Interchangability of Backplates and Wings

One configuration consideration is that plates and wings are not always perfectly interchangable among brands. Manufacturers tend to make subtle design decisions such as the placement of grommet holes and slots on the wing based on aligning similar slots and holes of their own brand of backplate. The shape of the flat in the centre of a specific brand wing may be designed to match the specific shape of their plate so that the bladder is not pinched by the plate when the two are assembled together on doubles.

A common annoyance with doubles mounting is the depth of the "V" in the centre of the plate varies slightly among brands, which can trigger compatibility problems with the bolt height setting of the bands. The diver might find it very difficult to engage the wing nuts when assembling a plate and wing on a set of doubles where the bolt height was optimised for a different brand plate and wing.

The good news is that we are not aware of any interchangability issues for doubles mounting between any of the brands of wings and plates we sell. For single tanks, you can usually avoid using a single tank adapter (STA) if the wing and plate are the same brand. By the same token when the brands are mismatched, or the wing manufacturer does not also offer a branded plate, a STA is pretty much a necessity.

Golfies

Reef Dive | Shore access

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 20 m (66 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Golfies is a shore diving and snorkelling site, between Killarney to the east and Port Fairy to the west, off the Princes Highway on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. This site is at the eastern end of Port Fairy East Beach, just to the west of the Port Fairy Golf Club and south of the Port Fairy Airport.

Diving and Snorkelling at Golfies

Golfies faces south and has lots of fish and invertebrate life. Nice site for snorkelling.

The interesting stuff at Golfies lies to the east of the beach. Mills Reef, is a distinctive T-shape reef that runs 100 metres out to sea from the sandy shore. It features a 10 to 15-metre vertical wall a further 50 metres out which takes you down to a sandy bottom at 20 metres and provides excellent diving.

There are several other reefs in the area which run out to sea from the sandy shore.

Golfies Parking
© Google Street View

Location: Port Fairy, Victoria 3284

Parking: There is a car park approximately 250 metres off Skenes Road via a narrow gravel road west of the Port Fairy Golf Course. From the Princes Highway (A1), turn south onto Woodbine Road, and then right onto Skenes Road. From Port Fairy, you can head east on Griffiths Street which becomes Skenes Road. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Safety First: This area is frequented by boats, so please make sure you display your dive flag in this area.

Entry/exit: Enter and exit from the beach.

Ideal Conditions: Diving Golfies requires calm conditions and a very low swell. See WillyWeather (Port Fairy East Beach) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boats can be launched at the Port Fairy, Griffiths Street Boat Ramp or the Killarney Bay East Boat Ramp.

Abalone Dive Site
© Mark Norman, Museum Victoria

Divers have the opportunity to catch Abalone at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, legal abalone tool, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, and abalone measure. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch abalone.

See article-catching-abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-abalone-dives for a list of other Abalone dive sites near Melbourne.

Divers have the opportunity to catch Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Once you get back to the dive boat, or shore, make sure you clip the tail and tag your Crayfish as per Fisheries requirements. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See article-catching-crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-cray-dives for a list of other crayfish dive sites near Melbourne. For tips on cooking your Crays, please see article-cooking-crayfish.

Eastern Maar country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Eastern Maar people of south-western Victoria between the Shaw and Eumerella Rivers and from Yambuk in the south to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. This truly ancient Country extends as far north as Ararat and encompasses the coastal townships of Port Fairy in the west, Warrnambool, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Lorne, and Airies Inlet in the east, including the Great Ocean Road area. It also stretches 100 metres out to sea from low tide and therefore includes the iconic Twelve Apostles. "Eastern Maar" is a name adopted by the people who identify as Maar, Eastern Gunditjmara, Tjap Wurrung, Peek Whurrong, Kirrae Whurrung, Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch (Tooram Tribe) amongst others. We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Maar as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

Golfies Location Map

Latitude: 38° 21.766′ S (38.36276° S / 38° 21′ 45.94″ S)
Longitude: 142° 16.264′ E (142.271061° E / 142° 16′ 15.82″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2022-05-19 05:35:53 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:07:25 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Diana, Port Fairy, 856 m, bearing 244°, WSW
Port Fairy, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 2 to 20 m.

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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 of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.