Johan Boshoff

Johan Boshoff is a South African-born SCUBA diver. Boshoff authored a book called The Dive Spots of Southern Africa giving divers worldwide a pocket guide to all the dive sites in Southern Africa. He also developed an interactive "Marine life software package" which has detailed description of thousands of marine species, making it the first of its kind in the world.

Early life and education
Johan Boshoff was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1974. After school he worked at the technicons and universities in South Africa as an IT BCom lecturer for seven years in the early 1990s. This is where his love for SCUBA Diving took root.

Start of Underwater Career
As a reservist for the South African Police Service Boshoff volunteered for search and recovery diving, helping to recover bodies or body parts in zero visibility from dams and rivers around South Africa. He enjoyed the diving part, but this brought the question to mind of "What will I be able to see in clear water?" Three years of low visibility diving got the better of him and he legalised his scuba training by obtaining his Open Water qualification. This opened up a whole new world for him and from there his lifelong affair with the underwater world began. Boshoff decided to quit his regular job and make diving a full time career. Monetary reward was not his main aim in moving to this type of career – being under water was his central goal.

Diving Education
Boshoff advanced relatively quickly through the courses and ended up as a Course Director in recreational and technical diving. He started a company called Adventure Addicts that allowed him to travel, dive and pursue his diving career.

Marine Life CD
With a boyhood dream of becoming a marine biologist in the back of his mind, Boshoff started to travel the world to see what was available for a person who is passionate about this hobby. Boshoff was never an avid reader of books – there was never time – but scuba diving prompted him to start buying books and reading more about this fascinating world. With his camera and guide books as constant companions he started to teach himself about fish identification and behaviour. Marine biology was set aside when he realised that there were no comprehensive books or guides to educate divers about the environments they are diving in. This prompted him to put together an interactive "Marine Life CD" to teach divers more about the ocean’s creatures and preserving the environment.

The Dive Spots of Southern Africa Book
Once again Boshoff saw an opening in the market for a handy pocket guide to the dive spots. With 10 years of diving and travelling behind him, he started to compile The Dive Spots of Southern Africa book. Boshoff had no writing or publishing experience, which made this project even more remarkable. The guide had to broaden the average diver’s horizons on places to visit and dive in southern Africa. His wife, Amilda Boshoff, gave her input and endless nights of little sleep to help finish Boshoff’s project. The Dive Spots of Southern Africa book was the result. All of the more than 300 dive spots had been personally visited and dived by Johan Boshoff. With more than 250 pages of information, ratings on sites, maps and information about resident marine life and other essential information, this is truly a unique guide with information on dive sites never published before in the world.

Television and Film
After the successful launch of his interactive Marine Life CD, the producers of 50/50, approached Boshoff for his expertise on the underwater world. 50|50 is an environmental programme which has been running for 25 years on local South African television, taking up the plight of many distressed animals and communities. The producers were diversifying the programme and needed credible input from a marine specialist. The type of work he did for 50|50 forced Boshoff to learn underwater videography and film editing and he played guide and expert for them on many expeditions, little knowing that presenter Johann Botha would play such a large role in the rest of his career.

Involvement in Technical Diving
Another of Boshoff’s dreams was to see the last of the living dinosaurs in the flesh. Coelacanths had been found at Jesser Canyon in Sodwana Bay in caves at a depth of 110m, and this was too good an opportunity for him to pass up. Technical diving was the only route to reach these beautiful creatures and Boshoff went wholeheartedly into this new branch of diving. Nitrox, Trimix and cave diving followed in quick succession and he started to do build-up dives at the inland dive sites for experience. But as if this was not enough, he did not have enough friends with similar qualifications to join him. Technical Instructor was next and here he experienced a whole new side of diving. He quickly learned that there are a lot of ‘deep divers’ but not many who can ‘dive deep’. The right training and techniques were always essential in any of the courses he taught.

Technical diving is specialised training in things like mixed gasses and deep or overhead environments. Once Boshoff did his first technical diving course, he was hooked to this sport which asks so much more of a diver. You have to be completely self-sufficient with a lot of redundancy to ensure that you reach your goal as well as surface alive. With all the experience he built up with legends in this industry, he became the only NAUI Technical Course Director in southern Africa. Once again he could partake in his favourite sport while teaching others this whole new world and getting paid for it. During all his technical dives, he visited a few lesser known inland sites. Otjikoto, near Tsumeb in Namibia, was one of those. It is an ancient sinkhole where copper was mined. In 1915 the German troops, while retreating after a defeat from the British Army, dumped all their excess military gear into the water. Canons and some old ammunition boxes can be seen at 45m. A few other sites Boshoff visited included Lake Guinas, also in Namibia, and Chinhoyi Caves, Zimbabwe. On some of these expeditions he was filming for German and French television, up to 120m. He also did many build-up and training dives done at Wondergat and Badgat (Komati Springs). Some of the people who made technical diving possible for Boshoff include Nuno Gomes (who holds the record for deepest cave dive – 282m and deepest sea dive – 318m), Peter Timm (part of the first group who discovered the coelacanth and who did all the further research to streamline consecutive expeditions), Pieter Venter (part of the first dive group who discovered the coelacanth at 107m), Pieter Smith (part of each coelacanth expedition), Don Shirley (an Instructor Trainer Trainer for IANTD and Divers Alert Network, a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer and Dsat TecRec Instructor as well as a CCR Rebreather instructor. He was the main back-up diver for the now deceased Dave Shaw).

