Släggö 17/10 2021 A beautiful autumn day.

 Hi and ho!

This weekends we went to Släggö in Lysekil once more, we had originally planned to go to some site in Gullmarsfjorden, but due to various reasons, we decided to go to Släggö instead this day. The weather was forecasted to be sunny, if a bit cold, we were hoping that there would be a bit of a lid layer on the surface this day, as "night" diving during this time of the year is super nice, but when we got to the dive site, we realized that there would be no significant lid on the surface this day, the waters seemed somewhat clear this day. Oh well, it be what it is.

A small Sand goby that decided to sit down for a bit and allow itself to be photographed.

Dive 1

Depth: 29 m, Time: 52 min, Temp: 14 C

We swam out a bit before descending, as we wanted to have some depth from the beginning, though not as far as i usually force my buddies to surface swim. We descended quickly and started swimming following the slope downwards, taking it easy and slowly, photographing as we went. Out on the soft bottom, i spotted a small shape crawling about across the ocean floor, turned out to be a small Gray gurnard, which I of course had to photograph for a little bit. No squids on this dive though... After a while, i did the signal for turning around, as we had been down for about 25 minutes at that point, and in order to get back to the starting point within the time we had told the surface people, while also not stressing, we sort of need to turn around at that time point in my experience, so we began swimming back, again, as we closed in on the shallow, we started to look for a Lumpfish that was supposed to lurk close to the guiding line in Släggö, but alas, we lost the line on the way up and did not manage to find the lumpfish on this dive.

We ended the dive at 52 minutes, got up and made ready for a surface interval with food and relaxing.

This was the first time i spot the starfish Luidia sarsii on a dive

Dive 2

Depth: 29 m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 14 C

After food and a nice surface interval, we once again made ready to head out into the water. The plan was the same as before, do a sweep over the soft bottom and head back following the cliff wall and the caveline. So said and done, we swam out, and started descending at about the same spot as the dive before, as we got down, it was quite a bit darker at this point, as the sun was sort of setting right then. On this dive, i spotted a few more gurnards skittering about on the bottom, the first one kept skittering into the camera lens, which made focusing on it to take photos a bit of a challenge, the second one was a bit more chill, letting itself be photographed for a bit before swimming away. Didn't manage to get a photo of the third one as there was a huge silt cloud coming in right as i was about to start, oh well, got some nice ones of the two others instead, so that matters little. We continued over the soft bottom for a bit before one of my buddies signalled that it was time to go up a little bit, soon after that, they also signed that it was time to turn around. We swam back following the wall until we found the cave line, which we promptly began to follow too in hopes of finding the lumpfish on this dive instead, but to no avail, no lumpfish found. We surfaced at 57 minutes, got up and started doffing our gear, getting ready to head home after a nice long day of diving.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if the site was one of the more boring ones (we later heard that they had spotted shark on one of the sites inside Gullmarsfjorden the same day)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Grey gurnard crawling along the ocean floor

Ormestad 28/8 2021 Blue waters and deceptively good visibility.

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, after a somewhat large surface intervall due to various stuff, it was once more time to get diving! After much back and forth, we decided to go to Ormestad, the site with the vertical wall from the surface and down to 90 m depth. The weather on this day was rather good when we got there, with sun and clear blue sea, the visibility seemed quite good as well from the surface. So we divided ourselves into pairs or groups and got ready to head out into the waters. Me and my buddy decided that the first dive was to be over the soft bottom on the right side of Ormestad instead of going to the wall for the first dive.

Devonshire cup coral

Dive 1:

Depth: 30 m, Time 54 min, Temp: 14 C.

We descended quickly after swimming out from land, as this site drops off pretty quickly. During the descent we quickly discovered that the visibility wasn't as great as we had thought on the surface, but not bad by Swedish standards. We followed the bottom slope downwards until we hit the maximum depth we had agreed upon. As it had been a little while since i was in the water, i couldn't quite get the buoyancy right in the beginning, but after a while it came back to me. As we had taken our time to reach the deepest part, we were sort of running a bit low on the No deco limit time, so we ascended a few meters to have some larger margins. After about 30 minutes, I made signal to turn around, as we had said a maximum dive time of 1 h. So that we did, swimming back slowly but surely. We surfaced at 54 minutes, got up, doffed our gear and got ready for a surface interval

Claws of a Norway Lobster hiding in it's burrow

Dive 2: 

Depth 24 m, Time 41 min, Temp: 14 C

After a surface intervall, it was time to head out into the water, this time we had another, newer diver with us, yet we decided to dive the wall of Ormestad, the main attraction of the dive site. Said and done, we swam out to the wall before descending, We descended in a orderly fashion and slowly made our way along the wall, I kept an eye on our newer diver, so didn't snap as many photos this dive. The dive went pretty fine, though I did find it a bit nerve wracking to see the newer diver flail about all over the place. After a little while, it was signalled that we were to turn around, so we began swimming back along the wall, though at a somewhat shallower depth. 

