For half of the globe September and October are the last hurrahs of summer, fading into autumn. This feeling that the warm days are slipping away (especially in the north of Europe!) can spur even the most lethargic of divers to look to the travel agents for a possible dive spot. The problem with this is that September and October are usually the months of change in many parts of the world, leading to potentially terrible weather. What I’ve compiled here is a list of fairly safe bets on getting good diving conditions (though I don’t guarantee that the surface weather will be as pleasant).

Miserable Northern European Autumnal Weather Gets Some Folks To Thinkin' About Getting On A Plane... Any Plane!

Australasian Region

I’m going to start with and easy destination tip first, just to get us off on a roll. Australia has the exact opposite weather system to Europe and North America, which means that as the weather deteriorates into a goo of grey clouds and windy days back home, Australia just gets hotter. This is also applicable to the dive sites for the whole region:

Australia – Australia is renowned for its diving, especially for the Great Barrier Reef in the North-east of the country. However, there is plenty of dive sites to be found across the whole continent. In effect, you could easily pick a coast at random anywhere you like in Oz and it will probably have superb diving not far from it. There is a very active dive community in the West of Perth, and because of its less traveled location it is much quieter than the busy Barrier Reef. September heralds the beginning of their high season, so get those long haul flights booked!

The Barrier Reef Is A Wonder Of The World, Though It's Worth Looking Into Other Sites For Quieter Dives.

New Zealand – Many Kiwis get all hot and bothered when we group them in with the Aussies, however I’m forced to do so in this case because, like Australia, New Zealand is also home to some awe inspiring dive sites. Though you are likely to find that the water is a little less warm that their Oz counterparts, and because of this it may be wise to wait until further into their summer (November/ December) to take advantage of the hot sun.

South Pacific - Going even further afield into the Southern Pacific Ocean, although remote and logistically challenging, is very rewarding for an adventurous diver. September and October are ideal months to travel down here because you will avoid the potentially treacherous cyclone season which tends to kick off in November. Autumn is also the time of year when you are most likely to see humpback whales. Specific areas to look into are the Cook Islands, Micronesia (though it might be worth waiting until December as it is drier then), Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Although all of these places are paradise on Earth and support phenomenal diving, Micronesia may have the best of the bunch.

Asian Region

Asia is massive, way too massive to group together. And as such there is no way to say that all of Asia has good diving at any particular point, so I will pick and choose some exceptional spots that I feel will banish any thoughts of October blues!

Philippines – The really handy thing about the Philippines is that there are loads of islands dotted about in a huge archipelago, and they don’t all follow the same weather patterns which means that a mobile diver can literally island hop until they find the right dive spot with the right weather. The diving does tend to be fairly remote, but this should provide a thrill for the adventurous divers among us. You will find that there is a high concentration of shark, which will again tickle the excitement bone of the adrenaline junkies.

Thailand – Now we come to my part of town, Thailand. Thailand is a strange place in September and October because the whole country experiences totally different weather! In September the East side of the Gulf of Thailand clambers out of the rainy season and bursts into October with a renewed high season. However, in Koh Tao (on the West coast) there is a nightmare cyclone which makes the island inhospitable for a month. Phuket and the Similan Islands are a little wet (read: soaked) in September and early October, so it might be better to hold off until November before visiting the South.

Thailand Is A Common Getaway For Many, Even Big Fellas Like This Guy!

Bali – Unlike Thailand which will be just recovering from the low season in September, Bali is just finishing up its high season. It will still be perfect dive conditions in September, though as you go into October you may find the situation deteriorates a little. If you do go in September then you have a chance to spot ocean sunfish which are spectacular animals indeed (and a tad peculiar looking…). Of course, the beauty of diving in South East Asia is that it is very easy to country hop, so if the weather turns sour down in Indonesia, it is simple enough to jump to Thailand or Malaysia.

Maldives – Moving west from South-East Asia is the Maldives which sit south of India in the Indian Ocean. If you arrive in September then you will miss the worst of the rainy season which ends in August. Once you have arrived then you will likely have to take your last look at the surface because you will be submerged from there on in! The Maldives is an undisputed wonderland for divers and will certainly have you gasping into your reg at constant intervals. Ensure you bring your torch because night dives are a must!

You Don't Even Need SCUBA To Enjoy The Maldives, It's So Shallow!

European/African Region

The summer in Europe might be looking like it’s considering closing up shop, but September and even October can still offer summer-like diving conditions if you look in the right places. Most of the usual suspects will still be running in September such as Turkey, Spain and the Canary Islands though some of the smaller centres might have shut by early October. There are two spots that are still big attractions in September:

The Red Sea – The Egyptian Red Sea, which is arguably the best dive location in the world, will still be warm in September and is perfectly pleasant in October. The visibility will almost certainly be perfect, with forty metres being commonplace. There is often a large array of livaboards operating during the high season but they might not be wise in October being as you may find you’d like to do indoor activities on the odd day. I won’t list what you may see when diving there because I simply don’t have the space to write so many fish, my suggestion is to look at every fish in a comprehensive, large fish guide…you’ll see all of those fish!

Scotland, Scappa Flow – Not every diver is a wimp who needs sun, sea, sand and cocktails to enjoy their dive trip (most of them just need the cocktails) – some of them are just in it for the dive. If that’s the case then it would be a very worthwhile trip to head to Orkney in the north of Scotland to enjoy the best wreck diving in the world. The conditions will certainly be chilly in September, but in a dry suit you should be quite comfortable, and the visibility is usually surprisingly good. You might find the currents are a little hairy at times, and the wreck are mostly deeper than thirty metres so a novice diver might get a little flustered. There is plenty of wildlife and the wrecks themselves are in great condition. The Coln is said to be the best dive because of its easy penetration and intact structure.

I'm Not Sure If This Guy Has Enough Gear For The Dive, He Looks A Little Underprepared!

Americas/Pacific Region

Costa Rica – Costa Rica is warm and wet during September and October, but the diving conditions are great. The country is intensely beautiful both on land and underwater with beautiful jungle and white sandy beaches adorning the land and volcanic formations and dense coral reef bejewelling the seas. The reason you will want to travel to dive in the rainy season is because the rain washes nutrients into the sea which kick starts a strong food cycle and brings a huge array of wildlife to the area, including some formidable predators!

Caribbean – Although the Caribbean is open to dive all year round, there is a hurricane season that fizzles out in the end of October, so if you plan to go exploring this wonderful region of the world then I suggest you head out towards the end of autumn. There are hundreds of world class dive locations in the Caribbean like the HMS Rhone in the British Virgin Islands, or the amazing sites of Grand Cayman to the hidden and relatively unexplored sites of the Turks and Caicos. A truly wonderful area to visit, but try to aim for winter rather than autumn.

I'm Not Sure, But I Think There's A Guy With SCUBA Gear On In That Car...He Obviously Didn't Read My Guide...

Final Thoughts

In this brief guide I’ve tried to scan the globe for good places to dive, though ultimately most sites are OK to dive, if you have the correct gear and appropriate training, all year round. I have also missed out huge swathes of the dive globe, like the UAE and most of Africa for instance which I regret, but it would take many, many books worth of articles to catalogue all the good dive spots at this time of year, I’ve tried to pick out the best in this guide. The diving in September is exciting because it is a time of change in the world which prompts wildlife migrations and shifts in climate, embrace this turbulent time and dive as much of it as you can!

Do you have any dive trips planned for the coming months? Where are you going? Where was the best autumn dive you ever did? Is there anywhere that you’d avoid in September and October? Please give us your advice in the comment section below.

Happy (well traveled) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell

Decompression Sickness is a term that you, as a diver, will hear mentioned many times throughout your diving career. It is a term used by professionals to describe the two main pressure related sicknesses that commonly afflict divers in an emergency situation: decompression sickness and lung over-expansion injuries.

DCI Can Turn A Beautiful Dive Like This Into A Serious Medical Emergency

Decompression Sickness

Decompression sickness, or DCS as it’s more commonly known, is a condition brought on by rapid reductions of pressure exerted on the body. The “pressure” we are talking about here relates to the weight of the water pressing down on a diver when he is submerged. This weight of water subjects him to higher pressures than he would normally have on the surface. When there is a reduction of pressure (the diver ascends towards the surface), it  allows the nitrogen that has dissolved into the body’s tissues to come out of solution and return to gas. This is a perfectly healthy and safe process for the body if it the pressure is dropped slowly (i.e. The diver comes up from a dive at a slow and safe ascension rate of less than eighteen meters per minute), however, if the pressure is decreased rapidly (the diver bolts for the surface) then the nitrogen will come out of solution too fast for the body to handle and it will form bubbles in the tissues and blood. This is extremely dangerous and can lead to a range of medical complications, ranging from sore to fatal. Here’s a brief list of some of the symptoms of DCS, these can arise anywhere from immediately to forty-eight hours from the dive:

• Joint Pain (The Bends) – ranging from mild tingles to excruciating pain, usually in the large joints such as the knees, elbows, ankles, shoulders and neck. This is why they call it the bends – it makes the diver hobble and makes his body look bent.
• Skin Bends – Itchy rash, feeling of crawling insects, swelling and mottling of the skin. Usually affects the upper torso and neck area.
• Brain – confusion, amnesia, dizziness, black outs, headache, vision problems, fatigue or strange behaviour.
• Spine/Nervous System – Strange sensations, paralysis, chest pain, incontinence, numbness and muscle weakness/twitching.
• Inner Ear (“The Staggers”) - Hearing loss, extreme vertigo and loss of balance.
• Lungs (“The Chokes”) – Deep burning chest pain, shortness of breath, pain when breathing and a dry cough.

