Scuba Confidential: An Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Better Diver – Simon Pridmore
The natural sequel to Scuba Fundamental (though it was written later), this book is aimed at qualified divers who may have reached a plateau with the sport, and want to improve their skills and explore more of what diving has to offer. Author Simon Pridmore does not shy away from subjects such as solo diving, deep diving and technical diving, and offers valuable perspectives from a lifetime in the dive industry.
Scuba Confidential
Pridmore begins with a subject that isn’t discussed enough (because it would supposedly scare away potential new divers): safety. He talks about why divers die, survival strategies, and the essential mental preparation that should come before diving.
Many divers who have passed the first, awkward stage of their careers on scuba seek to improve their skills. Pridmore discusses buoyancy, navigation, and the touchy subject of deco. The following section addresses some of the specialty options available to divers who wish to extend their qualifications: night diving, wreck diving, drift diving, cave diving, ice diving, and technical diving. While you may decide that some of these types of diving are definitely not for you, there is still much to learn from the techniques and thought processes required to do these types of dives safely.
Pridmore also deals extensively with equipment issues, returning to the subject of deploying an SMB, care and use of dive cylinders, mastering your BCD, and dive computers. In many instances, these items of gear are a matter of life and death, and well worth talking about. Narcosis, nitrox, rebreathers and other gas-related subjects round up the sections of the book that pertain to dive safety.
The final chapters deal with dive travel, with a section on liveaboards and a recap of some etiquette, which becomes increasingly important when one is diving with people one doesn’t know.
This book will satisfy a growing diver’s thirst for knowledge, draw attention to areas that need improvement or reflection, and prompt further exploration of dive-related subjects. It’s an excellent gift for the curious diver in your life.
Get a copy of the book here (SA), here (US) or here (UK).
Given the time of year, we can expect fair conditions in False Bay, but we will have to wait a month or two for conditions to improve significantly. For now we still need to contend with some swell and a fair bit of wind. For the weekend I reckon Sunday will be the better option, and we will launch from Simon’s Town jetty for the SAS Pietermaritzburg at 8.00 and then Outer Photographer’s Reef at 11.00. We’ll hope that the pod of nearly 20 orca spotted in the bay earlier this week is still around…
Tracks into the ocean
We were astonished to encounter a grader on Long Beach this morning, moving sand from inappropriate places back onto the beach. Unfortunately it had created a huge band of muddy water that interfered with our plans for a navigation dive for the Advanced course currently on the go! Better luck tomorrow.
Diarise
Tomorrow (Friday) evening Dr Tony Ribbink of Sustainable Seas Trust is giving a talk about the False Bay Hope Spot at Indigo Scuba in Gordon’s Bay. It will be very interesting and if you can, you should attend! More information about the talk here.
Lately spectacular vehicular disasters seem to follow me around. Hoping for good conditions – there was no real reason why the visibility shouldn’t be good – we set out for a dive with Open Water and Advanced students. Unfortunately the bay was filthy – we looked for clean water at Roman Rock, and found only compass sea jellies. We went south to Shark Alley, where – in desperation – we dived. It was like being in boiling pea soup, only colder. One of my students hung onto the kelp to try and keep position in the water. We had to abort a compass swim because of the surge. It was impossible to keep a heading.
Plane crash!
Meanwhile, on the boat, Kate was watching a large, camouflage-painted radio controlled aircraft circling the boat and the dive site. It crashed into the water just before we surfaced. Its owner was watching frantically from the shore. Brian leaped into the water and retrieved it, and we drove to the slipway at Miller’s Point with it balanced precariously on the pontoon.
Brian gets ready to go overboard
It started to smoke as the batteries short circuited. I told Kate – who was holding it – that if it caught alight she should throw it overboard. There was a small fuel tank that could have caused a problem if the plane started burning! Fortunately we were able to return the plane to its owner. If you recognise the plane, please tell its owner to get in touch because he must have some amazing footage of the boat at Shark Alley on the camera that was mounted on the fuselage!
Brian passes his swim test with flying colours
It turned out to be a good day for fishing (Miller’s Point was packed) but not for diving.
