Scuba Diving Perth WA
Shore Diving
POINT PERON
Reef Systems
Point Peron - Cape Peron - Rockingham
Howie's Holes
General Information
For Point Peron
- Shore Dive: Limestone Reef Dive.
- Depth: Max +/- 10 meters.
- Dive Conditions: Preferably a maximum of a 1.5 meter swell, 11 second swell period, low easterly winds. Can be dived in 1.8m with a low swell period less than 11 seconds and gentle easterly wind but this is not going to be a very nice dive.
- Perfect day would always be a low swell around 1 meter, low swell period of 11 seconds and gentle easterly wind for a few days prior.
- If you have a small swell with a large swell period you can dive this site but try not to get too shallow as it will break over the reef and move you about a bit, however once you have descend you will generally not be affected by the swell period.
Directions
Howie's Holes:
- Basically Howie's Holes was the very first set of chambers, holes, swim thrus and caves we found. And when I say find them what I mean is that we stumbled across them, then when we went back to try and find them, we couldn't, it took us about another 1/2 dozen attempts to pin point the entrance to this system.
- The first time we discovered this section we had realised that a lot of the dark spots in the reef, or kelp covered areas were actually concealed over hangs and ledges. You really didn't know this until you got close up and poked your head into the dark spots, I have lost count how many times I bumped my head as sometimes dark areas are just that dark pieces of solid reef, hahaha however every now and then once you had let your eyes adjust to the light some lovely little hidey-holes would be exposed.
- Basically this is what happened at Howie's Holes, looked like a nice little ledge/overhang, just had a little look and was amazed once my eyes adjusted that it opened up into a large fissure right up and through the rock.
- Inch by inch we just poked a little further in as we didn't know what to expect and the more we looked the more it opened up, finally to this large chamber with a massive column just off center with little exits and passage ways off it.
- Because limestone is notoriously crumbly and breaks easy Stevie G and I just took our time and bit by bit discovered over 30 meters of swim thrus, chambers, archers, and on top of that we found pools, lagoons, and lots of beautiful reef structure. This is one of the coolest spots you can dive from the shore and its free, no boat charter, no waiting for the weekend its here 300 meters swim from the shore
Ok enough of my rambling as I am sure you just want to know how to get there.
- In a nutshell cross over the sand dune walk down to the shore and swim out to the right side of the main reef in front of you. The entrance to the chambers are situated about 50m+/- east (shore side) of the break at the back of the reef. Just keep poking your head into holes and dark spots until you find a cave, chamber or whatever it is you find.
OK I am not that cruel, here is a detailed explanation of how to get into Howie's Holes......
- Firstly buy him a drink.....
- Secondly pay him lots of compliments.....
- Thirdly...... OK OK hahahaha OK OK......
- Head over the dune from the car park and make your way on to the beach.
- You can make your way straight into the water and swim right through the reef and make your way to the north facing side of the reef, however on low tides you can get reef beached as there are only minimal places to cut through.
Secondly if you have a bit of surge or wave action across the reef you can get pushed all over the the reef, and if you are not use to reef surfing it can be quite horrible, quite painful and actually quite dangerous..... PS. we love reef surfing when the conditions are right. - I usually get people to walk down the beach and pass the steps that lead up the dune, you can do a giant stride entry here as the beach edge reef drops off a couple of meters, if you look closely there is a perfect little step off in the reef. Get in here and start surface swimming out to the north/east edge of the reef, do as much of a surface swim as you can and conserve your air for exploring.
Once you are here at the north/east corner just keep the reef to you left (south side) on the way out. It slopes in a SW direction, so not perfectly E to W but in that general direction. - As you follow the reef keeping it to the left you are looking for a beautiful big sand patch, I am not talking a broken patch I mean a big sand patch,bigger than what the eye will see for the vis even on a good day, its approx. 100m after the reef edge you swam out to. It's usually clean and free of debris, however after storms you can get some crappy bits that get blown in to the area.
- Once you have identified the sand patch and the reef is still on your left, you are pretty much at the entrance of this system. have a look at the reef face and look for an entrance, if the vis is clean enough you will see a piece of reef protruding outwards from the reef edge that looks like Gonzos' nose from the Muppets (not always obvious on silty days). If you can see his nose then you are 3 - 5 meters past the entrance (basically right on top of it).... you can enter at Gonzos Nose but you will miss the first and quite beautiful chamber, so just go back a few meters, I promise you its worth it.
- OK I am not going to give you every nook and cranny detail, you are in the chambers so go explore like you did as a child, commando ninja style (I promise no one is watching or judging you).
- If you want a more detailed look, then watch the video, but it is about 20+ minutes long.
- Ok here are two stills taken from a video that shows a small piece of the landscape as you approach the sand patch.
- In the middle left portion of the image you can see a small almost brick wall-esque piece of reef, you will see this just as you approach the entrance.
- Maybe
a little bit difficult to appreciate this until you dive it, but as you
skim the edge of the reef you will see the floor strewn with
bric-a-brac reef and weed, and then you come across this area which most
of the time is very clean in comparison to the rest of the floor
area.
- Ok you don't have be a genius to see the resemblance to Gonzo here, unless of course you don't know who that is (Google it).
- The final image in this set is called "White Lump" and on a perfectly flat day and at low tide you can see this lump protruding up above the waterline.
- This lump is approx 30m south of the reef edge and approx 50m west of the entrance to Howies Holes and roughly 20m from the end of the this system.
- The maps adjacent are in no way shape or form to any type of scale, they are simply pictorial representation of the approximate site and its running order or position to one an other.
- The Mustard coloured area is limestone reef in which you will dive or surrounds the dive area. All of this area is open water and there are no overhead restrictions.
- The Black areas are parts of the site that covered by reef and are basically swim thrus, caverns and chambers, these technical become overhead environments. However all these areas do have alternative entrances and exits.
- The Blue coloured areas within the reef show where there areeither pools, lagoons, breaks, basins and some exits/entrances in the reef.
- The rest is pretty much self explanatory. Note the Amphitheatre is an open water area with some places for you to stick your head in and look around.
Video
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