The Rash of "Skin Bends"... Belly Button Piercing Not Included!

Safe to say that any of these symptoms would ruin your day!

Lung Over-Expansion Injury

A lung over-expansion injury is a much more simple condition to explain than DCS though its effects are no less serious. In essence you can think of the human lungs as balloons in the sense that they are flexible containers that expand and contract as air is pumped in and out. Just like a balloon, lungs have a maximum size that they can stretch to without breaking. What happens in a lung over-expansion injury is the diver’s lungs are, for some reason, unable to release air as the diver ascends to the surface which causes the air to expand and over-stretch the lungs. The usual cause for air being trapped in the lungs is simply breath-holding upon ascent. This is problematic because the lungs don’t have any nerves so the diver will feel no pain as the lung is being damaged. This damage will usually result in air being forced into a tissue it’s not meant to go such as the blood, the chest cavity or some other organ. This can be dangerous on a number of levels. Here’s a few of the symptoms that can occur (usually the effects of lung over-expansion injuries are seen and felt immediately – a diver may even reach the surface unconscious):

• Gas Embolism – Unfortunately this is both the most common of symptoms in lung over-expansion injuries, and the most dangerous. A gas embolism is simply when a bubble of gas from the lung is forced into the bloodstream. This can cause many problems, but the biggest problem occurs if the bubble is able to cross over from the ventricle side of the heart to the arterial side as this may lead to bubbles in the brain which can cause stroke and other serious conditions.
• Pulmonary Barotrauma – This is simply the medical term for a burst lung caused by breath holding on ascent from a dive. This is the initial cause of all the problems on this list, and is a problem in its self because it heavily reduces the effectiveness of the lung.
• Pneumothorax – This is the condition which arrises when air is forced into the pleural cavity (the space between the lungs and the chest) and presses on the outside of the lung, this can cause the lung to collapse which makes it very dangerous and potentially life threatening.
• Interstitial Emphysema – This condition is similar to pneumothorax in that air is forced to escape the lung but in this condition it gets trapped in the other tissues in and around the lung. It is both uncomfortable and dangerous, it requires urgent recompression.
• Subcutaneous Emphysema – If the gas that leaks from the lung is able to make its way to the skin then it will collect there and crate a puffy and crackly sensation under the skin of the neck and shoulders. This is not normally a serious problem though it certainly is uncomfortable and still requires immediate treatment at a hospital.

Lung over-expansion accidents are one of the main causes of serious injuries amongst recreational divers. This is because a submerged unconscious diver is very likely to suffer a lung over-expansion injury if they float to the surface without assistance (or with untrained assistance). This is why it’s important that if you find a diver that is unconscious under the surface then it’s vital that you hold their regulator in their mouth (to stop water from entering their mouth) and tilt their chin upwards to open their airway which lets trapped air escape their lungs.

Common Causes Of DCI

In the famous words of G.I. Joe: “knowing is half the battle!”…well what about the other half? We know what DCI is, we now need to know what causes it in a diving setting. DCI, as I stated before, is caused by rapid reductions in pressure that are the result of uncontrolled ascents. The question then arrises, why does anyone perform a rapid vertical climb when it is so clearly dangerous? There are many causes, I’ve listed a few of them here with tips on how to prevent these incidents from happening:

• Panic – This is an obvious candidate, but not one we should overlook. It is bashed into any rescue diver’s head that they must turn all fears and panics into productive problem solving rather than let it spiral out of control into unremitting hysteria. This is drilled into their heads so much because if the diver encounters a problem (or a perceived one) then the last thing he ought to do is compound his woes by adding a DCI to his list of problems. The simple fact is that if a diver begins to freak out then he must do his level best to follow his training and ascend at the appropriate rate.
• Out Of Air Situation – This is a problem that can easily lead to a panicked diver situation and, in turn, lead to a possible DCI case. When a diver is caught out of air, and is not well experienced then it is quite possible they will attempt a buoyant ascent rather than using a buddy’s alternate air source or performing a CESA (controlled emergency swimming ascent). If they are lucky and don’t hold their breath (which they might if they are in a fear-induced trance) they may only suffer from DCS (in varying degrees of severity depending on depth and speed of ascent). The moral of this story is simple: remember your training and, perhaps more importantly, practice manoeuvres like the CESA periodically to keep them fresh for that one-in-a-million chance that you have a blowout and loose your air.
• Ignorance – I’ve been banging on about “remembering your training” which is great advice for those that were thoroughly taught about basic emergency practices (as you should have been in your Open Water Course), but the issue arrises when you talk to some students that have been trained at less reputable schools – some people simply don’t know what the safe ascent rate is! Others have never tried a CESA and some have’t even practiced alternate air source ascents! For those people I can only recommend you find a better quality school and get them to do a scuba review with you with special attention paid to the basic life saving techniques that we employ as recreation divers. This advice is also applicable to those older divers who have forgotten these skills or divers that simply don’t spend enough time in the sea – keep your skills fresh!
• Helping Another Diver – This is a peculiar entry on this list but it is applicable in two different manners. First, as I mentioned above, it is possible to further complicate an unresponsive diver’s predicament by not following proper surfacing protocols (to further re-enforce this: Hold regulator in mouth, tilt chin up to surface, control both diver’s buoyancy, ascend slow). Secondly, it is also very easy for a diver (especially a spooked, novice diver) to bolt into a rescue situation charged on adrenaline and begin the ascent with the injured diver but completely forget their basic training (or ignore it) and drag them up too quick. This is made even more likely by the fact that not all new divers dive with a computer, usually rely on a senior member of the dive group to control ascent rate or simply haven’t made many ascents solo. To combat these possible factors you must ensure than all divers in your group have a dive computer, know how to use it and are capable of ascending on their own using the ascent rate indicator on the computer.
• Faulty Equipment – To finish off this list I thought I’d put the creeps into all my readers, from novice holiday diver to hardened Tec specialist. You might follow all the procedures and have trained well for the usual emergency scenarios but if your BCD begins to inflate itself, you can’t exhaust air, or you drop your weights then what do you do? In some cases like a stuck auto inflator then it is easy to disconnect the hose and orally modulate your buoyancy but if you aren’t aware of what to do then it could lead to a very stressful and uncontrolled ascent. In the case of a BCD that wont vent air then you must remember your fail-safe dump valves that are so simple that they almost can’t stick (they also dump air much faster which will halt a rapid ascent very quickly). Finally, if you drop your weights and cannot retrieve them (if you are above a deep drop-off for instance) then even with a completely empty BCD you will probably begin to ascend (especially if you normally dive with eight kilos or more). There are a number of things you can do in this situation; exhale your breath from your lungs to reduce your buoyancy and to avoid lung over-expansion injuries, flare your legs and arms out to cause drag and, in serious cases, point your fins to the surface and swim downwards to slow your ascent.

Other Ways To Avoid DCS

Though lung over-expansion injuries are caused solely by rapid ascents and trapped air in the lungs, it is not enough to simply follow good dive practices to avoid DCS being as there are other factors at play which can make a diver more susceptible to this nasty condition:

• Alcohol/Drugs – It must be said that it’s fairly stupid to go diving when intoxicated in any form, especially when we’ve just finished discussing how important it is to keep your head clear in a stressful situation. On top of this obvious fact, substances like alcohol and other drugs affect your body and brain in a number of different ways. The most important is the way they alter your circulatory system as this is the mechanism that is most instrumental in avoiding DCS. Remember, I’m not just talking about diving ten minutes after having three tequila slammers, this applies to the hangover you suffer the next day – diving with a hangover is a rubbish idea, especially if the sea is choppy!
• Hydration – The main reason that alcohol and drugs make you so susceptible to getting decompression sickness is that they dehydrate your body which thickens the blood making it less able to cope with the slight over-saturation of nitrogen that must occur as we surface. You can also become dehydrated even if you’ve been saintly for the last two evenings and have stayed at home playing sudoko. This is because simple things like not drinking enough water and getting sunburnt can also affect your blood consistency. Try to stick to water rather than coke or coffee and ensure you take a large drink before the dive because breathing compressed air will dry you out, you’ll just have to deal with needing to pee for the last ten minutes of the dive!
• Illness – Most people are sensible enough to avoid diving when they are seriously ill, but if the diver has spent a whole lot of money on a dive trip then they might not be willing to let it go to waste, especially if they are beginning to recover. Depending on the illness this can complicate things in all manner of ways: anything with a fever or that causes lethargy will likely also dehydrate you and affect your circulatory system. If your illness causes coughs, blocked nose, wheezing or any other chest/air passage congestion then you may be putting yourself at risk of getting a lung over-expansion injury or other barotrauma like sinus pain or ear problems.
• Body Fat/Fitness – Your personal health has a number of different parts to play in making you more or less likely to get DCS. The first aspect is your fitness, if you are very fit then your heart and blood will be free-flowing and will deal with micro-bubbles of gas much better than someone in poor fitness. On top of this, a diver with high body fat runs the added risk of getting DCS because fat is a very slow tissue to release nitrogen, this means that if the diver does a long dive he will take additional time to decompress all the nitrogen in his body. If this same diver were to make a fast ascent he is more likely to suffer DCS than his lithe and healthy counterpart.
• Exercise During and After Diving – As I said above, anything that changes the way your circulatory system operates also changes your likelihood of contracting a pressure related injury. Exercise makes your whole metabolism speed up, but it also changes where your blood is directed and how fast it flows. If you do extreme exercise during or straight after a dive then you run the risk of accelerating the formation and distribution of bubbles throughout the body. Obviously exercise is part of diving, just don’t go hauling in an anchor single-handedly straight after a row of deep dives!
• Coffee/Caffeine – This is probably just me being picky as this won’t make much of an impact on most divers, but it might mean the difference between treatable DCS and life-threatening DCS in an emergency. The way caffeine works is it stimulates the body’s production of adrenaline which motivates the brain and body to work harder. One of the main things that gets artificially kick-started is the heart which leads us to the same problems as you encounter when exercising straight after or during a dive. I’d avoid the caffeine hit until you’re on your way home, just to give your heart a rest.

