Friday was spent at the Virgin Active pool in Claremont, in crystal clear warm water. The pool is heated and I would guess it was around 24 deg celsius. We had a great time with a bunch of kids, conducting PADIBubblemakers programs. We also had a couple of DSDs and all round good fun.
Going through the Bubblemakers/DSD flip chart
It is amazing at how quickly kids take to scuba diving. The youngest participant was eight years old and they become so amusing and small looking when you strap a 10 litre cylinder to them. Even the smallest mask looks huge on an eight year old head and the neat small mouthpieces we use as adults fill their mouths to a point that they seem like chipmunks. Within 15 minutes they had good buoyancy, understood the signs and signals and swam the length of the pool several times picking up small tiles and other odds and ends in the water.
Underwater exploration in the pool
If you want your children to be safe and comfortable around water then the Seal Team program is an extremely good way to achieve this. It follows on from Bubblemakers and can be done from the age of 8 years. They become real scuba divers, have a chance to perform navigation, search and recovery, underwater photography and a few other exciting skills.
Imagine how good your underwater skills would be today if you started when you were eight!!
I’m happy to announce that Learn to Dive Today is now a DAN Business Member. By supporting DAN we are helping to improve dive safety standards for everyone, and doing this will also enable us to provide an enhanced service for my students. As a DAN member, I am able to arrange free diving-related emergency insurance cover for my entry level (Open Water) students for the duration of their dive courses.
DAN, which stands for Divers Alert Network, is a non-profit organisation that provides medical advice, research and insurance for diving related injuries and emergencies. They are at the forefront of diving safety and we are proud to be associated with them.
You’ll notice the DAN billboards at several of the popular Cape Town dive sites, with emergency procedures and contact details. There’s one at Long Beach and one at Miller’s Point.
The weekend was a real humdinger and we started off with a early boat dive out of Miller’s Point, seven of us all together and we visited the wreck of the SAS Transvaalin Smitswinkel Bay. The wreck, 94 metres long, lies in 34 metres of water and the top of the deck is at about 29 metres. Once we were down we dispensed with the deep skills for the guys doing their Advanced course and then cruised down the length of the wreck to the stern before starting back up to the dive boat.
SAS Transvaal in Smitswinkel Bay
Besides the good viz of about 8–10 metres we were honored with three Southern Right whales waiting for us when we surfaced. There are more photos on the blog and Facebook of these huge whales and tiny divers less than 50 metres apart. The whales don’t know the 300 metres regulations and we were forced to back away from them as they were totally oblivious of us. Coming face to face with such a majestic creature, in its own environment, relaxed and content to have us gawking is one of the many reasons diving is so rewarding. We were treated to them fluking, blowing broad V-shaped water fountains and diving around us. I would guess they were around 12 – 16 metres long. That is a lot bigger than the 9 metre rubber duck we were on. The skipperwas quick to get everyone on board and back slowly away from them.
Southern Right whales and divers in Smitswinkel Bay
Fisherman’s Beach
Urchins at Fisherman’s Beach
The day got even better and after lunch we dived and explored the site called Fisherman’s Beach or sometimes called Froggy Pond. Clean white sand, an easy entry and several clusters of rocky reef make this an amazing site. We found a crevice in a small swim through that is home to a huge octopus and and he was very wary of us as I was on the one side of the opening trying to get a picture and Justin was on the other side peeking in. We were also treated to a very amusing feeding frenzy by a school of Fransmadam. I picked up a piece of kelp root and broke it into little pieces and they went wild snatching pieces from each other.
Coraline algae and other life encrusting a kelp stem
Long Beach
Door in the floor at Long Beach
Today we dived at Long Beach and were able to confirm the hiding place of the pyjama catsharks with a photo. They are primarily nocturnal but are sometimes seen in the day. Over the last few weeks I have seen them in a small hideout a few times, never really sure of what I was seeing as it is a small opening. Today I put my video light in the opening and and held my camera in the entrance and took a few photos. They were sleeping stacked on top of one another.
