Merry Christmas with the Hammerheads

Just in good time for christmas, we are having hammerheads with no end.
Today we saw several hundred of these beauties together with 3 Zambezis, 1 Black Tip and 3 Eaglerays.
Great vis, warm water and pretty hefty current.
A great dive for Protea Lovers who know how to do it !!!

I also want to take this opportunity to wish everybody a merry Christmas and hope that you all will get richly presented. ( preferably with diving trips to Protea Banks !!! )

A Christmas thought :
Most of my friends and family in Germany are moaning about the cold and excessive snow in Europe. I am sweating my butt off and wish i could sit by the oven with a glass of Whiskey and watch the snow fall.
I wish i could walk along the romantic Christmas market and drink a hot Gluehwein.
I miss it this time of the year.
So every situation life throws at us has an upside. This upside needs to be discovered and wholly enjoyed.
A such positive feeling will stay with you forever. Go look for it !!!!!

We are on Facebook now

After i haven't seen Beulah for the last two weeks she has resurfaced on facebook !!!
What an effort she made there.
Anybody interested can follow our daily dive reports and we would be happy if you all would sign up as friends .
See African Dive Adventures ( business page ) or Beulah Mauz
Lots and lots and lots of stunning photos and more.....

Tigersharks on Protea Banks

Today is the day we have been waiting for. Our first tigershark visited our Baited Dive for over 80 minutes.
We started our Baited Dive number 79 for this year with 5 Zambezis and 2 Black Tips in absolutely crystal clear water. Visibility of 35m + and watertemp of 25C was the perfect start of a good dive.
Col. Mike from Underwater Safaris in Germany was my VIP and good friend of many years.
The two of us amongst all these sharks in touching distance. It truely was a shark lover's dream.
And then Mike spotted the Tiger-Lady. What a beaut !!!!!
We will be back tomorrow and we are looking for more......

I almost forgot : Hammerheads everywhere

Diving with Bullsharks

Diving with Bullsharks or Zambezis as we call them here cannot get better.
Every single Baited Dive we do produces a full on success and happy customers.
Today we had 8 Zambezis on our bait station. Visibility 20m and warm 24C water made for a dive which will never be forgotten.
The sharks came really close to the divers - close as in 50cm - and the guys had to restrain themselves from touching the sharks.
Although it may be tempting to touch such an animal, we strictly don't allow this. We feel, the diver needs to respect the sharks at all times. We don't want the sharks to loose their respect for us either.
We believe that due to this attitude and a long list of absolut safety rules we never had an accident or even a threatening situation with these fascinating animals.
We will keep bringing the sharks close to our divers and help the divers to get more understanding for the sharks.

A must see movie

Every diver should see this - there are some things that I have never seen in my life and the most amazing shots as well! See it immediately!

Bullsharks and Hammerheads on Protea Banks

The Hammerheads are here !!!
It is actually almost cheeky how we start the dive briefing these days :
Do you want to see the Raggies in the caves or the Hammerheads in the South or do you want to be buzzed by Bullsharks on our famous Baited Dive .
And it works. We can deliver everytime without fail.
Amazing diving !!!
We all know it doesn't exactly stay like this, but we sure do enjoy it while it lasts.
We should see the last of this year's Raggies now. Maybe a few more weeks and they will move on .
Hammerheads should be around for quite a few months, peaking sometime around Christmas.
Tigers should come anytime soon.
Bullsharks just love it here on Protea Banks !!!!!

Great diving on Protea Banks

We had a heavy four days of doing three deep dives a day with the crazy Austrians and the Bavarian from Tauchertraum. Unbelievable that the guys did not weaken.!!!
Kyle and i gave them one day, but we sure underestimated them.
But the effort was rewarded with excellent shark sightings.
We saw everything from Raggies in the caves to Zambezies, Black Tips, Duskys, even Sandsharks.
Visibility always between 20m and 25m
Temp 21C - 23C
Sea was pretty rough with strong winds but manageable.
We really played with the sharks and had an unforgettable time.
Tomorrow Beulah and i are flying to Germany for two weeks. Family visit....

Shark killing contest cancelled

Protea Banks has been a little quiet in terms of shark sightings the last couple of days.
Visibility was great at 25m and current gentle.
The weather is far too good for this time of the year.

