When the pandemic took a hold of Australia, I no longer recognised my hometown Byron Bay. But looking out at Bryon’s deserted main beach, all the tourists gone, I realised the local dive spots would be just as empty of people. My mind turned instantly to Julian Rocks, one of Byron’s most popular dive sites, and one I have visited hundreds of times – but always with crowds of others. I imagined diving it alone. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I had to get out there.

With 2.5km of ocean between the mainland and Julian Rocks, and with no dive boats running to get out there, I enlisted the help of good friend and keen kayaker, Roger Koenig. Amusingly, Roger had been the subject of an anecdote relayed to me just a few weeks earlier, a local skipper and lifeguard telling a story of a man out at Julian Rocks on his own, in a kayak, in two-metre swell. Needless to say, the skipper thought it was foolhardy. I knew he was talking about Roger, but decided to keep that information to myself. A few weeks later, here I was looking to do the same…

On a flat day, a 5km round-trip kayak to Julian Rocks is no big deal. However, Byron is rarely flat. The weather conditions at the time were far from ideal and showed no signs of abating. My choice was a simple one: face the swell or stay on land. I couldn’t face not diving, potentially for weeks, maybe even months.

With our five-metre, bright orange twin sea kayak hanging out the back of the van, we headed for the beach early. Waterside, we started to figure out the most effective ways of attaching fins, wetsuits, food, water, camera gear, weight belts, phones, and so on, to the kayak. We also set it up in such a way that if we happened to stumble across something interesting on our journey there or back, we could quickly reach for our cameras and be in the water straightaway.