We saw quite a few sea jellies, of different varieties, and lots of fish. It seems to be breeding season, as I also spotted a teeming mass of about 30 warty pleurobranchs the size of my fingernail – perhaps they had just hatched.
We were joined by Alexandra who has recently moved to Cape Town and has done lots of warm water diving. So the chilly Cape waters came as a bit of a shock!
I have students on Saturday and Sunday starting their Open Water course, but we will start after lunch so I am planning another wreck dive to one of the other wrecks in Smitswinkel Bay on Saturday morning. With boat dives I need confirmation by Wednesday night.
For the group joining me in Sodwana don’t forget the dinner on Tuesday for final planning.
Have a good week and try and get wet, it beats sitting behind a desk, tell your boss you need a day of aquatic therapy, then come and dive, you will feel better the next day!!!
Permits: All divers need a permit, so please get yours at a post office near you.
Depending on the type of accommodation you have chosen, if you are in a packed camp then have some respect for other divers in the camp or cabins next to you. You may be on a party trip but they might be on a peaceful break from a hectic work environment.
These are a few of the camp rules I have used in some of the camps I have worked…
Noise
Please respect the fact that some people in the camp are on an early dive and need to sleep. No noise after 10 pm. Go to the beach or a pub if you want to be noisy.
Dive planning
Dive planning takes place in the dining area every day at a specific time. Please be there, if you are not there we cannot book a dive for you.
Dive planning noticeboard
Kit up and launch times
Kit up time and launch times are on the board, please be ready to kit up at the designated time. Please sign the launch sheet, produce your dive card and complete an indemnity before you go diving.
Boat rules
Please ensure your kit, mask, fins and weight belt are on the boat you are on.
Try and sit opposite your gear from the launch as it is not safe to move kit around on a full dive boat.
Please ensure you are opposite your kit before you put your weight belt on.
Rinse your mask before you kit up as you are less likely to fall in the water.
Ready your kit by loosening the straps clips etc., so when someone gets to you to help, you are ready. This reduces the time spent bobbing on the ocean which causes seasickness in some divers.
At the end of the dive please hand your weights up before you remove your kit.
Once you are on the beach please take you mask and fins off the boat, and the staff will often bring the rest. A good habit is to remove your regulators and BCD and wear them back to you base as some operators can be hard on gear. (Remember to dry and replace the dust cap.)
Some more boat etiquette can be found in this post!
Don’t talk about soup sandwiches, cheesy garlic rolls and other such topics on the boat while someone is throwing up… Be nice!
Don’t walk around the boat once you have your weight belt on. If you fall in the water we all laugh first and then try to rescue you, and by then you may be on the bottom… Not nice!
Don’t rinse your mask, fully kitted up or while the boat is moving… You will lose it (or fall overboard) and we will all laugh again… You then get to sit on the boat while we dive… Not nice!
Don’t shout “yee haa!” when the skipper gets the boat airborne on a huge wave… Its embarrassing enough with just you lot watching him fluff things, so when you shout everyone on the beach looks as well… Not nice!
Don’t all rush to one side of the boat when someone shouts “dolphins!” The boat becomes unbalanced and the skipper (or a diver) sometimes falls off… Not nice.
Don’t call your mask goggles, your fins flippers, your weights sinkers and your cylinder a tin of oxygen… Your Instructor gets embarrassed and gets a beer fine.
Tim and Grace on the boat in Ponta do Ouro
Do check that your buddy is on the boat after a dive as most skippers and some DM’s went to night school and can’t count during the day. Plus it’s a waste of fuel to drive all the way back to the dive site to fetch him if you forget.
