Deep specialty – Page 2 – Learn to Dive Today Blog

Newsletter: Whale chasing surfers…

Hi divers

Seal at the safety stop in Smitswinkel Bay

Now that we are well on our way to spring, summer and the silly season it is time for many of you to dust off your logbooks, lose the slippers and put on your flippers… erm, fins. Diving conditions are great all year round in the Cape and despite the bad weather days we have sometimes, there are many, awesome days that beg to be dived. Going to work is one thing but taking a day’s leave in the week and diving is very, very, therapeutic… I call it Aquatic Therapy. Try it, it works.

The past week’s dives

Last weekend an 8 metre swell on Saturday kept most of us dry that day. We dived the MFV Orotava wreck in Smitswinkel Bay on Sunday. The surface conditions were decent but it was very surgy at depth. The visibility was good and we were doing Deep and Nitrox Specialties so this was the perfect dive for this. Diving was also good in the week and on Wednesday we had 27 degrees in the parking lot, not a breath of wind (conditions very suitable for tanning) and 8 metre visibility in the water.

Two friendly frilled nudibranchs on the Orotava

Weekend diving

This weekend will grace us with good diving on Saturday and less so on Sunday. We are doing a deep dive early on Saturday, to the Fleur, a wreck in the middle of False Bay that lies at around 40 metres on the sand. Grant will do another two launches, to the SAS Pietermaritzburg and to Roman Rock so if you are keen to go boating, which you should be, then shout.

I will spend the afternoon at Long Beach with Open Water students. Sunday is less easy to plan. The diving conditions will be good but it may be very cloudy and for some this relates to cold. I will decide Saturday afternoon but will dive at A Frame or Windmill Beach. There is a 3 metre swell which may just make A Frame difficult. Windmill Beach is often difficult on weekends due to the limited parking but on a cloudy day we may be lucky. It is a shore entry with a walk to the beach that is a little longer than the walk at Long Beach, but involves less rock scrambling. Shout if you are coming.

Gear

I have recently replaced some of my older gear and added a few extra items. If you rent gear from me on a regular basis please mail me for an updated price list.

Coastal Cleanup Day

Next Saturday morning we are joining OMSAC for International Coastal Cleanup Day, with a cleanup dive taking place in Hout Bay harbour. If you’d like to come along, sign up here and check out event details here. It costs R25, and payment must be made directly to OMSAC. If you need to rent gear for the dive, I can assist. I think it’s going to be quite festive.

This time last year

There are lots of whales in the bay at the moment. I watched a few surfers have a panic attack today and paddle faster than they thought possible when a whale surfaced less than 100 metres from them.

A whale greets three alarmed surfers in Muizenberg

Last year this time we had whales on the surface at the end of a dive in Smitswinkel Bay and that photo soon became the most viewed photo on our blog. Another ‘’last year’’ item, last year I made it possible for any of the courses I offer to be purchased on a split payment arrangement. This worked well for me and many of the students that dived last season. I am going to do the same again on a more permanent and easier payment system. If you want to do a course but don’t have the money, mail me and we can work out a payment schedule.

We have again sponsored some dive training for the Reach for a Dream Foundation. Last year they auctioned and sold raffle tickets for the courses we sponsored and collected a fair amount of money for this charity. So visit their website and help someone reach for a dream. It’s a very good cause.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Spring has sprung, and another dive trip is in the making…

Hello diving people

Let’s skip the weather.

"Yes you can be my dive buddy, but only if Tony has a wetsuit in your size." — “Yes you can be my dive buddy, but only if Tony has a wetsuit in your size.”

Travel

We are long overdue for a dive trip. The last two trips we did as a group, to Sodwana, were extremely enjoyable but most of the regular trippers are looking for something new.

Mozambique

There are two options currently being investigated. We can go to Ponta Do Ouro, a little over 100 kilometres north of Sodwana, or to Inhambane, a little over 650 kilometres north of the border between South Africa and Mozambique. We’d fly to Johannesburg in both cases. To get to Ponta we’d rent cars and drive to the border, where we’d be picked up by the dive centre and driven the 7 kilometres over the dunes into Mozambique, to Ponta. If we went to Inhambane, we’d fly from Johannesburg to Inhambane with LAM, which costs about R3,500.

