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 

I believe this is a Seal face puffer fish

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

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

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

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef “Petat”
2. Milln Reef The Whale and Tennis Courts
3. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef

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)

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef
2. Milln Reef “Petat”
3. Flynn Reef Gordons and Traceys

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.

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef
2. Milln Reef The Whale and Tennis Courts
3. Flynn Reef Gordons and Traceys

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 Cairns Review if you haven’t already.

We left early in the morning to get out on the reef. Our first dive was at 10:45 am, and we started the dive doing surface skills. You have to do four open water dives with a group and an instuctor before you are fully certified. In order to be certified we had to complete four open water dives and complete the skills. The skills we had to complete on the first dive were buddy check, entry, buoyancy check, controlled decent, underwater tour, ascent, safety stop and exit we also did a few dive flexible skills including cramp removal (seeing how to remove cramps from your legs), tired diver tow (pushing or pulling a diver about 30 feet), snorkel/regulator exchange, remove/replace scuba, remove/replace weights. We did all the surface skills first and then went down. It was so excitting to go down for the first time and I snapped a shot of us going down (they rent underwater cameras on the boat, and you can also rent them in town for the whole weekend which is much cheaper)

That is the first group going down. I was not able to get a lot of pictures on my first dive as I was trying NOT TO DIE, ok I was not really that scared but for the first few dives I was focusing on doing the skills and really taking in all there is to see underwater! It was so exciting to be underwater, it is a whole new world and sometimes I just forgot to take pictures. But don’t worry, I took a lot of pictures over the next 27 dives (a lot of those dives I got for free )

During my first dive I saw a Blue spotted sting ray, a Giant Clam, a Sea Cumcumber, and a sand perch. I have added some pictures below to give you an idea of what I saw.

Check my future posts for the picture of the Blue Spotted Sting ray (I got a nice close-up) and lots more underwater pictures.

The first dive was awesome, it is amazing to be able to see what goes on in the Ocean and actually breathe under water. I was a bit nervous at first (I have almost died a few times in the water) but once I calmed down and breathed normally it was really easy. We were underwater for about 26 minutes and got to see quite a bit in that time. Our next dive was at 2:44pm. You can read about it in my next post

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef The Whale and Tennis Courts
2. Milln Reef “Petat”
3. Prodive Cairns Review

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 the form gave an option to entre a Prodive coupon. I did a quick google search and found the following prodive coupon: Cairnsval9 I entered it and got $50 off each booking (nice savings of $100 total)

We flew into Cairns from Melbourne. Our plan was to stay there for a week while we got our open water certification and then rent a cheap vehicle and drive down to Brisbane to meet with my brother. We stayed at a nice hotel for a good price in Holloways beach and the guys from Pro-dive even came and picked us up!

The five day open water course includes the following:

•  5 full days including 3 Day/2 Night Outer Reef Cruise on the great barrier reef.
• We had many training dives in the pool as well as 4 Openwater training dives plus 5 pleasure dives including 1 fully escorted pleasure night dive all on the great barrier reef

Here is the course timetable to get an idea of how the week went.

Day 1 and 2 are pretty easy you just have to do the exercises in the pool and write the exam. Some of the exercises before using the scuba diving equipment  include treading water for 10 minutes and swimming for 200 yards. Exercises you need to complete underwater include taking your mask off and putting it back on, taking your reg out and putting it back in, and demonstrating some useful scuba diving techniques. The exercises and exam are fairly easy and everyone who was in our class completed them with ease. NOTE: If you have any medical problems such as heart disease, asthma, epilepsy or diabetes you will probably not be allowed to get certified. My girlfriend could not get her scuba diving license because of this but she still came on the boat and snorkelled and had a great time! The picture below is of the prodive pool in Cairns

Image source prodivecairns.com

 This is where you will spend most of day 1 and day 2.  It is great, you learn a lot and they even have a lady bring lunch (which I really liked) On the second day they will bring in all kinds of equipment for you to try out and then give you the chance to buy it. If you just want to dive for the time you are there then you do not really need all the newest equipment, but if you plan on taking diving up as a hobby than I encourage you to buy the gear.

After completing my two days in the class room I was ready to go out to the Great Barrier Reef!

I was so excitted to scuba dive (and a bit nervous) the boat ride out is a bit wavy so if you get sick easily it might be good idea to take some sea sickness pills! On the way out to the reef the staff gives you all of the information you need to know and keeps you entertained as well.

To check out what my dives were like you can follow the links below (I will link them as I write them)

Dive# | Reef we dove at

1. Mill N Reef – Great Barrier Reef – Petat
2. Mill N Reef  – Petat
3. Mill N Reef – The Whale
4. Fynn Reef – “Tennis Courts”

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef
2. Milln Reef “Petat”
3. Flynn Reef Gordons and Traceys