dive Cairns to get our open water scuba diving certification. We booked the 5 day PADI learn to dive course online. On the prodivecairns site the price is $750 AUD, but on the prodive.com.au site it is only $730 AUD.  Also when we  were booking [...]

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Things to do in Bundaberg – Bundaberg Rum Distillery review

September 15, 2009

Things to do in Bundaberg
While driving from Brisbane to Cairns we made a few stops along the way. We stayed for a couple of days in Bundaberg which, to be honest is not the most exciting town to visit, BUT we did find a couple of things that we thought were really cool.
Bundaberg Rum Distillery [...]

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Melbourne Aquarium Review

September 14, 2009

Review of the Melbourne Aquarium
While in Melbourne, Victoria we visited the Melbourne Aquarium. We were traveling Australia and living in Melbourne at the time and I needed a good spot to take my girlfriend for her birthday. My girlfriend loved the movie planet earth and wanted to see blue planet so I thought she would [...]

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Dunk Island Review

September 11, 2009

Dunk Island Visit and Review
While in Australia we visited a couple of Islands. We really wanted to go to Fraser Island and Lizard Island but never had the chance (there was a hurricane warning while we had the chance to go to Fraser Island and the island was closed) we ended up taking advantage of the massive [...]

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Australian Butterfly Sanctuary – Visit and Review

September 7, 2009

While we were in Kuranda we visited the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. This was the last place to visit after Birdworld and the Koala Gardens. We had a great time at birdworld and the koala gardens so we I was excited to see what the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary had in store. In a word…..BUTTERFLIES
The second you [...]

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Koala Garden – Visit and Review

August 22, 2009

Visit and Review Kuranda Koala Gardens
While we were staying in Australia we decided to visit Kuranda. After visiting Kuranda Birdworld we visited the Kuranda Koala Garden. My girlfriend had wanted to hold a Koala Bear since we had gotten to Australia but we never really got the chance before and I heard you could do [...]

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