May 20 2019
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Five Bad Scuba Diving Habits @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

We’ve all been guilty of cutting corners when it comes to diving, especially the more experienced we become. We abbreviate or skip buddy checks; we assume the air in our tanks is sound without checking. Some of these bad scuba diving habits are just sloppy, but some can lead to true danger. Here are five bad scuba diving habits and how to break them. Skipping the buddy check The name “buddy check” makes an important series of tasks sound far too friendly, almost like it’s just suggestion rather than a potential life-saving routine. Let’s call it what it is, however — a pre-dive safety check. If you can’t remember the various acronyms from your open-water course, just visualize a diver and run through your equipment from head to toe. Does the BCD actually inflate and deflate? Are all the escape valves tightened? Is the air turned on? Are any pull-cords or dumping strings trapped? Do you know how to operate all the fasteners and clips and how to remove the jacket quickly after a dive? If you’re wearing a weight belt, is on properly? Are your integrated weight pockets snapped securely into your jacket if that’s your system? You can get five breaths from a regulator when the tank is turned off. Do you only press the purge buttons and listen to the hissing sound, or do you look at your pressure gauge and breathe from the second stage? Ensure that your air is on every time, and make the buddy check count rather than just going through the motions. Removing your mask and/or regulator upon surfacing Most of us want to talk as soon as we reach the surface, and why not? You’ve just seen a whale shark and a couple of mantas! When we arrive at the surface though, we should delay our impulse to chat until we’ve inflated our jackets, signaled OK to the boat and made sure everyone in our party is also okay. It’s all too easy to whip off your mask and take out your reg, only to get a face and mouth full of salt water. In rough conditions the boat has a limited time to approach, stop, help you and your group on board and keep the craft stable. As the minutes tick by the risk of injury from rear decks, rolling ladders and other divers increase. Keep your surface habits tight and polished by establishing positive buoyancy immediately, staying together and keeping an eye and an ear out for the guide. Approach the boat deliberately, with your mask and reg in place, and time your exit to avoid others or any hazardous pickups. Once you’re safely back on board, chat away. Going too deep During open-water training, we learn that depth amplifies nearly everything, especially the amount of air we consume. Although the dive guide has set a maximum depth of 82 feet (25 m), the group stays at 75 feet (23 m). Because you don’t yet have your buoyancy under control, you stray to 92 feet (28 m) where you swim, to the annoyance of others, for 15 minutes. Although you argue that it’s only 16 feet (5 m), you’ll be consuming more air than everyone else and cutting their dive short as well, so don’t  make it a habit to go deeper than a planned dive profile You’ll improve your buoyancy and air consumption through correct weighting and trim, and by reducing the energy you spend underwater. Not analyzing your tanks The boat is late leaving the jetty and the nitrox analyzer has a flat battery. Ahead of you is a trip to a shipwreck at 98 feet (30 m). Although you and your buddy were planning to dive on 32 percent nitrox, the guide tells you you’ll have to dive on air with everyone else, as the dive boat is in danger of missing the light. But since you’ve been diving nitrox all week, you’re sure the nitrox tank you grab will be fine. It’s been reading 32 percent every time, and the guide is probably being overly cautious. So you turn the green and yellow content sticker around and hide it under the wide strap of your BCD. You decide to use the tank without analyzing it. You’ll gain a few extra minutes of bottom time and, just in case, you can always do an extra-long safety stop. Inside the wreck at 91 feet (28 m) your vision distorts and your face muscles twitch. The taste in your mouth is sweet, slightly sugary even. Something is wrong — you turn to your buddy but he’s shaking uncontrollably with a convulsion. You have only one thought: What’s in our tanks? You quickly grab him and hoist him towards the surface, stopping half way as he returns to consciousness. You’re at 52 feet (16 m) but you want to abort the dive. The guide spots you from below; you point to your ear. He lets you go and continues with the group. Back on board, you quickly swap tanks, and grab a seat to calm down. Your buddy has a slight chest pain but nothing too much. A zodiac appears alongside the moored-up dive boat. The on board guide recognizes a friend and asks to borrow the zodiac’s nitrox analyzer. He opens one of the nitrox tanks, places the sensor over the valve, and watches in astonishment as the digital display climbs to 50 percent. The moral of the story: always check your tanks, and always watch the digital display yourself. A few extra minutes of bottom time isn’t worth the risk. Not paying attention to the rules There are four laws in scuba diving: Boyle’s, Dalton’s, Charles’s and…Murphy’s. The latter is the one most violated by scuba divers and the biggest cause of instant karma. Forget your camera and you’ll see a whale shark. Rush your pre-dive safety check, and you’ll drop your belt in the water. The list goes on. Problems arise when you ignore the little voice in…

May 13 2019
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How Deep Can We Dive @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

This is real interesting must read article on how deep the human body can dive… We provided an image to illustrate but you welcome to read the full article here>>> Ocean depths are amazing, mysterious, and intimidating. We know so little about them, yet they are literally at our doorstep. We have explored a larger surface area of Moon and Mars, than of the ocean floor, but luckily we are making strides in understand our own planet more. Ever since we started conquering our seas and oceans, they have been a symbol of human thirst for exploration, and our indomitable spirit. One can only wonder, what wondrous discoveries await us down there. Who knows what awaits us down there? How Deep Can We Dive – An infographic by the team at The Daily Research