Treatment For DCI

This is a surprisingly short and simple section being as the initial emergency treatment for all cases of suspected DCI is the same. We do three main things when we are dealing with a patient with pressure related injuries;

1. Get the diver back to the boat of shore immediately. While you are towing the victim back you will call out for the oxygen kit to be prepared because it is vital that the diver begins to breath one hundred percent oxygen as soon as possible for as long as possible. If the diver is not breathing then you will perform CPR on the boat with the O2  mask in place. It will be necessary to call any other divers back to the boat by signalling them so that you can get moving quickly (usually by banging the boat’s metal ladder or using another underwater audible signalling device). If you are within electronic communication distance of land then you will alert the emergency medical services and possibly contact DAN (Diver’s Alert Network) who can guide your actions and support effort.
2. Once the diver is awake and breathing oxygen then you should put them in the recovery position with their right side down to reduce the likelihood that gas bubbles will cross over from one side of the heart to the other. You should treat for shock at this point.
3. Get the diver to a hospital that deals with pressure related injuries and has a hyperbarric chamber. This chamber will re-compress the bubbles and then allow the body to “surface” very slowly, while the diver is assisted with medicine.

This Is The Only Safe Place For A Diver With DCI - A Hyperbaric Chamber

Do not try to fix DCS by doing a “re-compression dive”, it simply doesn’t work because of the time necessary to safely decompress – it can take days!

Final Thoughts

DCI is a real risk that every diver should be fully aware of when they don their equipment, and if you do not fully understand the implications of what I’ve said here then I implore you to do some research and get to know the realities of DCI. Otherwise, I hope you follow my advice and remember your training because if you ensure you dive smart then you never need to worry about this terrible condition.

Have you had a case of “the bends”? Do you know someone that has? What do you do to make sure you stay safe? Please feel free to put your comments in the section below, and if you have any questions then I’d be happy to answer them.

Happy bubbles (the safe kind)!

By Jamie Campbell

I’m Impatient For The Future…

I am a self confessed dive-gadget freak. I love scuba gear because the sea is the ultimate final frontier on Earth, and dive gear designers have some of the most intense challenges in front of them when creating new products. Their goal is to make our time spent underwater more fun, efficient and safe (and to make a hefty profit). The manufacturers clearly succeeded because diving is a surprisingly safe and easy sport, yet the forces and hostility of the environment we spend so much time in is amazing. Dive gear has to endure the abuse of a diver (which is pretty tough in its own right!), the immense pressures of the sea, the corrosion of salt water, the extreme cold and heat on the surface and the shocks of being banged around in a box or dive bag. What really impresses me is that dive gear can withstand all that damage and then proceed to do something extremely cool like calculate how much air I have left in my tank (wireless air transmitters) or propel me through the water at an astonishing rate (super-efficient fins).

A Whole Set Of Diving Gear That Will Keep Functioning Despite What Either I or The Sea Does To It!

The technology and finesse that is displayed in modern dive equipment is both humbling and exciting, we have answered almost all the major problems with diving on pressurised gas underwater…yet there is always something more isn’t there? I have sat on many dive boats with a whole plethora of divers who have all mulled over the possibility of future dive technologies. Often they are just simple tweaks on old ideas (one idea I heard was “could they fit small DPV style propellers on fins to help you along?”) but usually the conversation comes round to five specific technologies that everyone wants to see. I’ve listed them below with a look at what we have on the market today in that area, and I’ve also let myself dream of what might come in the future…

Effective Underwater GPS

GPS is everywhere; it’s in phones, cars and laptops. I know many people who would rather give up their cars than their GPS units – it’s become that integral in our daily lives. It is obvious why – having a computer decide what route is fastest to your chosen destination is both convenient and timesaving which are the two most important attributes for any modern technology. They are also important aspects of diving because we are on a ticking clock when we go under – air runs out and nitrogen builds up. Getting where we want quickly via the interesting things on the site are the top priorities of any diver.

GPS offers this sort of efficient route planning, but is currently ineffective for underwater adventures because the normal (surface) way of calculating your position doesn’t work – the dense water screws with the signals. There are products on the market at present which require you to place three surface beacons in a triangle around the site to give your computer an idea of where you are, but it counters the efficiency that the GPS is there to provide.

In the future I want a GPS that is wrist mountable and will provide me with exact routes around any dive site. I also want it to take into account tides and currents. It should be able to download great routes from the web so that I other divers can post their favourite dives and label the map with what they saw and where it was. It would be a personal, electronic Divemaster.

Curent GPS Requires Surface Beacons To Bridge The Transition Between Water And Air - Which Isn't Nearly As Convenient!

Perfect, Flexible Insulation

There is a constant influx of products onto the exposure suit market which all promise unsurpassed levels of warmth retention and water restriction. They do this using a number of modern materials and a few very clever techniques, however they are either very warm but difficult to move in (though this is being addressed) or flexible but too cool. What we need is a skintight suit with similar properties to lycra (to reduce water movement in the suit) and through the fabric of this suit would be hundreds of tiny superconductive wires that carried heat around the suit from a central heating unit which would clip to the tank or your BCD.

This suit wouldn’t need to be particularly insulating because the warmth would come from the heat box and be dispersed all around the body by these superconductive wires. This might be worn under a very thin wetsuit in extreme situations purely to ensure there weren’t any cold spots.

This isn’t a particularly futuristic idea (except for the part about super conductors – that was straight out of Star Trek) because there are already wetsuits on the market that employ this exact technique – they have heating membranes within the material which actively warm you during your dive. They are still primarily wetsuits, but with a little more material research and design testing we may well come across the super-flexible, power-heated exposure suit in the future.

Some New Products In The Wetsuit Market Are Coming With Incorporated Heating Webs.

Infallible, Low-cost Rebreathers

Here’s my personal number one wish for future dive gear. It’s also quite likely to be invented in the not-too-distant future. The reason I predict its imminent arrival is because it is already here in effect, it’s just not sufficiently cheap or simple enough to be a viable option for the average diver.

For those who are unaware of what a rebreather is it is essentially a personal air recycler which takes the air you breath out, scrubs the bad gas away and adds oxygen to it to make it fresh air again. It also works with a dive computer to modify the gas you breath to be more or less oxygen rich to compensate for nitrogen build up. As an added benefit they produce no bubbles which means they don’t scare away fish. It is a Tec diver’s best friend…and worst enemy. Rebreathers have been dangled in front of the dive community for a couple of decades now, yet they are still very complicated machines that require comprehensive training to use and maintain. They are also so unreliable that many Tec divers choose to dive with a full dive’s worth of tanks as well as the rebreather just incase the unit should fail. On top of this they are prohibitively expensive which makes them almost inaccessible to the lay diver.

Cheap, simple and reliable rebreathers will revolutionise SCUBA, but who can say when we’ll get them?

Current Rebreathers Are Awesome Feats of Technology - But They're Not Cheap Or Simple Enough For The Common Diver.

Breathable Liquid

Hands up; who watched James Cameron’s The Abyss and immediately began to fantasise about having breathable liquid which would remove the worry of pressure related injuries? In the movie the main character must go to a ridiculous depth which is essentially impossible on SCUBA so they use a prototype liquid-breathing apparatus which delivers oxygen to the lungs via liquid rather than by gas which means he can withstand the extreme pressures of the deep. Although it looks uncomfortable to drown in liquid every time you wish to dive, it would be the most exciting technology for extreme diving. I’ll have one of those please Mr Cameron…

If James Cameron Can Invent Breathable Liquid Then Surely Scubapro Or Mares Can Do It?

Underwater X-ray Goggles

Bad viz is sometimes only a mild inconvenience (especially when you are expecting it and you are comfortable diving blind) but for some divers it is the end of the day’s activities. It is a dangerous condition to dive in because objects, wildlife and your buddies are difficult or impossible to see, and most divers go down there to see the sights, not to see plankton up close.

What if there were a set of goggles that used some other part of the spectrum other than visible light to see underwater. I’m not sure what technology you’d use (because I’m not a genius scientist…doh!) it could be infra-red, or it might be ultraviolet based (which travels much further that infrared in water) or maybe it could use sonar (like submarines use currently).