Brian approaching the plane
Starting to tow the plane back to the boat
Brian had to bring the plane quite a distance on the surface
Yesterday we had Craig’s point of view… Here’s Christo van Schalkwyk’s account of the Clan Stuart dive on which he and his fellow divers encountered a white shark. Christo has been diving since March 2012, and in the time since then has logged over two hundred dives, most of them here in Cape Town.
About 30 seconds into the dive, just as I got to the bottom, a little to the north of the engine block, I saw the shark approach from the south. It swam past us towards the north. It turned and swam back down the wreck in a southerly direction, on the inshore side. For a while it was out of sight. We kept looking out for it, while motioning to the other divers to bunch together and stay low on the wreck. A few seconds later we saw it approaching from the south again. I could see both eyes as it swam straight at me. When it was about three metres away it veered off slightly to swim past us, parallel to the wreck. At this point it was only about two metres away from Craig and me. I remember choosing the spot where I was going to hit it if turned back towards us.
Fortunately it kept gliding past and as the pectoral fins came past, something seemed to disturb it. It flicked its tail once and shot away to the north. (Seeing the video taken by Vlad later, it seemed as if one of us exhaling was what disturbed the shark, but this is only speculation.) After a second or two, it was out of sight and we didn’t see it again.
We crouched down low on the wreck, looking around, and repeated the instructions to the other divers to keep close and low down. At this time we saw Sergey coming towards us from a rocky outcrop (or piece of wreckage) about 3-4 metres away from the main wreck, towards the deep side. We beckoned (with some urgency) to him to come closer. He swam quite slowly towards us, but when he got close enough, we pulled him down onto the wreck with us. As he was positioning himself, his weightbelt caught on a piece of the wreck and came off. I had to help him put it back on from underneath.
We stayed where we were (just north of the engine block of the wreck) for about another minute or so. I remember looking at my dive computer which read 2 minutes at that point. It didn’t seem a viable option to surface, even though I knew Tony would be close with the boat. I didn’t fancy the notion of hanging around on the surface, trying to get all 6 divers on the boat, all the while not knowing where the shark was. After another half a minute or so, Craig and I had a hand signal discussion on what to do next. He suggested heading south down the centre of the wreck, in the opposite direction to the shark’s last known heading. I thought we should go for the beach, to the north west. We agreed on the beach and started off in that direction, staying very low.
Just before leaving the wreck, Craig’s weight belt came loose as well. I took the reel from him and held on to his BCD with one hand and the wreck and reel with the other, while he tried to put the weight belt back on. This seemed to take forever – I remember seeing Vlad sliding in under a raised sheet of steel and hiding there (and feeling a bit jealous of his nice cover…). Eventually I gave the reel back to Craig and got him to hold on to the wreck and got in underneath him to try and see what the problem with the belt was. Once the belt was back on, we dropped down onto the sand on the shore side of the wreck.
Then we had to swim over the sand, without cover, towards the beach. It took a while to gather the group together to do this. We stayed very low, flat on the bottom. As we swam the group seemed to fan out, so we stopped once or twice to reassemble. Craig kept watch to the north, while I scanned the southern arc. Once we got into shallower water the surge took us along quite quickly and the group spread out even more, but it wasn’t possible to do anything about that any more. We got tumbled a bit in the breakers on the beach, but in the end managed to help each other to the beach unscathed with only the loss of one mask.
Total dive time: 13 minutes
Boat entry, shore exit.
Christo’s diagram of the dive site, with indications of what happened where, is below. Click on the image to enlarge it!
Most of our shore dives with Tony’s students are done at Long Beach, behind Simon’s Town station. It’s a plain little beach in a beautiful setting. Instead of trying to get all fancy with the camera to show you what it’s like, here are some photos I’ve taken by accident over the course of many dives there. My camera bumps against my leg as I exit the water, and sometimes an interesting moment is captured.
The buried slipway at Long Beach
Because the beach is sheltered behind the harbour wall, it’s a popular site for dive training and other water sports. We often see novice (and experienced, but they’re less fun to watch) kayakers taking to the water here.
Kayak ready for actionWatersports activity
We also often see sailing boats and little dabchicks when the wind is up. I don’t have any accidental photos of them, though!
Long Beach seems to be popular even when the weather is questionable.
