Scuba Diver January 18 - Issue 11

ZERO TO HERO:

BALTICTECH 2017:

COLD-WATER ESSENTIALS:

WIN THE CHANCE TO GET TO DIVEMASTER WITH SAIREE COTTAGE DIVING

KEEN TECHIE JASON BROWN REPORTS FROM POLAND ON THE PREMIER TECH-DIVING EVENT

OUR PANEL PROVIDE A LIST OF WHAT THEY CONSIDER ESSENTIAL FOR COLD-WATER DIVING

CORNISH GIANTS Swimming with BRITAIN'S BIGGEST FISH off the South Coast

Ocean ART

THE ETHEREAL WORLD OF LANZAROTE’S UW SCULPTURE PARK

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ISSUE 11 | JAN 18 | £3.25

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Studland Bay

‣ Grenada ‣ Scholar ‣

Indonesia’s Triton Bay WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

An experience without equal “The diving and snorkelling at Wakatobi is outstanding, that’s well known. But also important is the excellent customer service of every staff member. Wakatobi can teach customer service to any industry or organization. You feel at home the first day, and it just gets better every day after that.” ~Steve and Cindy Moore

www.wakatobi.com

EDITOR’S NOTE Tragic tiger shark attack at

COSTA RICA’S COCOS ISLAND

This may be the January 2018 issue, but as I write this editorial, it is still early December, and the sad news of a fatal attack on a diver by a tiger shark in the waters off Cocos Island has just emerged.

The diver, 49-year-old Rohina Bhandari, was apparently finishing a dive and in the process of returning to the dive tender when the attack took place. A tiger shark badly bit her legs, despite efforts from the boat crew and Divemaster - who also ended up being bitten, though not too severely - to fend it off. She died after attempts to save her proved fruitless.

As we well know, despite what the mainstream media may say whenever there is an incident, shark attacks - particularly fatal attacks - are extremely rare.

The fact that this was a totally unprovoked attack the shark hadn’t been touched, there was no feeding going on, etc - makes it even more of a tragic case.

However, it serves as a reminder that whenever we go into the oceans, we are an ‘alien invader’. We are visitors to this fantastic realm, and nowhere near the top of the food chain. I have dived with sharks all over the world, including tiger sharks in the Bahamas and Sudan, and not once have I felt ‘in danger’, though I do have a healthy respect for them, keep my wits about me whenever I am in the water with them, and am well aware that if they did decide to turn on me, then there would not be a lot I could do about it. But that is my personal choice, I have weighed up the odds - one statistic says a 1 in 3.7 million chance of being attacked - and am still prepared to venture into the water to see these magnificent creatures up close and personal. Knowing these stats makes it even more sad when incidents like this occur, though.

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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ZERO TO HERO:

BALTICTECH 2017:

COLD-WATER ESSENTIALS:

WIN THE CHANCE TO GET TO DIVEMASTER WITH SAIREE COTTAGE DIVING

KEEN TECHIE JASON BROWN REPORTS FROM POLAND ON THE PREMIER TECH-DIVING EVENT

OUR PANEL PROVIDE A LIST OF WHAT THEY CONSIDER ESSENTIAL FOR COLD-WATER DIVING

ON THE COVER CORNISH GIANTS Swimming with BRITAIN'S BIGGEST FISH off the South Coast

Ocean ART

THE ETHEREAL WORLD OF LANZAROTE’S UW SCULPTURE PARK

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ISSUE 11 | JAN 18 | £3.25

01

Studland Bay

p001_ScubaDiverJan18.indd 1

‣ Grenada ‣ Scholar ‣

Indonesia’s Triton Bay WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

PHOTOGRAPHER: JASON BROWN

15/12/2017 09:37

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES

Two DMs take on the Three Lakes Challenge, and a tragic shark attack at Cocos Island.

Stuart Philpott takes a tour around the eerie underwater sculpture park created by Jason deCaires Taylor that is now in residence off the coast of Lanzarote.

8 News

30 Dive like a Pro

A panel of training agency experts offer advice on essentials for cold-water diving.

50 Our-World UW Scholar

Mae Dorricott ventures into the waters off Australia with great white sharks.

52 Competition: Become a DM

Win a zero-to-hero package up to Divemaster with Sairee Cottage Diving in our prize draw.

98 The Commercial Diver

Warren ‘Sal’ Salliss recalls a rather exciting end to their commercial diver training season.

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24 Lanzarote

34 Cornwall

Basking sharks are the second-largest fish in the sea, and they are a seasonal visitor to British waters. Head down to Cornwall and you can snorkel with these behemoths - a mind-blowing experience.

40 UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY: Paul Duxfield

Duxy extols the virtues of embarking on dive trips - either land-based or on a liveaboard - where you have the freedom to dive when and where you want instead of being tied to a rigid itinerary.

44 FREEDIVING: Stefanie Diehl

Q&A with conservationist/activist Stefanie Diehl, who has become world famous for freediving with tiger sharks in the waters off Hawaii, and is the founder of shark conservation organisation Shark Allies.

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CONTENTS

54 ABOVE 18m: Dorset

Jeremy Cuff once again takes on the Above 18m mantle, and goes for a shore dive at a site that is acclaimed for its seahorses, but also offers a plethora of other marine attractions - Studland Bay.

GEAR GUIDE 82 What’s New

New products recently released or coming soon, including Fourth Element’s latest T-shirts, Pandora Labs spools, and an SDI/TDI beanie.

58 Grenada

84 Group Test

66 Indonesia

90 Test Extra

76 TECHNICAL: Baltictech 2017

94 Long Term Test

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.

Dr Richard Smith embarks on a voyage of discovery around the new must-visit area of Indonesia - Triton Bay.

Jason Brown reports on the premier technical-diving event of 2017, which took place in Poland in November and attracted hordes of attendees eager to see the latest kit and hear interesting ‘tech’ talks from the likes of Jill Heinerth, Phil Short, Prof Simon Mitchell and Sami Pakkarinen.

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The Scuba Diver Test Team looks at dive computers - focusing on wrist-mounted units in the £399-£699 price bracket.

The Otter Watersports Ultralight Telescopic drysuit is rated and reviewed.

The Scuba Diver Test Team gets to grips with a selection of products over a six-month period, including the 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

DIVEMASTERS TAKE ON THE

THREE LAKES CHALLENGE Two female dive professionals are putting their best fin forward for a 24-hour diving mission in aid of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Photographs by KIERAN HATTON, SARAH TINGEY AND BETH TINGEY

Two UK scuba divers are set to put their best fin forward for a 24-hour diving and mountaineering fundraiser that will see them dive the UK’s three highest altitude lakes.

Sarah Tingey, 27, and Rachael Priest, 25, both Divemasters from south-west England, are the first women to tackle the Three Lakes Challenge - a mission that will take them to lakes located in Scotland, England and Wales, all in 24 hours.

The challenge, which was initiated and completed

by Monty Halls and Andy Torbet for Help For Heroes in 2007, involves divers hiking to reach each lake with their dive equipment in tow and driving to each location. The two female divers have named their adventure Mission High Water, and it is set to take place in April next year.

“Mission High Water will push me more than anything else I have done before,” explains Sarah, who has been diving for 13 years and is studying for her PhD in Glaciology at the University of Bristol.

“The physical side of it is quite scary, but I think the worst part will be the psychological aspect – particularly the pressure to complete the challenge successfully, safely and raise a good amount of money!”

The pair aim to raise £2,500 for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Service, a cause close to their hearts.

“We are both from the West Country and have seen first-hand the importance of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance,” says Sarah.

“They not only assist outdoors adventurers, but are also so important to rural communities like the ones that Rach and I grew up in. With no funding from the NHS and government they rely on fundraising activities to help them continue.”

Eager to complete the fundraiser within the 24-hour time frame, the duo have set themselves an intense training regime that includes carrying weighted backpacks to work, eight-hour walks and diving in Scapa Flow (where Rachel works) to help acclimatise to cooler temperatures.

“To be granted successful completion of the Three Lakes Challenge, we have to carry all of our own

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PHOTO CREDIT: KEIRAN HATTON

DIVING DS N E I WITH FR MALDIVES INDONESIA EGYPT S PA I N NEW: Euro-Divers in Lanzerote!

OMAN M AU R I T I U S JA PA N C R O AT I A

gear, which will be around 30kg, and be self-sufficient on the mountain and in the water,” says Sarah.

“In the UK we both dive in twinsets with drysuits, but I don’t think this would work carting it up to each lake - the Scottish leg is a 1,000 metre climb over 11km each way – so we are going to have to adapt.”

The divers have some tricks up their sleeves to help with the cold temperatures and weighting issues, using a combination of quality gear and the natural environment to their advantage.

“The guys at O’Three were concerned that I would be diving in my very thin eight-yearold 3mm wetsuit. After they heard what we were up to, they sponsored Mission High Water, providing us with semi-drys that will keep us warm. We probably won’t be able to carry lead and weightbelts up, so will need to fill our pockets with rocks so we can be neutrally buoyant!”

Suunto Diving have also gifted two D4i computers to be used in the challenge which will be raffled off after the event.

Rachael, who has been diving since the age of 15 and has just finished a Masters degree in Marine Science, met Sarah at Vobster Quay Inland Diving Centre in Somerset, where they became friends. They’ll be preparing for the mission at Vobster Quay to get used to their ultralight kit.

Thrilled about the prospect of spectacular views but hoping for a snow-free trip, Rachael is most apprehensive about the drive.

“I am most excited for the views as spring is a fantastic time of year, and if we are lucky enough to have some good weather, the scenery will be stunning,” she adds.

“Hopefully we won’t end up trudging through too much snow. I am most nervous for the driving, but we will try our best to avoid traffic.”

The key to completing the challenge within 24 hours will lie in the first lake. Sarah said: “The first Scottish lake will be the most important – if we complete that within the set time, the rest should run relatively smoothly.”

Find out more and donate to Mission High Water here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/MissionHighWater

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ALL YOU NEED IS CHOICES AND WE HAVE THEM! M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N AND BOOKINGS:

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INDUSTRY NEWS DIVER DIES AFTER TIGER SHARK ATTACK OFF COCOS ISLAND Find out more about a luxurious holiday in one of the world’s premier diving destinations... +44 1926 421100 www.bunakenoasis.com info@bunakenoasis.com

A 49-year-old diver has died after being attacked by a tiger shark as she surfaced from a dive off the remote Cocos Island National Park, a World Heritage Site some 330 miles from mainland Costa Rica, on Thursday 30 November.

Rohina Bhandari, a private equity director from Manhattan in the USA, suffered severe bites to her legs and tragically died from her injuries despite frantic efforts from park guards and fellow guests to save her.

The Divemaster who was with the group was also bitten as he tried to fend off the shark, but his wound was not life-threatening and he is now in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Apparently, the shark followed the divers as they were finishing their dive and returning to the tender and attacked near the surface.

Tiger sharks are one of the largest sharks in the world and renowned for their strong jaws and razor-sharp teeth, but as with all shark attacks, incidents involving humans are incredibly rare, and unprovoked attacks on divers are even more few and far between, which makes this sad episode – the first on record at Cocos - even more tragic.

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From the editor: I have dived with tiger sharks on several occasions, both expected encounters (Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, see photograph above) and unexpected (Sudan). They are magnificent creatures, and their sheer size and presence is awe-inspiring. However, I have never particularly felt threatened by them – although I have to admit turning round at 5m on a sheer wall at Sha’ab Rumi and having a four-metre-plus specimen literally arm’s length behind me did get the old adrenaline pumping! – but I have never, ever lost my respect for these predatory fish.

They are more than capable of taking out prey our size or even bigger, including other shark species, but thankfully, attacks on humans are incredibly rare, and fatalities from these even more so. Take this extremely sad incident – Cocos Island is renowned for its shark populations, which are a major draw for divers from all over the world, and yet this was the first fatal attack on record at the national park.

UN Environment ministers pledge to stop throwaway plastic

Image courtesy of Hung from Canada

www.bunakenoasis.com

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A document has been signed off by UN Environment ministers outlining that the flow of plastic into the ocean needs to be stopped at a meeting in Kenya.

According to BBC News, scientists welcomed the announcement, but have expressed concerns that the ‘agreement was only based in principle, with no firm targets or timetables.’ The agreement is a milestone, ministers say, as it signals to governments, industry and the public that significant change is called for.

Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s Environment Minister who has been leading the UN debate on plastic pollution, told BBC News: “What we came here with was the need for action. The starting point was aiming for zero emission of marine litter. So it’s effectively a breakthrough for zero emission of plastic into the ocean.”

Plastics are already damaging marine life, with climate change and multiple types of pollution also having an effect.

The news report claims that making plastic litter a thing of the past will require ‘new technology and attitudes from the public.’

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Manta Diving Lanzarote

INDUSTRY NEWS Apeks boosts green credentials with zero waste to landfill achievement UK manufacturer Apeks Marine Equipment has boosted its green credentials by announcing a new zero waste to landfill achievement.

The company has reached a new industry-leading achievement of sending zero non-hazardous waste to landfill from its HQ, including waste from the factory, warehouse and offices.

100 percent of general waste from the business is now turned into biofuel, which goes on to provide fuel for heating and hot water in other industries.

“A healthy and thriving planet is central to the Apeks, and our parent company Aqua Lung’s, business ethos,” commented Managing Director Landon Helsby. “In 2014 we installed solar panels on the factory roof which in 2016 generated 80022 KWh of electricity and we’re proud of our achievements in eliminating landfill waste and investing in a sustainable future.”

INDONESIAN ‘ROMANTIC’ LIVEABOARD ANNOUNCED BY DIVERSE TRAVEL

5* PADI Resort British family run business Dive the Museo Atlantico the rst underwater museum in Europe!

Spacious fully equipped cent dive centre Book a 6 dive package or above & quote: “SDM” & receive a free dive on top of your dive package!

Contact us: (0034) 928516815 www.mantadivinglanzarote.com info@mantadivinglanzarote.com

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My Emperor Raja Laut is now part of Diverse Travel’s liveaboard portfolio, sailing the exotic waters of Raja Ampat and Komodo, Indonesia.

Emperor Raja Laut, meaning King of the Sea, is a beautiful traditional Dutch schooner-style sailing yacht that conveys an air of ‘romance’. Diverse Travel can organise everything from flights to transfers to diving and even relaxation on request.

Built from tropical hardwood, guests can experience a memorable holiday sailing the Indonesian seas in freedom, style and comfort. Itineraries include Komodo, Raja Ampat and Banda; expect to play with mantas, hammerhead sharks, whale sharks and pygmy seahorses as well as Komodo Dragons on land.

With 12 berths, the attention to detail and the level of service expected from the crew and dive guides will leave guests wanting to return as it’s as ideal for non-divers as it is for divers. A mix of itineraries include trips between seven and 12 nights add real value to one of the world’s top diving destinations.

Prices are from £2,999 per person for a seven night package to Raja Ampat, based on twin share including return international and domestic flights, three meals a day, snacks, a cocktail party on a local island, 12 litre air tanks, weights, plus two nights half board at Manado Novotel Airport Hotel. www.diversetravel.co.uk

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DIVEMASTERS AND INSTRUCTORS

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Top jobs are available on superyachts for qualified Divemasters and dive instructors, starting at €2,000-plus per month, on our client yachts

Galileo Maritime Academy offers you two 15-day residential courses, either of which will give you the key entry qualifications for starting a career as crew on a superyacht. Those with a service and hospitality background or skill-set will choose the Deckhand/ Steward(ess) route and those with a background or interest in engineering will choose the Deckhand/Engineer route.

Being a PADI-certified Divemaster or dive instructor is a huge advantage for successful career development on superyachts because each yacht needs one or more crew who are qualified to lead dive groups, and to train those guests who have no prior experience of scuba diving.

Many private and charter superyachts spend much time around the world’s top dive sites and are fully equipped with compressors and diving equipment for reef and wreck diving expeditions. The qualified Divemaster/instructors will be tasked with supervising all diving activities and maintaining the related equipment on board.

Galileo Maritime Academy is the leading training and certification facility for professional superyacht crew in the Asia-Pacific region and the only such academy accredited by the UK government Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and approved to issue

MCA Certificates of Competence to seafarers. Safety, security, survival, fire-fighting and first aid training (known as STCW 2010 certification) is required by international maritime law for all crew working on vessels of 24 metres or larger.

Galileo is based within the 200-acre site of Yacht Haven Marina in Phuket, Thailand, which is the largest superyacht marina in Asia.

Galileo’s facilities surround our stunning new training centre and crew residence, overlooking the dramatic seascape of Phang Nga Bay. These facilities include our Advanced Fire Fighting School, Deepwater Survival Pool, School of Marine Engineering, our Survival Craft and Rescue Boats training facility and a fleet of training yachts and tenders for practical experience at sea.

Galileo considers that a key part of our mission is to help each graduate to find a suitable job on board a superyacht. We are consistently successful at this and between 80-90 percent of all our graduates get placed on one of our 200-plus client superyachts.

If you would like to qualify as a Divemaster or dive instructor, we invite you to do so at our partner diving academy Sairee Cottage five-star Diving Centre in beautiful Koh Tao (Turtle Island) here in Thailand and one of the world’s most-amazing diving locations. n

If you are already qualified or require more information about these well-paid career opportunities, please send an email to: HR@GalileoMaritimeAcademy.com, or check out our website: www.GalileoMaritimeAcademy.com

ADVERTISING FEATURE

INDUSTRY NEWS Euro-Divers Lanzarote Canary Islands has opened its doors for business

THINK DIFFERENT

Being 125km from the African coast in the Atlantic ocean, Lanzarote has an ideal climate, great dive spots with lots of life, but is also an island which can entertain visitors with lots of shops, restaurants, bars and beautiful options for excursions on land. Drop-offs, rock formations and wrecks full with sponges and corals surrounded by schooling fish all await. If that’s not enough, you’ll also find angel sharks, grouper, barracudas, seahorses, nudibranchs, turtles, rays and much more.

Euro-Divers Lanzarote offers a variety of diving under friendly, professional and relaxed conditions with quality dive equipment from SEAC for rent. The company can offer diving from the beach, by boat or by mini-van to take visitors to the best dive spots, and doesn’t work with fixed weekly schedules but listens to customer preferences instead. The international and experienced instructors of Euro-Divers offer diving courses from beginner to expert level, and can also offer organised guided snorkel excursions for children and non-divers, plus boat excursions for the chance to spot dolphins and whales. www.euro-divers.com

BECOME DIFFERENT diveRAIDuk.com

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SELF-EMPLOYED DIVER SENTENCED FOR FALSIFYING DIVING MEDICAL CERTIFICATE A man has been sentenced after supplying falsified diving medical certificates to a diving company in 2016.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that Daniel Tennant did not hold a valid medical certificate of fitness to dive. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation discovered that in 2016 the defendant was in possession of a certificate closely resembling a genuine certificate but which had been altered to display a false expiry date. The defendant subsequently produced the falsified certificate to enter into a contract to provide his services as a commercial diver.