Whatever the technology, it’d be amazingly useful for both recreational divers and commercial divers to have a set of goggles that could pierce the mire of bad viz and let you “see” what was around you and where your buddies were. It’d also reduce the need for torches and other light sources because you would “see” without normal visible light.

The Closest We Have To Viz Piercing Goggles Is A Normal Mask With Night Vision Strapped On The Front, Not Quite X-Ray, But It's Getting There...

Final Thoughts

So, there’s my top five wish list of items I’d desperately love to see being prototyped in a few years and commercially available in ten (or sooner…). Most of the items on the list are available in some form or other in different fields and are simply not adapted for underwater applications and other items on my wish list will require quite a bit more research! Either way, I’ll keep watching for new dive products as they appear on the scene, and I’m sure I’ll continue to be amazed at the ingenuity involved in the equipment we are lucky enough to be buying today…remember that today’s commonplace gear was once on a diver’s wish list like this one twenty years ago!

What do you think of my list? Is there anything on it you’d particularly like to see? Do you have a personal gadget or technology that you desperately want dive manufacturers to design? Is there anything that is available today that you once prayed for and are still amazed at (mine is the new DPVs that are on the market – tiny and powerful, the future today!) Please let us know your great ideas in the comment section below.

Happy (futuristic) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell

Click on images to enlarge

Experienced divers have opportunity to conduct night and drift diving, also steep walls, caves and cliffs are there to amaze you. Wreck diving is not a problem here, all you have to do is to choose which sunken vessel you’re planning to see. But the most exciting is to discover something new, for group of divers countless number of yet unexplored reefs are waiting for their time.

Swimming underwater in the Maldives can be everywhere – both in the lagoon at your resort, and at the furthest from Malé atoll. In many resorts there are special schools for divers.

Almost all islands have reefs located nearby, to which you can swim straight from the beach. Best of the reefs is located in the resort of Ellaidhoo, a bit worse – on resort Bandos, Wade, Embudo Village, Giraavaru, Helengeli, Baros, Baros Ra and Twin Island (Maafushivaru). But of course here are not all reefs worthy of attention. In general most resorts are surrounded by small reefs and if you want to reach a reef straight from the beach resort, make sure that reef is available nearby. Those who want to enjoy not only the coastal waters, dhoni will you to an underwater safari.

Ari Atoll – Ellaidhoo

Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru > Aerial view

If you’re new and healthy, you can take a short course at your local resort (there are 3 types of diving courses: for beginners, special, high complexity).

Those who already can be called Scuba Divers need to take with them the certificate and diving log. If you have not engaged in diving for a while, you will be asked to make a test dive, so the instructor can observe how you feel in the water. These precautions are made because of lack of sophisticated medical equipment in Maldives, and such small inconvenience may be brought to you.

Maldives reefs

Maldives – dual band atolls over 90 thousand square km – part of a volcanic ridge stretching from Laccadives Islands to Chagos. The largest atoll in the world – Huvadu is Among 26 atolls of the Maldives.

Laccadives Islands

The atoll consists of numerous small islands surrounding a large lagoon. Lagoon depth is from 40 to 90 m bristling with reefs, corals and Tilly – reef deep bedding, lying on the sandy bottom. Calm waters in the lagoon create favorable conditions for the formation of branching and reef-building corals with about 900 species of tropical fish. If you want to get acquainted with the fish to be found here, buy a book of local marine biologist RK Anderson.

In the Maldives, there are many faros – concentric reefs inside the atoll. Faro is not a true atoll, but instead forms part of the rim of a barrier reef or a larger atoll. Faro is located near the outer sides of the atolls, longer, and some are broken, like a horseshoe, but they rise from the bottom of the atoll, and it seems they are forming a lagoon within the lagoon. The depth of this lagoon is usually up to 6 m, and only sometimes reaching 40 m.

Each island is surrounded by the so-called local reef, due to which in almost all resorts tourists have excellent opportunities for scuba diving. Visibility in the lagoons is usually good.

Ocean on the outside of atolls reaches 1-3 km in depth. There are several vertical reef walls In the Maldives, and though many slopes are gentle, in some places very steep cliffs exist. Outside of atolls water is very clean, and marine life is extremely diverse and full with colors. Some reefs on the western side of the atoll of Male and South Male are inhabited with starfishes, and unfortunately they are causing significant damage to corals.

Best time for diving in Maldives

The best time for scuba diving is from January to April, when the sea is calm, the sun is shining, the weather conditions are great and the visibility in the water can reach 30 meters. It’s possible to meet whales in the strait at the southern tip of Ari Atoll from late August to October. But if you want to see giant rays and whale sharks, the best to visit Malé and South Male is from August to November and from February to April for Ari atoll, as waters are rich with plankton during this period.

Diving is possible throughout the year, but rain, wind and waves are most common during the season of the southwest monsoon (June-August). During this period, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to get to some interesting places for diving. In a bad season the visibility in the water sometimes falls to 10 m. It is said that the weather in Maldives has a two-week cycle, but there is no clear pattern of change. North-easterly winds in December and January made it difficult to get to the best dive sites on outer and eastern sides of the atoll, but diving can be conducted in lagoons and streams.

Visibility in the water often exceeds 30 m, the temperature of the water is suitable – 27-30C, which allows you to swim with light and comfortable suit.

Maldives rules for divers

In order to make diving safer Maldivian Government has developed a number of rules. Immersions after which ascending requires decompression is prohibited, and diving below 30 m is not allowed. Also it’s a must to have buoyancy compensators (BCs).

Instructors arrange a test dive and if they see that the person feels confident in the water, they allow him to dive alone without joining the group of divers. Some resorts require that diver should not be submerged more than one hour if dive has been conducted from a dive boat or the pressure is at least 50 atmospheres in the BC. Theses rule varies depending on the type of diving and skills of the diver.

Recently shark feeding has ceased to be popular and not conducted regularly. Consult with the instructor about the possibility of meeting with predators. Read also … Protect Sharks

Diving resorts

Dive centers have possibility to arrange diving from a boat in the morning and afternoon , if dive site is located less than an hour away.

Night diving is usually arranged at the request of holidaymakers in most resorts. At the resort with the nearby reefs, where diving is possible directly from the shore, the number of dives is not limited. At Bandos and Ellaidhoo diving can be done all day round. The immersion is carried out with dhoni, large enough to accommodate themselves – divers and their equipment. On boats there is a canopy that protects from direct sunlight. At dhoni usually placed from 4 to 20 divers. Tours are conducted regularly on a daily basis to distant places, which include two dives from a boat included either a lunch (dry rations) or a barbecue on an uninhabited island. Sometimes tours include a visit to another resort.

Packages for scuba diving.

If you are going to dive for several days it is best to purchase a package of services. Prices are moderate and several options are offered. One of them includes two boat dives and unlimited shore dives. This option is more suitable for those who rest in the resort, which has a reef nearby and is planning to make more than two dives per day. The fee for the boat is usually charged separately but many resorts will make discounts if package is ordered. The price for scuba diving is included in the price at Club Med resorts and Club Vacances. On average a package that includes one dive worth $35, 6 dives – $180, 10dives – $250, and six days of unlimited diving – $250-300 dollars. The price for boat an average is $9 per person for per trip and $15 for two. These prices include the cost of rent only for cylinders with air and cargo, all the rest of the equipment can be rented in the resort shop. Average prices for rental equipment are $10 per day for the full set and $2 per day and above for each item.

Test dive.

If you have never dived before, you should conduct a test dive or take appropriate courses. Test dive consists of a short briefing and demonstration, followed by swimming in the lagoon or reef on the island. The introductory part is very short and usually takes about half of the day and helps you to decide whether you want to continue with diving or not. At most resorts you can make a test dive, a cost of which is about $32, this price equipment is included. If you decide to attend courses to get a certificate, then in some resorts the price of the test dive will be included in the cost of training.

Diving Courses at the resorts

Dive courses are not available on all resorts. Theoretical trainings are combined with practical diving and include three to six dives accompanied by an instructor. The first three are usually held in the lagoon and in the nearby reef of the island, and then by boat. Prices range from $150 for a three-day course with three dives to $300 for a six-day course with six dives.

Some schools give out their cards and submarine dive logs, but they are only valid for that resort and will be ignored by many other dive sites. Diving courses at the resorts are focused to introduce you with scuba diving, and if you enjoy this sport, you can move to the next step and get a certificate (C-card).

Certificate. The main certification agencies in the Maldives are PADI, NAUI and CMAS. You can get other certificates too, but not everywhere. Teaching courses are conducted in all major European languages. Before the start of training course, you will be asked to fill out a medical questionnaire. Price for standard certification is $430 (included equipment rental), and $320 for increased complexity, the last includes training courses for night diving, orienteering and navigation. But always make sure if boat fee is included in the price.

Scuba Safaris

One and two week underwater safaris are designed for those who do not want to be tied with resort. They usually start in Male and include a visit to one of the atolls. Baa or Ari, a week-long trips or both atolls in two weeks (in some cases, these atolls are replaced by the South Male and Felida). During peak season, from January to April, all places are occupied so it’s best to book a boat in advance.

Boats for safaris are fully equipped yacht-dhoni length of 12-20 meters and with width of 4-6 m. They can take on from 2 to 14 passengers. Each is accompanied by a dhoni boat: it gets divers to the dive site and carries all equipment.

