“Ok. That should be far enough along the reef. Everybody ready? Rolling in on ‘three’ – one, two, three… see you later!”
My left hand gripping my camera, my right over my mask and reg, BCD completely empty, I rolled backward off the tender, my dive buddy and Mike Ball crew member, Nicole, right behind me. Kicking down towards the unnamed and unexplored reef, the beautiful sloping wall stretched out in front of us as far as we could see. Letting the current carry us back towards Spoilsport, we drifted along over an impressive variety of colorful hard and soft corals, sea fans, whips, anemones, and countless species of the usual reef fish suspects. Finding shelter closer to the reef, we ducked out of the current to explore the many mysterious swim-throughs and coral reef alcoves. Fifty drifty minutes later, we hit the anchor line and made our way up to our safety stop, stoked after another awesome dive on the Great Barrier Reef.
With the water temperatures in Sydney cooling down for winter, I jumped at the fantastic opportunity to join a dive trip on Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef with leading liveaboard operator and Rolex Scholarship supporters, Mike Ball Dive Expeditions (MBDE). With over 40 years of service in the diving industry, Mike Ball not only offers fantastic liveaboard experiences to explore the best of the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef (GBR), MBDE are long-time contributors to Minke Whale Research and Global Shark Diving ecotourism. The dive industry plays such an important role in the growing appreciation and love for the ocean among divers and individuals, so I was very excited to gain an insight into one of the best dive operations in the world, while diving on one of the world’s greatest natural wonders.
A full week of diving some of the best sites the GBR has to offer was also a fantastic chance for me to practice my photography and videography skills with my underwater camera setup, generously sponsored by Reef Photo & Video. To make the most of a dive trip by myself, I also worked together with resident MBDE photo specialist and dive instructor, Julia Sumerling, to tick off my certification as a TDI Solo Diver. After completing a rather entertaining drill on the dive deck to measure our Surface Air Consumption – unique to each diver and necessary to appropriately plan a dive when without a buddy – we ticked off the necessary in-water skills. I was then ready to attach my redundant spare air supply to my main cylinder, and spend the rest of the week exploring the reef at my own fin-kick pace.
As the greatest living organism on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef boasts an overwhelming diversity of marine life, ranking high on any diver’s to-dive list. While the original expedition plan was to head further offshore to explore the Coral Sea, and world famous dive sites such as Osprey Reef, the winter weather gods were not quite on our side, limiting us to the ribbon reefs along the outer GBR. Nevertheless, the underwater world of the GBR did not disappoint!
Heading out on MV Spoilsport, we cruised as far north as Lizard Island, spending an awesome week diving all along the ribbon reefs at a range of established and unexplored sites.
Diving at a huge variety of sites, from the famous Cod Hole, to spontaneous, unnamed reefs, underwater photography subjects were certainly not in short supply.
Favorites for me were dives spent at Steve’s Bommie and Lighthouse Bommie. Impressive pinnacle structures completely plethoric of life – from friendly malabar grouper, schooling snapper, magnificent anemones, green sea turtles and curious olive sea snakes… to the giant trevally, barracuda, Spanish mackerel and reef sharks that frequented the high energy currents in the open water surrounding the pinnacles.
I was so focused on photographing a juvenile anemone fish, I was completely oblivious to a curious olive sea snake coming in close to check me out. Filmed by Julia Sumerling.
There was never a dull moment diving from the Spoilsport, with even the resident tornado of big-eye trevally under the vessel providing safety stop entertainment until you were officially low on air.
A particular highlight for me was the night dive at the very unique “Gotham City”. While the focus of most night dives is usually on the cryptic sea creatures of all shapes and sizes that come out to play after dark… Gotham City is a complete night-diving anomaly, with every big and predatory fish in the neighborhood coming out to investigate the torch light. Mobs of red snapper, giant trevally, blue trevally and reef sharks swarmed so tightly around me, it was difficult to keep my camera steady as they continued to bump into me from all angles.
Occasionally the action would pick up within the beams of my Light & Motion Sola Video Lights, with a fluorescent bait-ball frenzy, grey reef sharks darting throughout the schools with mouths wide open. My eyes were wide from the excitement the entire dive, and my memory card filled quickly.
The entire team of crew of MBDE operated together as a well oiled-machine to make sure we got in the best experience possible, with action-packed days filled with 4-5 dives. When conditions were adverse for certain sites, we spontaneously explored unnamed reefs. When not underwater, we were kept busy with photo competitions and presentations about local marine life and education about the GBR by photo specialist Julia.
The week certainly went way too fast for my liking, and I really can’t thank Mike Ball and the entire expedition crew enough for their support hosting me for such a fun liveaboard experience! I hope to be back soon to see more of the Coral Sea. Happy diving!
