Jordfalls Hamn 11/11 2023 Winter is comming

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we decided to head to the Jordfalls Hamn marina, one of our more frequented dive spots. The weather was nice enough, though a bit threatening with cloudy skies and a slight damp cold in the air (but hey, at least it wasn't too windy)

Spiny squat lobsters often come out in the open when it is dark

Dive 1: 

Depth 29 m, Time: 45 minutes, Temp: 10 C

Me and my buddy headed out into the bay as one usually does, while kitting up, we had planned the dive to either go straight out over the deep soft bottom if we deemed it dark enough, or head towards the left side and the rocky bottom if it wasn't dark enough. As we started to descend, I deemed it sort of dark enough to at least try and head straight outwards in hopes of squids, so that is what we did. Swimming outwards and following the soft bottom, we kept going until we hit about 29 m, after which we started to turn towards the left again (to be honest, 30 is a good stopping point, not really worth it to head down to 40)

We kept swimming along as we usually do, photographing as we went, at about 26 m, i spotted a small shape sticking out of the sand, turned out to be a angular crab (Goneplax rhomboides) digging down into the sand. We stopped for a bit and tried to photograph it, or at least try, as it was quite hazy in the water on this day. Well, after getting done with harassing the poor crab, we continued on until we found the wall, at which point we started making our way back to the starting point. It was at 12 m we started to realize that it is starting to become winter now, as the surface waters are colder than the deep waters, by about 3-4 C, Well, after suffering a bit on the safety stop, we ended the dive at 45 minutes, got up and made ready for the surface interval.

Angular crab doing angular crab things

Dive 2:

Depth: 31 m, Time: 41 min, Temp: 10 C

After having had a surface interval with hot drinks and stuff, it was time to head back into the water, me and my buddy once again made our plan to head almost straight outwards in hope of finding squid, so said and done, we swam out to the end of the pier in the marina and started descending down. Soon after getting visual contact with the seafloor, while making our way outwards, I started spotting Boston Facelinas, a type of nudibranch i have not seen in real life before (or just overlooked, they look similar to some other species). Well we did spend a few minutes photographing those before continuing on our way outwards. Not much happened on the rest of the dive really, but apparently i missed a squid while i was photographing a sculpin fish according to my buddy, they got some photos of the squid though :P
After a while, we started to run low on no-deco time and started to head back towards the starting point again, ending the dive at 41 minutes. When we got up, it was snowing ever so slightly, really heralding that the winter months are upon us.

All in all, i was satisfied with the dives of the day, despite the slight chill in the waters

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Boston facelina crawling on a piece of tire

Släggö 4/11 2023 Divers Night 2023

 Hi and ho!

As is tradition, the first Saturday of November is Divers Night, the international night diving event, and as such, me and my buddies went to Släggö in Lysekil, where the local event for Divers Night occurs for us. 

There was a bit of a delay in our plans due to various circumstances, cutting the first dive a bit short in order to get a proper surface interval.

Lumpsucker male guarding his brood

Dive 1:

Depth: 18 m, Time: 37 min, Temp: 9 C

Our plan for this dive was to follow the line for a bit until we reached the 6 m buoy (used to mark safety stops) after which we were to look around a bit in that area, see there were reports of a Lumpsucker male having set up shop there guarding his eggs, so we descended rather immediately after jumping in and getting our bearings. After reaching the 6 m buoy anchoring point, we started looking around for the Lumpsucker, and lo and behold, after a little bit, we did find him and his brood, just by one of the rocks in the rubble area. He lay so still and nice, so me and photographer buddy hung around a bit and photographed him before leaving him be. We continued to follow the slope outwards for a bit, and after a little while, i spotted something in the corner of my eye, turned out to be a teuthid squid ("squid-shaped" squid so to speak). Unfortunately it was moving around a lot, so i couldn't get the camera to focus on the critter, instead i just followed it while trying to film it (still was no good), photographer buddy did manage to snap some photos of it though :)

After letting the squid swim away, our other buddy signalled for us to come over, turned out that they had also spotted a bobtail squid, which both me and photographer buddy started snapping photos of, and not soon after, another bobtail was found in the vicinity, which was of course also photographed for a bit. Not much really occurred after this, and we soon had to turn back towards the starting point, ending our dive at 37 minutes.

