Mermaiding in Sandton

Lindi Eksteen

25 June 2022

Dawn breaks and it is a beautiful chilly Sunday morning. I grab all my gear packed the night before and load the car. My friend Chantel arrives to travel with me through to Johannesburg, it will be her first time exploring the magical world of mermaiding with Freediving Johannesburg, and we are both very excited.

Arriving in Sandton, the warm pool steaming at a lovely 31 degrees we all buzzing like little busy bees to get ready and submerge our gorgeous tails in the water. Janet Rudman, owner and instructor from Freediving Johannesburg arrives with the certified mermaid t-shirts and hoodies and we waste no time putting them on, and we wear the items with great pride. The certification was for the mermaid level 1 course we completed and passed and certified by Naui. As soon as our photo was taken we hurried to finish our hair and make-up and noises of laughter and excitement echoes from the bathroom.

Today is an extra special gathering, as we were making a surprise greeting and swim video for two very special girls, one of whom is currently very ill.

We duck dive and splash into the water making twirls and flips as we make our way to the deep end of the pool. Already our freediving buddies Justin and Jeffrey are setting up our mermaid course which Janet brought for us. Observing the beautiful hoola-hoop rings all being placed at different depths made us scream with excitement and we couldn't wait to dolphin kick our way through them. Mermaid tail maker from Two Oceans Mermaid Tails Dana Cato, technical scuba diver Hani Labuschagne Williams and myself swimming with Go-Pros and other recording devices to capture the fun. We even had diver Greg bottom dwelling blowing bubbles for us everywhere. We loved it!

We were quite a large group on the day, made up of 11 mermaids, two freedivers and one diver. The love and community in this group really feels like home, like family, a mermaid pod that with no doubt is growing into a much larger group very fast. And we welcome it!

Dolphin Swimming in Sodwana

Janet Rudman 22 May 2022

Towards the end of April 2022, a group of lovely ladies from Gauteng boarded a luxury van with Heartfelt Tours to Sodwana. So what was the aim of this trip? Many of the Freediving Johannesburg divers, while diving regularly, have not freedived in the sea before. Learning to dive in the sea was the next step towards their Freediving journey. After, I had personally dived with John McCarthy in September 2021 and had the most phenomenal, personal interaction with dolphins. After an 8 hour trip and a NAUI mermaid presentation on-route, we arrived at beautiful, tropical Sodwana Bay. We met up with some of our dive buddies from around the rest of the country, who wanted to join in the fun. This included my mentor and favourite dive buddy Gletwyn Rubidge, the current South African Men’s depth record holder.

Each morning we elected to do a very early morning dive, to make the most of the day. We were luckily enough to be loaned a 4×4 game viewing vehicle by Sisodwana Lodge. This making our exploring around the village and sandy roads a lot easier & of course a lot of fun, with the all girl crew on board. We started out with some stretching, before an early launch each morning.

Our sea trips daily usually entailed a scout for dolphins, followed by a shallow reef dive, some line diving and technique coaching, then some depth dives down the line into the blue. During coaching different techniques were introduced to the girls including no fins diving, which proved to be very popular. It was amazing to watch the divers grow on a daily basis and to watch every single Joburg student reach a personal best in depth.

Over the 4 days of diving we were fortunate enough to dive with turtles, some nice big raggies, rays, beautiful tropical fish and the most special, the dolphins. When swimming down 20m to say hello to 5 big raggies, they were unperturbed and almost disinterested in us. On day 2, we were lucky enough to spot some bottled nose dolphins. They approached the boats’ wake and started playing. We took this opportunity to jump in.

John, in his wisdom and years of experience of diving with the dolphins in Sodwana, offered us some very valuable advice. Swim to the bottom, not towards the dolphins. Swim around in circles. Let the dolphins approach you. This worked like a charm, as the dolphins where intrigued and were curious to these beings that had entered their dimension. They swam around us, talking dolphin and swimming around us, while we swam in circles. Making eye contact, communicating in dolphin and having the time of their lives. After 30 minutes, us girls were exhausted. We literally couldn’t swim anymore, and I suppose we weren’t as much fun to dive with anymore, due to our lack of energy and the dolphins swam into the distance. We climbed onto the boat, took off our gear, ready to go do some reef diving. As the boat was about to leave, the same pod of dolphins returned and started playing around the boat. Digger, the skipper of “Da Blu Juice”, in his Aussie accent, informed us the the dolly’s wanted to play some more. So with that, in we jumped, and played some more. We continued to play for at least another half an hour before some scuba divers arrived. We decided to get back onto the boat to give them a chance to play with the dolphins.

