Scuba Diving Perth
Shore Diving
Trigg Beach:
Trigg Place - West Coast Drive.
SITE INFO:
- Shore Dive: Reef Dive.
- Depth: Max 6 meters.
- Reef length: N to S approx. 250m.
- Dive Conditions: The site has to be pretty much perfcet, flat as possible due to its shallow depth. 1m swell, 11 second swell period, gentle easterlies and preferably doing this for aminimum of 24 hours. In winter even perfect conditions on paper can produce a washed out dive. Give consideration to boat traffic as it cuts over the shallow part of the reef, shallow site, rip currents on exiting by surf beach, surfers overhead, limestone reef.
- Dive flag at Site: No.
Directions
- Getting here is so easy, its about 15 - 20 minutes from Perth CBD. Get on Freeway 2 (Mitchell Freeway) take the exit for Karrinyup Road and follow this all the way to the end (West), at this point you will be at a roundabout, and this roundabout is on Trigg Place. Just take a left then first right and park up in the car park.
- Do all your final checks (BWRAF), in the car park, the last thing you need is a long walk to
the dive entrance and then have to come back because you have forgotten
something or an O' ring blows.
- Once
you have geared up walk down the Esplanade for approx 60 meters from
the end of the car park and take a left onto the beach. This is where I
would suggest you use as one of two entry and exit points.
- The other entry point
being South
side of the reef by the surf beach, which is approx. the same distance
along the beach in the opposite direction as marked on the map below with the
'Es'.
Dive Review:
- What
a gem of a dive site, I cannot believe people were holding out on me
about this little beauty of a shore dive, nice vis, plenty of marine
life, clean reef, easy entries and exits....... beautiful..... so why do
I rate this site personally so low ? ....... because it is a pain in
the backside......... that's why....... The weather conditions need to
be perfect and slightest thing appears to kick the life out of this
place as a dive site.
- Dived
here in February 2012 for the first time and by pure chance the weather
conditions were stunning and the reef was pretty much flat, swell was
at about 0.9m with an Easterly wind. Entered through the middle of the
reef as I wasn't too sure what to expect and headed north. S in the image below.
- At
first I wasn't overly impressed as the reef is quite shallow, hitting
approx. 2 meters, and sandy which was kicking up just a little bit, but
enough to effect the vis. However as I proceeded around the reef to my
pleasant surprise the reef began to drop off and I hit about 5 meters
depth at the North end of the reef, with some nice reef walls, overhangs
and ledges, and you could see that the reef became deeper if you
ventured out just a little further.
- I
reached the North end of reef after 45 minutes and still had a lot of
spare air left in my cylinder, so I decided to have look at the reef to
the South of the original entry point and I have to say I liked this
area, with some little swim thru's, nice overhangs, and plenty of ledges
available for further exploring.
- So
dive 1 completed and I was a happy little diver and thought I had
discovered a little diving El-Dorado..... ooooohhhh how wrong was I.
- Dive 2: This is less than 24 hours later, in fact 22 hours to be precise, the swell had reached 1.1 meters but we still had gentle Easterly winds, well what a difference a day makes or just under because the waves were crashing and the water was churned up.
- Apparently if I had turned up the hour before (5am) it would of been perfect, I was told by a local kayaker that the water had been like glass and you could see the sea bed from his kayak. Well by the time I got in the water the vis had been reduced to less than 2 meters, the under current from the surf was dragging me deeper and deeper. I have to say that it was a little bit scary and I was only 10 meters from the shoreline and in a couple of meters of water but, I couldn't get out and I was having to drag myself along the reef face just to get to an area where I could stand up. I really couldn't believe the difference in a site with such minimal change in swell.
- I have completed one night dive here and again a little bit churned up and as soon as you get to the shallow area the vis went down to almost zero. So make sure that there is very little surf breaking as a minimum before you go in, preferably no waves at all.
