Scuba Diver Febraury 18 - Issue 12

WIN A SHEARWATER RESEARCH PERDIX AI AND TRANSMITTER WORTH £1,100!

DORSET DISASTER: THE M2

DIVE LIKE A PRO:

EXPLORING THE WELL-PRESERVED REMAINS OF THIS INNOVATIVE SUB WHICH TRAGICALLY SANK IN 1932

HINTS AND ADVICE ON GETTING IN SHAPE FOR THE 2018 SEASON

The next GENERATION 17-year-old sets the CAVE DIVING WORLD alight

OF THE TOP PIECES OF DIVE KIT RATED AND REVIEWED

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ISSUE 12 | FEB 18 | £3.25

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Scholar

‣ Thailand ‣ Egypt ‣

North Wales

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EDITOR’S NOTE It’s Scuba Diver’s 1st anniversary...

AND WE ARE STAYING FREE! February marks 12 full months since Scuba Diver burst into existence, and I’d like to issue a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all our loyal readers out there. This point in time is where our free magazine should have become a paid-for title. However, you’ll be pleased to know that we are sticking by our ethos of providing more divers for the diving industry and the magazine will remain free via our broad distribution network.

The only time you should ever have to pay is if you want a copy delivered direct to your door, but we’d always advise you to visit - and support - a local dive store if you can. We have worked tirelessly to build our store network over the past 12 months and we now have over 370 nationwide stockists, ranging from dive stores, charter boats, b2c manufacturers and diver-centric accommodation, and everything in-between.

In keeping with our raison d’etre, we would like to now offer any dive club - BSAC, PADI, SAA, SSI, RAID or independent group - the opportunity to also receive the magazine for its members. We currently send a number of BSAC clubs magazines each month for their active members, which helps keep them engaged in the sport and the conversation of diving alive. It doesn’t matter whether you are based in the UK or Ireland, we’d like to hear from your club. All you need to do to apply is get your club chairman/ secretary to email subscriptions@scubadivermag. com with your club details. We need to know the location the magazines should be sent, along with contact information. We can send ten-plus copies per month and there will be no cost to your club.

MARK EVANS Editor-in-Chief

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Mark Evans Tel: 0800 0 69 81 40 ext 700 Email: mark.evans@scubadivermag.com

DESIGN

Matt Griffiths Email: matt@griffital.com

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PUBLISHERS Rork Media Limited Tel: 0800 069 8140 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, England, WC2H 9JQ Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers.

Copyright for material published remains with Rork Media Limited. Use of material from Scuba Diver is strictly prohibited unless permission is given. All advertisements of which the creative content is in whole or in part the work of Rork Media Limited remain the copyright of Rork Media Limited.

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WIN A SHEARWATER RESEARCH PERDIX AI AND TRANSMITTER WORTH £1,100!

DORSET DISASTER: THE M2

DIVE LIKE A PRO:

EXPLORING THE WELL-PRESERVED REMAINS OF THIS INNOVATIVE SUB WHICH TRAGICALLY SANK IN 1932

HINTS AND ADVICE ON GETTING IN SHAPE FOR THE 2018 SEASON

ON THE COVER The next

GENERATION 17-year-old sets the CAVE DIVING WORLD alight

OF THE TOP PIECES OF DIVE KIT RATED AND REVIEWED

+

ISSUE 12 | FEB 18 | £3.25

02

Scholar

p001_ScubaDiverFeb18.indd 1

‣ Thailand ‣ Egypt ‣

North Wales

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Daymaniyats WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

PHOTOGRAPHER: JASON BROWN

26/01/2018 16:31

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES

World’s longest cave system discovered in Mexico, and accolades galore for Blue Planet II.

Stuart Philpott heads out of Portland to explore the well-preserved remains of the innovative British submarine M2, which tragically sank with all hands in Lyme Bay in 1932.

8 News

30 Dive like a Pro

A panel of training agency experts offer advice on getting yourself fit for the 2018 season.

40 Competition: Perdix AI

Win a Shearwater Research Perdix AI and transmitter worth £1,100 in our prize draw.

52 Our-World UW Scholar

Mae Dorricott heads for New Zealand, and helps with some ghost fishing net clean-ups.

98 The Course Director

Marcel van den Berg explains why diving instructors should follow PADI Standards.

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24 Dorset

34 The Sultanate of Oman

Egypt and Jordan garner all the interest when it comes to Middle Eastern diving, but the Sultanate of Oman has much to offer adventurous divers, including the marine reserve of the Daymaniyat Islands.

42 ABOVE 18m: Anglesey, North Wales

Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans returns to his beloved Anglesey, this time to explore the shallow diving on offer in Porth Dafarch, a sheltered bay a short distance from Trearddur Bay and Holyhead.

46 Egypt

Marsa Alam and Port Ghalib are the gateway to the Deep South of the Egyptian Red Sea, and with a heady mix of land-based and liveaboard options on hand, there is much to appeal to all levels of diver.

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CONTENTS

54 FREEDIVING: Top 10 equalisation tips

Freediving guru Emma Farrell offers some sage advice, with a round-up of her top 10 hints for easy equalisation. Even if you don’t freedive, many of these tips will work well for scuba divers as well.

GEAR GUIDE 82 What’s New

New products recently released or coming soon, including a world exclusive on the launch of the XT-Tech low-pressure hoses from Miflex.

62 Thailand

84 Group Test

68 Q&A: Robert Thomas

92 Test Extra

The islands of Grenada and Carriacou deserve the title of ‘Shipwreck Capital of the Caribbean’ due to the sheer number of sunken vessels lying off their coastlines, including the monstrous liner Bianca C.

Jason Brown conducts an interview with 17-year-old Robert Thomas, who is one of the UK’s youngest cave divers and is set to be a major player in this demanding sport for many years to come.

76 TECHNICAL: Utila

The island of Utila in Honduras is renowned as a backpacker heaven, and the ideal spot to ‘go pro’ into the world of diving, but as Scuba Diver discovers, it also boasts some fantastic technical diving.

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The Scuba Diver Test Team looks back over the past year at the Choice and Best Value winners from the Group Tests.

First look at the Paralenz, a compact action-camera that is set to revolutionise UW video.

94 Long Term Test

The Scuba Diver Test Team gets to grips with a selection of products over a six-month period, including the Aqualung Outlaw BCD, Apeks XL4 regulator and the Fourth Element X-Core vest.

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NEWS

Each month, we bring together the latest industry news from right here in the UK, as well as all over our water planet. To find out the most up-to-date news and views, check out the website or follow us on social media. www.scubadivermag.com/news | .com/scubadivermag | @scubadivermag

DIVERS DISCOVER WORLD’S LONGEST UNDERWATER

CAVE SYSTEM IN MEXICO Photographs by JASON BROWN

The ‘world’s longest’ underwater cave system has been discovered in Mexico by a group of divers who connected two submerged caverns to unveil what is thought to be the largest flooded cave in the world.

According to BBC News, ‘the discovery of a 216-mile-long cave by the Gran Acuifero Maya project could shed light on Mayan history’.

The Gran Acuifero Maya project is dedicated to the preservation and study of subterranean waters of the Yucatan peninsula and stated that the cave was pinpointed following months of explora-

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tion of underwater channels.

More information from the Guardian reveals that ‘near the beach resort of Tulum, the group found that the cave system known as Sac Actun, once measured at 263km, connected with the 83km Dos Ojos system, the project said in a statement. Sac Actun has now absorbed Dos Ojos’.

The cave is in ‘the heartland of the ancient Maya civilisation,’ the BBC video reports, and scientists hope that this discovery will help us learn more about Maya history.

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Deptherapy shortlisted for prestigious Military Award DIVING DS N E I WITH FR MALDIVES INDONESIA EGYPT S PA I N

PHOTO CREDIT: DMITRY KNYAZEV

NEW: Euro-Divers in Lanzerote!

Scuba diving rehabilitation charity Deptherapy and Deptherapy Education is honoured to announce that the charity has been shortlisted as a Finalist for the 2018 Soldiering On Awards.

Deptherapy and Deptherapy Education is shortlisted in the Healthcare and Rehabilitation category. Sponsored by Redwood Technologies Group, this Award will be given ‘in recognition of a person or team who have made a major contribution in the treatment of ill health or injury, or provided exceptional skill and commitment to healthcare treatment, recovery and rehabilitation of serving and former members of the Armed Forces Community’.

The Soldiering On Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of those who have served their country, and the diverse people and groups who work together in support of the Armed Forces Community. Under the prestigious patronage of the Rt Hon Earl Howe PC, Minister of State in the House of Lords, the Awards aim to encourage support for this remarkable community by celebrating the achievements of the people, teams and businesses within it.

An Independent Panel of Judges, led by Soldiering On Awards President, General, the Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL, and Debra Allcock-Tyler CEO, the Directory of Social Change and Soldiering On Awards Vice-President, will decide on the final recipients of the Awards following a Finalists Reception at the House of Lords in February.

The 2018 Soldiering On Award Winners will be announced at a Black Tie Dinner and Awards Ceremony on 20 April 2018.

Richard Cullen, Founder and Chairman of Deptherapy and Deptherapy Education said: “Being a finalist in the Soldiering on Awards is a huge boost for the charity. I hope this recognition of our work will attract sponsorship from the private sector to ensure our long-term plans are sustainable. We are competing against three other exceptional finalists in our category and we wish everyone involved the greatest success. It is the ‘troops’ we work with that make Deptherapy special and we are privileged to help their rehabilitation.” www.deptherapy.co.uk

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INDUSTRY NEWS BRITISH DIVER DIES WHILE DIVING OFF LANZAROTE A 61-year-old diver is now the third British tourist to die while diving off Lanzarote.

The man, who has been named only by his initials L.G. according to the Daily Mail, suffered a cardiac arrest after falling ill while diving the underwater Atlantic Museum in late-December 2017.

The diver, who is thought to be an ex-pat and has been described as an experienced diver, was taken to dry land via a rescue boat but lost his life before paramedics could get to him.

The report states that the man was diving with a local club, was with his schoolboy nephew at the time, and that a ‘Civil Guard source said that the diver had been around 40 feet underwater when he became unwell.’

This is the third tragic incident this year involving a British diver in the Canary Islands.

On 16 September retired soldier John Walker, 54, from County Durham, died near the same location while getting ready to visit the Atlantic Museum.

One week later Justine Barringer, 44, suffered a cardiac arrest following difficulties diving off Veneguera Beach in Gran Canaria.

The Atlantic Museum, which features over 300 lifesize human figures by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, opened in January and is Europe’s first underwater museum.

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Emperor Divers has teamed up with Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield for 2018 to bring some relaxing trips suited to divers who like flexibility and, of course, photographers and videographers. Duxy has been at the forefront of underwater photography and travel for many years and brings with him a light-hearted take on the diving world and how it has changed the way we now take underwater photographs and video. He combines his time helping people to choose and use cameras, housings, strobes and lenses, escorting trips and running workshops around the world.

With more than 40 escorted trips under his belt to the Red Sea and further afield, Duxy continues to develop new ways to pass on knowledge and share his love of diving and underwater photography to divers.

Emperor has two trips planned on two Red Sea liveaboards with at least three ‘open deck’ days a week. Open deck diving means guests are free to dive with their buddy between 6am to 6pm at times that suit. Flexibility is the key. On both itineraries, there will be three guided ‘excursion dives’ from either the two Emperor guides and/or with Duxy himself. Sample itineraries are: North & Easy with Duxy Emperor Superior | 25 May – 1 June 2018 £979 Dive sites include: Sha’ab El Erg, Stingray Station, Shark and Yolanda, Thomas, Jackson, Dunraven, the Thistlegorm, the Barge.

South for Winter with Duxy Emperor Elite | 30 November – 7 December 2018 £999 Dive sites include: Abu Dabab, Sha’ab Hamam, Sha’ab Abu Galawa Soraya, Sha’ab Sataya, Hamada Wreck, Elphinstone, Marsa Shona. www.emperordivers.com

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It doesn’t seem that long ago that Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans was at Land Rover HQ to see the one-of-a-kind, bespoke Marine Defender being unveiled by Monty Halls, and we are sure many of you will have seen this distinctive vehicle at dive shows or diving locations around the UK. Now, as Monty himself states, “The time has come to sell what is a truly legendary wagon! It’s a totally unique project by Land Rover. We want her to go to a good home, as she’s a special vehicle – truly a one-off design.”

The Marine Defender was built in July 2013 by the Land Rover ETO (Engineering To Order) division as a one-off vehicle to support diving expeditions, conservation work and marine-based projects. It was built specifically for Monty. The vehicle was used over the next three years to support a world record coastal rowing attempt, to raise money for the RNLI, as the main vehicle in the Great British Diving Expedition, and as the lead Land Rover in The Great Shark Chase for Discovery TV. In early 2016, it was offered to Monty Halls for direct purchase, an offer that was accepted. After a full service by Land Rover, the vehicle - which has just 30,000 miles on the clock - has since been in storage, although the engine has been periodically started to ensure everything remains in order. www.seadogproductions.co.uk

Blue Planet II wins Special Impact Award at National Television Awards Not only did Blue Planet II strike a chord with many ocean lovers and divers, its initial launch episode was watched by a staggering 14.1 million people.

And now the BBC Natural History series has been handed the Special Impact Award at the National Television Awards for its role in raising awareness about harmful plastic pollution that is impacting the world’s oceans and killing marine life.

David Attenborough, the 91-year-old narrator of the series, collected the award at the ceremony, which took place on Tuesday 23 January at the O2 Arena.

Four years in the making, the show took the Blue Planet II team on 125 expeditions, to 39 countries, and filmed on every continent and across every ocean.

They used breakthroughs in marine science and cutting-edge technology to explore new worlds and reveal the latest discoveries. The crews spent over 6,000 hours diving underwater.

One of the most-moving moments of the series included footage of a pilot whale carrying her dead newborn calf around for days, which is thought to have been poisoned by her own contaminated milk caused by industrial pollution and plastic.

Broadcast in 2001, the multi-award-winning original Blue Planet show peaked at 12 million viewers. The ratings of Blue Planet II are the highest ever-recorded for a nature show and it was the UK’s most-watched TV show of 2017.

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INDUSTRY NEWS Dive Ireland International Expo coming to Limerick Aughinish Diving Club and Limerick Sub Aqua Club are jointly hosting the annual Dive Show in the Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa in Limerick on 3-4 March. The gathering of Ireland’s diving community is a jam-packed weekend filled with interesting speakers and an impressive variety of exhibitors showcasing the latest in sub-aqua technology. With over 1,000 people through the doors, it’s also Ireland’s largest trade show for underwater sport.

As well as the speakers – including Scuba Diver UWP guru Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield, fellow snapper Nick Blake, film-maker Ken O’Sullivan, deep wreck photographer Barry McGill and cave diver Cathal Mullane - trade show and exhibitions, there is also a Photography Roadshow showcasing 99 images from underwater photographers, and the Vincent O’Brien National Underwater Photography Competition, which has categories in wide-angle, macro, warm water, split shot and snorkel, as well as a dedicated video section.

The show is also home to the Search and Recovery Conference, which is open to all SAR teams and members, and the Irish Underwater Council Instructors, Diving and Training Officers Conference/AGM. Ivan Donoghue, a Wexford-based diver, said he looks forward to attending the Dive Show weekend every year. “This year will be my 27th one. It gives me a chance to meet old friends and to listen to a variety

of speakers present on a range of diving subjects, including my passion… underwater photography. For a person interested in taking up diving or snorkelling, or someone looking to buy dive gear from the exhibition centre, then the dive show is the place to visit.”

If you are interest in presenting as a speaker or taking a trade stand, or just want more info on the event, contact Mike Orth at: info@diveireland.ie, or check out: http://diveireland.ie

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVE SHOW – ON THE MOVE After two years at EventCity near the Trafford Centre in Manchester, the Great Northern Dive Show is on the move – to Emirates Old Trafford at Lancashire County Cricket Club. Why the change on location?

Organiser Ruth Mort said she likes to keep things fresh and so opted for a new venue. Is chopping and changing a good idea when the event is only in year three? Only time will tell, but as with previous years, there is plenty going on for divers and non-divers alike. The 2018 event is on Saturday 17 February (9.30am to 4.30pm) and Sunday 18 February (9.30am to 3.30pm), and tickets are now available – check out www.thegreatnortherndiveshow.com. Daily tickets are £10 for adults (with a £1.37 admin fee) and £5 for children (with a 98p admin fee).

Last year it was Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and an over-friendly T-Rex, this time around, showcasing the event are two stars from Games of Thrones – Ross Mullan and Russ O’Hennessy – along with wall-climbing zombies and a surf simulator, and I’d expect all of 2017’s favourites to be making a welcome return as well.

As well as a selection of exhibition stands, there is also a roll-call of speakers, including Lanny Vogel, Ellen Cuylaerts, Mark Powell, Chantelle Taylor-Newman, Garry Dallas, Ian France, Richard Walker, John Kendall, Claire Dutton, Tracy Timperley, Paul Duxfield and Tim Cutter. www.thegreatnortherndiveshow.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS Rising temperatures turn Great Barrier Reef turtles female

THINK DIFFERENT

New research has found that rising temperatures are turning nearly all green sea turtles female in an area of the Great Barrier Reef.

The unbalanced ratio could threaten the future of the population, the scientific paper warned. It examined two genetically distinct populations of turtles on the reef and found that the northern group of about 200,000 animals was overwhelmingly female.

The southern population was 65 percent to 69 percent female, females in the northern group accounted for 99.1 percent of juveniles, 99.8 percent of subadults and 86.8 percent of adults.

The paper, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California State University and Worldwide Fund for Nature Australia, is published in Current Biology.

The paper said: “Combining our results with temperature data show that the northern GBR green turtle rookeries have been producing primarily females for more than two decades and that the complete feminisation of this population is possible in the near future.

“Furthermore, extreme incubation temperatures not only produce female-only hatchlings but also cause high mortality of developing clutches,” it said. “With warming global temperatures and most sea turtle populations naturally producing offspring above the pivotal temperature, it is clear that climate change poses a serious threat to the persistence of these populations.”

BECOME DIFFERENT diveRAIDuk.com

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SCUBA DIVER UNVEILS NEW LOOK WEBSITE FOR 2018 The website for this very magazine has been given a facelift.

The revamped site features a clean white design with user-friendly navigation for perusing the latest news articles, dive features, competitions, blog posts and vlogs.