Umbrellas on the beachCloudy day at Long Beach
Just south of Long Beach is the Admiralty Beach, which is prohibited to the public. For that simple reason, it seems incredibly alluring. There’s also a very interesting shallow rocky reef just off the beach, where one can end up by accident if one’s navigation skills are questionable.
Fence between Long Beach and the Admiralty Beach
For Long Beach, which is not by any stretch of the imagination suitable for surfing, this is a very large wave. Fortunately we managed the difficult entry and exit successfully!
I’ve been using the Suunto D6 dive computer for about eight months now, having finally got my grubby paws on it just after returning from our last trip to Sodwana. I think it’s about time I write a little review of it, because Suunto have just released the D6i and before you know it my computer will be a museum relic.
Specifications and appearance
The D6 is near the upper end of the range of Suunto dive computers – the model I have will now set you back in the region of R10,000 and there are several cheaper but no less effective offerings. The USB interface cable that will enable your dive computer to talk to your computer will set you back up to a further R1,500 – although this item is frequently advertised on special by Suunto stockists and occasionally as a special bundled with the dive computer, so keep your eyes open. It’s far more usual, however, to have to buy this innocuous-looking cable separately, and gasp at the price.
You can choose an elastomer strap or a metal strap (for about R2,000 more). Although the metal strap looks really cool, it’s not really practical if you dive in varying water temperatures and change the amount of neoprene on your wrist frequently. The computer functions as a dress watch if you want to use it as one – it displays the time constantly when not in dive or memory mode – but it weighs more than a slab of chocolate (130g) and is far too large for the average lady’s wrist, so I don’t use it for this purpose except when travelling (to deny the baggage handlers at OR Tambo Airport the privilege of stealing it).
The computer has a four button interface that I find very intuitive, and I could figure it out to a large degree without reading the manual. That said, if you buy a dive computer, YOU MUST READ THE MANUAL! Don’t be a fool – you want to know EXACTLY why the thing is beeping at you, what it looks like when you go into deco, and be very sure (as one clown – who was buddied with us once because he didn’t know anyone on the boat – wasn’t) whether the “3” you see on the screen indicates a time in minutes, your current depth, or the number of brain cells you have. Read the manual!
Air integration and the D6i
The D6 has actually been replaced by the D6i, which is functionally identical but has more internal memory, and is capable of air integration with an optional (heart-stoppingly expensive) dongle that you attach to your cylinder and reads remaining air. The computer will then give you an estimate of remaing dive time based on air consumption to date. I have no interest in this (at the time I bought the D6, air integration was the main distinguishing feature from the D9) – I’d use a pressure gauge regardless, and wouldn’t feel comfortable trusting what I see as an physical, analogue process (displaying the air remaining in my cylinder) to a potentially failure-prone piece of electronics.
I know I may sound like a luddite here, but an experience Tony had on the boat a few months ago confirmed my reservations. Another instructor’s student had an air integrated computer and no pressure gauge (why bother with redundancy?). The air integration with the computer wouldn’t work, but they only discovered this on the boat when they were parked over the dive site, and – after toying with the idea of cancelling the dive, and then swapping kit so the instructor, who should have an excellent feel for his air consumption, had the set up with no pressure gauge – did a very short dive. As a mathematician I can see that having snapshots of your remaining air at 20 second intervals to look at in the dive manager software might be appealing though…
Decompression algorithm
The D6 uses the Suunto Deep Stop RGBM (Reduced Gradient Bubble Model), and allows for continuous decompression as you ascend (instead of forcing you to do stops at particular depths). It also allows you to complete your safety stopsat depth – something I haven’t experimented with much, but will be using next time we dive the Lusitania. The computer recommends a safety stop once you exceed 10 metres on a dive, and if you violate the recommended ascent rate it will advise a mandatory safety stop between 3 and 6 metres. I tried to photograph the D6 during a dive where I’d switched on deep stops, but there was a 20 metre layer of green plankton blocking out the light from above, and my flash kept reflecting off the screen protector. Hence the dubious results you see here. I have 28 minutes of no-decompression time remaining, dive time is 11 minutes, depth is 20.9 metres, and my first deep stop will be at 13 metres. Maximum depth (bottom left) so far has been 23.8 metres.