Usually two dives per day are being performed, and in during intervals tourists visit the fishing villages. You can order a larger number of dives. Scuba Safaris cost 70-90 dollars per day per person (full board), or U.S. $300-500 for 12 dives. These prices also include the price for diving boat, air tanks, weights and instructor.

Drift Diving

Strong currents represent an excellent opportunity for drift diving in the straits and channels of atolls and between them. Going down the reef you can see doorsteps of sea pike swimming against the tide. A quick glance at the reef during the drift will show you how fast is the flow. Be careful with the stingrays, which are looking for food among currents. Look down at the coral trees, crowned with stars, and wave to fishes floating beneath you. When your journey comes to the end, ascent to surface and give a signal to dhoni, it would be in the same direction and they will pick you up. Read also … Drift Diving

Night diving

Night diving is a worthwhile experience: you have an opportunity to see new and more diverse marine life. Photographing fishes at night is simpler, since they can be approached closer than in the daytime. Please also read Night Diving Guide

During the sunset reef is changing, as you may already know fishes change their color. Wrasses bury themselves in sand, fish-butterflies darken and settle in corals, small fish are hiding in crevices and burrows, and the parrot-fish surround themselves with protective mucus. When the day’s fish finish preparations for the night and go to the asylum, night inhabitants appear. Point the flashlight beam on the reef and you’ll see the darted dark-red soldier-fish. In soft coral bushes usually are found small crabs that hide among the corals and sponges.

To see the amazing firefly-fish, find a place near the cave or some other niche, turn off the lights and wait. A few minutes later draped green lights: first one, two, few, and then – a whole sea.

Underwater dangers

It is easy to forget about dangers hiding behind the enchanting beauty of the underwater world, so be always cautious. Always listen to your instructor, he knows local underwater world much better than you. In some areas with very strong currents it’s so easy to lose the diving group. If you are being taken by strong flows, try to swim sideways, and not against it to reach calm waters. Some resorts provide buoys (long tubes filled with air, which are connected to the vest of divers), visible from the boat when ascending. In many shops for divers these cheap means of security are being offered, so they should be stocked up in advance.

If you happen to see a sea urchin or starfish, avoid touching them. These animal contain poison in needles, which is not dangerous to your life, however it may cause you great inconvenience. You’ll not be able to remove the needles from your body, and it will be done by your body automatically. Please also read , dangerous animals of the Red Sea

You may encounter a scorpion fish or stonefish. Do not touch them, and they will not touch you. You may meet a lionfish too, in this case stay away from its sharp fins, because they are poisonous. If you still get stung, treat the wound and surrounding tissue with very hot water, as hot as you can bear. The heat will neutralize the poison, but you still need to consult with doctor.

Suit for diving is optional as the waters are warm, but it can protect you from scratches from corals and bites from undetected water creatures. Spray “Stingose” available from local stores will neutralize the bite. You can use vinegar and wet tea bags, but they are less effective.

The combination of sea and sun increases the risk of burns. Before and after immersion using a good barrier cream is advisable. Also do not forget to wear a hat and sunglasses.

One last thing: bring your instrument for measuring the depth of immersion – the water is very transparent, so you cannot calculate and exceed the planned limit of depth.

Instructors at the dhoni usually have oxygen supply for emergency cases. In the centers of diving oxygen supply is sufficient to bring the victim in decompression chamber

As an add-on to illustrate my recent “Guide to…Dive Watches” article I wanted to mention a few all-time modern classics that incorporate at least some of the features I’ve mentioned in the guide. All the watches in this list are available presently, but have been in production in some guise or other for long enough to become diving institutions.

The Hardcore – CX Swiss Military 20,000ft

Diving is an “extreme” sport, in the sense that there are risks inherent in every dive we make. It also means that the equipment we use must be “extreme” – accurate, reliable and robust. This CX Swiss Military 20,000 ft watch raises the bar for tough and robust really, really high. It is designed to withstand the water pressures at 6,000 m (or 20,000ft), and shocks equivalent to being shot at close range from a Winchester rifle! This watch is a Challenger tank that tells the time, and it looks like one too. From the front it is an attractive, masculine watch, but tilt it on its side and you are confronted with a watch that is only a few feet shorter than its namesake. There is no doubting this watch is a working tool; it will do anything you can do, and keep doing it long after you’ve stopped!

An Attractive Timepiece From the Front Becomes a Behemoth From the Side - But It's Definitely Hardcore!

The Budget Underdog – Casio G-Shock

Going straight from one butt ugly watch to another…the Casio G-Shock line has been going for nearly thirty years and has always pursued serious toughness and loud design. They are cheap (around a hundred times cheaper than the most expensive watch on this list), sturdy, feature crammed, reliable, and iconic. Most G-Shocks have an atomic clock signal sent to them hourly which means they are always on perfect time. Most of them also have a solar panel on them which massively extends their battery life, making them a viable option over a kinetic watch. G-Shocks don’t have the same credibility as most of the other watches on this list, but they take hold their own in almost every other area.

The G-Shock Is Ugly, But Surprisingly Competent

The Super Deep – Bell and Ross Hydromax 11,100 m

Moving from the two super loud “look at me” watches to the most understated watch on this list, but the one with the biggest right to brag. The Hydromax is oil filled which, as discussed in the guide, means that it has no airspace to compensate for. This allows this watch to be depth rated to 11,100 meters, which is more than deep enough for any aquatic excursion being as the deepest water in the whole world is 10,971 m as found in the Mariana Trench. It’s fairly unlikely that anyone will be diving to that depth anytime soon, but it’s more a testament to the astonishing design that it can survive such punishing depths.

The Hydromax Is Unassuming, Refined And Clear

The Big Spender – Rolex Oyster Sea Dweller

This might be the most expensive watch on this list, but it is also the watch with the longest and most populated legacy. The Sea Dweller has been diving for over forty years and has the most prestigious credentials on this list. There was a prototype of the Sea Dweller attached the outside of the Trieste manned submersible which remains the deepest voyage into the depths of our ocean even achieved by man. When the sub and its crew emerged from their record breaking dive, the Sea Dweller was found to be in perfect working order. A tough watch, worn by gentlemen.

The Sea Dweller Is One of the Pinnacles of Dive Engineering

The Classic Chronometer – Breitling Superocean

This watch is about as close to a “simple” dive watch as you can get. It is pricey, but not cripplingly so. It’s modern in design (I am very partial to the “Abyss Red” model), but not likely to fall out of fashion soon. It’s robust and well made, but not oversized or over engineered to make it so. It goes deep (1500 m), but not garishly loud or uncouth about it. It has a credible legacy of performance watches, but isn’t resting on its laurels. I think this is one of those perfectly capable, very respectable watches that is just right, I’d be proud to wear one on my wrist.

Pick A Colour, They All Look Good

The People’s Choice - Omega Seamaster

Look on any scuba forum, when somebody mentions dive watches there is always a mad rush to post about how much they love their Omega Seamaster. The comments usually mention that; “it just works”, “it looks great” and “it’s my working watch”. These comments are always corroborated by a thousand other posters making the same assertions. Omega Seamasters are excellent watches that serve the dive industry well. It can’t do anything that any of the other watches on this list can’t do, but what it does do, it does well for a heck of a number of people, making it one of the most popular dive watches on the market.

A Familiar Sight On Any Dive Boat

The Hard Worker – Luminox Deep Dive Automatic 1500

Secretly this is my favourite watch on the list, it’s just so effortlessly hardcore. Luminox are commissioned by the Navy Seals to make watches for them that are made to survive combat. It has one of the most attractive dials I’ve ever witnessed on a watch and it looks just fantastic at night because of the multi coloured Luminox light technology. It has a very slick looking crown cover to protect it from knocks during use. It comes with an incorporated helium release valve and is depth rated to 500 meters, making it a legitimate option for saturation divers. It’s not anymore competent than other watch on the list, but it looks the part and is a great watch for night dives, or murky waters.

As Bright As Any Dive Torch, And Just As Tough

The Technical Watch – Suunto D9

I almost didn’t put this watch on the list being as it’s not really a dive watch, but a fully fledged dive computer. The only reason that I chose to include this hybrid on the list is because I think it is likely that this will become a large part of the future of dive watches and dive computers, soon you will struggle to decide what belongs to which category.

This dive computer a la watch is a little different from other small dive computers being as it was designed with an emphasis on miniaturisation and on chic styling. For a digital watch it looks surprisingly sleek and accomplished. It manages to pull off the pauper to prince act especially well when bought with the all-titanium bracelet that adds an extra layer of golf clubhouse elegance to an otherwise very hard working dive computer. It is a fully fledged trimix deco computer with a proper digital compass and wireless air transmitter integration. Effectively you could do a fully fledged 200m tec dive with this in the afternoon and wear it to dinner in the evening. Quite something for a device that used to only be able to tell the time!

The D9 Is A Respectable Digital Watch, Who Would Have Thought It?

Your Comments Are Welcome

I’d especially like to hear from any of you who currently own and dive with one or more of these watches. I’d also like to hear from some of the more novice watch appreciators out there. Either way, please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

Fig1 and Fig2 – click to enlarge

Sea conditions were calm. Whales in the area were generally moving to the north east via the Sao Jorge Channel. Water depths in the vicinity range from 500 metres to 1200 metres, with all whales seen during the afternoon outside the 1000m isobath.