Stay tuned for more video content and reviews coming your way for 2018! Why not subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the know about all the latest happenings in the world of diving? Just log on to www.scubadivermag.com

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Of the 53 protected wreck sites off England, there are currently five (and more to come) that you can access via a protected wreck dive trail. For those who prefer to stay dry, there are now also virtual tours of some of these fascinating historic wrecks – and the latest is the Norman’s Bay Wreck.

The very nature of maritime archaeology, lying at the bottom of the seabed in an area only accessible by those with the right training and equipment, has meant that protected wreck sites have only engaged with a very small number of people.

Over recent years, Historic England has commissioned the development of 13 virtual dive trails on a number of these sites so that everyone can tour a historic shipwreck without getting wet.

These virtual trails use new technologies, such as multi-image photogrammetric recording, 3D printing of geophysical survey data and virtual reality and augmented reality techniques.

These techniques allow viewers to see a clear 3D image of a site. Not only do they bring maritime archaeology to life for the non-diver, they’re a lot easier to interpret than more traditional geophysical survey techniques or photographs taken in poor visibility.

The Norman’s Bay Wreck, off the Sussex coast, was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act (1973) in 2006. The site was discovered by local divers Martin Wiltshire, Steve Pace and Paul Stratford while trying to free a lobster pot in Pevensey Bay. Today, the wreck site contains a cluster of at least 51 iron guns, timber hull structure and various other artefacts, including a large anchor on top of a ballast mound. A copper alloy cauldron that was recovered by an anonymous local diver in the 1990s is now on display in The Shipwreck Museum in Hastings.

The exact identify of the wreck is still being researched, but the evidence suggests that the Norman’s Bay Wreck is actually that of a 17-century 64-gun Dutch warship, the Wapen Van Utrecht, which sank during the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690. www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org/content/normans-bay-wreck-diver-trail

SCUBA DIVERS GET HITCHED UNDERWATER IN THE FLORIDA KEYS Two scuba divers swam down the aisle for an unusual underwater wedding ceremony in Florida recently. British diver Thomas Mould, a sergeant in the British Army, met US citizen Sandra Hyde four years ago during an army training dive trip to the Amoray Dive Resort in the Keys, where she was a diving instructor. The couple wed underwater – with the help of a waterproof tablet – at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, located next to Molasses Reef off the Key Largo coast.

Pictures from the nuptials were posted to Facebook by The Florida Keys & Key West official tourism account. The couple honeymooned in the Keys, before returning to live in England.

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INDUSTRY NEWS VIRTUAL REALITY DIVE EXPERIENCE WITH DR SYLVIA EARLE Ever wondered what it would be like to scuba dive with legendary marine biologist and environmentalist Dr Sylvia Earle?

Games company Cascade Game Foundry (CGF) has announced the release of their Virtual Reality (VR) experience ‘Dive with Sylvia VR’, now available in the Oculus Rift® Store, in the Gallery section.

‘Dive with Sylvia VR’ is CGF’s first Oculus Rift-enabled experience and features a relaxing, five-minute scuba dive with National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr Sylvia Earle.

The oceanographer leads viewers on a tour of a real dive site in Belize with authentic wildlife - accurate corals, reef fish, sea turtles, grouper, and whalesharks. Because the wildlife on each dive is different, as it is in the real world, you never know what you may see.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality system that completely immerses you inside virtual worlds. The Rift headset displays a fully immersive 3D experience that transports you from your desk or sofa to another world.

By moving your head from side to side and up and down in ‘Dive with Sylvia VR’, you will ‘experience what it’s like to be a real scuba diver exploring an undersea world’, says CGF. The hand-held Oculus Touch controls also enable you to aim and shine a light on the wildlife and surroundings during the dive, as well as check your depth and air supply, just as real divers do.

“We’re thrilled to release ‘Dive with Sylvia VR’ as our first Oculus Rift-enabled experience,” says Kathie Flood, Managing Director and CEO of Cascade Game Foundry. “Virtual-reality technology has enabled us to give people a powerful, realistic, hands-on experience of being in the ocean. They leave the virtual water inspired to learn more and to protect the ocean, acting on Dr Earle’s mission.”

CGF will donate all the proceeds from sales of ‘Dive with Sylvia VR’ to Mission Blue.

Founded by Dr Earle, Mission Blue is a non-profit organisation that creates public awareness about critical ocean issues and inspires support for organisations, projects and scientific expeditions that make a positive difference for the ocean. www.mission-blue.org

Art installation shows haunting reality of ocean plastic pollution A Singaporean artist is opening the world’s eyes to the impact of plastic pollution with an immersive new art installation that shows how it feels to live in a sea totally covered in plastic waste. The artist, Tan Zi Xi, has called the installation ‘Plastic Ocean’ and worked with hundreds of pieces of plastic items – from water bottles to shopping bags – known to pollute oceans to create the display.

Tan Zi Xi demonstrates to viewers where their single-use plastic eventually goes and how it takes over the habitat of sea life. Spectators standing in the middle of the display can see how plastic pollution could look from the point of view of a creature of the deep. The installation has been on show in at the Sassoon Docks Art Project in Mumbai.

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MEDICAL Q&A Dr Oliver Firth has gained considerable experience in the field of diving and hyperbaric medicine since joining LDC in 2006. He is an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers for the UK HSE, and a medical referee for the UK Sport Diving Medical Committee. He is involved in the management of all types of diving-related illness, including recompression treatment, as well as providing hyperbaric oxygen therapy for non-diving conditions.

He remains a passionate diver and has participated in various expeditions and conservation projects throughout the globe.

Q: Hello. I have been diving for 57 years, and I am an advanced diver and ex-instructor. I was recently diagnosed with atrial flutter and had a procedure to try to stop it. Unfortunately, this did not work and I now have atrial fibrillation. This is being kept under control with bisoprolol and apixaban. My specialist (who is not a diving doctor) has said he may do another operation, but has also said staying on the drugs may be sufficient. Basically, I would like to know if I can still dive when on these drugs. I have no obvious side-effects from them, or from the atrial fibrillation. What is your recommendation?

A: This is an interesting question. Atrial fibrillation or AF is a condition where the heart beat becomes irregular, but in an irregular sort of way. Unsurprisingly, doctors describe the rhythm as ‘irregularly irregular’. The problem with this is that the upper chambers of the heart (the atria) don’t contract in a co-ordinated fashion, and the blood in them can pool and clot, which is a risk factor for a stroke. It also means the heart can weaken, leading to heart failure, where the heart muscle cannot pump effectively enough to meet the body’s needs.

Diagnosing AF is easy, but what is harder is finding out why this has happened.

It can be due to all sorts of things: coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, valve problems in the heart, thyroid disorders, infections, sleep apnoea, and excesses of stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol or tobacco. So it is important that your cardiologist has excluded all the correctible causes of this problem.

If no cause is found, then it is known as ‘lone atrial fibrillation’, as it can occur with increasing age on its own.

There are issues with both the medications you are on and diving, I’m afraid.

Beta blockers (such as bisoprolol) are often prescribed to slow the heart rate down, but they can restrict your lung function and impair your response to exercise, both of which could be dangerous underwater. An anticoagulant is also often recommended, such as the apixaban you are taking, to reduce the risk of clot formation and stroke. However, some diving doctors are concerned that these could lead to a higher chance of bleeding, into the middle ear, for

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example; or worse, into the spinal cord if you were unlucky enough to get spinal decompression illness.

So there’s a bit of thought, discussion and work to be done before you get back into the water, I’m afraid. I don’t think you need to give up diving right away, but I do think you need to see an experienced diving doctor to discuss all the issues I’ve brought up. They would certainly want to check your heart function, lung function, and exercise capacity. You may need to get these heart tests done by your cardiologist first, if you’ve not had them already. Best of luck!

Q: My husband and I are both keen divers and our daughter is showing an interest already, even though she’s only five. She’s been quite unlucky with ear infections though, and the ENT doctors are recommending she has grommets to stop her getting them so often. Obviously, we are going to do what’s best for her, but will this stop her diving before she’s even started?

A: Grommets are tiny tubes inserted into the eardrum. Smaller than a match head, they’re used to create an artificial perforation so that air can pass into the middle ear, and more importantly, mucus and pus can get out. The simple reasoning is this: the pain and misery of middle ear infections is mostly due to the pressure created by all that infectious gunk building up in a confined space. Put a hole in one of the walls of this confined space, and the pressure won’t be able to build up - hence no pain, fewer infections and a happy kid.

And it works. The grommets eventually fall out by themselves after a while (it takes a few months to a few years) and the perforation left behind heals up by itself. By that stage the child is older and bigger and hopefully has grown out of infections, so quite a neat procedure all round. Luckily, once the eardrum has healed, it’s perfectly safe to dive with (although it will always be slightly more fragile than an undamaged one).

So there’s no need to mourn the loss of your daughter’s diving career just yet.

Do you have a question for Dr Firth?

Email: divingdoctor@scubadivermag. com and we’ll pass it on.

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Triton

BASKING SHARKS

ARE GO!

MIGHTY

Basking sharks are the second-largest fish in the oceans, and they visit our native waters annually. STUART PHILPOTT was on a mission to encounter his first-ever basking shark off Cornwall Photographs by STUART PHILPOTT

On a recent expedition, marine biologist DR RICHARD SMITH took an intrepid group of marine life-loving divers to explore the new must-visit area of Indonesia - Triton Bay Photographs by RICHARD SMITH / OCEANREALMIMAGES.COM

T

his had become a classic ‘Thunderbirds are go’ moment. On receiving the green light from Sarah, at Porthkerris dive centre, late Thursday afternoon, I packed my bags, prepared my cameras, grabbed a few hours’ sleep and by dawn Friday the pink Rolls was speeding west into deepest darkest Cornwall - F.A.B. (Well, maybe not in a pink Rolls, but I was on my way!). Sarah’s email basically said ‘we have multiple shark sightings. Get your hairy arse down here ASAP’. There was no time to waste.

After more than a year of anticipation, Operation Nab the Basking Shark had begun.

As I drove over the headland on my way down to the dive centre, I briefly stopped to assess the weather. Could this be for real? The conditions were absolutely perfect for basking sharks; a clear blue sky, light breeze and calm water. Mike Anselmi, the owner/manager, said: “There’s no point going out in waves bigger than 30cm-40cm because the sharks tend to drop down and feed deeper below the surface”. Which means it’s almost impossible to spot the dorsal and tail fins.

Mike’s smaller dive boat, the 8.5m long Keltic Kitten, had taken a group out on Thursday and encountered five different sharks, which had spurned Sarah’s hasty email. They even had time to jump in the water and snorkel with the sharks. Sarah taunted me with some of the GoPro footage. One of the sharks had stayed around for a good 20 minutes and was not at all bothered by the boat engines or the snorkellers. Mike said: “If you bring the boat up slowly behind them you can get really close. They don’t know you are there as most of their sensors are facing forward”. All of Mike’s boat skippers are WISE accredited, which is a Wildlife Trust awareness scheme aimed at protecting marine life.

Basking shark sightings become more frequent around lateApril time through to late-June, but this can vary from year to year. Mike explained that the sharks congregate off Land’s End and then split up. Some go east, as far up the coast as Southampton and the Isle of Wight, while others go north towards Ireland. He thinks they come up from the Continental Shelf to feed and then drop back out of sight again a few months later. During the previous year, there hadn’t been many shark sightings at all.

Mike said: “The water temperature seems to drastically affect their activity. It has to be 13 degrees C”. He explained that they will literally appear overnight and then disappear again if the temperature level falls or rises. They normally turn up on the second plankton cycle, Mike said: “First you see the mackerel shoals during the first cycle and then the sharks appear two weeks later”. Eight-metre-long individuals used to be quite common, but in recent years they have only been seeing smaller sharks between three to five metres in length. He thinks this could be due to the bigger sharks getting caught in ghost nets or being tangled up in discarded ropes. Basking sharks are a 100 percent protected species in UK waters. The IUCN Red list classes them as ‘vulnerable’ bordering on ‘endangered’. Mike recalls seeing his first-ever shark back in 1993 which was more than ten metres long. Mike said he could accurately gauge the length because it was twice the size of his RIB. This reminded me of a line from the old Jaws movie when Police Chief Brody says ‘we’re gonna need a bigger boat’. Thankfully, plankton-feeding basking sharks don’t have the same reputation as great whites!

Mike said he will only arrange a trip if there is at least a 70 percent chance of seeing a basking shark. He said: “My staff hate doing the trips. They don’t like to disappoint people if we don’t see any sharks”. This is a total contrast to some of the dive centres I have visited around the world who charge punters US$200 per person for a whaleshark trip knowing a sighting is highly unlikely. And then exploit the same amount of money from the same people for the next four days running. Porthkerris Dive Centre normally go out around 2pm in the afternoon and return around 4pm, but this depends on the basking sharks and how they are ‘playing’. Mike said: “If we see a shark and it stays around, we will stick with it”. It’s at the skipper’s discretion whether people are allowed to get in the water and snorkel with the sharks.

The ‘dream luxury dive vacation’ often comes down to two primary preferences – land-based resort or dedicated dive yacht – and when it comes to WAKATOBI, the answer is both Photographs by WALT STEARNS and DIDI LOTZE

I

’ve often wondered what the collective noun for a large gathering of technical divers is. A gradient of techies, perhaps? Or maybe a fettle, or a faff? I’m sure that most divers who have been out on a tech boat will have their own suggestions, many of which probably shouldn’t be repeated in polite company. Of course, what better way to settle this little conundrum once and for all than to join 750 technical divers at one of Europe’s largest gatherings – Baltictech 2017.

As large gatherings go, they don’t get much bigger than Baltictech. Held every two years in the port city of Gdynia on Poland’s Baltic coastline, Baltictech 2017 took place late last year over the weekend of 25-26 November. If you’ve ever attended Eurotek here in the UK, you’ll already have a pretty good idea of what Baltictech is all about. Like Eurotek, the event brings together some of the world’s top diving explorers and leading academics to deliver a packed schedule of presentations to an audience of divers from across Europe and beyond. Baltictech and Eurotek conveniently run on alternate years to avoid any unfortunate clashing of dates, so every year brings an opportunity to attend one or the other.

Getting to Baltictech is a lot easier than you might imagine. With flights to nearby Gdansk operating from most regional airports, it took no more than two hours from departure to find myself stepping foot on Polish soil. Gdynia is a refreshingly pleasant place to spend a weekend, with plenty to offer visiting tourists and, yes, even a ‘plummet’ of technical divers (another potential candidate?).

No visit is complete without a stroll along Gdynia’s southern pier, which is home to two unique floating museums - the World War Two destroyer ORP Błyskawica and the equally impressive tall ship Dar Pomorza.

This latest Baltictech marks ten years since the very first event opened its doors in 2007. A lot has changed since then – while the original Baltictech attracted just 170 attendees and seven speakers, the 2017 event welcomed over 750 attendees to enjoy presentations delivered by a world-class line up of 32 speakers. The venue has changed too – the event is now hosted in the thoroughly modern and spacious conference centre within the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park in Gdynia.

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Like Eurotek, the talks at Baltictech are divided between three conference rooms – the amphitheatre-like main hall on the ground floor and two smaller conference rooms, halls A and B, on the upper floor. Over the course of the conference weekend, attendees got to choose from a schedule of talks covering a broad range of tech-related subjects, from wreck and cave exploration to new technology, environmental issues and, of course, physiology and decompression theory. Unsurprisingly, not all the talks were in English, but the organisers did their best to cater to those not fluent in anything other than the Queen’s English. In the main hall, head sets were provided which attendees could use to ‘tune in’ to a pair of translators who sat patiently at the back of the hall translating each and every word – quite an impressive feat. In the smaller rooms, translators were always on hand to step in when needed.

Finnish explorer Sami Paakkarinen opened Baltictech with the first of two talks covering his cave exploration projects in Norway. On the second day, Sami returned to deliver perhaps the most thought-provoking talk of the conference with a discussion of risk management in technical diving.

Drawing upon his own personal experience of dealing with the aftermath of projects that went tragically wrong, Sami gave a very personal and heartfelt analysis of the impact of such risk and how such

Marking the tenth anniversary of this popular technical-diving event, JASON BROWN travels to Poland to attend Baltictech 2017 Photographs by JASON BROWN

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DORSET DISASTER:

STUART PHILPOTT explores the wreck of the M2 submarine, which was tragically lost with all hands in 1932 and now lies just 30m down in Lyme Bay Photographs by STUART PHILPOTT

I

watched diesel fuel blob up onto the mirror-calm surface. The boat skipper said this was a good indication that we had found the dive site. Seeping from her ruptured tanks, the small circular slicks were a poignant reminder of what lay on the seabed below. The M2 lies approximately five miles northwest off Portland Bill in Lyme Bay. This popular wreck is more than just a chunk of decaying metal. Her tragic story is steeped in disaster and despair. Protected by the Military Remains Act 1986, the experimental submarine has been designated as a war grave and should be treated with respect.

While gathering background information at the submarine museum in Gosport, I made a surprising discovery. Inside a glass cabinet full of relics was a small, insignificant piece of wood. Scrawled in pencil was the message ‘Help. M2 gone down. No 2 hatch open’. This had been found washed up on the beach at Hallsands in Devon after the M2 sank with the loss of all hands, the words more than likely written by somebody trapped inside the stricken submarine. The sea has been my ‘office’ for the past 30 years, so I felt some kind of empathy with submariners and the dangers they face. But being trapped on the seabed with no hope of survival was not a thought I wanted to dwell on. Seeing this piece of wood had got me thinking more about the ‘human’ aspect, which entirely changed my perception of the wreck.

The 90-metre-long M2 submarine sits upright on a relatively flat seabed at a maximum depth of 31m around the bow and 35m at the stern. She is totally intact, apart from losing her twin three-bladed, 1.78-metre diameter propellers to sal-

vage operators, and still looks like a proper submarine. There are some visible signs of corrosion on the outer surface but otherwise the M2 is in pretty good shape considering her age.

I wanted to capture the wreck in all of its glory, but knew UK weather conditions were notoriously unpredictable. In past years, I have had pitch-black dives with less than an arm’s-length visibility and on better days up to four to five metres. To try and cover all possibilities, I made arrangements to dive over a series of three consecutive days in late-May. The long-range weather predictions and tidal flows looked favourable. I even added on an extra contingency day just to cover any unforeseen problems.