We surfaced at 41 minutes, swam back to shore, doffed our gears and got ready.

All in all, it was a very nice day, and i finally got into the water after a slight dry-spell again.

So until next time. Keep on swimming!

Henricia starfish, this one with a beautiful purple colouration

Dyk-Leif 24/7 2021 Boat diving in the Väderöarna archipelago

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, me and some buddies went up to the Väderöarna (Weather islands) archipelago, one of the westernmost archipelagos in Sweden, far out in the sea. As it is so far out, the waters are much clearer and has higher salinity, which results in higher biodiversity. Higher biodiversity is something i like, both as a marine biologist and as a underwater photographer. Either way, we arrived somewhat late, but got our gear onto the boat in a orderly fashion, got ourselves on the boat and set out to the dive sites of the day.

Red cushion starfish, a beautiful specimen at that

Dive 1: Stora Sundskär

Depth: 30 m, Time: 60 min, Temp: 17 C

We were dropped off close to the cliff wall, where we almost immediately began descending, however, as we did, i discovered that my ring system was leaking due to something getting stuck in the space between the glove ring and the suit ring, so i had to signal that we had to go up, which my first buddy did get, but the second buddy in our group did not, so i had to signal a couple of times before they got it. We ascended quickly and got that fixed before we continued the dive again. We swam along the wall, with the cliff to our left side, at about 10-20 m depth there was a current going along the wall, so there was a bit of drifting going on. We kept descending for a bit until we hit our max depth, where we spent some time swimming along the wall, looking at the vibrant marine life around us. After a while, it became time to start going upwards again, mostly due to dwindling gas supply and dive time left. So we continued following the wall upwards a bit, encountering the current once more at about 20 m where we let it carry us for a bit. It was during this time, we came across a large area almost completely covered with Black brittle stars, uncountable numbers of them.

We surfaced at 60 min, got up in the dive boat, doffed our gear and got ready for the surface interval with lunch in the nice weather on one of the small islands.

Massive amounts of Black brittle stars (Ophiocomina nigra) covering the seafloor

Dive 2: Södra Ärholmen.

Depth: 27 m, Time: 46 min, Temp: 17 C

After a nice surface interval in the sun, with some swimming because the weather was so good. We got onto the boat and headed out for the second dive of the day. We jumped into the water and immediately descended, following a ravine downwards and outwards, as had been described on the boat. After a while, me and my buddies turned left, following the cliff wall. As we were swimming, i spotted something small and purple, with a closer look, it turned out to be a Violet sea slug (Edmundsella pedata), a species I have been looking for, for quite a while, so of course I had to stay and photograph it a little bit. We continued following the wall, taking it slowly and looking through nooks and crannies for critters. Soon after, I signalled that I had 50 bars left in my doubles, at which point we started to ascend, ending the dive so to say. We surfaced at 46 minutes, got onto the boat, rinsed our gear a bit and started to make ready to go back to the harbour again. Thus ending the dive day.

This was a super nice dive day, even if it is a bit expensive, it is all worth it for sure.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Violet sea slug, a small but colourful nudibranch

Weekend 3/7-4/7 Up and down the coast

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we did two days of diving, one in a new site and one in one of our regular sites. On the first day, we went to the new spot, a spot named Lunneviken, which is close to the Norwegian border and that we have been looking at for quite a while now. The second day, we went to the dive spot at Fossen camping ground, a semi-regular spot for us by now.

Common sunstar on a rock.

3/7 2021: Lunneviken

Dive 1:

Depth: 29 m, Time 51 min, Temp: 12 C

We started with diving on the right side of Lunneviken, as this wasn't a site we knew much about beforehand. As we descended, the visibility was bad in the surface waters, but cleared up pretty good at We followed the slope downwards for a bit before hitting a small drop-off of a ledge, which we followed down  until we saw the bottom at about 23 m depth. The bottom here consisted of shells as well as soft sand or mud. It was also littered with bottles and some other trash... Well either way, we followed the wall towards the right, with not much to be seen in terms of marine life that was outside of what we are used to in the Gullmar fjord.