From observation of the squid in the jaws of the whale it appeared to have been taken head on, with its swimming fins hanging symmetrically down each side of the whale’s jaws. The width of the body, fin tip to fin tip was estimated to 1.5 to two metres. The whale itself was around six to seven meters long, and carried extensive scarring and marking on its skin, some circular lesions presumably caused by the suckers of large squid. After swimming on or near the surface for about ten minutes with the squid held in its jaws, the whale sank slowly on its side, and then on its back convulsively chewing and snatching at the squid’s carcase.

As is visible in the photograph (fig 3), this method of consumption resulted in considerable wastage of the whale’s food. In contrast to the floating, dismembered head of a giant octopus found shortly afterwards in the same vicinity (presumably also the remnants of sperm whale prey), the fragments of squid all slowly sank into deeper water, followed by small groups of opportunistically feeding sardines.

From a review of the photographs, a number of scientists **  consider that the squid is most likely Taningia danae ***, a species that grow to substantial size and weight. (pers comms).

The whale shown is unusual for another reason. Both its swimming paws show signs of mutilation, presumably by predators such as sharks or orca. This is commonly observed in sperm whales. However, the right paw displays a clean circular perforation near the trailing edge. (fig 4). The cause of this is unknown. Torn notches on the same paw perhaps suggest injury from a peg-like tooth, although there could be other causes.

Special Thanks for contribution to
Wade and Robyn Hughes; Wayne and Pam Osborn; Tania Windsor Blunden
wayneosborn@mac.com   aussiesabroad@aol.com

* See: Bullen, T. Frank (1857-­‐1915) ; Cruise of the Cachalot (Ch X11) http://fulltextarchive.com/pages/The-Cruise-of-the-Cachalot3.php#p33
Tony Wu  -  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/photogalleries/giant-­‐squid-­‐sperm-­‐whale-­‐pictures/photo2.html

**      Steve O’Shea; Michael Vecchione, Tsunemi Kubodera, and Richard E. Young:
***   See: Michael Vecchione, Tsunemi Kubodera, and Richard E. Young

See: Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young

The sea is a powerful force. It’s a huge energy storage and dispersal mechanism that absorbs forces like the Earth’s rotation, the Moon’s orbit and the wind and then releases them in various ways. Sometimes it dumps a huge amount of energy in one go (like a tsunami) but most of the time the power of the sea can be observed in the continuous movement of the currents and tides. These two forces are interrelated because a current can be formed from a tidal flow.

The Ocean Is A Biiiiiig Engine, And When It's Really Roaring, It's An Awesome Force!

Some currents are very mild and can be negotiated with ease. Other currents can make swimming against them very difficult because they flow too fast (or for too long). Once a current goes beyond around five knots it becomes too hard for us to swim against. In this instance you have a few choices; you can either swim for shore at a perpendicular angle to the current, which means an end to the dive. It is also possible to take advantage of the differences in speed of currents at different depths; a current is usually slower at the bottom because the ground creates resistance to the flow, so what some divers do if they end up caught in a current is they head down to the bottom and pull themselves along the sand or rocks because it is easier than swimming. The final option is the most fun though, if you suspect that the current is going to be much too strong to fight then you can simply request that the boat or car picks you up after you’ve finished drifting, this is called a “drift dive” (gosh those divers are a creative bunch!).

Drifting – The Benefits

Diving, for most of us, is a recreational pursuit. Most folks don’t dive because they have to, it’s usually because they enjoy some aspect of the hobby. The only reason someone would choose to modify their dive then, would be to make it more fun or easier. The drift dive is the epitome of fun and easy, though it favours ideal conditions and plenty of planning (more on that later).

Lazy Diving

Divers come in all shapes and sizes, they also come in all ages, fitness and abilities. Some divers relish going hard at it in a current for a sense of challenge and achievement. Others (myself included) are not insane, and enjoy easy dives where you are still capable of walking after getting out of the water. Drift diving is the absolute grand master of lazy diving because apart from the odd trajectory modifying kick or two, there is little to no swimming involved at all. This means that once a diver has jumped off the boat he is chauffeured from entry to exit at the sea’s own pace (and mercy). Many divers love the fact that they simply have to breathe to control their buoyancy, and kick to turn around or get closer to a buddy, and that is all there is to it. A great dive to do if your last dive was like being trapped on a treadmill!

"OK"...Of Course It Is! You're Drifting In An Underwater River, How Cool Is That?!

Air Conservation

An added upside to doing very little is that you tend to breathe much less. This won’t make much difference to those people that appear to breathe half from the sea and half from their bottle (you know who you are…fish-people-mutants! Your secret mermaid fellowship will be uncovered soon!), but for the normal mammals among us it can add a considerable amount of time to your dive. This becomes especially useful when your drift dive is also a deep dive because on a deep dive most divers struggle to make their air last as long as they’d like.

Reach Inaccessible Sites

Most large currents are prevailing currents, which means that they flow in one direction with very little deviation. They are constant streams of water, like underwater rivers. These never ending flows make it almost impossible to dive certain sites using conventional methods because they are simply much too strong to be swam against. The only option a diver has if he wishes to see the site is to allow the current to carry him along it. In some places (with overhead environments) this can require serious training, in other instances it will be like floating down a river.

Wall Sites Often Have Serious Currents, Making Them Off-Limits To Conventional Divers...Good Thing I'm Not Conventional!

See Large Area

In some sites you have masses of flora and fauna densely packed and easy to spot. I’ve been on some sites where I’ve barely had enough time to clear my mask after laughing at an octopus, before I see a turtle. In other sites I’ve went an hour without seeing anything out of the ordinary. It is on sites like these that a drift dive can make a huge difference because you are able to cover large spaces in short periods of time, and you are able to stay longer because you don’t get as tired and your air supply lasts longer. This means you will have a higher chance of seeing those widely dispersed animals that require patience to find.

Fun

This is the real reason that I would organise a drift dive, because frankly it is an awesome experience to be free-falling sideways with almost no effort required to keep it going. The sensation of being carried along is at once exciting and, at the same time, very freeing. There is little you can do to change your course, so you must simply relax and enjoy it!

Equipment Considerations

Like any subsection of diving, drifting has it’s own gear requirements to assist in making it fun, easy and safe. Some of the gear you will use and carry anyway, other items are a little more specialised.

• A Boat Or Shore Crew – There is no doubt that drift diving is great fun, however, what isn’t fun is drifting three miles from your entry point off the shore, and then realising once you exit the water that your car is three miles away…nobody wants to be dripping wet, in a wet suit, carrying heavy gear for three miles. The answer to this problem is to have a boat follow your progress on the surface, alternatively you can have a shore team follow your progress (assuming they can drive along the shoreline).
  

  Any Boat Will Suffice For Drift Diving, Just As Long As It's Captained By An Experienced Boatman.

• Float or Buoy – The idea of simply moving your exit point to wherever you surface is very desirable (not to mention convenient!), however it is almost impossible for a boat to track you underwater using your bubble trail if the surface is choppy or the dive is at night (and even harder for the shore team). The way most divers overcome this is by using a surface float which marks the diver’s position and allows the surface team to follow the divers and meet them when they surface. The float must be very buoyant, highly visible, have lights on it for night dives and may be required to have a flag on it. These floats should be specially designed dive floats, don’t improvise one out of a few juice bottles taped together, this float must be able to remain floating even when a strong current pulls down on it.
• Line – It is obvious that the float will not remain above the diver without some sort of tether, but it is not advisable that you improvise this either. A strong one centimetre nylon line on a free-moving reel is the best choice. It should be at least double your planned depth to allow sufficient slack for if the float moves ahead of you (surface currents are usually faster than deep ones). You may also attach a grapple to the end of the line to allow you to anchor the float when you choose to stop. This doesn’t mean that you can ram a hook into a finger coral, it means you can use it to grip to a rock, or anchor into the sand.
• Signal Devices – Not all dives go exactly to plan and sometimes a diver will loose his float or the boat might loose track of a diver. In this case it is important for the diver to have an audible and visual means of attracting the boats attention. Usually a whistle is carried, but an air horn attached to the low pressure inflator hose works well too. For visual signals a torch is the obvious choice at night, and a large SMB works well for day dives.
  

  During The Day You Are Much More Likely To Be Seen If You Use A SMB To Signal The Boat.

• Knife or Pointer – Here comes reason two-hundred and fifty-three for carrying a knife with you at all times: during a drift you may spot something that you wish to inspect further, but the nature of a drift dive is that you can’t (always) swim against it – so you may need to anchor yourself to something. The best bet is to use a (strong) knife or metal pointer stick and stab it into the sand. Obviously if you are on a reef then this might prove tricky, but it is always better to touch sand than coral. A knife can also help free a line-handler who’s been tangled up in the float-line.