Trigg Beach Reef
- I was pleasantly surprised with the reef at Trigg Beach, with lots of little over hangs and ledges, loads of nooks and crannies to get your head stuck into.
- I think what made the reef stick out for me was how clean it was, with minimal or small amounts of kelp and weed covering it. In parts the reef was shallow enough to snorkel across, with some hidden little pockets and holes you can drop into and explore (Don't forget to put reg back in your mouth).
- The main concern here is getting out at the surf end of the reef (South), just be careful if there are some body borders, they will use the slightest surf breaking over the reef as an excuse to surf (and why not).
Trigg Beach Marine Life
- What can you say about the marine life around Trigg Beach, well if you have read about the other dive sites along this stretch of coast or you have dived them then not a lot really, apart from an abundance of juvenile King George Whiting which I have not seen at other sites, the marine life is for all intents and purposes the same.
- You will get the Bream in the surge areas and the Boxfish and Scalyfins under the ledges, you will get weed fish where you expect them, however one thing I was impressed with was a very large school of Red Lipped Morwongs, you usually see these in pairs at best, here though I was able to see a school of about 8 just laying on the reef floor just as the reef dropped off after the beach, I was nicely surprised.
WARNING!!!!!!!!...................
- DISCLAIMER: I am in no way qualified to give technical information on the formation and management of RIP CURRENTS or UNDERTOWS. The information here is given as an account of my experiences whilst diving at Trigg Beach and what I have found to be useful, it should not be used in any way as a guide to manage the risks associated with this dive site. But is given here to help raise awareness of potential hazards of this site. Never dive beyond your own capabilities.
- Ok I have dived here a couple of times since the original dive was completed, and on these occasions there was a slightly larger swell, but not really that much that you would think it would make a difference but it did.
- If exiting the dive at the "SOUTH" end of the reef just be careful of the RIP CURRENT or UNDERTOW that can be experienced in the shallows. You will find this can pull you back seaward quite far and quite quickly and if its not expected it can be a little bit unnerving to say the least. Remember at the end of a dive, you may be cold, tired, stressed etc....
- Make sure you keep your reg in your mouth at all times even if you are at the surface as you never know what may happen, I have seen someone lose their footing as the water rushed back pass them and they ended up getting submerged.
- If you get caught in the RIP, swim in a North Easterly direction over the reef as this will reduce some of the UNDERTOW.
- Don't try and fight the UNDERTOW or RIP just try and stay composed, use the waves pushing you shoreward, keep your NE direction and eventually the RIP becomes small enough to be managed. There is a small sandy bottomed pool between the reef and the beach that you may swim into, once you are in here it shouldn't be a problem. Just be careful of the reef itself as it can be jagged in parts.
- Obviously if you are entering through this area it's not so bad, as being pushed out to sea a little bit is what you are after, just make sure you have your reg's in and gear fully on.
- A little WARNING !!!!!!! though............ I entered here on my second dive, I had to cut it short because the vis was so bad, I tried to turn around and swim out, it took me ten minutes of fighting the UNDERTOW and grabbing hold of the reef and dragging myself along it to get out. I was shattered and breathing really heavy, I struggled to get back up the beach, so just keep this in mind.
- If all else fails and you have the means, swim back around the reef that is protruding above the water in a northerly direction, on the other side of the reef there is a small reef wall that once you are over, you are in quite shallow protected water. Just place plenty of air in your BCD pop your reg in and let the waves carry you in, don't forget to kick.
Conclusion
- Simply put, if you are passing by and the waters are flat calm go check it out, then you can at least say you have done it. I am sure overall you won't be disappointed but I wouldn't make plans to dive here based on the weather report, but if the weather is supposed be good but Trigg isn't then there are plenty of sites along this stretch of coast.
- Remember the WARNINGS !
Video
The videos below start from the centre of the reef, the first heading in a Northerly direction and the second in a Southerly.
Heading North
Heading South
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