The M2 was one of four M-class submarines fitted with a battleship-sized 12-inch gun as main armament. The idea was to launch surprise attacks, i.e. locate the enemy, quickly surface, fire off a few rounds and then submerge. The M2 was commissioned after the end of World War One on 14 February 1920. After four years of active service as a ‘test’ submarine, she was transferred to dry dock for a major refit. The Admiralty had devised an ingenious plan to turn her into the Navy’s first-ever Submarine Aircraft Carrier. The conversion took three whole years to complete. Her big gun was removed and a special hangar built in front of the conning tower. This was large enough to house a custom-designed Parnall Peto seaplane. The single-engine, two-seater biplane had folding wings (nine-metre wingspan) which allowed it to fit snugly inside the watertight compartment. Upon surfacing, the plane would be brought out from the hangar and positioned on a track in front of a compressed air-catapult system. This

gave the plane enough propulsion to ‘lift off’ from the foredeck.

On landing, a crane fitted above the hangar entrance winched the aircraft back on board.

On 26 January 1932, the M2 was lost at sea during a training exercise. After an extensive search lasting eight days, she was located with her bow pointing towards the surface and her stern embedded on the seabed. Salvage divers discovered that the hangar doors were wide open. While recovering the seaplane and two dead crew members, they also found that No.2 hatch located inside the hangar was not sealed shut. This led directly into the submarine and was undoubtedly the reason for her loss. Orders were given to re-float the M2. All hatchways and openings were sealed off and compressed air pumped inside the hull. But after five failed attempts, they abandoned all hope of saving her. The submarine remained on the seabed with 58 bodies still inside.

Official records state that the crew were constantly practising drills to speed up operations. The record for surfacing to launching the seaplane had already been cut to less than ten minutes, but this time was always being beaten down. The most-likely theory is that the hangar doors were prematurely opened while the submarine foredeck was still awash. Water would have poured through the doors and down the open hatchway, flooding out the submarine. Whether or not all of the compartments were flooded at once is the $1,000 question. There could well have been survivors trapped inside.

There was a good mix of singles, twinsets and rebreathers stowed aboard as we left the jetty bound for the M2. Sea conditions were fair to marginal by the time we reached the Bill. If we had been on a RIB, the dive would have been cancelled by now (this had already happened to me on a number of occasions). I knew we were in for a bumpy ride when two members of the group threw up over the side.

The weather stayed consistently poor throughout my whole three-day stint and only got slightly better on my final contingency day.

I had already worked out the underwater logistics. Sarah Payne had agreed to model for me and I had persuaded another friend to come along and point as many lamps as possible directly behind me into Sarah’s face. This way I didn’t have to totally rely on my camera strobes and would hopefully get a softer lighting effect on the subject as well as less backscatter. Although this proved to be useful, it wasn’t nearly bright enough for the dark, snotty plankton-like conditions we encountered. I soldiered on for four days but the underwater conditions just weren’t ideal for photography. We planned our dive times for one hour surface-to-surface and this also took into account a few extra minutes of deco. Sarah and I were using an OC nitrox mix and my lighting assistant had brought along his Inspiration rebreather.

For the next few weeks I pondered over my images. Using photo-editing software, I could just about make them passable for publication, but they looked very gloomy and slightly out of focus. I didn’t expect Caribbean clear shots, but nonetheless in my mind they looked absolutely terrible. I had already wasted four days of everybody’s valuable time but being the eternal optimist, I just had to give it one more try. I made arrangements for a return visit five weeks later at the end of July. Due to other work commitments, this would be my last opportunity of the year, so I better make it count!

Sarah looked quite anxious as we made our way out to the wreck site for a fifth and final time. The sun broke through the clouds and there was a slight swell but nothing too lumpy to contend with. On the descent, I could see the shotline had been dropped on the portside of the conning tower. There were a few discarded ropes entwined around the superstructure but to my surprise I could see a reasonable proportion of the wreck. Comparing notes afterwards, Sarah and I guessed the visibility was an extremely rare ten metres, maybe more.

We finned past the dark, gaping hangar entrance and over the catapult towards the bow. Huge one-metre-long silvery pollock accompanied us down to the four 18inch torpedo tubes (two on each side). Fortunately, there was no sign of any con-

“The M2 conning tower has a distinctive shape, with the rounded end being the front and the pointy end, with what looked like a jack staff (and a tompot blenny inside) attachment, at the rear”

ger eels lurking inside. I took a shot of the bow and this time could clearly see Sarah hovering next to both torpedo tubes. My fish-eye lens gave the straight lines a slight curvature, but I wasn’t complaining. We ascended to the bow deck and doubled back to the catapult. The unusual shape was covered in little white cup corals and surrounded by a shoal of pouting. A big black conger eye appeared right below Sarah’s head as she was posed for me over the catapult track. I didn’t want to rattle Sarah and spoil my picture composition, so I just carried on taking pictures - sorry Sarah!

The conditions were such a contrast from my previous dives. I only had this one opportunity for pictures, so I made a decision not to stop at the hangar.

This is the most-popular spot for divers to explore, which means it’s also the first place to get silted up. I had ventured inside on a previous dive and the silt mound was piled high at the rear. The infamous No.2 hatch was well and truly buried underneath.

I briefly stopped to take some shots of two stubby pieces of metal protruding above the hangar, which turned out to be remnants of the crane, and then shot off towards what I think is the most-photogenic part of the wreck, the conning tower. The M2 conning tower has a distinctive shape, with the rounded end being the front and the pointy end, with what looked like a jack staff (and a tompot blenny inside) attachment, at the rear. I spent the next ten minutes taking pictures of the conning tower, periscope, snorkel and radio antennae with Sarah in the foreground. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we had a chance to re-explore the stern, but as I had already clocked up 23 minutes of deco, I wasn’t about to complain.

Safely back on board, Sarah asked me the golden question ‘did I get any good pictures’? Although the composition and lighting looked fine on my small camera screen, I still couldn’t be 100 percent certain about the clarity until I downloaded the pictures. But conditions couldn’t have been much better and I felt far more confident that this time we had done the submarine some justice.

Looking at the finished results, I hope you agree!

DIVER FAVOURITE

The M2 is hugely popular as a dive site, as can be seen by these comments from divers returning from exploring her remains.

Cordelia Chapman - ‘I can’t help thinking about the history and the sad ending. Because it’s virtually intact, I don’t get confused about what it is or where I’m going’.

Rosalynd Good - ‘I’ve dived on the wreck a few times before and absolutely love it. It’s always teeming with marine life. I feel that it’s wrong to dive on a wreck where so many people died. I treat it with the utmost respect’.

Simon Nattrass - ‘I keep going back to the M2.

It’s the only sub I’ve dived on that still looks like a submarine. She sits perfectly upright on the seabed just as the day it went down. I do think about the loss of life, but try not to dwell on it. It’s a state of mind’.

Pete Sims - ‘I was shown some pictures and always wanted to dive the wreck. It looked bigger than I expected. It really caught my imagination. I did a full lap of the submarine. I would definitely do it again’.

Tech instructor Mark Powell - ‘The M2 is one of my favourites. It’s a perfectly preserved Submarine Aircraft Carrier, which makes the wreck unique. The M2 lies at the perfect depth. Any shallower and the sea would have broken her up.

It’s ideal for training dives on the Tech Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures. The M2 makes a nice and easy 30m dive’.

By strange coincidence, as I was writing this story the loss of the Argentinian submarine ARN San Juan S-42 made the news headlines. On 15 November 2017, the 66-metre-long TR-1700-class German-made submarine lost contact with surface support. The last communication stated that water had entered the snorkel and shorted out the batteries, which most probably caused an explosion killing all 44 crew members instantly. Despite a massive search and rescue operation involving many countries, the submarine still hasn’t been found. n

“I knew we were in for a bumpy ride when two members of the group threw up over the side”

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DIVE LIKE A PRO Everyone wants to be ‘dive fit’, and our panel of experts offer some useful hints and advice on how to get yourself in shape for the coming dive season PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS AND SIMON BROWN

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he 2018 dive season – for those who don’t dive all year round – will be kicking off around Easter, so it seemed a prime time to discuss getting into shape to go diving. Too many of us will have been taking it easy through the cold, winter months, and might have overdone it on the mince pies at Christmas, but never fear, our illustrious band of industry gurus have some great hints and advice on how to get fitter and healthier.

GUE’s John Kendall said: “I often hear people talking about being ‘dive fit’ and how this precludes the need to simply be ‘fit’ – unfortunately, they are wrong. General fitness is a vital component of being prepared for diving. We regularly put ourselves in situations where our entire body is working harder to simply survive (for example, breathing at 30m takes four times the effort as breathing at the surface) and our physical and mental fitness will massively effect the ease and outcomes of the dive. Fitness is not something that can be done at the last minute, but requires a conscious continual effort to maintain and improve. The higher the exposure of the dive, the higher the fitness levels need to be. So for me, it’s not just a matter of getting ‘dive fit’ ready for the season, it’s more a matter of getting and maintaining a good fitness all year around. If you are not already in this camp, then start today, and try and get more active. Walk up the stairs instead of using the lift, check to see if walking or cycling to work would be feasible. If not, then short-duration, high-impact workouts can be a great way of rapidly gaining fitness and losing weight. My personal favourites are T25 and Insanity, but there are many out there.

“Finally, consider having a proper diving medical done.

Professionals are required to do this annually in the UK anyway, but it’s a good idea to have a proper check-up and make sure there are no hidden problems. Every year there are several fatalities and other incidents due to medical issues, increasing your fitness can only help reduce your risk.”

Phil Alberts, from the British Sub-Aqua Club, said: “A simple but effective piece of advice when it comes to dive health is to treat your fitness as an important part of your overall kit maintenance routine, all year around!

“While diving is not necessarily seen as an aerobic form of exercise by some, your level of fitness is essential for both your safety and participation in the sport. Your level of aerobic fitness and strength will almost certainly impact on your enjoyment – we have all noted, at times, how easier it is to dive and get on with the business of diving towards the end of the season than it is as we ease ourselves creakily out of the winter months at the start.

“The key to getting off the starting blocks for the 2018 dive season is to look at your level of fitness now, and plan to improve and regularly maintain it. It doesn’t mean you suddenly have to start training like an ‘ironman’, but activities that boost your aerobic ability and build your strength should be part of your regular routine.

“During the winter months, when open water time is curtailed, you could also the most of your pool nights to not only practise your skills but to build in exercise – many clubs

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incorporate challenges and team sports, such as octopush, to keep members entertained.

“Dive fitness also needs to take the environment into account - cold water in particular can put the body under extra stress - as well as the topside exertions as you get ready to dive. Be health-aware and understand your own body, this is especially important as we get a little older. Health checks – just as you conduct regular kit checks – can be a lifesaver.

“And when it is finally time to dip your fin back into open water, go at a pace that is right for you and be sure that you and your body are physically up to the type of diving you want to do.”

Garry Dallas, Director of Training RAID UK and Malta, said: “It’s that time of year to start looking at your dive kit, but it’s just as important to look at your fitness too, that is commonly overlooked. You don’t need to be a Hercules or Wonder Woman, just ‘dive-fit’.

“It’s a good time of year to lose a few calories after the Christmas period and in doing so, prepare yourself for the year ahead. No, don’t go bench pressing as many cylinders as you can over your head, just involve yourself in some basic fitness, maybe at your local gym or go jogging, swimming or cycling. Even simple exercises using your own

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body weight at home will be very rewarding. Good stamina and a bit of strength is what’s needed.

“As fit as we think we are, just turning awkwardly reaching for something at home, we can just pull, stretch or even tear that unused/dormant muscle group.

When you’re diving, wearing more than just a wetsuit, the same can happen without anticipating it, but now wearing bulky equipment could increase that factor.

“Keeping warm during diving especially in cold climates, keeps your muscles warmer, more flexible and less prone to problems.

“Even if you were an avid diver, but took a break, take it easy on your first few dives getting back into it, never overdo it. Cold-water diving and the life underwater is very enjoyable, but over-breathing or skip-breathing can turn that into a less-enjoyable dive, resulting in headaches. Relax your breathing, pick some easy dive sites… and buddies!

“If you need some time in the pool first, go to your club and sort it with them, maybe even a refresher to get your confidence up too.

“Other than that, be careful and aware of your surroundings above and below water.”

Vikki Batten, Training Supervisor for PADI EMEA, in a previous life trained at a ballet school, became a contemporary dancer and worked as a pilates instructor at a London gym, so she knows a thing or two about fitness. She said: “You don’t have to be an Olympian to dive, but better fitness makes diving easier and reduces the risk of health-related incidents. If you don’t fancy the gym, walking is a great way to exercise and enjoy the outdoors at the same time. If

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you fancy a bit more activity, ‘get on your bike’ and head for the hills. I also recommend toning and stretching. There are so many ways to do this now with dance classes for adults, yoga, pilates and many more. Strengthen your core and stretch your muscles and you’ll make it easier to carry and get in and out of dive kit without injuring yourself. And if you think that’s a bit girly, check out your favourite footballer or rugby player; flexibility is absolutely key to their skills set.”

Rich Somerset, Territory Director for PADI EMEA and keen runner (He ran his first marathon three years ago, and is now training for an ultra-marathon (50 miles) in 2018), commented: “Not everyone can get to a gym to beef up on muscle – but that’s not really important for most of us as divers. A good cardio-vascular system is crucial though – and there’s nothing like regular, light running to help achieve this. To unleash your inner-runner, just follow a few simple steps: • Set achievable goals – just 20 minutes running around the block two or three times a week is enough. Look at using the many ‘couch to 5k’ apps to give you encouragement.

• Once this becomes comfortable, use your local Park Run to further motivate you (www.parkrun.co.uk) • Seek inspiration from Facebook groups (check out The Running Bug as an example) • Get a killer soundtrack to make you feel epic! (Amazon have playlists dedicated for running) The hardest part of every run is the first step out of the door – no one ever regrets a run once it’s finished!”

Dave Protheroe, Marketing Consultant for PADI EMEA and an enthusiastic amateur squash player, said: “For those who find it tough to put sole to tarmac and pound the pavements for five miles, including a sport to complement a general fitness push is crucial. Any sport that requires a certain level of physical exertion will help, but find a sport that builds muscle, strengthens core, improves agility and flexibility and you’re on to a winner.

The sport I regularly turn to during the winter nights is squash.

A fast-paced game over 45 minutes will have me sweating more than a run ever could. The beauty of squash is that you don’t necessarily have to be amazing at it either to have a fun workout.

“The result is a great cardio-vascular workout and ultimately reduces the risk of strains and over-stretching when climbing

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back on to the dive boat.”

Tim Clements from IANTD commented: “Happy Christmas and an indulgent New Year! If we’ve all done the usual thing and are now trying to dredge up some physical condition to match our ambitions, New Year resolutions are a good way to start. Getting fit for diving undoubtedly has its benefits and is crucial to safely enjoy your sport. How to do this depends on where you are starting from and where you want to go. For a directed ambitious programme, I would certainly recommend working with a physical trainer. It’s important to make sure training and conditioning reflects what you need your body to do. Indiscriminate iron-pumping might build shoulders, but it doesn’t always help flexibility for shutdowns.

“The best advice to support a physical programme relates to regular brisk exercise, good diet and also mental training. Taking any opportunity to be slightly more active can contribute to better diving – stairs instead of lift, walk or bike instead of car, an extra lap of the block walking the dog – it all adds up. Dry January might help, but some longer-term balance in diet and ‘indulgence’ will make the Summer better.

“Winter evenings are also ideal for dreaming about dives, but if you can dream, you can work your way through a gas plan and imagine yourself on the dive. ‘What if’ scenarios will help your responses and preparation. Or try a Human Factors microclass from Gareth Lock – an excellent evening to improve your diving.

“The last word goes to goal setting – we might all wish to transform into an ab-hardened tech butterfly, but really, goals need to realistic. Achieve them, feel good about that achievement, then update them and move on – many bitesize improvements can take you a long way towards being a better, safer, diver.” n

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The delightful

OMAN is a true hidden gem in the Middle East when it comes to diving, but the protected nature reserve of the DAYMANIYATS deserves to be on your ‘must-dive’ bucket list Photographs by MARK EVANS

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he Sultanate of Oman lags behind near-neighbours Egypt and Jordan when it comes to being embedded in the sub-conscious of the diving fraternity, but this is a crying shame, as this country has much to offer visiting scuba enthusiasts and adventure lovers. With over 1,700km of coastline bordering three seas – the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea – being served by literally a handful of dive centres and liveaboards, it is a dream destination for divers, and with plenty of topside activities on hand, including wadi-bashing, climbing, hiking and much more, there is something for everyone if you happen to have any non-divers in your group.

The undoubted highlight of any diving trip to Oman are the Daymaniyat Islands, which have been a national nature reserve since 1996. This collection of ten small islands, which are spread over a reasonable distance, lie less than an hour and a half from the marina in Muscat and, it has to be said, do not particularly inspire a feeling of awe when first viewed from the dive boat, as they are desolate, barren and windswept. But drop below the surface of the water and you can immediately see what all the fuss is about.

My first trip to the Sultanate of Oman was way back in 2000, and I had only been able to spend one fleeting day at the Daymaniyats, but the islands were ingrained in my memory. One recollection I had from that trip all those years ago was hovering in mid-water, doing a slow 360 degree turn and just being able to see endless table corals everywhere I looked, and gigantic ones at that. Sure enough, on at least two dives completed during my more-recent trip, I was able to recreate this memorable moment. It is truly thrilling to see these majestic corals literally interlocking with one another, there are so many competing for space.

Several were well over three metres in diameter.

This time around, I had the entire week to savour different dive sites within the Daymaniyat chain, so I didn’t have to content myself with just a teaser of what they had in store.

Over the course of the six diving days, our Euro-Divers guides, led by long-time operations manager Karin Straub, showcased some of the very best diving in the region, with the highlight dive sites being Aquarium, Garden of Eden, Three Sisters and Hayut Run. The former actually more than lived up to its name, and there were so many shoals of snapper, groups of Arabian and Emperor angelfish, hordes of long- and short-fin batfish, honeycomb morays, anemonefish, and a grand old turtle adorned with large barnacles, it did actually feel like you were in a giant aquarium. The other sites offered up treats like mating cuttlefish, a leopard shark and yet more turtles, plus a fleeting glimpse of a couple of blacktip reef sharks.

“As well as swathes of hard and soft corals, interspersed with vibrant sponges, some of the rock formations are simply stunning”

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“One recollection I had from that trip all those years ago was hovering in mid-water, doing a slow 360 degree turn and just being able to see endless table corals everywhere I looked, and gigantic ones at that” However, it isn’t just the marine life that makes the Daymaniyats so great, the underwater topography is also unique.