Daniel Andrew Tennant of Bondgate, Ripon, North Yorkshire pleaded guilty to six breaches of Regulation 12 (1)(b) of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 and one breach of Section 33 (1)(m) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

He has been sentenced to 32 weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months, 150 hours community service and ordered to pay costs of £12,000.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Bill Elrick commented: “Daniel Tennant undertook diving work while using a falsified fitness to dive certificate. “Divers should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action if they are in possession of or use a falsified fitness to dive certificate.”

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On Friday 1 December, Severntec Dive Centre opened its doors to the public for an informal evening to celebrate the success of this year’s activities undertaken within the centre.

The evening brought current Severntec members together with potential new dive buddies, and owner Kevin Murphy and his team were graced with the presence of a wonderful dive friend who made a special journey all the way from Washington DC in the USA to attend the event!

Aside from tasty hot food and warm drinks on the night, the venue was filled with dive gear, dive-trip literature and on-screen entertainment showcasing dive sites visited throughout the UK and overseas (the centre went to the Deep South in the Egyptian Red Sea back in May on ‘Project Shark’ with Blue O Two).

The accomplishment of Severntec as a group has been down to the drive of their diving instructor, Kevin Murphy, and the team supporting him, who dive most weekends during the course of the year.

The event resulted in some entertaining dive stories and a productive evening was enjoyed by all. This will now be added to the calendar as an annual event. www.severntecdiving.com

PHOTO CREDIT: MARK MILBURN

DIVERS FIND SUSPECTED WORLD WAR TWO DEVICE OFF CORNWALL

Divers exploring the Cornish coast discovered a suspected World War Two bomb that was thought to be a parachute mine, according to coastguards. The device was found 800 metres from a beach near Falmouth in Cornwall.

It was reported to local coastguards on 29 November by a local diver who discovered it when diving off Maenporth beach. A Royal Navy bomb disposal team was sent to destroy it the following day, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said.

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INDUSTRY NEWS JOIN DOUG ALLAN ON THE SEARCH FOR WHALESHARKS

Steppes Travel has teamed up with award-winning BBC cameraman Doug Allan to offer a spectacular cruise around Raja Ampat, Indonesia, an area that is home to jungle-coated islands, white sandy beaches, ancient cave systems, tribal groups – and whalesharks. Those lucky enough to get a space on board this exclusive itinerary will spend eight days snorkelling and diving some of the world’s most-pristine coral reefs, as well as enjoying plenty of in-water time to photograph and film the world’s largest fish at Cenderawasih Bay, where the whalesharks enjoy an unusual relationship with the local fishermen.

DOUG ALLAN

Doug Allan is undoubtedly one of the world’s best-known and respected wildlife and documentary cameramen – David Attenborough names him as his favourite, which is no small accolade, and he has twice won the underwater category in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

He is no stranger to the ‘big stuff’, having filmed whales in almost all the seas of the world and fronting the BBC series Ocean Giants, and he also did a stint in front of the camera as one of the presenters on Operation Iceberg, as well as providing some of the more-memorable footage in that series.

He’s been giving talks for many years on wildlife, diving, his experiences while film-making and the craft of nature photography - as well as contributing to various radio shows and penning two children’s books - and will make the consummate host for this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

This awesome liveaboard expedition, which is on board the 40-metre, six-cabin Tiare (a luxurious yacht built using salvaged materials from traditional Javanese homes), departs on 21 November 2018. For a detailed itinerary, or to book your place, contact: https://www.steppestravel.com/enquiry

Premiere diving operator launches Dive Carriacou in Tyrrel Bay Tyrrel Bay has a new name for diving with the launch of Dive Carriacou. Backed with more than a combined 20 years of experience in both diving and education, Dive Carriacou aims to provide a combination of bespoke recreational fun diving services, PADI diver training and to support local efforts at marine conservation. They will also offer a limited range of commercial diving services on the island. Carriacou is the largest of the Grenadines, a collection of islands between St Vincent and Grenada.

Dive Carriacou partners, Gary Ward, Matt Rideout and Alex Ward are excited to be coming to the Bay with a fresh new approach centred around the needs and requirements of their guests and students, with a vision of offering the “best diving available, with the best services and the highest safety standards.” To mark the launch of the new brand, the team held a series of events on Saturday 2 December, including lionfish hunt diving and a lionfish barbecue.

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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: While holidaying with my daughter and grandchildren in the Maldives I was given the opportunity to dive. I had only ever snorkelled previously and scuba diving was a revelation. But at the ripe old age of 63 how many years of this wonderful sport do I have left?

A: Potentially plenty. Some years ago, the-then 72-year-old Donald Sutherland, bearded bloodhound in human form, had to learn to dive for his latest flick.

Apparently he was taken ill with chest pains during a break, and began coughing up blood. After much diagnostic confusion (including being mistakenly labelled with lung cancer), a clued-up physician finally twigged that the blood was due to a fragile lung vessel which had leaked during a dive. The point of this arduous preamble is that he was then told by this ‘specialist’ that he shouldn’t have been diving past the age of 50. Utter BS. Why on earth not?

Admittedly, anno domini wreaks its mischief on us all in terms of declining strength and agility, but to designate an age past which diving is unsafe is ludicrous. In these days of political correctness and disability discrimination, the onus is on us docs to justify why someone shouldn’t dive.

There are some considerations – older divers are more prone to hypothermia as they generally have less fat tissue and a slower metabolism.

Also, a higher proportion will have chronic problems, such as lung or heart disease, which need to be managed appropriately, and with medications that are sanctioned safe for diving. But we all age in time to our individual genetic clocks, and I know several divers in their 60s and 70s who are far fitter than numerous younger lardballs. Their wealth of life experience makes them far safer than your average anxious 18-year-old novice. So it’s two fingers up at Father Time, all you over-50s divers – get some new fins and jump in.

Q: I hope you can help with my query.

As a child I was diagnosed with

20

curvature of the spine (scoliosis). It did not affect me much in terms of activities - I could still participate in sports and it was not painful. The worst thing I remember is being made fun of at school for having jutting out ribs on one side. But as a teenager it seemed to get worse, so I ended up having surgery where some of my spine was fused together. I have always wanted to take up diving but have heard that scoliosis (and the surgery for it) can cause lung problems. Would this affect my ability to dive?

A: The list of eminent humans with scoliosis is long and surprising. The tortured soul of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the band Nirvana, was partly due to a scoliosis which caused him severe back pain every time he picked up a guitar. A fellow twisted sister is Sarah Michelle Gellar, aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Perhaps most unexpected is that the fastest man alive, Usain Bolt, was born with a scoliosis. It doesn’t seem to have done him much harm.

The extent of the curvature varies considerably in scoliosis, and some cases are so severe that the chest wall becomes distorted. This can result in an abnormal chest cavity, reducing the space available to the lungs for expansion. In extreme cases this could cause obstruction to the expanding gas on ascent from a dive, leading to pulmonary barotrauma and lung collapse. Imaging studies such as chest X-rays or CT scans of the chest would be needed to assess this risk.

Awkward lifting of tanks and weights can easily cause spinal injuries, and a pre-existing scoliosis might increase this risk. The exit up a boat ladder in a good-going swell while kitted up with twin-12s is one to avoid. However, with enough planning and avoidance of scenarios like this, the difficulties should recede in the relatively gravity-free environment of the water.

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GAVIN ANDERSON tries a spot of British wreck diving with a difference when he heads out to Gibraltar for a family holiday and squeezes a few days of in-water time into the itinerary Photographs by GAVIN ANDERSON

& DIVING Diving trips can always present a problem – how do you keep the whole family happy? Well, head to Orlando and you can do the ‘Disney thing’ for the kids (and the young-at-heart!) while logging dives in the warm Floridian waters Photographs by MARK EVANS and PAUL SHEPHERD

W

e were in a strong current, surrounded by hundreds of purple anthias which swarmed one way then the other. They contrasted brilliantly with the blue of the water and the silhouette of the wreck. Our visibility was pretty good, but the water wasn’t gin clear, the odd tuft of seaweed and various other particles flew past us from the direction we were heading. Purple, pink, yellow and white gorgonians covered every inch of the wreck, along with dense growths of green seaweeds and patches of vivid orange corals. Large groups of silvery sardines and various bream cruised by us, shimmering and reflecting in what little early morning sun reached down to us through the water. Down on the seafloor within the wreckage, various smaller fish including rainbow wrasse, blennies, scorpionfish and comber hunted for tiny fry and anything edible brought by the current.

We were diving on the wreck of the SS Rossyln, a 3,679-ton, 340 feet long cargo ship which sunk off Gibraltar’s south harbour breakwater on the afternoon of 28 February 1916. She had just returned from Malta and was caught in a violent storm, which ripped her anchor free and smashed her against the breakwater wall. Before sinking, two government tugs managed to rescue all of her crew but the ship was lost. She now lies in 23m with some of her superstructure reaching up to 17m. Until recently, you could swim into her holds and penetrate large parts of the wreck, in fact it was hard to do one dive and see all of her at once. Now despite being a very large wreck, it is possible to navigate the whole of her when conditions allow - and you’re not battling a current as we were!

The Rossyln is incredibly beautiful despite not being intact and is a magnet for fish and invertebrate life. The bow is the most-impressive part of the wreck. It took us about five good minutes to reach having dropped into the middle of the wreck. Looking up we could see what looked like a six-inch gun pointing out, but it’s actually part of a winch.

Wrecked in GIBRALTAR

18m

ABOVE

In this issue, we head to offshore waters for a slightly humorous take on the Above 18m series, on a quest for blue shark encounters.

As this is a snorkelling trip, you might even attain a depth of 18 inches! For reader continuity and familiarity, we’ve kept the general format of the series, but with a couple of tweaks…

Photographs by JEREMY CUFF (WWW.JA-UNIVERSE.COM)

D

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

iving or snorkelling with sharks is normally associated with the great white encounters in South Africa, South Australia or Guadalupe in Mexico, or perhaps the Osprey Reef dives in the Coral Sea off North East Australia that attracts mostly reef sharks. But to some people’s surprise (and to a tabloid journalist’s delight whenever the story has made the wider media), you can also do it here in the UK, with the target species on our trip being blue sharks.

Personally, I’d been aware of the blue shark encounters off the coast of Cornwall for some time, so last December when I was planning some things for the New Year, the Cornish Blues again bubbled to the top of my ‘to do’ list. Though I’d already done two blue shark trips previously, I fancied doing it again.

Options for this type of trip are very limited due to the ‘niche’ nature of the subject matter and the relatively small ‘time window’ in which the sharks can be reliably seen, and the weather is potentially most stable. I chose to go with shark enthusiast Charles Hood, who is friendly, knowledgeable and keen to share his interest in sharks. The trips run out of Penzance (weather permitting) between late June/early July and early October, and his

Photographs by WALT STEARNS and DIDI LOTZE

success rate of finding ‘the Blues’ is around 95 percent.

The blue shark is a species of the open water and deep reefs, with a global distribution that covers tropical, sub-tropical and temperate zones. They are known to cover great distances, and are thought to utilise currents such as the Gulf Stream to reach waters around the UK and Europe.

Appearance-wise, they are very sleek and clearly suited to their pelagic lifestyle. They are known to hunt small fish and cephalopods (especially squid), though they’re also thought to feed on bottom-dwelling species on occasions.

Their colouration on the back and flanks, though always blue as their name suggests, can differ markedly between individuals; from a blue-tinged grey to a very deep blue, which contrasts with a white underside.

In terms of size, they can attain an impressive four metres in length, though most specimens encountered will be significantly smaller than this. Coincidentally, a record blue shark was caught by fishermen somewhere off Penzance in August 2017 – it was a massive specimen. It’s worth Googling it to have a look at the picture. Thankfully, it was returned to the water, though we didn’t manage to encounter it on our trip!

ARRIVAL AT THE ‘SHARK’ SITE

The meet up for the trip is around 8am-8.30am in the main Penzance car park next to the harbour and slipway (where Charles launches his boat, RIB Logan). There’s plenty of space and I’ve never seen it full, especially first thing in the morning.

In terms of the shark site itself, Charles aims for a general area in which the sharks have been reliably encountered in the past through trial and error, rather than a specific seamount or pinnacle that approaches the surface. The area is about 15 miles offshore and around 17 miles from the starting point of Penzance.

Once the engine is switched off, Charles gets to work attracting the sharks as we drift with the current. Nothing is guaranteed in the ocean, and it’s certainly possible to spend all day in seemingly perfect conditions without any sightings whatsoever. While we waited, we wondered what would our encounters would be like.

It would be almost impossible to encounter blue sharks without something to attract them in, so Charles uses pre-prepared chum which creates a slick that leads to the boat, which he deploys as soon as we’ve arrived in his chosen area. The chum is quite rancid, and won’t suit those with a squeamish disposition or anyone who gets badly seasick. Even while in the water, you’re very aware of it as you tend to spend most time in the ‘best area’, which is down-current of the chum basket. If you swallow any water, you can taste it!

As the chum spreads out to cover a wide area, there has to be some way of making the boat and the area immediately around it the focal point of the shark’s investigations, so that they can be easily seen. Charles does this by supplementing the chum (which remains

BLUE SHARKS IN CORNWALL

As far as I’m aware, you have two options for blue shark encounters in the South West, either with Charles Hood based out of Penzance, or Atlantic Divers based out of Newquay.

The Charles Hood trip, which is the one described in the feature, is very good and allows snorkelling with the sharks (maximum of five participants). The Atlantic Divers trip is also good, but is a cage-dive trip, where participants take turns to enter a two-man cage to view the sharks. www.charleshood.com www.atlanticdiver.co.uk

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A day at the

Museum PART 2

STUART PHILPOTT returns to Lanzarote to further explore the Museo Atlantico underwater sculpture park, which has now been extended by a phase two installation Photographs by STUART PHILPOTT

S

pring 2017 saw the completion of Museo Atlantico, located at Playa Blanca in Lanzarote.

Europe’s first-ever underwater sculpture park - designed, built and installed by Jason deCaires Taylor - offers scuba divers a unique experience. In all, there are 12 installations with more than 300 individual pieces covering half the area of a full-sized football pitch. Each thought-provoking installation has an underlying theme. Some portray happier times while others describe more-distressing scenes. Jason said: “The museum allows us to briefly step back from our own lives and look at our own selves in a different context”.

The 700,000 euro underwater ‘museum’ project was commissioned in two phases over a 12-month period. Jason said: “It’s called a museum because that’s where we put items that are precious, worth conserving and appreciating”.

I managed to visit phase one just a few months after its inauguration at the beginning of 2016. I noticed there was already a layer of algae obscuring some of the fine detail work, but this was all part of the overall plan. The sculptures are supposed to be absorbed by the sea and turned into a living coral reef. Jason said: “We are basically creating a new ecosystem”.

The position and management of the museum had been well planned. Jason chose Costa de Papagayo as it has no significant underwater features. The dive site lies about 400 metres from the beach, so is not easily accessible as a shore dive, and at a maximum depth of 15m is probably too deep for most recreational snorkellers. Museo Atlantic is open for business from 10am until 4pm every day. There is a 12 euro admission fee on top of the normal dive cost (eight euro for freedivers). This is paid to the dive centre and then a token handed over to the park rangers moored up on site. Only certified underwater guides can take divers on a museum tour. There is a pre-determined route to follow, descending at one particular marker buoy and ascending at another. Maximum allowable dive time is one hour. I made arrangements for two dives at the museum on two separate days. Manta Dive Centre (www.manta-diving-lanzarote.com) is based at Puerto del Carmen, one of the most-popular diving areas on the island. Joint owner Rachel Parry had agreed to double up as my guide and model for the dive.

Rachel explained that it was far more comfortable and cost effective for us to jump in an air-con minibus and drive 40 minutes up the coast to Playa Blanca rather than complete the entire journey by sea. We parked at Rubicon Marina, got kitted up and then ambled down to the jetty. Rachel had already phoned ahead and prebooked us two spaces on one of the local dive centre’s RIBs. The journey from the marina to the dive site took no more than five minutes.

“Phase one included a group of 35 life-size human casts all walking in the same direction like a plague of zombies”

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However, the process, thetovessel situated offduring Cirkewwa Point, close other broke dive in two - the bow section sank back to Shedeeper now sits upright in around 33m, with the the seabed, while the rest of the ship was water offshore. hotspots like the Rozi and the Double Arch. dumped into The remains of the HMS Maori are broken up, with a portion of the bridge section upper portions of her superstructure reaching to still intact.

Limited penetration is possible it is more of a giant swim-through - but A 52-metre Kondor I-class minesweeper originally within 12m of the surface. Penetration is possible beware kicking up the silty bottom. As well as recognisable sections of ship, such as built in Germany in 1969, she was used as a patrol for those suitably trained, and she is already well bollards, winches, etc, the whole ship is alive with marine life, including various reef boatshoals, by the Offshore of the Maritime fireworms colonised marine life despite only being down for fish octopus,Command scorpionfish, nudibranchs, and by even seahorses, if you Squadron of the Armed Forces of Malta from 1997, ten years. are sharp-eyed.

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UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE

“This time around I was in luck for we had picked a late-afternoon slot with only two other divers on the boat and the underwater visibility turned out to be a stonking 25-30 metres”

The tour started at a sign post introducing the museum and then progressed on to some of the more-established phase one installations that I had seen in 2016. Los Jolateros portrayed five boys sitting in small handmade boats competing at a local regatta. Their little one-seater boats known as ‘Jolateros’ were made from rusty old oil drums. I could imagine the boys paddling like crazy with crowds of people cheering them on. The five sculpture boats had been placed on the seabed in rough formation. Apart from a few bream circling the lead boat, nothing much had changed over the past year. I followed Rachel over to The Raft of Lampedusa, which told the tragic story of 13 refugees escaping from war-torn Libya. I could see the algae growth had flourished. Some of the faces were entirely obscured and the whole installation had turned a distinct tinge of green.

We moved on to a new piece called Immortal, which displayed the body of a local fisherman from the island of Graciosa (north coast of Lanzarote) lying on a traditional funeral pyre. I watched an octopus shimmy across the stack of wood made from Jason’s special biodegradable cement mix and disappear from view. The site had definitely encouraged more marine life habitation to an otherwise barren sand and shingle seabed.

Crossing the Rubicon is the biggest and most-impressive installation of them all. Phase one included a group of 35 life-size human casts all walking in the same direction like a plague of zombies. Each individual cast had been taken from a real-life person. My favourites included a girl looking at her mobile phone, another reading a book and others in bikini tops. The lead man looked pretty cool strolling along with his hands in his pockets.

