Kullaviks hamn 2/5 2020. Keeping it shallow

Hi and ho!

Red-fingered Aeolid (Coryphella verrucosa) in some red algae.

This week, me and my buddies decided to dive closer to home turf, as well as due to the current situation in the world, we decided to keep our diving shallow and very safe conscious. So we went to the marina in Kullavik, as it is a easy, accessible and nearby land dive site.
When we had surveyed the dive site, planned the dive and geared up, it was time to get into the great blue sea.


Dive 1
Depth: 8 m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 10 °C

Me and my buddy got into the water, did some checks for possible leakage in our gears before we began. After giving each other green light, we began descending towards the bottom. We decided to follow the depth curve of the harbor basin, as there is usually lots of creatures both on the bottom and in the algae beds in the shallower parts close to the shore.

The European common starfish (Asterias rubens) comes in blue sometimes.

This time, there was an abundance of European common starfish, and one could see that many fish has returned to shallower waters with the warming temperatures. Unfortunately, fish tend to move around and are rather skittish, making the photographing of them in daylight rather hard.
After a while, we decided to turn around and end the dive, as it was getting a bit cold in the water.


The weather forecast told of rains and possibility of thunder. Fortunately there was no such thing, and the it cleared up as we were gearing up.
Thus, all in all it was a nice and relaxing dive.

So until next time, keep on swimming!

The Moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) is not capable of stinging us humans.

Kullaviks hamn 12/4 2020. Record times and nudibranches

Hi and ho!

This weekend me and my buddies decided to go to one of the diving spots that are closer to home than the others, the marina of Kullavik, a bit south of Gothenburg. This was due to various circumstances that made us prefer a site close by instead of our regular haunts further away in Gullmar fjord. The weather was nice, with little to no clouds and wind. We thus decided on pairs, made dive plans and kitted up.

Red fingered coryphella (Coryphella verrucosa), a rather common species with two distinct forms.

Dive 1:
Depth: 6 m. Time 1h 18 min. Temp: 7 °C. 

Eelgrass anemones (Sagartiogeton viduatus)
can sit on other things than eelgrass

Me and my buddy, both of us photographers, decided to follow the crags and boulders closer to land as they are good places to observe nudibranches that likes to live in the algae that grows there. After getting into the water and making sure the gear worked, we descended almost directly to 3 m where we began swimming, following the shoreline and boulders. As the season is a bit late, not many nudibranches were seen (or maybe it was because of decreased salinity due to rain the day before) Many sugar starfish were observed during this dive, as well as some pipefish, none of which i could photograph properly due to lacking gear. After around 40 minutes, me and my buddy decided to turn around and begin to swim back. As the depth was very shallow throughout the whole dive, we still had plenty of air in our tanks, and the limiting factor was just the temperature of the water. We swam back in a slow nice pace, photographing as we went.

Juvenile viviparous eelpout... i think...

When we ended the dive and went up, 1 h and 18 minutes had passed, making this my longest dive so far.

All in all it was a nice and relaxed dive day, though it would have been nicer if the temperatures had

So until next time, Keep on Swimming!

Sea beech (Delesseria sanguinea), a kind of red algae commonly found on rocks and in crevices

Södra långevattnet 22/3 2020- Course dive 1-2 CMAS**

Hi and ho!

It has been a while since i posted due to various reasons. It began with me changing my drysuit zipper, which was leaking, 2 weeks ago, this resulted in me not being able to go diving that weekend, the next week i came down with a cold, which also prevented me from diving. Now i am healthy once more, and have begun my next step in my diving adventure, a CMAS** course, meaning that i am to advance in the ranks of diving, allowing me to do more advanced dives among other things. This also means that i will not be able to photograph like i usually do. But fear not! I will instead write about what we did on these course dives. 

Södra Långevattnet, a small lake in the Gothenburg area.
Today the water and the weather was very clear and good.

Dive 1: Navigation

The first dive of the course was aimed to teach us how to navigate, in some capacity that is. The goal was to follow the line from a buoy down and then swim a certain number of fin kicks in a certain direction, after which we were supposed to find our way back to the line, i have to admit that this is a very weak point of mine, as i usually observe the bottom when i dive, we had to redo it three times before we managed to find the line again.

Dive 2: Line-search diving.

The second dive was aimed to teach us about how to dive with a line, a technique used for searching underwater. One diver dives, and the buddy stays on land and directs the diver via a line bound around the waist of the diving person. In order to do this kind of diving, signals in the form of line movements are used for communication. Not much to say about this in general, it was a interesting experience even if the interpretation of the signals was hard sometimes.

That was all for this time.

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

Kullaviks hamn 12/1 2020 New year and new vigor.

Hi and ho!

Now is a new year and I am back from Christmas leave with new vigor! This week me and my dive buddies went to a dive site a little closer than Gullmarsfjorden, namely Kullavik marina south of Gothenburg. This dive site is relatively easy to dive on and quite basic, which suited us well as we had some newly graduated and prospective dive buddies with us. The weather was very good, with changing clouds and some wind. We went into the water via a ladder on a small jetty on the outside of the harbor breakwater. The water temperature was relatively normal for the season, about 5 ° C. We went down along the bottom and swam outwards with the breakwater on the right side, while we swam around we looked for various small animals hiding on shallow water. As it is the season to see nudes, we found many specimens, both colorful and slightly more subdued. During this dive, I tried a few new settings on my camera to see how it would work. It seems to have worked pretty well, I think.

Coryphella verrucosa, Long cerata form

All in all, this was a very nice day and a good start on the dive season

So until next time, keep on swimming!

Coryphella verrucosa, Short cerata form

Hönö Öckerö 25/8 2019. Ny utrustning och nya tag

Hejsan allesammans!

Var ett tag sedan igen, hade ett litet sommaruppehåll, men u är det dags för nya tag!

Tagen med Olympus TG-5

I helgen var jag och Chalmers dykarklubb ute på dagsutfärd till några dykplatser som ligger nära till hands. Nämligen på Hönö och Öckerö i norra skärgården. Vi började i Hummerviken på Öckerö, en plats som är relativt välkänd i området och där sikten brukar vara mycket bra. Vi kom i efter många om och men och simmade utåt igenom tångskogen som finns där. Vi fann inte mycket, men den fina utsikten var helt värd strapatserna. Fick prova både min Olympus TG-5 kamera och min nya SMB.

Den andra dykplatsen vi for till var i närheten av färjeläget på Hönö. Sikten var inget vidare, men jag och min dykpartner såg hummer under en sten, och det var mycket småtorsk nere vid botten.

Allt som allt var det ett par trevliga dyk, om än något grunda.

Så tills nästa gång, simma lugnt 

Torsk (Gadus morhua)