Jordfall 15/5 2022 Should be back in business now

 Hi and ho!

It has been a while, due to various reasons, i have not been able to dive and photograph as much as i have wanted to since march. But now, i should be back in business with the regular diving once more.

Either way, this time we went to Jordfall due to one of my buddies having changed to doubles, and thus needed a easy dive spot to get used to their gear.

Sealoch anemone on a tunicate.

Dive 1: 

Depth: 17 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 8 C

We decided to descend rather early in order to check that everything was ok with my buddy's doubles setup, after making sure that everything was ok for now, we continued following the slope towards the left side of the bay, taking it slowly but surely, there wasn't much else than that really.

After about 20 minutes i signalled that we were to turn around and go back to the starting point again. So we made our way back slowly. We ended the dive at about 45 minutes, got up and prepared to have a nice surface interval in the sunny weather.

Male Common dragonet, i rather like how this one turned out.

Dive 2:

Depth: 25 m, Time: 40 min, Temp: 8 C

After surface interval, me and my buddy decided to do a bit of a deeper dive, as they had felt good with their gear. So, we swam out a bit further before starting to descend into the water in a orderly fashion. We followed the muddy slope outwards, taking it slowly. At about 23 m, we encountered something rather unexpected in the form of a Norway King crab, which is a little bit out of season right now, they usually hide at much greater depths this time of the year. After spending some time to photograph it, we continued on our way, swimming towards the left as one usually does. At about 20 minutes, i once again signalled that we were to turn around and start making our way back to the starting point again. 

When we got to the safety stop and had just cleared it, my buddy almost immediately started floating up, turns out they had a little too little lead on them, which happens sometimes when you change your gear setup, but all ended well.

All in all, it was a super duper nice dive day!

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Norway king crab out walking.

Släggö 23/5 2021 Jellyfish season has started

 Hi and ho!

Due to the weather forecast once more telling of bad weather this weekend, me and my buddies decided to go to a site with a roof over the changing area. As we also had a newer diver with us this time, we decided to go to Släggö, as this is a site that is easy to dive. When we arrived at Släggö, the rain was pouring down, but soon it started to subside, which was quite nice.

We set up our gear, divided into pairs and got ready for the dives.

Vibrant male of Common dragonet, truly one of the prettiest fishes on the Swedish west coast

Dive 1:

Depth 27m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 9 °C

Me and my buddy jumped in and started swimming out from the pier before we deemed it far enough to do a descent. As we descended in a orderly fashion, we saw directly that there was a lot of jellyfish in the water, signalling that the jellyfish season had come. When we got a bit further, my buddy signalled that they were having problems equalizing, so we stayed at a certain depth for a bit as they equalized their ears. After they managed to get their ears equalized, we continued further down. at 11 m, we encountered a thermo-and halocline, where the waters suddenly got quite a bit colder. We followed the bottom, along the cliff and out over the soft bottom, finding the dive helmet once more. As we were nearing our NDL, my buddy signalled me to look at something, turned out to be a rather large male Common dragonet. I stopped to take some photos of it before signalling that we were to ascend and turn around, as the NDL had gotten pretty low, and that it was time to start swimming back. When we reached about 12 m depth on the way back, I looked around a little bit and saw that there was a veritable minefield of lion's mane jellies above us, which made me a bit concerned. As we were swimming back, we met the other buddy pair that was with us this day on the way out, turned out they had some weighting problems for the new person and thus took a while to get ready. 

We surfaced at 57 minutes and got up to prepare for a nice surface intervall. At this point it had stopped raining too.

Moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) swimming into the light beam of my buddy.

Dive 2:

Depth 27m, Time: 56 min, Temp: 9 °C

After a nice surface interval with pizza and relaxing, it was time for the second dive of the day. Me and my buddy swam out once more and descended close to the cliff. This dive the goal was to look for European lobsters, which meant we were to look among the rubble and in the crevices near the cliffs. We continued in a orderly fashion, descending while following the walls, looking in the crevices and underneath the rocks. The first lobster was really shy, and didn't quite show itself, with only the claws slightly visible from underneath the rock, I tried to just hang about for a bit, to wait it out, but that didn't work, so we continued further. The second lobster was one of heftier size, hiding away inside a crevice close to the deeper parts.