Bobtail squid, the main attraction of autumn and winter diving here

Dive 2: Divers Night main dive

Depth: 21 m, Time: 54 min, Temp 9 C

Unfortunately one of my buddies had to scrub their dive, as they had not closed their zipper properly before jumping in :(

Now it was time for the main event of Divers Night, on land we had decided to just sort of stay in a group, but if we lost contact with each other (mainly me and photographer buddy getting separated from the others, as it often happens) then we would just continue on in pairs. Said and done, we jumped in and started to descend into the waters, following the slope as usual, out over the soft bottom. Surprisingly, we managed to keep the whole group together, despite us being 2 photographers there😛.

No squids on this dive, even though we kept a lookout for them and were over the ideal kind of substratum where the squids are often found, me and photographer buddy did however manage to find some Bryer's Nut Crab, a extremely small species of crab that is hard to spot.

We ended our dive at 54 minutes, got up and doffed the gear, making ready to head home.

All in all, it was a good Divers Night, despite the things that didn't go so well this time around.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Bryer's Nut Crab (Ebalia tumefacta), super small and super hard to spot

Jordfall 16/4 2023 Satisfying dives all around

Hi and ho!

Been a while once more, mostly due to lack of time from either my, or my buddies side. But here we are once more, so lets get into this weekend's dive adventures!

Thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata), a slightly uncommon sight at our dive sites

Dive 1: 

Depth 24 m, Time 57 min, temp 6 C

Me and my buddy swam out towards the cliffs to the left side of the dive site before we started to descend, having decided that this dive we were to follow the slope and cliffs instead of going out over the deep soft mud bottoms. As we descended, it the visibility showed to be relatively good for the season, meaning it wasn't overly good, but not completely bad either 😆

As we were swimming along the slope and cliffs (and I photographing) My buddy suddenly started to signal to me in a hurried manner. I turned around and they pointed with their light towards something on the bottom, took me a few seconds before I realized that it was a skate right there and then at 24 m depth! So naturally I was ecstatic, making sure to photograph it as much as possible. After spending a few minutes photographing it, I decided that it had been bothered enough and signed to my buddy that we were to turn back, as it is cold in the water, and 40 minutes is sort of a limit of how long I'd prefer to spend in the water right this season (and as you can see, we did go over 40 min, and my fingers were quite cold when we got up). Either way, we made our way back slowly but surely, making our safety stop and then ending our dive at 57 minutes. We got up from the water and onto land, making ready for a surface interval.

Deep sea king crab (Lithodes maja) out wandering over the seafloor

Dive 2:

Depth: 30 m, Time: 41 min, temp: 6 C

After a surface interval, we made ready to head into the water once more, this time, I made the plan to go "straight out" over the soft bottom slope instead. So we took a surface swim out to the end of the jetty before we started to descend into the waters. As we got visual contact with the bottom, we started following it outwards, maybe slightly to the right side. After a swimming a little bit, we spotted a nicely sized Deep sea king crab close to one of the jetty anchor blocks. After spending some time around it, with me photographing, we went on our merry way, continuing downwards. As we swam along, my buddy signalled me for a bit, showing another, even bigger king crab right to my side, which I of course tried to snap some photos of, but alas, this one was not too keen about that and started to walk away, so I just got a blurry photo of it. It was around this point that we were starting to get low on No Decompression Time, so we had to make a rather hasty swim back towards shallower depths again. We ended the dive at 41 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, making ready to head home after a day of very satisfying diving 😄

All in all, the dives couldn't really have been more perfect, though it is hard to top the first dive with a skate for sure!

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) crawling out of its burrow

Släggö 21/5 2022 Springtime for the sea

 Hi and ho!

This week we went to Släggö for easy diving (and roof over the head, it was forecasted to rain). We also was to meet up with some friends that were doing their course things there. When we got to the site and took a look, we saw that spring had indeed come to the area, the harbour was a soup of jellyfish, and quite a lot of Lion's mane jellies too, especially in the area around where you jump in from the pier, so there was that. 

Harbour swimming crab

Dive 1:

Depth: 25 m Time: 54 min Temp: 10 C

We jumped in and swam out for a bit before descending. The visibility this day was a little bit on the bad side, but not the worst for the season, lots of particles in the water though. Continuing on, we followed the wall outwards, taking it a bit slow as one of us had new gear they had to get used to. As we swam along the wall, we kept looking for lobsters and other critters that like to hide in crevices, I did only find one, but heard later from my buddies that there had been 2 of them. At about 30 minutes, we decided to turn around as to have enough gas for a second dive later.

