Hello from South Africa

[dumbluck]

Hi my name is Adriaan, I live in a small town called Saint Helena Bay, 170km up the West Coast from Cape Town. I love freediving and spearfishing and the Ocean in general. Been working at sea for 10 years in the Commercial Diving Industry as a Dive Systems Technician. I enjoy reading and hope to learn a lot on here

 

[Roro from ZA]

Hi Adriaan

What is the average temperature of the water in St Helena Bay during December?

kind regards
Roro

 

[dumbluck]

Hi Roro, good to see fellow South Africans on here.

This December past I was diving in 17/18 degC water at "Die Eiland" wich is quite exposed to the open ocean. If you go on Google maps you will see some rocks going into the ocean from the "Groot Paternoster Nature Reserve". These temperatures depend a lot on the ocean currents but some bays are a lot warmer. Over December we ski and tube in the Britannia Bay and on 2 occasions took their wetsuit off as it was just too hot. Cold water is not the end of the world.

All my friends dive with 5mm open cell suits, I started out with my Reef Pro-Diamond 4.3 surf suit and said I'll go buy an open cell suit when I realise I'm too cold. Reef hoodie, socks and gloves complete my suit. 2 weeks ago I was shorediving in 13degC water and after an hour in the water I was still fine. I guess I'm less susceptible to the cold. I love the freedom of movement, my suit fits me very well.

Going spearfishing we will either do a shoredive and spend about 60-90mins in the water, I still don't feel the need to buy a thicker suit for that.
When we go out on a boat and explore "die eiland" and other spots around the coast we spend 20-30 mins in the water at each spot, doing that the whole day and the wind chill on the boat gets to me at the end of the day.

I'm hesitant to go for a thicker suit as I love the fact that I don't need much weight, only 3,2kg for deeper than 5m, if max depth is 7m I add another 800g.

I'm in the process of buying a boat and want to get my friends into the freediving side, get good training in for spearfishing.
My girlfriend is also keen, she has all the gear and has been diving with me for a while. We did a Freediving course in Thailand when we were on holiday there.

I don't know how to link the viideo itself but check out my instagram, scroll down and you'll find a video of some spearfishing at "die Eiland" https://www.instagram.com/adri.3333/

Let me know if you ever want t come brave the cold water and visit the West Coast!

 

[landshark sa]

Howzit Adriaan and welcome to deeperblue!

Where do you do most of your spearing?

I believe Dassen currently has a some Katonkel with a few Tail in between and besides a good Snoek run earlier this year I haven't heard much from the Stompneus pinnacles.

 

[dumbluck]

Howzit Adriaan and welcome to deeperblue!

Where do you do most of your spearing?

I believe Dassen currently has a some Katonkel with a few Tail in between and besides a good Snoek run earlier this year I haven't heard much from the Stompneus pinnacles.

Hi Landshark, about 3 weeks ago a guy caught 25 yellowtail off his boat the Saturday, the Sunday some spearfishers went out and I believe they shot 12 between the 2 of them. We didn't have access to a boat then I'm pretty new to all of this, been spearfishing for about a year. I moved to Britannia Bay at the end of last year, but have been going to St Helena Bay all my life. I have a friend that lives and breathes diving, he's been showing me all the spots around St Helena so I've been diving everywhere between Die Eiland to Midwest. Just Hotties and Galjoen so far. When I was home now in July/August the fish were a lot smaller than over December, so picking out the big ones was more difficult. I just love getting in the water and training depth and bottom time so I don't mind not spearing anything, exploring and getting to know the area is fine for now.

 

[dumbluck]

That was at Noord Blinder

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[landshark sa]

Good to hear there are some Tail on your side! May have to make a trip up there soon...

Sounds as if you are doing things the right way around by firstly becoming comfortable and learning the ropes before upgrading equipment etc and a boat will for sure make big difference in terms of access to good spearing areas.

 

[landshark sa]

Oh, and shout if you have any questions, if I can't help I have a few buddies that live on that side that's totally spearing mad.

