Taking New Divers Out at Clifton

One of the most common questions I get during Open Water courses is how they can get back into the water. And in my opinion, the best and easiest way is to join one of Frog Dive’s free weekend shore dives. They’re led by qualified divemasters, cost nothing other than equipment hire, and take place in stunning locations like Shelly Beach. And not only that, there’s always a great group of divers, and great conversation afterwards around soup and other snacks.

The only problem is that they’re often booked out well in advanced. So to try and solve that, we decided to start hosting beginner only shore dives, with the first one taking place at Clifton Gardens.

I arrived at Clifton Gardens to a glorious sunrise silhouetting a military ship. Being a beginners group, we had a few more divermasters on hand, and so we split the group into a buddy pair per divemaster.

I took 2 young girls out. We started under the end of the wharf, where we were promptly joined by a massive school of meter long kingfish hunting between the pylons. It was absolute carnage! The kingfish flew under the wharf at warp speed. There were pieces of fish falling from the sky all around us. And then, as quickly as they had arrived, they were gone. I looked over at the girls and had to laugh at the sight of whites of their eyes through their masks. I must admit, it certainly a sight to behold.

From under the wharf we made our way along the nets, and out to the statues. The girls loved every minute of it, and were absolutely stars. We saw seahorses, moray eels, cuttlefish, octopus, leatherjackets, goatfish, blennies, and so much more.

Diving was followed by soup and caramilk hot cross buns. Yes, they are my new favourite, and were perhaps even better than the dive.