Sodwana worked out at around R3,500 per person all in all, but Mozambique is way more expensive. For Ponta we would probably get away with around R5,000-R7,000 all in and Inhambane will be around R7,000 – R10,000 per person, depending of course on how many dives we do, how long we stay (we’re thinking four to seven days), and what sort of accommodation we choose.

Any of these packages would include flights, cars, dives and accommodation. Before you fall over clutching your chest I can tell you that just dives alone are almost twice the price they are here at home or in Sodwana. Everything costs more there and it has a lot to do with the remoteness of the place. I worked in Ponto and there are no Game stores, Woolworths or even 24 hour fuel station shops. Everything is transported from SA on 4×4 trucks so that is the main reason for the higher costs. These remote locations are seldom ever cheaper than Sodwana as some of the operators charge R270 – R350 a dive. However I must say the diving and the reefs are stunning. There are a few videos on my YouTube page that show some of the diving you will experience.

We’re thinking of going during April or May, and we’d try to get low season prices, so it would be outside of school holidays and long weekends. We’d use Simply Scuba in Ponta do Ouro, or Jeff’s Palm Resort in Inhambane – go check out their websites. I’ve attached the list of dive sites close to Jeff’s Palm here, for you to peruse (and drool over).

To get decent prices we need to have some idea of numbers so text or email me if you think you might want to come along.

The MFV Orotava belonged to the I&J fishing fleet

Training

We are busy with Open Water and Advanced courses, and Deep and Nitrox Specialties. Most of these courses still have space so jump on if you want some more experience.

Courses may seem expensive at first but for example if you did five casual dives on your own (with a buddy of course) with rented equipment over three days doing two shore dives and three boat dives you would each spend around R2,000 – R3,000 depending on how many dives you did each day. The average price in Cape Town for gear rental and a boat dive is around R500. Thus by doing a course you also receive a qualification, something that most dive centres around the world will want to see before you can join some of their dives.

Weekend plans

There is a swell smacking the bay tomorrow which will cut diving out on Saturday. I will have a pool day with new students so if you want to play the fool in the pool, text me.

Sunday we are on the boat for both launches, the first being a deep dive to the Smitswinkel Bay wrecks and the second will be to the wreck of the SAS Pietermaritzburg.

Railings and other fittings abound on the deck of the MFV Orotava

Last week’s diving

Last weekend we had some good diving on the MFV Orotava, one of the five Smits wrecks, and the second dive to Roman Rock. The visibility was great and the surface conditions not too bad. Tuesday we dived on Photographer’s Reef and had just got out of the water and back to shore when the wind picked up. Diving was great – this is a magnificent site.

Justin and Cindy behind the reef at Roman Rock

Dumb diving

I have been asked what DUMB DIVING is… Well let me give you an example.

Dumb diving is rolling into the water, descending and finding the cover and batteries from your video light lying on the seafloor waiting for you when you get there… And watching another piece of your rig float slowly down in front of your eyes. The word dumb comes to mind! Note to self: tighten video light cover securely before entering the water!

Flagellar sea fan at Roman Rock (and very respectable visibility)

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog
Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Diving and surfing

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!

Newsletter: Artificial reef, storms, and Coastal Cleanup

Hi divers

The weather has been kind this week and we had really good diving on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Cape water took a little getting used to again for me because the last dive I did in Malta was in 24 degree water…

Conditions this week were clean and clear

But when we dived on Wednesday we visited the artificial reef we are working on at Long Beach, and it showed a lot of happiness and life. It is amazing how quickly and thoroughly the items we placed in the water have been colonised.

Artificial reef materials - before — Artificial reef materials – before

The vase looks quite different now, two months later

International Coastal Cleanup Day

Saturday 17 September is International Coastal Cleanup Day, and this year we will again be joining OMSAC as they clean up Hout Bay Harbour. Each diver is issued with a mesh bag, and collects garbage from the dive location. A bit of judgment is required, because sometimes a piece of junk has been so grown over and inhabited by marine life that you’d do worse removing it than if you just left it there! If you’ve driven through Hout Bay Harbour on the way to a dive site in the Atlantic, you’ll know it’s usually sheltered, calm, and visited by massive seals!