As well as swathes of hard and soft corals, interspersed with vibrant sponges, some of the rock formations are simply stunning. Swim-throughs, overhangs, nooks and crannies all help make the reef itself interesting, regardless of what swims or crawls into your path.

Another oddity around the islands were some serious thermoclines. Drifting along a wall in relatively clear visibility – the waters are so nutrient-rich, it is rare to get vis to rival the Red Sea, but on a good day it can be 20 metres or so – it would seem as though you were approaching an underwater ‘sandstorm’, and on entering this phenomenon, the visibility would plummet to just a few metres and the temperature would drop by a good 7-8 degrees C. Then, within a minute or two, you would suddenly be basking in warmer waters again and witness the visibility opening back up to ‘normal’.

This happened on several different dives more than one, and I think is something to do with the way the currents swirl around the islands from deeper waters offshore. It certainly adds to the whole experience of diving the Daymaniyats!

While the Daymaniyats are regarded as the number one diving spot in the country, there are at least two other locations which are also worthy of closer inspection.

At Bandar Khayran, there are around 20 different dive sites for all levels of experience, from shallow, quiet bays for first dives to more adrenaline-pumping drift and wreck dives for the more-advanced diver.

Fahal Island, a short distance from Muscat, is a dive hotspot which offers 11 dive sites that all feature, due to its currents and steep walls, an abundance of pelagic marine life, including reef sharks, rays, barracuda, tuna and jacks. Soft and hard corals are profuse, and the shoals of reef fish are impressive.

CONCLUSION

Oman is still one of those rare places where you can get a real ‘explorer’ feel when you visit, and as a diver, this is especially true, as with so few dive centres throughout the entire country, it is unusual for your dive group not to be the only ones in the water at your chosen dive site.

There are more diving areas coming on-line – besides the aforementioned Bander Khayran and Fahal Island, there is also Salalah and the Musandam Peninsula to be explored, as well as the artificial reef Al Munassir – but the Daymaniyats remain the jewel in the crown. Get out there now to experience a taste of the ‘real’ Middle East. n

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ABOVE MARK EVANS is a long-time fan of Anglesey,

and one of his favourite dives off this North Wales island is the sheltered little bay of Porth Dafarch, which is shallow, easy to navigate and boasts a plethora of marine life

Photographs by MARK EVANS

A

nglesey is a small island sitting off the northwest tip of Wales, and for divers, the great benefit is that if one side is blown out by the – often unpredictable – weather, you can often find somewhere on the opposite side to get wet. There are a vast range of dive sites in the coastal waters, ranging from scenic rocky reefs to shipwrecks from all eras, and many can be accessed from the shore or via a short RIB ride, but for this issue, I am going to focus on Porth Dafarch, a sheltered bay that lies on another, even-smaller island that perches off one side of Anglesey, Holy Island.

ARRIVAL AT THE SITE

Porth Dafarch lies on Lon Isallt, which leads from Trearddur Bay – which boasts several great shore dives itself and is the launching point for RIB jaunts to various wrecks and reefs – to Holyhead.

It is effectively the last bay you will come to before the main road carries on towards South Stack, or a right turn heads into Holyhead itself.

This sheltered bay is extremely popular with families, so depending on the time of year and time of day, it can be very busy – best bet is to get there early to secure a decent spot for your car.

Parking is along the side of the road, or down the slope next to the toilet block that leads to the beach steps (and in the sum-

mer season, a handy snack wagon doing burgers, bacon sarnies, coffees, teas and other essentials, and an ice-cream van for sweet treats).

You can then kit up at your leisure next to your vehicle, and it is just a short walk down the steps on to the sandy beach and the sea.

DIVE BRIEFING

There are various options when it comes to diving Porth Dafarch, but all of them are better on a high tide, when if you are lucky you might attain a depth of 7-8m. Diving on a high tide also makes it easier to get in and out of the water, as you can walk in and out via the nice smooth, sandy beach, and not have to clamber over slippery, seaweed-covered rocks and boulders.

The central portion of the bay comprises of vast swathes of sand, with the odd crop of rock topped by seaweed and kelp. You can mooch about here looking for cuttlefish, rays and flatfish, but if there is any sort of water movement – and that includes wayward fins – the sand can get kicked up and seriously reduce visibility.

The best bet is to enter the water on one side of the bay or the other and explore along the edge of where the rocky cliffs meet the sandy seabed. This is what makes navigation so easy – you just set off with the rocks on your right shoulder (or left, depend-

DIVE CENTRES

Close by in Holyhead you can find Anglesey Divers (www.diveanglesey.co.uk), run by Martin and Caroline Sampson, who offer SSI and PADI courses and can supply air fills, equipment and kit rental. Porth Dafarch is one of their regular training spots, so if you have any additional queries about diving here, they are the people to ask.

A little further afield, on mainland Wales, there is Duttons Divers (www.duttonsdivers.com) at Vivian Quarry. PADI Course Director Clare Dutton offers air fills, training to pro levels, and leads guided shore and boat diving around the North Wales coast, while Vivian itself – a picturesque inland dive site in its own right – is a good place for a dip enroute home to rinse your kit off in freshwater.

“And if all else fails, you are so shallow, you can make a slow ascent next to the rock wall and do a quick surface recce before descending to finish your dive”

ing on which side of the bay you are diving) and take a nice, slow meander out to sea. In places the kelp growth can make it difficult to see where the rock face is, and there are a few gullies on both sides of the bay which can lure unwary divers into a dead end, but it is no hardship to retrace your steps and continue with the dive once you have regained your bearings. And if all else fails, you are so shallow, you can make a slow ascent next to the rock wall and do a quick surface recce before descending to finish your dive.

When you have had enough – a single cylinder will last for ages, regardless of your SAC rate, given the shallow depth – all you have to do is turn around and put the rock wall on the other shoulder for your return journey.

There can be the odd speedboat, RIB or jet ski entering the bay, so if you want to play really safe – especially if exploring the middle portion – then it is worth towing an SMB, but to be honest, as long as you stay close to the rocks at the sides of the bay, then you will be fine. However, as always, ascend slowly and listen for any boat traffic.

THE DIVES

Both sides of Porth Dafarch have their merits, but I prefer the righthand route, which has more-vertical walls and more-pronounced gullies and overhangs. It is worth going slow, so you can peer into all the nooks and crannies, which is where the shrimps, prawns and crabs all hang out – a small torch is a useful addition to aid in the critter spotting.

In the areas where the kelp grows quite thick, pollock and various species of wrasse will patrol above and in the fronds, and check out the sand below this prolific cover, as I have often encountered resting dogfish.

If the vis is good enough, peel off from the wall and explore into the central section of the bay a little way, as this is a good place to find flatfish and cuttlefish camouflaged on the seabed. Just remember to return to the rocks for continue or finish your dive.

The left-hand side is still a great dive, but the rocky walls are not as clearly defined, and there are a series of shallow gullies you can thread in and out of, or hop from one to the other. Expect the same species of marine life in this area. n

PORTH DAFARCH, ANGLESEY WHAT TO EXPECT TYPE OF ‘DIVE’

Shore dive, best experienced at high tide.

DEPTH

Expect to get around 7-8m maximum at high tide, though the majority of the time you will be lucky to break 5-6m.

MARINE LIFE/WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

The rocky walls on either side of the bay are home to blennies, gobies, wrasse, pollock, lobster, edible crabs, spider crabs, velvet swimming crabs, hermit crabs, common crabs, cuttlefish, octopus, flatfish, dogfish, starfish, shrimps and prawns.

VISIBILITY

If the weather has been calm, or blowing from the east, then you can get towards double figures, but expect four to five metres as an average. If the seabed gets disturbed, the vis can be reduced to next to nothing.

SEABED

Sand, with rocky outcrops in the middle of the bay, and plenty of seaweed and kelp.

HAZARDS

Occasional boat traffic, but stick close to the rock walls and you should be well clear of any issues.

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Port Ghalib in the Marsa Alam region offers uncrowded, pristine dive sites away from the madding crowds, but MARK EVANS was most excited about exploring a shipwreck even further South which sank in mysterious circumstances Photographs by LUKE ATKINSON

G

ort Ghalib and Marsa Alam used to be considered the ‘Deep South’ in Egypt, but visiting divers have the opportunity to venture even further down the coast – hundreds of kilometres - to the mighty Fury Shoals, the reefs of St John’s and some cracking shore dives in between. The weather is warm and dry for the majority of the year, although it can be a bit windier being this far south, but the trade-off is the clear Red Sea waters tend to stay a couple of degrees warmer than around the Hurghada area.

In winter, make sure you take a lightweight fleece or windbreaker for out on the boat or on an evening, and wear a 5mm wetsuit in the water. In summer, a rash vest is often enough for diving, and light loose clothes make for comfortable days and evenings.

For shore-based diving, there are a good selection of hotels to choose from in Port Ghalib from three star to five star. Only ten minutes from Marsa Alam airport (RMF), locating yourself inside the port will give you access to a few bars and restaurants in the evening, although being this far south, it is still very chilled out and doesn’t boast the nightlife of Sharm or Hurghada. For divers, this is a great place to maximise what dive sites you can hit, as with Emperor Divers (www.emperordivers.com) boat diving directly from Port Ghalib, as well as offering a couple of shore trips

– more on that later – you can reduce transfers down to zero, so your time is spent diving, in your hotel or relaxing around port.

I travelled to Egypt to check out both shore-based and liveaboard options, with the idea to do as many dives in the South as possible. I was able to join Emperor’s General Manager Luke Atkinson for some diving from both their daily centre and one of their impressive liveaboards.

MARSA ALAM

First up was joining the daily boats at the Marina Lodge hotel diving base. Checked in and through the paperwork, it was a few steps until I was onboard the custom dive boat, ropes off and away to one of the marsas (bays) that appear North and South of Ghalib on the coast. We went to Ras El Torfa (aka Abu Syal), which is around an hour’s sail down the coast. It’s not a marsa, but the fringing reef juts out enough to provide safe mooring from the prevailing North winds and acts as a focal point for the mild current that runs down the coast.

It was nice to see pristine corals, including one table coral that would comfortably seat 12 at a res-taurant, and plentiful marine life this close to the shore. As well as all the usual Red Sea reef dwellers, such as masked pufferfish, blue-spotted rays, angelfish,

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moray eels, butterflyfish, anemonefish, crocodilefish, lionfish, snapper and grouper, we also bumped into two turtles, one of which was very friendly. For any non-divers in your party, much of the coral and fish life comes right to the surface, so snorkel-lers will be in their element.

Other sites out of Port Ghalib include Marsa Shouna, Torfet Ali, Ras Torombi and Marsa Mubar-ak, all of which are suitable for all levels of diver and boast plentiful corals and marine life.

Special day trips from Marsa Alam include Abu Dabab, where you can encounter massive green turtles and occasionally dugongs; the world-famous Elphinstone, with its ripping currents, sheer walls and oceanic whitetip sharks (at the right time of year); and Sha’ab Samadai, a horseshoe-shaped reef often called Dolphin House thanks to its resident pod of spinner dolphins.

I was staying at the apartment-hotel Sunrise Marina Resort in the heart of Port Ghalib. Perched right above the shops and bars in the port and stretching back to a waterpark via smaller pools, a gym and even a bowling alley, this is a great resort for divers whether singles, couples or a group. Having been built as luxury apartments in the first instance, the finishing and décor is excellent while the location could not be better. The fact that Thomas Cook sell packages from Birmingham and Gatwick to the hotel at great value will help the UK traveller, who have found easy holiday options scarce to this destination for a number of years now. Emperor zips you across the marina to and from the dive boats with a tender zodiac boat, although a bus is offered for the first pickup (with your dive kit) or if you prefer for the rest of the trip.

“With deep water right on hand, large pelagic species are often seen cruising in the blue, so keep one eye open as you bimble along the reef”

HAMADA WRECK

It was interesting to explore the reefs around Port Ghalib, but I’d been in Marsa Alam several times before, and so I was excited to jump in the car and venture south towards Hamata, as this was virgin territory for me. I was most looking forward to the furthest Southern trip which centres around the shipwreck of a 65-metre-long coaster. And best of all, it lies in just 15m and is accessible from the shore! In fact, with it rising to within a few metres of the surface, it can even be seen by snorkellers!

Being a certified wreck-head, I couldn’t wait to see the Hamada, which Luke had promised would blow me away when it loomed out of the blue. And true to his word, a few minutes swim from the beach entry, he brought me in directly on to the dramatic stern section, with its intact propeller, which is reminiscent of the Giannis D. The Hamada had an eventful history. Built in Aberdeen, the vessel was launched on 15 March 1965 bearing the name Avocet, and plied the waters of the UK into the mid-1970s. It was then sold and ended up in Cyprus, initially being named the Afroditi H, then the Samarah and finally, in 1985, the Hamada, and the following year it was sold to a company in Malta. There are multiple stories about the loss of the ship, which was on a voyage from Jeddah to Suez on 28 June 1993 - one report says it caught fire and sank in deep water, others that it stuck a submerged object out at sea. However, whatever came to pass in reality, we now know that it end-

ed up in shallow water in Abu Ghusun and has since become a fantastic playground for divers.

The wreck is now split into two parts, with the stern section being the most ‘shipshape’, and though it has only been down 22 years, it is covered in hard and soft coral growth, and boasts a rich selection of marine life in and around it. This, combined with the light filtering down through the shallow water, makes it particularly photogenic, and it is easy to see why this is a huge favourite with underwater photographers. With good gas consumption and an optimum nitrox mix, you could spend ages exploring and shooting on this wreck. One thing - have a look on the beach around the entry/exit point and you will find tiny plastic granules, which were being transported in the holds of the Hamada when it came to grief.

ON SAFARI

Then it was time to join a liveaboard trip out of Ghalib to explore even further South. Emperor has a fleet of four liveaboards across the Red Sea, but operating from the South most of the year are flagship Elite and their smallest vessel, Asmaa.

I was on the Asmaa, as its departure date suited my Thursday flight, and was pleasantly surprised. The cabins are a good size, all ensuite and with individual air-conditioning. The boat was clean and the staff – all ten of them – were very friendly and helpful, and cooked up some great meals.

On days one and six, sites such as Elphinstone, Abu Dabab and Sha’ab Sharm can be visited in between some long cruises to and from port. However, we woke up early in the morning on the second day to find ourselves moored in the St John’s reef system, a mixture of stunning drop-offs, habilis (reefs which don’t quite meet the surface and so provide amazing colourful coral), and caverns.

Moving North after a couple of days to the Fury Shoals meant a stop off at Sataya. Great diving aside, the jewel in the crown here is an almost-ever-present pod of spinner dolphins using the kilometres-long reef as a shelter to rest, sleep and play in between their nocturnal hunting.

Reefs such as Sha’ab Hamam and Malahi were wondrous, easy exploration dives filled with great corals and good fish life, and I was pleased to find two wrecks, the Tien Hsing Chinese tugboat and a small sailing boat wreck, on the Abu Galawa reefs named ‘big’ and ‘small’ respectively.

CONCLUSION

The Deep South of the Egyptian Red Sea is a great location, whatever level of diving certification you hold. Novices will find dives that blow them away but also allow them to build their confi-dence, while underwater photographers are spoilt for choice, whether their preference is for macro critters or big wide-angle stunners. With new flights into Marsa Alam airport being announced all the time, and some cracking flight-and-accommodation packages to be had, there has never been a better time to check out this less-visited part of Egypt. n

“This, combined with the light filtering down through the shallow water, makes it particularly photogenic, and it is easy to see why this is a huge favourite with underwater photographers”

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SCHOLARSHIP DIARY

The Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society is a non-profit, educational organisation whose mission is to promote educational activities associated with the underwater world. It has offered scholarships for over 35 years. owuscholarship.org

PLASTIC FIGHTS AND POOR KNIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAE DORRICOTT

M

y Scholarship journey has taken me to some amazing spots around the world. But there’s this ‘thing’ that seems to follow me like bad weather - plastic pollution. I decided that on my next stop in New Zealand, I was going to start to do something about it.

I found myself joining the Ghost Fishing team based in Wellington – recently awarded Wellingtonians of the Year (environment category), a worthy recognition of the group’s achievements.

This division of the Ghost Fishing global network joins a band of divers who target the troublesome waste that is unseen below the surface of the water.

Joining reconnaissance dives, we scoped out wrecks that may have fishing nets entangled on the wreckage. Additionally, I participated in a full clear-up operation where the whole community came together. Freedivers, kayakers, marine biologists, shore crew and budding toddlers with buckets gathered at the water’s edge to clean up their marine environment.

The divers locate and lift the trash to then pass onto the freedivers or kayakers to ferry to the shore crew, who pull out the trash and sort through it. Just from one hour in the water we gathered tyres, two porcelain toilets, hoses, ropes, bottles, cans, plastic bags, to name just a few. The marine biologists would then salvage any living creatures left on the rubbish and send them back to their home.

To see so many people spurred together to heave out heaps of trash from their local waterside was refreshing. This impassioned community, evolving from just a few divers devoted to cleaning the waters of Wellington, is a movement with momentum that is getting larger and starting to spread throughout New Zealand.

With good karma on my side, I was blessed to travel to the North Lands of New Zealand to explore a high-class marine reserve, the Poor Knights. Thanks to Dive! Tutukaka, I jumped into waters acclaimed as one of Jacque Cousteau’s favourite places to dive. This group of volcanic islands are hugged by the East Australian current that brings in warm water and nutrients supporting layers of fish in such abundance it caused a glow over the reef.

Mae Dorricott

Below the cloud of fish, luscious fronds of kelp created a magical underwater forest to explore. Rocky boulders were encrusted with sponges, corals and colour that looked like a painter had splattered his palette all over the rocks.

The best moment was at a dive site named Sugar Loaf. As we turned a corner of the reef wall, a huge school of kingfish swarmed out of the murky blue and circled us. There must have been at least 100 fish, each a metre-long swimming at top speed around us before they darted away.