Suunto D6 during a dive – first deep stop is due at 13 metres
You’re most likely aware of this, but a dive computer does not measure anything that is going on in your body with respect to dissolved gases. Dive computers use mathematical models – based on the original dive tables, only more sophisticated – that approximate, for the average person, how much nitrogen has gone into solution in the body’s tissues, and how fast it is being released, based on your dive profile. They measure depth temperature, and time, that’s all. For this reason many dive computers, including the D6, have an option for you to set a more conservative calculation algorithm if you’re at higher risk of DCS – for reasons of increased age, high body fat percentage, or any of the other DCS-predisposing risk factors. You can also adjust the partial pressure settings up and down if you so desire, but anything higher than 1.4 bar (ata) strikes me as reckless.
Nitrox and no-fly time
It goes without saying that the D6 is Nitrox capable, and it’s very straightforward to set the Nitrox mix. After one dive on Nitrox, the option to do a repetitive air dive disappears, and you have to manually set the oxygen percentage of your mix back down to 21%. I think this is to force you to think about what gas is in your cylinder. The D6 also handles switching to a richer mix for decompression, and this optional second mix may be set through the same menu system as the primary nitrox mix.
The D6, again like most dive computers, gives a no-fly time after you’re done with diving for the day. This time is usually well under 18 hours, but you’d do well to follow DANguidelines forflying after diving (usually 18 hours after your last dive) and not bank on the reading given by your computer. Do not be like Gerard, who shall remain nameless, and mistake the time display on your computer for the no-fly time. After a dive on the Aster that ended at about 3.30pm, he announced that his no-fly time was “fifteen hours and twenty nine minutes.” A few minutes later, to his puzzlement, it was “fifteen hours and thirty four minutes!”
Dive Manager software
The Suunto dive manager software, that allows you to examine the details of your dives on your computer screen at home, is not compatible with Apple Macs, so I had to find another solution. I’ll review the software I do use, MacDive, in a separate post. Apparently from “fall 2011”, whenever that rolls (rolled) around, the Suunto software – DM4 – will also be compatible with Apple computers. I’ll test it when I get a chance, and let you know what it’s like… As is apparently wildly popular these days, one can also share one’s sporting activities on the Suunto Movescount site via an automatic link-up from within the software interface. And, no doubt, publish them to facebook.
Electronic compass
Suunto D6 with elastomer strap (right) and titanium strap (left)
One of the major appeals for me of the D6 – and I think the feature that bumps its price up so much higher than the D4 – was the integrated electronic compass, which can be accessed at (almost) any time by holding down the top left (Select) button. In the picture at right, the D6 with the elastomer strap is on the compass display (the one on the right is in the memory log display mode which can’t be accessed during a dive). If you’re not on a dive when you use the compass, obviously the depth and dive time won’t show.
The D6i has updated the compass to allow accurate readings when your wrist is tilted; the old D6 (the one I have) is not as tolerant and you’ll need to keep your arm level as with a standard dive compass. Unfortunately the D6 doesn’t record the compass heading along with the temperature, depth and other dive statistics during the dive – or, if it does, the download software I use doesn’t access it. I suspect the former is true, since I installed Suunto’s own dive manager software on Tony’s PC to check, and there was no sign of compass headings. Boo.
What’s in the box
In the box was the computer, a strap extender, the instruction manual, a disc with the Windows-compatible dive manager software on it, and two or three scratch guards which are trimmed to fit the D6’s screen. I’ve done close to 70 dives with my D6 so far, and the scratch guard is scratched and still doing its job well. Tony’s computer, the Mares Nemo Wide, is protected with some cheap cellphone screen protectors we got from Look ‘n Listen. You can buy a generic size, and then trim it down to fit your phone (or dive computer, as the case may be). We didn’t expect this makeshift scratch guard – which is NOT designed for regular immersion in salt water – to last beyond five or ten dives, but over 100 dives and it’s going strong. I think I paid R60 for the pack of screen protector stickers, and we’ll get nine Nemo Wide-sized ones out of the package.