After we turned around, we got a bit lost and swam a bit too far to the left, surfacing at the far left side of the bay of Lunneviken, so we had to swim back to the right bay on the surface.

The Rock cook (Centrolabrus exoletus), a small yet colourful labrid fish.

Dive 2

Depth: 29 m, Time 50 min, Temp: 12 C

After a nice surface intervall in the sun, with some ice cream and cold soda, we went for the second dive. This time, we planned on diving the left side of Lunneviken, so we did a surface swim to the left side of the bay before we started descending. Once again, the visibility was terrible on the surface, but cleared up as soon as we got a bit deeper down. We followed the wall downwards and towards the left. On this side, the bottom was a bit more interesting, with more life to see, though still not much different from how it is on our regular spots, but then again, it rarely is. The area here seemed to be more with ledges, cliffs jutting out and other somewhat interesting formations, which will probably be better to explore when one has richer gas mixes, as they lie a bit deep.

Next time, we know that the left side is the side to dive on this site, might have been more interesting if we knew this site a bit better.

Rough mantled doris (Onchidoris bilamellata), one of 95 known species of nudibranches in Sweden.

4/7 2021 Fossen

Dive 1: 

Depth: 32 m, Time 61 min, Temp: 12 C

As we descended, the visibility was pretty OK between 5 and 10 m, after 10, there was a huge area full of silted sediment, probably as a result of the another dive club's OW students having a fun dive there at that same day. After swimming through the silt cloud, we got to the drop-off at about 15 m, where the waters cleared up once more. We followed the wall downwards almost straight vertically until we found the bottom at about 30 m depth. After finding the bottom, we started following the bottom with the wall to our right side, taking it easy and looking through crevices and underneath rocks for lobsters, crabs and other marine animals that likes to hide.

As we swam back, we came across a group doing a drysuit course run by one of the dive centres in Gothenburg. It was at this point that someone managed to drop on top of my buddy from this course, which was less than ideal really. We surfaced at about 61 minutes, 1 minute more than planned, good thing we were the first in our group back up, because it could have made any surface organisation a bit nervous if we didn't come up by the pre-planned time.

A beautiful Henricia starfish, this genus keep being hard to identify to species level.

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time 45 min, Temp: 12 C

After surface intervall, we headed out once more into the waters. This time, due to the second person in the second pair not feeling up for another dive, we choose to dive in a group of 3 instead. We descended in a orderly fashion and started following the wall down. This time we stopped at about 26 m depth, hovering along the wall as we swam to the right. On this dive, quite a few White sea urchins were observed sitting along the wall from 20 m and down. Not much else was out of the ordinary on this dive.

As we neared the end of our dive, my camera ran out of batteries, which was unfortunate as there was a lot of orange brown aeolids in the eelgrass meadow right before the shore.

All in all, it was a nice weekend for diving, We got to try out a new place even :)

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

An aberrant Spiny starfish, with a seventh arm growing out.

Ormestad 16/5 2020 Rainy days and spontaneous dives

 Hi and ho!

This weekend was a rainy one, with the forecast telling of on and off raining all weekend long. So my buddies decided that we were to go out on sunday, the site was to be decided upon on the way there, as the weather was rather unpredictable at this point. We decided upon Ormestad, as it is one of the few sites in the area with a roof, even if you run the risk of getting stuck due to it being very muddy there.

Either way, we got to Ormestad, carried our gear to the area with the roofing and kitted up under the roof, after which we got ready to dive.

Henricia. sp starfish, this individual had a striking reddish purple colour.

Dive 1: 

Depth 30 m, Time 56 min, Temp 8 °C

Me and my buddy swam towards the left, aiming to dive the wall of Ormestad, the main attraction of that site. When we got close to the wall, we started descending, as we were descending, it was noted that the visibility was really bad, but as we got deeper it started to clear up much more, suggesting that the rain had caused some mixing in the uppermost layers of the water masses. As we rounded the corner and got to the main wall, there was a medium strong current going, but as we kept getting deeper, it subsided too. We swam along the wall in a relatively orderly fashion, after a while the other buddy pair came along around us a bit before we turned around. At 25 minutes, we turned around due to my buddy feeling a bit nervous, as they had changed some things on their setup. So we swam back towards the starting point, or at least tried, it is hard to navigate sometimes in Ormestad, as soon as you get on the soft bottom slopes. As we were following the slope upwards, my buddy signalled me to look at something, turned out to be a Sole resting on the bottom, so I tried to photograph it but it sure hid well, and it was a bit hard to do. 

