Scuba Diving Perth WA
Shore Diving
Yanchep Lagoon
- Shore Dive: Reef Dive
- No# of dives at site: 1.
- Max Depth: 5 meters
- Dive Conditions: As with all north of the river sites you want a low swell no greater than 1 meter, a low swell period around 11 seconds, preferably low easterly winds and if all the cards fall in your favour, these conditions have existed for a couple of days before your dive.
- Dive flag at site: No
Dive Review:
- I have wanted
to dive here for so long and in late 2014 the conditions looked almost
perfect on paper. 1 meter swell, low swell period around 11 seconds and a
gently southerly wind (remember we like gentle easterlies) but it was
barely blowing. On paper I said right, that's the problem with paper it can be torn up at any point.
- We
got to the site and even though I had dived in worse, I just knew it
wasn't going to be nice, and would end up in a washing machine-esque
situation. But I am a fair soul and let the democratic process prevail
and let the lads decide..... Democracy is overrated as they said dive
it, choosing not to heed my warnings.
- They
have done a lot of work around this area, making it far more diver or
beach access friendly with a new car park and shower facilities being
added really close to the beach, rather than in the good old days were
you had to walk to down 4,000,000 steps down to the beach.... OK maybe
it was only 3 million steps, but that's all gone now and its nice and
easy.
- We
kitted up in the car park and walked down to the beach/lagoon entry. As
we started to get ourselves sorted in the water, the local life guard
began to set up their flags and informed us that we weren't allowed to
dive inside the lagoon, whether this is true when the flags are away I
am not sure.
- Anyway
we gave the life guards a nod, made our way to the north end of the
reef and once we noticed a small space to nip across to the outside we
took our chance and started to the follow the reef down in a southerly
direction.
- I
have to say the waters were mucky as anything, and the surge through
the site was annoying at the very least, which I was gutted about,
because I had waited so long for this dive.
- In
all honesty its hard for me to give a thorough review of this site
because the dive was, to a large degree was a non-event. You could
hardly see anything of the site and I am sure we missed loads as we swam
down the reef. The one thing I will say was that I saw enough to want
to give this site another go.
- With
all the bad, there is always something good to be had, and the best
moment of the day and I have to say by far the funniest was when Tim van
den Durpel was catapulted over the reef.
- To
bring you up to speed Tim had recently completed his DM in Malaysia
(somewhere like that) and had only just been bragging about his diving
prowess to the rest of the lads whilst kitting up in the car park.
- When
we entered the site Tim was the one who had been told by the life
guards that we couldn't dive inside the lagoon, so being a good boy he
walked up the beach and we just lazily finned and snorkelled up the
inside of the reef..... a bit rebellious I know.
- Anyway
we get over to the outside of the reef and we are half way down the
outside, pretty much in front of where the life guards told us to clear
off from and there is this nice little channel, or crack in the reef that you
can have a little look around.
-
So as I move into this space and as I do I feel this unbelievable weight just
pushing me down, as I am getting squashed against the reef I realise that this
is a massive column of water just going over the reef, the force was
incredible, but I instinctively knew what was coming....... that as the
wave passes it will drag all the water back out of the hole and anything
that was in there, so I grab on to the reef for dear life and wait for
this huge pull to pass.
- As
soon as this had passed I made a quick dash to deeper water away from
the reef edge, got my bearing and within about 30 seconds a couple of the lads showed up behind
me...... as I looked around and waited for an extra half minute or so I realised Tim
wasn't with us.
- A
little concerned we quickly made it to the surface to find Mr
DM himself had been thrown over the reef..... that's right, he was
carried all the way over the reef, and yeah you guessed it he landed right at the life guards feet............ hahahahaha... brilliant.... I love it..... He
hasn't been bragging so much these days...... some moments in life are
just priceless.
- Ok
enough of making fun of Tim, the site has few little gems within the
mucky waters that we could make out, including a cracked piece of reef
that had created a nice but low swim thru. There were some nice little
channels and gulleys to look in but overall the conditions were far too
poor to see much more, that's why I don't have a more than a half dozen
silty photos and video that looks like something out of the Blair Witch
Project, so nothing to show for now unfortunately.
- WARNING:
- I
will give you this, if you do decide to dive it and the conditions
aren't perfect, just be careful when getting out, the under current at
the beach was horrible, every time you thought you were about to get
out, you would be dragged back in. It was absolutely shattering, I could
barely breath by the time I got out of the water.
- ADVICE
- My advice is that regardless of whether the life guard are there, you should slowly make you way back to the beach near the sheltered part of the lagoon, it will be worth being told off for I promise you.
Directions
- Yanchep Lagoon is conveniently situated in Yanchep, this is one of the furthest sites you will dive and still class it as a Perth shore dive.
- From the CBD I would say it is about a 40 minute drive and about 60km away.
- The reef itself is situated 50 meters from the shore and is accessed from the new car park (as I write) just off Brazier Rd.
- After you have parked up, kit up, do your final checks and make your way down to the beach.
- Ok, like I said earlier if the life guard flags are out you are not supposed to dive the inside of the reef... and from what I saw... why would you want to.
- Make your way to the north end of the reef either walk up the beach or get in the water and fin up. Once you are at the top end just pop over the other side and make your way down the reef, which runs in a north/south direction.
The Reef
- As you can see from the image on the right, Yanchep Lagoon Reef is huge, or at least very long, actually just to the south west of this reef one or two hundred meters from the shore there are some more little reefs that you can also access.
- The image below shows the area we dived, we only covered the top half of the reef, and only really explored the outside, but like I said earlier there really isn't a lot going on on the inside as far as I could see.
Conclusion
-
Lets keep this simple....... if it ain't perfect.... don't dive it.
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