Do Your NAUI Instructor’s Course This September

Ever thought of becoming a Scuba Professional? This is a fantastic way to work your way around the world, visit exciting and exotic destinations, make friends with people from all four corners of the globe or start up you own diving operation.

Indigo Scuba Diving Centre will be running a NAUI Instructor’s course this September. Book today!! Call Deon on 083 268 1851 or email us on info "at" indigoscuba.com for more information.

We will teach you how to teach beginner classes, advanced level classes and leadership classes. The training will take place in the classroom, confined water (or pool) and natural environment and you will experience firsthand the NAUI concept of academic freedom.

During this training process, you will not only learn how to teach, but to be a good, competent professional and a trustful and dedicated scuba diving educator.

Becoming a NAUI Instructor today is a trademark of quality, professionalism and commitment to dive education worldwide.

To enter the ITC, you must be 18 years old or older, be a NAUI leader or equivalent (an ITC preparatory course will be mandatory prior the ITC for non NAUI leaders), have a minimum of 60 logged dives, have First Aid and CPR credentials not older than 24 months and be fully equipped (we have an on-site shop stocking all your diving equipment needs).

If you are an Instructor with another association and wish to further your diving education, we have a crossover course which is designed to evaluate competency of already certified instructors and welcome them as NAUI Instructors and members.

Dive Centres around the world are always on the look-out for well-trained, competent and friendly Scuba Diving Instructors and what better way to explore the world – both on land and in the water! Contact us today to find out how you can become a Scuba Professional and use this fantastic skill to travel the world.

This week's Diving Report: 31.5.2010 - 6.6.2010

Rooi Els, Smitswinkel Bay, Long Beach and A-Frame

We’ve had great diving conditions over the past week with the most fantastic dives in Rooi Els, Smitswinkel Bay, Long Beach and at A-Frame.

On Tuesday, we dived Rooi Els. This is a summer dive site but after the South Easterly winds of the previous week, which normally only blow in summer, we were able to do a couple of dives at Balcony! Visibility was between 5 and 8 metres which is quite unexpected for this time of year!

On Wednesday, we did a deep dive on SAS Transvaal and were treated to brilliant visibility of around 15 metres.

The SAS Transvaal is one of five wrecks located in Smitswinkel Bay. They are only accessible by boat, leaving from Miller’s Point Slipway approximately 5 km away.

Formerly a navy frigate, she was one of three loch-class frigates transferred to the SA Navy by the Royal Navy whilst under construction. She was sunk using explosive charges on 3 August 1978 and lies on the sandy bottom at a maximum depth of 34 metres, with her main deck at about 29 metres. Although the wreck has retained its shape quite well, rust has started to take its toll.

On this dive we came across about 6 pyjama sharks sheltering inside the wreck, loads of fish including Hottentot, White Stumpnose, Barred Fingerfin and Red Roman. pink strawberry anemones, mauve sea cucumbers sun-burst soft corals and feather hydroids cover the wreck. We have sometimes also seen scorpion fish on this wreck.

At our safety stop we were joined by a couple of playful and inquisitive seals.

We also dived Longbeach during the week and visibility was around 8 metres. There was so much to see at this training site and we came across an area teeming with puffadder shyshark.

This weekend we had the most amazing dive at A-Frame with visibility of over 15 metres. There were so many fish, pipefish, nudibranchs and with the visibility being so good, the colours were magnificent. On the Northern side of the boulders, we discovered a number of Orange-Clubbed Nudibranchs which we don’t often see, so an exciting dive was had by all!

Check out our video "Indigo Scuba does a winter dive at A-Frame".

Weekend Diving Report: 8 & 9 May

Despite the big swells and very strong North Westerly winds predicted for last week and much of the weekend, we paid a visit to Simon’s Town last Thursday to check out what was happening. The visibility good and the swells were not as big as predicted so we were hopeful for the weekend's dives.

We’d planned to do “first sea dives” with some of our students this past Saturday and qualifying dives with another group on Sunday (today).

Unfortunately some of our students were unable to dive due to blocked ears from colds and flu and last minute clashes in schedules so not everyone who was supposed to be there could make it (no names mentioned!).

