May 25th, 2010

Roland and Beulah decided to go for a private dive and this is their story.

"As we're quiet at the moment", Roland says, "but with superb conditions, Beulah and I decided to go for a private dive. Just her and I. And she hasn't dived Protea for close to 8 years. So we got out to the reef in perfect weather conditions and the sea was as flat as a swimming pool. As we stop the boat to kit up the very first Humpback Whale of the season surfaced exactly 4m/12ft from our boat. As we did not expect this, we got quite a fright when this huge animal suddenly blew off so close to us. Then it was time to get into the water. The viz was not so good due to the lack of current, we had about 6m/18ft. But as soon as we neared the bottom we got greeted by literally hundreds of Sandtiger sharks. They were everywhere and came to look at us from all sides, angles and depths. Only Beulah and I, no buoy line, nobody else and Sandtigers all over the place. And then there was a school of bait fish above us and in the middle of it a huge Manta Ray. The dive finished with two Bull sharks following us around during our safety stop. It was truly one of our most memorable and happy days!"

May 17th, 2010

Diving has been amazing the past couple of weeks. Excellent viz allowed us to do many baited dives which propelled in popularity with the divers. It is simply well worth it to pay a bit more and enjoy unlimited dive time with sharks in such close proximity. On almost every baited dive we had Tigers, Bulls in numbers (!), a few Black Tips and even the first Duskies of the winterseason. We took our best shots ever in the last few weeks!

Now we're heading towards our winterseason and as is custom, the Sandtigers (Raggies) have arrived yesterday. What a magic surprise when we descended to the caves and found a whopping 70 Raggies down there (counted by Roland himself). This time of the year water is still nice and pleasantly warm (23C) and delightfully clean, 25-30m/75-90ft viz. Sardine Run will coincide with the FIFA World Cup this year. We're looking forward to both. The Coffee Bay is where we we'll be at with a group early July and we hope to have the most unforgettable Sardine Run experience.

March 22nd, 2010

As the diving on Protea Banks has been so good lately, we thought an extract from our logbook will give you a fair impression of what the diving is currently like:
• 1.3. 1 tiger, 3 hammerheads, 2 zams, 4 eaglerays viz: 30m temp: 28C
• 2.3. 1 tiger, 4 zambezies, 2 black tips vis : 25m temp: 27C
• 3.3. 1 tiger, 1 hammerhead, 1 zambezi, 4 eaglerays viz: 25m temp: 27C
• 4.3. 1 tiger, 3 zams vis : 25m temp: 27C
• 5.3. no diving due to wind
• 6.3. 1 tiger , 1 zam viz: 15m temp : 21C
• 7.3. 2 zams, 15+ potato bass viz: 35m temp 24C on top and 17 C on the bottom
• 8.3. 4 zams, 1 hammerhead viz: 15m temp: 21C - 17C
• 9.3. 2 zams 1 black tip vis : 15m temp: 21C - 17C
• 10.3. 1 tiger, 2 zams, 1 black tip 1 eagleray vis : 30m temp: 23C - 18C
• 11.3. 2 tigers, 2 zams, 2 black tips vis : 20m temp: 25C - 20C
• 12.3. 2 zams, 2 duskys, 2 black tips vis : 20m temp: 26 - 20
• 13.3. + 14.3. weekend off
• 15.3. 2 tigers 2 zams vis : 15m temp: 26-23
• 16.3. 1 tiger, 4 zams, 2 black tips vis : 15m temp: 25 - 18
• 17.3. dive cancelled, bad weather
• 18.3. 2 tigers 2 zams vis : 25m temp: 26
• 19.3. no sharks vis : 20m temp : 25 - 21
• 20.3. 1 tiger, 1 zam vis : 10m temp : 25 - 20
• 21.3. 2 tigers, 5 zams vis : 20m temp: 26 - 20
• 22.3. 2 tigers , 3 zams vis : 10m temp: 24 - 17

March 1st, 2010

To all Tiger fans: Tiger shark time has started! Almost every dive produces a Tiger shark sighting. Besides tigers we encounter our beloved Bulls as well as the odd Great Hammerhead. Today was one of those unbeatable days. Three Great Hammerheads, two Bulls, one Tiger, four Eaglerays and a Potato bass who insists on being patted! All this in 35m/100ft viz and 28C/82F. We followed the first dive up with a baited dive and had a Tiger and 6 Bulls in touching distance for over 110 minutes. This sure is sunny South Africa at its very best!!!

January 27th, 2010

Diving is truly fantastic with good viz, warm water, Hammerheads and Bulls everywhere. Tigers are now on most baited dives together with rarely less than 10 Bulls. This is the best summer season we've ever had.

