Deidre, Corne & Werner, goes mud crawling

What a weekend, the whole of Gauteng’s diving schools decided to come kick up some mud at Miracle Waters. Trying to take decent photos underwater was just impossible with the best visibility being 3 meters max.

Day one, we thought of practicing some buoyancy, problem was, you could not even see each other on the grid. That did not seem to bother the new divers. They did their first low visibility “advanced” dive as their first Scuba Diver dive, all in one !

Corne was born in water, lives in water en breaths water, so dive skills, buoyancy, that is all for the birds, lets go diving ! Great diving Corne, time to take it to the next level !

The commitment, dedication and I don’t know if it is sheer stubbornness or will power from Deidre took her through each skill. But she did it, and I know, as I have seen so many times, these are the one’s that makes the best divers.

With Werner, at first we could not figure out the correct weight ratio, but he really did show his kicking strength by diving with 7 kgs of too much weights on his belt the first few dives ! Then we got it, and he turned into a natural fish in water.

If you guys can do 5 dives, in almost zero visibility, challenging your direction, orientation and then completing safety stops by the book, keeping yourself neutral buoyant, you can dive anywhere! See you by the sea.

The Ice bandits

Some-one, can't say who, thought it not a challenge enough to do their dive course in sunny warm summer in SA. Noooo, why not do it when a cold front hits Gauteng in the middle of the winter, that is more of a challenge !

Well, the water turned out impressively cold, but that did not bother Annemie, Sandy and Francois (although I did shed a tear or two under the water...therefore the mask clear exercises). We hit 14 degrees, with the bottom temp at the aircraft 13 degrees. Good for a dry suit dive, not good for Francois in his 3mm surf wetsuit.

Surprisingly enough, all pitched on Sunday to complete the last 2 dives, and not only completed but came out tops with perfect bouancy during the safety stop test time.



Sandy was like a fish in the water (ice water). When I looked at the photos I realised one thing though, she never actually breathed, strange.. look, not on one single photo is she blowing bubbles. Now that is a first, either she can hold her breath for 35 minutes, or ...well I just don't know. (Don't know why I bothered refilling her cylinder !)

Annemie struggled with her ears, but that did not put her off, she persisted and dived perfect dives, each and every one of them. I was really impressed, congratulations!

Francois was a natural, he was enjoying himself, that is regardless the fact that he was wearing a skimpy surf wetsuit from his times in the Cape. Well if you are willing to face Cape surf with this wetsuit you might as well dive with it in the middle of the winter in Gauteng?

Well you 3, you have done it... and in the middle of the winter. So what's left...some ice diving speciality course maybe? That should be easy for you!

Enjoy your diving !

Oh before I forget, check out Lourens's profile, look and learn.. perfect.

Mozambique - Ponta Malongane Trip April 2009

The team: Olivia, Debbie, Badi, Ilse, Aletta

& Blom

Baby Whale Shark and mom came to greet

Blowing circle bubbles to pass time on the safety stop

Shy little Porcupine Fish

Badi , Debi

Aletta

Ilse and Olivia
Devil Ray at Pinnacles

Le Granges , Greek and Persian ‘International’ diving group

From a cold dark pool to the open waters at Miracle Waters; Saeid completed his Scuba Diver course with flying colours. Now he and friends are off to Sodwana!

Amalia struggled with that ears but is determined to complete her course, she will be doing the snorkelling thing until she is ready to go down under again. See you soon Amalia!

Francois and Louis was on the Advanced Scuba Divers course, navigation was on the dot for say +/- a meter or 2... unfortunately the photos of the night dive did not come out quite well, it might be due to the fact that they were wearing lumi stick on each movable part of their bodies he he he, what a sight ! That did help though when my torch started failing during the dive! Below photo show them doing a Light Salvage in very very low visibility.

Louis and Valmai got their buoyancy sorted, doing a great straight and level dive next to the cliff ledge side of the quarry. That constant sinus reverse-blocks were plaguing Louis, but that did not stop him from diving!

Shania and Francois go diving

Both Shania and Francois seems to have been born in the water.
It was actually a struggle keeping Shania on the surface, when in the water she wanted under!

Francois brought even his own disposable camera with him on the first dive! No fear or concerns for the skills test and the open water, anything goes, just as long as he can have it on camera!

Shania did not trust the bus at first, but you did not have to ask her twice when the time came to swim through it.

Shania passed her Junior Scuba Diving course with flying colours, even in the theory test she apparently equalled her older brother, well she will have to take that up with him.

He "unfortunately" has his Advance certification so Shania is burning to get back in the water to even things out.

Congratulations Francois, will see you on the Advanced Course soon!

Ilse and Olivia did it again!

This time it was armed with compasses for navigation, a search line and recovery bag for search and recoveries. The bus was “found” at night using torches and lumi sticks.

I think the photos tell the story, Olivia and Ilse qualified as Advanced Divers.

Unconcious diver rescue training

Night dive