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Drysuit Seals
After the zip, the seals are the next important part of a drysuit. They create a seal between your neck, wrists (and possibly your ankles) and the suit, preventing water getting inside. Why not order a set of spare drysuit seals that can be fitted yourself, or make up a dry suit repair kit for those longer dive trips.
For the neck and wrist seals there are three options, either Silicone, Latex or Neoprene. Seals are best considered as consumables and are likley to require replacing during the life of the dry suit.
Latex Drysuit Seals
Latex Seals offer the most waterproof seal when compared to neoprene, especially for the neck. Latex seals are cheap and simple. If you know your size it's pretty easy to swap them over yourself. Latex seals are soft and give a reliable seal, they come in a few thicknesses, the thicker they are the tougher they are but thinner ones give a softer seal so you don't loose circulation.
Latex stretches over time so your neck and cuffs feel really tight when you first fit them, to the point of cutting off circulation, so you have to stretch them over a cylinder for a few hours so they're more comfortable. You can cut them down to make the seal larger but if you do it too early and they continue to stretch you'll end up with a loose seal that leaks.
Silicone Drysuit Seals
Silicone seals have all of the best features of latex with very few of the drawbacks. Silicone is thin and flexible so you can don and doff your suit more comfortably. It's hypoallergenic so people who suffer from latex allergies are fine to use silicone seals. Silicone is more flexible and stretchy than latex, but some find them to be more fragile than similar latex seals.
Because very little sticks to silicone once it's set you need to use a ring system around your wrists and neck. While they first looked uncomfortable, the rings are now comfortable and practical thanks to newer more flexible and ergonomic designs.
Silicone seals are sandwiched between a hard internal ring and a softer external ring glued to your drysuit so you can change broken seals in minutes not days. Carrying spare seals in your bag is easy and can save a dive even when you're off shore on a boat as you only need a simple tool to swap seals over.
More and more divers are using dryglove systems that fit almost any drysuit, which is an added benefit of rings. The design of some neck seals adds a bellow so you can move your head around without breaking the seal. Silicone can also come in a range of shapes and colours instead of standard black. Bright colours are a great way to personalise your suit and stand out of the crowd.
Neoprene Drysuit Seals
Neoprene seals are warmer to wear compared to latex seals and are sometimes considered more comfortable. They also have a tendancy to last longer. Neoprene is good at spreading the pressure over a wide area so you don't end up with Latex love bites, but getting the right size can be tricky.
Neoprene does stretch, but nowhere near as much as Latex or Silicone so they can be harder to put on and the glideskin sticks to your skin so you need to lubricate to get them on. The glideskin is great at sealing against your skin but is quite fragile so you have to be careful pulling it on or it can tear. Ripped neoprene cuffs can be easily fixed if the rip isn't too catastrophic.
Recent Dive Sites
Here are the latest ten dive sites added to our list of Melbourne and Victorian dive sites.
The Passage Reef Deep |  Reef Dive |  Boat access |
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| Latitude: 38° 24.509′ S (38.408483° S / 38° 24′ 30.54″ S) Longitude: 141° 38.703′ E (141.645053° E / 141° 38′ 42.19″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-24 05:33:28 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 05:36:36 GMT Source: GPS | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Big Reef, Portland , 556 m, bearing 38°, NE | ||
| Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 15 to 20 m. | ||
| See the The Passage Reef Deep dive site page | ||
The Passage Reef Shallow | Reef Dive | Boat access |
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| Latitude: 38° 23.870′ S (38.397837° S / 38° 23′ 52.21″ S) Longitude: 141° 39.250′ E (141.654166° E / 141° 39′ 15″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-24 05:21:05 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 05:36:36 GMT Source: GPS | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Little Reef, Portland , 514 m, bearing 58°, ENE | ||
| Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 10 to 15 m. | ||
| See the The Passage Reef Shallow dive site page | ||
Grant Bay Reef | Reef Dive | Boat access |
| | ||
| Latitude: 38° 23.776′ S (38.396267° S / 38° 23′ 46.56″ S) Longitude: 141° 38.072′ E (141.63454° E / 141° 38′ 4.34″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-23 06:13:07 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 23:33:51 GMT Source: GPS | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Grant Bay Beach, 750 m, bearing 286°, WNW | ||
| Grant Bay, Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 5 to 12 m. | ||
| See the Grant Bay Reef dive site page | ||
Boat Bay | Reef Dive |  Shore access |
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| Latitude: 38° 34.860′ S (38.580996° S / 38° 34′ 51.59″ S) Longitude: 142° 49.688′ E (142.828125° E / 142° 49′ 41.25″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions | |
