Sodwana is booked and deposits paid (I have paid for those of you that have yet to pay your deposits so don’t let me down), the current water temperature there is 29 degrees celcius… I am so looking forward to warm water diving.
The pictures are some that Clare took on Sunday at Long Beach when Marinus and Dean were doing their first two sea dives for their Open Water course.
Fat plough shell at Long Beach
Clare has put together the chamber dive and we have 8 confirmed so far. The chamber holds 5-6 people so there is still space, mail me if you are interested. For those that don’t know, the chamber dive is to 50 metres, but you don’t need to be anything other than a qualified diver as it is a “dry” dive and requires you to sit on a bench and equalise your ears whilst the chamber is pressurised. Your behaviour, voice and senses will all experience the effects of a dive to depths of 50 metres but there is no water!
We will have dive computers in a bowl of water so you can learn about how a computer behaves at those depths… Computers are not as smart as us so they need to be in water. (Some dive computers have “wet contacts” and will only go into dive mode if submerged.)
Ribbed turrid at Long Beach
The southeaster continues to pound the coast and we have only had three days of diving this week.
Tuesday was a surprise and delivered good conditions, warm water, 19 degrees and 4 metres visibility. This weekend and the best part of next week will again be hampered by the wind so we will only be diving on Sunday, doing a few deeper dives to complete a few Advanced and Nitrox courses.
Dean on his first Open Water sea dive
I am not sure of how many of you read the blog but this is a very interesting post by Clare on “the bends” and why DAN insurance is such value for money. Alistair was kind enough to relate his story and how it impacted on his life. I am sure it costs under R1000 a year, read this and decide if you can afford not to join.
The weather has been fooling around for a while now and dive planning has been a little tricky. We had a few real good days in False Bay last week, a clear 6-8 metre visibility night dive on Saturday night and two really good boat launches on Sunday.
Courses
Running at the moment: Open Water, Advanced, Nitrox, Deep, Rescue and Divemaster. There is always space for anyone interested in gaining some special dive skills so feel free to ask questions.
Our blog (http:// www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog) is an excellent source of information for any diving related questions you might have plus a whole lot more. Our website, www.learntodivetoday.co.za, has also had a facelift so visit them and if you don’t find the answers to your questions then mail me.
Since late last year I started running courses with the option of splitting the payments. This has worked well and I will continue to offer this should you wish. Mail me for details.
Recent dives
A few pictures from the weekend’s diving follow:
Lukas on the surface at Long Beach
We were five people for the night dive on Saturday night at Long Beach and with such good visibility it was easy to see where everyone was.
Pleated toadfish on the sand at Long Beach by night
Sunday’s first dive was to the SAS Transvaal, the first 15 metres of water was murky but as the bottom starts to darken so the wreck becomes visible.
Dark wreckage of the SAS Transvaal
Visibility on the bottom was around 6-8 metres and our maximum depth was 33 metres.
Orange gas flame nudibranch
The second dive, to Partridge Point, was made more enjoyable by a few playful seals constantly swimming around us looking for attention. The visibility was really weird as there were patches of 10 plus metres visibility with the random murky patches where it dropped off to 3 metres.
A playful seal at Partridge Point
Sodwana is set and ready, we have 12 people but should you think it might be an idea you have a day or two to decide.
Gas flame nudibranch at Partridge Point
MPA Permits… We will soon have to say ”No, you can’t dive” if you don’t have one as the officials are clamping down on dive schools claiming we do not inform our divers. So be informed, you need a permit, please get one at the post office and keep it in your dive bag as you will be asked to produce it at random dive sites by equally random officials.
I hope you are all well and happy to see January coming to a close. It seems like yesterday we were thinking of Christmas, yet here we are planning Easter.
Recent stuff
We have had odd weather patterns all over the world, somewhere somehow they are connected and we could say we are fortunate not to have floods and other major disasters but the southeaster has stirred our waters up a lot and diving has not been business as usual. We have had a few exceptional days but far fewer than we need.
