G`day gang.I am a 40 something.Married with 2 boys.Living in small town Franklin District.Like my hunting(gamebirds),fishing,diving,gundog trialing ect.Been cerified PADI since 2001.AOW,EAN.I have all my own dive gear.Back inflate BCD.I dive a wetsuit at the moment.Fe tanks.Logged approx 80 dives.60 of those in the last 2 years.The bulk of my dives are for bugs in the Manukau Heads area.Love diving the Aldies with Dave of Tirua Dive.My eldest boy got his Junior OW cert at 12Y of age.Number 2 son will do his this Nov.Also 12y of age.So it will get expensive with 3 x sets of gears.Tooling up with the new Zeagle FH7 next.With an Oceanic PP2 DC for my old man eyes.I`m interested in training to the TDI Solo Diver standard.Mainly because most of my diving in low vis.Easy to loose your buddy when bug harvesting in those conditions.Old enough now not to take unnecessary risks.Do not have a big boat.i do charters or share costs with other boat owners.I help them clean up aswell.Good manners.I work shifts days and nights.so have 3 days off during the working week. So the dive sights are not as busy.Would like to bring my sons to one of the gear nights.Try the different types of gear that growing young men can try before dad buys.
You all sound like a great crew look forward to meeting some of you soon.
3RNZIR

Welcome 3RNZIR.

I have yet to dive Manukau heads or any west coast spots yet. Whats it like? Its the stories I hear about the current that puts me off. Then I hear the strorys about the sharks and get a but more interested.

Im not sure TDI do a solo course (SDI does) but if you do the TDI extended range course you are pretty much set up for solo diving not to mention deco diving to 55 meters on air. I have yet to do it but have done all the pre req courses.

The SDI Solo course isn't really worth doing on its own, as PH said. I just tacked it onto a TDI course, and paid the little bit extra for the card. The main reason I got it, is so I can dive without a "instant buddy" on charters

Andy from SDNZ has developed a Self Reliant Diver course. Not intended as a solo course but looks like a good course that covers most aspects of solo diving.

But in saying that the vast majority of divers I know that go solo have done no formal training for it.
Many recognise the importance of redundancy in terms of air and equipment such as masks, instruments, SMB's etc while others simply continue to dive as they always have with no thought as to what could go wrong and how to deal with it.

Thanx for the welcome.
My bad.I think it is SDI I had in mind for solo diving.Tooling up with more safety gear at the mo.SMB,strobe,Dive Alert.Will need a 19' pony in the future.Seen some small doggy sharks in the Manukau.My brother has seen 2 bronzies.I tend to be more watchful for rays myself.Some big long/short tail rays around .Viz tends to be from 4-8 mts.I scan the seabed in front of me I`m about to move thru when buggin`.Just keep repeating that.Seldom venture deeper the 13mts deep.Figure gives me a chance to make the surface in the event of a major gear malfunction.
Diving the half hour either side of high water seems to give the best viz conditions.Most bugs in the 7mtr range.Some kings.plenty of moki.Generally work the same area that I am familiar with.Bugs seem plentiful.Oh yes.Some real impressive sponge life down there.They look like the shape of a German Shepard`s ear.Yellow orange grey/blue.Over a metre tall some of them. My son and i dived there together for the 1st time this past xmas.Watched him bag his 1st bug.A great father son moment.

So are you shore diving or boat diving?

Boat.Have been told the diving off the Whatipu rock is very impressive for the Hbr.Big schools of good sized kings,trevs etc.Drop in close to the brick on the west side,then make way around to the point,or the south side.Can be alot of landbased fishos on the east side of brick.Some murk for 10-15mtr then clear water.lots of bugs.As mentioned before,dive top of the tide.Need a good helmsman with reliable motor.Next 3 months are the best I belive.Waiting to do a local dive with a guy I know whom relayed the above description to me.Can`t wait much longer.

I'd be quite keen to get my boat out there at some stage if you want to come. I would prefer someone with some local knowledge came along.