All in all, despite the rainy weather soaking us from head to toe, it was a good dive session in Ormestad.

So until next time! Keep on swimming! 

Common sole (Solea solea), a very well hidden specimen at that.

Lysekil archipelago 11/10 2020- Unpredictable weather and happenings.

Hi and ho!

This weekend, after much discussing back and forth, me and my buddies had decided upon doing two boat dives in Lysekil. In order to do this, we had to leave at quite the early hours, as the first boat tour went out at 10 am. Said and done, we arrived in Lysekil, kitted up our gear and went to the boat. Unfortunately, one of my buddies accidentally destroyed the zipper of their drysuit while kitting up, so they had to pass on the first dive of the day. Me and my other buddy went out with the boat though. The weather forecast had told of rainy weather all day, and while there was some wetness to be had from the skies on the first boat ride, it did not last very long. So, we arrived at the first dive spot, put on our gear in the boat and got ready to head into the waters.

Devonshire cup coral doing coral things.

Dive 1:

Depth: 26 m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 14°C

Me and my buddy rolled into the water and began swimming towards the cliff wall where the dive was to happen. when we had reached a close enough distance, we signalled that we were going down and began descending. As we descended, it quickly became evident that the vis, while OK, was to be a bit grainy, with a maximum of maybe 7 m vis in any direction. We soon had visual contact with the seafloor, we spent some time on the way down photographing, before we began swimming in the direction we were supposed to go. As we swam, we came across large areas of boulders, where many fish were to be found, both, wrasse and gadiform fish of different kinds.

We also came across large swaths of shell bottom, here it was often also a bit less visibility due to silt in the water column, not sure if that was the previous dive pair, or just naturally occurring silt clouds, the likes that has been in Släggö all summer long. Either way, as we were swimming over the shell bottom, I spotted something a bit dug down in the seafloor, with a closer look i determined that it was a Great Scallop. After photographing it for a little bit, and moving a bit further away, i saw that my buddy was doing something close to the area where the scallop was. Turns out he was picking up a small seastar and placing it on top of the scallop in order to make it start fleeing. As much as i prefer to not touch the animals, i cannot deny that i find the flight of scallops quite entertaining (though you shouldn't touch the animals when you are diving really). So, after we managed to get the scallop swimming, we continued our dive further. As the time started to tick away, and my air started getting low, we began ascending to shallower depth in order to soon end the dive.

As we got up, there was coffee to be had in the boat, which is a super nice thing when you dive in Sweden, so us divers had coffee while we were driving back to harbour for lunch and surface intervall rests.

Great Pipefish on the mixed sediment bottom

Dive 2:

Depth: 28 m, Time: 58 min, Temp: 14°C

After a surface intervall with pizza and relaxing, it was time to get ready for the second dive of the day. This time we went out a bit further in the archipelago, to the outer islands, where the sites are available depending on the weather conditions. This day was one of the rare days where they could go out there without an issue, especially at this time of the year. We went with the same dive pairs as in the morning, with the exception of a new dive pair, consisting of two other friends of mine, one of which was the one that ripped their zipper in the morning. We were dropped into the water close to a set of small islands called "Trillingarna" (The Triplets) where the dive was to happen, me and my buddy descended almost immediately and began swimming with the cliff wall on our left side. On this site, there was a lot of ravines and crevices where the creatures were hanging about. Not much notable on this dive really, Saw quite the number of Henricia. sp sea stars, which, like always, is hard to differentiate to species level from photos only. 

Either way, when I started to near NDL, it was time to start heading upwards again (As my buddy dives rebreather, he does not have to worry about NDLs on this level of diving). So, we swam up in a relatively slow manner, taking our time photographing as we went. When we surfaced and got back into the boat, we once again were given a cup of after-dive coffee, which is always nice 😁

All in all, it was a super nice dive day, with perfect weather for all the sort of diving we do.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Henricia. sp sea star, variant red.

Sandvik 27/9 2020. Muck, walls and soft bottoms

Hi and ho!

This weekend me and my buddies went to a site we don't go to as often, Sandvik, which is the dive site furthest into the fjord i know in this area. We decided on this spot due to simply wanting a bit of change.