Jason said: “This was just some French tourist who offered to pose for me”. The algae had grown into long strips which reminded me of old flaky bandages. Maybe the zombies were transforming into mummies? Phase two introduced a huge imposing four-metre-high wall. This had been erected in front of the 35, with the lead man standing just a few metres away from a rectangular doorway, which represented a portal to the Atlantic Ocean.

A huge shoal of 1,000 or more bastard grunts congregated on the other side of the doorway. They were all swirling around a sculpture of a photographer taking pictures, which seemed quite apt. This installation is called Photo Op and displays not one but two photographers taking everyday snaps. When I visited Jason’s studio in 2016, he was building a new piece which included hundreds of people lying on top of each other forming a giant circle. This is now the last installation of the tour and is called

The Human Gyre. I tried to get an overhead shot of Rachel hovering inside the structure, but the sheer density of glassfish totally obscured all the detail.

We quickly used up our full hour of underwater time and I still hadn’t finished taking pictures.

Rachel seemed to have enjoyed the experience and was more than happy to pose by the impressive sculptures. Manta Diving normally offer trips to the museum every Tuesday and Thursday. Rachel said that some of the dive centres offer the museum dive as a Discover Scuba experience, meaning participants complete a confined water session at Playa Chica in the morning and then drive up and dive on the museum in the afternoon. In my mind, fragile sculptures and newbie divers didn’t sound like a good idea, but I wasn’t making the rules!

My second ‘contingency’ dive would be used to mop up all of the installations I missed the first time around. I was paired off with newly qualified French instructor Zsa Zsa, who looked as impressive as her name, who would be acting as guide and model this time.

On previous visits I had noticed that the visibility could vary depending on how many divers are kicking up the seabed, and local tidal conditions also made a difference. This time around I was in luck for we had picked a late-afternoon slot with only two other divers on the boat and the underwater visibility turned out to be a stonking 25-30 metres.

For the first time ever, I could clearly see some of the other installations way off in the distance.

We skipped past the first few sculptures and headed straight for the Rubicon walk and wall. I had worked out some ideas for pictures, which included Zsa Zsa looking through the doorway at the group of people which, for some reason, reminded me of a scene from Lewis Caroll’s novel Alice through the Looking Glass. The visibility really helped me show some scale and perspective. In hindsight, I wish I had panned out slightly and positioned myself slightly lower to the seabed, but the moment had come and gone.

I passed through the doorway and swam towards a piece called The Portal, which is a giant square mirror placed on a cactus-shaped structure with a strange-looking horned creature peering in. The mirror is supposed to reflect the surface of the ocean and the base has been designed with nooks and crannies to attract octopus, sea urchins and other bottom-dwelling species. The shiny mirror

often gets covered by a layer of algae, so a broom has been added to brush the surface clean. I wanted to get a shot of Zsa Zsa looking into the mirror, but the mirrors surface wasn’t as reflective as I had hoped. After much umming and ahhing, I made do with her hovering slightly above.

The playground sculptures were all part of the phase two build. Unregulated shows two businessmen wearing suits sitting on a seesaw. This is supposed to signify that they are alien to the natural world.

My personal favourite was a guy sitting on the swing, although the square framework looked slightly curved using a fisheye 16mm lens. One of the new sculptures even had an uncanny resemblance to Donald Trump. I’m not sure whether the infamous president had posed for Jason? It was quite disturbing to see his distinctive ‘hairstyle’ underwater! A number of long, stringy kelp-like plants heading off towards the surface had been added to the botanical garden section. This reminded me of Jack and the beanstalk. At first I missed the human sculpture buried on the seabed.

As an underwater photographer I couldn’t get enough of Museum Atlantico.

It’s an ideal training ground with plenty of non-moving subjects to practice on.

Or just forget about the sculptures and focus on the ever-increasing marine life inhabitants. I’ve probably dived at the site ten times now over the course of a year and it’s constantly developing, the once-barren bay has been brought back to life with grunts, scorpionfish, glassfish shoals, octopus, barracuda and even the odd passing angel shark. It’s a shame that some of the sculptures’ fine detail work has been obscured by algae growth, but this is all supposed to be part of the evolution process. I think the site is best described as part reef dive and part wreck dive, with some thought-provoking material thrown in for good measure. It really is a must for every diver visiting Lanzarote, just for the novelty factor alone! n

DIVE LIKE A PRO Our panel of experts offer some useful hints and advice on what they consider are essentials for cold-water diving PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS, BYRON CONROY AND GARRY DALLAS

A

s we are in the depths of winter, it seemed only right that our Dive Like A Pro section focused on cold-water diving, or rather, what items of kit you need to safely and comfortably dive in chilly conditions. We also asked our experts for any tips and techniques for diving in cold water. So read on, and remember – just because the temperatures are plummeting, doesn’t mean you have to stop diving.

Alex Warzynski, BSAC Chair, Advanced Instructor and member of Nottingham University SAC, said: “Keeping warm while diving in cold water and cold air is a technique that does take a bit of thinking about. Getting into the ‘Ready Brek’ mindset makes it easy to explain - you need to generate a warm glow around you first thing, then preserve that glow throughout the day. A good place to start is a decent undersuit. After trying all sorts, here’s what works for me: layering. A decent merino base layer with thermals on top that you can add to or take away works well for me from break-the-ice temperatures all the way to late summer. The trick with any undersuit is that it must have some structure and resistance to collapse. An undersuit that resists the crushing from your drysuit will keep you warm.

“To keep warm from the outset, I stick my undersuit on after breakfast. I just get to the dive site, chuck my drysuit on top and I’m ready to go. Between dives, cheap ski gear is excellent at keeping warmth in - hat, gloves, jacket, fluffy neck warmer – all to maintain that core body temperature.

“So now we’re warm there are a few other things about cold-water diving you might not think of apart from the obvious reg free flows. Jumping into cold water with three battery bars on your dive computer might cause a premature blip as the battery chemistry can’t always cope with the cold. Ditto torches, cameras and strobes. Drysuit latex seals can stiffen in the freezing cold - this doesn’t damage them but before you do any stretching, the latex needs to be rewarmed so they’re flexible. A leaky drysuit is particularly uncomfortable in really cold water - if you have a leak but can’t find it, try turning your suit inside out, unscrew the inflator and turn it round, then block off the neck and wrists with whatever you can find (footballs, pans, wine bottles, coke cans and traffic cones have all been used). Blow it up, and squirt soapy water all over it. The leaks will blow up a neat bubble. I have some tailor’s chalk in my toolbox to mark the leak position so once it’s bone dry, a blob of Aquasure sorts it or, for something more permanent and professional, two-part glue and seam tape.

“Winter diving can be very rewarding with a bit of forethought and preparation. As someone said to me many

moons ago: ‘there’s no such thing as a cold dive, just the wrong kit!’”

Garry Dallas, Director of Training RAID UK and Malta, said: “To be honest, it’s the best time of the year to go diving in cold water. Less algae, more nutrients in the sea and therefore more marine life. It’s a no-brainer, although sometimes in very cold water a lack of good thermal protection on yer bonce can lead to brain freeze in the first 20 seconds or so.

“Looking at thermal protection… don’t skimp, keep warm! Everywhere from head to toe needs another layer. Only wearing the extra sweater does add more buoyancy to the top of your body and knocks your hovering trim out a bit. To keep yourself in trim, wear the socks and bottoms too. Wet gloves… well, here’s the time to invest in some dry gloves, they prevent water contact with the skin that chills your hands down to the bone! So, you’ll be glad you got them. The thicker the under-glove, the more air gets in your gloves to keep you warm. Just make sure both inner and outer gloves fit you… well… like a glove!

“Heated vests… they are awesome! Externally battery-operated vests are easy to shut off, if there’s a problem, but internal ones aren’t. Be cautious of misusing the burn-time (usable power) of the vest; diving with your vest warming your body and keeping blood circulation going during the first part of the dive (normal on-gassing), then finding towards the end the battery runs out will cause your blood circulation to slow down, preventing normal off-gassing and can cause your body to develop DCI symptoms.

“Make sure your wrist seals aren’t too tight, in cold water, now that your torso has redirected the blood flow within it, your hands will become colder even quicker.

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“Scuba equipment… remember, the air temperature can often be colder than the water temperature, so breathing off a second stage regulator in 0 or sub-0 degrees out of water can cause the first stage to freeze prematurely. Turn the second stage breathing adjusters down, easier breathe - easier freeflow. Don’t use warm water regulators below 8 degrees C. Inflator buttons can stick through lack of use, so as usual, make sure all your equipment is serviced properly. Always suck a negative pressure test on the second stage regulator to check it works before you connect to the cylinder.

“Finally, keep warm, before and after a dive, don’t be a ‘hero’ unless you’ve got a pee valve, it really does hurt if you can’t go!”

Mark Powell, TDI Instructor Trainer and Training Advisory Panel Member, commented: “Many divers seem to laugh or think you are joking when you mention diving in the dead of winter.

Cold-water diving may not appeal to everyone out there. But for some, cold water brings the best visibility, solitude, and a very unique aquatic environment. Around the world, quarries, lakes, rivers and even ocean dive sites are swamped with people when the weather is warm and the required exposure protection is minimal. When the weather turns cold, you often have many of these dive sites to yourself. This means when you head to the water to dive, you and your buddy may not have many other divers to ask for support, so you need to take the items you need to remain comfortable. A few of the items are listed below.

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“Any type of physical activity can cause a person to get dehydrated. When the weather is warm and the sun is shining, it is much easier to recognise that we have been sweating and need to replace fluids. Conversely, cold weather often makes us bundle up and avoid cool drinks. When you head out to any dive site, especially a cold-weather site, remember to throw some water in the car. Between dives and around our aquatic activities, we need to remember to replace fluids and stay hydrated. This will make us feel better and ensure time at the dive site is much better.

Similarly, cold weather always means it is a good time for hot drinks. Prepare a thermos and take some hot chocolate (or another hot fluid) out to the dive site. Nothing is better than leaving the water, throwing on your warm clothes, and then sipping a hot cup of coffee or chocolate drink. Your dive buddy will think you are the greatest person in the world.

“Just like fluids, we burn off calories when we dive. The act of adding bulky equipment such as extra exposure protection and the longer preparation time needed to set up and don gear for cold-water diving can make a diver burn off a large number of calories. As we exercise, we get tired and our bodies need more fuel to operate at a maximum level. Taking snacks to the dive site will make sure we have something to munch on and to replace calories after a long dive in cold waters. Essentially, these snacks can be true comfort food to make a diver feel better.

“One of the most-critical things that a cold-water diver needs

31

may be undergarments. If you do not know what these are, they are clothes worn beneath a drysuit to provide thermal protection. When you pack your gear up and head to the water, why not throw some extra items into the car? Most companies that make undergarments often make layering systems. By taking more than one set of thermals to the water, you will know you have multiple options available to you to help you stay warm. Things like liners also fall into this category. Liners help wick sweat away from the body and provide an extra layer of thermal protection beneath normal undergarments. In many instances, liners can really help your hands and feet to stay warm. They are inexpensive items that take up almost no room. So why leave them at home.

“People lose a huge amount of heat through the head. Wearing something as simple as a hat or beanie can help a diver stay warm while walking around a dive site. Think about it. Almost every thermal protection company makes and sells beanies.

You wear a hood to remain warm underwater, so why not a hat on the surface? Simply wearing a hat can help a diver retain large amounts of body heat before, between, and after dives.

“Lastly, no one likes breaking down and cleaning equipment in the cold and wind. One of the easiest ways to simplify your life is to keep large storage bins in your vehicle. Bins allow you to simply place damp equipment into containers that will protect your car. Once home, you can carry the containers inside and break down your gear in comfort.

“Cold-water diving can be very fun. It is a unique experience that offers different types of challenges, but challenges can be fun. Just remember that when you head to the water, plan for your own personal comfort. There is no reason not to try and

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remain warm. Pack the extras into the car that can make you have a good time and remain comfortable. Again, these are just a few suggestions that can help you enjoy your time at the water when it is cold, but think through what you may need, and develop your own list.”

GUE’s John Kendall said: “Diving in the cold can be incredibly rewarding.

You are often greeted by very good visibility, and often the dive sites are a lot quieter. However, there are numerous downsides and risks. The two obvious risks are equipment malfunction and diver malfunction. As the air and water get colder, there is a much-higher likelyhood of freeflows from your regulators.

To avoid this, make sure that the regs are correctly tuned, and turn down any venturi assists. Also avoid breathing the regulators above water too much. In truly freezing conditions (such as ice diving), none of the regulators will be breathed above water. Believe it or not, the water will help keep the first stage warmer (as the water rarely gets much below 4 degrees C, whereas the air can be well into negative temps). You should also consider having truly redundant gas sources (such as a twinset) so that neither first stage is feeding more than one second stage. This will help reduce the load on the first stages if you end up gas sharing.

“In terms of diver malfunction, we have all experienced this to some degree.

Humans get more stupid as they get cold. The body starts changing its blood flow to keep the central organs warm, and the brain goes into a survival mode.

This means we are less likely to make good decisions when we are very cold.

Staying warm is a must, and this starts before the dive. Make sure you are well rested, and eat a proper breakfast before the dive. Slow release carbs, such as porridge, are great for this. Then make sure you don’t get too cold on the surface prior to getting in. Standing around on a cold carpark is a pretty good way of losing core body temperature before we even get wet. Make sure you have adequate and good undergarments, and a dry drysuit. The best undergarments will still keep you warm if you are a little damp, but a flooding suit can be particularly dangerous in cold water. A good measure of how well an undersuit will insulate you is the amount of buoyancy that it has. Generally more buoyancy means more trapped air, and it’s that air that keeps you warm. A good hood and gloves are also essential. Personally, I wear drygloves for any cold diving.

Electrical heating has become more popular and easy to acquire, but be careful of it. Batteries inside the drysuit can lead to nasty burns if the conductors get damaged, so external batteries are the safe way forward. And be mindful about running the heating all the time, if you have deco to do, it is better to try and avoid using the heating too much on the bottom phase, but keep it for the decompression. There has been a lot of research done by the NEDU about this, and cold on dive, warm on deco is the safest way forward.

“Finally, don’t be afraid to call the dive early if you are getting cold. Remember, we dive for fun, so if you’re not enjoying it, then get out.” n

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BASKING SHARKS

ARE GO! 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

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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 silky shark is classified as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species™.

Popular with divers in many places, the silky shark is among the shark species most commonly captured in pelagic longline and purse seine gear set primarily for tunas. Much work remains to control its overfishing, but thanks to support of divers like you in 2016, Project AWARE – working alongside other organizations and governments – successfully advocated for international trade controls coming into effect in 2017.

THE NEXT WAVE WHAT MATTERS TO YOU? Your voice counts! For 25 years, we’ve worked together to protect our ocean planet. Tell us what ocean issue is most important to you and help us shape WWW.PROJECTAWARE.ORG #TheNextWave of ocean protection.

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When I arrived, Sarah told me they had already seen one big shark circling right outside the dive centre window. Could this be a bad omen for me? I usually find that Sod’s Law comes into play when someone tempts fate in this way. We climbed aboard Mike’s bigger boat, the 12-metre-long Keltic Cat. Its high wheelhouse gave us a much-better vantage point for basking shark spotting. Mike had already contacted the local fishermen and they had seen three sharks feeding on either side of the current line. Mike explained that the current lines are basically thermo lines where an upwelling of cooler water brings the plankton closer to the surface. This is the perfect place to find sharks feeding. We cruised along the current line for a good few miles scanning for fins breaking the surface. We had a few false alarms in the guise of black marker buoy flags and mating cormorants, but alas no sharks were to be seen.

After an hour of eye-numbing searching, I was starting to get concerned. Maybe Sarah really had put the mockers on my day!

We travelled all the way to the Lizard, the UK’s most-southerly point, and had not got one whiff of a basking shark. But Mike had one last trick up his sleeve; we made a heading for Kennock Bay, which is about eight miles from the dive centre. Mike described the picturesque bay as a ‘holding area’ which was unaffected by fast-moving currents.

Within moments of arriving we clocked two sharks. Judging by the distance between dorsal and tail fins, they must have been at least five metres in length, maybe slightly bigger. I also caught sight of two smaller three-and-a-half-metre sharks; all

were congregating in the same area. As I watched the sharks feeding, they showed some distinct similarity to great whites. I could now understand why the two species are sometimes mistaken. Mike said: “Normally if you find one shark there will be three or four others following, they are quite social animals”.

On this occasion, I wasn’t going to be content with a nicely composed picture of a basking shark. I wanted to go one step beyond and get a close-up dramatic-looking open-mouth shot using my 16mm fisheye lens. But it didn’t matter about the size of my fins or the strength of my leg muscles, there was just no way of staying alongside a hungry basking shark (they normally move at around two knots when feeding). So Mike had devised a cunning attack strategy. If I was pulled behind a surf ski/canoe, they could manoeuvre me right into the jaws of an oncoming shark. This would at least give me a fighting chance for an action picture.

Mike first let the sharks get used to the boat engines and then he moved in closer. I jumped into the water and Darren towed me into position using the yum-yum yellow-coloured surf ski. I could see a large triangular dorsal fin heading in my direction. This was a little disconcerting to say the least. Even though I knew it was a harmless plankton feeder, I couldn’t help but think, what if this one’s a meat eater instead of a veggie? Basking sharks do actually have teeth.

They are only 5mm-6mm long, but nonetheless. Mike was shouting out directions from his vantage point on the bridge, he said: “Go left a little, now swim towards the boat. Okay, the shark is heading straight for you, you can’t miss it”. I dunked my head underwater and scanned the emerald green water ahead of me. On the day, visibility was around five metres. For a few seconds, I could see nothing but a few passing mullet and then a round white patch appeared in front of me. This materialised into a giant gaping mouth. I ducked dived for a closer look, but this just made the shark veer away and

“It circled me for a few minutes and then came in and nudged my camera dome. I couldn’t have got much closer than that, what an adrenalin rush!”

close its mouth. It circled me for a few minutes and then came in and nudged my camera dome.

I couldn’t have got much closer than that, what an adrenalin rush!

I spent the next hour and a half being towed and shouted at. I even took some pictures of two good-sized sharks. I realised that looking at basking sharks from the surface is similar to an iceberg. All I could see was the dorsal and tail fin moving towards me, but underwater I experienced the full bulk of the creature, including on occasions a scary-looking wide gaping mouth.

The shark kept circling gulping up plankton. I could see the bulging semi-circular gill slits as it passed right by me. They didn’t seem at all harassed by my presence and as long as I didn’t try and get too close, the sharks would just carry on feeding.

I wanted to get a picture of Darren either swimming or paddling next to a shark, just to show some size perspective, but this proved to be difficult. The low visibility and trying to manoeuvre Darren into a good enough position was near-on impossible. But I wasn’t complaining, I had just had a one-to-one experience with the second-largest living fish in the ocean (the whaleshark is number one). Our timing had been perfect. Mike said I had been able to get really

close because there was a lack of plankton and the sharks were more intent on feeding than worrying about me.

