Inserts & o'rings

newsletter

January 2024

In This Issue

• Just for Laughs
• Scuba Crossword
  
• Upcoming trips
  
• Upcoming Events
  
• Swim School
  
• Maldives
  
• Courses of the Month
• Qualifications!
  

Features

Important Dates

27 Jan 2024

Bass Lake Adventures

Kick OF SOCIAL

starts at : 5pm

Join us to Bass Lake for a wonderful adventure and then if you just need a little time off and way.

Join us for our Kickoff social, where we will celebrate the start of a new diving year! We will have food, drinks, games and of course lekker Fun!

How to Take Care Of Your BCD

Before a Dive:

Before you dive, you need to make sure your BC is working well and in good condition. Follow these steps:

1.Test the inflator by pressing the button a few times and letting go. If you hear any hissing sound, it means the inflator is not sealing properly and needs to be repaired by a professional.

2.Inflate the BC fully and leave it for 20 minutes. If it loses air pressure, it has a leak that needs to be fixed.

3. Inspect the straps, buckles and bands that secure the BC to your body and tank. Look for any signs of damage or wear that could compromise their function.

4.If your BC has metal buckles, check them for rust or corrosion. This can weaken the metal and cause the buckle to break. You can try to remove some corrosion with a brush and vinegar, but make sure to rinse it well afterwards. To prevent corrosion, spray the buckle with silicone spray after each use.

After a Dive:

1. Next, spray your BC with a hose or a shower to rinse off any remaining residue. A hose is preferable because it allows you to target specific areas, but you can use whatever you have access to. Make sure you rinse the valves and buttons as well as the fabric of the BC.

2. Don't neglect the interior of your BC, which may also contain salt crystals and debris that entered through the air venting underwater. To clean the inside, press the deflation button while directing the water from the hose into the mechanism. Alternatively, you can use a BCD Flush Hose designed for this purpose. Once the water fills the interior, shake the BC a few times to distribute it evenly. You can repeat this step several times.

3. To drain all the water from the inside of the BC, inflate your BC and then turn it upside down. Press the deflate button while squeezing the BC against your body, forcing the water out through the inflator hose.

4. Always check your BC for any signs of damage, such as tears, loose stitches, cracks, or other issues. This will only take a few moments but will help you get ready for your next dive and identify any problems that need to be fixed.

5. Dry your BC in a cool, dry place. You can hang it over a railing or a hanger with a slight inflation. Make sure the BC is completely dry before storing it.

Down

1. What is the name of the fish that

has a venomous spine on its back and

can change its color to blend in with

the surroundings?

2. What is the term for the

phenomenon that makes objects

appear larger and closer underwater

than they really are?

4. What must you do when your ears

feel discomfort underwater ?

Across

3. What is the term for the unit of

measurement that indicates the

pressure exerted by a column of

water?

5. What sea creature has 3 hearts?

How did you do? Did you ace this quiz or did you need some more practice? Either way, we hope you had fun and learned something new.

Join our social media channels

Join Our Social media channels and find out what is happening at Scubaversity this year !

Becoming a PADI Master Scuba Diver is not just a title, but a recognition of your dedication, skills, and experience as a recreational diver. It is the highest rating you can achieve without becoming a professional diver, and it shows that you have explored various aspects of diving and mastered them.

To earn this prestigious rating, you need to complete the following requirements:

- Be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver, and Rescue Diver

- Be certified in at least five PADI Specialty Diver courses of your choice, such as Deep, Wreck, Night, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Shark Aware or Nitrox.

- Have logged at least 50 dives in different environments and conditions.

By completing these steps, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of diving theory and practice, as well as develop your confidence and competence in the water. You will also be able to join an elite group of divers who have earned this rating through both significant experience and scuba training.

Fewer than two percent of divers ever achieve this level of excellence.

Becoming a PADI Master Scuba Diver is not only a personal achievement, but also a way to live the dive life to the fullest. You will be able to enjoy more challenging and rewarding dives, as well as share your passion and knowledge with other divers.

Congratulations to everyone

who qualified in December!

Open Water

Advanced

PPB

INstructors!

Instructors:

JM Duffield , Madien van der Merwe , Luke Caisley

Students:

Austen Fischer , Jizelle Fischer , Ishmael Vally , Isaq Vally , Faatimah Vally ,Kim Manhardt , Monique Frank, Dan Barwick , Amy Barwick

Instructors:

Talia Landsberg

Students:

Savannah Voster , Daniel Smit

Instructors:

Mandy Zietsman

Students:

Janice Rambally , Cyrus Steinmetz, Antonnette Durant

Instructors:

Mandy Zietsman

Students:

Werner De Jager , Daniel Els , Max du Toit

Speciality’s of the Month

mandy@scubaversity.co.za

What is neutral buoyancy? Scuba divers like to be neutrally buoyant so they neither sink nor float. It can be a tricky thing. Divers who’ve mastered the highest performance levels in buoyancy stand apart. You’ve seen them underwater. They glide effortlessly, use less air and ascend, descend or hover, almost as if by thought. They interact gently with aquatic life and affect their surroundings minimally. The PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course refines the basic skills you learned as a PADI Open Water Diver and elevates them to the next level.

