Knowing Jervis - I am sure they are 'Weedy' and not 'Leafy' dragons.

Having been down there a few times and done day dives, I have always wanted
to do one of the live aboard for a couple of days.
Julian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Krazy Kiwi Viv" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 2:25 PM
Subject: [SCUBA-SE] Trip report: Jervis Bay Shootout


> One of my buddys is currently in Denmark spending time with his family. He
> sez its damn cold & dark over there .. so having lots of time up his
sleeve
> he finally got around to writing up his trip report for the WAUPS mag. Now
> I just have to work on Wendy for her trip report about diving with the GWS
> off South Africa - she won that prize in the same Bunbury Aquatic Shootout
> that Thomas won his Ocean Trek trip in.  Enjoy, Viv
>
> Trip report: Jervis Bay Shootout   April 2002 by Thomas Wernberg, WAUPS
>
> In November last year I was lucky enough to win the best vertebrate
> category in the Bunbury Aquatic Shootout. The prize was a live-aboard trip
> for two on board the Ocean Trek in Jervis Bay 200km south of Sydney. When
I
> later heard that Ocean Trek was hosting an underwater photographic
> competition I decided it was time to cash my prize.
>
> Loaded with the obligatory 30+ kg's of dive- and camera gear (and a
> toothbrush) my partner and beautiful model, Jeanett, and I left Perth for
> the east coast. An over-priced and under-serviced Qantas flight took us to
> Sydney where we spent the night in a hostel in 'The Cross'. The following
> day was amazing: wall to wall sunshine and perfect for cruising around
> Sydney Harbour, enjoying the opera house, the bridge and the fantastic
> scenery. We had organized a ride from Sydney to Jervis Bay with some other
> contestants (Rob Westerdyk and Neil & Lynn Vincent) - they were supposed
to
> pick us up at 5pm but didn't arrive until 7.30pm, courtesy of Sydney
> traffic!
>
> 'Ocean Trek' is a nice purpose built Cat. It is quite big, but with 18
> contestants, a few models and of course a crew of five, headed by Mick and
> Lynn, it was pretty full. The trip was organized so that the two first
days
> were competition-diving, the third day was judging and diving and the last
> day was packing down and diving. Each contestant got four rolls of 36
> exposure film: two Velvia and two Sensia. Film shot on the first day was
> developed over night so it was possible to evaluate what was in the box
and
> make the necessary adjustments. Each contestant was judged on a portfolio
> of six slides (two macro, two marine life and two wide angle) which were
> scored individually and the scores added. The judges were Mike Cufer, and
> Kevin and Cherie Deacon.
>
> There was of course a lot of bull-shitting and 'good' advice during the
> first days of competition, particularly because most people knew each
other
> from previous years Ocean Trek competitions. The atmosphere was very
> friendly and even though everyone were serious about their photography and
> the competition, having fun together was the primary objective for all.
>
> Diving conditions were fair, but not exceptionally good. Most of the time
> it was overcast with the occasional drizzle, but the sun did peak through
> the clouds every now and again. Most importantly, the sea was relatively
> calm and the viz was quite good on most dives. There was a lot of
different
> stuff to photograph and something for every lens and capability - several
> different kinds of nudibranchs, sea tulips, various echinoderms, giant
> cuttlefish, occies, a host of fish in all shapes and sizes, most notably
> lots of leafy seadragons (I must have seen over 50 on the four days of
> diving). I even got a reasonable 1:3 shot of a blue-ring octopus, but that
> was, of course, on a night dive after the comp. With the abundance of
> leafy's I had expected quite a few to show up on the screen on judging
> night, but there were only a couple. I guess they were just too common!
> Anyway, no one could complain about lacking photo opportunities!
>
> Jeanett was going to model for me and I thought it would be neat with some
> photos of an underwater photographer so I hired a camera for her - don't
> ever make the mistake of giving your novice-photographer model a loaded
> camera: she was virtually impossible to get in contact with and it was
even
> harder to make her obey my hand signals. Very frustrating for me, but she
> had a ball of a time and was very proud of her photos afterwards. They
were
> not at all bad for a first timer, but I hope she now she has a much better
> appreciation of just how hard it is to make good photos underwater.
>
> First place was won by Nigel Motyer, an Irish bloke on holiday. Second,
> third and fourth place were won by Neil Vincent, Rob Westerdyk and Marcel
> Widmer. I was lucky enough to get a shared fifth place - not bad in that
> company! The total sum of prizes was in excess of $13,000. Everybody got a
> prize and the prizes were absolutely phenomenal, ranging from a $100 gift
> voucher for 18th place to the $2,000 top price of 10 days live-aboard in
> the Solomon Islands. I got an Aqualung regulator and some smaller things
> for my fifth place. All the images can be accessed via the ocean trek web
> page (www. oceantrek.com.au) under the 'Trekers Log'. The winning
galleries
> are well worth a visit - and just in case someone actually checks out my
> images I better acknowledge Glenn Cowans' (or was it Louise's idea?)
> beautiful Rotto-slide for the inspiration to the seastar arm.
>
> It was a fantastic trip with top rewards; I met a bunch of fantastic
people
> and I learnt a trick or two, but maybe most significantly, Jeanett
> experienced a group of full-on uw-photo freaks and that made her realize
> three things: 1) I could (should) be spending a lot more on my hobby, 2) I
> had an urgent need for a 15mm lens, and 3) uw-photo is a lot of fun, but
> not that easy. There is great potential in these realizations, for
instance
> I now have a 15 mm lens :-).
>
> I have only got positive things to say about Ocean Trek, Mick and Lynn,
and
> I can only recommend the competition - the biggest worry was that all the
> good food and cake almost interfered with the diving!  END
>