Grey Nurse at Wolf Rock

The Xploredive Wolf Rock day out proved to be exciting, interesting and fun. After a wet boat ride (You know it’s a wet boat ride out when your computer goes into dive mode before you arrive at the dive site!), we arrived at this exciting rock off Double Island Point. We descended down the southern side and the first thing I saw was a grey nurse in the distance. As we reached the sand, we were greeted by an olive sea snake which swam straight towards and directly under Chris. Wow! More grey nurse swam around us, but kept their distance. These were smaller males and seemed a little nervous. A beautiful big lion fish displayed it’s fins furiously at us, while the haunting song of 2 whales echoed around us.

The other side of the rock was where the pregnant females were waiting for us. It seemed much clearer and the sharks came in much closer and overhead were schools of barracuda and surgeons. A zigzag through crevices and cracks brought us back to the start where we followed a turtle for a while.

After some hot soup, we headed in to a wreck near Tin Can Bay. It is a cruiser that has been down for about 6 years and is covered in soft corals and sponges. After a turtle sighting, we found the cruiser. This vessel is a haven for tiny juvenile reef fish and some strange and wonderful species I have never seen before. There was a big cod having it’s teeth cleaned and schools of stripeys, bream and pike fish. Our venture back to the anchor proved to be a minefield of large nudibranchs, strange corals and quick movements of mysterious creatures on and in the sand. Upon surfacing there were thousands of jellyfish swimming in all directions, their transparent, luminous bodies bumping me as I happily clicked away.

After taking the boat out of the water, a pacific humpback dolphin appeared to say hello and came in to sniff my fingers. What a way to end a day of absorbing all nature’s delights.

Another great day Xploredive. Can’t wait for the next one.

For some photos from the day go here

Warm Xplorers

“Stuff this, it’s to cold, I’m heading up”

At least these were the thoughts going through my head as I indicated to Dan that I had, had enough.

A thumbs up and we ascended along the extremely well placed anchor line. As we headed back to the Red Rocket, we finished another story in Xplore dives history, THE WARMER WINTER DIVE!

A bunch of fairly ordinary people, dressed up like lunatics (warm lunatics) and headed out to a little known dive site 10 minutes off Mooloolaba named the Pinnacles for an excellent dive.

The Pinnacles has not been dived by SCUBA world, or anyone on the boat for over 10 years, this awesome multi-level dive includes, two, 8m rock Pinnacles that rise up form 24m to 16m. The sites itself is extremely interesting and includes elements of swim-throughs, trenches, walls, soft and hard corals, smooth rock summits and a surprisingly large array of fish life.

Ian McKinnon (Owner, SCUBA World) dropped us right on the site after not being there for 10 years, not bad….

After the dive we headed park side to share body warmth… Around a BBQ, where we told manly stories about the dive and laughed while John cooked the BBQ…..Again, with some help of Geoff (thanks guys).

The winner for best dressed has got to be Alex, anyone who dives in PJ’s is seriously committed, (we definitely need a photo of that) Email me Alex to claim your prize

Thanks again to everyone for another top day out, once again there was no hand-holding and things went smoothly. Thanks to John for the navigation talk, trust everyone used it as we found the boat again

Now I have finished typing I’m going back to defrosting.

For photos of the day check out our Flickr Page here

Life saving, it's just what the Squirrel does...

Rather than banging on about how 5 members of Xplore Dive went away and had a great time diving together, some great laughs, met up with other clubs, grew as individuals and divers, and generally were living their lives, I thought I might mention an individual effort.

You see this was the first trip we have put together for a weekend away, there were a few problems at the last minute with people not being able to make it, and a few other oversights that we will learn from.

So Alex, one of the members really stepped up, he assisted us in coordinating part of the trip at the last minute. Along with Greg Kamp, they pulled the weekend together to make it successful.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.

Alex is a dive-master so this isn’t his first time running people, however we asked him to coordinate something at last moment, and he pulled it off.

He paid to attend an event and ended up helping with the coordination of it all.

