Newsletter – Page 46 – Learn to Dive Today Blog

Newsletters you should be subscribed to

As a veteran newsletter subscriber, and someone who actually ENJOYS getting them in my inbox (not everyone does) – probably a sad reflection on my self esteem, that I need to request people to email me! – I can offer you the following hints for signing up:

Some websites have a Subscribe box on their front page. Use it!
The other place to look for a subscription option is on the Contact page.
If there’s no explicit newsletter link, it’s often worth dropping the site owner an email asking to be subscribed to their newsletter if they have one. If they don’t, perhaps they’ll take the hint and start something up…

You can get subscribed to Tony’s newsletter by emailing him. It tells you about planned dives and courses, as well as report backs on recent underwater activity.

If that’s not enough, check out the following newsletter writers:

Cape Town

Keep up with what’s going on at the Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront by signing up for their newsletter. They have regular concerts, conservation activities, and other special events at the aquarium.

Chris and Monique Fallows at Apex Predators run shark cage diving and photography trips to Seal Island. We haven’t done a trip yet – wanted to go in high shark season but this year it corresponded with high World Cup tourist season, so we’ll do it next year – but their detailed updates on the marine activity in False Bay are awesome… Sightings of of orcas, dolphins, whales and sharks abound, and Chris’s photos are amazing.

Diving

PADI sends out newsletters periodically, describing diving destinations, certification options, and other bits and bobs related to scuba diving. Depending on which box you ticked when you registered for your course, you may already be on their mailing list.

Magazines

The Dive Site is South Africa’s best diving magazine. By a LONG way. And that’s after only one issue! They send out a weekly newsletter by email filled with photos, blogs, competitions and event notifications, and if you haven’t managed to get a print subscription to the magazine, it’s available on their website in digital format.

African Diver Magazine is an online-only magazine published once a quarter. If you join their mailing list, you’ll get a notification when the new edition is released.

Conservation & Volunteering

South African

If you’re using the ocean at all, whether as a diver, surfer, beachgoer or sailor, you should be supporting the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). They are staffed entirely by volunteers and do amazing work. It costs R100 per year to be a member, and you get a cool magazine every quarter. They also have a newsletter.

SANCCOB (The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) is in the news every time an oil spill gets on the feathers of our cormorants and penguins. They are a non-profit seabird conservation and protection organisation based in Cape Town. There is a volunteer program if you want to get your hands dirty (and get nipped!). They have a newsletter.

Conservation and shark specialty diver training body SharkLife has a newsletter – look for the link in the left column of their site.

Underwater Africa is an advocacy group that liaises with government regarding Marine Protected Areas and the permits we require to dive in them. Register with them to receive updates – this should concern all South African divers.

The South African branch of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has an e-newsletter. They’re the people who run the SASSI initiative – if you don’t know about it, you should!

International

National Geographic has a range of newsletters you can pick and choose from. Their photography in particular is spectacular.

The National Ocean Service is part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and sends out a periodic newsletter. Their educational Ocean Explorer program also has a newsletter.

Project AWARE is all about divers conserving marine environments. They’re an international organisation and it’s well worth getting on their mailing list to stay informed. There’s a Project AWARE specialty course that divers can do.

Ocean Conservancy is the non-profit organisation behind International Coastal Cleanup Day and several other conservation initiatives. Worth keeping up to date with their news.

The Save Our Seas Foundation has a newsletter, but it seems to get sent out VERY irregularly… like once a year. May be worth signing up for, as they do really good work.

The Smithsonian Ocean Portal sends out a newsletter advertising events, updates to their blogs, and covering ocean news. The Smithsonian is a venerable institution that encapsulates almost everything that is interesting about America… Check it out!

Newsletter: Diving this week

Hi everyone

The weekend’s diving was really good. We had a real early start on Saturday, leaving home at 6.00 am for the V&A Waterfront where we boarded a ferry for Robben Island. It was an OMSAC underwater clean up event and I believe the first ever recreational dive with such numbers in the harbour. We dived both sides of the centre jetty, 25 buddy pairs, each armed with a knife, scissors and mesh garbage bag, and there were some really interesting very old glass bottles found.

The weather was fantastic and the water was surprisingly 15 degrees. I was expecting 5 degree water. The bottom is very silty and at some points the visibility was reduced to zero, so bad you could barely make out your hand, but an interesting experience nonetheless. A similar size group dived in the Waterfront near the Table Bay Hotel and found a shopping trolley, bundles of rope and many other strange things.

Today we spent all day in the water in the Simon’s Town Yacht basin, doing Discover Scuba and Open Water dive courses. This is also an interesting dive as you swim along underneath some beautiful boats, boats that look like a million bucks on the surface, yet below the water line they are covered in algae, barnacles and all sorts of little fish scurrying around feeding. We were also joined by Charlie, an SSI Master Diver and job shadow participant, I think he worked harder than he imagined today (thanks Charlie)!