Saturday: Long Beach was calm and clear with visibility between 6 and 8 metres. The water temperature was 12˚C. We had two great dives, practised our skills, explored a small wreck, came across a beautiful puffadder shy shark, many Evileye Blaasops, klipvis, longsnout pipefish and octopi in their stony/shelly holes.



After that, we dived at A-Frame. There was quite a bit of swell, which caused poorer visibility (4-5m) and surge whilst diving. The getting in and out was a great experience for new divers and believe us guys, it DOES get easier the more you do it! As can be expected of this beautiful dive site, we had a great time although with the poorer visibility, we did not see as many of the fish we usually do.

We did find banded longsnout pipefish, blue Hottentot, gasflame Nudibranchs, Cape Sole hiding from the surge – and then, of course, the beautiful marine and plant life such as Cape sea urchins, brittlestars, sea anemones and feather stars.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning arrived with a huge storm, lashing rain and very strong North Westerlies and we decided to cancel the dives for the day. Conditions like this are fine for well-seasoned divers, but we really do not believe in putting our Scuba Diver students under unnecessary stress and making them dive in conditions that they are not ready for. To repeat what one of our students said “I want to enjoy – not endure – it’s about the journey!”

Winter Diving is Great!

We’re really excited – winter seems to have arrived and that means we can look forward to diving in Simon’s Town again.

Simon’s Town has a great variety of dive types – from the wrecks of Smitswinkel Bay; beautiful reefs such as Partridge Point, Outer Castle and Batsata Maze; the kelp forests of A-Frame and Castle Rock to diving with Sevengill Cow Sharks at Pyramid Rock.

When I (Kate) learned to dive, it was winter and my first wetsuit was a Zero Rhino Hide number. I just needed a speargun and I would have looked like one of those Bond girls from the 1960s!

Although I don’t use it anymore, I remember my wetsuit with great fondness – I was always warm on a dive. In hindsight, I'm not sure this was because of its fantastic insulating capabilities, but probably more because of the excitement of finally exploring the ocean’s treasures!

Once under water, water temperature or getting cold did not occur to me! I was far too busy concentrating on getting my buoyancy right, watching where my buddy was and thinking random thoughts to myself such as “is that same fish still following me around?”; “what on earth is THAT funny brown and yellow feathery thing” and “this is far more exciting than I ever imagined!”

Don’t let the fact that it is winter put you off learning to dive. Winter diving is some of the best in the Cape and not as cold as you imagine!

What’s more - our Pool Sessions are held in a heated indoor pool and the wetsuits we lend our students for their Scuba Diver courses are all in excellent condition and really nice and warm!

PS My old faithful Rhino Hide wetsuit has been hanging in the cupboard all these years. I tried to put it on the other day, but it is true what they say – your wetsuit does shrink if you stop wearing it!

Diving Report - Summer 2010

Summer diving in Cape Town waters this year has been extremely disappointing. What promised to be a great season just didn't happen.

We started off with some absolutely fantastic dives in Rooi Els from early to mid-December and although the South Easterly wind that usually brings clear water to the Western side of the Cape Peninsula and the Eastern side of False Bay blew for days on end, these more often than not coincided with huge swells (sometimes as high as 5m) coming in from the South and churning up the water. So, any good that the South Easter could have done was cancelled out by the big swells.

There was the odd day of exceptional diving when we had flat seas and visibility of up to 12 metres, but these did not occur as often as we are used to during summer. We even dived in Simon's Town (usually a winter diving spot!) in February. However, despite the somewhat poor visibility of around 5 – 8 metres on some dives, we had lots of fun, met loads of new divers and had some memorable moments.


Kate has made a few videos of some of our dives and you can watch all of them on YouTube. They'll give you an idea of what to expect whilst diving in Cape Town waters and who knows – you could be starring in one of our videos in the not too-distant future!

April is “change over” month when the South Easterly winds are replaced with North Westerlies. The diving moves to the Western side (Simon's Town) of False Bay and we have the opportunity to dive the exciting wrecks of Smitswinkel Bay, explore dive sites such as Batsata Maze, Outer Castle, Partridge Point by boat and experience the beautiful shore entry dives of Simon's Town, including our favourites A-Frame, Castle Rock and Quarry.