Risks

With great fun comes mild risk…

• DCS – Currents are strange phenomena that, although they may appear constant can change slightly with tides or different temperatures of water combining (as may happen after a heavy rainfall, or when you pass a river mouth when in the sea). This change might affect the direction of the current but it is more likely to affect the vertical properties of the water stream. What could happen if you’re drifting along the shore is you hit a freshwater pocket (from the river) which will suddenly make you negatively buoyant, in this case it would be easy for a diver to be unaware of the situation or simply be overweighted for fresh water and they might descend too fast or too deep. Another risk is that the current drags you down too far which, if it happens at the end of a dive, might push you into decompression diving which could be an issue when drifting in a fast current and low on air. Currents can also surface you too quickly, which is another DCS risk. Pay extra attention to your buoyancy when drift diving because things change fast when you travel quickly.
• Getting Lost – It’s not a hidden secret that you may get lost when drift diving. It’s more of a problem than conventional diving because the search is heavily hampered by the current. It means that if one diver gets lost then all the divers in the group must surface because drift divers stay as a group – this is their first priority, otherwise the boat is unable to keep track of who is where in the drift. It is also possible for the boat to loose the whole group, in this instance the important thing is to fully brief all the divers on the emergency procedures and ensure that everyone has their own signalling devices. Extra spotters on the boat or shore are an advantage too.
• Collisions – To fly a plane takes great skill and training, this is because they are moving fast in three dimensions which takes practice. When you are drifting you will also be in a three-dimensional space, and you will be moving (relatively) fast. There are also many more obstacles under the sea than in the air (last time I checked) which means you must be super-observant when cruising the currents. You should have your eyes open for not just coral and rocks, but for creatures, such as jellies, stonefish or a spooked triggerfish.
  

  Drift Diving Is The Closest You'll Ever Get To Flying Without Wings...Just Don't Crash!

• Exhaustion – Despite me promoting drift diving as a lazy way to see the underwater world, it can sometimes require great amounts of effort from the diver. This is especially the case when you are required to swim on the same spot in order to see something or let the group catch up. Sometimes there are no viable things to anchor onto so you just have to swim against the current which can be a nightmare. Beware of exhausting yourself, especially if you go deep.

Special Techniques

Stern Line

When divers are leaving or embarking the boat there is always the risk that they simply keep on drifting at a rate faster than the boat. To prevent this issue most boats will trail a stern line which is just a buoy on the end of a long rope. This gives the divers a much better chance of “catching” the boat as they come alongside it. It also allows the group of divers to collect before or after a dive while waiting for the stragglers to jump in or climb onto the boat. These lines are notorious for tangling up divers though, so be careful when clinging onto one.

Buoyant or Negative Entries

There are two ways to descend onto a drift site, the first is to gather all the divers on the surface and ensure full positive buoyancy. This method is good for ensuring there are no problems before descending but it can be a problem if the dive site is small as you may drift past it on the surface before you have descended. The other option is to have the whole group jump into the water with their bcd empty so they hit the water negatively buoyant. This ensures the group gets down to the site rapidly, but it means the divers must find the float line as they descend to ensure everyone ends up in the same spot. Negative entries are only for experienced divers because novice divers often have ear troubles and other concerns, an experienced diver will sink like a stone and get going.

When Making A Negative Descent, It Is Important To Ensure All The Divers Stay Well Within Visual Range Of The Line-Holder.

Final Thoughts

I really hope this article has inspired some of you to go research drift diving further because it’s one of the most fun and rewarding types of dive on offer. Please don’t use this article as a handbook, it is only intended to highlight a few of the opportunities and risks involved with this crazy sub-sport. If you want to drift dive then make sure your first attempt is with a fully qualified dive outfit who have procedures in place to ensure it goes smoothly.

Are you an avid drifter? Is it a sport you’d like to try? Have you got any interesting or sobering stories from drift diving? We’d love to hear your thoughts, please use the comment section below.

Happy (drifting) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell

Quick Recap on the History of Conception Bay, Bell Island

On September 4^th, 1942, the German submarine U-513 slid quietly into the bay, waited until morning and unleashed a fury of torpedoes on the various boats, all of which had large amounts iron ore in their cargo. It was crucial that this raw good be delivered for the war effort but the sneaky submarine was able to take them down and escape into the Atlantic undetected. In total, twenty-nine men died in the attacks. Almost seventy years later, the blood coated memories of that uneventful night are hardly noticeable since they now serve as vibrant artificial reefs.

The Wreck s

The SS Lord Strathcoma, SS Saganaga, PLM-27 and the SS Rose Castle, all sunken by the German U-boat, rest at the bottom of the

The SS Saganaga anchor chain snakes about the superstructure

bay in excellent condition. All of these war machines are more than 120 meters long and are home to various anemones, colourful starfish and lots of other interesting invertebrates. The ships are pretty much intact with minimal signs of the torpedo attacks. The Lord Strathcoma´s deck gun is fully intact and accessible via the stern. Many cool sunken treasures, such as radio sets, ammunition and other WWII era relics are sprinkled about the ship. The SS Saganaga seems like a ghost ship since its thick rusty anchor chainsnakes about a third of its structure. Follow the chain and you’ll cross the length of the central superstructure, a cargo bay and you’ll eventually reach the ginormous anchor, all the while spotting remnants of the fatal day such as boxes of bullets and five inch shells. The shallowest

ship of the group, the PLM-27, is the only ship left that has its propeller intact and marine wildlife has grown cozy here. Soft coral wraps all throughout the wreck, making the former floating coffin a vibrant sunken cradle of life for so many marine species. You might even spot a Humpback, Narwhal or Beluga whale during your surface interval here since they arrive for feeding at certain times of the year (June, July, August).

A Bit of Advice

If you decide to visit this unique dive site, take a camera with you and adhere to a few basic tips for shooting wrecks in these conditions. Definitely dive in a dry suit, since the more comfortable you are, the less likely your photos will suffer. Also pack some diving gloves that permit full dexterity so you can manipulate camera settings with ease. More light exists here than in tropical destinations so use a slower shutter speed and wider aperture to brighten up your photos. Lots of rusticles and other sediments are disturbed easily in the dive sites causing your auto focus to go berserk so use manual focus and your best judgement instead.

Here are a few dive operators for anyone interested in visiting Newfoundland:

Ocean Quest Adventures: (709) 834 – 7234

E & S Diving Services: 709-596-4479

Photo Credit: Vlada Dekina

Article by Michael Dawson from Diving Discoveries

Family of Scorpaenidae

Stonefish

Among the representatives of Scorpaenidae family, such kinds as Synanceia verrucosa, S.trachynis and S.horrida (having about 30 centimetres length), being possibly, the most poisonous of all fishes, are the most dangerous ones. Danger is in the poison which any of 13 back thorns capable to pierce even a thick rubber sole can inject into a wound, and even in ideal masking of these creations usually motionlessly lying among stones and merging with surrounding background. The pain from a prick arises at once and amplifies within 10 minutes, becoming intolerable. The painful shock can cause delirium and consciousness loss, a paralysis.

First aid.  Lay down  and calm the victim. Pull out all thorns and wash out the wounds. If hands or feet are injured, lift it above. The injured site of the body lower in very hot water (not less than 50 degree.) to destroy toxin. If such procedure is impossible, replace it with imposing of a hot compress (sometimes even the decaying ends of cigarettes may be used). Constantly wash out the wound. In case the victim loses consciousness , apply indirect massage of heart and artificial breath. Intramuscular injection of antidote is necessary.

Note: The Scorpaenidae family consists of about 330 kinds of fishes (except the Stonefish), including quite dangerous ones. They also use poisonous back-thorns for protection against enemies that your hands and feet can appear to be.

Pterois miles ( LionFish )

The brown-striped Pterois miles is rather effective, especially when developing its fins as huge and motley as wings of butterflies. It is the habitual inhabitant of coral reeves of Red sea. The presence of skin-divers never bothers Lionfishes and it is possible to come closer to them easily, but it is desirable to observe them cautiously, without touching: if it feels threat an attack against the strange visitor can become its reaction. Despite the non-aggressive beahviour of Lionfishes, they are very dangerous because their back thorns connected to poisonous glands can pierce very painful pricks.

First aid. The injured wound need to be washed out in extremely hot water (toxins of the Scorpaenidae, having the albuminous nature, dye out).

BATOIDEA

Electric Rays

Electric Rays (family Torpedinidae) remind vessels on air cushion by their form and habits. They swim slowly enough, and their chest fins surround the body widely. Usually they lie on shoal, being half dug in the friable bottom, and are fed mainly with Crustacea. Between negatively charged bottom party of their body and positively charged top there is a pressure from 8 to 220 volt. The electricity is produced while touching the electric bodies located sideways from eyes. Sensations arising form this are various – from light to an electroshock when the deafened person can choke and sink.

First aid. Take the victim to the surface. Specific treatment it is not required.

Stingrays

Stingrays (family Dasyatidae) – ground animals with the large flat body, often burying in sand so that only their eyes are noticeable. As well as electric slopes, they are non-aggressive, but, feeling the threat (for example if you come on them unintentionally), they fly into a rage. Blows of these fish having long tail with one or several sharp thorns are capable to wound as seriously as a sword. Moreover, though their thorns are poisonous and dangerous by themselves, but especially – during such active defense. Collision with stingray can actually lead to the skin-diver’s death both from physical injuries, and from the poison injected into the organism.

First aid.  The intoxication caused by thorns of хвостокол, demands the same first aid, as  in case with Stonefish. If the victim has simultaneously got deep lacerations, it is important to stop the bleeding and to take the victim out of the shock.

