Watchlords

Just a few of the hard-core guys out today. Its windy and raining but none of that matters much once you are underneath. We are at a jetty between Rockingham and Kwinana; its a shallow dive so the bottom time was no issue. I recorded 70mins at 6.5m and a water temp of 21C. There was substantial current close to the shore which improved further out and no swell to speak of. This place is an octopus paradise. There were tons of them and several were a bit grumpy for some reason. Not many fish at all, but tons of anemone and nudibranchs.

I took the Orient Mako out today. Its one of the watches I have owned the longest and is still a favourite. This particular watch was borrowed by my daughter for a few years while she dabbled with diving and it has now come back to me as she bought herself a Momentum 1M-DV01A8B which is more her size. The Mako is a great dive watch. Its straight out good looking and it does everything you expect from a diver very well. The dial and hands are easy to see at a glance and both screw-down crowns are simple to use and have a smooth action. The bezel is brilliant in the water. In fact I think the bezels on the Mako and Ray are about the best on any of the low-end divers I have trialed to date. Today its being worn an on a 22mm Orient dive strap (the OS300 OEM rubber). And I just noticed in the pics I set the date wrong this morning :-)

Some pics...














Anemone












Fish were scarce














Buddy wants me to look at nudibranchs










One octopus grabbing at a buddy's pointer, colour changing like mad and cranky as heck






While others were more peaceful


















Beware the sea-bear!




That's all for now'

Good stuff Carl..........I enjoyed the pics

Cheers.

Diving during winter is a challenge with the light and my basic camera setup. I am bidding on a better camera rig right this moment as it happens. If I get it I will also be able to post pics of night dives too...that's different world again in terms of wildlife :-)

Carl, keep up the good work! These posts rank right up there with the "How Bad Could It Be?" series as the creme de la creme of watchlords.

AJC wrote:Carl, keep up the good work! These posts rank right up there with the "How Bad Could It Be?" series as the creme de la creme of watchlords.

Thats kind AJC. I enjoy taking them too, so its win-win

Great pics as always Carl. Thank you for sharing.

A quick question for a non diver. You said you were down for 70min. Bottom time was not a issue as it was a shallow dive.

Does that mean that the more shallow of a dive the longer your air will last? I have always heard that the tanks have a certain amount and assumed that it only lasted that long no matter how deep.

The orient is nice and looks very easy to read.

Thanks for sharing your excursion with this land locked yank. I agree. These Orients offer much bang for the buck. I have an orange dial Mako which I believe was my first diver.

Great pics as always Carl and thanks for sharing. I am starting my diving lessons on May 4th here in MA. in a cold lake. I can't wait. Hopefully hit the Atlantic this summer.

fatman wrote:Great pics as always Carl. Thank you for sharing.

A quick question for a non diver. You said you were down for 70min. Bottom time was not a issue as it was a shallow dive.

Does that mean that the more shallow of a dive the longer your air will last? I have always heard that the tanks have a certain amount and assumed that it only lasted that long no matter how deep.

The orient is nice and looks very easy to read.

There are two issues. How long your air lasts and the nitrogen build-up in the blood.

I had 225BAR in a 12 litre tank when I started and you have to ascend when you have only 50BAR remaining. The deeper you dive the more your air is used in a highly compressed form and so the available volume in the tank lasts for less time. Closer to the surface there is less compression so your air effectively lasts longer (after 70 mins I still had 120BAR @ 6m and could have stayed down almost another hour). More compressed air means each gulp of air has more molecules of gas per lung-full and you drain the tank faster.

Also, the nitrogen build-up at 6m is negligible so you can stay down for ages before risking any issues like the bends. At more extreme depths the build-up is quicker. At around 45 metres you can only stay down about 15mins without needing to do decompression stops on the way up.

Kahuna74 wrote:Great pics as always Carl and thanks for sharing. I am starting my diving lessons on May 4th here in MA. in a cold lake. I can't wait. Hopefully hit the Atlantic this summer.

Let us know what the water temp was when you dive. Brrr

I'm night diving in the Swan River this wednesday and it'll be about 18C

bigedsurf wrote:Good stuff Carl..........I enjoyed the pics

Ditto. A great series of posts, Carl. One question--did you harpoon any of those goddamn octopi? They look like pretty good eatin'.

