The Down Under Dive Club (DUDC) is located in Melbourne on the sunny east central coast of Florida. Formed in 1984 by a group of enthusiastic divers, DUDC currently has about 100 members. Our mission is to promote safe, organized dive events, provide a social setting comfortable to everyone, and encourage environmental responsibility among the diving community. Our past dives covered the Atlantic ocean, from Georgia to Bonaire. We organize all types of dives: drift dives, wreck dives, shore dives, live-aboards, spring dives, and even shark dives! Our members include a diverse group of divers. There are men, women and kids, ages from 11 to 65+ with all certification levels from new Open Water divers to Instructors.
Meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM at the Indian River Lagoon House, Located just south of University Blvd. on US1 in Melbourne. Door prizes are awarded each month and we book a fascinating assortment of guest speakers. We invite everyone interested in SCUBA diving to stop by for some stimulating conversation, meet our group, and have some fun!
WPB 8/5 DUDC Club dives -- Trip Report
Sunday, December 17 2006
Wow – what a great day for diving!!! With more people signed up than Pura Vida had space, the club ended up going out on both the morning and the afternoon trip. Joining me in the morning was: Bill Allen; Bob Senton; Russell and Kaitlyn Bremmer; Judy and George Hesselbacher. Joining me on the afternoon trip was: Al Audet; Bob Jensen; Faun and Steve Leachman.
It was absolutely gorgeous on the water. Sunny skies, flat seas (picked up a little in the afternoon, but it wasn’t too bad – maybe two feet). Visibility in the morning was 40-50’ and in the afternoon was about 35-40.
Site #1 – Teardrop. Almost immediately upon descending there were two squid just hanging out above the reef and posing. Usually, squid tend to be skittish and take off fairly quickly when approached, but not these two. They seemed to like the attention. A short distance away I found a beautiful little sea goddess (and I mean little – he was only about ¾ inch long). Lots of scorpionfish hanging out on the reef, along with the usual schools of grunts and other tropicals. Towards the end of the dive, I found two more sea goddesses on the reef which appeared to be busy populating the species. I’ll have to admit that I was quite rude and stayed to take several pictures. I’ve only seen sea goddesses on dives one other occasion and I didn’t have a camera at the time, so I felt compelled to get some decent shots of these beautiful creatures no matter what.
Site #2 – 2nd Window (Breakers). Another fantastic dive with tons of fish all over the reef. There were reports of turtles, but I didn’t see any on this dive. Did see a rather large grouper hiding in “the cave” right before the jump to turtle mound. Guess I must have upset him a little with the camera because he took off fairly quickly.
All too soon the morning was over and it was time to go back to the dock to get fresh tanks and the afternoon group.
Site #3 – Paul’s Reef. This is my absolute favorite site, there is always a plethora of marine life and the ledge structure is amazing. Today was no different, there were fish absolutely everywhere!
Site #4 – Dive-a-Rama. Another great dive. Lots of marine life again and the bonus was 5 squid hanging out over the reef. This group wasn’t quite as willing to have their picture taken as the two from this morning, but I managed to stalk them long enough to get a couple decent shots. Shortly afterwards, I found a little octopus hiding in a hole desperately trying to hide behind his shell collection (camera shy, I guess).
Funny how time seems to slip by when you are having a great time with great people and all too quickly, the day was at an end. As always, sometimes the difference between good dives and fabulous dives is the people you are with. Thanks to all the club members that joined today and made these dives fabulous. The next club dive to WPB on September 9th still has spaces available. If you are interested in going, please contact me at
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Debi Buck
Newsletter Editor
Down Under Dive Club