We arrived at the site, surveyed it, divided ourselves into dive pairs, kitted up and got ready to go into the water.

Swimming crab hiding in the sediment

Dive 1:

Depth: 24m, Time: 47 min, Temp: 16 °C

We swam out to a spot we deemed appropriate for descending, when we reached this particular spot, we rested a bit on the surface before we started descending. We descended quickly and began swimming towards the north west as soon as we could see the bottom. We soon found the wall at about 20 m, which we followed for a little bit, photographing as we went. After a while, we hit turning pressure and started swimming back towards the starting point again. As we swam over the mud bottom that was the seafloor I saw that there was a lot of sea-squirts littering the bottom, both the kind that is found at bottoms, and the kind that usually grows on more solid substrates.

We surfaced at 47 minutes, almost exactly at the same spot we started the dive on, after surfacing, we swam back to the shore, got up and prepared for a surface intervall. 

A cluster of Sea vase tunicates

Dive 2:

Depth: 24 m, Time 48 min, Temp: 16 °C

After a surface intervall with coffee, it was time to get into the water once more. This time i had to join another buddy pair, as my original buddy only wanted to do one dive that day (with diving wet and all, i understand that). So, we did a quick shuffle in the dive pairs and set out for the second dive. We first swam to about the same starting point as the previous dive and started descending from there. This time, we went to the right instead following the wall there for a bit. As we were swimming there, one of my buddies signalled that they were seeing something close to a pair of rocks, I swam closer, to see, and behold! A european lobster was peeking out of a burrow underneath the rocks, so i tried to take at least some photos of it before we continued downwards. After a little while we turned around and started swimming to the left instead, which we did until we hit turn pressure, after which, we started swimming back to our starting point again. We surfaced and got to the shore once more, thus ending the dives for the day.

All in all it was a nice dive day, even if the dive site was a bit on the "muddy" side.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

European lobster peeking out of it's hidey-hole

Ormestad 27/6 2020. Heatwave and sweet thermoclines

Hi and ho! 

Peacock feather duster worm, a tube dwelling species of marine worms.

This weekend me and my buddies decided to go out in the "nice" weather for a whole day of diving and bbq on the beach. Said and done, we decided to go to Ormestad, the best land diving wall in all of the Gullmar fjord. When we got there we realized how sweltering hot it was (32 C, while not much for many countries, is rather hot for us Swedes), but nonetheless we were determined to dive. So we kitted up as quickly as possible and rushed to the waters in order to escape the heat.

Dive 1: 

Depth: 26 m , Time: 47 min, Temp: 9 °C

Devonshire cup coral

Me and my buddy decided to dive the main attraction of Ormestad, namely the wall. so we swam out to it and started descending. When we hit 5 m, it was like hitting a wall of cold air as we penetrated the thermocline, which was rather shallow this dive. It went from 20 C waters to sub 10 C waters almost immediately, which was a nice escape from the sweltering heat up on the surface, the visibility also became so much better, going from about 3 to about 10 m. We kept descending, following the wall, photographing as we went. As always, the wall of Ormestad just kept giving, with huge amounts of Peacock feather duster worms, sealoch anemones and other organisms. As we lay on about 25 m depth, I saw some of the other divers in our group coming our way, quite the distance below us (maybe about 5 m), when they passed underneath us, their bubbles unfortunately silted the wall for us as there was a slight concave shape on the all between us, but such is life. Me and my buddy turned around and swam back at about 120 bars left, as we had decided upon on the surface.

When we got up on land again, we took off all the gear and prepared for some nice bbq.

A school of Herring with some nice ambient lighting

Dive 2:

Depth: 16 m, Time: 55 min, Temp 9 °C

After bbq, and some resting to digest the food, we decided to once again get into the water. This time the plan was to keep it a bit more shallow, while diving on the same wall. So said and done, we kitted up and began swimming towards the cliff once more. We descended in a fashion similar to the previous dive and began following the wall. As i used a different tank than usual, i was a bit "off" in my trim, but it was manageable. On this dive I photographed some different species of starfish, including a Henricia. sp starfish, as we were swimming back, we both spied a large male of Cuckoo wrasse, but alas, it was impossible to photograph, I did however manage to get a somewhat decent photo of one of the females that was hiding in a crevice, so there is that :)

As we got up, we heard that it was starting to rumble in the distance, signaling that there was a thunderstorm coming in, so we packed our stuff quickly and finished up in good time before it all broke loose 

Henricia. sp, 

All in all, it was a super nice dive day, even if the surface temperature was pure torture this day in a drysuit.

