I'm a fish! Kate's story....

Although I am not involved in Indigo Scuba full time (it is my husband, Deon’s business), diving is a passion – a lifestyle. Corny as it may sound, I live to dive and dive to live.

When I’m diving, I’m no longer the General Manager of the Cape Winemaker’s Guild with the associated stresses of managing 36 winemakers and co-ordinating South Africa’s top wine auction (amongst a zillion other things!). When I’m under water, I’m not a mother to three teenage daughters - I am a fish … or at least I feel like one!

Diving gives me the opportunity to exist in another dimension and to explore a different world - one that is exciting, constantly changing and never the same. Diving is an adventure!

Although I had grown up at the beach, snorkelling since the age of 9 and surfing since the age of 12, my first scuba diving class was a total disaster.

I was terrified, but determined to do it – I wanted to explore for myself what I was seeing on the television and what my friends were raving about. Fortunately I had an extremely patient instructor. I was doing the course on my own so I didn’t have anyone to compare notes with. Being a perfectionist and because I was nervous and had trouble mask-clearing, I thought I was a disaster and that I would never get it right.

I was even too scared to swim up and down the pool on my own under water and insisted on holding my instructor’s hand the whole way. Feeling like a total failure, I went home and practiced mask clearing in the swimming pool all night. Eventually I got it right…

Before my second pool session, my instructor gave a potential customer a “try dive”. It was obvious she did not really want to learn to dive and was under pressure from her boyfriend to give it a go. She was too scared to put on a wetsuit and didn’t even want to put her head in the water! I sat at the bottom of the pool next to her, staring at her shivering, goose-bumped legs, singing “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor to myself. Just then, I realised that I wasn’t doing to badly after all! I could breathe underwater and I suddenly wasn’t scared any more.

Things improved in leaps and bounds from there on… In fact, I enjoyed my first sea dive so much that I lead my dive instructor around instead. I can clearly remember thinking how beautiful everything looked – just like an underwater garden – with kelp swaying in the water and tracing beautiful patterns in the sand, tiny fish flitting around everywhere and sea urchins and anemones resembling brightly-coloured flowers. I didn’t even panic when the old and decrepit BC that I had been borrowing from a friend kept inflating of its own accord. I just disconnected it and inflated it orally when I needed some buoyancy. Simple as that.

People often ask me “isn’t diving dangerous?” Sure it is – if you’re not properly trained, if you’re over-confident, if you take stupid risks, push everything to the limit and especially if you panic. I’ve dropped my weight belt at 30 metres, burst an ear drum at 12 metres, experienced the ear-ringing effects of nitrogen narcosis at 42 metres and been fortunate to see a great white without a cage. I’m still here to tell the tale (and more!). With good training, careful diving, knowing what to do should things go wrong and learning to breathe calmly and not to panic, one can overcome those curve-balls that diving might throw at you occasionally.

I have never regretted taking that initial decision to learn to scuba dive - diving has taken me to exotic places both locally and across the globe. I’ve scuba dived with dolphins at Sha’ab Ali and explored the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea, dived with hammerhead sharks and Zambezis at Pinnacles in Ponta do’Ouro, with Ragged-tooth sharks in Umkomaas and Whale sharks and manta rays in Tofo, Mozambique.

Throughout the world of diving, I’ve made the most amazing, interesting and entertaining friends. No matter where I have travelled, I’ve always been welcomed with open arms, enthusiastic advice and some really good diving tales…

There’s a whole world out there to be discovered and all that you need to do is learn to dive!

What are you waiting for?

Kate Jonker

Castle Rock, Simon's Town

Yesterday we dived at one of our favourite dive sites on the Western side of False Bay – Castle Rock just outside Simon’s Town.

This dive site is situated in a marine reserve and the plant and fish life here is flourishing - everywhere you look, there is so much to see.

In fact, so much to see that you don’t know where to look first! My favourite fish are the Red Roman with their bright colours and inquisitive nature. There were so many of these as well as Hottentot and Zebra that followed us on our dive – all of varying sizes from small juveniles to larger adults – proof that these fish are able to grow, mature and breed in this protected area.

The huge underwater boulders are absolutely covered with pale orange sinuous sea fans, orange, red and pink encrusting sponges, huge orange wall sponges, feather stars, orange and purple soft corals, cauliflower soft corals, false plum, knobbly and striped anemones, red bait… the list goes on and on and on.

We swam around the boulders, through a beautiful swim through whose walls and roof were overgrown with marine life, amongst the kelp forests (see our first ever underwater video, which is a bit of trial and error!) and relaxed, just watching the fish and puffadder shy sharks swim by.



All too soon, the dive came to an end - this is one of those dives that is always too short! Visibility was a good 8 to 10 metres and water was a warm 14˚C.

After the dive it was a short climb back to the car where we un-kitted (exactly WHAT is the opposite of kitting up?!), got dressed, followed by a much-needed lunch (and drink) whilst we swapped notes on what we had seen and marvelled at the fantastic dive we’d just had!

You must come and join us next time!

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (11.6.1910 - 25.6.1997)

Were he alive today, Jacques-Yves Cousteau would have celebrated his 99th birthday this past week. Born in France on 11 June 1910, this explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, author and researcher co-developed and perfected the aqua-lung with French engineer Emil Gagnan, making it possible for us to experience the wonders of the underwater world as we do today.

Cousteau is well known for bringing the world of whales, dolphins, sharks and sunken treasure into the homes of the public through his pioneering Television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. He was also extremely active in drawing attention to the irreversible effects of environmental destruction and co-founded the Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life in 1973, which today boasts over 300 000 members.

In order to continue his explorations and to further public awareness of environmental issues, Cousteau bought the ship Calypso in 1948. This was financed through the production of numerous films such as his renowned “The Silent World” (1956) and World Without Sun (1966). He also wrote many books and in his first book “The Silent World” published in 1953, he correctly predicted that porpoises used echo-location for navigation after watching how a group of porpoises navigated their way through the Straits of Gibraltar.

Cousteau died on June 25, 1997 at the age of 87. Although his scientific credentials have been challenged by some, Cousteau never claimed expert status in any discipline, referring to himself as “an oceanographic technician”.

And as Jacques-Yves Cousteau so rightly said, “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”.