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About us:
Contact details
How to buy & order
Our Books:
- How South Africa Built Six Atom Bombs
- Dive South Africa
- Wreck Hunt
- Mercenary Invasion of Seychelles
- Jack Malloch
- Deadline Africa
- Battles of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
- Diving with Sharks
- Neall Ellis
- Barrel of a Gun
- South Africa's Border Wars
- The 'Coloured' People of South Africa and Apartheid
About our Authors:
Al J Venter
John H. Visser
Charles Shapiro
SITEMAP
DIVE SOUTH AFRICA
The Complete Underwater Omnibus
BY AL J. VENTER and JOHN H. VISSER
350 pages, 33 Chapters, spectacular colour photos, rich in dive site information and riveting dive and shark encounter stories.
‘South Africa should now be well and truly established as the shark capital of the world. The broaching great whites of the Cape region have been well documented and photographed. The dusky sharks and bronze whalers feeding frantically in the annual sardine run have been elevated to immortality by Doug Perrine’s award winning images. Toothy sand tigers or ‘raggies’ (Odontaspis Taurus) as the locals affectionately call them have been a staple on subtropical dives. Their ability to hover motionless in the water has taken them into the heart of photographers. And since the dive industry has established itself in Mocambique, good sighting reports of whale sharks have been coming through on a regular basis. On top of the adrenalin scale, however, must be the tiger shark diving at the Aliwal Shoal south of Durban. No cage, no bottom, no fear (my foot).’
Tobias Bernhard in ‘The Tigers of Africa’, published in the 2006 edition of New Zealand’s Dive Annual
BUY THIS BOOK NOW
Price SA Rand: R285.00
Price excludes Pst & Pckg
As Al Venter likes to say, diving is a state of mind. You head for your favourite venue – be it False Bay, one of the islands off Mocambique, or one of those elusive little hideaways along the Wild Coast - and everybody is charged with anticipation. The dive itself, which might not always be the most memorable underwater experience, rarely disappoints, if only because there are few visits to this remarkable Inner World that don’t offer something new.
Occasionally, there are moments beneath the surface of the sea that can be totally unusual and sometimes – like the afternoon we were able to observe a shoal of dolphins for hours in the water mating almost within touching distance of where we were cavorting on the wreck of the Maori.
Some experiences can be invigorating. There could be dolphins by the score, or that scattering of barracuda you almost missed, and possibly a pack of raggedtooth sharks on Aliwal Shoal. Or Sodwana’s brilliant, sometimes orchidaceous display of nudibranchs that dive master Colin Ogden regularly features in full colour in his newsletter.
Even heading out through the surf line – most times clutching hard at the rubber duck’s grab rail for purchase - has its moments. The spray in your face is part of it. So is that weaving, bucking black beast that doesn’t always crest each wave and can sometimes cause bruises when it comes down hard after having been briefly airborne. All that, coupled to the eager, sometimes apprehensive wetsuit-clad young faces on the boat with you.
These are all reasons why diving is regarded by some as adventure-mode personified. Add to that scenario the imminence of the unknown and an almost inexplicable mystique.
CONTENTS - DIVE SOUTH AFRICA
1 The Man Who Plays With Sharks
2 A Beautiful Old East Indiaman
3 False Bay and Its Undersea Attractions
4 Diving With Sharks
5 Wreck Hunter Extraordinary 
6 Pride and Joy of Diving at Sodwana
7 Spearfishing and Sharks
8 With the Great Whites of Dyer Island
9 The City of Hankow – A Mysterious Wreck
10 Protea Banks – An Always Exciting Shark Dive
11 Diving Along the West Coast: Cape Town, Saldanha and Beyond
12 The Wreck of the Maori
13 Port Elizabeth – A Remarkable New Diving Location
14 The Wild Coast
15 Spearfishing 1: Kosi Bay Southwards.
16 Spearfishing 2: the South Coast - Durban to Port Edward
17 Mocambique and the Wreck of the Klipfontein
18 Durban Diving Experiences
19 Diving the Storms River Mouth and Plettenberg Bay
20 Knysna and Beyond the Heads
21 Experience Counts When You Dive With Sharks
22 Arniston and Towards the West
23 East London Diving : An Unusual Experience
24 Shark Attack!
25 Location Diving – Hermanus to Hangklip
26 Tagging the Great White Shark
27 ‘No Fish Is Worth Dying For’
28 Jeffreys Bay and the East Cape Environs
29 The Port Alfred Area
30 Tommy Botha and Friends
31 Mossel Bay, Vleesbaai and Gouritz
32 Underwater Images Galore
33 Aliwal Shoal – the Magic of Aliwal Shoal
Images from the 'Dive South Africa' Photographers
(Click on image to enlarge)
Andrew Woodburn
Stuart Philpott
Seano Botha
