Handi-capable divers

What a privilege to be one of the few Handicapped Scuba Instructors.
We recently had the honor to be joined by Jim Gatacre head of US HSA all the way from America for our final review and test as HSA instructors. I was proud to find out Jim was an airborne soldier (paratrooper) himself, we had a lot in common.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv9qcGQyyiU

Few days later we were on our way to Mozambique, where we "held hands" with the most bravest men and girl I have ever met. Under the leadership of Braam Le Roux HSA course director of Africa we jumped, dragged, sailed our way over the loose sand into the dive boats "rubber ducks" where our Quadriplegic divers could experience the freedom of being in open water, neutral buoyant and one with the ocean.

Please read the story as out of the mouth from one if these brave divers, which cannot walk, fight to do things that we don't even think about each day...but yet are willing to take on the ocean and brave the deep in Africa.

https://issuu.com/doitnow777/docs/disabled_people_take_on_scuba_divin

Extreme Advanced Course

This was probably the most extreme advanced course. The waters at Miracle Waters is currently at a visibility level of 0.5 meters, that is early in the morning with any silt kicked up. Well the brave group did their deep dive in this waters, went down to a whopping 32 meters at altitude into the darkness. Mike, Ricardo enjoyed it, Matthew like with all the other dives finished it easily, quietly without much comments, Gene made a few strong remarks in her log book kind of explaining exactly why this will be the last dive of this sort EVER.
Then off course my buddy Shania, find any dive just an excuse to play in the water, be it in the open sea or in zero visibility, don’t think she hardly notice it.

At Bass Lake, Team A, that is Matthew and Ricardo, allowed old Mike to get them lost on the first nav dive. (Or so they will say probably he he he) But both teams reached the bus, maybe on low air, but they did it. At Miracle Waters in the almost zero visibility waters both teams did a great job of the square dive navigation; great come back !.

( Regardless of what the underwater slate (writing pad) note said)

Light Salvage was a quick and simple task for them, and then on the next day both teams fortunately found my precious weight I hid in the silt. Well done!

Frank, friends and Family go diving

Well the cold dark water of Bass Lake did not scare them off. The visibility dropped to less than a meter at some places that did not faze the 3. Barry and myself just had to keep up with Elize, she had a mission in her finning, my old floppy fins struggled to keep up. Frank just wanted to go to the bus. I think if it was not for Leonie, Frank would have taken the call and swam of into the Deep Blue on his own.

It Was a joy to swim with you guys, I was so impressed how the skills went from ok in the pool to great on that final dive in the cold murky water on Sunday.
Thanks guys.
Looking forward to the Advanced !

Corne, formed the back defence line with Inus, kept his cool, and every now and then I could actually see him though all the silt and dust in the water! Thanks for staying calm in that waters.

Like I said to all you guys…if you could keep your wits and calm in waters like this, nothing can scare you off, even rough seas will be a breeze.

Advanced and Beyond

These guys were good, dive 1 was a square navigation dive and both groups aced it. Well at the speed Erika and Cozette were going they almost sped passed the final grid stop, but after some serious sprinting I caught up to them.

With having mastered that so easily, I thought of throwing the book at them and made sure the search and recovery will not be that easy. I “dropped” weights in serious low visibility overgrown areas, making small search patterns by touch the only choice. After 40 minutes of freezing water I almost gave up, and was willing to abandon my precious weights to the deep blue, but then within minutes both groups recovered their artefacts! Almost Zero visibility not bad!

The night dive was fun with the deep dive following the next morning. Ruan almost got himself stuck to the bottom due to the low volume of the BC he was diving with, but then if you cannot swim you can crawl to the PUMA helicopter. Anybody spotted the skeleton pilot sitting in the cockpit seat :-) ?

The light salvage dive turned into a real salvage dive when the lift bag decided to give its last on the way up. Wilhelm thought some-one is out to get him when the bag of weights which was on the way up came down faster than planned again next to him. But with team work we got the weight box and the inflation cylinder back to shore again.

Thanks guys !

What a great weekend thank you for the 4 real advanced divers!

Fantastic 4 goes diving

Very well done to the 4 super divers! Mike and Matthew took like fish to water. You could not stop them, my only concern is that Mike will get so entrenched in his deep water thoughts he will forget to breath and swim off into the deep blue. Matthew on the other hands started his advanced training already by trying a weight belt dump and practicing his alternative air breathing (for real) he he he. Both as calm as sea cucumbers under water though.

The 2 who impressed me was the ladies, both not so impressed with this new adventure the guys came up with, and like normal sane people tend to be, they were not so impress with this water in the face thing. But they stuck to it, Genevieve’s breakthrough came early in the pool already, the mask kept leaking more water than the pool had to offer, but she kept her calm, no bailout, finished her skills and after that, pure stubbornness kept her going.

Julie kept a straight face during the Open water sessions, but when Matthew had weight belt problem at 15 meters, she stuck to him and tried to help, all calm and calculated, that was the breakthrough. Then I knew they were ready for the big seas :-)

All 4 qualified with flying colours and are soon on their way to Mauritius for some real diving !! Enjoy you guys !

Taking a quick break Mike :-)

Wilhelm Scuba in 16 Grade Celsius

Wilhelm het sy Scuba Diver kursus in record time klaargemaak…dinge soos rugby en SAB het genoodsaak dat dinge maar vinnig moes gebeur ha ha ha.

Die man kan ‘n silinder soos ‘n 2 liter bottel laat lyk as hy hom so ligweg oor sy rug gooi, en dan verbased lig op die lug gebruik! Ek het gedink (gehoop) hy gaan ‘n duik in die 10 liter silinder suig, maar met perfekte profile en bouancy het die silinder gans te lank vir my in die yskas water gehou :-)

Goed gedoen meneer ! sien jou met die advanced !

In die bus.

Kom ons bid vir bietjie warm water !

Ponta Malongane - May 2010

Can you spot the Stone....look for the sad mouth at the bottom centre of the photo.
Tail fin top centre of the photo.


Camou Octopus ! Count the legs !



Manta Shrimp

Peeping Angler (Frog) Fish

Luther se Bucketlist en Francois - April 2010

Gelukkig was dit nie die laaste ding op Luther se bucket list nie want hy het sommer tjop tjop die skills in die swembad afgehandel. Francois soos enige jong man kan nie regtig verstaan wat die big deal vir ons ouer manne is om in die water in te gaan nie. Ek meen jy sit die DV in, en daar gaan jy. Ons het sommer lekker in Miracle water geduik. Baie tyd vir fotos pose in die Bus. En dit het nie daar gestop nie ! Was nie 2 weke nie, toe is ons terug in Mosambiek waters. Pragtige duike gehad by Paradise reef en Doodle.