 

[dumbluck]

Oh, and shout if you have any questions, if I can't help I have a few buddies that live on that side that's totally spearing mad.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Yes I really enjoy the freediving, during the Padi Freediver course I managed a 3m50s static and 2m05s dive to 11.5m. The deepest holes I could find were 16m and 17.8m, did 1m30s and 1m20s IIRC. I felt so comfortable during all those dives, I'd like to get back to that point, winter took it's toll and I became lazy. My goal for spearfishing is 1min+ every time I put my head underwater, but it was hard work while I was at home now. Gear wise I only need to upgrade my suit when I feel the need. Have a D4I Novo and it's been the biggest help with training, composite blades and marseilles weightbelt from Rabitech also work great.

Although I didn't think my girlfriend would reach 10m, I wanted her to get the full exposure and she did the Padi Freediver course with me. When I met her she could hardly swim (she says she still can't) but she loves exploring everything underwater. Started by putting her in a suit and dragging her around she shallows, added fins and took it very slow. She managed a 2m15s static, did her 30m underwater swim and She equalised for the first time in her life in the pool on the course in thailand. Had a bit of trouble but reached the bottom. Next day in the ocean she reached 6m, equalising being the main holdback. After that we went snorkeling every chance we got (we took our own masks and some short fins with on the holiday) and she was doing 5m dives easy peasy. She is keen to do some more training with a bouy and downline, so the boat will be perfect for that. When she can reach 10m I want to go do the advanced course and she can complete her Freediver course. A lot of our spots around St Helena are so easily accessible if you have a boat. My house is 350m from the britannia bay launch so I cant wait Want to train hard so I can join my friends and go look for yellowtail at struisbaai.

 

[Roro from ZA]

You two are making me jealous.... stuck here in Gauteng is not helping.

 

[BatRay]

Welcome to Deeperblue. Glad you could join us. How's the situation in SA overall? I've heard some worrying things recently.

 

[Roro from ZA]

Hi
Well it depends. Some parts are safer than others. It depends on what worrying things you heard? South Africa is a beautiful country, with its own problems. If you know what to avoid then one can have a awesome experience. I was wreck diving and shark diving last week Thrusday. I am new to the freediving so still looking for nice spots. I'm open to answer any questions about South Africa as honestly as I can, if you have any.

 

[BatRay]

Mainly wondering about the land confiscation policy that's in the works. Reports coming out of SA tend to be rather... inconsistent. Some are saying it's dreadfully dangerous and about to get much worse, while others seem little affected. Makes it tough to get an accurate picture of the situation.

 

[Roro from ZA]

There is a political group who is driving the land expropriation for the previously disadvantaged non-white. It is scary to think that after 1994 we are still struggling with issues from the apartheid era. Farm murders is a reality that gets covered up in international news. Since Ramaphosa took over in December it is slighty looking better. Political unrest is a reality for us.

 

[BatRay]

Interesting. As I understand, Ramaphosa is fully in support of land expropriation. I've heard speculation that the situation in SA could deteriorate into Zimbabwe status if they do decide to confiscate the land. As I understand, the current officials seem to believe they can avoid that situation. I guess we'll see what happens.

>Farm murders is a reality that gets covered up in international news.

An appalling situation, and one that I've been looking into somewhat. SA no longer reports violence and murder statistics with demographic detail, and hasn't since 2007. It has been problematic to pin down anything to any degree of accuracy.

 

[Roro from ZA]

Is there anything specific information that you are interested in? I can maybe refer you to some sites, that focus on statistics about crime in South Africa. We have an orginal farming organisation that is trying their utter best to resist the land expropriation, and we have an Gun association that is figthing to keep civilians armed to protect themselves.

 

[BatRay]

Any and every resource would be most welcome.

 

[Roro from ZA]

Hi jave a look on facebook. These guys report daily crime in South Africa

 

[Roro from ZA]

Still looking for some site in English for you most is in Afrikaans like afriforum and solidariteit

 

[Roro from ZA]

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...ill-accelerate-land-reform-ramaphosa-20180820