For those of you who have been following us out of interest but not yet learnt to scuba dive – we are running full time and part time Scuba Diver courses – starting every Monday. We also offer refresher courses for those of you who have not taken the plunge in a while and all the other NAUI courses from Advanced to Instructor. Our smaller groups mean that you will receive our undivided attention and care at all times.

So, if you haven't come diving with us yet – or have not yet done a scuba course, contact us today and Dive into Adventure with Indigo Scuba!

Overcoming pre-dive Anxiety

Many first-time divers feel apprehensive before a dive. Let’s face it - you are entering a world that you weren’t designed for!

When teaching Scuba Diver and Refresher courses, we often come across students who say that they feel claustrophobic... that they have problems breathing or that something feels wrong with their gear. With unrushed, patient instruction; more diving and carrying out the following important tasks, that nervous feeling will soon be replaced by one of excitement and eagerness for the next dive:

You must know how your equipment works. If you know that your gear is working fine, the less you have to worry about it during a dive.

If you have your own gear, make sure you know how it works. Your BC becomes part of your body when you are diving so try it on and play with all the bells and whistles until you don’t have to think where the dump valve toggles are – where the inflate and deflate buttons are on your inflator hose or where your clips are.

If you are renting equipment, make sure you check your gear out before it is stowed on the boat and before you make your way to the entry point when doing a shore dive. Connect everything and check the o-rings, breathe in and out of your regulator and octo, inflate and deflate your BC and check the dump valves. If there is anything wrong, it can be sorted out before the dive and before you hit the water. Do it yourself, even if the operator has done it too!

Do your buddy checks – make sure you and your buddy know each other’s gear.

Get to know your buddy! Practice your hand signals together – know (and agree on!) the signals for “OK”, "Going down", "Going up", "Something’s wrong (point to what’s wrong)", "How much air do you have left?", "I need air"... you can even make up your own if you like. We’ve noticed a couple that dives with us have an “I love you” signal which is very cute....

Ask questions and listen to your Dive Master / Instructor. NEVER be too embarrassed or too proud to ask questions. We are here to make every dive the best you ever had. If you feel we haven’t covered something, or if you forgot to listen (!!) ASK! Ask about the dive site, the entry, the exit, the depth, currents, anything you need to be aware of and (of course!) what you should look out for. And if you feel nervous, tell us. Rather be honest than try to hide your anxiety. DMs and Instructors have a sixth-sense and we’ll probably know you are feeling anxious before you do!

Do a Refresher Course if you haven’t dived for a while. Do this before you leave for that diving holiday to Mozambique. You will enjoy your diving far more if you have practiced your skills and feel confident that you know how to clear your mask, how to equalise, how to inflate and deflate your BC and how to get your buoyancy right before you hit that coral reef! You don’t want to be worrying about anything whilst you are watching those mantas gliding by, do you?

You must WANT to do the dive. You must feel happy to do the dive and the conditions that you will be diving in. If you are not keen to do the dive, then don’t do it. Rather skip a dive than do it and ask yourself miserably throughout the dive “why am I doing this?” only to never dive again! There will be plenty of other times to go diving.

At the end of the day, the more comfortable and relaxed you feel, the more you will enjoy your diving. Get to know your diving gear, your buddy, the dive site and the people you will be diving with and you will feel less nervous and more excited for every dive.

If you would like to be taught to dive by patient and caring instructors, or do a refresher course before you take that holiday of a lifetime, contact us today and we’ll make sure you become a safe and confident diver, able to enjoy every dive. We want you to enjoy scuba diving as much as we do!

All content (c) Indigo Scuba

Low Visibility Diving – A good reason to do your Advanced Scuba Diver’s Course!

You’ve mastered the basics of scuba diving during your Scuba Diver course and are qualified to dive to depths of 18 metres. You’ve done enough dives to feel comfortable in the water and are eager to experience more.

Now’s the time to do your Advanced Scuba Diver’s course! Whilst training to become an Advanced Scuba Diver you will be learn the required skills to enjoy even more exciting types of diving: wreck diving, night diving, deeper diving and diving in low visibility.

Being well trained in low visibility diving will enable you to feel comfortable in less than perfect conditions, increasing the number of opportunities for you to go diving.