We swam back in a nice pace and surfaced at 54 minutes and got up, preparing for a nice surface interval with pizza.

Greater pipefish 

Dive 2:

Depth: 26 m Time: 55 min Temp: 10 C

After a surface interval, we headed towards the dive site once more, now the rain had stopped, and the weather was surprisingly sunny. One of my buddies decided to not do a second dive as their suit had leaked a bit too much the previous dive (reminds me that i need to do a leak check on mine, it is getting ridiculous). 

Me and my other buddy jumped in and swam out to about the same spot as the previous dive, before starting to descend. We followed the wall this time as well, photographing as we went. Not much of interest was really found on this dive, but i did get to experiment a little bit with angles and light positioning, so i guess there is always a silver lining. We surfaced at 55 minutes, got up and started making ready to head home once more.

All in all, it was a very nice dive day

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Devonshire cup coral

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.

Hällebäck 5/3 2022

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, we once again decided to go to Hällebäck, as it is a good spot for both hard cliffs and soft bottoms, though, slightly better for deeper hard cliff bottoms. Also, parking is free there, so that's another factor.

Face photo of a Redback seaslug

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 5 C

We began with swimming out quite far, a little bit too far for my tastes, so we had to swim back a little bit before descending. We descended in a sort of chaotic fashion, as we sort of lost contact with each other during it (I might have descended a bit too fast too). When we got down to the bottom, I also lost one of my fins, which i promptly grabbed and put on again. After sorting everything out, we began following the bottom, soon finding the cliffs and plateau's of the dive site. We followed the wall towards the left, with me and my photographer buddy looking for the small critters that like to hide. 

As we swam along, we spotted nudibranches of different kinds, mostly Redback seaslugs, but also a few Frond eolis. After a little bit, our other buddy signalled for us to come and look at something, this something turned out to be a Rugose squat lobster hanging out on the cliff wall there. At about 20 minutes, we turned back as our photographer buddy had hit their turning pressure, and it was also starting to get a bit cold. We swam back in a orderly fashion, though as we started to near the more shallow parts, it became evident that today there was relatively much currents, so we had to fight that as well.

We surfaced at 45 minutes and got up to have a nice surface interval.

Frond Eolis (Dendronotus frondosus)

Dive 2:

Depth: 29 m, Time: 38 min, Temp 5 C

After a surface interval, we once again went out into the waters. This time, we didn't swim quite as far before descending. This time, we descended in a more orderly fashion, keeping together the group somewhat better. We followed the slope downwards and outwards. On this dive, there wasn't really much of note, other than three Norway king crabs that is, which has been somewhat consistent with diving in Hällebäck right now. 

We surfaced at 38 minutes, as we had gotten a bit cold on the previous dive, and warming up this time of the year is a bit harder.

All in all, it was a nice day of diving

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Norway king crab, quite common this time of the year in Hällebäck

Hällebäck 27/2 2022 Sunny side up

 Hi and ho!

This weekend's weather was absolutely fantastic, with shining sun and relatively warm temperatures for the season. And naturally, there was diving to be had as well. Though this time i went with some people i haven't dived with in a while. We once again decided on Hällebäck, as we wanted to have a bigger chance of Norway king crabs.

Aequorea vitrina, a pelagic hydrozoan species. This one had a lot of gunk on it

Dive 1:

Depth: 32 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 6 C

We descended into the water column, keeping relatively close, as the visibility this week was terrible in the surface waters and down to about 6 m. After 6 m depth, the visibility cleared up quite well, though there was much larger particles in the water, gelatinous gunk, which is common this time of the year.

Either way, we followed the slope down until we found the wall, where we instead started to follow it to the left instead, making our way down into the depth. On the wall, there were a few Norway king crabs hanging about as well as other critters. At about 20 minutes, we turned around and started to swim back. At about 6 m, one of my buddies were to shoot their DSMB, which we had planned on the surface. It was at this point we sort of lost contact with our other buddy due to the super bad visibility (or at least i did). When we surfaced, i found them again, so probably, they could see us, but i couldn't see them.