Tami in good form
This past weekend we managed only one launch and cancelled the second. The plan to dive a new pinnacle off North Paw did not pan out as the water was green there, we then moved the dive to the recently discovered Cape Matapan wreck in Table Bay. The current was quite strong, the water was 6 degrees at 26 metres and the visibility was 10-12 metres. An out of air diver at 26 metres shortened the dive somewhat but we all had a good dive.
Sea cucumbers and friends on the Cape Matapan
False Bay has flattened nicely and I had two good dives at Long Beach yesterday (15 degrees celcius) and today looks as good.
Sodwana
The Sodwana trip is set and we have 9 confirmed so far. There is room for 20 divers and as many non diving partners as you like so think about it and start deciding. With 20 people we will have two boats and one will do deep sites for the Advanced and deep junkies and the other will cover Open Water divers. We managed to book flights today, Cape Town to Durban return for about R1200 per person, car rental at around R400 a day so sharing of cars as we did on the last trip makes it much cheaper.
Being so close to Easter means that as the Easter bookings start filling up the airlines will bump the next or previous days prices so book flights as soon as possible if you are planning on coming. I have made a provisional booking for accommodation in Sodwana but will need details from everyone as to the type of accommodation you require. I have attached details again in case you have queries, we need only pay a 10% deposit this month and the balance at the end of March so it is affordable. The critical issue is flights, booking early is a sure fire way to a good deal, but the last minute prices will be 4 times higher.
You need to arrive in Durban by 2pm at the very latest on the 16th April, and to leave Durban not before 3pm on the 20th, otherwise we will be too rushed getting back to the airport.
This weekend
I have booked two launches for Saturday, the first being a deep dive as the Deep specialty students need to go to 35 – 40 metres. The second boat load will be for Open Water divers with a maximum depth of 18 metres. At this point the weather is favorable for False Bay but we could end up in the Atlantic if the abovementioned odd weather patterns step in…
Sunday will be a pool day as I have three students for the pool, if you want to join us and play with your gear and buoyancy (in a far corner) just shout.
Some of you are on this newsletter only and I don’t have cell numbers, please send me your number if you want to be on the sms list as that is the only way to reach everyone on a busy dive day.
Lastly, the same old MPA permit rant… Pleeeeeeeeezzzzze get yours at a post office near you.
Sometimes I wish I was bald. It would make a lot of things much easier, and life would be less expensive. No GHD, no expensive shampoos, no styling products (not that I have the talent or patience to use much of those!), no hair clips or hair bands. I would also be able to provide entertainment to my fellow divers: as Gerard pointed out in Sodwana, Goot’s bald head turns all manner of different hues at depth, like an angry octopus.
Goot demonstrates the joy of baldness
Fact remains, however, that I have hair, and quite a lot of it.
Why is this an issue? Well, hair gets in the way when you dive. The chief problem is that if a hair – even just one hair – gets between the silicone skirt of your mask, and your skin, your mask will leak. It’s why Tony shaves before a dive, and why girls (or boys) with long hair need to keep it out of the way in the water.
If you’re learning to dive (at least with Tony), you’re going to be taking your mask off – a lot. Putting it back on is going to be a pain in the nether regions if each time you have to push aside waves of free-floating locks. And getting all that hair off your face so your mask can seal is going to be well-nigh impossible.
Fear not – help is at hand.
Hoodies
Diving in Cape Town, I wear a hoodie most of the time. I make sure my hair is wet, or pulled back tightly, before I put the hoodie on, and lift it high over the top of my head before releasing it. Problem solved.
Clare at Long Beach, Simon's Town
Swimming caps
In Sodwana, I dived with only one wetsuit, and no hoodie. The water was really warm, and I wanted to feel it. My hair, however, has a life of its own, and after one dive of doing a mermaid impersonation and losing all my hair accessories, I resorted to wearing the nylon swimming cap that I use when I do laps at gym. I am sure the others on the boat wanted to disown me, as it looks TOTALLY ridiculous, but it solved the hair problem and I really enjoyed my dives.
