The first winter swell arrived last weekend and hung around all week. It is dropping off and should be gone by the weekend. We had a good trip out to Dungeons last Saturday and no matter how often I go I am always awed by the impressive skills on display from the surfers and the jet ski drivers.
Dungeons last Saturday
This weekend we are fully booked as we have a group of police divers from the Northern Cape who have booked several days’ diving from the boat, and on Sunday the boat has been chartered for a swim from Milnerton lighthouse to Big Bay.
If you’re free on Sunday, the annual Paddle Out for Sharks is taking place. The aim is to raise awareness about shark conservation issues. The Cape Town event is taking place at Long Beach, Simon’s Town.
Please also note that Chapmans Peak drive is closed indefinitely, owing to mud slides.
We had great conditions last weekend – Atlantis was magnificent – and the good visibility has remained all week. Peet took a stunning video on last weekend’s dive at Atlantis that you can watch here. The weekend heralds the first big winter swell and the predictions earlier in the week were for 7 metre swells with a 16 second period. The forecast swell is now down to 6 metres. Either way, it is WAY too much for pleasant diving.
Surfers looking like ants on the face of Dungeons
On Saturday morning there will be a gathering at the harbour in Hout Bay to sign and hand over a petition to oppose the proposed restrictions on seal snorkeling and diving. It would be a great help if you came by to Hout Bay harbour at 11.00 am. We will be there from around 9.00 am as there are most likely going to be some of Cape Town’s finest big wave surfers heading out to Dungeons and/or Sunset Reef and we will go out and watch from the boat.
If you’d like to book a spot on the boat to check out the surfing, if it materialises either on Saturday or Sunday, let me know and I will keep you in the loop about plans and times.
One of the joys of having a manoeuvreable, user-friendly little boat is the opportunities that arise to participate in a variety of interesting events. Lately, we have been doing a number of open water swims; not swimming, but providing boat support to a swimmer who is traversing a stretch of open ocean. Last year we did the Swim for Hope around Cape Point, and the Freedom Swim from Robben Island to Big Bay, and several more of the same in 2015.
We used SharkShields at the Swim for Hope events, and with the increasing number of swims that Tony has been supporting we thought it might be time to invest in a SharkShield for use in these events. The SharkShield is a portable device designed to be worn by a surfer, free diver or scuba diver. It has a long antenna which emits an electric current which is intended to repel sharks. When used for open water swimming, the SharkShield is typically attached to the side of the boat with the antenna in the water alongside, creating a radius of 3-5 metres within which the current can be felt by a shark. If you touch the end of the antenna there is a noticeable pinching sensation, so swimmers have to be careful when approaching the boat.
Tony testing some SharkShields in the pool
Proper scientific testing of the device in Australia and South Africa indicates that it is by no means foolproof, and does not work in all situations, but it seems to have a certain usefulness if your visiting white shark is in the right frame of mind. The paper reporting the results of the SharkShield tests says:
Our study assessed the behavioural effects of the electric field produced by the Shark Shield Freedom7™. The study was performed in two locations and tested two distinct approach and behavioural situations to assess whether the response to the Shark Shield™ was consistent across behaviours. The electric field did not affect the proportion of static baits consumed, but significantly decreased the number of breaches, and surface interactions on a towed seal decoy.
The authors suggest that since breaching requires significant energy outlay, sharks may be more cautious to mount a breaching attack in the presence of anything out of the ordinary (I’m paraphrasing). Even with knowledge of the device’s usefulness only in certain situations, it still provides great peace of mind to swimmers while they swim in parts of the ocean where sharks are known to be mobile, such as False Bay.
The Freedom7 SharkShield unit outside its neoprene case
Tony was able to examine and test several lightly- to well-used Freedom7 SharkShields to see which of them worked, and what the battery life was like. In the process he shocked himself several times, which provided great entertainment to me and caused some consternation to the cats, who were themselves strolling around alarmingly close to the antennae. The unit itself is filled with something that looks like glycerin, to keep it pressurised and protect the electronics. The red switch at right turns the device on and off, and red and green lights indicate whether it’s on, charged, and functioning. A wet hand applied to the end of the antenna also gives information on whether the device is functioning…
The shark repellent cable that was tested at Glencairn this summer is a massively scaled up version of these retail SharkShields. It is essential that development and testing of non-lethal shark mitigation devices continues, to provide an alternative to measures such as the KwaZulu Natal shark nets, and the French government’s shark fishing activities at Reunion in response to multiple shark bite incidents at the island.
I took this photo while a large swell was pushing into False Bay. The sea at Muizenberg was an appetising (Appletising?) green colour and despite the large waves, there were not many surfers in the water – too messy?