With eight million metric tonnes of plastic entering the oceans every year, we need to not only clear up our mess, but stop putting the plastic in before underwater havens, like the Poor Knights, become infected by the plastic plague. n

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P29 PATROL BOAT, MALTA Um El Faroud, Malta The Um El Faroud is a 110-metre-long tanker that became Malta’s largest then purpose-sunk as a dive attraction in The P29 is onewhen of theitmost-popular cial reefs 1998. and artificial reef was sunk on artifi 2 September She was listed severely to August 2007 after being decommissioned. off the coastline Malta, not least because it is starboard duringofthe sinking, but eventually settled upright on the seabed in 35m. Over the years, the close Um EltoFaroud has taken on the appearance of situated off Cirkewwa Point, other dive She during now sitswinter upright in around 33m, with the ahotspots ‘proper’like wreck, especially theArch. vessel broke in two the Rozi and theafter Double storms. The superstructure is split in front of the bridge, but both sections upper portions of her superstructure reaching to lie close to Kondor each other, with the shallowest point 20m.

Its huge A 52-metre I-class minesweeper originally within 12mholds of thecan surface. Penetration is possible be explored, and other points not to miss are the imposing bow and the built in Germany in 1969, she was used as a patrol for those suitably trained, and she is already well impressive rudder and propeller, which makes a great spot for photographs. boat byyears the Offshore Command of the Maritime colonised by marine Three before the Um El Faroud was sunk, an explosion killed nine life despite only being down for Squadron workers of the Armed Forces and of Malta ten years. dockyard in Valletta, therefrom is a1997, brass plaque in their memory.

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TOP TIPS EQUALISATION

10 TOP TIPS

for equalisation

Freediving guru EMMA FARRELL (www.gofreediving.co.uk) offers a host of hints and advice aimed at easing equalisation – and some of them can benefit scuba divers too Photographs by PASH BAKER

W

hen I talk to people about freediving, one of the most-common questions is ‘how do you know when to come back up?’, as if the limiting factor for depth is breathhold ability. I reassure them that not only do we progress depth so gradually that each new personal best is a breeze, but that the issue that stops most freedivers in the first few metres is their inability to equalise fast enough and in a head-down position.

Equalisation issues occur in all divers, however with freediving you don’t have an almost unlimited supply of air to play with, nor plenty of time. Your tank is the air in your lungs and your dive time when starting out is usually less than a minute.

This means that for freediving instructors, teaching someone how to equalise effectively is the biggest challenge.

After 18 years overcoming my own equalisation issues and those of my students, I have yet to find a student who cannot learn to equalise. It may take years in some cases, but with my tips and tricks below, hopefully you will soon be equalising like a dream.

1) Equalise frequently and pre-empt every equalisation This may sound obvious, but when you are on a dive there is so much to think about and so much to look at, we often forget to equalise until we feel pain in our ears. At this point we have left it too late and it can often be too difficult (especially for freedivers) when we have reached this point.

I and my instructors always tell students to preempt every equalisation - equalise before you need to. This means that your eardrums are not put under stress and you get into a good habit of frequent and gentle equalisations.

Another related tip, especially for freedivers, is to perform a ‘prequalisation’, a lovely term coined by Jorgen, one of my instructors, to describe equalising on the surface, just before the duck dive, so that the slight over-pressurisation of the ear drums compensates for the delay in the arrival of the second equalisation at the end of the duck dive, which can often be at 4-5m.

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2) Learn the frenzel equalisation technique and take a freediving course The frenzel is a very precise and efficient equalisation technique that uses the tongue to create pressure, not the diaphragm and lungs. It is gentler than the Valsalva and more efficient.

It is the primary equalisation technique we teach on freediving courses, and because a large part of learning to freedive is learning how to equalise quickly and effectively, it is amazing for scuba divers.

3) Don’t force equalisations If you force your equalisations, particularly when using the Valsalva, you can easily damage your ear drums and create inflammation around the eustachian tubes. This can lead to reverse block where, on your ascent, the tissues around the eustachian tubes have become so inflamed that the eustachian tubes cannot open to allow the expanding air in the middle ear to pass back to the throat. Be gentle with your equalisation!

4) Buy and wear a pair of Doc’s Pro Plugs I, and many of my instructors and students, swear by using Doc’s (vented) Pro-Plugs. These help prevent exostosis, also known as ‘surfer’s ear’, but I have found that they make equalisation easier in most people who use them. They come in different sizes to fit all ears, and I have a fitting kit so that I can sell the correct-sized Pro Plugs to my students. I find these invaluable and will wear them even in the warmest of waters.

5) Get an Otovent and practice with it An Otovent is a simple device that was developed to help children suffering from glue ear. It comprises a small plastic plug with a hole in it that you block up one nostril with, and on the other end is a balloon.

You close off the other nostril and try and inflate the balloon using the plugged-up nostril. This opens up the eustachian tube and is brilliant equalisation practice that you can do on dry land.

TOP TIPS EQUALISATION 6) Buy and use a neti pot A neti pot comes in all shapes and sizes. It can look like a small tea pot, or it can come in a more-western friendly design of a bottle for ‘sinus rinsing’ or similar.

The idea is that you clean the front sinuses out with saline solution and this helps clear mucus and also prevents infection. It is another great way to help the sinuses remain clear and help deal with stuffiness or allergic reactions which can adversely affect equalisation.

7) Steam inhalations If you do have a blocked nose, sticky mucus, or driedout sinuses, get your head over a bowl of hot water with a towel over the top. The warmwater vapour is wonderful for clearing out your passages and soothing your mucus membranes. If you have infection then you can also use essential oils, such as oregano, thyme, eucalyptus, pine, tea tree, or simply a couple of drops of olbas oil. For ‘on the dive’ nose clearing, one of my instructors also puts tiny bits of Vicks inside his nose before he puts his mask on.

8) Humidify your environment If you’re travelling abroad to dive, the flight is the worst thing to start off your holiday. Overly dry, re-circulated air will dry out all the mucus membranes of your sinuses, dehydrate the body and often give you a lovely bug from one of your fellow passengers. A great trick to prevent this is to wear throughout the flight, a scarf over your entire nose and mouth so that you are breathing in humidified air.

At home in the winter with central heating, get a humidifier, or water traps that sit over the radiator to help humidify the air.

9) Visit a cranial osteopath A cranial osteopath is someone who has done at least a four-year osteopathic training programme, followed by further specialist training in cranial osteopathy. I had a ten-year sinus issue that was cured by a few sessions of cranial osteopathy and the treatment has also cured sinus bleeding in one of my instructors and equalisation issues in countless students. If you have exhausted all other options, it is worth going for a consultation to see if it could help you. To find a recommended cranial osteopath in your area, you can ring one of the world’s leading centres, Stillpoint, in Bath on 01225 460 106 and ask for the details of a practitioner near you.

10) Clean up your diet One of my students spent ten years learning how to equalise, and the thing that finally cracked it for him was giving up gluten, dairy and refined sugar. Every person will have subtly different dietary needs, but gluten and refined sugar cause inflammation in the body, which can affect equalisation, and dairy products can cause extra mucus production. If you’ve tried everything else, then try 30 days without gluten, refined grains, processed foods, all sugars and dairy and see if it makes a difference. I guarantee that your health will be improved in ways you won’t have thought possible and it will most likely help your equalisation as well! n

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JUST GO BARGING IN

DUXY explains the attractions of the Barge, a dive site in the northern Red Sea which is home to a plethora of marine species and a favourite with underwater photographers PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL ‘DUXY’ DUXFIELD

L

ast month, I wrote about the virtues of a tailored itinerary, not just for underwater photographers but equally beneficial to all divers that like an easier, slower pace to their diving when away on holiday, especially for those who don’t like being bound to the ringing of a bell telling them when to get up, when to dive and when to eat.

It’s a great way to take a dive trip, with the option to learn about underwater photography and marine life as an added bonus, equally suitable for those that want to dive for as long as they want when they want, as much as it is suitable for the newbies just getting to grips with their very first liveaboard.

And I wrote about the advantage of staying in-situ at a dive site, that facilitates such luxuries.

So this month I’m going to take a look at just such a dive spot that has become very popular for all the reasons above, and for all flavours of diver looking for a bit of freedom.

On my northern Red Sea itineraries for the last five years, I have been leading trips that take in a bit of Ras Mohammed, and then a couple of wrecks, one of which you may have heard of called the Thistlegorm. And we sometimes visit Tiran - weather depending - for a bit of Gordon, Thomas and Jackson, all first-class spots where we give you your first taste of freedom.

However, the main focal point of the week for a lot of our regulars is where we park up for the last few days diving of ‘open deck’ relaxation at an incredibly popular site called the Barge.

WHERE IN THE WORLD?

There are dive spots that gain legendary status for a variety of reasons, I mentioned the Thistlegorm that we visit on this trip too, which is an example.

Shark and Yolanda in Ras Mohammed National Park is another such spot we usually check out, but for sheer variety, amount and density of marine life, the Barge really takes some beating.

Situated close to a fringing reef near Gubal Island in the Northern Red Sea, the actual Barge itself is a wreck dive, but to be honest this is a bit of a stretch of the imagination being just a few metal spars jutting up from the bottom at between 10-16m.

No one seems to be able to decide upon its history or background either, but that doesn’t really matter in all honesty, this dive is much less about the metal work and more about the prolific marine life you most definitely will encounter, on every dive here.

And for this reason, you’d never sell it as a wreck dive, its main strength is that an area around and within the metal work gets washed with a regular, relatively predictable current, bringing with it nutrient-rich water that feeds everything from the bottom of the food chain up.

This means that as there’s abundant food for all comers, in just one dive you can see everything from tiny critters, crustaceans and nudibranchs to big schools of fish like sergeant majors and fusiliers,

numerous sizes and species of moray, dozens of big scorpion and stonefish, and regular visits from turtles and dolphins.

As we stay for at least a couple of nights, I ask the skippers if we can park pretty much over the top of the Barge itself, allowing our guests to get in and out from the back of the boat, whenever they please, and for as long as they like to explore as wide an area around the Barge itself as they’d like.

We also let those that want to take advantage of our RIB taxi service to go further up the reef and drift back to the boat from either side of the Barge itself. We even have a couple of daily scheduled trips out to the 19th century wreck of the Ulysses, which is a short journey around the corner of the reef system, for those that don’t mind getting off and on a RIB. It’s a popular site for taking classic moody wreck pictures, but in the afternoon is regularly visited by a pod of local dolphins, adding a frisson of anticipatory excitement to the proceedings.

The Ulysses is also home to a very specific type of Flabellina nudibranch too, so it’s a given that you’ll get a visit from the dolphins when you’re armed only with your macro lens for shooting the tiny stuff!

Being relatively flat and shallow around the Barge means that throughout the day it’s bathed in great light, suitable for shooting with available light, strobes and mixed.

Nearer the shore and only a couple of minutes from the ladders of the boat underwater, the reef also comes up to the surface, but there’s a shallow cut into a beautiful, shallow sandy lagoon. And in here is a great way to avoid any

troublesome current, but it’s also a popular spot for seeing lemon gobies, and in the mornings eagle rays. It’s like entering your own secret world.

I personally like this lagoon best for teaching people how to shoot sunset splitshots, as it’s quite easy to find a shallow area with reef close to the surface, just as the sun is going down, and sometimes still get the boat in the shot too. And while a bit tricky, these shots are very do-able for everyone to have a crack at.

HOW DO YOU GET THE BEST FROM THE BARGE?

Being presented with so many choices is actually the biggest problem you’ll have here when diving ‘open deck’, and I often find that divers used to being led around the dive sites by a guide sometimes struggle to get going initially. Those that dive a lot in the UK unsupervised take to it very quickly and easily. To make the transition easier for those with less experience of this sort of dive freedom, you always have the option of taking a guide or me along with you, to get your bearings.

SO WHAT ARE MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS WHEN DIVING HERE?

After getting your bearings and making mental notes of spots you’d like a closer look at, formulate a plan with your buddy and I’d suggest that you start off shooting wide-angle and spending some time actually on the Barge itself.

You’ll no doubt find some big morays, they have a regular here called George and I see him most trips

- he’s mahoosive! And he tends to stick around for a while at a cosy spot, so you’ll no doubt see him on a number of dives, and you can really see how much the light moving will change the shots you get of him.

You’ll also see numerous big scorpionfish, so will be able to get differing shots of these too.

Around the sides of the Barge are schools of cardinalfish, and as the dusk falls huge schools of fusliers swirl around.

I find that doing a long pre-breakfast dive of around 80 to 90 minutes suits me best, I like the light at this time of the day and I often find that there’s only a couple of takers, with people enjoying a lay in - unless I come up and I’ve seen dolphins and then the next morning everybody is in at the crack of dawn!

Seriously though, it’s a great time to dive for photographers, with the light changing minute by minute. And you can always go off and have a mid-morning sleep - you’re on holiday, after all.

I will often take a pre-lunch dive of a similar duration, but maybe get dropped off up or down the reef by the RIB and take a leisurely drift back to the boat -

BLUE DUCK PHOTOGRAPHY

Duxy and his business partners Phil and Anne Medcalf are now selling underwater photo kit and equipment alongside training and on-land workshops. If you’d like to make some kit enquiries, then contact: info@blueduckphoto.com you’ll always get the very best advice. And if you like the sound of a trip that incorporates a multi-day stop at a dive site like the Barge, we will be doing just such a trip with Emperor Divers on MV Emperor Superior on 25 May this year.

We will be doing a similar style of trip but based in the south of Egypt on Emperor Elite in late-November - contact Diverse Travel for further details: info@diversetravel.co.uk Duxy also has some long-haul trips to SE Asia with Dive Safari Asia in 2019 - email: info@divesafariasia.com. And if you belong to a dive club and would like Duxy and the gang to give you a talk or workshop, then please get in touch.

THE WITCHING HOUR

Speaking of night dives, for those with a penchance for this time of day, this is reckoned to be one of the best night dives in the world. I’m more of a wide-angle person, but it would be a crime to not do at least one dive at night here armed with your macro lens or diopter.

You’ll see a lot of the beasts that are less active during the day become more active when night falls, alongside a plethora of crustaceans, and nudibranchs. With octopi and squid doing the rounds filling their bellies, or getting up to hankypanky.

GOOD BEHAVIOUR

depending which way the current is running, you’ll see turtles a lot on these dives.

I don’t bother doing a night dive on the first day, instead opting for a dusk dive of over an hour, getting in around a half hour before sunset. This way you’ll get to see the most action, and dolphins are regular visitors at this time, and you’ll experience the changeover from day to night, another bountiful time for photographers who value the lovely dappled light that the low sun delivers.

This is a great time to do your first sunset split shots, but they’re better achieved with a snorkel, as you’re going to be bobbing around on the surface for a bit. And if they don’t work out how you’d like, you can always try again the next day. Afterwards you could go back to the boat, put on your kit and do a night dive as another option.

BIOGRAPHY

For fans of marine biology and animal behavior, the Barge is the perfect place to study. You can witness all types of typical fish behaviour, feeding, courtship and breeding. See the grey damsels exhibiting territoriality, even directly underneath the boat you can see barracuda lying in wait utilising the boat’s shadow to hide.

Wandering further afield you’ll see huge swathes of different types of coral all vying for space on the reef taking advantage of the sunlight and current.

There’s a spot close to the reef I’ve named Stonefish Corner, as you can see numerous impressive examples of these ambush predators lying in wait.

They stick around in a good spot sometimes for months on end and I’ve been back to the same ones on successive trips.

IN SUMMARY

Having the freedom to stay and dive in one spot across a few days has obvious benefits to photographers, but even for those just interested in doing their own thing and observing the marine life without rushing around, it’s clearly a big bonus. And for newbies just finding their fins, it allows them to gain confidence and grow their skills in a warm, shallow inviting environment while also getting a supercharged boost of accelerated learning about the reef and our lovely blue planet. So if you get a chance to do a trip like this, I’d urge you to give it a go - you won’t regret it. n

Since returning from Egypt working as a guide in the early noughties, Duxy has been at the forefront of underwater photography technology and how it has changed the way we all now take underwater photographs. Working as sales manager for the two leading underwater photography retailers, and more lately as the photography travel specialist for a multi-award-winning dive travel agent, his light-hearted take on the diving world and underwater photography has resulted in him being a regular speaker at the Dive Shows and at clubs up and down the country, sharing his knowledge and experience with all levels and abilities of underwater photographer.

He likes nothing better than to get a beginner started on the route to rewarding pictures, and approaches the subject with an inclusive, rather than exclusive, manner.

He now has more than 40 escorted trips under his belt and is continuing to develop new ways to pass on the knowledge and share the love. He can be found on Instagram and Twitter as @takeiteasyduxy and Facebook as Take iT Easy.

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Koh Tao

Go pro - or just go diving

AL HORNSBY heads for the island of Koh Tao and is pleasantly surprised by the rich diversity of diving experiences, as well as the comprehensive Divemaster and Diving Instructor (IDC) training on offer Photographs by AL HORNSBY

T

here are a number of reasons why the small island of Koh Tao, off Thailand’s eastern coast, is considered one of the most-popular Thai resort destinations. Like many other islands in the country, it has a reputation for fun and partying - it’s one of the monthly ‘Full Moon Party’ islands, after all - but it has different offerings as well. Its crowd, largely European and Asian, is a mix of both young and somewhat older people than seen on most of the other islands, with a lot of repeat travellers who visited when they were university-age, now coming back with their families. And, while there is no shortage of great bars, restaurants and late-night clubs, it has a clean, laid-back atmosphere that coincides with the beauty of its natural, tropical-island environment.

And, while Koh Tao’s granite-boulder geology and steep mountainsides create an incredible landscape for hikers and climbers, its biggest recreational draw is its diving and snorkelling. Its name in Thai means ‘Turtle Island’, as it is a nursery area for green and hawksbill turtles, which are frequently seen, and its beaches and near-shore waters offer surprisingly vibrant dive sites of various descriptions. It is especially unique in that despite its small size - only 21 sq metres, and much of that sparsely-populated mountainsides - it has become one of the top dive training locations in the entire world, with thousands of people each year having PADI Discover Scuba Diving experiences, gaining their Open Water Diver certifications, and moving on up through Advanced Open Water and other continuing education levels. To top it off, it has become one of diving’s most-prolific professional-level training centres, and claims to have more Divemasters and instructors trained each year than any other island on the planet.

When you visit Koh Tao for the first time, you might wonder how this evolved. Well, it does have excellent, progressive dive operators who make it natural and easy to expand one’s diver training while enjoying diving each day, affordable prices, and a pervasive, tranquil, tropical loveliness. Its real secret, however, is one that isn’t the first thing always talked about in Koh Tao, but something that is actually treated very moderately - it’s the extraordinary quality and diversity of its diving. I can

tell you, as someone fortunate enough to visit many different dive destinations, my welcome to a new area usually begins with tales of just how incredible the diving is, all the life and marvels we’ll see, etc (claims that are virtually always accurate and that I’m certainly very happy to hear). Koh Tao was different… the attitude was far more reserved and conservative… that their diving was very nice, but not so famous as other areas, and so on.