Diving in Sodwana wearing my dorky swimming cap
Because there are no air holes in the swim cap, I did look like a bit of a cone head. But everybody was very kind about that (at least to my face).
Hair clips and bands
Final solution, which will work if your hair is not too thick, or quite obedient. Clip it back, especially the fringe and any other short bits at the front, or use a hair band like Mariaan’s in the picture below to keep it under control.
It’s embarrassing, being married to a skipper-type person like Tony, that I get seasick. Sometimes violently so… Our time in Sodwana was marked by some totally spectacular amateur dramatics on my part, culminating in me curled in the foetal position on the deck at the back of the boat, whimpering pathetically because my by then empty stomach wouldn’t stop trying to eject itself inside-out through my oesophagus.
Boat rides are fine, but the combination of a rocking boat and the smells of fuel fumes and neoprene can turn my stomach in an instant. This leads to some very antisocial behaviour on the boat, and (I am sure) it makes Tony want to hide his face in shame. I sometimes even get sick while I am diving, if it’s a particularly surgy day or site.
Our divemaster in Sodwana, a super-relaxed young fellow called Dean, recommended one of those new-age balance bracelets, saying it had really helped with his seasickness. I need to admit that I am a skeptic of NOTE when it comes to any whiff of bogus science or non-western medicine. I am not convinced that our bodies even have a magnetic field, let alone that it needs “balancing”. But the alternatives – staying off the boat or using anti-epilepsy medication as a seasickness prophylactic – were not palatable.
Ginger, a widely-touted natural remedy, never seems to be on hand when I get on the boat. (A packet of ginger-snaps the night before a dive, however, seems like a solution I’d enjoy trying, as long as I can distract Tony from trying to help me out!)
Proformance Band
Enter the Proformance Band, available (I’m a girl – this is important) in clear or black versions. It has two little holograms at opposite sides, and you’re meant to position them over the middle of your wrist. It’s available in several sizes – mine is a small, but it’s a bit too big. There are several other brands on the market, all making the same vague claims. Power Balance is another big one.
The alleged mechanics of the band I will not explain – I’ll just get embarrassed and want to crawl under a desk – but it’s supposed to help with balance, power, and flexibility. (It’ll also bring you a cup of coffee and a rusk in bed every morning.) It’s also supposed to help with seasickness. The claims on the box are vague, characterised by qualifiers such as “may help to…” and “is believed to…”
I did some googling on the subject of these bracelets – there are various brands – and was unable to find ANY hard science backing them up. There are countless enthusiastic testimonials, however, from every man and (I kid you not) his dog, and on the strength of these and my HOPE that it’s stop the barfing, I bought one for the rather princely sum of R300.
I wore it constantly for over a month, and unfortunately (or fortunately) all the boat dives I did during that time have been on calm seas. I haven’t felt ill at all. I thought I might carry on wearing the bracelet until I could make up my mind either way whether it’s doing anything – and I am perfectly OK with the notion that it might do something just because I think it should or might – but my bro in law Andrew brought some information to my attention on Christmas day which prompted me to put an end to the experiment.
In our advertising we stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility. We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims…
This is enough for me. I felt very self-conscious wearing the bracelet – I feel like it was advertising that I believe, along with Thabo Mbeki, that HIV was delivered to earth by spacemen – and I’m going to move on to ginger as a proposed seasickness palliative. I expect this to be enjoyable. I will report back when I have enough data to draw a conclusion.
I am sure you have all enjoyed a vacation and are dying to get back to work… Hehehehe!
Permits
Every diver must have a diving permit. For those that don’t, please rush off to the post office armed with you ID book and get one for the princely sum of R94. Keep it handy, it is meant to be ”on the boat” with you. At some point you will be asked to produce it and failure to do so could result in anything from a fine to the donating of your scuba gear to the government… Jokes aside, its law, so get one. Almost every dive site in south Africa falls in a Marine Protected Area and these are the people who are meant to protect these areas from harm… They need your money.