Coffee jar freshly situated in the water

The information sign, newly placed in the water

The sign has barnacles growing on it now

This is an opportunity to dive in a place you wouldn’t usually be able to, and to do something good for the environment. It’ll be easy, shallow diving and there will be food on sale and a nice crowd of people to meet. Clare and I participated in their clean-up of Robben Island Harbour last year, and it was an incredibly well organised and enjoyable day out.

A small shyshark has made one of the coffee jars his home

Registration is R25 and if you want to come along you must arrange this directly with OMSAC. There is more information about how to register on the OMSAC home page.

Weekend diving

Diving this weekend is difficult to predict because of the weather. A large storm is expected on Sunday/Monday which brings massive swell and strong winds. The boats are not going out, but anyone who wants to dive please let me know, and if conditions permit on Saturday we will find a sheltered shore entry or two to explore.

Courses

I am currently busy with Deep and Nitrox Specialty courses, and have Open Water courses on the go too. If you’d like to further your training, you know how to contact me!

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Malta, wrecks, clear water & Cape weather

Hi everyone

Clare and I have just returned from an epic trip where we visited Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Malta. In total we took close to 10 000 photos above and below the surface, and close to 10 hours of underwater video. We were fortunate with the weather and only had a few hours of rain whilst driving from Germany to Denmark.

Whilst in Malta, we had 30+ degrees celcius sunny weather with slight breeze every day and of the 10 dives we did, 9 were to between 30 and 40 metres with water temperatures around 23-25 degrees celcius, apart from a deeper dive where the temperature dropped to 18 degrees inside one of the wrecks. The visibility was on average 30 metres. We tried some cave diving and I now understand the allure of cave diving far better than before I had tried it. We saw amongst other things free swimming bluefin tuna, possibly escaped from the many tuna farms in the ocean just off the islands, and on the wrecks we saw barracuda.

Back to Cape Town diving… The weather for the weekend does not look at all good. There is a cold front coming tomorrow bringing with it a 7 metre swell that will ruin the weekend’s diving prospects. This drops off on Sunday and every day next week looks good at this point. I am busy with a few courses so I will dive most of the days next week.

The summer season is fast approaching and things get a lot busier so August is possibly the last chance this year for some ”special offers”.

As an Open Water diver you can take this option. Advanced, Deep and Nitrox special: you pay for the Advanced and the Deep Specialty and get the Nitrox free, you save R1050. Otherwise, as an Advanced diver, you can do Deep Specialty and get Nitrox for R450. You save R550.

Ship's captain, aka Clare — Ship’s captain, aka Clare

To have the right qualifications to dive on most of the best wrecks in Cape Town a Nitrox and Deep Specialty are good qualifications to have. A wreck specialty is required to penetrate wrecks and the best wreck in Cape town for this is the MV Aster in Hout Bay. If wreck penetration is on your bucket list mail me and we can get started. Don’t get me wrong here, Cape Town has many many stunning dives for the Open Water diver and a list can be found here, but if deep or wreck diving are your thing then make sure you have the right qualifications, they do improve your diving skills, make you a safe diver a safer buddy and give you a rush.

On board a traditional Maltese (dive) boat

Mail me for more info if you are interested.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Decompression diving

As a rule recreational diving is no decompression diving. The dive tables are designed to ensure a huge safety margin and you could ascend directly to the surface (no faster than 18 metres per minute) and in theory you should not get bent. Safety stops are just that: a stop, usually at 5 metres for a minimum of three minutes to allow your body to eliminate some of the nitrogen it has absorbed while you were at depth.

So what if you go into deco?

Should you exceed your maximum bottom time there are a few basics and that is where decompression comes in. A regular safety stop is a deco stop and three minutes is considered adequate on most dive planning, but for example a Deep Specialty calls for a simulated deco stop of 8 minutes with some of this time spent breathing from an alternate air source.

By the time a diver gets to this level of training they invariably have their own dive computer and your dive computer will show you that you have exceeded your bottom time and now have a decompression commitment – usually an eight minute safety stop.

When we do these dives we dive on enriched air/Nitrox and leave at least one of our dive computers on air. The result is that the computer set on air will give you a warning that you are now in deco and it will indicate the length of your required safety stop and the recommended depth. Providing you have planned your air consumption and air supply correctly you will be able to fullfill the deco commitment and surface with your computer ready for another dive.

