Protea Banks rocks

Protea Banks is just amazing. It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, there is always something which blows our minds.

Yesterday i have counted 120 Raggies on one dive at the Northern Pinnacles.

This is not just an average Raggy Dive, this is definitely unique.

Everyone on this dive will remember this sight for the rest of our lives....

Visibility is 30m and the weather has been absolutely perfect.

And to top the whole experience, we see whales breaching all over the ocean.

Wherever we look there are humpback whales.

Beautiful !!!!

Zambezis and Raggies on Protea Banks

The Tigershark season is slowly coming to its close. We still see them on the odd Baited Dive, but here the Zambezis ( = Bull Sharks ) are taking priority again.

While the tigers were dominant during the last three months, the bulls chose to keep a respectful distance.

We did see them on every Baited Dive, but they hardly came close to the bucket.

Now that the tigers are moving off, the bulls are back in touching distance to the divers. Beautiful

However,this time of the year is really all about the Sandtigers ( = Raggies )

They have arrived on Protea Banks on 12.May and have since steadily increased in numbers.

Yesterday we estimated over 100 raggies.

This is pretty unique in the world and an unbelievable sight.!!!

As divers calm down on the reef the sharks' curiosity brings them very close. Perfect for the awardwinning photo and unforgettable experience.

All this comes with perfect, really perfect weather and seaconditions.

Shark's Eye View

Wonder what weird creature this bullshark is looking at....maybe some hitec crayfish ?

Best Time to dive Protea Banks

The best time to dive Protea Banks is without a doubt now. Since mid March we see Tigersharks on every Baited Dive we do. We could actually give a guarantee on this !!! Besides tigers we always have bullsharks and luckily only one or two black tips. We have medium current and clear blue water with 27C Yesterday we even had a Marlin passing the bucket. Bulls were particualrly playful and posed for excellent close-ups. Today we saw 3 bulls, 7 black tips, 18 guitar sharks, 3 scallopped hammerheads, 1 great hammerhead, 2 duskys and 1 eagleray.....what more can one ask for ? And this one was without any bait. Vis 40m + These faerytale conditions should carry on during April, May, June and July.

Tigersharks and Bullsharks on Protea Banks

Every Baited Dive we do , we have Bullsharks. This seems to be quite the norm on Protea Banks.
This time of the year we are also expecting Tigersharks to come and stay during the dive.
Today was such a day.
Excellent visibility ( 25m ) warm water ( 26C ) and we had a nice size Tiger for a good 60 mins on our Baited Dive.
Besides the Tiger we had 3 Bullsharks , one Black Tip, and a Dusky plus Hammerhead in the background.
Our Baited Dives are done at a depth of 12m and in order to give our divers the best value for money, we do not limit the time of the dive.
This means, each diver decides when he has had enough, or when the air runs out the diver surfaces. Most our Baited Dives therefore last between 80 and 90 mins.
Tigers and Bulls are very relaxed sharks which swim very slowly around the bucket and the divers. Because there is no hectic or hyped up sharks, the divers are equally relaxed and can concentrate on viewing and photographing the animals.
This is truely a unique experience .....

Baited Zambezi Dive

On Sunday we did a Baited Zambezi Dive. We specifically targeted Zams for a group who never dived with Zams before.
It did.t take very long and we had 6 huge Bullsharks ( = Zambezis ) on our bait.
Vis was excellent, water warm and the sharks were fearless.
Sometimes i had to hold my breath when i saw them swimming past a filming diver in less than 10cm distance !!!
The divers loved it and were ecstatic after a 90 minute dive.

Next week we're off to Germany to the BOOT exhibition 2011. For the first time we participate as exhibitors at the show. All's looking set for South Africa to be a winning destination.
We sure will go out of our way to promote this magic country !!!!

2011 starts big...

After a few lousy days under water, the conditions have sorted themselves out bigtime.
Sure, we had 2 days with bad vis and few to no sharks. These days come and thankfully go quickly !!!
Today :

• Vis : 15m
• Current : 2 kn
• watertemp.: 24C
• Sightings : 1 Tigershark, 1 Sandshark, 1 Eagleray, 5 Zambezis, 20 Black Tips and schooling Hammerheads wherever you look. Guys, we are talking of hundreds of not thousands of Hammers !!!!!

Another huge plus : we have a clear, starry sky tonight !!! Hurray