Recent dives
December has come and gone, the sun has been warming the ocean and we have 18 -19 deg at the moment. Sadly warm water often means less visibility, but the dives we have done have still been fun.
We saw two tiny devil rays at Long Beach just off the concrete wreck near the harbour buoy, a massive short tailed sting ray and a few small playful seals.
On Sunday, in 3 – 4 m visibility Clare took these pictures of a klipfish and an octopus having a disagreement, two students with good buoyancy on their first sea dive and…
Stand-off between a klipfish and an octopusOpen Water students on their first sea dive
… these two orange clubbed nudibranchs were on the kelp near the wooden dinghy wreck at Long Beach.
Orange clubbed nudibranchs at Long Beach
Sodwana
I have attached the details and costs of the planned trip to Sodwana. This picture shows a few divers from the last trip doing a navigation swim in 25 m visibility. Did I mention the water temperature was 24 degrees celcius? and will be 25 degrees in April. If you are keen let me know, we do not have to pay anything until middle of February, so stop, think, and book…
Starting a dive in Sodwana... Look at that visiblilty!
I am hoping to get us all out on the boat this weekend. I have a few Advanced students needing to do their deep dive as well as Nitrox students. Just remember, if you book a boat dive and cancel less than 24 hours before the launch, I get billed (and hence, so do you).
This information could possibly used to certify me insane, but I will risk it.
Very little research has been done about this but I (as have many others) have always believed that different creatures begin to warm to divers. There are many stories of specific ocean creatures being named, recognised and often visited by many divers.
Octopus
Several octopus at Long Beach for example live in holes on the pipeline and no matter what if you go by in the day they will be there.
Octopus on the pipeline at Long Beach
Often, on night dives,there is no one home as they are off feeding, probably close by, but due to the darkness we don’t see them. This is how they move around at night.
Sodwana Bay had a brindle bass, seen by many divers year after year at the same dive site. This huge creature was very friendly and enjoyed interacting with divers. Many creatures in the ocean are fiercely territorial and once you have found them and discovered their territory it is easy to spot them as they seldom go far.
Tickle me please
Whilst working in Mozambique I too visited the same reef sometimes four or five times a day on a busy weekend, showing different groups of divers the same ”locals” on the reef.
This video shows a huge potato bass that I believed was always waiting for us to drop in. This potato bass is easily recognizable by the fact that she has only one eye. You could not just swim past without giving her a tickle as doing so would result in her following the group all down the reef. Ascending to the safety stop you would see her race back to the start of the reef where she knew the next group would be dropped.
I am convinced of this as on the odd occasion that the weather would present us with a reverse current, we would drop down on the opposite end of the reef and there she would be.
Moray eels
“They bite” is what any diver will tell you. Well they do, however I believe this particular black cheeked eel warmed to me. I visited her every day for about six months. The first few weeks I just looked, then the next few weeks I offered my hand, it got bitten, severely several times and the resulting injuries required a few weeks of looking only. From this video clip, heavily edited, its clear the aggression shown in the first few weeks waned, became less severe, and eventually slowed right down to a nibble without breaking the skin… Was she warming, becoming more friendly or just getting so tired of my annoying hand in her face that she didn’t want to bother? You decide.
A rather large honeycomb moray also fond of a chin tickle:
Moray getting a chin tickle
Peanut & Butter
The reason for the preceding information is to justify my fondness for two little fellas I met at Long Beach while Kate was doing her Zero to Hero course. They are called Peanut (a juvenile double sash butterflyfish) and Butter (a juvenile jutjaw).
Peanut the double sash butteflyfish
I first spotted them a couple of months back and every time I go by on a dive I take a peek to see if they are still there. Being as small as they are there is a real risk they may end up as lunch for someone, but for now we will monitor their progress and watch them grow.
Compliments of the season to everyone. Thank you for your support and for the many awesome dives we enjoyed last year. I’m looking forward to a busy dive-filled 2011 and I wish you all the very best for it.