On the way back to the dive centre, we saw a large splash followed by a giant shape leaping out of the water. I had seen whales and great white sharks breaching, but never expected basking sharks to do the same. A small three-and-a-half-metre shark put on a spectacular aerial display while we were following behind in the boat. Mike said he had only seen this when the sharks were following each other in single file.

He thought it could be some kind of mating ritual. Another theory is that they are trying to get rid of parasites attached to their skin. The only other time Mike had seen this behaviour was when the sharks were corralling mackerel closer together, forcing them to squeeze out their eggs. This creates a giant red egg slick on the surface for the sharks to eat.

For once I felt content. I had spent a great day at Porthkerris Dive Centre. Mike, Jo and the rest of the dive team had been extremely accommodating. I couldn’t even complain about the weather. Cornwall’s coastline was absolutely spectacular and I had even got to see the sharks close up and personal. It really was an amazing experience to see such a big shark in, of all places, my home UK waters. As I sat outside the dive centre drinking a cup of tea, I felt satisfied that my day couldn’t have gone much better. Not bad for my very first encounter with basking sharks. n

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DUXY extols the virtues of dive trips where the itineraries are not so regimented, and allow some freedom for responsible divers to maximise their in-water dive time PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL ‘DUXY’ DUXFIELD

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ust before the seasonal break, I was lucky enough to visit Egypt for two weeks conducting escorted trips, one week on a liveaboard (on a new boat for me, the rather lovely Blue Pearl), and then a week diving land-based with Red Sea Dive Safari at Marsa Shagra.

So this month I’m going to extol the virtues of a special kind of diving itinerary that gives greater freedoms to the sensible diver - and not just the underwater photographers either. Something similar might be just the ticket if you’d like to be more in-control of your diving on a trip.

I’m talking about a new twist on the more-regimented itineraries of regular boat or land-based trips, that treat a responsible diver like an adult and thus create a muchmore-relaxed and easy-going atmosphere than your usual, necessarily more time-critical routes.

That’s not to say that your usual Wrecks and Reefs and Simply the Best itineraries can’t be fantastic and fun, it’s just that they have to be run like a well-oiled machine to cover all the sites on the list, so dive times need to be at set intervals, co-ordinated with food times, and also the needs of a very busy crew, filling tanks and mooring the boat at new locations, etc.

They also nearly all tend to be run very similarly, so that on a certain day there’s a bunch of boats from different fleets all at a dive site at similar times, even sometimes extending to a greater density of divers at the popular spots if the dive guides on the boats haven’t co-operated and employed some joined-up thinking to stagger the drop-in times.

THE HISTORY

About five years ago now, a bit of bad weather led to some good fortune, when our boat full of underwater photographers were all on a trip which was basically your regular Wrecks and Reefs Northern Red Sea route, with some photo help and instruction provided by yours truly.

Anyway, it was in early-January and, as it can be sometimes, it was very windy, and our sensible skipper decided to keep us at our safe mooring at Gubal Island until the weather blew over.

Unfortunately, it really wasn’t getting any calmer, so while where we were was dive-able, a lot of the other spots would have been hazardous, and at the very least no fun, and definitely not relaxing.

We’d just come from a very dicey Thistlegorm and made the bumpy crossing back, so it looked like we were going to be staying a few days here at the Barge in sheltered

conditions according to the wind forecast.

Our guide, a good friend of mine, put forward a plan to help with the inconvenience of enforced diving of the same dive site, and so together we fine-tuned the idea and worked it through.

It was very simple - we would just create a true ‘open deck’, allowing people to dive when they wanted, from dawn till night time, with unlimited dive times, based upon their own air consumption. We trusted the divers onboard to observe sensible surface intervals and deco limits.

We would also allow them use of the RIBs to either pick them up or drop them off, within a safe radius of the Barge itself, which is the centrepiece of the area, and which we were moored atop of. This allowed a great deal of diversity and different diving opportunities, as the area is quite large, but more importantly it allowed those who wanted an easier life - not fancying getting on and off RIBs - a great chance to just plop in at their leisure from the back of the boat if they wished.

A lot think that it must be an easier trip for a crew, when in fact the opposite is true. On a regular itinerary the crew all know that the bell will ring for dives at certain times, and that there will be gaps when most are in the water, so that they can fit in their own food and of course their prayer times.

If we are all coming and going randomly, tank filling becomes more of a chore too, as now you need to keep a much-closer eye on who is full and empty, rather than filling all enmasse while we are eating or between dives. So this usually requires an extra deck engineer to spread the load and so they can take it in shifts with the fills.

All the simple stuff like cleaning the boat and cabins, etc, has to be fitted in around our freedoms, and so it’s worth bearing this in mind.

THERE HAS TO BE RULES

A lot of people don’t like RIB diving, I’ve found, so it’s great to be able to offer an alternative to those not fancying the indignities of getting hauled aboard an inflatable, and so it meant that everybody had a choice, and a say in how and when they wanted to dive.

It was a great success, and even when the weather abated enough to move on, they fairly unanimously voted to stay on an extra day loving the greater freedom and the chilled-out atmosphere that ‘open deck’ diving brought with it.

And then nearly two thirds of them decided to repeat the trip the following year if we indulged them again with the ‘open deck’ that they’d grown to love.

The following year it was so successful I ran the same trip twice, once at the end of January and then at the end of February, so it became a fixture in my calendar, with the company I worked for even copyrighting the name of the trip, along with a summer variant I had also put in my schedule.

THE BTS STORY

Behind the scenes, this free and easygoing trip, like a lot of things actually, had to be run quite carefully and with an attention to detail if everything wasn’t to descend into anarchy and chaos.

I know of a couple of trips that decided to emulate this format and came unstuck because they thought that it would be a doddle, however they quickly realised that you need to know your onions, and work with the crews, skippers and guides on the boats if all is to go swimmingly. You can’t just turn up and assume that the boat team will do your bidding, and you need to be sensitive to their needs, and consult with them about your plans.

BLUE DUCK PHOTOGRAPHY

If we just had a free-for-all then anarchy would ensue and no doubt the beleaguered crew would have every right to down tools. So we have to have a system to make this all work well, and above all it has to be safe. I’ve run over 25 trips like this now, and we have it down pat.

First and foremost, you have to let us know when you enter the water with your buddy, recording the time, and a rough ETA of how long you think you’ll be, and taking your name off the white board when you get back onboard.

We normally set the first time to be allowed to enter the water from dawn, or just before, and then the final entry time at dinner time at night.

And between these times you’re allowed up to four dives, of course observing safe surface intervals and we trust you to not push the limits. So far, no one has let us down, I find that if you trust people, they will endeavour to live up that trust.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner is at fixed times each day, and if you want to dive over those times then that’s entirely up to you, but don’t assume that you will automatically be fed, as the poor chef isn’t providing a personal service.

However, it’s unlikely that you’ll starve on your average liveaboard, there’s always snacks and biscuits to hand.

BIG ADVANTAGES

This style of diving has big advantages, not least of which you can wake up when you want, either having a leisurely lie in and an extra-long post-breakfast dive, probably with few others around, or get up extra early and get in as the sun is just warming the horizon, witnessing that exciting time as the reef wakes up.

As a photographer diving multiple times at a site will reap dividends, as you can revisit spots and sometimes, especially at sites like the Barge, you’ll even see the same creatures multiple times a day, allowing you options to perfect your shots, staying

STOP PRESS! Duxy has just finalised the deal for this year’s ‘open deck’ itineraries. He has one at the end of May (25 May) on Emperor Superior with his popular Northern Egypt-based route. And a brand new route in the South of Egypt but with his ‘open deck’ twist on 30 November on Emperor Elite. Blue Duck Photography, started with friends Phil and Anne Medcalf, is now in full swing, with only the best cherry-picked brands and advice about underwater photography on offer. So if you’re a dive club and would like to offer your members some great in-house training for beginners upwards, or you’re an individual interested in equipment purchase and how best to use it, then get in touch via Social Media @blueduckphoto and @tripswithduxy on Facebook. Blue Duck has visited and given two-day courses to clubs both North and South in the latter half of 2017, and the diary for this year is already filling up.

So if you’d like to hear more, then drop us an email: info@blueduckphoto.com

in-situ for as long as you’d like.

If you’re a newbie then these trips are also a boon, as you’ll mostly have the opportunity to either partner with someone that you can learn from on an easy, unhurried dive, or get one of the dive guides to show you around at a pace that suits you.

And as I mentioned earlier, these trips are very popular with those that aren’t keen on bumpy RIB rides and inelegant entries and exits.

The Barge at Gubal Island is our most popular ‘open deck’ site, but weather, time of year and conditions allowing, I can implement the same scenario at a number of other popular locations, so rather than seeing everywhere in the Northern Red Sea at a furious pace, you’ll have the time to enjoy and savour a dive site, and witness it at various points across the day. Less is most definitely more.

NOT JUST FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

While these trips started out being solely the preserve of the underwater photographer, over the years they’ve become popular with any type of diver that would prefer an easier life and the ability to dictate their own daily plans without the Pavlovian response that the bell ringing brings with it on a normal liveaboard.

I’m on hand, of course, to help with any of your underwater photography requirements, and of late have been also doing mini video-editing sessions as everyone and their mate seems to be bringing along a GoPro or something similar.

If you’re a more-serious underwater photographer though, wanting to perfect a technique and not be bothered, just spending time with a subject, then these trips will also deliver the goods. And I’ll still be always available for critiques or photo-editing tuition.

OKAY, WHAT ABOUT LAND-BASED THEN?

I mentioned at the beginning that I had come back from a two-week trip. My second week was my very first similar land-based Egypt itinerary at the Marsa Shagra location of Red Sea Dive Safari.

BIOGRAPHY

I had wanted something that echoed all the major benefits of my liveaboard ‘open decks’ but on land and after extensive research decided upon RSDS, and was aided and abetted by Sarah O’Gorman, Head of Marketing at the resort.

Within half an hour’s transfer from Marsa Alam airport, I was now able to conduct a similar itinerary with the freedom to take charge of your own diving. They have unlimited house reef diving here, and the entry and exits are easy by shore, but you can also opt to take a RIB out to the further reaches of the extensive house reef both north and south of the bay, or Marsa, as it’s known in Arabic.

There are also options to have excursions further afield to Elphinstone, and Marsa Abu Dabbab to see sharks or dugongs, so plenty to keep you occupied, and I hope to do more of these land-based trips in the future as I can see them being very popular.

The food was also of very high liveaboard standards and with flexible breakfast, lunch and dinner times, so you can fit them around your own personalised diving schedule. And I was able to conduct daily photo critiques and tutorials at a room put at my disposal.

You can stay in everything from an air-conditioned chalet with ensuite to a shore-side tent under the stars, something for everyone.

LAST WORD

Whether you prefer a boat-based trip, or the benefits of a land-orientated trip is your thing, there’s no denying the attraction of being in control of your own diving in a safe environment. This way you can mold your holiday in a way you like. And if it’s on one of my itineraries, then you’ll also get the photo tuition as well, so it’s a win-win all round. 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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FREEDIVING INTERVIEW

Q&A : Stefanie Brendl

LORNA DOCKERILL talks to shark conservationist/activist Stefanie Brendl, the founder of Shark Allies, who has gained worldwide recognition for her freediving exploits with tiger sharks off the coast of Hawaii, and is a leading light in the fight to protect shark species Photographs by DOUG PERRINE AND PHIL WALLER

Q: What is your worst moment while freediving?

A: When I was revisiting a few locations in Micronesia in 2011 that, in my memory, were my top favourite sites. Places with the most-vibrant reefs, teeming with fish, sharks, turtles and giant clams. Now they were unrecognisable – fished out by commercial fishing operations, corals smashed and covered with algae. I remember one day in particular where I was suddenly overcome with a profound sadness and started crying uncontrollably. I had to stop freediving and just floated on the surface for a while to gain back my composure. I didn’t want the others to see me that way. As I was pondering my options, I concluded that I might have to give up diving altogether because I didn’t want to see what was going on anymore. ‘Ignorance is bliss’, right?

Of course, I knew about these issues on an intellectual basis, and had even been working on conservation projects, but sometimes you have a moment when it hits you in the gut and the realisation becomes an emotion, not a thought. Then there is no turning back, because that emotion becomes part of your DNA. I know I shouldn’t call that my worst moment, because it turbo-charged my convictions to work for ocean conservation, but it was also the point where I lost my light-hearted approach for fun in the water. I constantly question myself now whether my play time in the ocean is frivolous and whether I could be doing something more purposeful instead.

Q: When did you first become interested in freediving?

A: It’s hard to know at what point one officially becomes a freediver. I spent the 1990s working and diving in Micronesia and Indonesia. Between and after dives I would freedive to get more time in the water. Once I moved to Hawaii in 2000, the appeal was to spend more time in the open blue chasing big animals – that was much more practical without scuba gear. Diving with only a mask and snorkel became the norm for me. In 2007, I did my first formal freediving class in Kona and then a more-advanced class in the Cayman Islands a year later.

Q: What made you want to become a freediver?

A: I love being in the ocean and like the feeling of using minimal gear. Less noise, more ease of movement, a better connection to the elements. Because I was spending so much time under the water and going quite deep, I decided some freedive training would help me increase my knowledge and safety. While I was doing the class I discovered that I was actually a fairly decent freediver and I became interested in improving my technique. It was such a boost to the ego to reach a depth on a line-dive that I thought was beyond my reach.

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Q: What is your best moment while freediving?

A: There are many incredible moments, but all of them have one thing in common - encountering animals. My freedives with tiger sharks in Hawaii are hard to beat.

But I also had an incredible day being very close to humpback whales while they were dancing around each other, the male obviously trying to impress the female.

Then there were some very special days with manta rays in Palau and Yap. And just about any time I have ever been in the water with dolphins has been so wonderful it makes me want to live in the water.

With every type of animal, the feeling is a little different, so it’s hard to say which encounter was the best.

Relating this to the previous question, I have to say that I treasure these encounters so much, because they fill my memory bank with amazing experiences that I will never forget. They balance out the bad days when too much reality makes me feel like my head might explode.

But I realise that hanging out with animals in the ocean is mostly to my own benefit. They get nothing out of it.

Diving with sharks doesn’t inherently help sharks (unless it translates into eco-tourism, and then it becomes a matter of economics). So my justification these days is to use the amazing days as fuel to keep myself engaged and working on behalf of the animals.

Q: Why should someone (whether they are a nondiver, scuba diver or tech diver) contemplate taking up freediving?

A: You will experience the ocean in a different way because you don’t surround yourself with noise and bubbles. It lets you move more smoothly and quietly and you can get closer to animals. Freediving classes are also super interesting because you will learn a lot about human physiology. I find it fascinating what we are capable of doing. Freediving is physically and mentally challenging. For me, it is the ultimate way to switch off the noisy part of my brain and find a meditative state of being.

FREEDIVING INTERVIEW Q: Where is your favourite place to freedive? And where are the best dive locations for sharks in your mind?

A: My favorite places to freedive are not always great, but when the conditions are right they are epic.

Hawaii blue water – especially Kona. Palau drop-offs – they are well known as drift diving/scuba locations, because of the current. But my most-memorable times at Blue Corner in Palau were at slack tide, when all the scuba divers left and I was by myself just hovering quietly in midwater. I am predicting a future favourite will be French Polynesia (for drift dives) and Tonga (for whales) or some cold-water adventure in New Zealand… (if I can toughen up and handle cold water better than I currently do!)

The best locations for scuba diving with sharks are well-known. Bahamas, Fiji, Guadalupe, South Africa… but freediving with sharks is a completely different situation. The reason why it is so do-able in Hawaii is because of the great visibility. That’s a key element in interacting with the larger, more ‘dangerous’ sharks.

Q: You have a passion for freediving with sharks without a cage - in particular tiger sharks in Hawaii.

What has drawn you into diving with sharks, and more specifically tiger sharks, which have a reputation for being dangerous?

A: I have always wanted to be around animals. For me, it is an incredible feeling when a wild animal makes eye contact and chooses to come closer.

I don’t know if it is a primal way of being, but I like being among them; of observing and being completely aware of my surroundings and the subtle body language of the animals; of being just dominant enough to keep the peace, while not being threatening and intrusive.

I feel hyper-aware when I have to make the switch from terrestrial human to (wannabe) ocean creature.

My brain doesn’t have time to focus on anything else than sharing this dynamic space with another being that is watching me as much as I am watching it. It is calming to know how the animal will react. I know that may sound presumptuous and I am not claiming that I have perfected it, but I love the process of sharpening those instincts.

The bigger the animal, the greater the challenge.

And tiger sharks were simply one step up from other sharks I had gone diving with. They have an immense presence in the water. I realise they are more dangerous, but they are not unpredictable. And the more time you spend in the water with them, the more you come to realise that.

It is rare to encounter big animals in the wild, but when you do, it can affect you deeply.

Q: What was your training process like when learning to freedive with sharks without a cage?

A: I spent a lot of time observing them from the safety of the cage. I watched how they moved when they were calm and when they were excited, how they changed their behaviour when other larger or smaller sharks were around. I could see how a nervous shark versus a bold or a timid shark reacted; how they

switched their behaviour when there was food in the water. I started to recognise a clear hierarchy among the animals. They establish this with subtle movements, positioning or simply by being much bigger than anybody else in the neighbourbood.

Gaining that awareness helped me to anticipate when and why the dynamics would change. I felt very calm once I understood why and how sharks would approach me and I knew how I would adjust my positioning accordingly. I started to leave the cage when I felt I could recognise which animal was easy to dive with and which one would be more challenging.

Q: What’s the hairiest moment you’ve had with a tiger shark?

A: When I was working with a cameraman and a safety diver that was a bit overwhelmed by the number of sharks around us. I was being filmed freediving with the sharks so I had my role to play, but I was also watching the other divers out of the corner of my eye.

The cameraman was pre-occupied and the safety diver seemed like he had tunnel vision straight ahead – they were unaware of one shark getting a bit too curious behind their backs and even though I signaled, they didn’t turn to address the situation. There was plenty of build-up and warning by the shark, so I ended up dashing past the camera and safety diver to push the shark away. He wasn’t attacking, but I think he was getting curious enough to bite the tank or give one of them a good hard bump, which could have created panic. When I gave the shark a hard push he bolted away and the rest of the animals got a bit excited - there were a few minutes of all the other sharks

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never stop moving - it’s how they breathe. I guess we were both holding our breath to make this happen…

It was one of the most-serene and profound moments in my life. And on that day, it became very clear to me that I needed to do less diving and instead get to work to actually save sharks.

Q: How would you like to change peoples’ perceptions about sharks?