Do make sure your air is on before you fall into the water… Look at your gauge, take a few deep breaths, and if the needle fluctuates you air is not on. If you can’t breathe at all, it is also not on…
Do remember to shout “man overboard!” if your male buddy falls in the water, but please shout “girl overboard!” if your buddy is not male… Girls are sensitive about these things… Besides if a girl falls overboard all the guys do too… to help… This makes the boat fast and the skipper falls off…
The weekend’s diving was really good. We had a real early start on Saturday, leaving home at 6.00 am for the V&A Waterfront where we boarded a ferry for Robben Island. It was an OMSAC underwater clean up event and I believe the first ever recreational dive with such numbers in the harbour. We dived both sides of the centre jetty, 25 buddy pairs, each armed with a knife, scissors and mesh garbage bag, and there were some really interesting very old glass bottles found.
The weather was fantastic and the water was surprisingly 15 degrees. I was expecting 5 degree water. The bottom is very silty and at some points the visibility was reduced to zero, so bad you could barely make out your hand, but an interesting experience nonetheless. A similar size group dived in the Waterfront near the Table Bay Hotel and found a shopping trolley, bundles of rope and many other strange things.
Today we spent all day in the water in the Simon’s Town Yacht basin, doing Discover Scuba and Open Water dive courses. This is also an interesting dive as you swim along underneath some beautiful boats, boats that look like a million bucks on the surface, yet below the water line they are covered in algae, barnacles and all sorts of little fish scurrying around feeding. We were also joined by Charlie, an SSI Master Diver and job shadow participant, I think he worked harder than he imagined today (thanks Charlie)!
Charlie helping Sediqa put on her weight belt
This coming weekend has a public holiday, something we all love, and I am going to arrange a boat trip for Friday or Saturday, to dive either a wreck in Smitswinkel Bay, or a wreck in Hout Bay depending on the weather. To ensure we get the boat and have the right to choose the dive site requires that we are a minimum of six people. As an Open Water diver you can do a Deep Adventure dive with an Instructor, and anyone joining will receive a signed off deep dive in their log books. This can be used as a credit on the Advanced Course should you wish at some point in the future. So anyone keen to join, please let me know by Tuesday evening.
Full moon is getting close and either Friday or Saturday we plan to do a night dive at Fisherman’s Beach, the white sandy bottom, scattered reef and kelp forests are amazing in the dark, they are pretty awesome by day too!! The white sand reflects the light so it is an amazing place to be at night.
I am starting a new Open Water course this coming weekend and will most likely run this in the afternoons so we will do fun diving in the mornings. It has been a while since we have had conditions suitable for the seven gill cow sharks so this is high on my wish list.
Don’t forget to buy your dive permit at a post office, for the guys going to Sodwana this is very important as they are checked daily.
Please remember, coral reefs are delicate, home to creatures we are privileged to visit and need to be respected. Control your buoyancy, tuck in your gauges, octos and torches.
Some of the corals have taken hundreds of years to grow to their current size. A careless fin kick could destroy decades of growth.
Don’t touch anything – coral reefs are a delicate ecosystem, and you can transport algae and other organisms on your hands from one coral to the other. This isn’t a good thing – it’s the equivalent of coughing on someone when you have a cold!
No touching! I am looking at you!
And finally…
Do not go deeper than the bottom!
Do not bite anything that bites you!
If your buddy is bitten by anything he should not be touching please take a picture for us to use in issuing beer fines!
The Sodwana trip is done and dusted, 10 people, all booked confirmed and raring to go. For those still keen mail me and there is a chance we can accommodate you.
The weekend is going to be busy as we are doing a clean up dive on Robben Island on Saturday morning and I hope the swell has dropped off enough to do a dive with the cowsharks in the afternoon. There will also be a night dive on Saturday night again. We did a night dive on Monday night and had a shoal of hundreds of maasbankers swarming around us for most of the dive, clearly attracted to the many torches, strobes and camera flashes.
Next weekend we have a public holiday on the Friday. I would like to arrange a boat dive for the group, possibly to one of the wrecks in Smitswinkel Bay or a wreck in Hout Bay depending on the wind direction. I will need to book this early in the week to ensure the boat goes where we want it to so please let me know early if you want to dive. Boat dives are normally R250, but if we are a group of six or more I can squeeze them down to R180.