Failure to complete the required safety stop for the entire recommended duration your computer will normally not go into full dive mode until 24 hours have passed. By doing the dive on Nitrox yet leaving your computer on air you give yourself a safety margin, allowing you to experience the actual computer output screen and interpret what it is wanting you to do, without the risk to your health of actually going into deco and being unable to fulfil that commitment for some reason.

Diving with seals

There are a couple of dive sites in Cape Town that you can visit specifically to dive with the local Cape fur seals. There’s Seal Rock at Partridge Point in False Bay, and Duiker Island outside Hout Bay. These are both shallow, easy dives around large rocks, where the main attraction is the interaction you will have with hordes of curious seals. You will probably see seals if you go to Seal Island, too, but that won’t be to scuba – it’ll be to cage dive with the great white sharks there.

Tony checking out a seal above Tafelberg Reef

The dive sites near these seal colonies are often visited by these furry creatures, and it’s an absolute pleasure as a diver to have happy seals around while you’re exploring. We’ve had seals visit us on the SAS Fleur near Seal Island, at Partridge Point, and at the Tafelberg Reef complex. Sometimes you’ll see them at Long Beach, and often on the Clan Stuart.

These pictures were taken at Tafelberg Reef during a long safety stop we did there as part of Cecil’s Deep Specialty training. They mouthed Tony’s head and fins, Cecil’s pillar valve (while he was practising alternate air source use), and the bubbles rising from our regulators. They have large, scary looking teeth, but they don’t bite hard and as long as you keep your hands to yourself there’s nothing to worry about.

In manner and sometimes appearance, seals are like dogs. Bearing that in mind when you interact with them in the water, and being as cautious with them as you’d be with a large, strange but friendly dog, will serve you well. Have fun!

Newsletter: Winter diving is here!

Hi divers

Finally the conditions that bring exceptional diving have arrived. The lack of any strong south easterly winds and the occasional days of northerly winds have started to clean up False Bay and we have had reasonably good conditions. It only gets better from here on.

Saturday and Sunday were spent doing Open Water dive course training and we dived 5 DSD students. The conditions were great with good visibility and everyone had a good time. Wednesday we spent on the boat doing three dives one after the other. There were 15 of our divers for Grant to deal with during the day (and at least 15 mini chocolates eaten) and we covered the Deep Specialty, Open Water qualifying dives and fun dives. Clearly it was a heavy day because when I saw Grant this afternoon he was leaning on a walking stick!

A diver over the stern of the Princess Elizabeth

Clare has also achieved Master Scuba Diver status (Advanced plus Rescue Diver plus five Specialties plus 50 logged dives) not to mention she is our master photographer. We have a pile of CDs of photos at home for many of the people that dive with us full of your pictures and I will give them to you next time I see you.

We did the first dive on the wreck of the SAS Good Hope and spent a brief time on the MFV Princess Elizabeth. Grant dropped the shot right between to two wrecks and the visibility was great so we could see both wrecks at the same time. We found a horsefish and then a bunch of pyjama sharks all curled up together.

Lindsay, Kate, Tinus and me descending onto Pie Rock

The second dive was to Pie Rock where Lindsay and Tinus qualified as Open Water divers (congratulations!), and the third dive was to Outer Photographer’s Reef where we saw a few boxes of ammunition as well as a few scattered shells, walls of brittle stars, doublesash butterflyfish and had seals follow us around for the last half of the dive. Kate was continuing with her Deep Specialty course on this dive.

The sea was flat, the visibility was great and all three dives were great fun. The conditions look set to repeat themselves this weekend so the boat is calling.

A wall of brittlestars on coraline algae at Outer Photographer's Reef

We are planning a full weekend of diving to suit everyone, to some of the less dived sites, and there are a few people that we haven’t seen in a while: Bernita, Gerard, Maurice, Danelene and André, Richard and Belinda, Dirk, Marinus, Dean, Alina, Hilton, Sarah F and Sarah H, to name but a few… No excuses!!! This weekend is going to be a weekend of fun dives with good conditions and Saturday we will do a day of boat dives:

First launch: DEEP to the SAS Fleur at 40 metres (for the Deep Specialty course and those already qualified)
Second Launch: a mysterious wreck for Advanced divers (20 metres)
Third launch: a dive for Open Water divers to the wreck of the Glencairn Ammunition Barges (12 metres)

A pipefish among ammunition at Outer Photographer's Reef

Grant picks us up and drops us off at Long Beach with the boat so it is really easy. Any of the courses such as Advanced, Deep, Wreck and Photography can be started on these dives.