So until next time. Keep on swimming!

Female Cuckoo wrasse, not as colourful as the male, but a nice beauty nonetheless

Kårevik 20/6 2020. Plans and bbq getting rained upon

Hi and ho! 

This weekend me and my buddies were planning to do a larger trip with overnight stay and all, unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse so we had to cancel those plans. So instead, we decided to go to a site a bit closer to home, namely Kårevik on the south corner of the island of Tjörn.

We carried our gear to the clearing closer to the entry site as in order to not have to carry all the full gear from the parking lot, and thus kit up closer to the entry spot.

Dead man's finger, not what it sounds like, but instead a type of coral

Dive 1: 

Depth: 19 m, Time: 53 min , Temp: 11 °C

Me and my buddies swam out through the channel and followed the cliff walls until we reached the opening of the bay, where we decided to go down. As I was the only person in my buddy pair with experience of this site. I had the honor of leading this time around. So we descended in a orderly fashion, and started to swim outwards following the walls. One in our dive pair was a new prospective buddy, he spent a lot of time flitting around us while me and my other buddy took our time and slowly made our way, at one point he all but disappeared from our sight as the vis was not the best, at maximum 5 m maybe. Anyways, we made our way outwards and deeper down. at 15 m there was a sharp thermocline where the temperature dropped from around 20 C to about 10 C. During this dive we saw brown crabs, lobsters, squat lobsters and a lot of fish all around.

Spiny starfish

When we got up again after the dive, we had a nice bbq which had to be cut a but short due to worsening weather, we also decided against doing a second dive due to this, as diving during a thunderstorm is not a good idea.

All in all, it was a good, if somewhat hot dive day 😅

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

Brown crab, looking like it is having a "existential crisis"

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.

Smögen 25/4 Boat dives in the nice spring weather

Hi and ho!

Not one of the big Frilled anemones i saw, but got a nice picture nonetheless

This weekend me and my buddies decided to go to a very popular dive shop in Smögen, which is a bit further north from our usual diving area, in order to do boat dives in the archipelago. The weather forecast told of a nice sunny day, with a little bit of wind from the north.
When we had arrived, written ourselves up for the boat, and prepared our gear, it was time to go out to the first dive spot.

Dive 1: Stora Håskär.
Depth: 29 m, Temp: 10 °C, Time: 44 min.

We descended in a orderly fashion, until we reached the bottom at about 10 m, we then followed the bottom downwards to the maximum depth. We swam around for a bit, photographing and looking around, after a while, it became time to get up again, so we began the ascension. As we ascended, we got a bit lost and had to do a "free water" ascension due to me starting to run low on gas. Well, it was good training at least. During this dive i saw some very huge frilled anemones, some Red cushion stars and a lot of Dead mans finger corals among other things.
We got back into the boat and drove back to the dive center for lunch and surface intervals

Red cushion stars (Porania pulvillus) sure looks like some kind of plushie

Dive 2: Pesa.
Depth 18 m, Temp 10 °C, Time 49 min.

After a good surface interval with lunch and ice cream, we got back into the boat and drove out to the second dive site of the day.

The small Goniodoris nodosa was hard to spot among the kelp

Me and my buddy decided to go a bit more shallow on this dive in order to search for nudibranches. Said and done, we descended into a small crevice and followed it for a while before we got out to some walls, we descended a bit more when we got out of the crevice and began swimming towards the left, following the wall. As we swam, my buddy suddenly signaled me to look at something, as i got closer i realized it was a Lumpfish, Thus i stayed at the spot for a bit trying to photograph it. The lumpfish was shy for a bit, but then it suddenly started to swim up in our faces and underneath us when we just lay there, even as we kept blowing bubbles, which will usually cause fish to flee. After a while we decided to keep swimming and look for other stuff (and the lumpfish kept following us for a bit), we swam in the direction the compass took us (and if i have to be honest, i suck att following compass directions) After a while i decided that it was time to end the dive as i wanted good margins for surfacing time. So we followed a wall up until the safety stop. At the safety stop, i decided to train a bit at shooting my Surface marker buoy, and this time it wen rather well.

All in all it was a super nice diving trip

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

This Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) was shy at first, then it got all up in our faces and wouldn't leave us alone