As the sun sets, you put on your dive gear, slip on your scuba mask and bite down on your dive regulator. A deep breath and you step off the jetty or boat – into the underwater night. Although you’ve dove this spot many times before, this time you drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light.

Introduce yourself to the whole new cast of critters that comes out after the sun goes down. See your favorite dive sites from a whole new perspective at night.

Learn to Swim Today

Swim Packages

Teens & Adults

(Ages 13 and older)

Youth

(Ages 6 – 12)

This course is designed to improve comfort and skill in the water, regardless of past swimming experience. Students work toward developing the five basic core swimming competencies using principles of adult learning.

Students work toward development of the five core swimming competencies using age-appropriate learning activities. Learning is self-paced but challenging.

Some Facts

About The

Sea Moth

The Sea moth or Little dragon fish, Eurypegasus draconis, belongs to the order Gasterosteiformes, which includes the sticklebacks. Unlike their spiny relatives, the Sea moths have developed a remarkable adaptation for walking on the ocean floor instead of swimming.

They have modified their pelvic fins into tentacle-like appendages that help them move around and explore their benthic habitat. They have also lost their swimbladder, which reduces their buoyancy and makes them more suited for crawling.

The Sea moths have another distinctive feature: their body is covered by a rigid armor of bony plates, which protects them from predators and gives them a lumpy appearance. The armor is so complete that the fish can shed it as a whole when they grow, similar to an insect molting its exoskeleton. This also helps them get rid of any unwanted algae, parasites or hitchhikers.

The Sea moths have large pectoral fins that resemble wings, hence their common name. They can spread them out to display bright edges, which may serve as a warning signal to deter potential threats.

When they need to swim, they can fold them back to reduce drag and increase speed. These winged fish can reach up to 12cm/4.5in in length and are found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific region.

Advanced

The Advanced Open Water Diver course is all about advancing your skills. You'll practice navigation and buoyancy, try deep diving and make three specialty dives of your choosing

Here are a few of the many options: Deep, Dive Against Debris, Dry Suit, Enriched Air Nitrox, Fish Identification, Night, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Search & Recovery, Underwater Naturalist, Underwater Navigation and Wreck Diver.

Nitrox

The PADI Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba diving course, and it’s easy to see why. Scuba diving with Enriched Air Nitrox gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater, especially on repetitive scuba dives.

If you can't attend the theory class(es) of the course, you can enroll on the Online Enriched Air Diver Self-Study Course which covers the theory component of the course.

EFR

First aid and CPR are good skills for anyone involved in adventure sports – just in case. And, you need these skills for the PADI Rescue Diver course. Emergency First Response is a PADI affiliate that specializes in teaching these lifesaving skills – and they’re for anyone, not just divers. Most PADI Instructors are also Emergency First Response Instructors!

The fun part about Emergency First Response training is learning serious medical emergency response skills in an upbeat, positive environment.

DEEP

After your first few scuba dives, you soon want to explore a bit deeper. There’s something exciting and mysterious about the depth that attracts dives.

What You Learn

• Techniques for diving in the deeper range of 18-40 metres
  
• Deep scuba diving equipment considerations
  
• Experience in planning, organizing and making at least four deep dives under the supervision of your PADI Instructor
  

A member of the Gonatidae family, Gonatus Onyx is a squid species that inhabits the northern Pacific Ocean, ranging from Japan to California. It belongs to the class Cephalopoda and the phylum Mollusca.

It has two common names: the Clawed arm hook squid and the Black-eyed squid. These names reflect its distinctive features: a pair of long arms with large hooks and suckers, and a pair of black eyes that help it hunt in the dark. The mantle of Gonatus Onyx can grow up to 18cm long, and accounts for most of its body length. The arms are about 40mm long on average. The mantle also has small fins and a blunt tail, unlike other Gonatids.

Gonatus Onyx is sexually dimorphic, with females maturing faster and growing slightly larger than males. This squid moves by jet propulsion, using water ejected from a siphon and fin movements. It lives mostly in deep waters, but ascends during the day to feed.

It is one of the most abundant cephalopods off the coast of California. The juvenile Gonatus Onyx uses ink as a defense mechanism and as a propellant, while the adult Gonatus Onyx rarely uses ink and relies on faster jet propulsion.

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