During a low visibility dive, you will learn to appreciate the smaller things. You won’t be distracted by what is going on in the distance and you concentrate on what is close by. Once you start looking, you will see things you’ve never noticed before – beautifully coloured nudibranch hiding amongst the growth on rocks, tiny crabs, baby’s toes, beautiful sea anemones, colourful soft sponges, smaller fish hiding in crevasses – you just have to look and the beauty of the oceans opens up to you in a way you couldn’t imagine!

Diving in low visibility is relaxing. Take it slow – from your descent (descend feet first and watch your dive buddy so that you don’t lose sight of each other). As you spend more time concentrating on what’s in front of you – you’ll slow down and enjoy a more relaxed dive.

You’ll learn to become a better diver. You have to be more alert and make sure you know where your dive leader is and what your buddy is up to. You’ll also need to concentrate on your orientation and know how to use your compass correctly to ensure you are going in the right direction at all times. You won’t want to have to surface in an area where there is heavy boat traffic just to find out where you are... That’s where those navigation skills you learned during your Advanced Course come in handy! It’s also always advisable to dive a site you know well when the visibility is not great and to plan your dive and dive your plan!

You’ll also learn to become a better dive buddy. You’ll need to understand each other’s signals and will have to communicate more. When diving in low visibility conditions, it is important that buddies stick together – not swimming too far ahead when leading or too far behind if following. Who wants to call short a dive due to a lost buddy? Take a torch; use bright coloured fins or have reflective tape attached to your BC – it will make you more visible to your buddy.

Contact us today and book to do your Advanced Scuba Diver Course! An even greater world awaits you!

The Low Down on Cape Town Diving

The waters of Cape Town are rich in marine life and offer year round diving for scuba divers of every level and preference – from haunting wrecks steeped in cultural history to glittering kelp forests that play host to a myriad colourful creatures.

Cape Town diving takes place along the Western coast of the Cape Peninsula, referred to by the locals as “The Atlantic Side”; the Western side of False Bay (Simon’s Town area) and the Eastern side of False Bay (Gordon’s Bay to Rooi Els).

Although it is believed that the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet at Cape Point (they actually meet further East at Cape Aghulus), there is a distinct difference in temperature between the waters of the Western coast of the Peninsula and those of False Bay. This is due to the cold Benguela current which makes its way north from the Antarctic, up the West coast of Africa. The result is that the waters along the Western coast of the Peninsula have an average temperature of between 8 °C and 12 °C. False Bay is protected from the Benguela current and temperatures here range from 12 °C in winter to 19 °C in summer.

As the ocean temperatures influence the diving, so do the seasons and the winds that accompany them. In summer, the South Easterly winds bring clear waters to the Eastern side of False Bay and the Western coast of the Peninsula; and in winter it is typical for the North Easterly wind to blow, clearing up the waters on the Western side of False Bay.

Summer diving in the colder waters of the “Atlantic Side” is exhilarating and fascinating. There are a number of beautiful shore-entry dives as well as deeper reefs and historical wrecks that can be reached by dive boat leaving from Hout Bay harbour. The underwater topography is characterised by huge, rounded granite and sandstone boulders, often covered with kelp. These underwater wonderlands play host to prolific marine life, including colourful fields of purple, pink, orange and green sea urchins; brightly coloured sponges and soft corals. Fish such as Hottentot, Galjoen, Shy Sharks and Red Roman are plentiful on most dives, as is the opportunity to be accompanied by playful and inquisitive seals.

The Eastern side of False Bay offers fantastic boat and shore entry dives in summer. Dive sites along the craggy cliffs between Gordon’s Bay and Rooi Els reach a maximum depth of about 20 metres and a number are accessible from the shore. Deeper dives such as the magnificent Steenbras Deep, which reaches a depth of 30 metres, are located further from the shore and can be reached by boat. The reefs along this side of the bay are covered with kelp; red bait; colourful soft sponges; feather stars; orange, pink and purple noble coral; orange sea fans and many types of beautiful nudibranch. Fish life includes Twotone Fingerfin, Galjoen, Jutjaw, Puffadder Shy Shark and Klipvis. Gully Sharks and baby Ragged Tooth Sharks have also been spotted on dives at Rooi Els.