A: Turn hate into respect. I have learned over the years that it’s not necessary for everyone to like sharks in order to protect them. Once people understand that sharks are incredibly important to us and the ocean’s health, they usually change their attitude.

It doesn’t matter whether you hate them or love them – all of us simply need sharks and we must respect them as a key member in our ocean ecosystems.

coming in and checking us out more intensely. We had to stay together back to back, facing outwards in a circle until the sharks mellowed out. It was the only time in the water where I distinctly felt like a member of a baitball, being pushed around by predators. But it just goes to show that it pays to think ahead. We had discussed the situation ahead of time, just in case, and were able to diffuse it quickly.

Sharks get excited when there is excitement in the water. And they calm down just as quickly when nothing is happening. The hairiest moments are usually caused by human error - by being unaware, or overwhelmed by the task at hand.

Q: And the most serene?

A: One day stands out for me as the most-serene and impactful in my life. It was years ago when I spent hours with a large female tiger shark that was extremely calm and curious. She never came at me head on, but she would stay side by side and watch me. It was so intense I could barely breathe. I eventually got so close I put my hand on her back and she didn’t go anywhere. The feeling of her muscles and skin under my hand is forever imprinted into my memory. I was watching her big eye as she was inspecting me. I felt so small and in awe that she was even aware of me. Every time she swam forward and came back around she was slower and more relaxed. At one point, she parked herself next to me, in midwater, and stopped swimming, which sounds impossible because tiger sharks

Q: You founded Shark Allies, a charity which lobbies for shark protection legislation (in the US? Or globally?). Where did the idea for this stem from and how is the charity helping to conserve sharks?

A: I have worked on shark conservation measures all over the Pacific and the US mainland and have consulted on legislation all over the world. Mostly to ban the trade of shark fins and to create Marine Protected Areas where shark fishing is now illegal.

Shark Allies, much like other small charities all over the world, tries to raise awareness and acts as a support system for activists that work to protect sharks. Charities don’t save sharks by being a theoretical entity – it’s the individual warriors that knock on doors and convince companies to stop selling shark fins, or that make documentaries without funding, or that spend their time educating kids in schools about sharks that make the difference. The organisations serve as structures to support the activists in their work, to formulate campaigns, to fundraise and to engage the public and media.

They also legitimise the efforts because legislators and decisions makers like to communicate with people that have an official capacity. And the public trusts charities rather than individuals.

It’s unfortunate that ‘activist’ isn’t simply a job that people can get paid for. It would make life a lot easier. Having to fundraise and fulfill logistical demands of a non-profit can be such a hassle and often gets in the way of doing real work. Rather than promoting a charity, I personally would much prefer to keep forging ahead with action that creates the most progress. But at this time, it is only because of the support of grassroots organisations, and a few generous funders, that anything at all gets done on behalf of sharks. n

Check out: SharkAllies.org and follow us on Social Media @SharkAllies

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

INTO THE HEARTLAND OF THE GREAT WHITE SHARKS PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAE DORRICOTT AND ROXANNE MULA

S

itting south of Port Lincoln in the Great Australian Bight, the Neptune Islands look like freckles on the face of a haphazard sea. A sea which is unforgiving with cold, exhilarating winds sweeping up from the south that carve the mounds of land into a rugged home. Sea birds fly high and ride the push of the waves, dipping in and out of view with the folds of water. When the sea is rough, it does not take pity on your stomach. But when she is calm, she is divine, and you can see why this remote place is named the Neptune Islands.

With waters that are beyond the description of turquoise or aquamarine, it glistens and is ever so enticing. It’s the most-apt location to find the supreme and iconic inhabitants of the sea. The great white shark.

These legends are the reason for me stepping aboard The Princess II as crew for the Rodney Fox Shark Expedition for an unforgettable month of tourism and research. The beauties that are Carcharodon carcharias (meaning ragged toothed one) have been villainised by the media misconceptions, and yet I was so excited to see them.

After a four-hour boat drive from Port Lincoln to the Neptunes, the Princess II is anchored in the most-perfect spot. In the home of the sharks. The cages are positioned. Passengers briefed. And then we wait and watch on the deck for them to come.

Suddenly the fish dart fast away, the seagulls skyrocket out the water as the ominous shadow of the shark creeps in out of the deep. A grey dorsal fin like a knife emerges out of the water and slices the surface, displacing water as he moves in. It took my brain far too long to register what I had just seen.

One of the greatest creatures on the planet.

As the only operator in the world to have an ocean floor cage, you can see the sharks from the seabed as the cage drops down to 25m, and sits within the belly of the shark’s environment.

Caverns and pinnacles of rocks covered in a meadow of seaweeds and kelp provide the perfect scenery to wait with huge anticipation for a shark to appear from the periphery of your vision. Down here, the shark’s behaviour is completely different to on the surface. Here they inspect you. Scope you out as a foreigner in their domain. They know where you’re looking and sometimes sneak up behind knowing you can’t see them. You only spot them once your dive buddy is patting you madly on the shoulder as the three-metre torpedo of muscle and teeth passes you at eye level. Staring you down with their big brown eyes.

I can’t lie to you, the bottom cage dive is now classed as one of the best dives I’ve ever had to date. Utterly epic and one experience I will not soon forget. n

Mae Dorricott

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ABOVE JEREMY CUFF samples the underwater delights

of Dorset’s Studland Bay, famed for its seahorses but offering plenty of other marine life species to discover in its shallow waters

Photographs by JEREMY AND AMANDA CUFF (WWW.JA-UNIVERSE.COM)

F

ew people visit Studland Bay in Dorset to dive, choosing instead to visit more traditional locations such as Swanage just along the coast, but it’s an interesting area that enthusiasts of marine life may find rewarding. It takes a bit of planning, but can make for a different kind of diving day or weekend…

Studland is located in Dorset on the South Coast in an area known as Purbeck, between Sandbanks and the pleasant coastal town of Swanage. Its easternmost point forms the entrance to Poole Harbour, which is linked to Sandbanks by a car and pedestrian ferry.

It’s an interesting area to visit on all sorts of levels. Its fabulous beaches are popular with walkers, families and sunseekers, as well as having a quirky niche in terms of a designated nudist area (it’s about halfway between the main National Trust car park at Knoll Beach and the Sandbanks ferry, for those who wish to know it).

It’s also home to a National Nature Reserve (predominantly consisting of heathland) that boasts rare and diverse flora

and fauna, including all six species of native English reptiles, such as sand lizard and smooth snake, avian rarities that include the Dartford warbler and the nightjar, and invertebrate species such as the silver studded blue butterfly.

In terms of the marine environment, Studland Bay is sheltered by the headland that culminates in Old Harry Rocks, is very shallow and largely devoid of current unless there’s an easterly wind (which would likely make diving difficult and not worthwhile). It’s also hoped that the bay will be afforded special environmental protection due in no small part to its population of seahorses. Apparently, 2017 yielded the first seahorse sightings in three years, according to the Seahorse Trust.

So why dive at Studland? Well, while researching some different shallow dives, and having previously tried a few interesting ones, such as Lulworth Cove, Bouley Bay in Jersey, Chesil Beach and Balaclava Bay in Portland, I fancied the idea of diving Studland to see what was there. It was, if you will, ‘my naked diving ambition’.

ARRIVAL AT THE SITE

At Studland, there isn’t a specific ‘focal point’ dive site as such, you have to choose where you’re going to go diving. To a fair degree, that’s likely to be dictated by the ease of getting yourself and all your kit to a chosen section of beach.

Those wishing to fulfil any ‘naked diving ambitions’ of basing themselves in the nudist area will soon find out that it’s a long way from the car park and therefore a difficult proposition. Even if you’re intending to indulge in some nude sunbathing between dives, the water temperatures (even in the height of summer) will quickly preclude anyone thinking of extending their nudity to the underwater realm - you’ll definitely need your dive suit for that part of the day, and it’s a very long way to lug all of your gear, tanks and supplies!

Joking aside, this is a dive trip that needs planning and preparation in order to make it a success. To best organise things, I decided to go and have a look, to work out the best way of tackling it. I did this over the winter, combining it with a long beach walk on a crisp sunny Sunday in January.

I needed to solve the issues of where to park, where best to be based, which general area to dive, the ease (or otherwise) of how to get the gear to the area you want to be and then back again, the proximity to facilities (such as car parks, toilets, cafes, etc), and the ability to store the gear while we went for lunch and so on. Added to that, there’s no dive centre at Studland, so visiting divers must bring everything they need.

My early scouting trip proved to be very worthwhile and established the need for some kind of hand-pulled trolley/trailer to transport the gear and supplies, such as a garden trolley with soft wheels (I subsequently purchased one and it proved to be invaluable).

The other ideal scenario was to be based out of a beach hut, which is possible to do via the National Trust. Though we had to wait until relatively late to establish availability, we were able to book a hut fairly close to the Middle Beach Cafe.

The hut proved to be a masterstroke, allowing us to hang kit, change tanks and get kitted up in a relatively ‘sand free’ environment, and also giving us the ability to store stuff while we went to the café for lunch.

The other ‘must do’ is to ensure that you get to your chosen car park early enough, so that you’ve got the minimum distance to transport your gear. Studland is popular all your round, but can be packed on hot summer weekends, such as the date of our visit (the weekend of 17-18 June).

DIVE BRIEFING

Once you’ve dealt with the logistics of getting set up in your chosen area, it’s really just a case of going diving in whatever section of the beach you’ve decided upon. It’s a shore entry, and easy for even the most-unsteady of divers, as there’s no incline and hardly any rocks. As already mentioned, we picked the area around the Middle Beach Café. Overall, the biggest considerations are diver safety and perhaps unusually for a dive site, aspects of law surrounding the seahorse population.

Diver safety is a serious point at this site, due to the very shallow depths combined with the presence of boats. As you can expect to get no deeper than 3m on a dive, divers are constantly within the ‘danger zone’ of boat traffic. During our visit, the sheer amount of boats and jet skis were phenomenal, resembling the marina at Monaco during Grand Prix weekend (boat size excepted!), rather than an area of environmental protection. It’s thus essential to ensure that buddy pairs stick closely together and use an SMB at all times to indicate their presence. To not do this would be foolhardy.

Quite rightly, the seahorse population of Studland is protected by law, but in terms of diving, the law puts you in a strange place. It works (I think) something like this - if you go for a dive but find no seahorses (which you weren’t specifically looking for), it’s fine. If you go for a dive and happen to find seahorses (but weren’t specifically looking for them), it’s fine, provided you behave responsibly

DIVE CENTRES

The first thing to understand about diving at Studland is that there’s no convenient dive centre from which to procure fills, or to hire some piece of gear that you forgot to pack in your kit bag. You therefore have to bring everything you need, including sufficient filled tanks for the amount of diving you plan to do. In many ways, this type of diving involves at least as much planning as a foreign trip. Using a comprehensive packing list is a good idea.

As the dives are super-shallow, we managed two long dives on a single fill, but any visiting diver would have to judge it for themselves.

That said, we planned around the ‘one dive, one tank/fill’ policy.

If you do need to get fills or other dive-related supplies while in the area, there’s a dive centre around the headland at Swanage, about four or five miles away. Swanage can be packed with visitors on summer weekends (and therefore difficult to park), so be wary of turning a pleasant day of diving into stress-filled runaround.

Much better to bring everything you’re going to need. If you need them for any reason, visit: www.diversdownswanage.co.uk

STUDLAND BAY, DORSET WHAT TO EXPECT TYPE OF ‘DIVE’

Very shallow shore dive (only practical at high tide).

DEPTH

Depth will vary depending on tides and your chosen entry points.

We spent most of our time in the 1.5m-3m bracket, so it’s really shallow. Due to this, you need to ensure you have sufficient weight to stay down.

MARINE LIFE/WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

I haven’t seen much written down about the marine life of Studland Bay other than the famed seahorse population, so can only rely on what we encountered on our three dives, which probably scratches the surface of what is possible. We encountered extensive weed/ seagrass beds, anemones, spider crabs, tompot blennies (wherever there are rocks or rubble), gobies, schools of bass, wrasse, prawns, flounder, fry/larval fish, whelks and what I believed was a tiny squid.

Though we didn’t see any, it’s probable that pipefish and cuttlefish inhabit the area during the summer months. Also, expect considerable seasonal variations as well.

VISIBILITY

This is variable depending on wind direction, run off and other factors, but likely to be one to five metres. We experienced one to three metres at best during our visit. Generally, the further you are from the surfline, the better the visibility.

SEABED

Flat, sandy expanses, extensive weed/seagrass beds, occasional rocks and rubble patches.

HAZARDS

Boat traffic, jet skis, disorientation, low visibility and slippery rocks/boulders (if entering/exiting the water around some parts of the Middle Beach or South Beach areas).

and don’t take pictures using flash. If you go for a dive specifically looking for seahorses, it’s not fine (as you need a licence to actively seek them), though if you don’t find them, the fact that you had that intent becomes diminished. If you go looking for seahorses and find them having previously applied for and been granted the appropriate licence, then fine, provided you abide by the terms of the licence.

As we didn’t go specifically looking for seahorses, nor did we happen to stumble upon them, we didn’t have to deal with any resulting dilemma. I would admit to hoping to stumble across one, even though I wasn’t specifically looking for them. It’s a grey area, but it’s done for the right reasons.

Though the seahorses are legally protected from the activities of irresponsible scuba divers, they’re probably more widely threatened by the plethora of other human activities in the bay, such as the excessive boat traffic and use of anchors, jet skis and numerous bathers able to walk out a long way due to the shallow depth.

THE DIVES

As there are little in the way of ‘underwater landmarks’ (if there is such a thing!), the dives themselves are really random explorations of the sandy expanses and weed/sea grass beds. As this can be disorientating (yes, I know we should use a compass), we found ourselves benefitting from the shallow depth at times in order to pop up and check our location, while listening for any boat movements.

There are a few rocks and patches of rubble around the areas between Middle Beach and South Beach which we checked out, and also (I suspect) at the far end of South Beach, though we didn’t try that area. If you visit either of these, you can expect some different kinds of weed growth and species such as edible crabs and blennies.

Most of our time was spent out on the sandy expanses and among the labyrinths of luxuriant weed and sea grass beds where we noted spider crabs (some covered in weed growth themselves), whelks, blennies, flatfish such as flounders, and small secretive species of shrimp skulking in the weed. Perhaps the most-striking and memorable aspect to the dives was the incredible number of anemones; countless thousands were attached to the weed and sea grass.

We also spotted schools of bass flashing by, and some sizeable wrasse (including one with a parasite). Other fish sightings included gobies skulking in the weed. We didn’t see any seahorses and perhaps surprisingly no pipefish either. One interesting, but very fleeting encounter was what I believed to be a tiny squid that jetted away, not to be seen again when I went to check it out. Owing to its sheltered geography, the bay also appears to be an important fish nursery, with numerous fish fry being present.

I would admit to hoping for a bit more, but it was definitely interesting and worth trying again sometime. Perhaps when it’s a bit quieter than what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year! n

“During our visit, the sheer amount of boats and jet skis were phenomenal, resembling the marina at Monaco during Grand Prix weekend (boat size excepted!), rather than an area of environmental protection”

Winter Deals Photo: Pete Bullen

Your Buddies welcome you to 2018!

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Caribbean WRECK CENTRAL

Many Caribbean islands have a ‘signature’ wreck dive, or in some cases two or three, but between them, Grenada and Carriacou boast a veritable fleet of shipwrecks just waiting to be explored, as MARK EVANS explains Photographs by MARK EVANS

T

here are few countries globally that can compete with Grenada and Carriacou when it comes to shipwrecks, never mind just in the Caribbean, and even more incredibly, many of the sunken vessels were genuine maritime accidents, not purpose-sunk artificial reefs. And because the islands sit near a busy trade route, the number of wrecks is going up all the time - the latest addition was in March last year!

THE BIANCA C

Like many Hollywood starlets of a certain generation, this grand old dame may be starting to show her age, but there is no doubting the fact that she still commands respect and remains an alluring attraction for experienced divers visiting Grenada. One of the largest diveable shipwrecks in the world, the Bianca C’s vital statistics are mightily impressive - 181 metres long, 23 metres wide, 18,427 tonnes. That is one big lump of metal. This immense Italian liner has been a fixture on the Grenada diving scene since she sank in 1961, but delve into her history, and you find that she actually sank twice!

The Bianca C was built in 1939 on the south coast of France, and then after being launched as an incomplete ship named Marechal Petain, was first sunk by German forces in August 1944. The submerged hull was raised in 1946 and taken back to its original shipyard, where it was extensively refitted and launched once again, in 1949, this time as a luxurious cruise ship bearing the name La Marseillaise.

She then became known as the Arosa Sky in 1957 after being sold, before finally, in 1959, she was bought by the G Costa du Genoa company, and was subsequently renamed Bianca C after a daughter in the family firm. She was tasked with the run from Naples, Italy, to Guaira in Venezuela, and Grenada was her last stop on the return leg.

On 22 October 1961, while anchored off St Georges, an explosion in the boiler room saw the vessel catch fire. Hordes of local boats - ranging from sailing boats, power boats and tiny dinghies to ocean-going yachts and inter-island trading schooners, even rowing boats - responded to the crisis, rescuing all but one person who perished on board. Sadly, of 12 badly burned crew, two other men died later. Showing the friendliness and generosity that Grenada is renowned for, all of the rescued passengers were given food and shelter in hotels, guest houses and even private homes.

British frigate HMS Londonderry was in Puerto Rico and sailed down to Grenada to assist. When the naval vessel arrived on 24 October, the Bianca C was still ablaze, boiling the sea around her glowing stern. The frigate managed to take the huge liner in tow, with an aim to move it away from the shipping lanes, but it proved problematic due to the Bianca C’s rudders being jammed and eventually the towing line snapped and the ship sank, which is how it came to rest

upright in some 50m of water off Pink Gin Beach.

I first dived her many years ago in 1999, and back then, apart from some sections of the main superstructure that had partially collapsed, she was still very much ‘shipshape’. The swimming pool - this was a luxury cruise liner, after all! - was immediately recognisable, with its blue and white tiled bottom and sides clearly visible, and it was relatively easy (if you had the correct training and skill-set) to venture inside and check out some of the cabins and social areas. As we were leaving the wreck, I recall everyone always turning around to watch the bow slowly disappear into the gloom. Save for the fact there were no railings on the Bianca C’s bow, it was very reminiscent of images of the Titanic, and probably accounts partly for its nickname of ‘Titanic of the Caribbean’.

I then dived her several more times through the 2000s, and each time noticed she had succumbed to her watery grave a little more, with her superstructure becoming increasingly unstable. Her slow but steady demise was evident in the ‘rust cloud’ she generated that was flushed into the water column by the current, dropping the vis while on the wreck itself, but somewhat adding to the whole experience.