Great pics, thanks for sharing

Does Orient sell those OS300M straps?

Really enjoy your work/play. Was sharing your pictures with my daughter, she is 5 and thought every pic was the most wonderful thing she has ever seen. She was really curious about how you took pictures at the bottom of the ocean and about each animal. She enjoys your pics as much as I do. So, thank you.

bedlam wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:Great pics as always Carl and thanks for sharing. I am starting my diving lessons on May 4th here in MA. in a cold lake. I can't wait. Hopefully hit the Atlantic this summer.

Let us know what the water temp was when you dive. Brrr

I'm night diving in the Swan River this wednesday and it'll be about 18C

I think she (diving instructor) said it will be about 8C when we dive. I will let you know. My first couple of dives are in a YMCA swimming pool. Two very different water temps for sure Carl.

I swear, Bedlam. You dive at the coolest places.

wottime wrote:Really enjoy your work/play. Was sharing your pictures with my daughter, she is 5 and thought every pic was the most wonderful thing she has ever seen. She was really curious about how you took pictures at the bottom of the ocean and about each animal. She enjoys your pics as much as I do. So, thank you.

Heh...that's awesome

ChronoMATT wrote:I swear, Bedlam. You dive at the coolest places.

Seems like Nemo found us!

Kahuna74 wrote:

bedlam wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:Great pics as always Carl and thanks for sharing. I am starting my diving lessons on May 4th here in MA. in a cold lake. I can't wait. Hopefully hit the Atlantic this summer.

Let us know what the water temp was when you dive. Brrr

I'm night diving in the Swan River this wednesday and it'll be about 18C

I think she (diving instructor) said it will be about 8C when we dive. I will let you know. My first couple of dives are in a YMCA swimming pool. Two very different water temps for sure Carl.

See, that's commitment. Are they using dry suits in the lake??

conjurer wrote:

bigedsurf wrote:Good stuff Carl..........I enjoyed the pics

Ditto. A great series of posts, Carl. One question--did you harpoon any of those goddamn octopi? They look like pretty good eatin'.

Thanks conjurer. The club rules are to 'take only pictures, leave only bubbles'.

bedlam wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:

bedlam wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:Great pics as always Carl and thanks for sharing. I am starting my diving lessons on May 4th here in MA. in a cold lake. I can't wait. Hopefully hit the Atlantic this summer.

Let us know what the water temp was when you dive. Brrr

I'm night diving in the Swan River this wednesday and it'll be about 18C

I think she (diving instructor) said it will be about 8C when we dive. I will let you know. My first couple of dives are in a YMCA swimming pool. Two very different water temps for sure Carl.

See, that's commitment. Are they using dry suits in the lake??

No sir Carl, wet suits.

Kahuna74 wrote:

bedlam wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:

bedlam wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:Great pics as always Carl and thanks for sharing. I am starting my diving lessons on May 4th here in MA. in a cold lake. I can't wait. Hopefully hit the Atlantic this summer.

Let us know what the water temp was when you dive. Brrr

I'm night diving in the Swan River this wednesday and it'll be about 18C

I think she (diving instructor) said it will be about 8C when we dive. I will let you know. My first couple of dives are in a YMCA swimming pool. Two very different water temps for sure Carl.

See, that's commitment. Are they using dry suits in the lake??

No sir Carl, wet suits.

Cool as usual Carl, the Mako shows that for relative little money you can get impressive results , comparable to much more expensive watches (and sometimes even better)....I noticed is no lume on the second hand, how would you rate the watch, in low light conditions?

Wow, these pictures are amazing. I have always had the urge to learn how to dive, and this just stokes the fire. I bet there are some good dive spots not too far from where I live (Monterey California is a 2+ hour drive away).

eddiea wrote:Cool as usual Carl, the Mako shows that for relative little money you can get impressive results , comparable to much more expensive watches (and sometimes even better)....I noticed is no lume on the second hand, how would you rate the watch, in low light conditions?

Perfect. The dial and hand lume is fine and if I was in the dark and needed to see the second hand for some obscure reason I would be using a torch anyway and would just shine the torch on it. Not that hard really.

People fuss about the lumed second hand, but in real-world use its not an issue. I have never once had a low-light situation where I wasn't using at least one torch and packing a back-up too...nor would I enter one.