Apr 30 2019
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Dan – Divers Alert Network (South Africa) @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Divers Alert Network South Africa DAN Southern Africa is a Public Benefit Organization that provides emergency medical advice and assistance for underwater diving injuries, and provides a wide range of research, education and training programmes that promote safe diving. DAN-SA is supported by more than 7 000 fellow divers with a further 400 000 international divers supporting DAN America, DAN Europe, DAN Japan, DAN Asia Pacific and DAN Southern America. Join Now >>>

Apr 24 2019
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First day of Traveling to Sodwana Bay @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

So the if you are traveling from Pretoria/Joburg you know that your travels could be between 8-9 hours. This is the most boring time you will have in your whole vacation period. We always consider traveling day as our first holiday day. We usually like to leave quite early in the morning to avoid adding time to our journey by getting stuck in traffic between Pretoria and Witbank. Here are a few tips on how to prepare for your trip that will get you there sooner and make life so much easier: First of all – Try make sure everything non-perishable is packed and ready to go the day/night before. What I mean by this is, if you have ever been in Sodwana you know most places are self catering, meaning you have to bring your own food water and drinks to the camp site. So stuff that can defrost and go off you would rather pack in the morning instead of letting it thaw out through the night and still have to stay in hot car or trailer all the way down to Sodwana Bay. Quick Tip: What we always like to do planning our trips to Sodwana Bay is start saving frozen foods and vegetables before going down. We always like to start buying what we call “Sodwana food” months in advanced, when ever we see a special or a cheap piece of meat we will buy it chuck it in our freezer and forget about it. Once we start preparing to go to Sodwana Bay we go through our freezer and find we never have to buy extra meat when we go down and often times end up bringing more than half of the food back. Trust me you do not wanna buy anything in Sodwana. The town spar in Mbazwane is insanely busy all day long with nobody respecting each other and very little variety of meats to choose from and the little Town heading to the beach is way to expensive with very little to offer it is better just to prepare before hand. Also never try buy Alcohol there, they will charge you nearly double to triple the amount you would pay here in the city. Try pack all clothes and snacks (non-perishable) the day or even weekend before you travel (depending on when you plan to leave). We find trying to rest the day before you leave to be the best course of action, as it is a really long journey to go down. Make what we in South Africa call Padkos (road food). You really don’t wanna go on an 8-9 hour journey without having something to eat or drink. I guess you could just stop at a restaurant or gas station and getting something to eat there, but there are two (2) reasons I would not suggest that – (1) Its less spending money for when you are in Sodwana Bay. You wanna maximize your spending in Sodwana where your actual holiday is not use it on boring restaurants along the road. Why not save a few bucks by making some great home made food that is anyway in your very own kitchen. (2) The second reason is you can save alot of time, instead of spending an hour to 2 hours in a restaurant you could rather take a 5 minute toilet break every once in a while and eat whilst driving or just stop and take 10 min to eat rather than add hours to your journey. Take a lot of Drinking water with you! Sodwana Water is not the same as city water, most camp sites use borehole water and as a result can upset your stomach if you are not use to it. Rather just bring your own water from home, whether it be bottled or tap water and also make sure to bring enough to last your whole trip until you come back. Keep cold and frozen things together. I have found if keep cold (Fridge) stuff and frozen stuff in the same container it helps keep everything cold and for the most part frozen for longer. So the last thing to do before traveling is to get a good nights rest. Before any long journey you need to be well rested up, so I would suggest the night before your big trip try get an early night in. It is the big day! You are mostly packed early in the morning just got the last few things to pack before locking up your house and off on your exciting vacation. One last check through your to do list and were off on our exciting journey. GoSodwana!!!!!!!!!!!! Once you arrive in Sodwana, you will be exhausted, but still have to pack out everything from the car, first thing is get all the food in the fridge and freezer. That’s done! Next go dump all bedding, bags etc. in the chalet/tent/house. After that jump back in the car and go claim that beach/sea once more. Maybe you don’t need to go swim that very first day but just to see the sea once more and to breath that clean air is just so amazing. Makes me wanna go back there right now! Explore this Website a little more, start at Homepage and discover some of our cool finds in Sodwana and check out our Youtube Channel (Please Like and Subscribe while you at it)

Apr 09 2019
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Sodwana Bay Tourist guide lines @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