I am starting an Open Water course tomorrow in Danish… Its been a while since I have had a Danish student. Sunday morning I have Discover Scuba Divers in the morning and will start a new Open Water course on Sunday afternoon.
I will also start another Open Water course on Thursday evening with diving on the long weekend for anyone wanting to complete the course in one weekend. It involves theory on the Thursday night, confined water training on Friday after the boat dives and more theory in the afternoon, and then two dives Saturday and two dives Sunday. There are still spots left for this.
Remember, all divers need a permit, get yours at the post office for R85 valid for a year and keep it in your dive bag with your dive gear.
The blog has been updated again, there are lots of random diving information posts about gear, travel, etc. and Clare has done a few book reviews of some of the books we have and what makes them good or bad to own… So feel free to read them, and comment…
I will add a list of diving and ocean related DVDs that we have and how you can get to watch them…
If you dive soon remember the two most important rules, never hold your breath, and never go deeper than the bottom!
So… You have planned and booked your first dive trip away from home. What can you expect and what should you take with you? Most travel agents and travel websites detail all the required inoculations, currency, and clothing you require but very few dive centres will advise you on what to bring as they are willing and able to rent you everything you forgot.
Almost every dive centre will operate on a similar basis in that they will have dive planning at a specific time of day, or a dive board where you will add your name. They will almost all have a printout or drawing of the dive sites in the range of their boat, details on depth, current and common sightings.
Dive sites around Ponta do Ouro
All dive centres will have you sign a few indemnities depending on their operation, one for the gear, perhaps one for boat travel, or adventure dives etc., but when they request you sign them, read them first, and produce your dive card. Make sure you sign up for a dive that is within your qualifications as it won’t be of any use to blame the dive charter if you end up at 40 metres when you only have an Open Water qualification. Dive centres and Dive Masters, guides, or whatever name they go by, will as a rule check your qualification before the dive, but don’t test this by leaving your certification card at home!
If possible take your own gear, or rent from your trusted dive centre if you are unsure of the serviceability of the place you are going to. Remember that some remote locations have huge logistic issues in servicing gear so check first. Having said that I have been to some of the remotest dive sites in Mozambique and found the dive centre has a state of the art workshop with all the required special tools and service kits.
Make sure you have a spare mask or mask strap, a spare fin strap and a few O rings. Check your dive bag before you leave, several times if need be. An expensive dive trip to the most remote islands of the world will go horribly wrong when the special mask you have to suit your oblong head… is left at home.
Make sure you know the type of cylinders used where you are going. If they only have aluminium cylinders without removable inserts then your DIN regulator will be of no use. An adaptor like this is useful:
Make sure your very expensive roller dive bag is suitable. Some of these bags weigh 6 kilograms… empty. I was very proud of this bag when I bought it: huge volume, two detachable back packs, handle, wheels and strong lockable zips… But on my first trip I discovered it weighed 6.2 kilograms empty, was useless as a head rest while waiting for a train, and did not fit in the boot of the midget budget car I rented.
Wheelie dive bag for travelling... rather heavy!
I have lost a fair amount of equipment to baggage handlers in my time so what I do now is usually cable tie everything together. I have a little bag for everything, I then cable tie my Reg’s to the frame in my bag and then cable tie my toiletry bag to this and link all the small little bags to one another and so on. This just makes it harder for someone to slip something out of my bag and pocket it… Its no guarantee for the hardened criminal, but it does reduce the loss.
Cameras, dive computers and other expensive gadgets must go in your hand luggage. If you must check your camera in then attach everything together as you would underwater, cable tie your torch to the strobe arm kit and so on. Never separate the items as its hard for a criminal to hide a camera housing, arm and strobe as a unit, but easy for them to slip the camera into their pockets undetected. Many airlines will allow a camera or laptop bag in addition to your regular hand luggage, which makes things easier.