Buying it
Continuing with the subject of good value, one more tip for the bargain hunters. I actually bought my D6 from Cape Union Mart. They stock Suunto sports watches, and were able to order me a D6 from Suunto in Finland. I had to wait six weeks for it to arrive, and it cost R8,700. What made the deal very sweet was that by buying it on my Discovery Card which gives me a 20% discount at Cape Union Mart (thanks to my years in the Vitality program and points status), the computer ended up costing just under R7,000. I paid a further R1,200 for the download cable (I got that at a dive centre). If you have a few weeks before you need the computer, or are prepared to wait in exchange for some savings, it’s worth getting a quote from Cape Union Mart as to what they’ll charge you. If you’ve got a Discovery Card it’s a no-brainer. Email them via the website for a quotation, and they’ll tell you to print that and take it to your nearest Cape Union Mart to place the order. I had to pay a 50% deposit.
Update (late 2012): Based on feedback from other divers who have shopped for Suunto computers lately, it seems that Cape Union Mart isn’t doing this any more, unfortunately – but it’s worth asking anyway!
Maintaining it
Finally – if you have a dive computer and live in Cape Town, take it to Orca in Claremont to get the battery changed when necessary, and ask for Chris the “worship manager” (that’s autocorrect gone wild on “workshop manager”) to do it for you. Tony’s students have had baaaaad experiences (a hair across the seal, anyone?!) at other locations. There’s usually not much you can do if the service centre doesn’t seal the computer properly and it floods – your only recourse will possibly be to your insurance company.
Update (December 2017): The increasing frequency of muggings by armed men in the vicinity of the Kakapo (sometimes hiding inside the wreck) means that you should only visit the wreck in a large group, on a weekend, preferably accompanied by dogs, and – unfortunately – with the expectation of trouble. When the management of Table Mountain National Park finally realises that their mandate requires action on this matter, rather than focusing on just collecting entrance fees to the park and fining the vicious criminal dog walkers who don’t have activity cards, I’ll tone down this warning.
The wreck of the Kakapo on Long Beach, Noordhoek
The Kakapo is not a shipwreck that you can dive on; it’s actually one that you can explore with your non-diving buddies, and even with your dog. No special qualifications are required to do a wreck penetration here.
Tony walking away from the wreck
On an evening in late May 1900, during a northwesterly gale with rain and thick mist, it seems that the captain mistook Chapmans Peak for Cape Point (this was before the days of the Slangkop Lighthouse), and swung hard a-port, full steam ahead, as he rounded it. The ship was driven so far up the beach – which she hit at an impressive speed of nine and a half knots – that banks of sand rose on each side of the hull.
Me next to the boiler
There’s some confusion as to exactly why the incident took place. Apparently the fog was so bad that the officers on watch couldn’t see past the bow of the ship from the wheelhouse; the ship’s compass was also rumoured to be faulty. The page in the ship’s logbook corresponding to 25 May 1900 mysteriously vanished, so the truth remains unknown.
The wreck of the Kakapo on Noordhoek Beach
The ribs of the ship sticking out of the sand
Tony investigating the wreck
One side of the rusted hull, and the boiler
Ribs of the hull
Tony at a funnel (I think)
Boiler hole
Inside the boiler
Inside the boiler
Tony investigates the boiler
Tony at what remains of the stern of the vessel
The ship’s boiler
Regardless of the reason for the presence of this particular shipwreck, I find the story hilarious (although I’m sure there were some red faces all round), and since I love shipwrecks this is one of my favourite places in Cape Town. You can either park in the beach parking area just below Chapmans Peak and walk several kilometres down Long Beach, Noordhoek, or you can go via Kommetjie, which is a lot shorter.
Sunset behind the boiler
This is a wonderful walk for a summer evening, or a picnic spot for a warm weekend. It’s far enough away from everything that you can feel as though you have the place totally to yourself.
Wreck sticking out of the sand
These photographs were taken in early 2010; the sand moves about and at some times more or less of the ship may be exposed.
Steve and his hard-working team at Pisces Divers in Glencairn have been labouring for a few weekends now on their artificial reef at Long Beach. I finally had an opportunity to check it out on a dive with Tony, Tami, Keren, Nils and Corne, and was extremely impressed by their work so far. Check out this awesome contraption to transport breeze blocks – this is ingenuity!