Norway king crab clambering on the walls of Hällebäck

Dive 2:

Depth: 28 m, Time: 47 min, Temp: 6 C

After a nice surface interval, we once again headed out into the water. Not much to say really on this dive, as this was sort of a routine dive, we planned it to be a bit more shallow compared to the previous one.

Honestly, it was a bit of a chaotic dive as i think i stayed deep a bit longer than i usually would, So i got very close to my NDL limits, so had to make my way up a bit quicker, and also forgetting to completely signal to my buddies (they followed still, but were a bit wondering) So i really need to get much better at that, guess I've gotten a bit too lax with signaling. Very well, it all ended well anyways, no "surprise decompression stops"

All in all, despite the somewhat chaotic second dive, it was a super nice dive day. 

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Redback seaslug crawling along

Hällebäck 19/2 2022 Crabs crabs and more crabs

Hi and ho!

This weekend, we first decided upon one site, but in the car, on the way to the site, we decided to go to a site nearby instead, in order to get a bit of a change, as we have dived the first site quite a lot recently. Another reason for choosing this site, was that i know that there is great chance for seeing Norway king crabs this time of the year. 

Harbour swimming crab with a rather peculiar carapace colour pattern

Dive 1:

Depth: 25 m, Time: 41 min, Temp: 6 C

We jumped into the waters from the pier and swam out from there for a bit before deciding to descend. As we descended, we quickly realized that the surface visibility was completely garbage, brown and muddy, as it had been raining and snowing for quite a bit the night before. So we could barely see each other, even if we were rather close  But as soon as we got to about 5-6 m depth, it cleared up, though it was pitch black in the water due to no sunlight reaching down (this was mid-day) and a lot of particles in the water. We followed the slope downwards and to the left of Hällebäck soon finding the wall. As we were following the slope, one of my buddies signalled for me to come and look at something, which turned out to be a swimming crab with a marbling I had not seen so far. So i spent some time to snap some photos to document it, and after getting home and consulting different sources, I identified it as a Harbour swimming crab with a rather uncommon carapace marbling. As we reached the wall, we followed it towards the left, looking for Norway king crabs and other critters of Gullmarsfjorden. And king crabs we did indeed find, three of them to be exact. After a little while, my buddies signalled to me that it was time to turn around and swim back towards the starting point. At about 15 m (I think), one of my buddies come up to me with a wing dump valve in their hand, after checking that it wasn't mine, I deduced that it was theirs, and that we had a bit of a smaller situation on hand, but we did continue in a relatively relaxed manner until we reached our safety stop. At the safety stop, the buddy that wasn't having a wing dump valve issue, signalled that they saw something, this something turned out to be a Norway king crab, and the shallowest observation of the species I've ever made. Unfortunately, Ii also managed to whip up an enormous silt cloud as I was turning around and trying to photograph it, so that was a thing too.

We surfaced at 41 min, got up and enjoyed warm chocolate in the somewhat nice weather.

One of the Norway king crabs

Dive 2:

Depth: 25 m, Time: 41 min, Temp: 6 C

After a surface interval, we got ready to head out once more. After some searching for a lost fin in the shallows (and grumbling from me due to the extremely bad visibility) we started swimming out to about the same spot we went to on the previous dive before we descended. Not much to say about this dive really, as no big thing really happened, all went according to plan really. On this dive, I observed Redback sea slugs grazing on oaten pipe hydroids, as well as some more king crabs.

We surfaced at 42 minutes and got up to get ready to head home, but as we were getting out of our gear, it started snowing once more, and it was rather wet snow too

All in all, i am very satisfied with the dives this weekend. 

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Redback seaslug, a common species around this time of the year

12/2 2022 - 13/2 2022 A not too good weekend really

 Hi and ho!

This weekends diving wasn't really the best I've had to be totally honest, It was a weekend of harsh weather and rain, but nonetheless, a few of us went out to dive because we love diving so much. 

