A beginners guide to Scuba Diving in Sodwana Bay

@Thesolowandera · A beginners guide to scuba diving in Sodwana Bay

Sodwana Bay is a small coastal village on the Northern Kwazulu Natal coast between St. Lucia and Kosi Bay. The coast is a protected marine biodiversity area under the Isimangaliso Wetlands Park - A world Heritage site. The Sodwana Bay National Park, is a popular snorkelling, deep sea fishing and recreational diving destination.

Known as one of the top dive sites in the world, the park is visited by an estimated 35 000 scuba divers per year. You have 50km of coral reefs, caves, overhangs and pinnacles to explore while getting acquainted with the 1200 species of marine creatures that call this home.

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With 14 dive locations, you will never experience the same dive. Some of the creatures you can encounter on a dive include sea turtles (Loggerhead and Leatherback), moray eels, parrotfish, octopus, Ragged-tooth sharks, Manta Rays, not to mention large schools of fish where you'll think you are swimming through a scene on "Finding Nemo".

Sodwana is an all year round diving destination with the water temperature in the Indian Ocean reaching 28degrees in the summer and the lowest in July (winter) 20degrees Celsius.

Aquamania is a diving school in the Vaal, South of Johannesburg and they plan dive trips for their qualified divers. Post holiday, they planned a trip to Sodwana Bay where we would be diving with the Sodwana Bay based diving charter Adventure Mania. 

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There's a lot about diving I want to share but I am also learning and wrapping my head around how awesome an adventure this is. I was introduced to scuba diving while I was shooting #ComeAgain - The Travel show I present on SABC1. 

Diving has been very therapeutic for me in many ways. I don't want to say I no longer suffer from anxiety, but I haven't dealt with my anxiety since I started diving 6 months ago. Diving taught me how to breathe and focus on my breathing. Also being aware of your breathing helps you preserve your air while down under so you can stay down there a lot longer. 

The most important lesson I got from scuba diving was that - you don't know what you don't know. 

There has been a lot of unlearning with regards to the indoctrination I grew up regarding water and how it will kill you. 

It's weird cos I have always loved water. Drawn to destinations with big bodies of water on my travels but I would have never considered scuba diving because of what has been drilled in me about water as a young black woman. 

Sodwana Beach w Advebture Mania diving tents

Without bothering you about my personal life challenges, I have unlearned the negatives I was raised with about water and id like to share Scuba diving with you as a lover of water and mermaid. 

The training - this was my most miserable part of this journey. There is theory work that I did online as I was still traveling and shooting #ComeAgain. You also have the option of attending classes with Aquamania. Then we jump into the pool. 

You are required to swim 200m and float on water for 10min in order to proceed with your open water diver qualification. You will also put on your scuba diving gear and learn to equalise your ears and other procedures such as flooding and clearing your mask under water, how to change breathing regulators under water, and other safety procedures while also playing around under water to get the hang of this diving business. From there you will get an opportunity to go under water in a big body of water. For me through Aquamania, we went to Bass Lakes in the Vaal. (Did you even know we had lakes in JHB)? 

You will have to do 4 dives in the lake in order to be a qualified PADI open water scuba diver and that qualification allows you to go as deep as 18m wherever you can find a suitable body of water where diving is allowed. Now that you are a qualified Scuba Diver, lets go to the ocean…. 

Preparing my gear before my dive.

The Reef in Sodwana Bay is known as 2mile Reef because it is 2miles from the beach. There are different parts to the reef where you find different aquatic creatures and different topography. 

But what happens when you are inside the ocean? How do you know where to go and how does the boat find you? I have asked this question and it still fascinates me. 

Scuba diving is a buddy sport. So you can never go alone. You always need a buddy. Someone that will be with you and help you should the need arise. We have a dive leader. A dive leader has what we call a buoy line attached to them with a long rope. Once we go down into the ocean, the buoy line stays afloat and that's what the boat will follow and know exactly where we are. While down under, swimming isn't necessary. You just hang there and let the current flow with you and you just enjoy the ride. 

Before heading for your dive, there will always be a safety briefing. If you see an underwater creature, what do you do? What happens if you get lost from the diving group? Hand signals on how to communicate and how to signal to communicate certain creatures when you see them. 

To answer the above questions: when you see a creature you may get excited. I always get excited and start dancing and screaming to myself. You should never swim towards to creature you are seeing. Rather go lower and make sure it stays above so that it always see you. It doesn't get startled. This way, it will come to you. To come and sniff you and figure you out. Under water creatures are just as curious about you as you are about them. 

When you are under water, you don't touch, poke, tease, or please anything. You also wouldn't appreciate someone walking into your house to poke you for fun. So if you get attacked down there, you were in the wrong. 

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Always stay with your group. Sharks apparently mistake lone divers for distressed fish. I still find this funny. But if you lose the group, go up about a meter and do a 360 looking for fins or breathing bubbles from other divers. If you can't see this, you must then proceed to the surface and the skipper will surely see you and pick you up. You can be dropped back where the group is, on condition that you still have over 100 bars of air in your cylinder. 

I thought scuba diving meant that every dive I would encounter sharks, dolphins and turtles. Nope. It's like going to the Kruger for a game drive. You know the big 5 exists in the park. Doesn't meant you will see the whole big 5 on your game drive. It's all about luck. You could even dive and not see any big creature at all in that one hour. The ocean is humangous and you don't know this until your are in it and you are just surrounded by water. 

How do you know how deep to go? Your dive leader will know the maximum depth of your site. As an open water diver, I can only go to 18m. You will wear a dive computer which is like a watch that tells you how deep you are and how long you have been under water for. Your BCD will have a air pressure gauge that tells you how much air you have used up and how much you have left before you need to go back up to the surface. 

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There will be a lot to learn. And I've found it sounds overwhelming when someone explains it to you. It sounds scary and intimidating but the more you go underwater and practise, the easier it gets. The more fun it becomes.

Like every other adventure, there a level of anxiousness you will feel but that's only normal. As a professional adventurer, i'd advise you quit whatever you are doing if it no longer scares you even just a little bit. 

Let me know if you have any questions about scuba diving. I will try answer as much as I know or I will get Aquamania to help out. I will do a video and share some of the scuba signs we use to communicate under water. 

x0x0

#Thesolowanderer