Well what would you rather be doing on a Sunday afternoon. Hmmmmmm I have some good ideas but our brave new Instructor candidates started with their pre-pool sessions. In the yellow T-shirt we have Martin Morgans our Course Director demonstrating with his son Craig and our students Axel, Dean, Kieran and Kenny. Good luck guys!

We welcomed Johan Boshoff (Editor-in-Chief of Divestyle magazine and author of The Dive Spots of Southern Africa book) who stayed and dived with us this weekend. Please watch out for our article in the January / February 2009 edition of the magazine. Johan it was great having you here, come back soon.

Congratulations to our newest Aguanuts - Omer and Noa who qualified yesterday in 22 degree water, with no current and loads of Ragged Tooth sharks as on lookers. Have fun on the rest of your travels and we hope to see you back in SA soon.

Well I am back to reality. Photo is proof that yup been there, done that and got the T-Shirt. Egypt was great. I did 21 dives in 6 days off the liveaboard Royal Emperor and then 3 nights in Dahab to recover. This I did by acting like a lizzard and lying in the sun and spoiling myself with a full body massage. After these 4 days it was off to Cairo to see the pyramids, sphinx and museum. It really was everything I imagined it to be and more. A huge thank you to Ocean Explorers for all the organisation. Ryan you rock. Keeping 16 people together and organised was a huge task and you managed it so well. I had an awesome time.

Congratulations to Mathew Marlow on achieving PADI Advanced Open Water

Congratulations to Mathew on finishing his Advanced with us today.

He has certainly be very lucky seeing so many sharks and the conditions on the Shoal haven't been bad either.

Today there was a moderate S-N current. The visibility was about 10-15m and the water was warm still at 22C.

Why are there so many Raggies on Aliwal Shoal?

No one seems to understand why the shoal continues to be home (albeit temporary) to such large numbers of Ragged Tooth sharks. their presence surely vindicates Scuba Divers who for too long have been blamed for their declining numbers.

The authorities have been too quick to lay blame at our feet. The fact that sharks were declining whilst Scuba diving was increasing was seen by many to be a direct relationship.

Perhaps now and in the fututre the 'Scientists' might take a more scientific view of cause and effect and not lay blame at the feet of us Scuba Divers without proper evidence..

Off my soap,box now....The sharks in the Cathedral are so tightly packed you can't see through them to the other side. The current has picked up a bit but the vis is still great and the water is still warm.

Give us a call and get down here to see these wonderful creatures whilst they are still in such numbers :-)

Raggies at Shark Alley 9th July 2008

When Mark the DM returned from the first dive of the day and told Nigel that he had seen 120+ Raggies from North Sands to Raggies Cave, he didn't believe him !!!! There followed a fairly rare occurrence - Nigel kitted up and went for a dive. This amazing 'Raggie' photograph was taken by Nigel along Shark Alley. The current pushed them gently northbound towards the North Eastern Pinnacles, along the way there were more sharks than they could count, a Honeycomb Moray, an enormous turtle and a beautiful mantis shrimp.

Anton & Antonie Kloppers

Congratulations to our newest Open Water Divers Anton & Antonie Kloppers who certified today at Shark Alley along with at least 70 Raggedtooth Sharks. Well done Guys, looking forward to seeing you both again.

Pam is going to Egypt

As far back as I can remember I have wanted to visit Egypt, even before I became a scuba diver and on Saturday 5th July my dream will be coming true. For all of those people who did not make it this year - sorry. Look out for our trip next year and join us. Will post pictures and news as soon as I get back. Miss you - sniff sniff. Yeh right - ha ha. Pam

New Premises

We are very proud of our new custom built dive centre at Number 2 Moodie Street, Umkomaas. For your convenience our Lodge is located above the dive centre and can accommodate up to 20 people in either double en-suite rooms (sea facing, balcony, fridge, safe, ceiling fan, air conditioner and hospitality tray) or dorm rooms (balcony, en-suite, ceiling fan). Our PADI 5 star Instructor Development Centre has a fully equipped training room and 4m deep heated salt water pool. Please contact us for further information.