Although the underwater world has been quiet, above water in Shelly Beach we had a full on revolution between fishermen and people who care for the environment.
The fishermen of Shelly Beach originally planned a shark killing event to take place on 2.& 3. October.
They had 53 boats entered and were going to 'restore the balance on the reef '
It took less than half a day on the internet and the whole world climbed into the fishermen.
Absolutely amazing to see who powerful and how many people from all parts of the globe want to save sharks from being slaughtered.
The pressure became so strong that the fishermen backed down.
Exactly the same happened in 2007 with the Durban Ski Boat Club.
Some people never learn....
What was most amazing to see was the unity of so many people who worked tireless towards a common goal. To save the sharks of Protea Banks.
Maybe soon we can all stand together and put pressure on governments to protect our threatened sharks before it is too late...?????

Whales on Scuba on Protea Banks

It has been a while since i wrote some news. Beulah and i were in the Kruger Park for 8 days and had the time of our lives.
We saw so many lions, it was unbelievable. Besides lions we saw the big five on day 3.
Our leopard which we have searched for for years has finally come true. 2.5 hours of watching him in a tree barely 15m from the street. I'll see if i manage to upload a photo or two.

And in the meantime, old Kyle went crazy under water. Visibility seems to stay around 15m on pretty much every dive so far. Slight current and 25 C watertemp.
On his last dive he encountered 3 humpback whales, a pod of dolphins, 5 zams and 4 black tips.
Yes, humpbacks on SCUBA !!! This is the finest one could ever ask for.
Hope we get more of those before the season is over...

Raggies are full up at Protea Banks

We had a great diving weekend just before the big wind came late yesterday eve.
Divers had the pleasure of being amongst plus/minus 80 Raggies and over a dozen Zambezies.
Our Baited Dive number 60 for this year was-like all the others- a full success with 7 Zambezies and 4 Black Tips.
As always on our Baited Dives, sharks come really close up and personal . An incredible experience for anybody who dares.......

Here's some Raggie footage.

How much better does Protea still get ?????

We had a bit of a quiet week and managed to do things one never gets a chance to do, ever. Like fixing the kitchen cupboard...eish !!!
So come friday, i am now seriously suffering withdrawal symptoms. Especially as the weather has been absolutely perfect all week.
So i phone old Kylie-Boy and JP and get ole Meeaalville to top for us.
Off we go to meet at Shelly Beach.
We pump a 31% Nitrox all the way to 250bar so we can do a proper decodive of note !!!
As we get to the Playground we slowly descend through slightly murky water into ever cleaner and colder water at depth.
On the bottom we did't see any sharks at first. Until we looked up !!! Oh my god, what a magnificent sight.
There must have been about 50 Raggies in midwater mingling with Zambezies and Black Tips and schools and schools of Tunas and other fish.
It carried on like that throughout the dive. Probably hundreds of sharks mixed with maybe thousands of tunas and more.
The reef self was full of shark life, vis at least 25m - 30m.
We did a cool bottom time of 30 mins and slowly outgassed on our long way up.
During all tis time we had sharks swimming around us and even a Marlin came to show his magnificent beauty....
This was one of those dives one cannot describe in words.
It felt as if we had found paradise.....
Or as if we were watching National Geographic from the best loungechair in the world...........

ADA Helps charity

ADA will be helping Matla A Bana - A voice against child abuse, to raise funds by donating a baited shark dive and accommodation to the Bid or Buy Charity Auction.

This charity was founded by ex-hostages, Callie and Monique Strydom - who are keen ADA/Protea Bank supporters!

Why don't you help by bidding on this auction (btw it includes lunch with Mr SA as well!)?

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/seller/1662429/Matla_A_Bana

No limit when it comes to the Raggies @ Protea!

Just before the weather turned nasty on us we managed to get a dive in. Went to the Northern Pinnacles. This time of the year there are garanteed Raggies in and around the caves. Lovely sight. Last week we only found 4 so i wasn't sure what we will find today.

Well, we got down and were greeted by a sight of Raggies everywhere we looked. With a visibility of 20m + we saw hundreds !!!! In fact, i counted close to 250 Raggies between the two caves and inside.

These are truely those dives who keep me going on Protea Banks forever.....

After we returned from Coffee Bay and not diving on Aliwal for a while a few sharks got scared when they saw us on Protea again!

And Protea did not dissappoint - there were more than enough sharks! The sea was literally infested with them. During the two baited dives we saw Tigersharks, countless Bullsharks and many Black Tips, as well as Duskys. The vis and the water were good to us and allowed for great viewing and filming. (Check out our videos!).

Today was sad Good Bye to our lovely group. We got to know each other and everybody started feeling really comfortable and opened up. Magic.

Tomorrow it is returning time for most and we are getting ready to welcome Alois Sima and his Czechs.