My most-recent visit to the Bianca C was last year, after a hiatus of several years, and I saw a vast difference. Most of her starboard side has collapsed down and out on to the seabed, and her huge masts have toppled over. Penetration into the wreck is not advisable anymore given its state of decay, but that isn’t to say there is not plenty still to see. The swimming pool can still be explored, though there is not that much tiling left, and there are swim-throughs and overhangs to venture in and under. British divers who are used to seeing wrecks broken apart, smothered in silt and rust and in less-than-perfect vis, will relish diving on the Bianca C, as their honed eyes will be able to easily pick out key aspects of the ship, including bollards, winches, parts of the superstructure and the rope locker. That monstrous bow is still just as impressive as it was when I first saw it back in 1999, so remember to turn round and soak up the view as you leave the ship.

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“British divers who are used to seeing wrecks broken apart, smothered in silt and rust and in less-than-perfect vis, will relish diving on the Bianca C, as their honed eyes will be able to easily pick out key aspects of the ship”

As an alternative dive to the traditional stern-to-bow drift, tech divers can also drop on to the wreck near the bridge and then head over the side of the ship’s bow to the seabed some 20m below. At 50m-52m, a short distance from the bottom of the bow, you can find a vast anchor lying on the bottom, its huge forks protruding upwards. If you have a wide-angle lenses - and the vis allows - it makes a seriously impressive photograph to put the anchor in the foreground and have the bow looming in the background. Having a diver silhouetted next to the bow only adds to the drama.

ACCIDENTAL SHIPWRECKS

As said before, due to its location on various shipping routes, Grenada is also blessed with a plethora of shipwrecks that were the result of maritime accidents.

THE SHAKEM

This 50-metre freighter was carrying bags of cement for the building industry on Grenada when she was caught in a fierce storm in May 2001. The heavy cargo shifted and she went down, settling upright in 32m. The remnants of the cargo can clearly be seen in the holds - the cement has set, and the bags have long since disintegrated, leaving giant ‘pillows’ stacked nearly in piles - but her real draw is the rich smothering of coral and sponge growth that seems to cover every square inch of her superstructure. This is liberally covered in gorgonian sea fans, while the rear of the ship almost looks like a fluffy white wall due to the thick coating of coral.

I first dived the Shakem in 2002, so she hadn’t been down that long, yet I recall being astounded by the amount of growth that had accumulated on her in less than 12 months. It is testament to how nutrient-rich the waters are that surround these islands, just how quickly and profusely encrusting marine life can take hold and flourish. Now the wreck is, in parts, almost unrecognisable as being a manmade object, such is the density of the coral and sponge growth.

THE VERONICA L

Smaller than the Shakem at a length of 40 metres, the Veronica L was also a freighter. She sank after springing a leak, but was then raised and moved to a location near Grand Anse after work began on the cruise ship dock. Now lying upright in 15m, she is a perfect wreck dive for all levels and like the Shakem is adorned in marine growth and inhabited by shoals of fish. If you want

to get a little more depth, you can even follow anchor chains off the stern down to a small drop-off at a depth of 30m, and for experienced divers, this is actually not a bad route - drop-off, then wreck. Due to its small size and shallow location, the Veronica L is also popular with underwater photographers, as the light is good and it is easy to cover the entirety of the wreck several times during a single dive.

THE KING MITCH

The Atlantic side of Grenada - which is often rougher, with large swells, but also benefits from having tremendous visibility - is home to several worldclass shipwrecks, and one of the best is the King Mitch.

Originally a US Navy minesweeper from World War Two, she was retro-fitted into a freighter by having two cargo holds inserted in her middle, with a crane attached to the deck between them. She is a very strange-looking wreck - she resembles a box with a pointed front!

She lies several miles offshore on her side in 32m, after sinking in 1981 when her bilge pump failed. There is some coral growth on her, but as the wrecks on this side of the island are often swept by sometimes fierce currents, it is nowhere near as prolific and dense as on the Caribbean side.

What it does have is nurse sharks - lots of them - and southern stingrays, not to mention patrolling barracuda and amberjack, so it is this pelagic action that draws divers to the King Mitch, rather than the wreck itself.

THE HEMA I

Also on the Atlantis side, but a little closer to land, is the cargo vessel Hema I. Like the Shakem, she was carrying cement, but had actually delivered her consignment to the island and was enroute back to Trinidad on 1 March 2005 when she suffered a failed bilge pump and ended up in 30m of water. Not long after being sunk, she was broken apart by severe hurricane surge, and now the hull and bow lie on their port side, with the midships

“The ship’s horns were still shiny chrome, albeit with a light smattering of algal growth, and there were thick ropes floating up into the water all over the vessel” THE BUCCANEER

This sloop was sunk for divers way back in 1978, and now lies on its starboard side in just 24m. As you can imagine, having been on the seabed for the best part of 40 years, it is absolutely festooned with marine growth. She is only small, but home to plenty of fish life, and her compact nature makes her perfect for a spot of underwater photography.

THE MV HILDUR

well-flattened. This wreck is another haunt for nurse sharks, which swarm in large numbers under hull plates and near the bow. Remember to take a peek down through an open porthole on the rear superstructure - a massive turtle obviously made its way inside at some time in the past and then tragically couldn’t find its way out, and now its remains lie clearly visible inside the Hema I.

THE PERSIA II

The latest vessel to join Grenada’s underwater fleet on the Atlantic side is this cargo ship, which went down in 35m in March last year. Coral growth is fairly sparse at the moment, as you would imagine, but algae has already taken a hold, and marine life has started to move in, with various reef fish and the invasive lion fish in residence. Being some eight miles offshore, she lies close to deep water, so only time will tell what will eventually call her home, but in the meantime, divers can enjoy seeing a ship in the early stages of being claimed by the sea.

It is always quite eerie diving a wreck that has only been down a short time, and when I dived it, it had been down a matter of months. The bridge was still full of all the usual bells and whistles, including the ship’s wheel and throttle controls, and the ship’s horns were still shiny chrome, albeit with a light smattering of algal growth. It will be interesting making a return visit in a few years to see how marine life has claimed the Persia II for the sea.

ARTIFICIAL REEFS

Not that they necessarily need it with such a selection of genuine shipwrecks, but Grenada and Carriacou also boast several artificial reefs - and more are in the pipeline.

This cargo vessel has been on the bottom since 2007, and lies in Grand Mal Bay in 35m, meaning she is one for experienced divers.

Like the shallower Buccaneer, she has collected a thick layer of encrusting coral and sponge growth, despite only been down for a quarter of the time, further testament to the nutrient-rich waters around the islands. Her large open holds provide the perfect environment for shoals of fish.

THE TWIN TUGS

On Carriacou near Mabouya Island, you have the Twin Tugs, two vessels sitting upright within a short distance of one another in 28-30m, though for a thorough exploration of both, they are best visited individually due to the depth. Both are around 30 metres in length - the Westsider was sent to the bottom on 4 September 2004, and the Boris followed on 10 September 2007. The two wrecks are covered in vibrant red and orange encrusting corals and algaes, and penetration into the interior is possible on both.

The vast engine rooms are definitely worth checking out if you are suitably trained for overhead environments. Currents can sometimes sweep across them, and they are home to angelfish, wrasse, soldierfish, lobster and moray eels.

CONCLUSION

If you are into your sunken metal, it is hard to avoid factoring Grenada and Carriacou into your ‘must-dive’ bucket list. The sheer number of shipwrecks, genuine and artificial, is mind-blowing, and you could happily fill two weeks sating your ‘lust for rust’. The Bianca C is well worth a few dives, as on the first one you will just be blown away by the size of the thing, and the Atlantic wrecks are great for blending bigger marine life with submerged metal, but don’t dismiss the shallower wrecks on the other side of the island - they are smothered in marine growth and home to a multitude of fish. Each wreck has its own attractions, and together they all combine to make up a fleet of monumental proportions. n

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Lumbadive PADI 5 star Harvey Vale, Tyrell Bay, Carriacou Phone: +1 (473) 443 8566 dive@lumbadive.com www.lumbadive.com

Deefer Diving Carriacou Hillsborough, Carriacou Phone: +1 (473) 443 7882 info@deeferdiving.com www.deeferdiving.com

Eco Dive - Grenada Coyaba Beach Resort, Grenada Phone: +1 (473) 444 7777 dive@ecodiveandtrek.com www.ecodiveandtrek.com

Scuba Tech Calabash Hotel, Grenada Phone: +1 (473) 439 4346 info@scubatech-grenada.com www.scubatech-grenada.com

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INSIDE OCEAN : WHAT A MOUTHFUL First in a new regular series from Dr Richard Smith, in which he focuses on a particular species or behaviour in the marine world. This month – mouth-brooders Photographs by DR RICHARD SMITH / OCEANREALMIMAGES.COM

A

s a marine scientist, I feel privileged to have spent a large amount of my life underwater.

Whether leading group expeditions, conducting research or photographing marine life, I get to see the ocean realm through a slightly different lens, allowing me to observe the small nuances of the reef and its inhabitants that might otherwise go unnoticed. The aim of this new series is to share some fascinating insights into behaviours, new diving areas and even newly discovered species that I have encountered, while encouraging you to get even more from your diving experiences. Together, through education, conservation and storytelling, let’s strive to become the generation that inspires the next wave of underwater natural historians and citizen scientists.

THE GLOBAL ZOO

Above the parks of London, bright-green Indian ring-necked parakeets squawk and squabble, American grey squirrels bury acorns and Canada geese gregariously mow the lawns. Whether deliberate or accidental, we humans love to meddle in nature, moving animals thousands of miles from their natural homes. However, as terrible as the ecological consequences of introducing animals can be, without a helping hand, few divers would ever have encountered the charming Banggai cardinalfish outside of an aquarium.

The natural home of these fish is the Banggai island group in central east Sulawesi, Indonesia, where they inhabit an area equivalent to that of Devon and Cornwall combined. It might seem odd that these fish would inhabit such a tiny area, and this biological quirk is what I find most fascinating about them.

They make beautiful aquarium subjects

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and are highly sought-after in the trade. They have been so heavily collected in recent decades that by 2004, their populations around Banggai had reduced by 90 percent and they were listed as Endangered. Probably at the hands of enterprising aquarium fish collectors, however, these striking monochromatic fish have suddenly appeared at various sites across Indonesia. They were first recorded from Lembeh in 2001; now they are found across most sites in the Strait. In Spring 2017, I saw a couple in Ambon harbour, and have seen them in northwest Bali too.

MOUTH BROODING

All cardinalfishes are paternal mouth-brooders, which means that a father guards the eggs he’s fertilised and subsequently the newly hatched fry in his mouth. While many cardinals have thousands of small eggs, which the male spits out soon after hatching, Banggais have few large eggs that he guards for much longer. It is this extended parenting that has such a profound effect on their biology. The male guards the fry in his mouth for two weeks after hatching, by which point they are too large to float off in ocean currents and settle on faraway reefs like other cardinals do. Individual fry simply settle where they’re spat out. As a result, baby Banggais can’t cross the deep ocean trenches around the Banggai Islands to reach other areas of the sea and remained marooned there.

During my recent stay at Dive Into Lembeh Resort, I did a house reef dive and came across a large male that clearly had his mouth full. I spent quite some time watching him as he moved around the tentacles of an anemone, and learned his little routine.

When he became relaxed enough in my presence, he turned towards me and I caught a glimpse of his gobstopper of treasures. Jammed inside his mouth were dozens of baby Banggais, jostling to try and peek out of their father’s mouth and have a look at me.

Although they’re a stunning addition to the locations that they have been introduced, past introductions suggest caution. In the wrong place, and without natural predators, such migrants can devastate ecosystems. We know so little about these fish and the affect they may have on other organisms that great care must be taken to limit their spread any further. n

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Triton MIGHTY

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

Bayahibe, Dominican Republic

The adventure awaits!

• The best dive spots for scuba diving on the Caribbean coast • Underwater museum featuring shipwreck by pirate Captain William Kidd • Near Saona, Catalina Islands and Altos de Chavon

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FREE NITROX

I

n Greek mythology, the god Triton is usually depicted as a merman with the lower body of a fish.

Son of the god and goddess of the sea, it seems fitting that Triton Bay, a mysterious ocean wonderland in far-flung Papua, be his namesake.

I have wanted to visit Triton Bay since hearing about the first scientific expedition to the area in 2006. However, not long after the area was discovered, there was some local discord and divers haven’t able to visit until relatively recently. As soon as it reopened, I arranged back-to-back liveaboard charters, confident that it would be worth the wait.

ENROUTE

Some liveaboards choose to start and end in Kaimana, the gateway to Triton, but we decided to sail down from Raja Ampat, about 300 miles northwest. I love crossing trips, such as this, as we experienced the full gamut of dive sites and ecosystems that the tropics can provide.

When a location is as different as Triton Bay, I think it helps to put this into context.

During our journey south, we spent a day around Misool in south Raja, taking in some of the iconic sites in the area. These are some of my favourite places to dive in the world, so it was certainly an added bonus that we were able to include these on the itinerary. We had a fair amount of mileage to cover over the next couple of days, but we visited some fascinating sites along the brilliantly named Fak Fak peninsula. We explored a little-known seamount and inshore islands, discovering a manta cleaning station at the former. Being so remote, we also enjoyed dense schools of trevally and batfishes, plus vibrant corals. A pair of Pontoh’s pygmy seahorses and a blue-ringed octopus mating quartet on an inshore island kept the macro lovers happy.

BOOK OF MOMON

Sailing down from Raja also allowed us to visit Momon Waterfall, 150 miles north of Triton. This is one of just a handful of waterfalls in Asia that flow directly into the ocean and it can be spotted miles from shore. We spent a couple of hours enjoying the scenery, playing like children in the turbulent flow and in true Indiana Jonesstyle went into the secret cave behind the waterfall itself.

This was our last stop before heading further south still, past Namatote Island and into the Iris Strait, between Aiduma Island and the Papuan mainland. This is where the bulk of Triton’s dive sites are located. There is very little habitation, and just one small resort, Triton Bay Divers, braves the wilderness. The lush forests seem to ooze down from the impenetrable New Guinean highlands to the water’s edge like treacle. As soon as your face hits the water, you know you’re diving somewhere very special, which is probably thanks in part to the lack of people. The fish here are bountiful and huge. Giant grouper, the largest bony fish associated with coral reefs, are ordinarily very rare, even in Raja Ampat I have only seen a couple. Here I saw two or three on a few of the sites.

“Like it’s cousins, the Raja Ampat and Cenderawasih Bay species, it walks around on sturdy pectoral fins in shallow water at night”

DID YOU

KNOW?

SPECIAL TRITON

Triton Bay is part of the Bird’s Head Seas cape, which is the large penins on the western tip ula of Papua, Indonesia n New Guinea

As are all reefs, Triton’s reefs are a result of the environmental conditions. The bay is bathed in large amounts of freshwater flow from the large rivers to its north and south. This brings with it lots of nutrients, plankton and often quite poor visibility. This hinders the growth of hard corals, which need clear water and light to be competitive and dominate. In their place, soft corals, gorgonian and sponges of every colour are widespread. Since the freshwater often sits atop the salt, there is sometimes a milky layer a few metres thick, and a clear, yet shadowy dive site below. It’s quite exciting and not something I’d experienced before. As a result, I would say this is probably an area for divers that have perhaps been to Raja Ampat and Komodo already and wish to broaden their horizons further still.

Triton Bay was first explored in 2006 by scientists who had been titillated by other areas of the Bird’s Head and looking for its next biological hotspot. They found this to be another endemic-rich area, with several species found nowhere else on Earth. Jamal’s dottyback and Nursalim flasher wrasse are two of the most-charismatic, discovered in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Jamal’s is a small, but locally common species that mimics the black bar chromis, while the Nursalim is as flashy and stunning as you’d expect for a flasher wrasse. Another dottyback that was only named from Triton in 2008 is the zippered species. They are found at the very limits of recreational diving. It has been suggested that two large river outflows on the boundaries of the bay act as freshwater barriers to the spread of these marine species and has driven their evolution. Two years after the scientific expedition in 2006, a 6,000 square kilometre marine protected area was declared.

SUPERSIZED, OR TINY AND FLASHY

The whalesharks of Cenderawasih Bay, on Papua’s north coast, have become world renowned, and many amazing photographs have emerged from there. A similar group has recently been discovered just outside Triton Bay, which in a similar fashion to those in Cenderawasih are also given a small offering of fish when they come to fishing pontoons in the mornings. They are considered good luck, which has proven to be true, as us divers can now visit these behemoths and add to the fisher’s income. Having also been to Cenderawasih, I would say that the visibility is certainly better in the former, but it’s never a bad day when swimming with the largest fish in the sea.

Also outside the Iris Strait is another site with bountiful ichthyological delights. Flasher Beach has stunning hard coral growths in the shallows, which give way to rubble with depth. This makes the perfect habitat for flasher wrasses. As well as the locally endemic Nursalim, clouds of yellowfin and blue flashers, I was very excited to see my first sailfin anthias. I had never even seen a photo of these rare fish before, which are similar in shape and size to other anthias. When displaying, however, males erect a huge and striking silvery-white dorsal fin. They were exceedingly fast and difficult to photograph, even more so than the flashers!

Like the anthias, displaying male flashers really show off the species’ magnificent colours. With such a density of flashers, the inevitable frenzy of sexual activity has led to some accidents. Different species end up mating, and are so closely related that they produce hybrids. Some hybrid adults were noticeable among the others and in fact, some were even more stunning than the true species.

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Two of my favourite sites, Little Komodo and another we called Hole in One, sit at the northern and southern mouths of the strait respectively. The flow of water past these sites and into the strait brings additional nutrients and huge schools of fishes to feed on them. At Little Komodo, as well as mantas and giant grouper, other large grouper, batfish and silversides added to the eerie feeling of the large black coral trees. In the south, Hole in One off Dramai Island has a massive swim-through that goes under the island. On certain tides, it is full of large surgeonfishes. Just outside the cave, the rocks are covered in thick and colourful growth that makes this an outstanding site.

YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE

I am not a committed night diver, it must be said, but the promise of some animals will get me back in the water. Triton Bay has one of these animals. The Triton Bay walking shark was discovered during the first scientific expedition in 2006 and I was eager to see it. Like it’s cousins, the Raja Ampat and Cenderawasih Bay species, it walks around on sturdy pectoral fins in shallow water at night. I became obsessed and did various rapid assessments of dive sites at night to find it (basically swimming around frantically to find the fish). Of course, the night I missed the dive, the others saw it. But I did manage to catch a glimpse of a shark sleeping under a table coral during the day. Obviously, I left it to its own devices and there’s sadly no photographic evidence.

As stories of Raja Ampat’s riches spread beyond diving circles, more and more travellers are reaching its remote reefs. Triton Bay offers an alternative that remains firmly off the beaten path. Perhaps not the best place for new divers, but definitely one for those wanting to experience a new destination while it remains largely unknown. n

“The lush forests seem to ooze down from the impenetrable New Guinean highlands to the water’s edge like treacle”

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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

BSAC has launched a brand-new website designed to make members’ lives easier and to encourage more people into scuba.