At about 25 minutes we turned around, as I deemed it appropriate to turn around at this time frame, we swam back, gas was starting to get to lower levels too, and I felt like i didn't want too much of a surface swim back (though it was ok really, just making sure that we had some gas to spare on the way back, as a safety thing). We surfaced at 56 minutes, got up and out of our gear, and prepared to go home after a nice dive day.

All in all, it was sure a nice day for diving, even if it began a bit on the wet side.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Lion's mane jellyfish, got my buddy to backlight this one, so we got this motif

Skår 25/4 2021. "Catastrophes" and calm dives.

 Hi and ho!

There was no blog post last week due to me helping out on a beginners course for scuba diving in my club and didn't do any diving of note really. This week however, i was back to the usual shenanigans, me and some friends went to the western-most of our regular dive spots, Skår, which is close to the ferry across Gullmarfjorden. We got to the site got our gears out the car and started kitting up for the dive, while also dividing into buddy pairs. 

Common dragonet male, as vivid as they always are.

Dive 1: The "catastrophe"

Depth: 23 m, Time: 38 minutes, Temp: 6 °C

Me and my buddy waded into the water and put the fins on, swam out for a bit and then started descending. We descended in a orderly fashion, today the visibility was good, and the conditions light, we followed the bottom downwards and outwards, we turned towards the right rather than the left like one usually does (turned out to be a bit of miscommunication between me and my buddy). Anyways, we kept following the bottom closely, staying at between 19 and 20 m depth for the most part. After a while, my buddy signaled me that we were to turn around, so that we did following the sloping bottom upwards. At about 15 m, we encountered a boulder which we started following upwards, at about 12 m depth, the "catastrophe" happened, I saw that my buddy was starting to flail, and floating upwards, so I started grabbing them, trying to pull them down and into trim, allowing them to ventilate the excess air of their suit. But as I did this, I started to feel cramps in both my calves, which I toughed out for a bit, before the pain got too intense and I couldn't even move my legs anymore. At this point I had to release the grip on my buddy, and let them "cork" from 12 m, not an ideal thing, but something that I had to do at that point. I blew my safety stop and ascended quickly to the surface to check the condition of my buddy at the surface, they seemed ok, if a bit agitated about the whole situation of corking. We swam towards land, while discussing the situation a bit, turned out they had a bit of a constant bubbling leak from their regulator 2nd stage, which in turn had annoyed them the whole dive, the reason for the uncontrolled ascent was at this point still unknown. We got onto land and doffed our gear, preparing for a surface intervall, all while discussing the incident that happened.

Sponge of unknown species, likely a Suberites ficus

Dive 2: The calm dive.

Depth: 19 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 6°C

After a longer surface intervall, me and my buddy got ready for a second dive, this time, we had another buddy with us, as one in the second dive pair didn't feel like doing another dive (which is fair, the waters are still cold). We donned our gear and got into the water, this time, I was asked to check for bubbling from their gear when we were going downwards. We descended in an orderly fashion, following the cliff walls and slopes downwards, I checked for bubbles every now and then, but found none that were indicating any leaks. We swam around for a bit before it was time to turn around, we swam back in a orderly fashion and without any incidents. After doing our safety stop, i decided that i wanted do do a small drill with inversion, to see if I could fix a "inversion event". So that i did, and it turned out that I indeed can do that, I also managed to kick one of my buddies straight up to the surface (which we were close to, we were sitting at like 2-3 m depth). We surfaced without incident and swam to land, still discussing what had occurred on the dive before, We concluded that most likely, it was a case of the suit not being able to vent the excess air due to something getting stuck in the exhaust valve.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if the first dive was a bit too "eventful" at the end there.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

The polychaete Oxydromus flexuosus

Jordfall 28/11 2020. Rebreathers, Rays and Rime

Hi and ho!