Sardine Update - 4 July

Our trip has come to an end. After driving around all day we came across countless whales, swam with the dolphins, watched turtles on the surface and even saw hammerhead sharks. As we were ready to go home - the day had one more surprise. Right in front of Hole in the Wall we found the only sardine activity of the day. The divers went in and saw gannets diving in an arm's length away, whilst the dolphins sounded the sardines into a ball. What a fantastic end to a great trip!

Sardine Update - 3 July

We saw it! Today was the day. We travelled north of Coffee Bay and nothing happened. Nothing at all... Just as we didn't know where else to go we saw the boiling water. We had sardines for hours and got right in the middle of the bait ball. Sharks, dolphins and gannets finally gave us the show we were looking for so desperately. A great day with everyone very happy!

Sardine update - 2 July

Looking for sardines!

Enjoying the winter sun after a long day on the boat!

Today was the day with the most action so far. From 9 until 2 we chased sardines all over the ocean. Literally hundreds of birds diving right next to us. The sky was white at some stages with all the gannets. Common dolphins were going wild. Lots of southern rights and minky whales. Ocean action of note! But we still have ot find the great bait ball...

Sardine Update - 1 July

We got out early at 9 and zig zag'ed around a lot. Saw lots of whale activity - mainly humpbacks and two minky whales. After about 2 hours we reached a nice bay where the birds were diving. The divers went in and got so close to the dolphins that they could nearly touch them. Still no sardines! On the way back we found some more action - common dolphins clearly made a bait ball and gannets dived a lot. Not a bad day, but we need more. We have 3 days left and hope for the best! The good thing is that the sun is out again and dipping this expedition in a lovely warm light.

Sardine Update - 30 June

We launched today and went 20km south of Coffee Bay. We got into heavy bird activity but missed the sardines. Got 5 sharks while in the water. One whale breached barely 10 m from us. Very impressive! On our way back we snorkelled with a huge shcool of dolphins. After more than 3 hours at sea in overcast and windy conditions we are all cold and happy to go back to the hotel!

Sardine Expedition - 29 June

Everything ready for the diving tomorrow. I am on my way to Mthatha to meet the divers. Weaving my car through a maze of potholes like fish on a weaver's table! Weather is good, but wind came up in the night.

Our Dutch guests arrived at Mthatha airport in the afternoon, to find out that the rented vans were not there! They waited until after dark for them to finally arrive. Princess, the airport SAPS officer in charge decided to have them escorted all the way to Coffee Bay. What an honour it was to be made feeling so special - as some stage we had four police cars with us!

Sardine Run Expidition - 27 June

It is pouring with rain yesterday and the roads are like a mud bath. Very happy I bought those stunning looking mud terrain tyres! Woke up this morning to a sunny day with lots of birds diving into the waters and whales blowing everywhere - all of this action happening right in front of the hotel where we are staying.

Keep watching this post for some "sardine" pictures!

For all of those who are scared of sharks - enjoy!

Sardine time!

The annual great Sardine Run is a natural phenomenon which usually occurs during the months of June and July, when massive schools of sardines migrate from the colder waters around the Cape to the warmer waters of Kwa-zulu Natal to give birth to their offspring. Once they've layed their eggs, they return to the Cape, closely followed by thousands of dolphins, birds, fish of prey, whales and sharks. The ocean awakes and the thrill is simply indescribable.

In the olden days it was said that as soon as the Aloes bloom on the South Coast, the Sardines will start running. Funny enough, nobody gave the Sardine Run much notice. The ocean is buzzing with life, yet only the locals used to get drawn into this unbelievable spectacle of Mother Nature. There are hundreds, sometimes thousands of Common Dolphins along the coast hunting the sardines and there are whales everywhere. Cape Gannets (Toelpel auf deutsch) cruise in flocks of several hundreds above the sardines and dive from 20m into the water to catch as many of the silver fish as they can. At the end of a good day, the Gannets are so full that they just sit on the water unable to take off.

From underneath the sharks and dolphins round up a large number of sardines and form what is known as a bait ball. Once the bait ball is formed, the sharks and dolphins swim through and through and through that ball until not one sardine is left. As divers, we first approach the situation carefully and watch from the boat what is going on. Then we slide into the water just on ABC and when a bait ball is formed or a large shoal of sardines approaches, we don equipment and watch the incredible scene from a depth of approximately 5-7m. Then it's back on the boat and off to the next group of sardines. This can go on for hours or even the whole day with a short lunch break in between.

When the Sardine Run starts, it starts just north of Port Elizabeth and moves up the coast pretty quickly. This year ADA will be waiting for the Sardines on the Wild Coast. For those unlucky ones who cannot join us this year, keep reading this post for all the updates!

Diving with tigers

Last weeks baited dive brough some Tigers and Zambies - and of course the Raggies where also there to check out the action!