Winter diving in Cape Town takes place along the Western side of False Bay, from Glencairn, past Simon’s Town to the point of the Cape of Good Hope. Underwater topography comprises of huge rounded granite boulders and smaller sandstone boulders. Here we have the world-famous Smitswinkel Bay wrecks which lie at an average depth of 35 metres and are a collection of 5 ships that were scuttled by the Navy in the early 1970s to form an artificial reef. All wrecks can be reached by boat launching from Miller’s Point Slipway just South of Simon’s Town.

There are also a number of beautiful reefs which can be reached from the shore and boat. The reefs are adorned with colourful sponges; sea anemones; green, purple and orange short spine urchins; sea fans; fields of small orange sea cucumbers and brightly coloured nudibranch. Another dive site that is extremely exciting along this side of the coast is Pyramid Rock where divers have frequent sightings of Seven Gill cowsharks.

For comfortable diving, it is advisable to wear a 7mm wetsuit with a hoodie, booties and gloves.

The Cape Peninsula is a marine reserve and divers wishing to dive he Western Coast of the Cape Peninsula or the Western side of False Bay are required to obtain a diving permit before entering the water. Year-long permits can be purchased from local post offices and shorter-term permits are available from many of the dive operators.

Scuba Diving for Girls

When I decided to learn to scuba dive, my friends thought I was crazy. “Girls can’t scuba dive!” they said… “What about all that heavy stuff?”… “Only guys dive and they’ll just look at you as a burden”…. “It’s just not something girls do!”

Those comments were made by my non-scuba diving friends (male and female) many of whom, after seeing how much fun I was having, dived right in and are now fellow scuba divers.

When I started diving, I was the only girl on my Scuba Diver Course and one of two doing the Advanced Course. At that time there were less girls diving in our diving group than guys.

The girls that belonged to my dive club came from all age groups and levels of fitness. We had a 16 year old girl learning to dive with her 40 year old mother, a grandmother of 56, girls who participated in triathlons and girls whose only exercise was the walk from the car into the Wimpy. We all kept up with the boys, carried our own weights and cylinders and were often able to beat them at their joke telling (not that they would ever admit to that!).

Interestingly enough, we have recently seen that the boys taking scuba classes are being outnumbered by the girls. Quite a few or our students learn to dive so that they can join their partners on diving trips instead of sitting on the shore, jealously listening to how amazing the dive was and what they had seen. Some of the girls are adrenalin junkies wanting to try something different and others have “just always wanted to do it but never found the right person to teach them”. What ever the reason, after their first dives (if not their first!), they were all absolutely hooked and eager to do their next dive.

Although scuba diving does require a certain level of strength and fitness, it is not as strenuous as one expects and the bonus is, the more one dives, the fitter one becomes. I’ve also found that even if you are able to do it all yourself, there is always a gentleman somewhere wanting to help out. Swallow your pride girls, let them carry your weight belt or cylinder, just smile and say “thank you!”.

I won’t deny that there are a couple of minor drawbacks of being a girl diver. For example – for those girls with neatly manicured long nails - they won’t stay like this for long. Nails break easily, usually when pulling on wetsuits, picking up weights and climbing over rocks. The solution – keep your nails short. Long hair can also be a problem. If yours is anything like mine, whatever you do, you will always have a bird’s nest / dreadlock hairdo after taking off your hoodie. If you are lucky, plaiting your hair, putting it in a pony-tail and putting on some sort of hair wax, or simply saturating your hair with fresh water before a dive could help.

The other drawback is the need to go to the toilet (need I say more?). I’m not talking about going in your wetsuit whilst diving (or in your hired one which someone else has to wear…so please try not to!), but before or after a dive. The guys have it easy whereas for us girls, it is not always possible to find a toilet or a suitable bush in the middle of nowhere. This is awkward and you either have to drop all reservations and hide behind a car door or get yourself a “she pee” (say no more – I just can’t!).

Diving really is an amazing sport for girls. The places it can take you to, the people you meet (I met my husband scuba diving…), the sights you see, the experiences, the adventure and the feeling of total peace during a dive - and the feeling of being totally relaxed afterwards - makes this an unbeatable sport. Indigo Scuba is a great place to start your scuba diving adventure, or further your scuba diving qualifications and experience. Give us a call today to see how easy it is to become a scuba diving girl.