Awesome inner tube transport contraption
The main feature (or hostess, if you will) of the reef is Lady Long Beach, who I think used to live in Erika and Steve’s garden. She looks much happier in the sea! We did speak to another diving instructor who said that some students of his came across her on a night dive, just after she’d been placed in the water, and almost jumped out of their wetsuits to see a “wee girlie” (he’s Scottish) standing calmly on the sand, illuminated by their torches!
Her Serene Highness, Lady Long Beach
Recent additions include a large plant pot (which we’ve taken to calling the bird bath) – I think this could be an excellent place to hide, if you’re small enough… And a very impressively constructed, gently curving wall of concrete breeze blocks, held together by cable ties.
The "bird bath", with a large klipfish on its base at the rightCurved wall of breeze blocksThe wall and Lady Long Beach
We are so looking forward to seeing how this develops… Artificial reefs are a wonderful habitat for fish and other creatures, and this one is sure to be a popular diver attraction at Long Beach. It’s located 25 metres north of the seaward end of the pipeline… Go check it out!
Diving in Cape Town is often done without a Divemaster. Many of the dive sites are shore entries and quite often they are dived by casual divers and groups of friends.
Dive briefing on the beach at Sodwana
Resort environments most often only conduct led dives, meaning there is a Divemaster that knows the site, the local conditions and the wildlife you will most likely encounter. These dives will invariably start with a dive briefing where the site will often be drawn on the sand or displayed in a book. The Divemaster will detail the site, the dive time, what percentage of you air will mean that you are “low on air” (often based on the depth, conditions and skills of the group), who leads, who follows and who buddies up with whom. Dive time and profile will also probably be based on the Divemaster’s computer. A good briefing will also cover lost buddy procedure, what to do in an emergency and the hand signals that will be used. Entry and exit techniques or special requirements will also feature. Some briefings will also include the signals for specific creatures.
In essence a dive briefing should cover as much as possible is a relatively short time (10 minute briefings will bore any diver to death) unless you are planning a very technical or potentially hazardous dive. The more you cover in a briefing the less chance of confusion underwater.
Diving, irrespective of the location is best conducted in a safe manner. (You get to do a lot more dives that way!) Understanding the weather, assessing the conditions and having some knowledge of the site goes a long way to ensure a good dive. Diving within your own ability also rates highly.
Cape Town offers the qualified diver a wide range of dives and the fact that there might not be a Divemaster with you does not mean you should not experience the dives. There are a few basics to consider, knowing the dive site is only possible after you have dived it a few times. Once you have decided to dive a site, read all the available information on the wikivoyage site for diving in Cape Town. This website will be your Divemaster. It will tell you how to get in and out, what skills and qualifications you need, depth, and the marine life to be expected. It will also tell you which weather conditions are best for the site. Pay close attention to the bearings if you want to see a specific feature, and know what the bearing is to get you back to shore.
Armed with all of this knowledge you and your buddy/buddies need only agree on a few issues before you set off. Plan your dive and dive your plan. If you agree it will be a 40 minute dive, stick to that. If you decide on who will lead then keep the order as such. Who your buddy will be and depth are important and it is important to agree on signals. As a qualified diver you are responsible for your own air so you need not have a Divemaster check it for you. If you are a group that dive together often then its best to base the dive time on the member with the worst air consumption, unless they are happy to return to shore alone. You will need a compass, and you will need to read the site details together to ensure you all have a good idea of the environment and likely conditions. You must have an SMB as this avoids the potential haircut you can receive from a passing boat.
It should not be required to cover this but I will ANYWAY, Make sure your equipment is proper, the correct size, and in serviceable condition. Don’t enter the water if you have an equipment malfunction or a leak or any other issue. Don’t think “we won’t be deep,” or “we won’t be far from the shore” and dive with faulty equipment. Should an emergency arise and you are swept out to sea, that small leak on you BCD will soon be a huge problem.
Diving is a very safe sport if you follow the rules, do the checks, and dive within your training. Do these things and you will have thousands of dives, each one often better that the last one.
Well, it looks like an attempt at sun protection, or a badly improvised turban. What it really is, is Dean practising compass navigation at Long Beach for his Open Water course. His left arm has the compass on it, and he’s watching it under the towel as he attempts to navigate a straight route back down the beach.