The wind has been a pest for the last couple of weeks, so my Open Water students have been waiting patiently for the sea to flatten and for the visibility to clear (hopefully)! We will be diving our hearts out for the next few days and I will have some of you certified by the end of the week.
Dive report
We did a super dive at North Lion’s Paw near Clifton last week, in stunning visibility. I found a manefish, which usually lives in 400 metres of water, but was visiting our waters for the summer.
Manefish (Caristius groenlandicus)
Cecil found his first underwater treasure, a boat anchor, which we raised using Bernita’s SMB (thank you Bernita!).
Bernita beneath the anchor
Sodwana
We are planning a trip to Coral Divers in Sodwana from Saturday 16 April to Wednesday 20 April. The Saturday and the Wednesday will be for travel (fly to Durban and then drive about 4 hours to Sodwana), and then we’d spend four nights/three days at Coral Divers, and do six dives. The Easter weekend is from 22-25 April, so we will be off the roads before it starts and avoid the high season prices that kick in on Good Friday.
Our last Sodwana trip was a roaring success and I can highly recommend the diving (and the company). As far as costs go, I will give you a better idea in next week’s newsletter, but it will probably be in the range of R3500 per person including flights, car hire and basic self-catering accommodation. There are a range of accommodation options so you can sleep in as much luxury as your heart desires.
As we did last time, there will be opportunities for you to do dive courses such as Advanced, Nitrox or a specialty while we’re there, at a reduced rate. Non-divers are welcome – we’ll be done in the water by lunchtime and there’s lots to do in the area.
Please indicate by return mail if you might be interested so that I can work out some numbers and get an accurate quote. Final commitment will be made by paying your deposit at a later stage, so don’t sweat about being totally certain at this point!
Lost gear
If anyone has accidentally gone home with one of my dive compasses, please let me know! It’s been missing since November.
Boat dives
Please note that if you cancel a boat dive less than 24 hours in advance, you will unfortunately have to pay the dive fee. I buy 10 dive packages from Grant, and when he gets a late cancellation that spot on the boat can’t be filled and I am billed for the dive. Thank you for understanding!
Grant is on holiday for a week (well deserved) so no boat diving this weekend.
One of the things I love about diving is the silence – the only sounds are your breathing, and the sounds of the underwater world. These could include crackling coral, the sound of parrotfish munching the coral or triggerfish being aggressive, and perhaps boat traffic above. Unless you’re wearing a full face mask (ask Andre about those fabulous devices) you won’t be able to rely on normal speech to make your thoughts and needs known. So what are the options?
Inaudible communication
Hand signals
There are the standard scuba signals that you’ll learn on your Open Water course (OK, I have a problem, up, down, etc), there are fairly standard signals for various kinds of fish (the one for shark being the most obvious!) and then there are the hand signals you’ll invent as you go along. If you have a regular dive buddy, you’ll be surprised how much you can communicate with each other as you figure out a little language between yourselves.
Justin and Fritz chatting at the safety stop in Sodwana
I was highly amused to see in Sodwana that Fritz and Justin the Silver Fox, who are regular dive buddies in Cape Town, chat more underwater than on land. Thanks to his hand signals, the famously taciturn Fritz almost had his own current system swirling around him at the safety stop after our deep dive, as he and Justin discussed the turtles we’d seen and the shark who’d swum by in the distance. The photo above is dodgy because I think I was laughing so much when I took it!
Lights
If you’re in an environment where it’s dark enough for a light to be discerned, such as a cave, wreck or on a night dive, you can use your light to get your buddy’s attention. DO NOT shine it in his eyes… I can’t tell you how annoying that is!
Slates
Slates are usually white pieces of plastic that you can write on underwater with a pencil, and show to your buddy. This method of communication isn’t ideal for emergencies or for getting someone’s attention at a distance, but they can come in handy… Such as when Tami wrote “SMB?” at me on her slate after a wreck dive on the SAS Pietermaritzburg, while we completed our safety stop.
