Diving legend leaves a void

The diving community is reeling after the unexpected death of Roland Mauz, the owner of African Dive Adventures.

Roland (64) had a heart attack before the launch of a boat at the Shelly Beach Ski-Boat Club on November 8, despite great effort to resuscitate him.

His wife, Beulah (66) died two years ago on November 27, 2021 after a short and furious onslaught of cancer which left her no chance at all to fight.

Beulah and Roland celebrated a love story for 37 years.

“We were never apart. Worked together, lived together, loved life together,” wrote Roland, shortly after Beulah’s death.

A close friend Karen Butters Tredger said the couple were fondly known locally and abroad for their love for sharks, the ocean, diving and travelling.

“Condolences from across the world have poured in,” she added.
Beulah, born in South Africa, lived in Germany for five years while Roland was studying business administration in Kempten, Germany.

During her stay there, Beulah mastered the German language marvellously. She used her time by studying through correspondence at the University of South Africa in Pretoria.
Roland, raised in southern Germany, spent two years serving in the German Navy after which he travelled the world. After he finished his studies in 1989, Roland and Beulah returned to South Africa.

They married on the Comores where both of them became fascinated with scuba diving. They settled in Ramsgate, and began to dive off Protea Banks from 1996.

Roland clocked more than 3 500 dives just at Protea Banks while Beulah became very active in marketing the business. They also ran successful Sardine Run trips along the Wild Coast.

Beulah was passionate about the annual campaign, Paddle Out for Sharks, and she rallied support and was instrumental behind uniting surfers, conservationists, fishermen and ocean lovers to give sharks (and other marine life) a voice.

Travel journalist and photographer, Daniel Brinckmann from Germany said that Roland showed him his first tiger sharks and ‘kittens’, as he would call ‘his’ Zambezi/bull sharks on Protea Banks.

“He changed my perception of life. I still hear him laughing at me standing halfway on the wind-swept suspension bridge over Oribi Gorge in my old Slayer shirt staring down, not so tough anymore, but all freaked-out frozen,” he said.

Four years later Daniel came back to South Africa with a travel group and spent a month with Roland covering the Sardine Run in Coffee Bay – what a privilege! – and in 2019 he visited the couple again for another month in search of the enormous aggregations of scalloped hammerhead sharks.

Daniel said that when they did not show, Roland decided they will instead explore a huge deep water reef another three miles offshore from Protea Banks, a biologically unique hotspot in the middle of the Agulhas current in the open ocean, peaking at 52m.

“And this is how Roland was… no barriers, go for it, kick blocks out of the way, see the risks but dare and believe in what you do, there is always a way,” he said.

In December 2021 Roland wrote how much he missed Beulah, and left such an important message: “Do not wait for anybody you love or like, respect or treasure in any big or small way to die before you tell them how much you love them. Tell them now and tell them always how much you love them, how much you appreciate them, how important they are in your life. Don’t feel ashamed or weak in doing so. Even I , the rude German tell my male friends that I love them because I really do.”

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