DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2026

Wrecks like the Oakland off Port Stephens attract small fish . Wobbegong will swim a hundred miles to feast there.

challenge with diving on the Tuggerah is that you really need to concentrate totally just to stay alive and maintain diving skills that allow you to simply survive! Dragging a huge camera system around whilst fighting the current is an extra burden a lot like pushing a wheelbarrow about under the water. It is ‘hard yakka’. The ‘Tugg’ is a very difficult dive. I dive sixteen minutes bottom time on air plus thirty three minutes ascent and safety stops at 15m. 10m, 6 m and a few minutes at 3 to 5 m. Nitrox 26% does help to extend your bottom time by a few minutes and shorten your deco time by a lot. Time is a major factor. By the time you fight the strong current down the descent line, trim your buoyancy and tighten up your straps of your dive gear, check the camera settings, flash positions and then compose your breathing rate, you have used six minutes. That leaves 9 or ten minutes maximum. To save time, you need to pre-set your camera before the dive to 400 or ISO 800. Dial up the best camera settings and turn everything on before you jump in. Photographing when there is about one hundredth of one per cent of the surface light dictates that you have to get low and shoot upwards to make the most of the light or find subjects that are in an even plane perpendicular to the camera. That is a Wobbegong with a wall of wreck behind it, for example, so that you get a photo with evenly balanced light. At certain times of the year, big Wobbegongs take over the wreck and you can get some good shark and wreck shots. One of my diving friends has had a big wobby shirtfront him aggressively at 46 metres. He

said it was terrifying. Sydney divers are very fortunate in that we have quite a good number of deep wrecks. I have dived the Myola, (46m) the Undola (43m), the Birchgrove Park in 51m, the Annie M Miller in 44m, Duckenfield at 28m, the Kelloe 51m and many others. The Oakland at Port Stephens is another great dive to 30m. In good visibility, it is an excellent sight. She also is home to great marine life.

The Oakland looks majestic in crystal clear water as it rests on its death bed..

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Dive Log Australasia #416 February ’26

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