Mike Nortje
PADI Course Director and Owner
Mike is a PADI Course Director and commercial dive boat skipper who founded Pisces Divers back in 2002. He is still actively involved with most aspects of the dive centre and besides running the IDC’s for the SA market and skippering, he also leads dive trips, particularly the Sardine Run expedition each winter. Mike has watched the dive centre grow from a very small operation to one of the bigger dive centres in SA and he takes pride in leading his passionate team into the future. One of the things Mike particularly enjoys is seeing candidates who have transformed and gained the knowledge and skills to work successfully in the diving industry, locally and worldwide.
Yaseen Anthony
General Manager
Yaseen joined us in March 2022 as a service technician and sales/admin role and in December 2022 was promoted to the role of General Manager. Yaseen is an individual who has fantastic attention to detail as well as having a warm nature and being a wonderful team-player. He keeps our dive shop well stocked and our servicing workshop running smoothly, as well as taking charge of the myriad other tasks which ensure that the dive centre is always running optimally. He is a keen diver and when not in the shop or diving, can be found on his mountain bike on the local mountain trails.
Jacqui Mance
Bookings Manager
Jacqui is the welcoming face you meet when you arrive at Pisces and the friendly voice on the phone when you call in. She has worked in the dive industry for many years as an underwater videographer and PADI Instructor, but she has stopped actively teaching and now plans all our trips, our dive schedule and co-ordinates the dive staff and skippers. Jacqui also takes charge of the Pisces Divers social media accounts and loves sharing videos and photos taken by our staff and clients, showcasing our special Cape underwater world. Jacqui is a passionate diver and has a warm and infectious enthusiasm, much loved by our local and overseas diving community. She has been with our team since 2014.
Koen Wouters
Multi-Lingual PADI Course Director
Koen is our passionate multi-lingual PADI Course Director who is comfortable teaching in Dutch, German, French, and Spanish as well as English of course. He absolutely adores his teaching and has become an integral part of the Pisces team – assisting in the store, with bookings, teaching the full range of PADI courses and running the Instructor Development Courses alongside Mike where he is an experienced mentor to the new dive professionals. Koen has extended our capability to provide first-class dive training in several languages and brings a joyful and empathetic quality to all his students. He joined the team in 2021.
Daanish Hayat
PADI Instructor
Daanish takes charge of our rental equipment and compressor area and takes pride in keeping these areas of the centre in tip-top condition. It is often a thankless task keeping dive equipment areas organised and smoothly running, and he takes this on without the slightest complaint. He recently became a PADI Instructor after being our head Divemaster for several years. Clients really love Daanish’s calm and steady approach while diving and his relaxed approach to life in general. Daanish joined us in 2020.
Tim Johnson
PADI Instructor
Tim is one of our energetic Career Development graduates who joined us full-time in January 2023. He is also a Compressor Operator and Gas Blender and is a wonderful energy around the dive centre and assisting us with logistics when not diving himself. Tim is a trustworthy and patient dive professional who approaches his divers in a caring and personalised way. He is also a keen NSRI volunteer in his free time, as well as a health and fitness freak who often runs to and from work after a long day under the water!
Tariq Nortje
Skipper and PADI Divemaster
Tariq joined us after leaving school in 2022 and is now a regular skipper on our boats. He is a reliable and punctual skipper who loves anything to do with boats. Tariq has been on and around boats since a very young age, the occupational hazard of having a dad who runs a dive centre! Tariq has a particular interest in wrecks and loves learning about them and diving on them.
Keegan Bezuidenhout
Skipper and PADI Instructor
Keegan is also one of our Career Development graduates who joined us as a full-time staff member. Keegan inspires confidence with his calm and caring nature and has become a very competent skipper and recently Instructor. He volunteers as a Wildfire fighter with VWF and is also an NSRI member. He brings a wonderful warm-hearted spirit to our team and always approaches his work in a thoughtful and thorough way.
Ellen Schwerdtfeger
PADI Instructor
Ellen is a part-time Instructor with our team, having completed her Career Development Programme with Pisces while working full-time as a food consultant and recipe designer. She is a warm and bubbly personality and absolutely adores teaching children. Ellen is always eager to learn new skills and continuously improve her knowledge and diving capabilities. She is also a proud volunteer with NSRI and is very community-minded.
Kieran Cullum
Sales and Bookings Assistant
Kieran joined us for his PADI Instructor Course in November 2022 and assisted with training over high season last year before taking on the role of sales and bookings assistant in the dive centre. Kieran is a willing and keen individual who is learning a lot currently, but already adding value to the dive centre front-of-house team, which can be very busy at times.
Kevin Schmidt
PADI Staff Instructor and marine guide
Kevin has been part of the team for the last five years, assisting us as an expert guide on our pelagic shark and birding charters as well as guiding on the Sardine Run. Kevin is also an oceanographer and commercial diver and is passionate about sharks specifically, but all things ocean related.
Dillon Lombard
Logistics and skipper
Dillon is our logistics man for those crazy days when we have lots of groups out on shore and boat dives! He is fantastic at getting crew, guests and boats where they need to be on-time and with a big smile. He has had a long association with Pisces Divers – at first while learning to dive with us and then later as a full-time staff member and now on weekends when we are having a super busy day. He is also a skipper and compressor operator/blender and he is often helping us here as well.
Arina Wessels
PADI Divemaster and Accountant
Arina Wessels has been our accountant for the last fifteen years. You will not see her in the dive centre very often, but she is very involved in the background. She is a PADI Divemaster and her “happy place” is Madagascar where she works as a Divemaster each December to keep her sanity. She loves to travel whenever possible!
