Frequently Asked Questions

Cape Town is diveable year-round, but the Simon’s Town side of False Bay often offers better and more consistent diving in winter than in summer.

In summer, there are usually only a handful of days suitable for diving on the Atlantic side of Cape Town. During this period, many operators still spend most of their time diving the Simon’s Town side of False Bay, where conditions are generally more reliable.

In winter, the Atlantic side is rarely diveable due to frequent frontal systems and swell. However, the Simon’s Town side of False Bay experiences many excellent diving days, often with calm seas and good underwater conditions. While winter days can feel cold, windy, or rainy on the surface, this has little impact on the underwater experience, and visibility can be excellent.

Rainy winter days often add a unique sense of adventure and atmosphere to the dive without compromising safety or enjoyment below the surface.

‍In short:

Summer: Limited Atlantic opportunities; False Bay remains the more reliable option

‍Winter: False Bay (especially Simon’s Town) offers some of the best and most consistent diving of the year

‍Conditions matter more than the season, site choice is always based on wind, swell, and safety rather than the calendar

Water temperatures in Cape Town typically range from 10–20°C, depending on the time of year, location, and recent weather patterns.

The Atlantic side of Cape Town is influenced by cold upwelling and generally sits at the lower end of this range, often between 10–14°C. False Bay, particularly around Simon’s Town, is usually slightly warmer, with temperatures commonly between 12–20°C.

Seasonal changes are not always linear. In summer, cold upwelling events can cause sudden temperature drops, while winter conditions in False Bay can still deliver surprisingly stable and comfortable water temperatures.

At Ollava, we dive year-round using 5 mm two-piece neoprene wetsuits, which provide effective thermal protection for most divers in local conditions. This setup allows for comfortable dive times while maintaining flexibility and mobility.

Regardless of the season, site choice and exposure protection are matched to the conditions on the day, ensuring a safe and enjoyable dive experience in Cape Town’s cold-water environment.

We use 5 mm two-piece neoprene wetsuits for all diving in Cape Town. This configuration provides excellent thermal protection in local water temperatures while still allowing freedom of movement and comfort underwater.

Our wetsuits are made by Coral Wetsuits, a Cape Town based manufacturer. Working with a local company allows us to repair and maintain our suits regularly, ensuring they remain in good condition and perform as intended throughout the season.

Because we work closely with Coral Wetsuits, we’ve been able to experiment with suit designs and cuts to develop rental wetsuits that prioritise proper fit rather than relying on thickness alone. A well-fitting wetsuit reduces water movement, improves warmth, and makes a noticeable difference in overall comfort.

This approach allows us to offer reliable, comfortable exposure protection that’s well suited to Cape Town’s cold-water diving conditions and consistently maintained to a high standard.

We strongly believe that owning and diving your own equipment is an important part of becoming a confident, competent diver, and we always encourage guests to bring their own gear whenever possible.

That said, you are not required to bring your own equipment. We offer high-quality rental gear for divers who are travelling or don’t yet own a full setup. Our gear room is stocked with balanced regulators, jet fins, and back-inflation BCDs, so even if you’re renting, you won’t be diving in basic entry-level gear.

If luggage space is limited, we recommend prioritising the following personal items, in order:

Exposure suit (ideally a 5 mm two-piece wetsuit or thicker)

‍Mask

Dive computer

Boots

‍These items have the biggest impact on comfort, fit, and familiarity underwater.

Whether you bring your own gear or use ours, all equipment is well maintained, correctly configured, and suited to Cape Town’s cold-water diving conditions, allowing you to focus on the dive rather than the equipment.

Diving in Cape Town is highly weather-dependent, and patience is an essential part of experiencing it properly. Our goal is not just to get you into the water, but to ensure that the dive accurately reflects what Cape Town diving is known for. If conditions are poor, we would rather wait than take you diving on a day that doesn’t do the environment justice.

For this reason, we strongly recommend booking over a window of up to a week, giving us the flexibility to choose the best possible day based on real conditions rather than fixed dates.

If you book in advance, our planning process works as follows:

- One week before your preferred dive date, we check in with an initial weather outlook and a provisional dive plan.

- Three days before the dive, we provide a more accurate update once the forecast becomes more reliable and the ocean state is clearer.

- The afternoon before the dive, we confirm whether conditions are suitable and whether the dive will go ahead.

If the weather remains too unpredictable to safely schedule a dive, we will suggest a better date rather than risk a compromised experience.

If you have limited time and conditions are marginal, we make a final call at 7:00 am on the day of the dive.

Should a dive be cancelled due to weather and you are unable to reschedule, your deposit will be refunded in full.

This approach allows us to prioritise safety, quality, and realism, ensuring that when we do dive, you experience Cape Town diving at its best.

Choosing the right dive site in Cape Town is a progressive decision-making process based on diver comfort, certification level, and real ocean conditions—not fixed schedules or promised locations.

First and foremost, we look at your experience, certification level, and comfort in the water. This determines what sites are appropriate and ensures the dive remains safe, relaxed, and enjoyable.