This is the kind of people we are looking for. The ones that have a go and make a situation work. I think this is a great personal attribute, as things in life (and a dive club) are never perfect, so an ability to sort a situation and make the best of it is a real asset to have in our people.

For photos of the weekend are on the Xplore Dive Flickr account, here

For a full trip report prepared by Alex, click here

Growth and Opportunity

Entrepreneurship is not something that is instinctively linked with not-for-profit entities.

Usually entrepreneurs are stereotypically the type A go-getters, the ones smiling on the cover of Fast Company, BRW or some similar publication. They run good businesses and make profits.

Their success is fairly simple to measure, they make a profit by providing the right product (or service) to a market that values it enough to pay well for it. The more profit, the better they have done, simple enough.

Now how does that type of mindset fit into the non-profit club.

Does the same level of innovation, dedication to quality, and pig headed determination apply here?

I mean, it’s non-profit, can’t we just take a chill pill and be done with 70% of our best?

Can’t we afford to cut some corners, deliver most of the time, downgrade the customer (see member) experience, and make only a little bit of money each year?

How does a non-profit determine its effectiveness? Are people happy in the club? Do they achieve what they generally wanted to achieve?

Or do we put some kind of metric on it? Number of dives per year total, and try and increase that number?

I think we owe it to ourselves to be entrepreneurial, we must seek the opportunities to grow, improve, learn, try new things, take risks (not with safety) and be the best we can.

We owe it to ourselves to build something awesome. We can do it , no doubt, it is only a matter of time.

Failure is only realised when you quit.

It start with individuals though, our culture will determine who we grow up to be, combined with a certain unreasonableness to compromise.

But we need to want it, to plan, organise and have the discipline to see it through.

A little weirdness?

The other night at the leadership group meeting, we were discussing club culture.

Personally I think we should shape and grow our culture from day one. To create a story about our identity, what we stand for, who we are as a group.

You see, I like the idea that one of our core principles should be to “create fun and a little weirdness”.

I borrowed that one from the company zappos.com. I love it, positivity and a little strange behaviour.

But we got stuck discussing weirdness, (yes folks this is your committee in action ) and we were wondering if weirdness is a good or a bad thing.

I think it is a good thing.

There is definitely a difference between good weird and bad weird. Lets figure it out….

Firstly Good:

According to dictionary.com there are 20+ definitions for good, however the first two pretty much nail it,

To be desired or approved of
Pleasing and welcome

Secondly, Bad:

Of the 17 meanings of bad, I like these two for the point of this discussion,

1. Unpleasant or unwelcome
2. Not suitable

Finally, Weird:

1. Strange or bizarre

So here we have it,

Good Weird =  pleasing, welcomed, desired and approved strange or bizarre behaviour

Bad weird = unpleasant, unwelcome and not suitable strange or bizarre behavior

But that is even sounding a little to clinical, so maybe we can round it down here.

Would you like to spend a weekend with a group who were outgoing, to the point that their behavior was a little “out there”?,

or a group that played it safe, didn’t come out of their shell, that lacked an ounce of self deprecating humor, or would refuse to do something bizarre to amuse and entertain a group of their fellow diver buddies?

I know which camp I’m partying with

To be sure,

A little weirdness isn’t, disgusting, vile, inappropriate, disrespectful, harmful, illegal or in any way violating the bond of the group.

It is playful, legal, self deprecating, kooky, humorous, tasteful, witty, silly and adds to the group dynamics by creating a laugh as well as changing the dynamics, by letting everyone know, that it’s ok to not take yourself seriously.

I hope that defines it…

So can we put it in the Club principles now?

Plenty of ways to connect with the community

Here are all the ways you can interact with other members as well as voice your opinion. You can ask a question about underwater photography on our forum, comment on this blog post, see our last trip on Flickr or tell everyone about that trip you are hosting next week on your boat.