EELS

Among these ones the most aggressive to people are Moray eels (family Murenidae). Huge moray eel G. javanicus can injure seriously with its teeth, though usually this fish behaves calmly and even it is benevolent. Under water moray eels look horrible, however their constantly open mouth covered with sharp teeth which is accepted as a threat, actually is connected with breath. Though many morays obviously welcome attention and offered delicacies (even cases of taming the moray eels are known ), it is not recommended to feed these fishes, otherwise they begin to expect the same from all skin-divers who should pay off for your generosity. The nature has awarded moray eels with long teeth deeply getting into a body of the person, bulldog’s jaws and a slippery body which is very difficult to grasp. Besides, if they stick into you with their teeth, without entirely getting out of the hole, it is almost impossible to get them moving forward and you have to tear off predator from you literally “with meat”. The result is laceration and  plentiful bleeding.

First aid. Carefully wash out a wound and if necessary sew it up. To prevent the infection enter antibiotics and anti-tetanic liquid  whey. Watch closely, whether the condition of the victim worsens.

Surgeonfishes

Surgeon-fishes , presented at us by the sorts Acanthuridae (thorn tail) and Zebrasoma are obliged by the name to the  bony plates sharp as an edge of a scalpel,  located on each side of a tail stalk. They are absolutely harmless, if  you “don’t stick to them”. However, feeling sick, they can fearlessly rush to attack and wound. Fish aspires to strike the enemy by the tail, leaving on its body deep wounds. Fishes-rhinoceroses belong to the same family. They have one or two pairs of motionless thorns.

First aid. It is necessary to leave the water immediately and to be engaged in the wound. It should be washed out carefully in extremely hot water to neutralize possible toxins, then the bleeding should be stopped and the wound be processed with antiseptic ointment.

CONUS

After Kauri bowls of cones are possibly the most extended in collections. This family of sea snails (Conidae) unites more than 400 kinds. For them all the bowl of the conic form with the long and narrow mouth, external edge of which is sharp enough is characteristic. On the basis of a cone the bowl coils, usually almost not acting one over another are well noticeable. Though all these mollusks have well-developed poisonous teeth-graters, stings only approximately of 10 kinds result in heavy and even lethal consequences for the person, basically рыбоядных. A bowl is of a textile cone (С textile) with khaki colors and dark brown lines, scaly drawing. This kind is spread in Red sea. The mouth of cones is extended in a trunk that is seen out of the mouth and is capable to reach almost to any point of a bowl, therefore it is not recommended to suffice the mollusk barehanded Attacking extraction, it wounds with its poisonous tooth separating from a grater which have been let out from the trunk.  This “harpoon” punches a skin of the person, and sometimes is capable to make a hole even in dense clothes. Poison leaves the small extraction motionless and then is swallowed by a snail in the stretched stomach of the fish. The cone sting can cause pain and swelling, especially in salty water, as well as it may cause the victim not to feel the wounded place. It turns pale and is surrounded with a bluish border. In 10 minutes the whole body can become paralyzed, and after half an hour it may even turn into a paralysis. The paralysis of respiratory muscles is dangerous as it can lead to the loss of consciousness and death. Sometimes warm heart insufficiency may appear, but in most cases this condition is a consequence of the complicated breath.

First aid. It is necessary to fix the wounded leg, to apply pressing bandage, to calm the victim and urgently to call the ambulance. In case of paralysis before the arrival of experts it is necessary to practice a cardio-pulmonal resuscitation.

Acanthaster planci

The Acanthaster planci is a poisonous starfish. At a careless touch of the person to the thorns covering its numerous beams, it injects puison into the wound. Sometimes, having broken off, thorns can get stuck in the body of the skin-diver. At once there is a severe pain not ceasing for some hours. The considerable bleeding and an inflammation of the wounded place are also possible. During the first hours the lymph nodes close to it usually swell up and become painful to touch. The pain, a hypostasis and the general feeling of sick can remain for months, especially if there are fragments of thorns in the body. In the process of easing of symptoms the itch sometimes amplifies.

First aid. It is necessary to remove thorns and their rests from the body, to lower in hot water the wounded place, and to draw a plait over it. The victim should be put in horizontal position.

Sea Urchins

Their needles can put serious traumas. The pain, sometimes sharp, arises at once after a prick and lasts 4 hours. The wounded place can grow dumb and inflame. Sea hedgehog Diadema setosum (a black diadem) possesses long and thin thorns. The sea urchin- Asthenosoma varium with poisonous glands on the ends of the thorns is much more dangerous.

First aid. The needle need to be quickly removed from the wound in any accessible way as they, even having come off a body of a urchin, continue to inject poison. Then the wounded place should be washed out with an antiseptics, for instance juice of papaya. Watch breath of the victim, probably artificial ventilation of lungs is required. Fragments of needles are to be shattered with a firm object and to process the wounded place with a solution of a lemon juice or acetic acid they are torn away by the organism , in 1-3 days, though sometimes surgical intervention is required.

Coral Cuts

Many corals are covered with sharp ledges by which it is possible to be wounded strongly. Consequences of these cuts or scratches happen rather serious as the damaged part of the skin is easily infected with the microorganisms living in slime covering a coral, and gets littered with alien particles, including yet “not shot”  nematocysts. Frequently such cuts are not payed attention to as they look harmlessly. However in some hours or even days there is a burning amplifying in hot water, sometimes a skin on a cut place swells up, reddens and becomes painful in case of pressing and movement. AS a result an abscess, an ulcer or an inflammation with the strong itch can develope, lasting for weeks. The so-called “a fiery coral” needs to be payed special attention to. Actually it’s not a coral at all, it belongs to the class od hydroids and has a limy skeleton. The fiery coral of Millipora kind causes extremely painful burns at a touch.

First aid. It is necessary to process the wound with the diluted acetic acid to reduce the pain. Other means is papaya oil. Wound processing should be carried out not later than in 10 minutes. It will prevent hit of harmful substances on a sensitive skin. The redness, an itch, burning, an inflammation and a tumor can remain within several weeks after the incident.

The general principles of processing the wounds

Delay edges of a wound and wash out the internal surface with a pure gauze or a fabric moistened as carefully as possible in flowing water. Remove alien particles from a wound by your hands, tweezers or a sticky tape. Try to stop the bleeding. Probably, a hard bandage will be enough, but in certain cases sewing up the wound may be necessary. In case the victim appears in a plait too long complications may arise. Deliver the victim to the ambilance as soon as possible.

La Herradura

The whitewashed village of La Herradura, situated in a large horseshoe bay (which gives the village its name) in the Tropical Coast of the province of Granada, Spain, is so quintessentially Spanish I’m surprised Ernest Hemingway didn’t write a book or two about this hidden paradise. Horse riding, mountain biking and hang gliding are few of the many activities offered here, but the city is known for scuba diving due to the dozens of coves that are brimming with life in the area.

Two large rocky points (Punta de la Mona & Cerro Gordo) mark the beginning and end of the two kilometre long bay. While the city is fairly developed, an imposed height restriction has kept the skyline nice and low so the natural features of the region can still be admired. The city also embodies the Spanish liberal mentality by featuring a naturist beach, Playa Cantarriján, where an estimated 1.5 million tourist flock in order to practice naturism. Scuba diving in the buff is not recommended.

Punta de la Mona and Cerro Gordo consistently rank at the top of the best dive sites in Spain. Punta de la Mona reaches depths up to 50 meters and the lack of light gives the surroundings a greenish hue which might affect visibility. Moonfish use the area as a cleaning station and encounters with pollock, dentex and sea bass are common sights in this area at around 35 meters. Between the green algae covered rocks exist yellow coral fields where octopus breed and nudibranch reside. This dive site is fairly deep and is known for fast currents; dress warm (hood and gloves) and make sure you can handle swift waters.

A Moonfish during a cleaning

On the other side of the bay, the novice-friendly dive site Cerro Gordo has large stone blocks that rest at the foot of the surrounding underwater cliffs. Here you’ll find a cave at 16 meters where conger eels flourish. Wrasse, bream and mullets frequently come here to hunt and get away from the strong currents. The entrance, nestled deep within the wall of the Cerro Gordo cliff, is hard to miss and easy to access. As you enter, you’ll need to swim for about five meters then ascend normally into the cave. Flitters of light trickle in from the hole at the top of the cave and illuminate the surroundings. Beyond the entrance lies an intricate labyrinth like cave system which is for experienced cave-divers only.

Entrance to Gordo Cave

Scuba divers that visit this area will almost surely bump into a local or two that will tell them about the story of “Mendoza’s Armada of 28 Galleons.” 28 Spanish galleons took shelter near the Punta de la Mona in order to get a way from a fierce storm but it changed directions at the last second, causing the ships to collide into each other and sink. So how come treasure hunters haven’t flocked to the area in order to find all of the sunken booty? The event occurred in 1562 and the galleons have practically disappeared since oak and pine don’t hold up well underwater. Organizations in the past have tried to find the sunken ships but have been unsuccessful since the remains now lay buried beneath multiple levels of bedrock and sand. It would require a large investment and the latest technology in order to recover the cargo.

If you go to La Herradura, you can admire Moonfish, get a tan nature style and even daydream about finding the cargo from Mendoza´s ships all while enjoying some of the best dive sites on the Iberian Peninsula.

Here are a few dive operators for anyone interested in visiting La Herradura:

Seriously Blue Diving Costa Tropical- +34 661 018 162

Dive Shack- +34 627 775 441

Photo Credit:

Gordo Cave- Divegranada

Moonfish- rMartinni

Article by Michael Dawson from Diving Discoveries