Once we understand the diving profile, we assess the weather and sea conditions to determine which side of the Cape Peninsula is likely to offer the best diving. As conditions become clearer, our planning becomes more specific:

‍One week before the dive:
We identify the most likely general area based on wind and swell patterns.
‍South-easterly winds with low swell often favour the Atlantic side of the peninsula.
North-westerly winds with low swell typically favour the Simon’s Town side of False Bay.

Three days before the dive:
We narrow this down to a specific dive area, such as Oudekraal on the Atlantic side or Smitswinkel Bay in False Bay.

‍The afternoon before the dive:
We select the exact dive site based on the most up-to-date conditions—this could be Justin’s Caves at Oudekraal or the SAS Transvaal in Smitswinkel Bay.

We strongly recommend not setting expectations around specific dive sites. This mindset puts unnecessary pressure on both divers and operators and has led to many poor decisions within the industry. Cape Town diving is an experience in itself—when we allow conditions to guide us, rather than forcing a plan, the result is consistently better, safer, and more rewarding dives.

Our approach ensures that every dive reflects the true nature of diving in Cape Town, rather than a forced or compromised version of it.

A guided dive day with Ollava is designed to be unhurried, flexible, and highly personalised, with a strong focus on conditions, comfort, and the overall experience rather than rushing to meet a schedule.
‍
We start the day by meeting in the morning for coffee, giving everyone time to connect, discuss the plan for the day, and go over conditions. This is where we confirm the final dive site, based on the latest weather, swell, and visibility, and align expectations for the dive.

From there, we travel to the chosen dive site together. Once on location, we take time to suit up properly, inspect equipment, and run thorough briefings covering the site, entry and exit, dive profile, and marine life we’re likely to encounter. Nothing is rushed—comfort and preparedness come first.

Dives typically last 40–70 minutes, depending on conditions, gas consumption, and diver experience. Our groups are kept very small (maximum two guests), allowing the dive to be paced around you rather than the other way around.After the dive, there’s time to debrief, warm up, and reflect on the dive, before heading back. Most dive days are finished by early afternoon, making the experience immersive without being exhausting.

You can find a more detailed breakdown of the day on our Diving page, but at its core, a guided dive with Ollava is about reading the ocean, diving the right site on the right day, and giving Cape Town diving the time it deserves.

In Cape Town, lower visibility, 5 mm two-piece wetsuits, and the use of hoods and gloves all increase task loading. For this reason, large dive groups are not well suited to the environment. Smaller groups improve safety, awareness, communication, and overall enjoyment underwater.

Rather than using a fixed number, we operate with conservative group size standards that are tailored to local conditions and are more cautious than minimum agency recommendations.

Our typical ratios are:

‍First-time divers with Ollava:
1 guide to 2 guests
This allows time to build comfort, refine buoyancy and trim, and adjust to local conditions.

‍Returning divers:
Maximum of 1 guide to 3 guests, once confidence and familiarity increase.

‍Dive Card members:
Maximum of 1 guide to 4 guests.
‍
These divers dive regularly, often know each other, and are comfortable operating as a cohesive group.

Many of our Dive Card members are capable of diving without a guide and may choose to stay together as a larger group simply for the shared experience. When groups reach four divers, it is typically by choice rather than necessity, and the group could easily split into smaller teams if preferred.

By keeping group sizes small and adaptable, we ensure that every dive is appropriate for Cape Town’s conditions, rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.

Yes, we offer both shore dives and boat dives in Cape Town. However, the majority of our diving is done from shore, as this is often the best way to experience local conditions and marine life.

For much of the year, exposed offshore sites are affected more by wind and swell than the protected kelp forests, which remain diveable more consistently. In addition, many boat dives in Cape Town access the same sites we can safely and comfortably reach from shore, without the added complexity.

Boats can introduce additional task loading, especially in cold water and swell, and this can detract from the overall dive experience. For beginners, shore entries are often far more comfortable, allowing divers to gear up calmly and enter the water without spending extended time in a wetsuit on a moving boat.

Most visitors to Cape Town are also keen to dive the kelp forests, a globally unique and highly dynamic marine biome that is best accessed from shore.

That said, we do dive from boats on a weekly basis. When conditions align, we choose the best weather windows to access sites that are better suited to boat diving, ensuring the experience is worth the added complexity.

Our approach is always to choose the right platform for the conditions and the divers, rather than defaulting to boats or shore dives as a fixed format.

Cape Town is home to both sharks and seals, and there is always a chance of encountering them while diving, but these encounters are never guaranteed and cannot be scheduled.

While seals are commonly associated with Cape Town diving, the strong demand for “seal or shark dives” has, over time, distorted how these encounters are marketed. Many once-off experiences focus narrowly on ticking a box rather than showcasing the broader underwater environment, and can feel intrusive to seal colonies rather than respectful of them.

When diving in the kelp forests, it’s not uncommon for seals to appear. They are naturally curious animals and will often choose to approach divers on their own terms, sometimes initiating playful interactions. These moments tend to be far more meaningful when they happen organically, without baiting or forcing proximity.