Kitting up — Charlie helping Sediqa put on her weight belt

This coming weekend has a public holiday, something we all love, and I am going to arrange a boat trip for Friday or Saturday, to dive either a wreck in Smitswinkel Bay, or a wreck in Hout Bay depending on the weather. To ensure we get the boat and have the right to choose the dive site requires that we are a minimum of six people. As an Open Water diver you can do a Deep Adventure dive with an Instructor, and anyone joining will receive a signed off deep dive in their log books. This can be used as a credit on the Advanced Course should you wish at some point in the future. So anyone keen to join, please let me know by Tuesday evening.

Full moon is getting close and either Friday or Saturday we plan to do a night dive at Fisherman’s Beach, the white sandy bottom, scattered reef and kelp forests are amazing in the dark, they are pretty awesome by day too!! The white sand reflects the light so it is an amazing place to be at night.

I am starting a new Open Water course this coming weekend and will most likely run this in the afternoons so we will do fun diving in the mornings. It has been a while since we have had conditions suitable for the seven gill cow sharks so this is high on my wish list.

Don’t forget to buy your dive permit at a post office, for the guys going to Sodwana this is very important as they are checked daily.

Yours in diving

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog
Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Diving

Hi everyone

The Sodwana trip is done and dusted, 10 people, all booked confirmed and raring to go. For those still keen mail me and there is a chance we can accommodate you.

The weekend is going to be busy as we are doing a clean up dive on Robben Island on Saturday morning and I hope the swell has dropped off enough to do a dive with the cowsharks in the afternoon. There will also be a night dive on Saturday night again. We did a night dive on Monday night and had a shoal of hundreds of maasbankers swarming around us for most of the dive, clearly attracted to the many torches, strobes and camera flashes.

Next weekend we have a public holiday on the Friday. I would like to arrange a boat dive for the group, possibly to one of the wrecks in Smitswinkel Bay or a wreck in Hout Bay depending on the wind direction. I will need to book this early in the week to ensure the boat goes where we want it to so please let me know early if you want to dive. Boat dives are normally R250, but if we are a group of six or more I can squeeze them down to R180.

I am starting an Open Water course tomorrow in Danish… Its been a while since I have had a Danish student. Sunday morning I have Discover Scuba Divers in the morning and will start a new Open Water course on Sunday afternoon.

I will also start another Open Water course on Thursday evening with diving on the long weekend for anyone wanting to complete the course in one weekend. It involves theory on the Thursday night, confined water training on Friday after the boat dives and more theory in the afternoon, and then two dives Saturday and two dives Sunday. There are still spots left for this.

Remember, all divers need a permit, get yours at the post office for R85 valid for a year and keep it in your dive bag with your dive gear.

The blog has been updated again, there are lots of random diving information posts about gear, travel, etc. and Clare has done a few book reviews of some of the books we have and what makes them good or bad to own… So feel free to read them, and comment…

I will add a list of diving and ocean related DVDs that we have and how you can get to watch them…

If you dive soon remember the two most important rules, never hold your breath, and never go deeper than the bottom!

best regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Treasure Hunting, Whales, Sodwana

Hi everyone

The weekend is closing fast, today we saw 14 whales in the bay, of which four were close to Long Beach and three at the Clan Stuart. They have been hanging around for about two weeks now and don’t look set to leave soon. It is very likely we will dive with them on Saturday as the weather is looking amazing, sunny, 27 degrees and hardly a breath of wind.

I have a posse of Discover Scuba Diving candidates on Saturday, so I will dive long beach in the morning. Afternoon dives will be dependent on where the whales are and we will hopefully be able to get them on camera…on a dive.

Night dive on Saturday as usual, meet at long beach at 6.00 pm. Remember I have torches and cyalumes.

I have good news and bad news:

The good news is that the Sodwana dive trip is filling up fast, the water temperature there today was 22 degrees, flat seas and sunny skies…. Hmm, it’s not too late to decide to come along, a cheaper warm tropical dive trip will be hard to find. We are all arriving in Durban at about the same time so we will share hire cars to keep costs down. There is also an option of diving Aliwal shoal on the Monday… shout soon if you are interested.

More good news, I have been asked if we would be interested in diving the Rietvlei Nature Reserve and water sport facility. Matt works for a company that runs a boat there and they have lost a very valuable stainless steel propeller. It would require some search and recovery techniques and we would be very popular and possibly famous if we find it (the reward may be as much as a case of beer). We would need to be three teams and anyone doing the dive will receive a search and recovery adventure dive log in their log books, free, one less dive on the way to Advanced diver…

Besides, there must be so much treasure down there as it is a seldom dived area… no crocs I assure you. Sunday would be good for this dive.