A key element of BSAC’s five-year strategic plan, the site’s content has been updated, condensed and restructured into a great-looking, responsive website designed to appeal to all users.

BSAC Marketing Manager Debbie Powell said she was thrilled with how the website has been received so far.

“Members are enjoying the new look, updated content and easier navigation. We’ve now got a great platform to build upon with further enhancements for members and to attract more people into diving and snorkelling.”

BSAC DIVING CONFERENCE 2017 This year’s BSAC Diving Conference was a sell-out success, with over 800 delegates enjoying a packed day of inspiring talks, progress reports, training and break-out sessions. The speaker line up also wowed, including members of the BBC Blue Planet II production team, who revealed their filming experiences as well as exclusive footage.

Held at The Vox, NEC on 21 October, the Conference also saw the launch of BSAC’s new brand identity and celebrated the achievement of the club’s volunteers. www.bsac.com

The 2018 SDI/TDI Standards are now available on the members’ area of the website. These can be downloaded free of charge by any SDI/TDI instructor or Divemaster.

In addition to the new SDI/TDI hoodies, we have also launched beanie hats. The hats are manufactured by Fourth Element and are ideal for UK diving conditions. You can order from your local centre, or direct from SDI/TDI UK. SDI Dive Centre Atlantic Scuba are a licensee of one of the UK’s historic protected wrecks, the Schiedam, which they visit it on a regular basis to monitor its condition. After a recent storm they found there was more exposed than had been seen since it was found in 1971. Eleven cannons, hand grenades, musket shot and even some timbers from this 17th Century wreck were exposed.

After undertaking TDI JJ-CCR Helitrox training with TDI Instructor Matt Jevon, extreme artist Philip Gray dived and painted at the Canyon dive site in Dahab. As far as we know this is the first underwater painting completed in Dahab, the first underwater painting rebreather dive, the deepest underwater painting ever done and the first involving decompression. This is a step on the pathway for Philip to paint underwater in Lion City, China.

Huge credit to the set-up team of Andy Suess, team Blue Immersion-Dahab, Dahab Boris, Kerstin Olbrich of TBI Dahab, Jamie Brown and Matt Jevon of South West Technical Diving, a TDI dive centre in Cork, Ireland. www.tdisdi.com

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SSI has launched a new App. It is free to use for anyone irespective of training agency and features access to digital learning materials, immersive 360 degree videos, digital dive log, digital cert cards and much more. Search ‘myssi’ on apple or play store.

It’s renewal time, so if you’re an SSI pro make sure you have all you have uploaded the required documents onto ‘mySSI’. Remember with SSI, the more you teach the less you pay with our pro rewards scheme.

We’re pleased to welcome Bouley Bay on Jersey as an SSI Dive Centre. We have increased our dealer network by over 30 percent in the UK in 2017 - welcome on board to all of the new dive centres and their professionals.

SSI and the DiveAssure Association are happy to announce another big step in their global business co-operation. As of January 2018, DiveAssure will be entrusted with running the liability insurance programme for SSI Dive Centres, Resorts and Professionals.

The new programme was launched on 1 January, with a new policy issued by CNA Hardy. The new liability policy terms will be pretty much the same as those of the already-known AIG policy. Policy limit will be €20 million per claim and €40 million aggregate – by far, the highest level of coverage in the industry, while rates will still be very competitive. The DiveAssure plans are annual and can be purchased any time throughout the year. www.divessi.com

IANTD instructors Kieran Hatton and Tim Clements were pleased to contribute in-water instruction to divers undertaking the Scapa 100 photogrammetry week. This was a landmark collaboration between Emily Turton of MV Huskyan, Clare Fitzimmons of Newcastle University, and Chris Rowland and Kari Hyttinen from University of Dundee.

Bob Anderson of MV Halton was a driving force with Emily, but also behind the lens and assisting in-water.

The week kicked off with an inspiring introduction to photogrammetry from Kari, before divers progressed through shakedown divers to acquiring their own data from wrecks and objects in Scapa to produce 3D models. Each dive’s data was debriefed and model development guided by expert input and lectures from Clare, Chris and Kari, who have strong professional experience in photogrammetry.

IANTD has developed materials for a ‘diving skills for photogrammetry’ course.

In the meantime, thanks are due to the effort and organisation put in by Emily and Bob, plus the sponsorship and invaluable input from Clare, Chris and Kari. Photogrammetry is a powerful visualisation tool that is hugely rewarding to use and brings our dives sites alive for non-divers. Keep an eye on scapa100.org for more details of future events. www.iantd.uk.com

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The PADI® Adaptive Techniques Specialty programme really just makes a good thing better. It builds on the foundational traits of inclusiveness and adaptability, common to all PADI Instructors, Assistant Instructors and Divemasters.

The course has detailed insights into considerations and techniques that apply specifically when training and guiding divers with disabilities and generally when working with any diver.

The PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty helps PADI Pros become more aware and mindful of individual considerations when introducing people with disabilities to diving.

It covers adaptive techniques that apply while supervising and training divers with disabilities in PADI courses and programmes. It teaches how to properly counsel and direct student divers, based on their abilities, toward certification, experience programmes or toward a disabilities-dedicated diving organisation for limited certification options.

The Adaptive Techniques Specialty course helps PADI Pros learn additional techniques to motivate not just divers with mental or physical challenges, but also all divers.

Confined water workshops let dive pros demonstrate and practice skills to assist divers with disabilities, both in training and non-training situations. They build confidence before the open water workshops, where dive pros apply the skills learned with an emphasis on assisting divers in/ out of water, trim and comfort in the first workshop, and through scenario-based skills practice in the second. www.padi.com

RAID are the fastest-growing diver training agency in the world. This is due to their modern approach to diver training and the fact that they are the first 100-percent digital agency.

With their continuing success, it’s surprising that RAID UK and Malta are freezing their Dive Centre pricing for the fourth year running. RAID are well known for supporting their members, and making membership affordable for professionals is just one of the many initiatives offered by this forward-thinking Regional Office.

After visiting DEMA this year, the RAID following is growing even stronger, with another ten Dive Centres crossing over during the show.

RAID brings another great course into its training range.

The new RAID O2 Provider is modern and the perfect choice for the more-discerning diver who feeds their thirst for knowledge regularly. RAID courses are known for their slightly more in-depth approach.

Other RAID courses that are perfect to person diver development or simply refreshing, particularly during the colder months are Equipment Specialty, Compressor Operator, O2 Service and Gas Blender, and Diver First Aid (Accredited non-diver first aid available on demand).

Knowing when, how and why to use O2 is an essential good dive skill. Like everything, things change with advances in technology, equipment moves on, and the different types of O2 sets out there are no different. So keeping up to date is important as a diver and more so as dive professional.

RAID EGYPT IS SECURED RAID UK, working alongside RAID Spain and Italy, have secured the redistribution for RAID Egypt. This is an exciting time for UK centres who have the need to refer divers to the Red Sea and for the returning resort divers to the UK. We have several crossovers planned already and welcome any contact from Egyptian-based operations who see the advantages or wish to know more about joining us. www.diveraid.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

The members’ area of the website is now live. Log-in details are FIRST NAME_SURNAME and password SAA#, where # is your SAA membership number. This area of the website houses documents for clubs and members alike. If you’re unable to access the section, please email admin@saa.org.uk Dive 2017 The SAA had a fantastic time at the Dive show in the NEC in October 2017 and would like to extend special thanks to members of Ilkeston and Kimberley, Mercia and Mansfield and District Scuba Diving clubs who gave up their time over the event to work on the stand. These volunteers joined members of the National Executive and Regional Representatives - having such friendly SAA members representing the association was very much appreciated, as was their willingness to be involved.

Sally Cartwright’s talk on both Saturday and Sunday, on the Diver Stage about the recovery of the famous Bluebird from Coniston Water, was very well received and listened to by an enthralled audience on both days.

A gathering of divers at The Deep, Hull At the end of October 2017, members of Selby Aquanauts, Rothwell and Stanley Sub Aqua Club, Ackworth Sub Aqua Club, Buddies Dive Club and Mansfield and District Scuba Diving Club met for a meal with a difference. Divers and their partners were able to enjoy a visit around some of the exhibits in the first level of the aquarium before sitting down to a meal.

The Deep were able to accommodate the group to one side of the facility with a spectacular view of the fish tank.

While enjoying a three-course dinner, and great company of course, diners were able to watch sawfish, turtles, rays and sharks swimming in the tank. It truly was a great experience and we’re sure the divers in the group would’ve loved to have been diving in the tank too!

Having the freedom to wander around some of the exhibits between courses made for an interesting evening as the group enjoyed the nautilus, jellyfish and other marine life on display. We’re sure that the non-divers in the group now understand a little more about why we’re hooked on diving after seeing some of the specimens in this amazing aquarium. Well done to those who organised this evening; being able to get members from various clubs together on a Saturday night must’ve taken some organisation. No doubt you’ll agree, getting together for larger social events like this is a great idea and we’re hoping to see more clubs meeting, both in and out of the water, during 2018. www.saa.org.uk

GUE held their worldwide conference in Gainesville, Florida, in October 2017.

This was well attended, with more than 150 delegates from across the globe. The two-day conference had many presentations regarding various GUE projects that have occurred in the last 12 months, as well as information on upcoming new classes and programmes. There were also workshops running through the day on the Sunday where participants could try their hand at dry caving techniques, GPS geo-location of dive sites, 3D photogrammetry and many more. www.gue.com

75

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

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.

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

risks can be reduced – or at least managed – through a process of simplification. The key message was simple – simplify everything.

Simplify the plan, simplify the equipment and simplify the variables.

Always a popular speaker, Canadian Jill Heinerth travelled across the Pond to give attendees a fascinating insight into the cutting-edge technologies that are making cave exploration easier and more interactive. Jill gave a number of demonstrations of such technology as augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D imaging and even robotic mapping! Time to retire your knotted line, compass, slate and pencil? If Jill’s talk is anything to go by, it won’t be long…

Tech explorers from the UK and Ireland were well represented at Baltictech. Irish wreck explorer Barry McGill wowed the audience with a superb talk all about the world-class diving off the coast of Ireland. Judging by the looks of awe from the audience, it’s a fair bet that more than a few Polish divers will be heading to Malin Head in the foreseeable future. Popular deco guru Mark Powell threw a curve ball to the audience with his talk entitled ‘Why training doesn’t work’, which challenged accepted training practices. Are instructors failing to get the right message across, or are students failing to retain important lessons? Either way, this thought-provoking talk gave the audience plenty to think about. Other Brits flying the flag for UK exploration included Leigh Bishop, Kevin Gurr and Phil Short.

Home-grown Polish tech talent delivered some great talks too.

Flamboyant cave explorer Krzysztof Starnawski delivered an inspiring talk revealing the logistics involved in exploring very deep caves below 200m, while Baltictech organisers Łukasz Piórewicz and Tomasz Stachura kept the audience entertained with a fascinating update on their own diving projects. Full of humour and Tomasz’ superb photography, the pair wrapped up their talk with an open invite to attendees to join them on future projects – where else would you get such an opportunity?

With the Baltic Sea on its doorstep, it’s no surprise that the area appeared prominently in the talks schedule. Polish explorers Piotr Bałazy and Piotr Kukliński offered an unusual twist on the subject matter by discussing the environmental impact of so many shipwrecks – believed to be as many as 100,000 – on the delicate ecosystem of the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile, renowned shipwreck hunter Immi Wallen presented to packed conference rooms with two talks, both focused on her activities in the Northern Baltic. Always a popular speaker, Immi’s talks were packed with discovery after discovery - all presented using state-of-the-art imaging technology and 3D photogrammetry.

“Full of humour and Tomasz’ superb photography, the pair wrapped up their talk with an open invite to attendees to join them on future projects – where else would you get such an opportunity?”

Those looking for an academic fix didn’t need to look too far, with charismatic diving doc Professor Simon Mitchell delivering two of the keynote talks of the conference. Full of his signature wit and humorous anecdotes, Simon delivered two superb talks – the first all about carbon dioxide and rebreathers, and the second covering the often-overlooked subject of temperature management and the risk of decompression sickness. Handled by anyone else, you’d expect such science-heavy talks to be dry, but Mitchell consistently demonstrates an enviable talent for keeping his audience engaged and entertained.

Of course, Baltictech isn’t just about inspiring talks – it’s also a great place to discover some of the coolest new dive kit. Leading the charge was Baltictech organiser and gold sponsor Santi, who were proudly showing off their full range of drysuits, thermal and heated undersuits. One new Santi product that caught everyone’s eye was their new Smart dryglove system, which could be a bit of a game changer for Santi. What’s really clever about them is just how flexible they are – Santi have developed a very neat seal system that uses flexible rings rather than the bulky, fixed rings that we’ve become accustomed to.

Fans of high-performance scooters had plenty to drool over too, with both market leader Suex and new-kid-on-the-block Seacraft showing off their latest models. Getting off to a great start, Seacraft’s new Future and Ghost models offered some very cool features, including a very snazzy integrated full-colour LCD which displays the scooter’s speed setting and battery level. They also previewed a new navigation module which, when coupled with a sensor mounted to the scooter’s body, will allow it to track distance, depth and bearing – just the sort of data you need for cave surveys!

Dive computer buyers were spoilt for choice too with Shearwater, Divecomputer.eu, Suunto and Ratio showing off their latest models. Both Shearwater and Ratio showed off some interesting adaptations of rebreather technology to open circuit too. Shearwater’s new open circuit variant of their popular NERD 2 ‘near eye remote display’ computer mounts on your primary regulator hose and displays essential dive information on a small circular screen in front of eyes. Ratio’s new air transmitter is an interesting development too. This clever little gadget connects to an HP port on your regulator first stage and uses a trailing lead to control a rebreather-like HUD featuring a single, multi-colour LED. With the HUD mounted on your primary second stage hose, the small LED changes colour to indicate how much gas you have – green means more than 100 bar, orange means 100 bar or less and red means less than 50 bar.

The organisers of Baltictech promised that this anniversary event was going to be special and they certainly delivered. Ambitious, vibrant and packed with world-class speakers, Baltictech 2017 was the best yet. For UK divers, a visit to Baltictech offers a unique opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in dive exploration and research with the additional benefit of a fun weekend in an accessible and welcoming European city. Baltictech really hits the perfect balance of serious content mixed with serious enjoyment – whatever aspect of technical diving excites you, it’s an event not to be missed. Count me in for Baltictech 2019! n

“Handled by anyone else, you’d expect such science-heavy talks to be dry, but Mitchell consistently demonstrates an enviable talent for keeping his audience engaged and entertained”

What’s New

AMMONITE HELIOS LED HEAD (SRP: £449) Ammonite are proving a solid force in the world of underwater lighting, and a new release is the LED Helios head for their lighting systems.

This compact head contains three CREE XPL LEDs and it emits 3,000 lumens of light, via an 11 degree angle of distribution. Made from anodised aluminium and Delrin, it has three levels of light intensity, operated via a magnetic switch. It also has a discharge warning message and a back-up mode.

It is depth-rated to 200m. www.blue-orb.uk

OMNISWIVEL MANIFOLDS (SRP: £45)

SDI-TDI BEANIE (SRP: £20.95)

Now you can keep your head toasty warm before and after diving – or any time you are out and about in the cold – with this SDI-TDI-branded beanie, which is made in conjunction with Fourth Element and is constructed from their tried-and-tested Xerotherm material. www.tdisdi.com

SCUBAPRO MK11/C370 (SRP: £229)

MB-Z4 (SRP: £45) Designed in the style of the Omniswivel MB family, this fourway manifold block has one 9/16” UNF female inlet and four 3/8” UNF-24 female outlets.

Additionally, on one of the sides, it has a threaded fixing port to enable it to be secured as required.

MB-Z4-1 (SRP: £45) This version of the four-way manifold block also has one 9/16” UNF female inlet and four 3/8” UNF-24 female outlets and is designed to sit nicely into locations such as the backplate to enable configuration and routing options. It does not have the threaded fixing port. www.omniswivel.co.uk

The new MK11/C370 is a great choice for dive-trekkers. The balanced diaphragm MK11, with its chrome-plated brass body specially designed to reduce size and weight, is an ideal travel companion. Its system features internal parts that are sealed from the elements.

The new C370 brings forth the best features of its predecessor, the C350, while adding a balanced valve to its design. Its new exhaust tee, based on the S620 Ti’s design, contributes to a ten percent improvement in work of breathing over the C350. With this reg system in your dive bag you’ll be ready to hit the road. www.scubapro.com

SANTI DIVING REVERS HOODIE (SRP: £51)

FOURTH ELEMENT CAVEMAN T-SHIRT (SRP: £24.95)

Santi Diving have always made some nice apres-divewear, and this new Revers hoodie, available in mens and womens styles, is sure to be popular for when it is chilly.

The mens is grey in colour, with two large front pockets in black (the womens is black in colour with grey front pockets), and has a red Santi logo on the right arm, a small logo on the hood, and an eye-catching reflective print of Extend YL on the left arm. www.santidiving.com

FOURTH ELEMENT MOTHER OF DRAGONS T-SHIRT (SRP: £24.95)

Feed your inner troglodyte and follow the golden line to adventure, or so say Fourth Element – and this T-shirt made from 100 percent combed cotton is sure to be popular with the cave-diving fraternity. It has a crew neck, is standard length and is hand-printed in the UK. Available in black or forest green.

NB: There is also a female-cut Cavewoman T-shirt available in black, made from 100 percent organic ring-spun combed cotton. www.fourthelement.com

PANDORA LABS ZERO G FINGER SPOOLS (SRP: £64.95-£79.95)

With the slogan flanked by two leafy seadragons, this female-cut T-shirt from Fourth Element proves that dragons are not just the stuff of legends…

Made from anthracite 100 percent organic ring-spun combed cotton, the T-shirt features a round neck, and is hand-printed in the UK. www.fourthelement.com

Spools are the way to go if you want a compact means of launching a DSMB or lining out into an overhead environment.

The Zero G spools from Pandora Labs are made of Delrin, which is an incredibly tough material, and the line is neutrally buoyant and luminescent – a major benefit when line-laying in a dull or dark environment.

There are three spools available – 20 metres of line is £64.95, 30 metres of line is £60.85, and 40 metres of line is £79.95. www.pandora-lab.co.uk

Gear Guide

THIS ISSUE: WRIST-MOUNTED DIVE COMPUTERS FROM £399-£799

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 volunteers, whose dive experience ranges from a couple of hundred dives to well over 6,000.