While taking off our gear and observing the scuba divers from the boat, we noticed something interesting. They sprinted after the dolphins, in contract to our approach, where the dolphins came to us. The dolphins immediately left the divers and their interaction was short lived. What came to mind was that if a wild animal charged me, I would turn the other way and run. Which is basically what the scuba divers did to the dolphins. In contrast, if a wild animal seemed unthreatening and playful, I would be inquisitive too and possibly want to interact. Moral of the story….treat the wild animal, as you would like to be treated.

At the end of each dive, we headed straight to the tuck-shop on the beach for the most amazing toasted sandwiches and slap chips. Not being used to diving in swell and currents we were rather exhausted each day after our freediving session. So next up was a shower, followed by an a mid day nap. Every afternoon we explored Sodwana, supporting the local businesses. We had a wonderful mermaid pool session and sundowners at Sisodwana Bay Lodge. They happen to have the most beautiful pool in Sodwana. Mzeni each Lodge is definitely worth a visit, they offer a wide variety of cocktails. After enjoying the view and the cocktails, we had a walk down which felt like 1000 stairs to reach a completely unspoiled, white sand, crystal clear water beach, all to ourselves. Definitely worth the visit. Although don’t forget you need to walk up those 1000 steps back again. “Eat” restaurant makes the best burgers in town & we loved the décor, including the padded toilets, which serve as restaurant chairs. Fabio’s Ice-cream Parlor has the most delicious waffles and are wonderful to fill a sweet tooth..

After 4 days of never to be forgotten freediving, it was time to head back to the big smoke. Luckily, heartfelt tours was there to drive us home, as we were completely out-dived and exhausted. It was a quiet and sleepy drive back to Johannesburg. What a memorable trip, with the most amazing dive buddies. Sodwana…. we shall be back!

Marico Oog and Wondergat adventure – February 2022

On Friday the 25th of February a group of 15 freedivers headed out for beautiful Marico Oog. By the time we arrived it was already evening. But being divers we prioritized and hit the water first before unpacking or fully setting up tents. The water was a warm 20 degrees and the divers were in awe of the crystal clear water, beautiful lily forests and swim throughs under the reeds.

The visibility is spectacular, however can be stirred up quickly by finning over the shallow water or close to the bottom. So, we quickly developed a golden rule…. “Do not stuff up the vis” anytime anyone went even remotely close to the water, they were preached this rule. After a wonderful dive, there was a nice big fire waiting to warm us up and we were ravenous after a long dive and ready to braai.

On Saturday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn and ready to dive before breakfast. We started with yoga to stretch nicely before the full day of diving that lay ahead.

After yet another session of spectacular freediving, we sat down to eat under cover due to rain. It was soon established that we needed to drive to Wondergat in order to do some depth training. We split up into a few cars and off we went. An hour later we arrived at the most beautiful mass of water, Wondergat. It didn't take us long to kit up and jump in the water, which was a warm 26 degrees. We split up into 2 groups, one with a 15m line for those who prefer shallow dives, and one to 40m for those who feel comfy to dive a little deeper, using a buddy rotational method while safetying each diver. There were a number of PB’s and great excitement. After we all declared that we were tired we explored the shallow waters around the perimeter of Wondergat. We discovered a shallow cave on the North side, which a few brave divers, dared to explore. Next up was lunch, which of course is very important to every diver after a dive. Somehow, one always comes out ravenous….

We drove back to Marico, the plan was to nap…. However, when we got back, everyone was back in their wetsuits for the 3rd dive of the day… all in all, we probably spent 6 hours in the water. The day ended with chatter around the campfire and a lovely braai.

Sunday morning 6 am we were up and ready for the first dive. We started with some yoga , to get the stiff muscles nice and warm. There were a few divers with tender ears, who decided to sit it out. We were all rather tired, so it was a gentle session. After we got out the mermaids arrived. a few of us were brave to don on some mermaid tails and face yet again the cool water, for some pretty pictures.

Unfortunately all diving holidays come to an end. One thing was for sure, we had a wonderful time… we were exhausted in a good kind of way. everyone arrived home safely and I am sure, slept very well.

#FreedivingJohannesburg #FreedivingJoburg #NAUIFreediving

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