The bad news is that from tomorrow anyone diving with me will need to ensure their hair is proper, make-up done, dive kit polished and shiny, and they behave underwater, and on the beach… I have a new video camera and will be hunting for footage of you all behaving badly underwater, something I can put on YouTube, or use to embarrass you. If you think you are behaving foolishly and no-one saw, beware, so Tami, no shark wrestling, Clare, no groping of unsuspecting puffer fish, Maurice, no more crayfish in your pockets, and then to all of those that molest poor innocent pipe fish… be warned… luckily the biggest offender will be holding the camera…

Don’t forget all divers need a dive permit, get yours before they get you! Available at the Post Office – take your ID book.

Dive Like a Fish - Learn to Dive Today!

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog
Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Sodwana trip and diving this weekend

Hi everyone,

Sodwana Bay

The trip to Sodwana is on for the weekend of 8th, 9th and 10th of October. I have attached a breakdown of the costs with as much detail as possible (courtesy of Clare) [Note to blog readers: email me for this]. To secure the booking I need you to think quick and respond as soon as possible as I need to know the numbers. It is open to anyone that dives, students and friends of mine as well as any of your friends. The idea group size will be 8 -10 as this way we will fill a boat and therefore get to decide on the dive site. All the dives go to 2 Mile Reef, and almost every dive on this reef is suitable for Open Water divers. Sodwana claims to be the best dive site in southern Africa and rightly so, it is also the town where they have T-shirts labeled: a small drinking town with a diving problem…

Diving this weekend

I ran a competition with a Discover Scuba Diving experience for two and the winners will possibly venture into the water on Saturday. The Rescue course starts this weekend and in between we will have a fun dive to the Clan Stuart or cowsharks. Swell dependent. Saturday night, I will feed my addiction to night diving, meet at Long Beach at 6.00pm.

Sunday I am hoping to do a deep wreck dive for the Advanced students and will confirm this with the charter during the course of the day (the wind may factor this out). If you do wish to do boat dives I need to know by Wednesday as the boat launch schedule comes out on Thursday morning and the boats often fill very quickly.

I have ventured into the blog world, see link below, the idea being to post diving related info and create a forum for questions, so feel free to read, post, comment, correct me and ask away, if I do not have the answer I will find it for you and add my theories and opinions… risky I know…

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Newsletter: Diving, a way of life

Hi everyone

The water has been very pleasant this week. The viz yesterday was 8 meters and I had three students on a dive. We were extremely lucky to see a great white swim gracefully by us. The most impressive feature for me was the shark’s girth, it was massive, solid looking and very sleek without a single blemish or scar. I felt honoured to have seen such a majestic creature, so close (it swam by less than three meters away), in its own domain, and very grateful that sharks tolerate us in their space. According to this website there has only ever been one incident of a diver being attacked and that was on the surface.

Diving this weekend

Saturday I have a few Discover Scuba experience students so I will be at Long Beach in the morning.

At 2.00pm we plan to dive the Clan Stuart providing the swell allows or alternatively we will do a navigation adventure dive at long beach and swim the navigation route found here. There is an unidentified huge anchor somewhere out there, as well as a 22 metre yacht and an old shipping container (Jeff’s box).

Saturday night conditions will be perfect for an adventure night dive and we meet in the parking lot at Long Beach at 6.00pm to decide where to dive.

I am trying to find ways of getting more people interested in the ocean, diving and conservation.

So these are my plans:

I am running a special introduction to scuba diving for anyone interested in the experience. For the month of September I will conduct Discover Scuba experiences for anyone that’s keen for the small amount of R350 per person, 7 days a week, minimum two people at a time. Anyone signing up for the Open Water course after this event will receive a full credit of this amount on their course.

I will also run a special Advanced course during September providing there are four people that all do the course at the same time. The normal price is R2400, but for the month of September it will be only R2000. Remember this is five dives, two of which will be boat dives where we will dive a wreck and do a mandatory Deep dive. Both these dives will in reality be deep dives so you gain more experience in this area. The remaining three dives can be a combination of Peak Performance Buoyancy (can you swim through three hoops at different depths without using your inflator hose?), Search and Recovery (lose it, find it and raise it with a lift bag), Photography, or Night diving, to name a few, but must include a Navigation dive. If you have done adventure dives with me in the last 12 months this will count as a credit towards your course.

Two Divemaster candidates start September (both bossy type girls so I hope I survive that!!) and Open Water course starts 11 September.

During September we will have a world clean up day and I plan to rally every one of you to join me on a dive with a garbage bag to clean up one of our dive sites… details next week, you may be lucky and get your picture in the newspaper… in a wetsuit and dive gear!

Be good and have fun

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za