Instructors > Nick "occifer" Missenden AOWSI

My name is Nicholas Missenden or as I’m more affectionately called around the shop “Occifer” as I am a fulltime Police Officer during the day.

I am an Open Water Scuba Diving Instructor with SDA here in Sydney Australia.
I started scuba diving in 2005 and I was instantly hooked. Back then I was trying to dive nearly every day. During the week if I could find a buddy I would try to get a dive in either before or after work. I was permanently water logged.
In those early days I was totally transfixed with the underwater world and quickly found out that I had the "knack" of finding the tiniest creatures. I purchased a second hand point and shoot camera and underwater housing from a dive instructor at SDA.

It was here that my passion for Nudibranchs and Sydney’s Pygmy Pipehorse developed into an obsession lol (laughing out loud). My favourite local dive site is unquestionably Bare Island which consistently produces “sensational” dives and quenches my passion for Nudibranchs and Pygmy Pipehorses.

The best dive that I can remember having at Bare Island was the day I dived the East Wall. On this particular day we had great visibility and I found two orange angler fish within 10m of each other! Prior to this day I had only ever seen one orange angler in all my diving. Along with the angler fish I also saw a number of Pygmy Pipehorses.

Don’t get into the habit of thinking that there isn’t much to see at Bare Island, trust me I have found on a regular basis, all types of angler fish, pygmy pipehorses, a huge diversity of nudibranchs and some of the rarer sea creatures I have seen here include, a whaler shark, turtles, ornate ghost pipefish, robust pipefish and penguins! You just need the right guide. Haha ;)

I also invite you all to check out my very own website NUDI FREAKS