Long nosed spider crab, a smaller species that is easy to mistake for a piece of algae

Dive 1: 12/2 2022 Släggö

Depth: 26 m, Time 41 min, Temp: 5 C

We got to the dive site and saw that the winds were going straight into the bay and that there was some significant wave action, nonetheless, we decided to dive here, a mistake it would prove (should probably become much better at thumbing sites and go somewhere else). Either way, after much getting bashed by the waves, we got a bit further out and started descending. As we descended we discovered that the visibility was not the best, but on the other hand, after a few meters down, the waters became surprisingly calm, not showing any signs of the raging waves above. We followed the slope, keeping relative close to one another. There wasn't really much to see on this day in the shallower parts, but as we started to get a bit deeper down, things started to appear, for example, some dragonets, as well as different types of crustaceans. After a little while, one of my buddies signalled to turn around, and that we did, swimming back in somewhat of a hurry, as they were running low on gas. We surfaced at 41 minutes, and climbed up the ladder they had installed at Släggö while the original pier is being rebuilt. Fortunately, the winds had lessened a bit, so the waves wasn't as bad at this point. 

We decided after this dive, that today was a "1 dive only" kind of day. So we packed up our stuff and got ready to head home again. All while making plans to dive a different site come the next day.

Extreme close up of an Edible crab

Dive 2: 13/2 2022 Jordfall

Depth: 19 m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 5 C

On this day, we decided to go to a more protected site, so we didn't have to deal with getting bashed by the waves. So we choose Jordfall, as it is both easy and usually a lot of life in the water. So we headed out, planning to dive close to the cliffs and walls to the left side of Jordfall. When we started to descend, I noticed that there was a slight milkiness in the surface and as we descended, the visibility was rather bad, which was to expected, as the weather has been a bit violent recently. We continued to follow the cliff walls, keeping relatively shallow as we went. Not much was really out here either on this day, so i didn't snap as many photos. We surfaced at 42 minutes and got up in the freezing rain, making ready for a surface interval while planning the next dive.

A dragonet of undeterminable species

Dive 3:

Depth: 27 m, Time 35 min, Temp: 6 C

After a surface interval in the drizzling rain, we once again kitted up and headed out for a dive. This time, we planned for it to go out over the soft bottom slope in Jordfall, so we swam out to the end of the pier before descending. As we were descending, i had some problems equalizing on the way down, so i had to slow down quite a lot before i managed to clear it all, but after doing that, i could continue as usual. We quickly swam out over the slope, looking for possible signs of king crabs or squids, as it was quite dark deeper down. But all of these creatures did not show up, and in the middle of the dive, my camera ran out of batteries, as i had forgotten to turn it off on the surface. Oh well, such things happen, but was still a bit infuriating. Luckily, there wasn't really any interesting out on this day and dive either.

We soon turned around and started to swim up more shallow, as our No Deco Limits were starting to run low. We surfaced at 35 minutes, making this a shorter dive really.

All in all, despite the really bad weather and conditions, it was some OK dives, not the best, but not the worst either.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Jordfall 30/10 2021, Night diving and leaky suits

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we once again decided to go to Jordfall marina in Gullmarsfjorden for night diving. As i had changed the ring system for the suit, installing something that will make changing ring systems in the future much easier, this was the "trial by fire" to see if they were correctly installed. We arrived at the site rather late due to various reasons, but that wasn't too big of a deal, as today's goal was night diving. 

Close up of a Henricia. sp Starfish

Dive 1:

Depth: 25 m, Time: 59 min, Temp: 13 C

We swam out in the bay and towards the cliff, getting a bit closer before starting to descend. As we descended, i started feeling a cold seep on the right side of my right wrist, it seems that there is a leak somewhere in the system, but the waters are not that cold so it would be too much of a bother on this dive, so I toughed it out as i usually do if there is a "not immediate emergency" kind of leak, and kept on going. A few minutes into the dive, my buddies start signalling me to come look at something, turned out that this something was a bobtail squid resting on the bottom, and rather shallow too. So i spent some time filming it, as i felt like trying to photograph this one wouldn't have worked really, but as soon as it had dug itself down into the sediment, i left it be and continued on with my buddies. We did get a bit off course a while after the squid, swimming out over the soft bottom slopes instead of continuing following the cliff wall. We did find the cliff wall again after a little bit of following the slope upwards. After a while of following the wall, i signalled that it was time to turn around, as we had been down for a while now, and i had said a max time of 1 h. So that we did, unbeknownst to me, it seemed that one of my buddies was a bit light, and had some trouble to keep themselves down. But my other buddy saved the day, as i was way too occupied with photographing and looking for subjects, as i usually do. Either way, we made it back all of us and surfaced at 59 minutes, got up and prepared for a surface interval with hot drinks and some snacks.