Sharks are also part of the ecosystem, but sightings are unpredictable and depend on many factors, including location, conditions, and animal behaviour on the day.

Rather than aiming for a specific animal encounter, we encourage divers to enter the water with an open mindset. Cape Town’s strength lies in its dynamic marine environment, and some of the most memorable dives happen when we allow wildlife to decide whether they want to see us.

By prioritising low-impact, respectful diving, we give space for genuine encounters to happen.

On the False Bay side of the peninsula, dives are generally longer due to slightly warmer and more stable conditions. Here, dives can last up to 70 minutes, with most falling in the 50–60 minute range.

On the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, which we dive roughly 10% of the year, water temperatures are colder. As a result, dive times are typically around 40 minutes, and only occasionally approach an hour, depending on individual comfort and conditions.

If we plan two dives in a single day, individual dive times are usually reduced by around 30%. This accounts for cold-related fatigue, ensuring that the second dive remains comfortable, safe, and enjoyable rather than pushing limits unnecessarily.

Ultimately, dive duration is guided by conditions, thermal comfort, and diver wellbeing, allowing us to adapt each dive to what makes sense on the day rather than forcing a preset time underwater.

Diving around the Cape Peninsula reveals a rich temperate marine ecosystem shaped by kelp forests, rocky reefs, and a seabed covered in coral-like invertebrate growth rather than true corals. This creates a textured, living landscape that supports a wide range of species at different depths.

The kelp forests are the highlight of the region and often the first place divers fall in love with Cape Town diving. Within the kelp itself, highly inquisitive klipfishes (family Clinidae) are ever-present, darting between fronds and rock cracks. The kelp also provides shelter for catsharks, including pajama catsharks (Poroderma) and shysharks (Haploblepharus), which are commonly found resting under ledges and among boulders.

The reef beneath the kelp is covered in sponges, ascidians, bryozoans, and other invertebrates, forming a colourful, coral-like surface. One of the most noticeable residents here is the gas flame nudibranch (Bornella nakaza), which is found on most dive sites and is often hard to miss once you know what to look for. Reef fish such as roman (Chrysoblephus laticeps) are common throughout these areas, while strepie (Sarpa salpa) frequently move through the shallows in loose schools.

Unlike many regions where butterflyfish are restricted to deeper reefs, butterflyfish (Chaetodon marleyi) in Cape Town are often found in relatively shallow water, moving calmly along reef faces and kelp edges.

As dives extend deeper, the environment becomes more dramatic and structured. Large boulders stack against one another, creating swim-throughs and overhangs. In these deeper zones, basket stars (Astrocladus euryale) become more apparent, typically wrapped around sea fans, which seem to be their preferred attachment point.

Larger animals are always a possibility. Spotted gully sharks (Triakis megalopterus) may be seen cruising over sand patches, while short-tail stingrays (Bathytoshia brevicaudata) are often found resting on sandy bottoms between reefs.

And then there are the seals. While never guaranteed, seals frequently visit divers in the kelp forests. They are playful, curious, and tend to appear when least expected, often turning an already memorable dive into something truly special.

Rather than focusing on a single species, Cape Town diving rewards those who slow down and explore. The combination of kelp forests, invertebrate-covered reefs, layered topography, and visiting megafauna makes every dive feel immersive, dynamic, and unique.

Yes!

Our roots are firmly in diver training, which has been the core focus of Ollava for over a decade. This foundation allows us to work confidently with divers who are looking for more than entry-level experiences. We offer advanced training pathways, including the PADI TecRec range, drysuit diving, and diver propulsion vehicle (DPV) courses.

For divers interested in extended range or more technical profiles, we are able to support a DIR-oriented approach, focusing on strong fundamentals, efficient equipment configuration, and thoughtful dive planning.

We also enjoy working with marine enthusiasts, photographers, and divers with specific interests. Because we spend a lot of time in these waters, we place real value on understanding what we’re seeing—not just passing through it. If you’d like to focus on a particular species, behaviour, habitat, or photographic style, we’re more than happy to slow the dive down and explore that niche with you.

Whether your goal is technical progression, refined skill development, or deeper engagement with the marine environment, we’re comfortable adapting the dive to meet experienced divers where they are.

We are a PADI TecRec Centre offering training from Open Water Diver through to Divemaster, with a clear progression into technical diving.

If your goal is to work as a dive professional, or to extend your skills and knowledge through technical diving, we’re able to provide a structured pathway that is designed with the end in mind.

Our recreational training covers Open Water, Advanced, Rescue, and Divemaster level courses. We also provide Nitrox, DPV, Sidemount, and Drysuit training as standalone courses or integrated into your broader development. For divers looking to move beyond no-decompression limits, we offer PADI TecRec training from introductory technical programs through to Tec 40, Tec 45, and Tec 50.

All training is conducted with a strong emphasis on control, awareness, and decision-making, supported by appropriate equipment configuration and skills that translate directly to real-world diving.

Our courses are designed for divers who value competence, progression, and depth of understanding over fast certifications.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.