If this was by design (and I really don’t think it was), to lull me into modest expectations while knowing that I’d be blown away the moment I hit the water, I’ll have to say, it worked. Having dived many parts of the world - especially in the Asia Pacific region - I can honestly say that never have I been so surprised at the incredible richness and diversity of a new dive location as I was in Koh Tao. The environment was dramatic and chock-full of life, rather a marine-species-on-parade experience in very unique settings. To describe just a few dive sites, as examples: Sail Rock – The one somewhat distant site regularly dived (though less than two hours by boat), Sail Rock lies in open water between Koh Tao and another Thai island, Koh Phangan. It’s an iceberg-shaped, life-covered pinnacle, with surrounding additional submerged peaks, that rises steeply from a 45m sand bottom. While it is famed for its winding, well-lit chimney that extends from 18m to within 5m of the surface, for me its special magic was the profuse collection of marine life, with massive schools of different fish as well as large solitary species, in generally very good visibility (the week I was in Koh Tao it ranged between 15m and 40m). In my two dives there, I photographed several types of large grouper, as well as large schools of longfin spadefish; a huge swarm of yellowfin barracuda, followed a bit later by a school of pickhandle barracuda and soon afterward I was enveloped by bluelined barracuda; and also there were vast shoals of yellowtail scad, all milling around the gigantic spire.

What we didn’t see were whalesharks, which are regularly present (though Koh Tao saved that for just a couple hours later).

Southwest Pinnacle – A great dive site on its own, the third dive of our day to Sail Rock was at a marvellous place known as Southwest Pinnacle (you guessed it, southwest of Koh Tao). A group of seven underwater peaks and ridges that extend from 30m to within 5m of the surface, it’s a varied, impressive area, with large patches of anemones covering the rocky faces, most with resident pink anemonefish, and with many small groups of Java rabbitfish milling about. However, lovely and interesting this all was, however, it was the eight-metre whaleshark that really grabbed our attention. Over our 45-minute dive, the huge shark made four or five quick passes… and what an incredible sight it was, especially in this unique setting.

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READER TRIP

We’re looking for suggestions for the next legendary reader trip. Join the Scuba Diver team as we go on assignment in some far flung destination with a group of likeminded divers. Whether you’re a group, couple or riding solo, it’s a perfect opportunity to make new friends, learn about magazine photography and have a good laugh with the team.

Palau, Mexico, Iceland, tell us where and when you’d like to go? readertrip@scubadivermag.com

Sattakut Shipwreck – Not far offshore on the west side of Koh Tao, we dived a very interesting shipwreck, the Sattakut. A 48-metre-long US Navy LCI (landing craft, infantry) that saw considerable action during World War Two throughout the Pacific theatre, after the war it became a part of the Thai Navy. Sunk as a dive site in 2011, it rests with its stern at 30m, the bow at 26m, and the bridge at 18m. With two guns, the most dramatic is its 76mm bow cannon. Around the wreck we saw stingrays in the sand, and giant grouper, sweetlips and several species of snapper congregating about the deck and superstructure. Penetrations were possible for those of us with the appropriate certifications.

Chumphon Pinnacle – Well, every destination has its favourite dive, and for me, as nice as my dives around Koh Tao had been, the finale - which actually now lives in my favorite (ever) dive sites’ list - was a long, submerged pinnacle off the northwest tip of the island. Rising up from a 40m sand/rubble bottom to within 14m of the surface, Chumphon is drama personified. We dropped onto a huge panorama of mountainous ridges and spires extending outward in seemingly every direction, dizzyingly

“Having dived many parts of the world - especially in the Asia Pacific region - I can honestly say that never have I been so surprised at the incredible richness and diversity of a new dive location as I was in Koh Tao” complex in the 35-metre vis, crystal-blue water. The surfaces of the rocks were decorated with large gorgonians, black coral bushes and sponges. Most spectacular, however, were the seemingly hectares of slopes that were completely covered with huge, emerald, gold and violet-colored anemones, with massive schools of flashingly-bright yellowband fusiliers swirling above them all; as my many photographic images bear witness, the scene was near-indescribable. As we moved about, we found large brown-marbled grouper, coral cod and groups of giant sweetlips. At one spot on the sandy bottom, a large school of squid moved about, hunting over the sand. And, as if not to allow the dive to end on a quiet note, during our safety stop, a group of four young African pompano begin making rapid, flash-by passes at us, with one of them periodically extending his

GOING PRO IN PARADISE

In Koh Tao’s history, Sairee Cottage Resort, located along the water on the island’s most-popular area (Sairee Beach), is considered one of the pioneers.

And, for the island’s dive community, many longtime local pros have been associated with it at some time in their careers, whether receiving training, working or even living there - in the old days for about the cost of a burger a night! These days, it still is a fixture in the Koh Tao dive scene, having been developed into a lovely, modern resort, but having lost none of its casual, on-the-sand charm.

With a training pool, dive centre and classrooms, Wi-Fi and the other amenities expected by modern travellers, and several restaurants around the property (with many more accessible within short strolls), the resort has a variety of different accommodations, including beach and garden bungalows, poolside and garden rooms and even a comfortable dormitory (included in the price of the Go Pro training programmes).

The dive operation has qualified as a PADI five-star Instructor Development (IDC) Centre on Koh Tao, and is known not only for its excellent fun-dive offerings, but also for its dive educational programmes, featuring everything from snorkelling and PADI Discover Scuba Diving to Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver, Rescue Diver and specialties; in fact, a sizeable percentage of open water-certified diving guests start out fun-diving, only to realise that by the end of a week-long stay they can also earn their PADI Advanced Open Water credentials, and more, along the way.

Even more specialised is the professional diver development programme, with PADI Dive Master and Instructor Development Courses a hallmark. With wide-reaching programmes and schedules, divers interested in going pro find not only the required training, but also internship and mentoring programmes that help build real-world experience in diving operations, guiding dives and working with customers. The Go Pro PADI Instructor programme is led by PADI Platinum Course Director/Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer Marcel van den Berg, who, with his IDC Staff, conducts hands-on, close-attention programmes that receive high marks from their candidates.

After qualifying as PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors by succeeding in a PADI Instructor Examination (IE) (which are conducted frequently on Koh Tao), the innovative Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDTC) Programme not only teaches candidates the five instructor specialties required, but also provides the new OWSIs the opportunity to teach and certify the 25 divers needed to be certified as MSDTs. This can be accomplished in about two weeks, but the full internship programme can be enjoyed for up to six weeks, allowing candidates considerable training and teaching experience before they enter the dive industry. Divers interested in becoming PADI Instructors should go to www.saireecottagediving.com and click on the IDC tab for full information.

“We dropped onto a huge panorama of mountainous ridges and spires extending outward in seemingly every direction, dizzyingly complex in the 35-metre vis, crystal-blue water”

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‘streamer’ threadfins in display, then instantly retracting them. For many minutes, I followed them through my viewfinder, repeatedly firing, trying to capture the millisecond of the display, without being able to tell if I ever caught it or not - until later on the boat, looking closely at my images - one, unusual photograph emerged, of the four, chromium-hued pompano, the big one at the centre in full display, an image like I had never before captured.

Yes, my brief visit to Koh Tao was something indeed, surprising, and so very special. n

Q&A : Britain’s

youngest cave diver

Cave diving isn’t for everyone but, for 17-year-old Robert Thomas, it’s hard-wired into his DNA. JASON BROWN talks to one of Britain’s youngest-ever cave divers Photographs by JASON BROWN

A

sk most teenagers what they like to be doing on a weekend and they’d probably mumble something about hanging out with their mates. For 17-year-old Robert Thomas, though, his weekends are just a little bit different. Loaded down with sidemount tanks and a selection of lights to cut through the darkness, this quiet young man likes nothing more than pulling himself through mud, gravel, rocky restrictions and freezing-cold water to explore caves and tunnels deep underground.

While most parents would balk at the thought of letting their son take on such a hazardous endeavour, Robert’s father happens to be Michael Thomas - a TDI advanced full cave instructor and the training officer for the Somerset section of the Cave Diving Group (CDG). As Michael is keen to point out, Robert was never pushed into taking up cave diving – he just always wanted to do it. “Robert has always been involved in dry caving so it was inevitable that he would want to visit underwater caves. This gave me some pause for thought and we had many conversations in regards to risk and reward and the need for full understanding of the training and cave environment,” said Michael.

Robert turns 18 in March and with this milestone, he’ll become the UK’s youngest fully-qualified full cave diver. With a humble demeanour and quiet confidence way beyond his years, chatting to Robert gives a refreshing insight into the passion that drives him to do what he does…

Q. What made you want to follow in your father’s cave-diving footsteps?

A. I have been involved in dry caving since I was very young and have always found the underground environment fascinating.

Having grown up around cave divers, exploring underwater caves was a natural progression. I wanted to explore places where even less people have been to, and possibly even places where nobody has been! I remember diving the Blue Hole on Gozo during my Open Water course when I was just ten. I found a small cave on the back wall of the hole and couldn’t resist swimming into it - even then I was drawn to into the darkness!

Q. What is it about cave diving that appeals to you now?

A. There are many reasons why I love diving and especially the technical side of things, but the one that stands out to me the most is the fact it is so mentally intense, especially in a cave environment. The other big attraction to technical diving is the physical challenge, admittedly it’s not always enjoyable when you are carrying cylinders up steep muddy slopes in the rain, but when it’s done and you are preparing for a dive, it’s a huge feeling of satisfaction. As well as the fact, you still have the best part - the dive - to come.

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Q. What would you say to those that think that someone of your age is perhaps less able to fully comprehend the risks involved in cave diving?

A. I don’t personally think that age has anything to do with a person’s ability to comprehend the risks involved in cave diving - I think it’s more to do with the training they have received. It’s really down to the individual’s experience base, mind-set and problem-solving abilities - not their age. I have always been taught that cave diving is low risk / high consequence, and for me personally, I love the feeling of being in control of a potentially dangerous situation.

Q. How do you think the training you’ve received from your father differs from what you may have received from another instructor?

A. The training I have received from my father has been to exactly the same standards as any of his other students.

The difference is that I get to reinforce those skills every time I go diving with him. When mistakes are made they can be talked about and resolved with the help of a qualified instructor. You learn something new every day.

Q. What do your non-diving mates make of your cave diving antics?

A. Pretty much all of my mates are into some kind of sports, like mountain biking and climbing, which are cool in their own right. In regards to the response I get, most of them think it’s cool and definitely unique, although they appreciate that it might not be for them.

Q. What sites have you and your father explored here in the UK and which one has been your favourite?

Any that you’re particularly looking forward to diving when you turn 18?

A. Places like Porth yr Ogof, Hurtle Pot, White Lady silica mine and Cambrian mine spring to mind. All are relatively easy access in regards to standard British cave diving.

Some less-glamorous dives spring to mind too, such as sumps 1-9 in Swildon’s Hole. Accessing places like this take a lot more effort even though the actual dives are not very difficult, as the access is a huge mental and physical battle. When I turn 18, I am hoping to join the join the CDG (Cave Diving Group), which will allow me access to caves I’m really excited to dive, such as Gough’s Cave in Cheddar and Wookey Hole.

“I would love to be involved in expeditions to places like China with the aim of finding virgin cave, both dry and underwater”

“This hit me in the process, which was concerning - not only had the roof just fallen on top of me, but the visibility had reduced from a crystal 15 metres plus to absolute zero in the blink of an eye”

Q. Have you had any scary moments whilst cave diving?

A. ‘Adventure is just bad planning’, therefore I don’t enter these environments with the intention of scaring myself. Touchwood I haven’t so far, however I am sure that if my cave-diving career continues, especially in exploration situations, I’m sure there will be some hairy moments. That being said earlier this year, myself and my dad were diving in Cambrian slate mine when a large section of wall and roof decided to unattach itself. This hit me in the process, which was concerning - not only had the roof just fallen on top of me, but the visibility had reduced from a crystal 15 metres plus to absolute zero in the blink of an eye.

Q. It’s clear that you’re very driven – what’s your long-term goals and what do you see yourself diving in, say, ten years from now?

A. Ten years from now I would like to have accomplished some fairly big dives. I would love to be involved in expeditions to places like China with the aim of finding virgin cave, both dry and underwater. I would like to go to the end of the Fontaine du Truffe in France. It’s fair to say that the exploration side of things really gets me going and I would love to be able to name large amounts of virgin passage. I love diving shipwrecks too - the Britannic is definitely on my bucket list! n

Dive Agency News Each month, we invite all the main dive training agencies to showcase new courses, forthcoming events, staff changes and promotions, and so on. scubadivermag.com/agencynews

Whiston and Prescot Sub Aqua Club Congratulations go to Helen Wilson on passing her Elementary Diver exams.

Sub-Aqua Association We are very sad to report that Albert Cartwright, one of our founding members and a member of the 500 Group, has passed away following a long illness. A champion of the SAA, a passionate diver and supporter of all things diving, his enthusiasm for the sport inspired many divers over the years. Albert will be sorely missed. Our thoughts go to his wife Shirley and his family at this difficult time.

Sub-Aqua Association Awards The SAA Awards are fast approaching. The awards give the opportunity for clubs and individual members to be recognised for going above and beyond. Awards available include: Sub-Aqua Certificates – Gold, Silver and Bronze, Golden Club, Golden Region, George Arnold Trophy for Conservation, The Kenn Tyler Trophy for Instruction, SAA Medallion for Life Saving and The Zanelli Charlton Award.

In addition, the SAA Awards recognise achievements in Archaeology and Conservation. Full details of the criteria for each award are available on the news section of the website. The SAA Awards will be presented at the AGM in Liverpool.

West Yorkshire Police Sub Aqua Club The West Yorkshire Police Sub Aqua Club (WYP Sub Aqua Club) held their 2017 AGM earlier this week where, after 22 years of dedicated service as chairman to SAA 730, Ken Cooper retired as chair of the committee.

He was presented with an award for his dedication to the club and photo album containing pictures of past and present members on a variety of dive trips.

His dedication to the club across 22 years at the helm is a remarkable achievement and the club will be eternally grateful. Thank you, Ken. www.saa.org.uk

As we recover from the festive period, GUE have a couple of bits of news this month.

Global Underwater Explorers will be exhibiting for the first time at the Great Northern Dive Show. But why do you go to a dive show? People go for all kinds of reasons. It might be to look for some new equipment, or to research some holiday destinations. But these days, you can do all of that online, so there has to be some other reason. People often go to meet up with friends, and to listen to some interesting talks. And that’s all great, but what if there was another reason?

What if you could take half an hour to outline all of your diving goals for the next two years, and work out a plan that gave you the most-efficient way of achieving those goals? Face to face, free of charge, from one of our GUE instructors on the stand. Book your personal diving workshop here: https://gueukshows.as.me/ GUE would also like to announce the launch of a new Project Baseline conservation initiative in Scotland. GUE instructor Marcus Rose has started to document conditions in Loch Long along with other members of GUE Scotland. For more information, please visit their Facebook page: https:// www.facebook.com/ProjectBaselineLochLong/ www.gue.com

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WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

PADI introduces all-new PADI Travel As the world’s largest scuba diver training organisation, PADI is committed to growing the scuba and freediving market, both by attracting new people to the sport and by motivating existing divers to dive more often. To this end, PADI has introduced the all-new global PADI Travel, featuring an online travel platform and full-service team dedicated to providing topnotch travel services and inspiring divers to explore more of the underwater world and take care of our oceans. PADI Travel is designed to energise and grow the overall diving community for the benefit of everyone in the dive industry, offering hundreds of dive destinations around the world, and poised to expand over the coming months with more dive resort offerings.

“Travel is intrinsically linked to diving. For more than 30 years, it has been – and continues to be – an important part of the PADI organisation as we seek to keep divers engaged and active,” says Drew Richardson, PADI Worldwide President and CEO. “The new PADI Travel offering is the natural evolution as we expand the program globally and optimise it to provide a best-in-class digital experience for dive travel.” travel.padi.com PADI AmbassaDivers continue to bring conservation and community into the spotlight As PADI reinforces its stance on protecting our ocean planet, more PADI AmbassaDivers have united forces to extend the message far and wide.

The Jetlagged is a fun moniker for Claudia and Hendrik Schmitt, action-loving film-makers and passionate PADI Divemasters always on the search for adventures, from the Polar Circle to the Equator. As divers, The Jetlagged consider themselves ambassadors of the sea and are fully committed to protect the world underwater by supporting various environmental projects all over the world. By shooting films and telling stories in and around the sea, Claudia and Hendrik want to inspire others to enjoy, explore and protect our oceans.

Also from Germany, Edina Müller has been using diving as a therapeutic tool in her capacity as a sports therapist. The three-time Paralympian is helping people who have experienced spinal cord injuries get back into active, self-determined lives. Inspired by her own love for the ocean, she started a programme to give her patients the opportunity to try diving for the first time, feeling weightless again and experiencing the freedom to move in this unique environment. https://www.padi.com/ambassadiver www.padi.com

RAID releases its latest General Diving Standards (RGDS) version 54.4.7 These standards reflect RAID’s ISO ratings and are designed to the highest industry standards. Areas of immediate new interest within the standards are RAID’s change, like other mainstream training agencies, to allow training to start at ten years old for junior divers. Instructors training junior divers are encouraged to visit our blog, in addition to reading the new standards, as the use of training credits varies from 10-11 year olds, who will use a Junior Open Water credit, and 12-15 year olds, who will use an Open Water 20 qualification with various junior diver restrictions.

Other new additions alongside the new look and feel of the document are the new RAIDaptive courses, including an entry-level programme, a buddy diver programme and a specialty programme. In the technical area, RAIDs new OC Deco 40, 50 and 60 diver and instructor programmes will catch the eye and need review.

Again, with RAID these standards are out of date if downloaded off your professional log in profiles, they continue to appear on the log in page for you, the look and feel is greatly improved with index hyperlinking for ease of document navigation.

RAID RGDS are just that now, the instructor ‘how to teach’ guides are all freely available to qualified instructors through their instructor login profiles through the course materials held there.

