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You are here: Home > Diving > Areas > The Pinnacles, Forster > Dives

Diving

The Pinnacles, Forster Dives

I've dived at The Pinnacles, Forster 7 times:

Dive number	Date	Site	Location	Area	Country	Wreck	Freshwater	Depth (m)	Bottom time (min)	Total time (min)	Divers	Quality	Summary	Equipment
370	5 Nov 1988	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			32	18	20	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries, Sarah McCracken		Overcast day - almost Scottish (but warmer). The Pinnacles is supposed to be a shark-infested spot, and right enough, there was a large grey nurse there. Everyone saw him except Sarah and I. Fish - mados, morwong, blenny. Not so much life stuck to the rocks, but quite a few sea tulips, whatever they might be. Visibility infinitely better than yesterday, and less wave action. Very relaxing dive.	Wetsuit, BC
437	18 Dec 1990	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			40	27	27	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries		Very unfortunate dive. No echo sounder on Rory's boat so we depended on transits - except it was too hazy. Very hot day - sunburnt. Water clear at the surface but absolutely pea-soup at depth. Didn't stray more than 20ft from the anchor yet lost it. Spent the whole dive playing with Cathy's BC, then were faced with a long snorkel back to the boat. Sea rough. Big swell.	Wetsuit, BC, 20lbs lead (began the dive with 28lbs - big mistake).
440	20 Dec 1990	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			40	34	34	Iain Hosking, Adrian Roddam		Up early for this one - 6.50 am. Overcast day. Clear blue water and a definite thermocline. No steep rock formations, just domes with gullies in between. Saw three wobbegongs and Adrian saw grey nurse sharks. So did everyone else. High air consumption.	Wetsuit, 82, 20lbs lead
508	23 Apr 2000	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			34		28	Iain Hosking, Andrew Kennedy		Still a strong southerly blowing so a rough boat trip out. We were first in (lucky) and descended into fairly clear water, seeing a group of grey nurse sharks immediately below us. They swam away slowly, but returned at a lower level. We watched from behind a huge boulder. There were about 12 of them, from 9 feet long down to 5 feet, swimming slowly and gracefully amongst smaller fish. A single lionfish added a touch of the ornate, and we saw the usual wrasse, butterflyfish and cup coral, but the sharks were of course the highlight.	own
545	4 Oct 2015	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			37	24	27	Iain Hosking, Nick Heiniger		Pretty deep for a first dive following a 6-month layoff. Took the GoPro for its first underwater outing (having checked it's rated to 40m). Clear, blue water, plenty of fish life including mado, bullseyes, cod, wrasse and a large male seahorse (long, like a sea dragon) carying eggs. Pity the SD card was full by that stage :-/. Seasick afterwards. But also saw humpback whales breaching, so well worth it. Nick from Forster Dive Centre recommends the pink Travacalm (I think).	Wet suit, hired aluminium tank, BC, 24 lbs. The wet suit (from 1991) was inflexible and restrictive, particularly on initial entry into the water.
553	2 Jan 2017	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			37	20	26	Nick Heiniger, Iain Hosking		Didn't intend a solo dive but that's how it worked out. Overcast and dark. Visibility terrible down to 30m, then cleared a little, but very dark. Highlight was two grey nurse sharks in a gutter. Very glad to find the line again for the ascent	Fourth Element dry suit, steel tank, Arctic, 27 lbs
573	2 Jan 2023	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			32	24	30	Iain Hosking, James Hagarty		Sorry to say this was not a particularly enjoyable dive. We had high hopes given good conditions and clear blue water on the surface, but This changed to a soupy green at depth. Also, there was a noticeable current so most of the time was spent hanging onto rocks. Saw one wobbegong.	Fourth Element dry suit, Oceanic Chute 2, 10 litre tank. 29lbs