Angular crab posing with its big claws.

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 37 min, Temp: 13 C

After a surface interval, we once again headed out into the waters for a second dive, this time the plan was to do a shorter but deeper dive, and sweep out over the soft bottom slope. So me and my buddies swam out along the pier before starting to descend into the water, the suit still leaked on this dive, so i'm going to have to take a look at exactly were it leaked as soon as possible. Either way, we continued the dive as planned, maybe deviating a bit by going more to the right site, where the bottom was covered by mussel shells. Here one of my buddies signalled to me to come look at a rather beautiful Common dragonet male that lay there on the shells. After photographing it for a bit i left it be and we continued the dive along the slope, now turning towards the left instead as we had planned in the beginning. As we were starting to swim back, i spotted a weird, but familiar shape a bit away in the distance, a mature Angular crab male, with it's long claws extended in a defensive position. When i got a bit closer to it to take a macro photo, it started digging itself into the bottom to hide, which honestly was sort of endearing, so after snapping a few photos i left it be. Shortly after this, my other buddy signalled to come look at something, turned out to be another squid, though this one was less keen on getting photographed, so i only managed to get a somewhat blurry photo of it. 

We surfaced at 37 minutes, got up and started making ready to head home after a nice evening of diving. 

All in all, despite the leak, it was a nice dive evening

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Common dragonet male, a very pretty and colourful fish

Släggö 11/4 2021 Doubles, bubbles, gear and weather troubles.

Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to Släggö in Lysekil, We originally planned to go to Jordfall, but as the weather was very rainy and somewhat chilly, we decided to go to Släggö instead, as there is overhead areas for changing clothes, which fit much better for the weather conditions.

We got to the site and started to kit up, my buddy jumped into the water before me as I was taking a bit of more time to get into my new double setup. As my buddy jumped in, they discovered that their BCD was leaking out gas from the inflator, so they got up and almost canceled their dive before we convinced them to go up to the dive center and ask for assistance. After a little bit they came back, and it turns out that it was salt crystal buildup on the inflator button, which was fixed by soaking it in warm water. So me and my buddy once again got ready and headed out for the dive. 

Sea loch anemone, a common sight to see in the area around Gullmarsfjorden

Dive 1: 

Depth 29 m, Time 40 min, Temp: 6 °C

We swam out to the cliff before we started descending, as we descended, we saw that the visibility of the site was a bit bad, at most 5 m. We followed the slope and wall downwards as i was trying to get used to the gear, photographing as we went, even if it was a bit harder due to new gear and bad visibility.

This day, it seemed that few critters were out and about, so not much was photographed during this dive.

We surfaced at 40 minutes, got up and doffed the gear on land, after which we made ready to go get pizza, as we usually do when at Släggö.

Look at the polyps of the Dead man's fingers Coral

Dive 2:

Depth: 29m, Time 52 min, Temp: 6 °C

After a surface intervall with pizza and nice chatting, it was time to get into the waters again. This time, two of us 4 divers decided to stay on land, as they had gotten too cold during the previous dive. So me and another buddy decided to go do a second dive. We kitted up and jumped into the water in a orderly fashion, after which we swam to the buoy closest to the entry point, just to change things up a bit where we descended. At the buoy, we realized that there was some kind of exercise going on there, so we descended a  slight distance away from it. As we descended, I somehow managed to get my inflator hose to the wing detached, I have no idea how i did that. Either way, I did "a bad" and kneeled down on the bottom while my buddy was attaching it once more. After that was said and done, we continued our dive outwards over the soft bottom, which is usually relatively lively, but this day, it was a bit more dull. After a while, I was starting to run low on dive time before deco, so we started to go a bit more shallow so I didn't have to go into deco on this dive. We surfaced at about 52 minutes, I spent some time to do a check if I had proper amounts of weights, which I found out was true.

All in all, it was a pretty neat dive day, even if the freezing rain and winds left much to be desired.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Close up of a Edible crab, pretty happy with how it turned out

Släggö 7/3 2021. Better this time around.

Hi and ho!

This week me and my buddies went to Släggö in Lysekil once more, as we had heard that it was warmer in the water now, also due to the fact that our other dive spots still have ice left on them, making diving there less than ideal at the moment. 