December 15th, 2009

Approaching the reef with the boat, the water has that particular shade of deep purple, amongst divers well known as crystal clear 40m+/120ft+ visibility. We kit up, can't wait to enter and as we do so, there are sharks everywhere. Just like so many of our clients imagine Protea. Multiple schools of several hundreds of Hammerheads pass us, Zambezies from start to end of the dive mixed here and there with Black Tips and Duskies. These kind of dives just make everybody happy. And just in good time for Christmas.

November 30th, 2009

At the moment the diving is a kind of magic. Yesterday we saw about 40 Sandtigers on the Northern Caves and when we did our famous baited dive we had 9 Bulls, 4 Black Tips and 2 Duskies for about 70 minutes right in touching distance with 30m/90ft viz. The water temperature reaches 23C and is going up steadily - finally! Besides that, it's definitely Hammerhead Season on Protea. Everytime we go south we encounter Hammerheads in groups of varying numbers. Sometimes we encounter a few Hammerheads and at other times literally hundreds.

November 9th, 2009

Diving on Protea lately has been an absolute pleasure. Sure we lost a good couple of days to strong winds, but whenever we got out, paradise opened up. The Hammerheads are here in big numbers and the Sandtigers are still around plentyful. On our last baited dive we encountered a Tiger Shark for 79 minutes amongst 7 Duskies and 2 Black Tips. Yesterday on the Northern Pinnacle we saw 44 Sandtigers and one Bull Shark while the day before on the Southern Pinnacle we encountered at least 300 Hammerheads, possibly more, 3 Duskies and 11 Guitar Sharks. Viz has constantly been good with just under 20m/60ft but the temperature is a chilling 18-20C/64-68F.

September 16th, 2009

This is our quiet period. Our last dive was on September 1st and it was fantastic. For a change we dived the Southern Pinnacle where we were rewarded with a very special experience. First we saw 2 Zambezies, then a Black Tip and after a while 2 huge, huge Eagle Rays. The biggest we ever saw! Then we cruised over Sandshark Gully and found 7 Sandsharks. This time of the year. Unbelievable! As we carried on in the gentle current a large, extra large - in fact an XXXL shadow came overhead. We looked up and what did we see? Two great big humpback whales came right towards us in less than 10m/30ft distance. Say no more!

"And then it was finally relaxing time for us", Roland says. "With September being our worst month of the year, we usually are plagued by heavy winds and kak weather. So we use this time to relax, recharge and regrease. Beulah and I went for a small holiday to Namibia which was really, really good."

July 28th, 2009

We are having really good diving right now. On the two baited dives we did today we encountered a Tiger Shark, 2 Bull Sharks, 3 Black Tips and a Dusky. All that for more than 60 minutes and 20m/60ft visibility. Magic stuff. Besides those fish we've got about 20 to 30 Sandtigers in and around the caves on the Northern Pinnacle. Weather conditions are perfect. No clouds, no wind, a slow current and air and water temperature are 22C. On the way to Protea Banks whales can be seen everywhere as well as dolphins and out at the reef we see seabirds of all kinds. Real ocean action!

July 2nd, 2009

Still waiting for the Sardine Run to happen. Although we've heard from our colleague who is operating on the Wild Coast that there are huge shoals of sardines off Port St. Johns, we still haven't seen any. Roland: "Walter estimates that the sardines could be on our coast line in as few as 5 to 10 days. Meanwhile, we carry on diving Protea Banks."

On the Northern Pinnacle we've got Raggies in the caves and on the Southern Pinnacle we see Zambezies and Black Tips. Today, some of the divers even saw a Hammerhead. Now that is unusual for this time of the year. We also did a baited dive 3 days ago and got a Tiger as well as a Zambezi. Will do another baited dive tomorrow. With this kind of diving we can't go wrong. People love it, everyone's getting their money's worth and enjoying it. It's our wild guess the sharks do too. Why else would they stay with us for over 80 minutes?

June 6th, 2009

Protea Banks is absolutely world-class. Visibility of 25-35m/75-115ft has been the norm for the past three weeks. We've got Sandtigers on the Northern Pinnacle (caves) and Zambezies, Black Tips and Sandsharks on the Southern Pinnacle. Though it's supposed to be winter, our water temperature is still a pleasant 23C and the air temperature 18-25C, almost always sunny. The whale population has been increasing steadily for the past couple of weeks. On virtually every single trip out to the reef or back from the reef we see groups of humpback whales. Whenever possible, we stop the boat and let the divers get into the water with them. Mostly they get these amazing sightings of these huge animals as they pass underneath.

The Sardine Run looks to be imminent. Roland: "I spoke to Walter who is doing the Sardine Run on the Wild Coast and he is convinced that they will make an appearance in our region within a week or so. We did notice that the amount of related seabirds (Gannets) has increased drastically. So we'll be keeping our fingers crossed hoping that maybe, maybe we'll have some good sardine action this year."