On Sunday we will dive the sevengill cowsharks (max depth 12 metres) and or the Clan Stuart wreck (max depth 10 metres). The boat fills quickly on a weekend with such great conditions so text me as soon as possible if you are joining!

Best regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Wreck diving

Hey there

The wind just won’t settle so diving is still a little unpredictable. We did however have really good diving last weekend and again yesterday. We dived one the Smitswinkel Bay wrecks, the MV Rockeater on Monday and had around 10m visibility with coolish 11 degree water. It is amazing to see how a once majestic ocean-going vessel rusts away whilst creating an incredible amount of protection for a host of ocean creatures. A torch or video light reveals the mass of colour that adorns everything in the ocean despite the depth.

The next launch took us to Wonder Reef in the Castor Rock reef complex, and the visibility was not quite as good as it was a shallower dive but still acceptable. Cecil and Gerard recovered an anchor (the second one for Cecil) with a lot of chain and surfaced it with the help of an SMB. It is always good to have an SMB – primarily for the boat to find you – but it is a valuable piece of equipment for treasure recovery… Who needs a lift bag?

We also dived on Wednesday, when Kate and I dived with Andrew to do a search and recovery dive for his Advanced course and used a lift bag to move a crate full of rocks around at Long Beach.

This weekend all the dive charters are staying indoors as the southeaster hits tomorrow and blows until Sunday evening. We will be in the pool on Saturday so the wind will not affect us but Sunday seems like a stay home day…

Courses

We are busy with Open Water, Advanced, Deep Specialty, Rescue and Divemaster at the moment but these are almost done. With the visibility improving as we go into the winter months I want to run Digital Underwater Photography and Night diving Specialties. Night diving has a special appeal for me as there is so much to see at night that just hides all day long.

Remember I dive all week long so when the office gets you down take as day off and come diving. I call it aquatic therapy.

best regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Back from Sodwana

Hello divers and others

We are back from Sodwana. When we arrived the folks that had dived the day before said the conditions were not that great… “The water is only 26 degrees and the visibility was only about 15-20 metres.” Well… being tough and from Cape Town we just had to endure the hardship and had 8 amazing dives. It was partly cloudy most days so nobody came back toasted like we did on the last trip. To the 12 people that joined me, BIG THANK YOU. It was good!!! Clare has put together a disc of photos for everyone and we will make a plan to get them to you.

Below are a few photos from some of the dives.

I have a fair amount of diving to do in the coming weeks as we were able to sign up 28 people for a Discover Scuba experience. Kate is also back from the UK and needs to do forty dives before June when she will attend an Instructor course.

Descending at Pinnacles with Adam, Ollie and Goot

We also have an Advanced course running and this coming weekend I will start a Nitrox/Deep speciality combo, six deeper dives to some of Cape Town’s stunning wrecks, on Nitrox (enriched air) After the deep dives we will continue the Open Water student training.

The winter months bring cold but very clean water into False Bay, with northerly winds we have exceptional visibility and this winter we will focus on running the Deep, Wreck and Night specialties every month. The wrecks in Smitswinkel Bay are almost all in 35 metres of water and these wrecks are a sight for sore eyes when the water is clean. Night diving has so much to offer as the ambient light, moonlight and bright torches turn the ocean into a pool of light filled with some amazing creatures.

I have also bought more gear and have a few warmer wetsuits for the cooler months coming to a ocean near you.

I would like to make either a Saturday or a Sunday morning boat dive every weekend, weather permitting, so give me some idea of what days are best for whom so we can try and schedule something.

We have also added a few videos to youtube, quite a few new posts to the blog and the website has had a facelift. The blog is an amazing source of information for anything ocean and diving related with many book reviews and a host of other information on sea life. There are hundreds of photos and many of you appear in them! Take a look sometime.

I also have many of your dive cards and will try and drop them off but if you are in the southern suburbs at some point call me and we can meet somewhere. Sending them by post is often a problem as they are mistaken for credit cards and they often just vanish.

best regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!