• Website, you are already here, but don’t forget to comment on a blog post if you have an opinion
• Flickr page, here, to check out nice photos of different dive sites and previous trips
• Form, here, to post dive trips and ask questions to the other members of Xplore Dive
• Facebook, to chat, look at photos, post info etc.. here

Between all of those there are plenty of ways to interact.

Like any medium needing other parties to make it worthwhile, it needs to be used, so put your info on them and use them to connect with other members.

Courtesy of http://mukeshkulothia.blogspot.com/

Hi All,

We have been discussing the way forward for the club and have decided, that somewhere between right now and world domination we need some goals to focus on as a club.

After all you can’t hit what you can’t see.

So, By September we are aiming to achieve,

1. 50 paid members (we are at 23 at the moment)
2. To conduct at least 1 official club dive and social day per month
3. 2 weekends away diving and adventuring

We actually have a lot on the events list ready for the months leading up to September, so check them out and get on board.

We have had an excellent month this month with Flinders Reef and diving the HMAS Brisbane last weekend, if we can keep this momentum up we will definitely achieve our goals.

I am interested in what members would like to do socially?

We are proposing a social night on  the first Thursday of each month where we can kick around as a club. This way you can hang out together with your great dive buddies and tell war stories about the glory days…. Maybe we can do it at a Bowls club where the beer is cheap….?

Login and comment on this post or just send me an email at chris@xploredive.com with your thoughts.

Cheers.

Failing to prepare, preparing to fail

We need to get ready now. There are a number of things we need to prepare for the success of this club.

We have passion within the ranks, that is evident already. All we need to do is to put that passion into the preparation that will make this club successful.

Some of the preparation that is necessary now.

• Long term goals
• Short term goals
• How to connect people
• Job role descriptions within the club
• Process planning
• Event planning for the future
• Diver education and training

All these things approached with passion, will ensure the success of the club.

What do we want to be in 5 years, where are we heading? This is important because if we know where we are going, we can link it back to now and start the preparations

Job descriptions and roles within the club, 10 members putting in 30 minutes per week = 300 minutes of work on building and running the club. A lot more than 1 member can sustainably put in. By breaking the club into tiny efficient process driven parts, we can accomplish way more, with less individual effort.

Events need to have value to the members, without this we will fail. With plenty of places offering adventure we need to be innovative enough to capture members imaginations and test their skills. This means offering a breadth and depth of experiences.

Diver education and growth, one of the main factors in anyone’s happiness is perceived progression. If members aren’t learning or achieving then they potentially wont enjoy the sport. Learning more through either knowledge or, skills will give them more enthusiasm for the sport.

We have wonderful people on the committee, and now we are almost incorporated, we are ready to begin the march towards the task of ever increasing improvement.

Heading out for a single tank dive

As I type this, i’m looking out my window seeing blue sky, I actually was outside before and it was too hot, so I went inside.

Typical… Yesterday we dived the HMAS Brisbane. As I showed up to SCUBA world the sky went grey.

I guess I really can make it rain…

Anyway.

Nothing could dissuade the morale of 12 keen divers. With 15m+ of vis and heaps of life, we prepared for a single trip out to the HMAS Brisbane.

But firstly the Fish ID session. Karen gave us all a great 15 minute presentation on the marine life found on and around the HMAS Brisbane. By giving away a taste of her knowledge, Karen explained the different types of common fish found on the wreck as well as other little goodies that can be discovered if you look hard enough.

If you are interested in knowing more about Marine ID stay tuned, there are plans for something special later in the year… Thanks Karen, great Job!

We then launched to head out to the wreck, after everyone got in there was no hand holding and we were treated to some good viz and heaps of life, 21 degree water made a few without hoods a little cold, but everyone enjoyed the single trip, just the right amount…

After everyone was warm and gear was cleaned we headed over for a few deserved beers and sausages courtesy of John, Karen and the gold coin donation system…

Another good day out. Plenty of laughs, thanks everyone for coming along and congratulations Margaret on your 65th dive!

Photos from the day can be found on our Flickr account here

Cheers,

Chris