Now anybody can scuba dive for diamonds

... provided you have a Padi Open Water certificate and $16,000 to spare

Wynand Hendrikse is a diamond diver. For 20 years, he's spent his days sailing off the western coast of South Africa, exploring a private offshore concession an hour south of the Namibia border. His office is on a boat, and his uniform is a wetsuit and fins; his mission is to scan the shallow sea floor for precious minerals. Almost every day he spends on the water, he hauls up a pile of diamonds, which he then turns into bespoke pieces at his Stellenbosch design studio. His clients, he says, include sports stars and actors, but he rebuffs you if you ask for their names. In other words, his life doesn't suck.

For hundreds of years, a rough marine system called the Benguela Current has provided a bounty of conflict-free diamonds in an area called the Angola-Benguela Front. The diamonds, which originated deep in the earth, were swept to the ocean floor over millions of years after circulating through African waterways along various rivers and deltas. That's where they encounter the strong Benguela waters, which can carry only the heaviest stones, collecting with it a glittering trail for humans to recover.

Whereas mining elsewhere on the continent has led to countless documentaries about the brutal conditions that surround the gemstone trade, the oceanic practice has a far more peaceful history. According to a vague local legend, says Hendrikse, the front was discovered in the 1970s when a young boy picked a shining stone from the beach one day, only to find later on that he'd turned up the region's first diamond.

Now parts of the front off the Namibia border are estimated to have more than 1.5 billion carats worth of diamonds, according to the Benguela Current Commission - even enticing De Beers to set up shop.

Now you can, too, as long as you have a Padi Open Water 1 certificate and $16,000 to spare.

Earlier this year, Hendrikse founded Benguela Diamond safaris and now offers day-long trips for groups of two to six guests. The programme is available primarily through Cape Town's ritzy Ellerman House, a 15-room Cape Edwardian mansion that once belonged to the shipping magnates Sir John and Lady Ellerman, though it's also offered as an add-on to itineraries with the high-end travel agency Epic Road. (You can book the excursion in conjunction with stays at Ellerman House or Wolwedans Private Camp in Namibia with help from Epic Road's Mark Lakin.)

The experience begins with a limousine ride to a private charter flight for the roughly one-hour journey to the colourful coastal town of Port Nolloth, where Hendrikse maintains a beach-side villa. That's where you'll meet your dive masters, share a catered breakfast, and learn about what the day has in store. Hendrikse's small, industrial-feeling boat is built to withstand the choppy waters that make this offshore concession so rich in shiny stuff.

"The waters in most areas along this front are too harsh for travellers to have this experience," said Lakin. "Port Nolloth is the safest option."

© Bloomberg