Desperately seeking............

[hootie]

a dive buddy ... during the week (mostly afternoons). I am relatively new to the Cape Town area....my one year anniversary is December 30th. My husband is an instructor at Koeberg and since I cannot work in SA, I have a lot of free time on my hands. I am 48 yrs old. I have my AOW cert and Nitrox cert but 99% of my diving has been in warm water where you wear maybe a 3mm shorty but usually nothing more than a swim suit. I have been diving a couple of times in the Cape Town area but I'm not going to lie....it was difficult. the cold water took my breath away and I'm NOT used to diving off of inflatables or shore dives. My diving experience (only about 50 dives) has been on liveaboards or big dive boats with nice steps to climb back on the boat so I am trying to embrace (with gusto!) the South African way of diving. With that, I need a dive buddy who is extremely patient and understanding. For your trouble, I will pay for 1/2 of any dive we go on with a reputable dive company. Again, this is only for weekday dives and tuesdays are completely out and would prefer afternoons for any other day of the week as I have morning commitments on all other days but could reschedule as needed. Here's to life!

 

[xyrandomyx]

a dive buddy ... during the week (mostly afternoons). I am relatively new to the Cape Town area....my one year anniversary is December 30th. My husband is an instructor at Koeberg and since I cannot work in SA, I have a lot of free time on my hands. I am 48 yrs old. I have my AOW cert and Nitrox cert but 99% of my diving has been in warm water where you wear maybe a 3mm shorty but usually nothing more than a swim suit. I have been diving a couple of times in the Cape Town area but I'm not going to lie....it was difficult. the cold water took my breath away and I'm NOT used to diving off of inflatables or shore dives. My diving experience (only about 50 dives) has been on liveaboards or big dive boats with nice steps to climb back on the boat so I am trying to embrace (with gusto!) the South African way of diving. With that, I need a dive buddy who is extremely patient and understanding. For your trouble, I will pay for 1/2 of any dive we go on with a reputable dive company. Again, this is only for weekday dives and tuesdays are completely out and would prefer afternoons for any other day of the week as I have morning commitments on all other days but could reschedule as needed. Here's to life!

I'd love to come diving with you during the week, but I don't think my boss will share my enthusiasm for the idea. Silly work, getting in the way of my diving. I'm not aware of any Capetonians on Scubaboard who are regularly available during the week. You might want to check out one of the local dive clubs:

False Bay Underwater Club -- About Us - FBUC
Old Mutual Sub-Aqua Club -- OMSAC | Old Mutual Sub Aqua Club

I know there are a few others associated with universities, not sure if there are more with membership open to the public. Both, as far as I know, are happy to allow anyone to turn up at their weekly meetings to see what the club's about it. It may be worth your while just to see/ ask if there are some members who're available during the week.

As for the rest: yes, Cape Town's diving is definitely a bit more rough and tumble than your typical warm-water resort or live-aboard. But, you have the right idea -- stick with it and you'll probably get used to it. The right exposure suit can definitely help with the cold (though I'm still diving wet, probably not for too much longer).

 

[hootie]

muchas gracias! I will check those out.

The couple of times I've gone diving here, the dive outfits had me layer the wet suits....a shorty with a hood as the top layer. That seems pretty standard for here, right? Not sure I want to spend the $$ on a dry suit as we'll only be here a couple of years and then hopefully retiring to somewhere tropical. *crossing fingers!*

 

[xyrandomyx]

Yes, the layered wetsuits are pretty standard for rental gear. As far as I know, most shops have 2-piece 5mm wetsuits -- 5mm full wetsuit on the bottom and a 5mm shorty with hood over the top. Blue Flash has used drysuits from about R3,000. There a few other options, which may or may not be cheaper than a used drysuit (but definitely cheaper than a new drysuit):

• Two-piece 7mm wetsuit. The rental suits are generally a bit worn in, so possibly actually a little bit thinner than 5mm, so 7mm might make a difference.
• A custom-fitted wetsuit. If you're quite far from standard sizing, it should help a lot. It's awful when the wetsuit is extremely tight in some places and baggy in others.
• A 6.5mm semi-dry suit with a thick separate hood.
• An open-cell neoprene wetsuit.

I dived with a guy on Sunday who was looking for dive buddies for late afternoons/ early evenings during the week. Do you think that might work for you? Let me know and I can try get his contact details from the dive shop and pass them along if he might be interested in diving with you.