Don’t delay! Get online and review this great new document and remember it is a standard to review the course standards before teaching. www.diveraid.com

It’s a slightly slow news months for IANTD UK, but we are making new plans for 2018. The news from the States is that we have some revamped manuals, including the Self Sufficient Diver, written by Tim Clements of IANTD UK. We’re also planning a winter skills refresher for sometime in March, open to all IANTD divers and those looking to crossover - if you are interested, email: info@iantd.uk.com. On the instructor front, we’re congratulating Tim Cutter on advancing to Normoxic OC instructor after a long internship in the North East with IT Bob Scullion and Tim Clements, now Normoxic CCR instructor, evaluated by Technical Director Phil Short. www.iantd.uk.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

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The island of Utila is proving to be a hotspot for technical diving, as STUART PHILPOTT found out when he donned opencircuit tech gear and a CCR to explore the depths Photographs by STUART PHILPOTT

T

he small but not so insignificant island of Utila is a popular choice for diver training, particularly PADI Divemaster and Instructor internships. Most of the activity seems to focus around Utila Dive Centre, or UDC (www.utiladivecenter. com), owned and run by PADI Course Director Andy Phillips.

I even recommended my own daughter sign up for her Divemaster course with UDC, so the training must be half decent!

Situated in the Caribbean Sea approximately 18 miles from Honduras, it’s not the easiest place to reach from the UK (two flights and either a boat ride or another short but very memorable flight in a light aircraft), but this doesn’t seem to discourage visitors. As a stop-off point on the Central America backpacking route, the island attracts a mix of nationalities from Europe, Scandinavia, USA, Canada and South America, the majority being in their late-teens and early 20s.

Being some way off the mass tourism beaten track, I didn’t expect to find a fully blown tech-diving centre offering the complete range of ‘toys’ from OC twinsets, sidemounts and stage cylinders to closed circuit rebreathers (CCRs). I met up with Brit Scott Peaker and Canadian Jake Bulman, who seemed to share UDC’s tech-diving workload between them. Scott offered to guide me on a trimix dive, leaving Jake to follow up with rebreathers, and if there was time, sidemounts. I had a quick tour of the facilities and counted at least five twinsets, three sidemount rigs, umpteen deco cylinders and a rack loaded with O2 cleaned regs for rent.

For the past two years, Scott has been running tech deep trimix courses about twice a month and sidemount courses three or four times a month. He usually conducts training dives at sites on the north side of Utila. CJ’s Drop Off is one of his particular favourites. Scott said: “When you arrive at the dive site, the wall is right there and goes all the way down past 90m”.

Scott shared space on the same dive boat used by recreational divers.

This was the ideal place to attract new customers. UDC run instructor courses every month and qualify over 100 new instructors each year.

Number two resident PADI Course Director Susie Phipps said: “It’s the perfect selling machine. It’s easy to add on sidemount and rebreather courses after the IE has finished”. Everybody watches the tech divers going through briefings, kitting up and then disappearing into the deep blue. This naturally generated curiosity and interest. Scott said: “We pick up a constant flow of work”.

“Utila offered a good range of dive sites down to 90m and beyond, there was very little current to contend with and visibility usually exceeded 30m”

Scott began diving in Fiji while working on a reef conservation project. In two years he progressed to PADI Divemaster certification. Scott then moved to Utila and completed his tech training and to date has logged over 250 tech dives.

He said: “I love being able to explore and see places that only a few people are able to go. Tech opens up a whole new side to diving, from thoroughly planning dives from start to finish to using different gear and a variety of gas mixes. It also allows you to build a strong network of friends”.

I sat down with Scott and Jake to discuss the plan. Our objective was to locate and enter CJ’s Cave at a maximum depth of 60m. Scott said: “No one ever visits the cave as it’s so deep”. Our gas mix for the dive was a 20/20 with deco gases 50 percent and 100 percent 02, with a total dive time of 60 minutes, so nothing too strenuous or time-consuming.

Scott and Jake had never dived with me before, so were naturally concerned about my safety. It’s worth mentioning that Utila does have an on-site 24-hour deco chamber in case of any emergencies. Admittedly I hadn’t been tech diving for a few months and felt a little bit rusty, so was more than happy to follow their guidelines to the letter. Scott gave a thorough briefing with no skimping on information.

It felt like a simulated dry run of the entire dive! I could see that Scott was extremely conscientious. I’m certain he went through the same procedure with everyone he guided.

We had all turned up wearing multi-coloured board shorts and rash vests. There was not one single piece of industry-standard ‘tech black’ gear to be seen. Scott was con-

cerned that this would somehow make the dive seem less ‘technical’ to the outside world, but the water temp was hovering around 30 degrees C and only dropped by a degree or two at our target depth, so I didn’t see there was a problem. We were all dressed suitably for the environment - totally awesome, dude! This was my first-ever tech dive without wearing any kind of suit protection and it felt quite strange, but on the other hand less restrictive and quite similar to ‘going commando’!

During the 45-minute boat ride to CJ’s Drop Off I had plenty of time to survey the palm-fringed coastline. Around Eastern Harbour there is a good variety of bars, restaurants and white sandy beaches on offer.

Every night of the week I could find at least one place offering a happy hour for drinks or a two-for-one on food, which helped save some cash.

On the descent I could tell my trim needed some fine-tuning. I felt slightly inverted, and when laden down with stage cylinders, this made finning harder than necessary. Tech gear should always be comfortable but due to time constraints, I’m usually being thrown in at the deep end (literally), which means getting used to unfamiliar kit rapido.

Just to wish us bon voyage, a friendly hawksbill did a fly-by. I was in two minds whether to deflate my BCD and chase after the turtle, but this was a serious tech dive with a planned run time, so thought better of it. I had to keep focused on the dive and stick to the plan.

I followed behind Scott and Jake as we made our descent on the near-vertical wall. With visibility topping 30 metres, it was very dramatic looking back up at the surface. We passed a clump of orange tube

sponges protruding from the wall. I kept pace until we reached the cave entrance at our prescribed maximum depth of 60m - in fact, my Shearwater computer was recording bang on 60m. This turned out to be my best picture opportunity, lining up Scott and Jake in the foreground with me wedged inside the shallow cave entrance looking back out into the blue. There was a huge rock formation in the middle of the opening, which added some size perspective, and adorned with colourful sponges, made the shot more interesting. I didn’t have time to fully explore the cave but from what I could see, it didn’t go very far.

After a short period of time we turned around and headed back the way we came. I stopped at the tube sponges to take another stream of pictures and then carried on up, completing a series of deco stops along the way. Watching the reef inhabitants made the time go much quicker. Back on the surface everybody was smiley faces. The dive couldn’t have gone any smoother from run time to gas management. No matter what the sea temperature, I usually don’t dive in anything less than a 5mm suit, especially on tech dives, but on this occasion the board shorts ldidn’t feel too chilly!

When I turned up the next morning, Jake had already prepared the rebreathers for our days diving, which made me feel very lazy and inadequate. I had qualified as a TDI Poseidon rebreather diver a number of years ago while visiting the tech centre DiveIn Larnaca, based in Cyprus. Unfortunately, I was in the same situation as the previous trimix dive - I was rusty with the workings of a Poseidon Se7en, so Jake went through all the procedures ‘idiot fashion’

before we entered the water.

Jake learnt to dive in 2014. His first dive was at West Hawk Lake, Canada, in 4 degree C water while wearing a holey wetsuit. This was a complete contrast to wearing board shorts in the Caribbean. He completed his first rebreather dive in February 2015 and became a tech instructor in April of the same year. He has now got almost 130 hours on the Poseidon, and about 60 hours on his personal KISS Sidekick unit, which totals more than 200 logged tech dives. Jake has completed more than 20 CCR courses while working at UDC. NB: Since writing this article, Jake has now left Utila and is cave diving in Mexico.

We managed to jump aboard a dive boat heading out to a popular site called Duppy Waters. I noticed that all of the boats had dedicated tech areas for storing twinsets, etc, which was a really nice touch. I personally have about 70 hours experience on a variety of rebreathers, from Inspiration and Megaladon to JJ and Liberty, but I don’t own my rebreather which means I can go several months, sometimes longer, without using a unit. Jake guided me through the pre-breathe cycle and standard Se7en start-up procedure, which is basically follow the instructions on the handset.

The mooring line sits next to the drop-off at a depth of about 8m-9m, so I hovered close to the seabed and spent several minutes just practising buoyancy again. Using standard scuba it’s easy to breathe in and out, thus instantaneously ascend/descend a metre or two. This works well when I’m taking pictures as I am constantly changing position and depth trying to get the best composition. But when I’m using a rebreather breathing in and out doesn’t affect my buoyancy. This isn’t an insurmountable problem, it just requires a different approach and takes a while to get used too. I took a few shots of Jake underneath the boat and then we made a descent along the wall to a depth of around 30m.

Jake guided me to a number of overhangs and narrow swim-throughs, which severely tested my recently honed buoyancy skills. I must confess there were probably a few more scuffs on the unit after my dive!

We finned along the outer edges of the reef admiring the scenery. A solitary

“This was my first-ever tech dive without wearing any kind of suit protection and it felt quite strange, but on the other hand less restrictive and quite similar to ‘going commando’!”

barracuda came in for a closer look. I stopped to take some pictures of a large green moray and an inquisitive pufferfish before we headed back to the surface. The lack of noisy exhaled bubbles made the atmosphere seem far more serene. Jake said: “Rebreathers are more hydrodynamic than twinsets so can move quicker, warmer due to moist gas and less deco all while using less gas. What more could you want?”

UDC has totally cornered Utila’s tech-diving market. The PADI instructor programmes were proving to be very popular, which meant more divers were booking on the rebreather and sidemount courses.

The tech trimix courses took longer to complete so there was slightly less requirement. Scott said it would take at least six days to qualify.

I have to admit that tech diving in tropical conditions does have its attractions. Utila offered a good range of dive sites down to 90m and beyond, there was very little current to contend with and visibility usually exceeded 30m, not forgetting I could comfortably wear my super-duper board shorts. n

What’s New

WORLD EXCLUSIVE! MIFLEX XT-TECH HOSES (SRP: £26-£42) It seems to have been ages since Miflex brought out any new products, but technical divers will surely love these low-pressure hoses that have been designed specifically for tech-diving applications.

One of the criticisms levelled at Miflex low-pressure hoses was that they were rather ‘floaty’, which isn’t an issue with a recreational set-up, but once you factor a two-metre hose into the mix, it can prove problematic. Some tech divers were also sceptical about the durability of the Miflex hoses, though Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans – a long-time fan of Miflex low-pressure hoses – is still using some of the very first that came into the country many, many years ago and they look like new. However, taking all these points onboard, the Miflex team set about producing a super-tough hose that would meet all of a technical diver’s requirements. The result is the XT-Tech.

It is still a lightweight and super-flexible hose, but it benefits from a polyether-based PU thermoplastic inner liner, braiding of polyester and Kevlar for added reinforcement, and an outer smooth layer of thermoplastic, which means it is no longer positively buoyant and less-abrasive around the neck. All the hoses are supplied in a reusable drybag. There are six sizes of regulator hose – 56cm (£26), 60cm (£28), 75cm (£29), 90cm (£30), 100cm (£31) and 210cm (£42) – and four lengths of inflator hose – 56cm (£33), 65cm (£34), 75cm (£36) and 90cm (£38). www.miflexhoses.co.uk

FOURTH ELEMENT ADVENTURE HOODY (ASH BLACK) (SRP: £79.95) Fourth Element’s latest zip-through hoody presents an eyecatching graphical scene of our beau-tiful world below and above the water line. Hand printed in the UK and made from 85 percent organic ring-spun combed cotton/15 percent polyester, with a super-cosy Sherpa fleece lining made from 100 percent recycled polyester and a metal zipper. Male and female sizes available. www.fourthelement.com

PANDORA TOOL (SRP: £49.95 STAINLESS STEEL / £69.95 TITANIUM)

SCUBAPRO NEOPRENE DRYSUITS (SRP: £685-£899)

For 2018, Scubapro has expanded and updated their line of neoprene drysuits. There are three models to choose from: The Exodry (£685) is made from 4mm high-density neoprene and features latex wrist and neck seals. For 2018 it comes with new shoulder and knee panels, a new plush interior lining, and a new attached semi-rigid boot that includes a Velcro strap on the upper that improves fit while preventing air migrating into the boot.

The Everdry 4 (£759) is also made from 4mm high-density neoprene and has neoprene neck and wrist seals. The 2018 version comes with upgraded shoulder and knee panels, new plush interior, and smoother wrist seals The Everdry 4 Pro (£899) is a heavy-duty version of the premium-plus Everdry 4, and is tar-geted at military divers, commercial divers, tech divers and anyone that needs an exposure suit that can stand up to super-rugged diving activities.

It has a Diamond Span interior, and an abra-sion-resistant exterior lining. All are available in male and female designs and a range of sizes. www.scubapro.com

TDI/SDI ZIP-THROUGH HOODY (SRP: £49.95) The Pandora Tool is a scuba-diving equipment tool for field maintenance, made by divers and engineers. When you enjoy scuba diving, equipment failures happen anywhere and at any time. As divers and/or instructors, although you carry proper tools to cope with some unexpected sit-uations which could take place during courses or dive trips, the existing tools are always a little too much to have with you constantly due to the large volume and weight. Often, the tools available at dive resorts or aboard are not easy to use because they are mostly rusty. Multi-tools designed for diving purpose do not exactly consist of what you actually need on-site, so they do not function properly when needed. That is why Pandora Tool was created. Pandora Tool is not all-round that can fix all the regulators out there. It is a multi-tool for emergencies, such as re-placing hoses and plugs, adjusting orifice on the second stage or intermediate pressure in the first stage. It is as small as a credit-card and lighter than an iPhone, but has all the functions of a basic tool, and is resistant to rust. www.pandora-lab.co.uk

The TDI/SDI beanie – see last month’s What’s New – has now been joined by a stylish zip-through hoody, complete with handwarmer pockets, and TDI/SDI logos on the chest and across the back. www.sea-sea.com

Gear Guide

THIS ISSUE: 2017 – THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Each month, the SCUBA DIVER Test Team assembles to rate and review a selection of dive equipment from a range of manufacturers. Products are split into price categories and are then evaluated for performance, comfort, ease of use, build quality, looks and value for money. The Test Team comprises Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans and a squad of keen volunteers, whose dive experience ranges from a couple of hundred dives to well over 6,000.

THE DIVE SITE Scuba Diver conducts the majority of its Group Tests at the picturesque inland dive site Vivian Quarry (www.viviandivecentre.co.uk) in Llanberis, Snowdonia, North Wales. Logistically, it is well set up for when you are dealing with several pieces of kit in various price brackets, and getting in and out of the water is a simple matter thanks to two robust entry/ exit points.

REVIEWED THIS MONTH: • MID-PRICE BCDS • HIGH-END BCDS • BUDGET FINS • FINS FROM £75-£125 • HIGH-END FINS

• MASKS UNDER £45 • MASKS OVER £45 Location: Tested at Vivian Dive Centre

MID-RANGE BCDS Scuba Diver Verdict: Due to splitting our back-inflate jackets into a separate test, we were down to just five jackets for this Group Test. All of the BCDs reviewed performed well, offering plenty of support underwater and on the surface, and were comfortable when walking about topside as well.

The Best Value award went to the Aq-ualung Pro HD (£290), which offered a great all-round package at an enviable price point. It was pushed close by the Scubapro Equalizer, which was just left down by its pockets.

The Choice award was a tough one.

The Mares and Oceanic offerings were both very good jackets, but both of them suffered a little by having pockets which were not the easiest to access. The AP Explorer (£430, or £375 direct from AP Diving) was well priced, robustly built and the massive pockets were easy to get into, so it just edged it over the competition.

HIGH-END BCDS Scuba Diver Verdict: Due to splitting our back-inflate jackets into a separate test, we were down to just three jackets for this Group Test. All of the BCDs reviewed performed well, as you would expect at this price point, holding you in any position underwater you contorted yourself into, and giving lots of support on the surface. The Best Value award went to the Aqualung Axiom (£396), which is a great all-round BCD with some neat features - SureLock integrated weights, Wrapture harness and Griplock tank band - all at a decent price.

The Choice award was a tough one. The Scubapro and Zeagle are both high-end, robust units, with great performance, but the X-Black (£569) just took the title thanks to its mix of good looks and features.

BUDGET FINS Scuba Diver verdict: Due to a few brands being no-shows for this group test, we were down to just three sets of fins for this price bracket. All of the fins on test performed well overall, and all represented good value for money.

The Best Value award went to the Oceanic Viper (£47.99) fins, which at under £50 are a total steal. They are lightweight, so would suit someone looking for a travel as well as UK fin, and yet they generated decent thrust as well. I would just buy a set of spring straps and retro-fit them.

The Choice award went to the Scubapro Jet Sport Adjustable (£69) fins. These were good-looking, solidly made units, which gave a great overall performance, with noteable power from normal and frog kicks, and yet still came in at a decent price. Again, I would purchase a set of spring straps to fit to these fins.

FINS FROM £75-£125 Scuba Diver verdict: We had a real selection of styles in this price bracket, ranging from full-fledged split fins and paddle fins to something blending the two, and one that looked completely out of this world.

In the Best Value category, the Aqualung Shot FXs went head to head with the Atomic Aquatics X1 Bladefins.

Both were substantial paddle fins, and both delivered a solid performance, with plenty of thrust and a good all-round capability when it came to different fin strokes, but in the end, the Shot FX (£86) just came out on top. The slightly shorter, wider design meant manoeuvering in tight confines was a little more straightforward, and they are a cracking price.

The Choice award was simple. The Scubapros are great fins, but are quite big and heavy. The Hollis F2s (£115) are an unusual design, but it works well, and the short nature meant they were a joy to use. A worthy winner.

HIGH-END FINS Scuba Diver verdict: As with the mid-priced fins, we had a real selection of styles in this price bracket, ranging from long paddle fins to stumpy wide-bladed vented fins, to totally unique hybrids.

There was not a lot of difference in price between any of these high rollers, with less than ÂŁ30 separating the cheapest from the most expensive. This meant that it all came down to the performance, and the Apeks RK3s (ÂŁ120) made a clean sweep of both the Best Value and the Choice awards once again.

This year they were closely pushed by the likes of the xDeep EX1, which were also a phenomenal fin, but the blend of looks, great performance and a stonking price meant that the Apeks came out on top. That said, there was not a bad fin here, and the Atomic Aquatics, Scubapro and Hollis did not disappoint either.

REGULATORS

Quality Beneath The Surface

T3 The ultimate; lightweight and corrosion free, designed with the travel diver in mind.