Audible communication
One of the central tenets of safe recreational scuba diving is to dive in a buddy pair, and buddy awareness is essential. You should be close enough to see your buddy’s face, if not to actually reach out and touch him. Audible signalling devices should thus not be necessary.
In an ideal world of perfect buddies and perfect diving conditions, none of these devices would be necessary. Fact is, they do come in handy, more often than not.
Shakers
A shaker looks like a sealed test tube made of plastic, with a metal ball inside it. They are marketed under such catchy names as “Aqua Maraca”, which make me want to crawl under a table and hide.
You attach it to your kit somewhere, and shake it to make a loud rattling noise underwater that will hopefully get your buddy’s attention. Just make sure your buddy knows what it sounds like underwater so that he’s not left looking around wondering what that odd noise is, while you get into trouble!
These can be SUPER annoying if you misuse them… I’m just saying!
Signalling devices, from left to right: shaker, air horn, whistle
Tank bangers
This is nothing more than a large ball or bead on an elastic band that you put over your cylinder. When you want to signal to someone, you reach back and snap the elastic, hopefully causing the bead to bang against the tank. (This is the ideal device for Tony, who LOVES to snap elastics of all kinds.)
This is a very simple device and very easy to make at home, but relies on you positioning it such that you can reach around to it when you need it. If you’re stuck somewhere, or have limited arm dexterity when in a wetsuit, perhaps this isn’t the right choice for you.
You could equally well rap on your cylinder with anything else hard that you have at hand – dive knife, torch, or a well-placed stone if you’re desperate!
Air horns
An air horn attaches to your inflator hose, and works above and below the surface. It’s essentially a pneumatic signalling device that takes a bit of air from your cylinder and uses it to generate a sound. This is probably the quickest of the noise-making signalling devices to use, because you should be very familiar with the location of your inflator button and able to find it by touch.
(Just as an aside, an air horn can be more useful than a whistle above the surface because you don’t need to remove your regulator to use it.)
Shouting
If you’re quite nearby to someone, you can potentially get their attention by yelling into your regulator. Tony’s Zero to Hero student Kate would often sing classic rock songs to herself while we swam, and when I was buddied with her I could hear her singing. As far as forming actual understandable words… Well, good luck!
The past few weeks have been busy. Kate has finished her Divemaster course and 60 dives. In 40 days, this is quite an achievement with the average dive time being 45 minutes.
The weather forecast this past week has been somewhat mystical with forecasts of 40 knot winds that never appeared and in fact we dived yesterday in what appeared to be a lake… The sea was flat.
I have students on Saturday and hope to dive at Long Beach, however the weather forecast does not seem promising. Sunday looks like an Atlantic day with a 45 km/h southeaster. If it looks better tomorrow I will text the people that have indicated their need to ”get in the water”. I start a new Zero to Hero diver today so I will once again dive every diveable day for the next few months.
The 16th is a holiday and I am planning to book a boat for a wreck dive and a reef dive in the Atlantic. Being a long weekend everyone wants to dive so please let me know by this Saturday afternoon if you are in.
Potato bass
I want to plan a trip to Sodwana for mid February, along the same lines as the last one as it was a huge success, we all had amazing dives, good food and very acceptable accommodation. Let me know if you think its a possibility so I can get some quotes in.
The next picture is the elusive anchor at Long Beach, we have found it several times now and hope to mark the spot with a GPS soon.
Anchor at Long Beach
This picture is a very friendly klipfish allowing me to stroke his chin.
Friendly klipfish
These little chaps are around at Long Beach. I have now seen four of them, all at different locations, far apart, and all different sizes, so I know there are more. The one we saw today was no bigger than a 50 cent piece. This one is called Peanut and he has a friend called Butter… Butter is a tiny little jutjaw and they are always together.
Peanut the double sash butterflyfish
The ocean is warm, sort of clean and keen to see you,
Tony Lindeque