Last weekend we took the boat down to Buffels Bay in the Cape Point Nature Reserve to join OMSAC for a day of snorkeling, diving and braai-ing.. The conditions were terrific and both the shore divers and those on the boat had great viz. We took the boat to Batsata Maze and to an unnamed site just on the outside of the exclusion zone around the reserve. We were very fortunate to have a whale cruising by during the safety stop, fascinated by the divers’ SMB, and then hanging around as the divers surfaced. It is a stunning setting for a day out and even the tidal pool was filled with interesting creatures.
There are some photos on facebook, and a nifty little time lapse video of us putting the boat onto the trailer at the slipway. I usually wind the winch much faster than in the video, though – I must have been having an off day on Saturday…
Waiting to put the boat on the trailer at Buffels Bay
On Monday we enjoyed fantastic visibility at Partridge Point, where we snorkeled with seals, and at Shark Alley. There are still a lot of cowsharks around – the time of year when they usually disappear is approaching, so we are watching with interest.
This weekend
A southerly swell rolls into False Bay in time for the weekend. The Kalk Bay Shootout surf competition participants are all excited. When surfers are excited, divers are not. We share the ocean… Just not always at the same time. There is also the False Bay Yacht Club spring regatta taking place on Saturday and Sunday – more info here.
I doubt there will be anywhere pleasant to dive in False Bay. The south easter only starts blowing on Saturday so I doubt that the viz out of Hout Bay will improve enough for good diving. That leaves the Atlantic seaboard. Twenty four hours of strong south easter might clean the water close inshore enough for good diving.
I reckon the best options will be North and South Paw or Justin’s Caves and surroundings, so that’s the plan for Sunday. If the south easter makes it over the top of Table Mountain, and cleans the water sufficiently, we will launching from OPBC at 10.30 am and 1.00 pm. If you’re keen to dive let me know and I’ll contact you on Saturday afternoon to let you know if conditions are good enough.
Early morning at Cape Point Nature Reserve
If you are at a loose end on Saturday, an excellent way to spend your time is at the coastal cleanup dive in Hout Bay harbour. We attended a few years ago, and it is great fun and good for the environment. Just wear a kilogram or two extra of weight if your weighting is usually marginal – the water is not very deep!
Cape Town International Boat Show
In three weeks’ time the CTICC comes alive with the Cape Town International Boat Show. This year there will be a new addition in the form of a “dive village”. Collectively a bunch of local dive centres and operators have come together to make this happen with the goal of showcasing the incredible diversity of diving we have to offer in Cape Town. The village will have a pool in the centre and we will offer non-divers an opportunity to breathe underwater and hopefully come to enjoy the ocean as much as we all do.
The show is on from 10-12 October at the Convention Centre. Come down and visit the representatives of your local dive operator and bring a friend who needs convincing that diving is the best thing ever, and amongst everyone in the dive village we will do our best to get them in the water. SURG will also be there showcasing some of the best photos taken in and around Cape Town’s waters. There are also bound to be a bunch of interesting course options, gear sales, camera displays and the like. Plus the rest of the boat show, which is well worth a look!
On Saturday 23 August a long (21 second) period swell rolled in from a favourable direction, and some waves stood up quite tall at Sunset Reef, a wedge shaped reef about a kilometre off Long Beach, Kommetjie, that starts breaking when the swell is 3-4 metres in size. There were about 25 surfers in the water, and a few spectators in boats and jet skis. The wave I filmed in this video was too small (I think) to ride, so it just rolled through the group of surfers untouched. But it gives you a sense of how these bulges of water were appearing, seemingly from nowhere, on an otherwise flat piece of ocean, and then storming beachward.
The air temperature was on the nippy side, and the water was on the very nippy side, so the surfers must have been quite chilled lying on their boards waiting for something to happen. This second video shows some surfers actually catching one of the bigger waves. Look how fast they are moving! You can also get an idea of the number of boats and jet skis in attendance.
When conditions are this good for surfing it’s rarely good enough to dive, which is why we’re very happy to take the boat out for an adventure like this when the opportunity arises. Please get in touch if you’d like to be informed of future expeditions!
Interested in a more sedate introduction to big wave surfing? I just read Ghost Wave, which is pretty awesome.
Ghost Wave: The Discovery of Cortes Bank and the Biggest Wave on Earth – Chris Dixon
Ghost Wave
Chris Dixon is a surf journalist and author, with strong connections to the big wave surfing community. Nominally concerned with Cortes Bank, a submerged mountain in the deep Pacific ocean that rises nearly to the surface and generates massive waves under the right conditions, Ghost Waveis also a cultural history of big wave surfing.