ST1 The world’s first “Green” regulator.

M1 Extreme Performance without compromise.

B2 The perfect combination of comfort, performance, and style.

Z3 Exclusive Atomic features at a mid-range price.

Atomic Aquatics Europe GmbH www.atomicaquatics.co.uk

BUDGET MASKS Scuba Diver verdict: Masks are a very personal people of equipment.

Once you find a mask that fits your face, you will be reluctant to part with it. A good mask is essential to a dive being comfortable and hassle-free - no one likes to be constantly emptying their mask because of an annoying leak trickling water in.

The Best Value title went to the Scubapro Vibe 2 (£34), which looks far more expensive than it actually is. It is well made, comfortable and has a neat EZ Strap system fitted (as well as having a standard option too). At under £35 it represents great value.

The Choice away went to the Bare Frameless (£42), which is still wellpriced but oozes quality, is very lightweight, ultra-comfortable and has a neat, subtle finish. This would be perfect as a primary mask or, because it can fold flat, a fantastic back-up mask.

HIGH-END MASKS Scuba Diver verdict: As we said above, masks are a very personal people of equipment and once you find a good one that fits your face, you will not want to part with it.

For a dive to be comfortable and hassle-free, you want to eliminate annoying water leaks.

The Best Value title went to the Hollis M3 (£69.99), though it was chased to the podium by the OMS Tattoo and the Scubapro Spectra. All three are cracking masks, but in the end the superior comfort of the M3 saw it to the finish slightly ahead of the others.

The Choice award went to the Atomic Aquatics Venom Frameless (£130).

Yes, £130 is a lot of money to pay for a dive mask, but with its lifetime guarantee, not to mention the build quality and innovative features, this could well be the last mask you ever buy.

Kieran Hatton

CCR Trimix Instructor

Vikki Batten

Martin Robson

Richie Stevenson

Edoardo Pavia

PADI Rebreather Consultant

Cameraman & Explorer

Paul Vincent Toomer Co-Owner, RAID

Cave Explorer

Deep Wreck Explorer

Ian France

CCR Cave Instructor

Find your local retailer or buy online at

www.anchordivelights.com

WWW.DRYSUITS.CO.UK l SALES@DRYSUITS.CO.UK

CALL US ON 01274 379480

Test Extra

PARALENZ DIVE CAMERA | SRP: £580

Mark Evans: Due to a serious shortage of foreign assignments over the back-end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 – I really have to stop sending contributors to all of these exotic places and nab some for myself! – I have not been able to put the Paralenz to the test yet. I have been clocking up plenty of testing dives with other gear in Vivian Quarry, but it doesn’t really contain anything that is video-worthy – I am aiming to get up to Capernwray to shoot the trout and hopefully the sturgeon soon, as well as getting into the sea off our coastline to see how it handles traditional British ‘green water’.

In the meantime, there are so many features to the Paralenz that it was worth taking time out to review them, never mind what it is like once you actually get into the water!

First up is the build quality. It truly is second-to-none, and feels exceptionally robust in your hand. Compared with any of these other action cameras, which need to be sealed into a plastic housing to be taken underwater, the military-grade aluminium and polycarbonate Paralenz is on a different planet, and was designed from the outset to be a dive camera first and foremost.

Everything is controlled from a rotating dial and a push switch, which can all be operated with a gloved hand. The rechargeable battery provides more than three-and-a-half hours use in 1080p, and over two hours at 4K 30fps. It can go to 200m straight out of the box.

However, its crowning glory is its depth-controlled colour correction (DCC), which eliminates the need for external filters and is supposed to ensure the camera records the correct colours whatever depth you are at. I can’t wait to put it to the test!

The dynamic Paralenz team are, as you would expect, very technically savvy, and so the dive camera connects seamlessly with an App on your phone. You can return from your dive, and then download your dive footage via Bluetooth straight to your phone. You can even set it up so it shows your depth and the water temperature superimposed on the footage.

It comes in a well-padded storage case, complete with safety lanyard, charging cable, silicon grease and spare O-rings, and two mounts – one that goes on your mask strap, and one that can be used with a variety of attachments. www.paralenz.com

R

XT-Tech

Low Pressure Technical Diving Hoses The XT-Tech series of medium pressure flexible scuba diving hoses, have been developed with the main purpose to offer technical divers additional safety with Kevlar reinforcement in the inner braiding, combined with a smooth outer PU layer.

l For Technical Divers l Lightweight l Inner core of Polyether based PU l Smooth Outer Layer l Kevlar Reinforcement l Not Positively Buoyant l Complies with EN250 l Miflex Quality

Manufacturing

D E S I G N E D FO R D I V I N G - M A D E FO R A DV E N T U R E www.miflexhoses.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1162 388 255

Long Term Test AQUASKETCH MINNO 1

SHEARWATER RESEARCH NERD 2 NEW ARRIVAL

Mark Evans: The AquaSketch Minno 1 is a rugged underwater notebook, sketchpad and reference platform that brings all the convenince and versatility of paper to the marine environment.

It is small enough to be worn on the wrist or put into a INFORMATION pocket, yet it can hold an Arrival date: February 2018 incredible ten feet of waterSuggested retail price: £35 proof, reusable and printable Number of dives: 0 material. How cool is that?

Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins www.aquasketch.co.uk

ANCHOR DIVE LIGHTS SERIES 3K

Mark Evans: The Anchor Dive Light makes a damn fine primary dive torch in its handheld guise, both for right here in INFORMATION the UK and in warmer waters Arrival date: July 2017 abroad, and its compact size Suggested retail price: £695 makes it a true joy to handle Number of dives: 37 and use.

Time in water: 36 hrs 15 mins www.anchordivelights.com

Mark Evans: I have now got two dives on the NERD 2 under my belt, and I am still finding it hard to get my head around just how well it works.

It is a tiny little unit, and looking at the screen on land, it seems positively minute, but once it is set up right on your reg and positioned correctly, when you view it underwater, the screen details are all just so clear and easy to read. It is just so handy being able to see all your dive info with just a shift of your eyes. www.shearwater.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: December 2017 Suggested retail price: £1,427 Number of dives: 2 Time in water: 1 hrs 25 mins

APEKS XL4 Mark Evans: The Apeks XL4 has been cracking through a few more dives, and as you read this will be joining a plethora of other regulators for the mid-price Group Test for the March issue of Scuba Diver. I am still astounded by its silky smooth breathe, which is so lightweight you hardly notice you have a reg in your mouth. It is totally unfazed by cold water - even purging it for ten plus seconds in low single digit waters did nothing to worry it. www.apeksdiving.com/uk

INFORMATION Arrival date: October 2017 Suggested retail price: £338 Number of dives: 13 Time in water: 12 hrs 25 mins

FOURTH ELEMENT X-CORE Mark Evans: Now that the really cold water conditions are just kicking into play, I am appreciating the X-Core even more. I am just blown away by how something so lightweight and, well, simple, can make such a difference to how warm you feel underwater. Just adding this one item to my arsenal of undergarments has made me so much more comfortable in cold conditions, especially when I am on testing dives and not moving much. www.fourthelement.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: November 2017 Suggested retail price: £99.50 Number of dives: 9 Time in water: 7 hrs 45 mins

SANTI DIVING FLEX 360 Mark Evans: Santi have a solid reputation when it comes to drysuit and exposure protection in general, and the Flex 360 is their latest undersuit to hit the market.

It scored highly when we put it into use for Test Extra, and now we are giving it a Long Term Test thrashing through the cold winter months to see how it handles true year-round British diving.

The Flex 360 comprises of two sections - the jacket (£201) and the trousers (£218) - which together form an exceptional warm yet comfortable and easy to move around in undersuit.

Plus, it is good-looking and stylish enough you could stay in it to go to the pub afterwards! www.santidiving.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: January 2018 Suggested retail price: £419 Number of dives: 8 Time in water: 7 hrs 35 mins

AQUALUNG OUTLAW

Mark Evans: While the Outlaw is designed as a minimalistic, lightweight wing that is easy to pack - thus appealing to travelling divers - it is proving more than capable of handling hardcore cold-water diving conditions.

And I appreciate the strippedINFORMATION back nature of the Outlaw even Arrival date: February 2017 more when in a bulky drysuit Suggested retail price: £338 that already makes you feel Number of dives: 11 cumbersome underwater.

Time in water: 10 hrs 15 mins www.aqualung.com/uk

THERMALUTION RED GRADE ULTRA Mark Evans: It is a good job I have got the Flex 360 and X-Core to team up to keep me warm as we head into February, as it is now time for the Thermalution Red Grade Ultra to head back home after reaching the end of its six-month stint in Long Term Test.

This heated full suit is an absolute belter, and it manages to combine being ultra-thin and stretchy with the ability to pump out some serious warmth when you needed it. I was the envy of many a diver when I dialled up the heat at the end of a long dive. www.thermalution.co.uk

END OF TERM

INFORMATION Arrival date: April 2017 Suggested retail price: £1,050 Number of dives: 32 Time in water: 31 hrs 15 mins

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Preferred Provider for IDAN & NATO Forces.

If in Doubt? SHOUT!

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PRO DIVE INTERNATIONAL

Head Office: Carretera Federal, Parcela 4 MZA 293 Lote 2 Local 5-6, Ejido Norte, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, 77712, Mexico T: +52 (1) 984 745 0763 E: info@prodiveinternational.com W: www.prodiveinternational.com World-class experiences: diving Bayahibe, Saona, Catalina Island, Cayo Levantado, Live-Aboard Silver Bank, located at 4-5* Resorts in Punta Cana & Bayahibe, PADI courses, Stay & Dive packages.

INDONESIA SILADEN RESORT & SPA

Sialden Island, Bunaken National Park, Manado, North Sulawesi, 95011 T: +628114300641 | E: info@siladen.com W: www.siladen.com Siladen Resort & Spa is an exclusive boutique dive resort located on a lush tropical island in the heart of the Bunaken National Marine Park.

MEXICO PRO DIVE INTERNATIONAL

Head Office: Carretera Federal, Parcela 4 MZA 293 Lote 2 Local 5-6, Ejido Norte, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, 77712, Mexico T: +52 (1) 984 745 0763 E: info@prodiveinternational.com W: www.prodiveinternational.com World-class diving: Cozumel, cenotes, bull sharks, Whaleshark & Sailfish safaris, Live-Aboards Socorro/ Guadalupe, located at 4-5* Resorts Riviera Maya & Cozumel, PADI CDC, Stay&Dive packages, FREE NITROX.

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MALDIVES LILY BEACH RESORT & SPA

Huvahendhoo Island, South Ari Atoll, Maldives T: +960 668 0013 | E: lilybeach@prodivers.com W: www.prodivers.com/lily-beach-maldives Prodivers 5* PADI Dive-Centre. Whaleshark and Manta all year. Free Nitrox, Underwater Scooters and repeater discount available. House reef accessible from shore. 60 dive sites.

KUREDU PRODIVERS

Kuredu Island Resort, Lhaviyani Atoll, 07080, Maldives T: +9606620343 | E: info@prodivers.com W: www.prodivers.com Renowned PADI 5 star IDC center with on site decompression chamber. Multi lingual guides and instructors, more than 60 dive sites, scooters, rebreathers and nitrox-forfree!

MALTA MALTAQUA

Mosta Road, St Pauls Bay, SPB3114, Malta T: 0035621571111 | E: dive@maltaqua.com W: www.maltaqua.com A Multi agency centre providing training for BSAC, PADI, RAID, TDI & IANTD. Dive excursions or tank hire for qualified divers.

Courses for complete beginners.

DIVE DEEP BLUE MALTA

9/11 Ananija street, Bugibba, St Paul’s Bay SPB 1320, Malta T: +356 21583946 E: Dive@divedeepblue.com W: www.divedeepblue.com Dive Deep Blue Malta. Operating 20 years.

PADI, BSAC, SSI and TDI Center. Providing recreational, technical training, plus guided and independent diving services.

PHILIPPINES EVOLUTION

Bounty Beach, Malapascua Island, Daan Bantayan, Cebu, 6013, Philippines T: +63(0)917 631 2179 | E: info@evolution.com.ph

W: www.evolution.com.ph

Progressive Recreational and Technical Diving in the Philippines best all-round diving location. 4 dives/day including

Thresher Shark encounters. All PADI/TDI classes available, Tech/CCR Friendly.

BUCEO ANILAO BEACH & DIVE RESORT Anilao, Barangay San Teodoro, Mabini, Batangas, Philippines T: 0063 919 510 57 65 E: info@buceoanilao.com W: www.buceoanilao.com Cozy resort - sophisticated camera / video room - dedicated spotters - easy access from Manila Airport - Critters - Healthy Reefs - Biodiversity!

THAILAND SAIREE COTTAGE DIVING 5* IDC CENTRE 1/10 Moo Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, Suratthani, 84360, Thailand T: +66872650859 E: info@idckohtaothailand.com W: www.idckohtaothailand.com One of the Best PADI Diving Instructor IDC Courses on Koh Tao, Thailand.

For more information please visit: www.idckohtaothailand.com or www.saireecottagediving.com/instructordevelopment-course-idc-koh-tao-saireecottage-diving-koh-tao.

Professional Underwater Photography: https://www.instagram.com/peachsnapsphotography/

UNITED KINGDOM DEEP BLUE DIVE

55 Marden Road, Whitley Bay, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE26 2JW, UK T: 0191 253 6220 E: emmet@deepbluedive.com W: www.deepbluedive.com The UK’s number one diving equipment store with all the top brands, at competitive prices. Your one stop shop for diving equipment.

OYSTER DIVING

Maritime House, Basin Road North, Hove, BN41 1WR, UK T: 0800 699 0243 W: www.oysterdiving.com www.oysterdivingshop.com The UK’s premier PADI scuba diving and travel centre. Equipment sales, PADI courses from beginner to Instructor and holidays around the world.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

MARKETPLACE

Diving Medicals Nottingham

Sport Diver medicals £55

HGV/PSV/taxi medicals £55

Occupational Health Medicals

HSE commercial diving medicals £120

Oil and Gas UK Offshore Medicals £110

Discounts for students and large groups

For appointments call 0780 2850 084

or email: mclamp@doctors.org.uk

URCHIN DIVE

CHARTER

Expert Knowledge – 25+ years diving experience. Warm Saloon – Lunch & snacks provided. Wet/Dry Storage – Moon pool entry.

Accommodation available on site.

Contact: Oban Scotland | 01631 566088 www.puffin.org.uk

Help us keep the magazine FREE by mentioning Scuba Diver when responding to business you’ve seen in our magazine.

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THE COURSE DIRECTOR

Marcel van den Berg is a PADI Platinum Course Director working at Sairee Cottage Diving, based on the picturesque island of Koh Tao in Thailand, and here he offers an insight into recreational diver training and professional-level courses, and how these can be rewarding experiences with far-reaching consequences. www.saireecottagediving.com

Why diving instructors should follow PADI Standards PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF SAIREE COTTAGE DIVING

P

ADI Standards are important for multiple reasons. I always say that you can compare PADI with other companies, like Subway, Starbucks or Apple. Like PADI, these companies focus on high-quality products and services that are consistent all over the world. This ensures the same quality, happy customers and, most importantly with PADI, the main focus is always safety.

Having worldwide consistent standards works very well unless they are not followed and sadly enough, some diving instructors deviate from PADI standards.

This causes many problems and jeopardises safety. In this article, I will explain the different reasons why diving instructors should follow PADI Standards - and what happens when diving instructors deviate from them.

PADI STANDARDS CREATES WORLDWIDE CONSISTENCY

‘PADI - The Way The World Learns To Dive’ is PADI’s world-famous slogan. I believe that it is the perfect description of what has made PADI so successful. PADI is the leading dive-training organisation in the world and has been responsible for educating millions of scuba divers.

Every person is different. Some are athletic, some have lower levels of fitness. Some people are smart, and some less so. PADI has created an educational system that can be taught to anyone regardless of our differences.

PADI created PADI Standards that every PADI Divemaster and diving instructor has to follow. These PADI Standards are now accepted and approved in more then 180 countries worldwide. This means, for example, that if a student takes the PADI Open Water Diver course in one country, she can then join the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course in another country. The PADI dive shop in the second country now only needs to see the person’s Open Water Diver course card as proof that the student has met all the PADI performance requirements according to PADI Standards. However, if the first instructor did not adhere to PADI Standards, the diver might not know or have mastered basic skills, which could then cause potentially dangerous issues on the Advanced course.

If PADI instructors follow PADI Standards, then the system works and you get the same high-quality PADI course worldwide that is focused on safety and enjoyment.

It is so time consuming and annoying to reteach students just because their previous instructor did not follow PADI Standards. Trust me, you don’t want to get that reputation as an instructor or dive centre.

FOLLOWING PADI STANDARDS INCREASES OVERALL DIVE SAFETY

By far the most-important reason why instructors should follow PADI Standards is diver safety. I know that some

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instructors don’t always agree with some of the PADI Standards, but don’t forget that PADI has been around a long time and they have very good reasons why they create all the different PADI Standards.

Look at snorkels - why did PADI make it a standard for almost all PADI courses? The PADI Standards apply to all PADI courses taught worldwide. And as much as wearing the snorkel is maybe less needed in an easy diving location, it might help a lot in another location with more challenging conditions. Remember that your students can dive worldwide with their PADI certification cards, so instructors should follow all PADI Standards to keep them safe wherever they go scuba diving after completion of their PADI course(s) with you.

PADI STANDARDS PROVIDES LEGAL PROTECTION FOR INSTRUCTORS Scuba diving has one of the best safety records compared to other sports, but accidents can happen. If in the unlikely event your student does get injured it is already a very stressful situation - and this gets worse if you get sued.

If you have taught and followed all PADI Standards and still something goes wrong, then in most cases you are protected by the proven teaching system of PADI. If you have followed all standards, then PADI will assist you in lawsuits as they want to protect their members in any way possible.

If you as an instructor decided to break or deviate from PADI Standards, then they cannot assist you to the full extent anymore and it can severely weaken your court case. Even if your violation of standards is not related to the incident, it will be harder for PADI to back you up.

FINAL THOUGHTS

At Sairee Cottage Diving on Koh Tao in Thailand, we spend a huge amount of extra time during the PADI Divemaster and PADI IDC Courses focusing on Risk Management, Marine Conservation and PADI Standards, to ensure that the next generation of PADI Divemasters and instructors follow all PADI Standards and will, in turn, inspire others to do so as well. n

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