Well, we got to the place, and the sun was shining, even if it was a bit windy and chilly right then, it looked to be a good day for diving. We divided ourselves into pairs, kitted up and got ready for the first dive of the day.

Devonshire cup coral

Dive 1:

Depth 31m. Time: 49 min. Temp: 4-8°C

We swam out and descended early, during the first parts of the dive, one of our buddies discovered that their dive computer was out of batteries, so we ascended to the surface and assessed the situation. Good thing was, I always wear a extra dive computer, my old one, on the other arm, so I lent it to the buddy who had problems with theirs, after some grunting, grouching and heavy breathing on my part, I managed to get the dive computer on my buddy's arm, after which we continued the dive. We descended once more and began swimming outwards. At the boat "wreck" I got the stupid idea to start taking selfies using my camera (just for fun, to see if i could do it), which caused me to become a bit separated from my buddies, when I turned around I couldn't see them, so I swam around in a circle, before I saw them in the distance, not far away from me. After swimming back to them by the "wreck" we continued downwards, following the slope and the tubing from the aquarium in the area. At 31m, my computers started signaling that it was deep enough, so we stayed around this depth for a bit before I signaled that it was time to start going more shallow, and maybe turn around as well, so that we did. On the way back and up, we started to feel the colder waters, you see, it was around 8 C from 15m and down, so, going back up when it is like that, is not very nice. At the safety stop, we were all shivering a little bit, so as soon as it ended, we ascended up to the surface, which conveniently was very close to the ladder up to the pier. We got up and out of our gear as we waited for the rest of the people to come up, so we could go and get pizza.

Black clam (Arctica islandica) mussel that can grow very very old

Dive 2

Depth: 27m. Time 38 min. Temp: 4-8°C

After a surface intervall with pizza and nice hanging out, we once again decided to head out into the water. Me and my buddy got ready, kitted up and jumped into the water, we descended without problems and continued to follow the slope downwards. We took it a bit slower this time, allowing me to look for more stuff. At the boat, we started to turn towards the cliffs. When we started to come close to the cliffs, i spotted a small shape on the bottom, turned out to be a Spotted dragonet male, one of the prettiest ones I've seen in a long while, so i stayed a few minutes to photograph it, it even flashed it's fin to me, but unfortunately i didn't get that on photo. After a while, it became time to turn around and swim back, as we swam back we discovered that the current had started going outwards, making the swim back a bit more tedious and tiring. However, we managed to get through the currents and surfaced at 38 minutes of dive time, got up and started preparing to head back home while we waited for the others to come up. 

Harbour swimming crab

All in all, it was a very nice dive day, and the weather was superb for the time of the year, with shining sun and clear skies.

So until next time. Keep on swimming!

Spotted dragonet (Callionymus maculatus)

20/2 2021 Frigid waters and frozen regulators.

Harbour swimming crab

Hi and ho!

It has been a while hasn't it? Well due to various circumstances, I had a longer than planned dry spell over Christmas and into the new year. But now i should be back in the swing.

Either way. This week me and my buddies went to Släggö for shore diving, as most of our regular spots in the Gullmar fjord are iced over as of this moment. Either way, we arrived at Släggö and started packing up our gear in preparation for the days dive's.

Peacock feather duster worm (Sabella pavonina)

Dive 1: 

Depth: 29m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 0°C

Me and my buddy were planning to do shallow dives in order to look for nudibranches, however, as soon as we got into the water, my buddy's regulator started freeflowing due to the frigid temperatures, so we had to abort the dive. Thus after a quick buddy change, as my first buddy decided to call it then, me and my second buddy went towards the depth instead. The visibility in the water column was very bad, had problems seeing my buddy if it weren't for the illumination from the dive light. As we continued down, the creatures began to show up, mainly in the form of crabs. At about 27m the waters became a bit clearer, but at this point, it started to become time to turn around, as we both were feeling quite cold. We turned around and started swimming back, taking it slow to try and look for more critters. As we neared the end of the dive, I spotted the pink egg mass of a sculpin, which i photographed for a little bit before we continued upwards. As usual, the last 3 minutes of the safety stop during this time of the year was the longest 3 minutes ever. We broke surface at 42 minutes, with no feeling what so ever in our faces.

