BY Helderberg.com

A group of Indian students who are in SA to be trained as divers for oil rigs around the world were left "high and dry" last week after high-tech equipment was stolen from their diving school's premises in Sir Lowry's Pass.

On Wednesday night, thieves broke into two shipping containers, used for storing the equipment, including a decompression chamber used by divers, at the Blue Rock quarry. Then, on the following night, a newly appointed security guard was attacked by what police believe may be the same gang of thieves, perhaps returning to steal what they'd left behind on their first break-in.

"Luckily, they were unable to get into the containers," West Coast Commercial Diving School owner Daniel Harvey told DistrictMail.

The value of the items stolen is estimated to be about R100 000.

Dive instructor, Xagene Lotz ,says he arrived for classes with the 28 students on Thursday morning to the find heavy-duty padlocks on the doors of the containers forced open. Among the items stolen were six imported devices, called "neckdams", used to attach high-tech helmets to the wetsuits of divers.

According to Mr Harvey, the neckdams are useless by themselves to the average diver but, being made of bronze, might be sold to scrapdealers. Local scrapdealers have been alerted to be on the lookout for the devices.

Mr Lotz says the incident is another blow to SA's withering reputation, particularly in the light of the international reputation of the school. It is only one of two schools in the country, and ten globally, that offer the level of training required of many commercial divers around the world.

"With the boom in offshore [oil rig] activity, there has been an increase in demand for divers. South Africa is a cost-effective option for international companies," he says, adding that the school trained groups of divers from some 14 different nationalities last year.

Accommodation for the students is provided in Strand.

At 42 metres in depth, the quarry in Sir Lowry's Pass is among the deepest in the region and is used by the Saldanha-based school when the sea is too rough for training purposes. The quarry is also used by a waterski company, which criminals have also attempted to burgle in the past.

It wasn't the first time the diving school's containers have been tampered with.

Earlier attempts in the three years the school has been using the quarry, has seen special covers welded over the locks to make them tougher to get to with bolt cutters.

The company has now instituted new security measures around the containers, which includes contracting a local security firm

219.40.

----------------------------------------------------------------------