Newsletter: In the pool

Hi there everyone

Tinus and Lindsay doing their Open Water pool skills

The sea has started turning blue once more. Monday’s diving was in really bad visibility with perhaps less than a metre for the entire dive but today things were looking better and the deeper we went the more the visibility improved. By the weekend we will certainly have good conditions again. I have almost forgotten how good it can be as the past few months has seen the southeaster blow more days than ever before and more strongly than previous years, who knows why.

There was no ocean diving last weekend as the wind was way too strong but we did spend some time in the pool. The photos are of Kate, who is back in SA to do her Instructor’s course at the end of the month, Corne, who is training to be a Divemaster, and Lindsay and Tinus, who are busy with Open Water.

Diving this weekend… and Wednesday

Grant will not be launching on Saturday but will launch Sunday and Wednesday. He has planned for two launches on Sunday, but both are deep and long boat rides. I will be at Long Beach Saturday and Sunday with open water students and Discover scuba diving participants so I won’t be on the boat.

Wednesday, being a public holiday… is going to be a boat diving only day (and for voting) and we will do three launches with the first being to one of the Smitswinkel Bay wrecks. The second launch will be shallower and the third will be a deep dive again so we can do the Deep specialty. If you want to be on the boat please let me know by Saturday midday at the latest.

Kate and Corne doing kit exchange while buddy breathing

Specialty Courses

I am going to run a few Specialty courses over the next few months. Casual diving has become fairly expensive if you do not have your own kit. For the average newly qualified diver renting gear and doing a boat dive will set you back approximately R 600 for just one dive or R 800 for two boat dives. on any given day. By continuing your diving training you not only gain more qualifications while gaining more experience you can also save money. Once you have done some diving you will have a better idea of what kit to buy so when you do splash out you know it’s the right stuff. Many people buy gear too soon and end up having to buy some things twice as their diving takes a different direction or something they had bought was not suitable.