Wildside diving was born out of sheer desperation to explore the potentially new area outside Algoa Bay and further west than Thunderbolt reef, which is marked by the Cape Receife lighthouse. This area was well known to fishermen and to some of the more adventurousspear fishermen, but was rarely visited by scuba divers.  The reason for this was twofold:West of Cape Receiffe was not called the "Wildside" for nothing, as the winds can change and develop into near gale force in a matter of an hour or two. This fact combined with the distance travelled from the recognised Hobie Beach launch, made scuba diving on the Wildside an all day and unpredictable affair.

On many occasions we needed to run back in small boats, close to the shore line - tail between our legs with a horrific wind either head-on or stern.

In 1994, about 10 to 12 then "clubless" divers, whose diving senses had been aroused by the magnificent Wildside reefs and fish life, visited what we thought then to be the "unapproachable" Noordhoek Ski Boat Club (NSBC). What a pleasant surprise, we were invited to visit the clubhouse and were immediately welcomed and made to feel at home.  As new members of the Noordhoek Ski Boat Club, the "clubless" had found a base to launch and to operate from.  Contrary to expectations the bond between fishermen and divers grew strong and many of the dive sites were given to us by the fishermen in exchange for a retrieved anchor.

The number of member divers grew steadily over the next two years, so much so that in 1997 the Ski Boat Club's constitution was modified to include a diver's representative on the NSBC committee. Currently three committee positions are held by divers.Shortly thereafter the first DIVEFEST was staged with the help of the complete club, suing the larger fishing boats to ferry the 45 divers out for the two days. It was quite a comical and colourful affair with the fishing boat skippers in boats and anoraks, pulling in dive gear and divers, storing dive gear in the fish hatches - with divers clinging onto anything - while these experienced skippers negotiated our launch gap.  What an after-party we had and our dive gear smelt like fish!

Our 2009 WILDSIDE DIVEFEST will be the 12th DIVEFEST and it has grown into an international 850 plus dive event.  This was made possible due to the assistance received from clubs such as PRODIVE, ODI, NSRI and other Eastern Cape dive clubs, as well as with the backing of the NSBC. Currently we have about 45 active members along with their family and friends (some divers and some just supporters).

We encourage visitors to join us in our social events and invite visitors to dive with us. 

For the more serious scuba diver, we recommend making use of one of the two excellent local commercial dive operations - i.e. PRODIVE and ODI, who both make use of the NSBC launching facilities and who regularly dive the better known Wildside sites.