Roe of Shorthorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpius)

Dive 2:

Depth: 15m, Time: 21 min, Temp: -1°C

Now here is where it got interesting. After a surface intervall and some pizza, me and my buddies decided to do a second dive. So we got into our gear, kitted up and jumped into the water. At first it went well, if a bit cold, which was to be expected. But soon, my reg started to bubble, which didn't stop when i did not breath, indicating that it had frozen, and was starting to freeflow. At this point, i contacted my closest buddy that I was having problems, and that we were to abort the dive. So, they gave me their long hose regulator and went to their own extra. We then started the ascent, following the bottom up, after trying to fix it, to no avail, they suggested at the surface that i somehow gotten water in the first stage of the regulator. Oh well, i guess i have to roll with that and send the reg in for service (it is that time of the year after all).

All in all, it was a ok dive day, in spite of the bad conditions and less fortunate happenings with the gear.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Atlantic Lyre crab (Hyas araneus)

Jordfall 31/10 2020. Two more for the list

Hi and ho!

This weekend we once again decided upon doing some night dives, and as usual, the site was decided upon on the way to the sites. Once again it was decided to be in the Jordfall marina, as one of us was there doing their dive master examination, which fit us rather well. Said and done, we arrived at the site late in the afternoon with food and drinks for our buddy at the site, got our gear out and started preparing for the dives. After setting up, we divided into pairs, made our dive plans, geared up and started to get into the water.

Close up of a squat lobster, look how beautiful the colours are.

Dive 1:

Depth: 31 m, Time: 36 min, Temperature: 11°C

Me and my buddy got into the water and swam out to the end of the jetty before we started descending. Like the week before, the surface waters were somewhat brown due to the freshwater flow from land bringing humus into the top layer, but as soon as we got underneath it, the vis cleared up much more. We immediately started following the slope downwards in order to search for squid. As we were swimming downwards, I spot something peculiar at the edge of my light cone, as I got closer I realized it was a crab, and a species I've never seen before. So I started photographing it, unfortunately it was very skittish and started running as soon as I got closer, meaning that there was no close up photo of this one. Later when I had gotten home and had access to my books and sources, I found out that what I saw was an Angular crab (Goneplax rhomboides), a species that is recently immigrated to Swedish waters.

After leaving the crab be, me and my buddy continued our dive, looking for squids and other creatures, but no squids were to be found in the deep this time. After a while, it became time for us to start ascending, as we were both getting low on No Deco Limit time and gas, so we followed the bottom upwards again. As we were starting to come more shallow, with our NDL and gas still good, we decided to start swimming towards the left, and so we did until we found the cliff wall and boulders, there we spent some time looking into the crevices for various creatures, as I was photographing a crab, my buddy started signalling that they were seeing something, as I took a look, I first did not see anything, but after a few seconds of looking, lo and behold! A squid!, so I spent some time there, photographing the critter before I decided that I had harassed it enough and let it be. We ended the dive soon after, as we decided that it was simply time to get up for a nice thermos of hot beverage. Said and done, we got up, took off our dive packages and began discussing the things we had seen during the dive over some hot coffee.

The Angular crab is a species new to the area, the first records of it are from 2008

Dive 2:

Depth: 22 m, Time: 44 min, Temperature: 11°C

After a surface intervall with discussions and warm beverages, we once again got into the water for another dive. This time we went down in the same spot as before, however we started swimming left quite quickly, finding the walls early. We followed the walls during this dive, keeping on average above 20 m. As we were swimming around, I spot a shape close to the bottom, which turned out to be another squid, so we spent some time around the squid as I photographed it. After a while, it became time to turn around as we had been in the water for a while now, meaning that we needed some time to get back to the starting point as well. As we were nearing the end point, I was taking a closer look on some rocks when I spotted a small shape on top of one of them, turned out to be an Bryer's Nut crab (Ebalia tumefacta), a miniscule species of crab that I've never seen before as well, so that one got photographed as well :)

We ended the dive at 44 minutes as we simply had gotten so shallow that i thought it wasn't worth prolonging the dive anymore by then.

All in all, it was a super duper dive day, especially since I got to see two species I've never seen before, as well as squids, always love seeing them squids :)

Bryer's nut crab, a species about the size of a pinky finger nail, thus making it easily overlooked

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Love the Common bobtail squids, they are so cute when they dig down into the bottom like this