Divestyle Magazine
While experiencing all of his wild adventures and teaching scuba diving, it was always in the back of Boshoff's mind to work full-time in the dive industry. You can’t get a better job than getting paid for something you really love. He then started writing freelance for Divestyle magazine. (Divestyle is the largest scuba diving magazine in South Africa. For 20 years they have covered diving topics, related travel and equipment reviews. The diving, outdoor, adventure and travel articles suit the magazine’s readers well). He did this for two years before being approached by the owner to become the editor. With no writing, publishing or editing qualifications, this was another new challenge which Boshoff could not resist. With a few pointers from people in the know and a lot of advice from friends in the industry, Boshoff published his first magazine in September 2005. With plenty of positive feedback, the new Divestyle was up and running. Being a fighter for the environment and intent on righting wrongs, he took on the Natal Sharks Board in the first issue with only a pen in hand.

Natal Sharks Board
The Natal Sharks Board, or NSB, was established to safeguard beachgoers against the ‘fearsome’ sharks in our waters. By installing nets along the popular swimming beaches, they kept man and beast apart... or that is what they wanted the public to think. By the simple design and layout of these nets, they were killing more of the apex predators per year than what natural predation would have caused. But is was not only sharks which were caught in the gill-nets – dolphins, turtles and whales were also entangled and died a slow death. Maintenance on the 27km of nets was costly and public funding and selling of curios was not adequate to fund this business. Boshoff discovered that they were selling shark fins to the Hong Kong markets. They even had permits to catch sharks in Marine Protected areas, which are as good as hunting in the Kruger National Park. Nets are still used today, but the public outcry has caused the NSB to re-think their approach – in some places nets have been completely removed from swimming beaches and the NSB made a public announcement that they stopped selling shark fins. With the success of his first story, Boshoff knew that with a pen in his hand he could attempt to change some of the wrongs in the world. He realised how powerful the media can be and was never afraid to take on some of the most powerful companies in the world.

Sasol
While busy with an assignment in Mozambique, Boshoff came across another shocking environmental disaster – more than 40 dead dolphins were found on Bazaruto Island’s beaches. The cause, as with most mass strandings, was unknown. After a bit of investigation and talking to the locals and the Sasol engineers, the truth was revealed. Sasol were doing seismic testing for oil off the coast of Mozambique. This was done with sonic booms that were sent out into the ocean to determine where hydrocarbon deposits were. Research showed that the seismic testing affected animals as well as humans in the water. The minister of mines and energy in Australia refused flat-out for any testing to be done on the Great Barrier Reef, yet Mozambique was easy to exploit, because legislation there is nearly non-existent. Sasol was threatening Boshoff with lawsuits of millions of dollars, but still Boshoff stuck with its story and after a fierce battle Sasol could not prove that he was wrong. Boshoff did a documentary on national television about the seismic testing in Mozambique. With his endeavours there and the help of locals, they managed to force Sasol to do further research and have observers on the boats to monitor mammals, but the big fight did not stop there.

SAPPI
SAPPI is the world’s largest producer of chemical cellulose. The corrosive waste is pumped into the seas via a 6,5km pipeline. Unfortunately the pipe ends very close to the world famous ‘Shoal’ and visibility is regularly reduced due to the dissolved solids in the water. Complaints and actions from the locals in Umkomaas forced SAPPI to extend the pipeline beyond its initial 3km’s in 1998 to the current length. According to SAPPI, 98% of the waste pumped out is water. This did not fool the regular divers on the Shoal and the fight still continues today.

Whale Breaching in Kommetjie
Being a journalist is not always about victory, but also about some sad moments like one Monday morning in May 2009 when Boshoff received a call from a diver in Cape Town. He was very concerned and wanted to know if Boshoff had heard anything about the whales beaching in Kommetjie. Whales beaching? Immediately Boshoff’s radar went up and after a few phone calls he decided to fly to Cape Town to get the full story. Clearly there were two factions doing what they thought was right, with a tragic end result. 40 false killer whales stranded on the Kommetjie beach on a cold winter morning and volunteers tried in vain to keep the whales alive. Foul weather and big waves prevented this and the few that were helped back into the ocean just washed up again. Marine Coastal Management took over the beach operations, even calling on the Navy to help with the rescue operations. By late afternoon a decision was made to euthanise the whales, with much protest from the bystanders and helpers. In the end it was the right decision for the whales, which would have died on the beach anyway, but animal lovers all over were in uproar and wanted to crucify Boshoff for bringing both sides of the story. Do we really know what happened there? Do we know what happened that day when grown men cried over whales that were shot? Do we know both sides of the story or do we only hear what we want to hear? }}