Hello divers
What would a diving newsletter be without a weather rant. RANT. Big swells, rain and a fair bit of wind have hampered diving the last week or so. The surfers have had some amazing waves at Dungeons, huge is a better way of putting it. There has been a fair amount of northerly wind so the visibility at Long Beach yesterday was a good 10 metres and the water was 14 degrees. The weekend looks windy and a huge swell will again pass by but False Bay should be okay for a few dives. We are diving the Smits wrecks on Saturday deepish 35 meters and then going to Roman Rock. Sunday we hope to do shore entries providing the wind holds off.
Clare and I attended an interesting talk at the Save Our Seas Shark Centre last night on the bull shark research program being run in the Breede river. This was the third talk in the series and they all cover different topics, shark related. The The talks we have attended at Dive Action – about diving medicine and the sardine run, amongst other things, have also been very good so if you are keen to join us for any of them mail me and I will keep you on the list for future talks. If you have not visited their site do it now here
Sadly there have been a few fatalities around the world in recent weeks and the shark is once again taking the heat. The Russian and the Seychelles governments are on a “hunt them down” campaign. A marine biologist friend of mine in the Seychelles tells me people are behaving like lunatics. Closer to home, the Plett incident has thankfully not become a frenzy as yet and I think this is largely due to the fact there are several organisations, like Save Our Seas, doing a lot of work on awareness campaigns. I find it constantly amazing that every time there is a shark attack the media will say it was a great white without a shred of proof.
This weekend we are running Nitrox (Enriched Air) courses, Deep Specialty and Advanced diver while on the boat and will continue with Open Water diver courses on Sunday. We are starting new Open Water students next weekend and a new Advanced diver course. There is always space for you!!! I would also like to do some night diving soon as it has been a while since the last one. Come and test your navigational skills by moonlight and see what the ocean keeps hidden by day.
We are trying to decide where to go for our next trip, the options are Durban and Aliwal Shoal, Sodwana Bay or southern Mozambique. Text me your preference, it does not have to mean you are coming with, it will just give me an indication of what most of you on this mailing list would prefer.
A reminder that if you want to join us on 17 September cleaning up Hout Bay harbour (underwater, of course!) with OMSAC, visit the OMSAC home page to get registration details.
I have no idea of how many of you read the blog but many of you feature on the blog. Just type your first name into the search field in the top right hand corner and sit back and enjoy the fame!!! Should you not appear it means you have not done enough diving in the last year… And you all know who you are…
And, finally, just a reminder about your MPA permits. If you don’t have one, go and get one before you come diving. At the Post Office. Do it!
Be good, have fun, and get wet.
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog
Diving is addictive!
