The Ocean Awaits You!

East Rand SCUBA - More than just a SCUBA School

Thursday, 15 July 2010 10:56 |

Written by Annelle Geldenhuys |

I was asked to write an article for the front page, and I just could not think of what to write. So I took a step back and looked at East Rand SCUBA objectively. I like what I see. I started my own Scuba Diver training with East Rand SCUBA in 2006, and grew from course to course under Bryan Coetzee's guiding hand, until I proudly qualified as an Instructor myself. My training did however not stop there - I am still awarded opportunities all the time, to further my own education and experience.

At East Rand SCUBA, we are looking forward to a very busy summer. In true East Rand SCUBA style, we seize the moment, every moment. Our new facility is up and running, and I am very proud of our kit servicing centre. But back to work...

After returning from our extended trip to Inhambane where we spent most of our time at Jeff’s Palm Resort, we are still recovering and adjusting to the change in weather. Being afforded the opportunity to dive on world-class reefs, we made the best of every moment.

Currently we are enjoying running our NAUI Master Scuba Diver Course – a truly intense program in which our divers strive to become the best recreational divers they can be. We are looking forward to a diving weekend filled with fun, training, sun, beautiful dive sites and fresh air. Our 6 - 9 August 2010 trip to Sodwana Bay promises to adhere to all our expectations. With a variety of courses currently being run, we all have different expectations. The fun part comes in where each individual diver gains something different from their experiences.

We look forward to seeing some new faces at the Annual Boat Show, from 13 – 15^th August 2010. East Rand SCUBA will be situated at the SSI stand, where our friendly, efficient staff will answer all your questions and give you insight into why we love diving! Scuba Diving is an equipment intense sport, we believe that your investment should be worth-while and well rewarded with quality training, continuing education and trips worth experiencing. Whatever your requirements are, our staff will assist you to make the right decisions, taking into account each one's individual needs.

Going through all that training to obtain your Internationally Recognised Certification, has to pay off. Our local trips are aimed at training and gaining experience, whereas our international trips allow you to travel to exotic locations where you can relax and dive in luxury. With us, you can see the world. Our September trip to Zanzibar is just around the corner!

Our aim for this coming summer, is to concentrate on training Junior Scuba Divers, Senior Citizens, people with Disabilities, Master Scuba Divers and Divemasters. But never fear, our Instructors will not neglect the Open Water divers and those requiring specialty training in areas of their interest. Our Nitrox, Deep Specialty, Limited Visibility, Shark, Photography and all other types of recreational diving will continue as always, where we aim to provide our divers with the best possible training. We just believe it is time to grow and diversify, to enable a larger portion of our family, friends and loved ones to enjoy this extreme sport.

Aliwal Shoal Shark Diving February 2010

I was asked to summarize the past weekend, and all I could think of was 'Wow'!

Taking a trip down to Aliwal Shoal with the intention of diving with sharks...hmmm...many people asked us if we were crazy. However, this trip turned out to be absolutely fantastic! Aliwal Shaol lived up to its name by delivering some harsh ocean conditions and rough boat rides. East Rand SCUBA divers took on the challenge and believe me, we were rewarded.

On this trip, we were very priviledged to dive with the well-known Mark Addison and his team. After a thorough briefing early Friday morning, in which we gained so much more knowledge on sharks and their preservation, we went out to sea. During the four hours spent at sea, we were surrounded by shoals of Black-Tip Sharks. What an awesome experience! The water temperature was 25 degrees and visibility was in excess of 5m. Hovering around at a depth of merely 5-6m, we were constantly at eye-level with these magnificent animals. Many of them ventured so close to us that we could literally have touched them - and they weren't shy about swimming between our fins either! We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw some sharks breach - seeing a shark literally jump out of the water right next to us, was truly an unexpected rewarding sight.

But wait, we couldn't stop there! On our other dives, we saw Manta Rays, Blue-spotted Rays, many dolphins and turtles and yes, once again more sharks as well as beautiful Potato Bass, Devil Firefish and plenty more. Thankfully we got great photographs and some video footage. We even had a handful of divers who had the guts and did a night dive at Aliwal Shoal and were fortunate enough to obtain some more photographs on the dive.

This weekend trip was truly a great success. The weather was good, the accomodation was great, the company was good, the service was excellent and the dives were fantastic. We even had dry launches - now that's being spoilt! A sincere thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. Join us when we return on the Tiger Shark trip again in March 2011. See online bookings for further details.

Our Own Community

Friday, 22 January 2010 21:31 |

Written by Bryan Coetzee |

OUR COMMUNITY BEGINS

The community chat has just gone live and we would like to invite you all to visit the chat page. The page does require user registration the e-mail authentication.

We have set this up to encourage divers to chat with each other on a formal forum to allow any questions that you may have to be answered. Ask King Neptune all those questions about SCUBA or just talk to fellow divers about your diving experience. We will be monitoring this during the day and will answer any questions you may have. Should you wish to receive an answer via e-mail simply end your message with the words "Mail me" and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

We understand that there are some people out there that will try to abuse this system. Please remember that East Rand SCUBA is a family friendly dive school and we wouldn't want our little ones to read foul language. Any users of foul language will have their accounts deactivated.

Help us to grow the East Rand SCUBA community into something special. We look forward to chatting to you. Remember, East Rand SCUBA is also available on SKYPE - username "eastrandscuba".

A Busy Month!!!

A BUSY MONTH SO FAR

2010 has definitely kicked off with a bang. We have started two new Open Water Diver courses already this month and tomorrow night we start a fresh one again and look forward to seeing many new faces. We have again revamped the site and added quite a lot of content. I would like to ask you to look through the site and pass on any new ideas you may have. Anyone able to assist us in keeping the content updated, please give us a call.

Tonight the Ranger leaders are meeting to discuss the Ranger club for our 8 to 12 year olds. Anyone still interested in joining us, please give Bryan a call.

This week we are also starting our Shark specialty ahead of our Aliwal trip in 2 weeks. We will be covering Ocean Conservation and Shark Awareness, Tiger Shark, Black-Tip and Raggie. These course usually go for R3500 and we doing the course at R1500. What's better, you can pay it off. RSVP at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to secure your space.

Keep watching the site as new content will be going up daily.

Click here to view our contact page