Common dragonet in front of a Spiny Starfish

This weekend, we got the first real winter temperatures, with below 0 °C temperatures in the air, yet we braved these conditions and went out to go diving. We had decided upon Jordfall, as this is a easy spot, and we were honestly feeling a bit lazy. Said and done, we got to the site, after some "but's" and "if's", assembled our gear and kitted up for the first dive of the day.

Bobtail hiding in the sediment, can't tell which species though

Dive 1

Depth: 27 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 11 °C

Me and my buddy swam out to the end of the jetty before we started to descend. We had spoke to some divers that had been in the water earlier, and they told us that the visibility was "very bad", but when we started to descend, it turned out to be the rather normal for the area and time of the year. When we got visual contact wit the seafloor, I almost immediately saw two Common dragonets hanging around, unfortunately, one was in a bad position, so I could only photograph the other one.

After photographing the dragonet for a little bit, me and my buddy began following the bottom downwards and outwards on the mud bottom, looking for various stuff. At about 25 m, i spot a little something sticking up in the mud. With a closer look, it turned out to be a larger bobtail squid, very likely a Rossia. sp. So I spent a bit of time photographing it from various angles, when I finally decided that it was enough, it was about time to turn upwards, as no-deco time was running low. So I signalled to my buddy that it was time to turn around and swim upwards, so that we did. As we got close to the cliff wall of  Jordfall, I was hitting turn pressure, so we began swimming back. It was at this point I spotted a small shape close to the cliff wall, turned out to be another bobtail squid, so I was spending some time photographing it before continuing to swim back towards the starting point.

We surfaced at 45 min, got onto land and got ready for a surface intervall.

Sand goby, a small goby that likes to hang out on sandy bottom, hence the name

Dive 2

Depth: 30 m, Time: 35 min, Temp: 11 °C

After a surface intervall, most of us were feeling too cold for a second dive, however, me and another of my buddies were up for one, so we went in. This buddy had gone and got themselves a fancy machine, a Poseidon Rebreather, so they were testing it out this day. We swam out to the end of the jetty once more, and descended into the darkness. When we got visual contact with the bottom, we started swimming outwards following the bottom. After a while, my buddy suddenly signalled that they were seeing something, as i got closer, I see that it is a skate, so we spent a good while hanging around it, while I was photographing it and my buddy was just looking at it. After a while, the skate had enough of us, and we left it alone. The rest of this dive was rather uneventful, as nothing could really top the skate.

We ended the dive at 35 minutes, got up and got ready to head back home.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, with the highlight being the skate

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Close up of the skate, can't really tell which species though

Släggö 23/8 2020 Winds and waves galore

Hi and ho! 

This weekend I am back to my normal shenanigans in my normal haunts. So me and my buddies decided to go to Lysekil and dive Släggö, even if the weather forecast was telling of somewhat windy conditions straight into the dive site, as one of the buddies lives there for the summer. Said and done, we got to Lysekil and Släggö without much hassle, kitted up in the winds, divided us into pairs, and prepared to get into the waters.

Peacock feather-duster worm, a kind of marine tube dwelling worm

Dive 1: Depth: 26 m, Time: 66 min, Temp: 16 °C

On the first dive, me and my buddy decided to go close to the cliffs as there is a lot of rocky terrain straight below them, which is usually teeming with life, we swam out to a spot we found appropriate and began descending. As we descended, it soon became clear that there was not very good visibility in the water on this particular day, as I suppose the winds and wave actions had mixed the waters, making them quite turbid, but not the worst I've been diving in. We followed the cliff wall down and outwards, photographing as we went. At about 23 m my buddy was off photographing something among the stones, while i was looking out towards the shell-sand bottom when I spotted a small common dragonet, so I went down a and started creeping over the bottom, trying to photograph it. After a while, we were starting to get low on "no-deco time" so we decided to turn around and go a bit more shallow. As we got closer to land and more shallow, we began to feel a slight current, probably a result from the winds, as well as the swell when we reached about 8 m depth. We continued a bit on the shallow part until we simply decided that we were to ascend and end the dive, and so we did. 

