Peter Southwood Graduated from University of Stellenbosch with B.Eng. (Mechanical/Marine), did national service on Strike Craft as engineering officer and worked as naval architecture consultant in Cape Town for a short time, during which he attended his first diver training at Underwater World, qualifying as the equivalent of a one star diver, before returning to Stellenbosch as a lecturer in mechanical engineering. During this time he joined the Stellenbosch Underwater Club (1983) and really got involved. SAUU Two star was quickly followed by Compressor Operator and Club Instructor, and he took over the committee position of equipment officer, which he held for several years. A shortage of competitors for the university Scuba Orienteering team encouraged him to have a go, and the technical challenges kept him interested. Several experimental rigs and a lot of practice later, he managed first place overall at the SA Universities Scuba Orienteering competition (1985), closely followed by the National Championships (1986). This introduction to underwater navigation led to an enduring interest in navigation, equipment R&D and surveying of dive sites, which has grown over the years. Around this time he bought a Nikonos 2 and assorted accessories and started taking a special interest in marine invertebrates, as they tended to stay still for long enough to take decent macro photographs. Three star followed, as did Provincial Instructor and a stint as chairman of the Western Province College of Underwater Instructors. He attended a NAUI ITC in Cape Town in 1986, qualified, and soon afterwards helped complete a friend's yacht and sailed for the Caribbean, with stops in St Helena and Brazil, for some emergency repairs. He spent about a year in the Caribbean as an archaeological diver, dive-master and instructor, returning to SA in 1987. He was awarded SAUU Four star diver and National Instructor in 1989. He worked in yacht building for a few years then went into partnership in a light engineering business, also doing some R&D in diving equipment. During this time he also trained and qualified as a Class 4 commercial diver and has done mostly scientific diving work as a freelance diver and volunteer work for local researchers and the Two Oceans Aquarium. He subsequently qualified as Class 4 Nitrox diver, having just written the training manual, followed by Class 4 Supervisor and later Class 3 diver, mainly to help with writing training materials. He is waiting for registration as a Class 4 Instructor and is running a pilot project for RPL assessment for Class 4 divers. On the technical side he has also qualified as NAUI SCR Rebreather diver, CMAS Normoxic Trimix Diver and Gas Blender. He has attended a GUE Fundamentals course, but as a frequent Solo diver has not applied for registration. He assisted with public comment on the Diving regulations 2007 and the Codes of practice for commercial diving, which are expected to be published later this year (2008). He is busy with a long term project of surveying and mapping the dive sites of Cape Peninsula and False Bay, and recording the species found at each site, later recording the biodiversity by digital photography. This project started as a purely personal effort, but recent developments indicate that it may slot in with several official surveys. At present he is self employed, doing consulting work in small craft design and plan approval (for money), and writes diver training manuals, operations manuals and codes of practice, and provides input for commercial diver training policies (for which money has not been offered, but somebody has to do it). Areas of interest and specialised knowledge: Dive site topography mapping and recording marine biodiversity. Diver training and assessment standards, methods and materials. Scientific diving legislation, procedures, and codes of practice. Special purpose diving and research equipment. Low tech and cost effective engineering solutions. Rebreather design.

Areas dived within South Africa: Eland's Bay, Cape Columbine, Langebaan Lagoon, Cape Town (Robben Island to Rooi-Els), Hangklip, Betty's Bay, Botrivier Vlei, Hermanus, Gansbaai, Struisbaai, Mossel Bay, Knysna Lagoon and Heads, Plettenberg Bay, Storms River Mouth, Port Elizabeth, Aliwal Shoal, Durban, Sodwana Bay, Wondergat, Various inland dams and quarries. Areas dived internationally St. Helena island, Bequia, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Barthelemy, St. Christopher and Nevis, Saba and Mozambique (Guinjata Bay)

Publications Southwood, P.B. 1987. Scuba Orienteering Manual. South African Underwater Union Southwood, P.B. Hanekom, P. and Truter P. 2003. Class IV Nitrox Diver Training Manual. Research Diving Unit, University of Cape Town Southwood, P.B. and Beresford M. 2006 Normoxic Trimix Diver Training Manual. CMAS-ISA Southwood, P.B. 2007. High Pressure Breathing Air Compressor Operator Training Manual and training aids CMAS-ISA Contributions Hempson, T. 2006. Symbionts of comatulid crinoids in False Bay. University of Cape Town. Photographic Contributions - Magazines and Books Koornhof, A. 1991 and later editions, The Dive sites of South Africa. Struik publishers, Cape Town.

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