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!