Diving - 2016 04 - Curtin Artificial Reef

While a lot of my time is going into preparation for my upcoming PCT hike I just couldn't pass the opportunity to get in a sneaky dive before heading away. Especially not something new! For those that aren't familiar with all things computer game related; Riot Games (makers of League of Legends) held a competition a while ago for Ocean week. Basically they said if people gathered enough points, they would sink a new artificial reef based on one of their characters. Well this seemed to have inspired action amongst the gamers, because they were given a week to reach the target... and made it there in under 3 days. You can read more about it here in the Riot Games news release.  Find more about the creators of the statue, Reef Design Labs, here.



How does that affect me? Well the site chosen for the sinking was none other than URGQ's Curtin Artificial reef. As part of the committee (Treasurer) I can say that everyone in the club was excited to participate. The club first sank a wreck for the reef in 1968 and made 32 (woops, 33 now!) additions over the years. It's a bit harder these days, lots more involved in the permit process. Riot Games got all the boxes ticked, correct forms filed and were given the go to sink the statue.

A handful of us were meant to be there for the sinking, but unfortunately engine trouble forced us to abandon and we turned back to port not 15 min after we left. :( While it was sad we couldn't be there to see it go down, the crew had a successful day. We had set out a spot (just west of the mid section of the Rock Driller) for placement, but due to the current and technical difficulties on the day it's final resting place was just east of the northern point instead, south of the Neville Bonner.



With the desire to see it in it's brand new state it was easy to fill the club boat for a day trip the very next Saturday. In-fact we had extras, and in the end had 3 boats (12 divers) come along. We had near perfect surface conditions and a mid-morning slack tide, almost as if it was destined. We had a quick trip out and when we waited for the slack tide some of the others jumped in for a drift dive on the Pines. I stayed surface watch, wanting to be ready for the Statue. Everyone surfaced saying it was a bit of a swim to reach the pines, 1.5 hours before slack tide it should have taken them to it within 2min, but apparently it was really light on and it was 15-20min of finning to get there, but once there they saw some pretty good life.

When they were all safely on the boat we headed off to the statue. Anchored off onto the Rock Driller so that Ash, Paul and I could jump straight in. We were pretty lucky (well, I think it was my skill as the skipper) on the anchor placement, the rope crossed directly over the top of the statue putting us exactly where we wanted to be. Pretty impressive site, would be great to see with good vis though.





Pretty cool to hang about, though as it's not that huge you probably couldn't spend a whole dive on it alone. Lucky all the ship wrecks are near by! When it was sunk there were 8 Eye-bolts used to lower it, 4 were recovered on the day but the other 4 were a little tight and couldn't be unscrewed in time. Along with Ash, Paul and Peter we got to work recovering the remaining. I got the first 2 out relatively easy before handing on the hammer to Paul... who broke it on the next :O! At this point we thought it was a good idea to swim off for a bit, over to the Melbourne past the the Brisbane Tram. A bit of life to see on the way, but the visibility made it hard to take pictures.





We came back to the Statue to find the other divers making their way down. Pete had found the 1/2 a hammer and got to work on the 3rd and 4th bolt, without much success. He took a break and I took the hammer to have another go. Using a knee against the statue I managed to move the bolt a quarter turn. Enlisting help from Ash we managed to move it the rest of the way. Inspired by our efforts Pete took back the hammer for the 4th and final bolt. Tapping away for what seemed the next 30 min it was finally free. Fighting to hold on the entire way.





One of the other cool things Riot Games have done is add the names of all the people that racked up enough points in the Ocean week Competition. Remember how they reached the week long target in less than 3 days? That was due to the efforts of 42,000+ players! All whos name (well, gamer tags) ended up carved for prosperity. To fit them all in some are on the inside of the Anchor reef ball, making them a little harder to see.



Any names people want me to find on my next dive?