So we were fortunate enough to go back to Sodwana Bay for our third trip and every time we go, we find something new and fun to do down there. As we explore we realize that we are missing in our tourism/travel kit. For instance – the first time we went down to Sodwana Bay we tried using our Tablets and Cellphones to take pictures of all the cool things we discovered in Sodwana and that you need a back pack that you don’t mind messing up and getting full of see sand when you pick up shells! Solution to this problem – get yourself a waterproof camera if you can afford it. Its hard to carry Tablets and cellphones on the beach as you are always fearful of them getting wet. We saw a girl using a clear bag for her phone and it seemed to be water proof (I would suggest researching that before submerging your expensive phone in the water). Second pointer – Often times you wanna pick up shells on the beach. Its a fun activity to do and also pass the time, especially when your little ones are curios and excited about everything. So what should you do with all these shells and odd objects that they pick you up? Well you could just put them in your pockets (if you have some) or carry as many as you can till you have no more space, but that can be annoying if you still wanna go swim or do more activities on the beach that day. Best solution that we found was getting the cheapest bag you possibly can find that drains water easily but doesn’t necessarily drop all your treasures out again. This way if you still wanna go for a swim after shell hunting you can do so or just go dump everything in the car. Next pointer is Shoes –  Shoes are really important when you wanna go to the rock pools, plus the sand can sometimes really get hot and burn your feet, but I wouldn’t suggest going with normal flip flops – 2 Reasons for that: One is I have lost 2 pairs of my flip flops due to they tend to break a lot by your toes, because of the force of the water when you walk and also they like to float away from you. Solution for this – get sturdy hardish shoes or closed airing shoes. I found a great pair of running shoes that look very similar to booties (water shoes) that are covered in small holes right down to the sole of the shoes as well. They are light weight, a breeze to walk with in the water and dry fairly quickly.  Never try buy clothes and shoes at Sodwana Beach shop –  Unless you don’t have a low budget and don’t mind spending R300 – R1000 on shoes I would not suggest buying clothing or shoes in Sodwana Bay unless for a memorabilia. Unfortunately as beautiful as Sodwana Bay is, it is still a tourist town, meaning almost everything that you find there will be expensive. If looking for a souvenir and don’t wanna spend all your money buying one item I would suggest go to small trinquete  shops and buying small items. Snorkeling and Diving – So most people will go to Sodwana Bay to Scuba Dive, but what about the times where you are not scheduled to dive or you are not a qualified diver.  I know that some people will never be able to dive for various reasons, some have or had lung diseases or their lungs are not strong enough or even some people just simply get panic attacks when going to deep under water. What can these people do while in Sodwana Bay? Well here is a great solution: Snorkeling! Snorkeling is a great way to explore the rock pools, discover some new fish and just have fun! We only took our Snorkeling gear with the second time we went down to Sodwana, but were very disheartened at first as we couldn’t see the fish on the surface, but we decided to take a leap of faith and go for a swim any way, once we had our snorkeling gear on and submerged our faces in the water we discovered a whole new world with fish and everything right under our noses. It was incredible the fish were right by us and we couldn’t even see them through the surface. Every time since then, we make sure to have our camera on hand ready to shoot for any exotic creatures we might find (in a later article we will reveal our most exciting find so far). One caution I must advise you guys on is that its not a great idea to go Snorkeling in High Tide, (you can check out the tides by googling Sodwana Bay Tides there are lots of accurate weather apps there.) When in High tide you can easily be swept onto the rocks which could cut you or even be pulled in by the current and pummeled by the sea. (We were caught like that).  Well that’s all for now. Hope this info can help a few people out.   

Apr 09 2019
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Raccoon Butterfly fish @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Among the most common fish that we found snorkeling in the Rock pools this time round was the little Raccoon Butterfly fish. Although they apparently can grow up to 20 cm long, the ones we found were only about 5 – 10 cm long (that’s just a guess) there were also tiny little baby ones swimming around with other baby fish as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were even less than a centimeter long. It was quiet a cool find as we have only ever seen these fish on TV, but never in real life. The first one we saw I tried to chase as far as possible and was able to get quiet close to. But the strange thing was with all the fish they seemed to come closer to us and not feel so threatened when we switched our cameras off and just swam with them. But the moment we pointed our cameras at them they were scared of us and tried to swim away from us as quickly as they possibly could. Maybe they thought they camera was a predatory fish or even a spear gun. So tip if you want the fish to come closer to you don’t video or take photos of them. Just relax and ‘swim with the fishes’ as the mafia always say. 😉 Here are a few fun facts and common questions about these fish: Common Names for this specific Butterfly Fish and the Fish family it belongs to: The raccoon butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula), also known as the crescent-masked butterflyfish, lunule butterflyfish, halfmoon butterflyfish, moon butterflyfish, raccoon butterfly, raccoon, raccoon coralfish, and redstriped butterflyfish, is a species of butterfly fish (family Chaetodontidae). Its Photo: To the left is a photo I took from the Internet and to the right is a photo that I took from the video we recorded. What it looks like? Chaetodon lunula can reach a length of 20 cm (nearly 8 in). These large butterfly fishes have an oval outline, with a pattern of ascending oblique reddish stripes on the flanks and black and white bands over the face and eyes, similar to the “raccoon” mask (hence the common name). They show a black spot on the caudal peduncle and oblique yellow stripes behind the head. They have 10-14 dorsal spines and 3 anal spines. What type of habitat do they prefer? This species prefers seaward reefs and shallow reef flats of lagoon, at a depth of over 30 m. So there are a few facts about this cute little fishy that seemingly looks lost in that big wide ocean. Information Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_butterflyfish Photo Source: Our own photography, https://www.azgardens.com/product/raccoon-butterflyfish/