Common dragonet, less colourful individual

Dive 2: Depth: 27 m, Time 70 min, temp: 16 °C

After a nice surface intervall with a late lunch, we got read for the second dive. This time we dove 3 people, as one of the people in the other pair only wanted to do one dive that day. So, we jumped into the water (I climbed) and did a surface swim for a bit in the increasingly rough waves. Either way, we got to a spot we deemed suitable and started descending. We descended following the wall and bottom, until we reached a suitable depth. As we swam outwards, it was clear that there was still a current from the wind and waves coming straight into Släggö, which made the swim outwards a bit more taxing, but nothing significant. At between 24m and deepest depth, it was very hazy in the water, a phenomenon that I have observed before this year in Släggö at about this depth, but can't quite put my finger on what is causing it, maybe different currents?

Either way, when we were starting to run lower on the "No-deco" time, we decided to turn around and swim back towards the more shallow parts. As we got there, the swell could be clearly felt, especially in the harbour area where it was in fact sheltered from the winds. 

When I later checked the weather app on my phone, it turns out that the stiff breeze of the early afternoon had in fact turned into a gale while we were under the surface. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All in all, it was a very nice dive day, even if the weather was not completely ideal.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Some of the Dead man's fingers coral

Jordfall 4/7 2020. Getting into it deep once more.

Hi and ho! 

Burrowing polychaetae of some kind, likely a Chone. sp

This weekend, me and my buddies made plans to dive in the Gullmar fjord, more exactly, the Jordfall marina, one of our regular haunts. The weather forecast was less than ideal, with strong winds and rain on the forecast for the whole area, however, when we arrived at the site, we discovered that the weather, while somewhat grey, was quite nice. So said and done, me and my buddy kitted up and prepared to get into the water to start the first dive.





Dive 1: 
Depth: 30 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 10 °C

No idea why this Fireworks anemone is all curled up like this.

This dive we had decided to go straight out, to the deep mud slopes that dominate the Gullmar fjord. So we swam out following the pier until we reached the outermost, where we decided to start descending. When we began, we discovered that the visibility was rather bad, no surprise though due to the rains that had fallen in the days previous. Nonetheless, we descended in a orderly fashion, until we had visual contact with the seafloor, after which we started to follow the slopes downwards. At 15 m, we encountered a very clear thermo and halocline, where we also found many jellyfishes hanging around, probably due to the gradient differences in the waters around forcing them to stay on that specific depth. It was at this point that the waters also went from around 20 °C to about 10 °C, but as we wore drysuits, it was nothing to really make a fuss about.
As we followed the bottom, me and my buddy swam around and photographed as we went. At about 28 m depth, we encountered the Fireworks anemone we had set out to find, a dear old friend that one sees very often when one dives straight outwards in Jordfall. After a while, it became time to get to more shallow depths as both the air and the non-deco time were starting to run lower. So we swam back towards our starting point in a relaxed fashion, stopping every now and then to photograph things.

Dive 2: 
Depth: 20 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 10 °C

Once again, the second most colourful fish in Swedish waters,
the Common dragonet (male)

On the second dive, me and my buddy decided to follow the cliff wall to the left of Jordfall marina, as it is both easier to navigate there, as well as a lot of different kinds of creatures that won't show up on the mud slopes. Said and done, we swam out until we were close to the cliff, where we decided to start descending. The vis was about the same as before, with somewhat bad range. When we penetrated the thermocline we started following the wall outwards, doing the same as before, stopping and photographing every now and then. As we were swimming, I saw a very colourful male Common dragonet laying on the bottom, so I proceeded to slowly sneak up to it and shoot some photos. As I was doing this, my buddy was swimming away at a steady pace, so I had to leave the dragonet be after a few shots and start swimming towards my buddy once more in order to not loose them in the bad vis. So, we continued following the wall outwards, photographing, fish, sea urchins and other things. at around 20 minutes we decided it was time to go back, so we went through the thermocline again and kept it somewhat more shallow on the way back.

All in all, it was a lucrative and nice dive day, the weather was, as stated earlier, much better than expected, and very suited for drysuit diving.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Orange brown Aeolids (Aeolidiella glauca) in a rather large gathering