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Do I really need my own gear? |
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Written by Edgar King
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 19:37 |
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This is a question asked very often by people who are considering doing a diving course. The costs of an open water course are considerable even before adding gear and often cause peopleto think twice about doing the course.
The short answer is no. You can very easily do a diving course without buying any gear at all (most shops have gear for hire, even if they avoid telling you this) but it is really preferable to own some of the gear from the start.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 March 2010 19:55 |
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Scuba Tank Holder for Land Rover Freelander |
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Written by Chris Hockaday
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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 20:00 |
Introduction
If you own a Land Rover Freelander (or any other compact SUV) and have your own diving cylinders, you will know that securing them safely swallows most of your available boot (or U.S. trunk) space. While ranting about this when packing my car the other day, my dad pointed out that they would fit very snugly vertically in the alcoves at the rear of the boot.
The only problem with this is that there was no way to safely hold them upright. There are a few flimsy turn-buckle fasteners (see acknowledgements), but these certainly would not hold a 15 litre steel diving cylinder in the event of an accident!
After several hours of thought, iterations, bleeding hands and nasty words I finally came up with a safe, reliable and convenient solution. On this page you will find step-by-step instructions on how to install these anchor points in your Freelander.
In short, it consists of two eye-bolts mounted to your chassis and a spring-clip/bungee cord combo that loops around the front of your cylinder and the neck to securely hold it in place.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 06 March 2010 14:40 |
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Written by Edgar King
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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 19:52 |
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Stringer must be my favourite dive site of all... whenever I make it to Sodwana I do everything I can to do at least one dive on Stringer. Unfortuantely it is a very shallow reef, varying from around 11 m in the south to around 13 at Little Stringer) which means that it is best avoided whene there is a strong current or surge.
The shallow depth does however mean that everything is bright and full of colour.
One usually drops in on Little Stringer, directly into a massive school of blue and yellow striped Snapper that are always there.
Once on the reef you move slowly around Little Stringer past the Anvil shaped rock and around the other side back to Snapper. There are usally a lot of nudibranchs to be see so keep your eyes open! Also take a look under overhangs for rare pink or white Paperfish. From here swim directly over Little Stringer and over the small sand patch to get to the rest of Stringer reef. On most days the visibility should be good enough to see the the reef on the other side of the sand, but if not just follow your friendly neighbourhood divemaster.
There is a lot to see at the start of Stringer reef so take extra time here. There are usually a couple of morays in the small cave at the start of the reef.
 
Coming down the west side of the reef there are a lot of little caves and overhangs. There are at least two large cleaner shrimp caves... spend a bit of time here getting a manicure (just hold very still by the cave with your hand out and the little cleaner shrimp will scuttle nervously closer until they are sitting on your hand. There are usually quite a few juveniles on this reef - look out for the juvenile Emperor Angelfish with its bright blue, white and black colouring.
The wide sand patches around this reef also make this an excellent place to see all the species of rays (Honeycomb, Round Ribbontail and the Marbeled Electric Ray).
Happy Diving!
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 20:58 |
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