| Added: 2022-05-21 22:38:38 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 11:40:52 GMT Source: Goggle Earth | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Bay of Islands, 577 m, bearing 253°, WSW | ||
| Peterborough, Shipwreck Coast. Depth: 2 to 20 m. | ||
| See the Boat Bay dive site page | ||
Hopkins Reef | Reef Dive | Boat access |
| | ||
| Latitude: 38° 24.474′ S (38.407903° S / 38° 24′ 28.45″ S) Longitude: 142° 30.419′ E (142.506986° E / 142° 30′ 25.15″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-21 09:48:42 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 11:20:12 GMT Source: Google Earth | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Edinburgh Castle, 1,239 m, bearing 321°, NW | ||
| Warrnambool, Shipwreck Coast. Depth: 6 to 12 m. | ||
| See the Hopkins Reef dive site page | ||
Horseshoe Reef | Reef Dive | Boat access |
| | ||
| Latitude: 38° 22.712′ S (38.37853° S / 38° 22′ 42.71″ S) Longitude: 141° 24.718′ E (141.411963° E / 141° 24′ 43.07″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-20 20:07:06 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 08:12:34 GMT Source: Google Earth | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: SS Barwon, 163 m, bearing 352°, N | ||
| Cape Bridgewater, Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 2 to 8 m. | ||
| See the Horseshoe Reef dive site page | ||
Yellow Rock Beach | Reef Dive | Shore access |
| | ||
| Latitude: 38° 23.289′ S (38.388155° S / 38° 23′ 17.36″ S) Longitude: 141° 34.918′ E (141.581961° E / 141° 34′ 55.06″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions | |
| Added: 2022-05-20 12:24:41 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 08:19:22 GMT Source: Google Earth | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Flat Rock, Cape Nelson, 1,371 m, bearing 223°, SW | ||
| Nelson Bay, Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 5 to 10 m. | ||
| See the Yellow Rock Beach dive site page | ||
Seal Colony, Cape Bridgewater | Reef Dive | Boat access |
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| Latitude: 38° 23.540′ S (38.392334° S / 38° 23′ 32.4″ S) Longitude: 141° 24.806′ E (141.41343° E / 141° 24′ 48.35″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-20 08:14:07 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 08:12:57 GMT Source: Google Earth | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: Horseshoe Reef, 1,540 m, bearing 355°, N | ||
| Cape Bridgewater, Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 5 to 10 m. | ||
| See the Seal Colony, Cape Bridgewater dive site page | ||
The Boatshed, Cape Bridgewater | Reef Dive | Boat access |
| | ||
| Latitude: 38° 22.616′ S (38.37694° S / 38° 22′ 36.98″ S) Longitude: 141° 24.446′ E (141.407433° E / 141° 24′ 26.76″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-20 07:08:18 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 08:14:03 GMT Source: GPS | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: SS Barwon, 375 m, bearing 92°, E | ||
| Cape Bridgewater, Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 2 to 8 m. | ||
| See the The Boatshed, Cape Bridgewater dive site page | ||
Brads Bommie |  Bommie Dive | Boat access |
| | ||
| Latitude: 38° 23.612′ S (38.393541° S / 38° 23′ 36.75″ S) Longitude: 141° 38.778′ E (141.646299° E / 141° 38′ 46.68″ E) | ||
| Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | |
| Added: 2022-05-20 06:22:40 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 05:36:34 GMT Source: Google Earth | ||
| Nearest Neighbour: The Passage Reef Shallow, 836 m, bearing 124°, SE | ||
| Point Danger, Portland, Discovery Coast. Depth: 5 to 15 m. | ||
| See the Brads Bommie dive site page | ||
Total of 10 dive sites.
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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.
The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source, e.g. GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.
If you don't understand the differences between the different ways coordinates are given, plus how different datum come into play, you might find the article GPS Conversions by Lloyd Borrett a useful read. It describes the problems associated with locating dive sites using a GPS receiver.
Scuba Doctor Dive Map KML File
In the true spirit of making it easy to obtain, utilise and share the information for non-commercial purposes, you can now Download/view the Scuba Doctor Dive Map GPS Marks (KML file | 427.19 KB | 24-May-2022) in the Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth or Google Maps.
Some marine GPS units can import the information from a KML file. For others you can use use a file translate program (e.g. GPSBabel) to convert the KML file into an import file format (e.g. GPX) supported by your GPS unit.
Please Help Us To Correct GPS Marks and Add More Melbourne Dive Sites
If you have have information about other dive sites you'd be happy to see added to the information available here, or any corrections and/or updates to the diving site GPS marks listed here, please feel free to Contact Us. See also, Dive Site Help.
![Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]](/diveshop/images/halcyon/Halcyon-Evolve-Wing.jpg "Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]")