Cortes Bank is located nearly 170 kilometres west of San Diego, California. It is a seamount that rises from nearly two kilometres’ depth, with a flattish top about 30 kilometres long. Its shallowest point is called Bishop Rock and is very close (1-2 metres at times) to the surface. When swells arrive from the right direction, with a long period, they are pushed up by the sudden depth change, creating waves up to 30 metres high. The wave moves so fast that surfers sometimes need to be towed into it on jet skis (igniting a whole other debate), and being held down on the reef is a potentially fatal experience. This video purports to explain how the wave works, but may require more than one viewing as the graphics whizz by a bit fast. Dixon says that the waves at Cortes Bank may have no theoretical upper limit.
Dixon also describes the known history of Cortes Bank, which has long been known as a navigational hazard to shipping – because of its shallowness at Bishop Rock, and also because sometimes a wave tens of metres high is standing up unexpectedly in the middle of the ocean! The first attempt to surf the wave may have been in the 1960s, but Dixon describes the first “recent” attempts, beginning in 1995.
Big wave surfers are a closed, almost secretive group, privy to experiences more terrifying and incredible than most ordinary people will ever face. Part of this secrecy, I suspect, is a deliberate and unnecessary attempt to add mystique to the sport. Dixon’s insight into one part of the developing big wave culture, and his descriptions of other big waves (Jaws, Mavericks, etc) add welcome colour to this – to me at least – mysterious pastime. It is entirely different to ordinary surfing. For some other perspectives on big wave surfing, from characters mentioned only in passing in Ghost Wave, check out The Wave (all about Laird Hamilton), and this article about Ken Bradshaw.
If you’d happened to look out to sea from Long Beach, Kommetjie just after lunchtime on Saturday 23 August, may have seen – just at the limits of your sight – a group of 20-25 surfers, sitting on their boards in the middle of a flat ocean. If you’d continued watching for a while, you would have seen giant sets of swell rolling through the group of surfers, and, as the afternoon progressed, you’d have seen more and more of those waves being surfed.
Curling wave at Sunset
The waves were breaking at Sunset Reef, an outcrop shaped like a wedge about one kilometre offshore from Long Beach. There is a lot of kelp in this area, and it isn’t particularly deep, but the deep water is not far away, which has something to do with why this wave stands up the way it does. It’s not Dungeons by any stretch of the imagination (and on this particular day, one of the surfers told Tony that the wave was a “four out of ten” for size), but for a recreational surfer, or me – who doesn’t surf – it’s a remarkable sight.
A wedge of water
There were long lulls between the sets, and after a while I started to get disoriented and forget where the wave breaks. Later in the afternoon, the waves got bigger and bigger, and once the surfers started to stand up on the waves we could see just how fast they were moving. Some of the surfers stayed further inshore, and just did short, speedy rides on the shoulder of the waves as they came past, looking relaxed and loose limbed as they caught a ride closer to the beach.
Racing down the wave
One of the first swells after we arrived
Spray trailing behind
End of the ride
Back of a wave
Surfers at the bottom of a wave
Steep face
Riding the shoulder
Getting into position
White foam
Apparently flat seas towards Kommetjie
Photographers in front of a wave
Foam and spray
Casual ride
Several surfers seize the gap
Narrow escape
Froth and noise
Harry casual
Noordhoek end of Chapman’s Peak drive in the background
Bodies everywhere
Jet ski in on the action
Last ride
In the distance, below Slangkop lighthouse, we could see a parade of swells and breaking waves at another shallow reef. We had a wonderful time, enjoying the display of natural power, as well as being entertained and awed by the surfers.
There are way too many pictures on social media of snow close to Cape Town. This normally has a profound impact on one’s enthusiasm for getting into a wetsuit. We have had a few days of strong north and westerly winds which will have cleaned False Bay up quite nicely.
The weekend weather does look far better than the current view from your window but it will take a while for the day to warm up. The plan is therefore to do later launches than usual. On Saturday we will launch at 12.00 and 2.30pm. We will go to Fan Reef and Roman Rock. I think there may be a little surge left over from today’s swell and some run-off from the rain so going out a little further and deeper should fix that. Sunday will depend on what the conditions are like on Saturday, but I would like to do the swim from Photographer’s Reef to Ark Rock (tide is right for that).
Watching surfers at Sunset Reef
The weekend that was
We didn’t dive last weekend because of the swell, but went on Saturday afternoon to watch some surfers attack the quite large waves at Sunset off Kommetjie. It was pretty spectacular. You can see some of the photos in this facebook album.
A local surf photographer, Grant Scholtz, captured the two amazing images of our boat in this newsletter and was kind enough to share them with us. He also told us about Waves for Change, a really exciting intervention into some of Cape Town’s most violent and disadvantaged communities, using surfing to bring young people into an environment where they can be helped and learn new skills. If you’re looking for a cause to support, with ties to the ocean, this is an interesting one to consider.