WRIST-MOUNTED DIVE COMPUTERS This issue, we look at one of the most vital pieces of the modern divers’ kit bag - dive computers, or more specifically, wrist-mounted dive computers. Wristwatch-style dive computers will be tested later in 2018, for this review we concentrated on the larger units which mount on the wrist, although as this photo shows, there is still a vast range of sizes out there. We looked at all of their capabilities, ease of menu navigation, and how clear the display was.

ON TEST THIS MONTH: • AQUALUNG I750 • RATIO IX3M • SCUBAPRO GALILEO LUNA • SUUNTO EON CORE

Location: Tested at Vivian Dive Centre, Llanberis

www.viviandivecentre.com

Date tested: 14/12/17 Water temp: 7 degrees C

AQUALUNG I750 | SRP: £663 The Aqualung i750 is one of the more-expensive units on test, and it is also one of the most compact, being noticeably smaller than its rivals, but still sporting an OLED colour screen.

The menu is easily navigated via three buttons - two on the bottom, and one on the right-hand side - and is fairly intuitive. A test I always conduct is to see if I can operate a computer without referring to the manual (at least for the basic functions) and this passed with flying colours. It runs the proprietory PZ+ algorithm, which is based on the tried-and-tested Buhlmann ZHL-16C, and has four operating modes - air, nitrox, gauge and free dive - so can fulfil a variety of roles.

It also makes full use of Bluetooth connectivity - via its Smart wireless system, you can download your dives to your mobile device in a matter of seconds via the DiverLog app. You can also control and adjust all of your i750 settings through this app if you choose to do so, rather than use the buttons on the computer itself.

It is set up and ready to go for hoseless air integration, and can be ‘paired-for-life’ with an optional transmitter (though it can actually link to three transmitters and three gas mixes).

It is fitted with a robust rubber strap, but comes with a bungee system and mount for those who prefer that method, thouhg I found the rubber strap perfectly serviceable. It also comes with a spare battery kit and O-ring - it is user-replaceable, and can be swapped out in a minute or two. www.aqualung.com/uk

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 147g | STRAP: Rubber | SCREEN: OLED Colour VERDICT: One of the most-compact full-colour screen comps on the market. Simple menu navigation, a clear display and optional air integration make it a solid performer.

SCORE

••••••••••

RATIO IX3M EASY PRO | SRP: £575 Ratio are a relatively new name in the UK dive computer market, but the Italian firm have certainly come in with a strong unit that ticks a lot of boxes - and I mean a lot!

The first thing you notice about the iX3M Easy is that screen - it is huge, and the high-contrast colour display simply blasts its opposition into the stratosphere.

Ratio boast about IPS technology, which maintains clarity even when you view the screen at an angle, and it works you can clearly see the screen even at a fairly steep angle.

As with the Aqualung, I jumped into the Ratio without consulting the intruction manual, but thanks to a user-friendly menu and four large buttons on the bottom, it is a doddle to use and within minutes I was confidently scrolling around.

The iX3M features the traditional visual and acoustic alarms, but it also has a vibration alarm, which can even be felt through a drysuit and undersuit.

It runs the Buhlmann ZHL-16B algorithm, can handle two gas mixes, and can pair with a wireless transmitter.

The computer has a rechargeable battery, which can last up to 40 hours, that is easily charged via USB. Unbelievably, via the optional gas mix analyser, it can even check the contents of your tank. It also has a magnameter, luxmeter, thermometer, barometer, altimeter, the list is endless. You win hand’s down the ‘my computer can do more than yours’ argument! www.ratio-computers.com

BEST VALUE

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 256g | STRAP: Bungee | SCREEN: Colour VERDICT: It might be a big, chunky unit, but the iX3M has one of the brightest screens out there, plus it has more features than you can shake a stick at!

SCORE

••••••••••

SCUBAPRO GALILEO LUNA | SRP: £399 (WITH TRANSMITTER - SRP: £549) The Scubapro Galileo family has long been the stalwart of the company’s computer range, and the Luna represents the entry-level to this line-up. However, unlike the range-topping G2 (the updated version of the old Sol with a bright colour screen), the Luna has to make do with the old-school dot matrix display, making it the only one of the four computers on test to utilise this technology.

Now obviously, the display is not going to be as bright as its rivals - even when the backlight is switched on, it is at best a dull glow compared to the Suunto, Aqualung and especially the Ratio. However, that is not to say that the display itself is not clear - the crisp digits do stand out well, and with three ‘size’ settings, you can even make them positively huge. A bonus for those with failing eyesight!

As with the Aqualung and Ratio, I used the Luna straight out of the box, and it is effortless to navigate the menus with the three large buttons on the top. In fact, that is where the Luna scores highly - with the function of each button right there on the screen, it is virtually impossible to ‘get lost’.

It has a user-replaceable battery that is easy to change over, and can link to a single transmitter. It actually represents exceptional value for money when you buy it with the transmitter.

So, lagging behind its competition due to the dot matrix display, but well priced and specced up, so still a viable contender. All it needs is for the G2 to be simplied into a ‘Luna’ version and Scubapro could have a real hit on their hands. www.scubapro.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 280g | STRAP: Rubber | SCREEN: Dot matrix VERDICT: Well-specced and priced computer, especially with the transmitter, but the dot matrix display looks dated compared with its full-colour rivals.

SCORE

••••••••••

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

XJ VR

100m rated, 150 minute run time at cruise speed, waterproof battery, battery gauge, weight 16kg

Made to Measure Available

CHOOSE OTTER EXPLORATION-GRADE DRYSUITS FOR THE TOUGHEST CONDITIONS

XJ37

200m rated (300m tested), 180 minute run time at cruise speed, weight 20kg

BRITANNIC MK2 TELESCOPIC DRYSUIT

l Ultra tough yet flexible Armour-skin trilaminate material l Choice of socks & rock boots or boots l Neoprene neck warmer as standard l Telescopic body with neoprene strap l Drysuit hood and zippered suit bag/ changing mat included l Choice of pockets l Double knee-protector pads l Choice of Si-Tech or Apeks valves

XK1

200m rated (300m tested), 330 minute run time at cruise speed, weight 25kg

(standard or GUE position) l Optional dryglove and quick replacement neck seal systems

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

CALL US ON 01274 379480

BLUE

RB

Suex distributor for the UK www.blue-orb.uk/dealers

SUUNTO EON CORE | SRP: £599 When the EON Steel came out, it was a game-changer for Suunto.

With its sleek metal casing and vivid colour TFT screen, it was light years away from their previous dot matrix display wrist units.

Now the Steel has been joined by the EON Core, a more-compact sibling which benefits from the same colour screen but this time mounted in a composite body. And you know what, I actually prefer the Core over the Steel - it is solid, well made and I like the small size of this computer. It feels like it is all ‘screen’ and there is little wasted space, yet the three large buttons on the right-hand side are simple to operate.

As with the Aqualung, Ratio and Scubapro, I just jumped on the EON Core without looking at the instructions, and in no time was confidently navigating through the menus. They are very intuitive.

The Core has air, nitrox, trimix, guage and even CCR (fixed point) modes, meaning you will struggle to outgrow this unit whatever direction your diving path takes you. It runs Suunto’s proven Fused RGBM algorithm.

The Core has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which gives 10-20 hours per charge depending on usage, and it has user-updateable software, plus it can connect to multiple PODs for air integration.

It can also connect via Bluetooth to the Movescount app on your mobile device, so easy logging of dives, etc.

This is a belting little computer, with a lot of features and capabilities for the money. Well worth checking out. www.suunto.com/en-GB/dive-collections/

VERDICT

Dive computers are a very personal thing. Once people find a brand or ‘style’ that they like, they often stick with what they know. All four brands represented here come from reputable manufacturers, so you can’t go far wrong with any of them.

The Aqualung i750 is a very capable unit, and we liked its compact size. The Scubapro Galileo Luna is looking a little dated on the display front, but there is no getting away from the fact that it is a well-specced computer, and comes in at a great price.

However, the Ratio iX3M Easy Pro and the Suunto EON Core both stood out from the crowd. The newcomer and the veteran. The iX3M Easy Pro took the Best Value award, as at £575, with all of its many features, it represents crazy value for money. The EON Core nabbed the Choice award for its looks, capabilities and size.

CHOICE

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 159g | STRAP: Rubber | SCREEN: Colour VERDICT: Suunto have successfully taken the EON Steel and shrunk it in size to create the Core. Richly featured, well made and good looking to boot.

SCORE

••••••••••

www.apeksdiving.co m | #apeksdiving |

ape ksdiv in g

Test Extra

OTTER WATERSPORTS ULTRALIGHT TELESCOPIC | SRP: £1,445 Mark Evans: Otter Watersports has carved itself a real niche when it comes to well-made, robustly constructed trilaminate drysuits, and this has been built on the back of a stellar reputation and superb customer service.

They offer a wide range of suits, and I have been diving a top-of-the-line Britannic II for a few years and it is still keeping me warm, dry and comfortable even after hundreds of dives. However, while it is a fantastic suit, it is quite heavy given the durable material it is made from, so not ideal for those who want to take their drysuit away with them.

That is where the Ultralight Telescopic drysuit steps up to the plate.

The Ultralight looks, at first glance, very similar to the Britannic II, with the same telescopic, cross-torso zip design - check out the photograph of myself and Ross Arnold in Iceland on the following page. I am in my Britannic II, and Ross is sporting the Ultralight, and we look like a couple of extras from the live-action version of Captain Scarlet! You can also get it in all-red, all-black or all-blue, or blue/black.

However, it is only when you hold the Britannic II in one hand, and the Ultralight in the other, that you notice a major difference. The very flexible ‘rip skin’ of the Ultralight is significantly lighter than the Britannic’s core material, making the latest Otter offering a lightweight suit that is also very robust, so it would make a fine UK drysuit as well as being a fantastic travel suit.

If anything, it is even easier to get in and out of than the Britannic, the thinner, lighter ‘rip skin’ material being seemingly easier to manhandle.

The double kneepads offer some tough support in these high-wear areas, and the neoprene neck warmer helps stave off the cold. It is equipped with latex neck and wrist seals, but these can be changed to neoprene as an optional extra, or you can go for a quick-replacement silithane neck seal and oval wrist seals so you never miss out on a dive. There is even the option to get factory-fitted dryglove systems added to the Ultralight, from SiTech and Antares to the very-popular KUBI (which were fitted to our test suit).

Frameless 2 The mask that is all about fit, comfort and vision.

NEW

Nautilus

DIVE SUIT The Typhoon Nautilus is a heavy duty diving suit, weighing in at just over 3kg.

Ultrasoft face seal

● Made in the UK from Typhoon’s durable TX6 fabric, with two layer rubber taped seams. ● Neoprene socks as standard with the option of a thermic boot. ● Two large leg storage pockets feature two compartments, an internal D-ring and attachment loops.

• Dual elastomer silicone skirt with “UltraSoft” faceseal for superior comfort and fit.

• Optical quality “UltraClear” lenses.

• Frameless design is simple, hydrodynamic and leak-free.

ALL INCLUDE

• Low volume yet extremely large viewing area.

WATERTIGHT WARRANTY

3 YEAR NEW AND IMPROVED FIT

• Squeeze-to-adjust buckles.

YKK® PLASTIC ZIP TO REDUCE WEIGHT AND INCREASE FLEXIBILITY

• Clear or black with color accents.

• Folds flat to fit in a pocket or traveling.

• 3 fit sizes: Standard, Medium and Large.

Atomic Aquatics Europe GmbH www.atomicaquatics.co.uk

@Typhoon_international

TyphoonInt

www.typhoon-int.co.uk

Test Extra

OTTER WATERSPORTS ULTRALIGHT TELESCOPIC | SRP: £1,445

There are also a wide choice of pockets that can be fitted to the Ultralight, but we found the basic bellows-type with a Velcro-closing tab equipped with a zippered pocket worked well.

As with all Otter drysuits, the Ultralight comes with a neoprene Drystyle hood, zipped changing-mat-style suit bag, and a choice of either Apeks or Si-Tech tried-and-tested valves (which can be located in the standard position, or in a GUE/DIR recommended location.

Neoprene dry socks and rock boots are supplied as standard, but you can swap these out for any other style of Otter boot are no cost.

Ross dived the Ultralight in the 2 degrees C waters of Silfra in Iceland, as well as other sites where the water reached a balmy 4-5 degrees C, and with a decent undersuit worn underneath, he was kept as warm as toast - and more importantly, bone dry. Ross is what can best be described as a ‘warm-water diver’, and to get him into temperatures in the low-teens or below is a major feat. To have him emerge from a 45-minute dive in very cold waters with a smile on his face - and feeling warm and dry - was nothing short of miraculous. I don’t think we’ve transformed him into a hardcore UK diver just yet, but the Ultralight Telescopic - and the KUBI Dryglove System - certainly helped set him on the right path. www.otterwatersports.co.uk

DRY GLOVES SYSTEM

Visit our chosen UK dealers: UNDERWATER EXPLORERS Dorset www.dirdirect.com SIMPLY SCUBA Faversham www.simplyscuba.com SANTI STORE UK Cottenham www.santi-store.co.uk WRECK & CAVE Shepton Mallet www.wreckandcave.co.uk DIVEMASTER SCUBA Nottingham www.divemasterscuba.com VOBSTER Radstock www.vobster.com Full list of dealers available on our website.

Long Term Test SHEARWATER RESEARCH NERD 2 Mark Evans: The world’s first NEW ARRIVAL near-eye remote display for scuba divers has been redesigned for enhanced flexibility and reliability. In addition to the DiveCAN and Fischer versions, open circuit divers can now experience the freedom the NERD 2 has to offer. The universal regulator mount allows divers to secure the NERD 2 to their second stage, and the combination of the Micro LCD display and the magnifying lens makes the data appear as if you INFORMATION were looking at it on a 25Arrival date: December 2017 inch TV four metres away.

Suggested retail price: £1,427 It is powered by a rechargeaNumber of dives: 1 ble lithium-ion battery.

Time in water: 0 hrs 38 mins www.shearwater.com

ANCHOR DIVE LIGHTS SERIES 3K

Mark Evans: The Anchor Dive Light continues to impress. The bright beam that this compact unit puts out is simply INFORMATION astounding, and everyone who Arrival date: July 2017 has taken it on a dive has reSuggested retail price: £695 turned full of complements Number of dives: 34 and reluctant to hand it back!

Time in water: 32 hrs 45 mins www.anchordivelights.com

THERMALUTION RED GRADE ULTRA Mark Evans: The Thermalution Red Grade Ultra has been keeping me warm on some decidedly chilly dives in the UK recently, and the odd time I have been in the water without it really hammers home the benefits of a heating system when temperatures do head south. But it has other uses topside too - the distributor asked if I wore it when building a snowman in the recent freezing conditions, now why didn’t I think of that instead of getting cold? www.thermalution.co.uk

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

APEKS XL4

Mark Evans: The XL4 has been busy again, providing plenty of air while I was panting away cleaning barnacles off the bottom of a friend’s boat! Even with this increased inhalation INFORMATION going through it, it never Arrival date: October 2017 missed a beat. And the wide Suggested retail price: £338 exhaust tee kept the bubbles Number of dives: 9 well-clear of my vision.

Time in water: 8 hrs 15 mins www.apeksdiving.com/uk

FOURTH ELEMENT X-CORE Mark Evans: Heated vests and undersuits - such as the Thermalution Red Grade Ultra also on review in Long Term Test - are becoming an ever-more frequent sight at dive sites around the UK (and other cold-water diving destinations). However, while they may keep you nice and warm, there is a downside, and that is the price - they are not cheap.

And that is where the X-Core comes in. The tagline on the ad is ‘No batteries, just you’ and it is designed to keep your torso warm by absorbing heat from your body, storing it and then projecting it back at the user. I have now used it halfa-dozen times, and I am very impressed - it does exactly what it is supposed to! I feel noticeably warmer with this under my Halo 3D. www.fourthelement.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: November 2017 Suggested retail price: £99.50 Number of dives: 6 Time in water: 4 hrs 55 mins

TYPHOON DS1

AQUALUNG OUTLAW

Mark Evans: The Outlaw has got a few more dives logged on it now, and I am still liking the minimalistic styling and uncluttered strap arrangement. The vertical integrated weight pockets work a treat, and sit nicely out of your way nestled on either side of INFORMATION your cylinder, but equally, are Arrival date: February 2017 easy to get hold of and remove Suggested retail price: £338 should the need arise. A big Number of dives: 9 thumbs up from me so far.

Time in water: 8 hrs 25 mins www.aqualung.com/uk

AQUALUNG REVEAL X2 END OF TERM

Mark Evans: The DS1 has been pressed into action again, this time being donned by a dive instructor making her first foray into British waters since returning from a stint working in Egypt. A huge difference between plus 30 degrees C waters and 7 degrees C in Llanberis!

Again, the ease of donning INFORMATION provided by the lightweight Arrival date: August 2017 suit was noticeable, and I am Suggested retail price: £895 still in awe of how small it Number of dives: 6 packs up into its carry bag.

Time in water: 4 hrs 45 mins www.typhoon-int.co.uk

Mark Evans: The Aqualung Reveal X2 has now ended its run in the Long Term Test stable. This mask has been worn by several members of the Test Team, as well as the odd random fellow diver when on trips, and without fail, every single person has praised it for its level of comfort, and the range of INFORMATION all-round vision. It is also well Arrival date: March 2017 priced, coming in under £50 Suggested retail price: £46 yet rivalling some far more Number of dives: 60 expensive competition.

Time in water: 58 hrs 50 mins www.aqualung.com/uk

ADVERTISING: Ross Arnold | ross.arnold@scubadivermag.com CYPRUS HTTC - POSEIDONIA MEDICAL CENTRE 47a Eleftherias Avenue, Aradippou, Larnaca, 7102, Cyprus T: +357-99-518837 E: operations@hbocyprus.com W: www.hbocyprus.com The only 24/7/365 Emergency Response EU Compliant Hyperbaric Facility in Cyprus.

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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SOUTH COAST DIVE

BUSINESS FOR SALE Opportunity to purchase one of the UK’s top dive businesses on the South Coast. Successful Dive Hard Boat, Shop and Gas Station.

SOLD WITH BOOKINGS FOR 2018 For more information please email contact details to

divingbusiness4sale@gmail.com

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THE COMMERCIAL DIVER Warren ‘Sal’ Salliss is a Director of Commercial Diver Training Ltd, based in Cornwall, and here he offers an insight into the commercial diving arena, and how the company aims to ensure that all students leave equipped with the necessary skills to take on this competitive environment. www.commercialdivertraining.co.uk

SCHOOL’S OUT...

STRAIGHT IN THE DEEP END PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COMMERCIAL DIVER TRAINING LTD

S

ince my last article, the training year has come to an end, but not without its own dramas, but more about that in a moment!

The last course of 2017 had good numbers, with 12 students completing the nine-week course, but what was nice for the staff was that there were some really good students on that intake. Like all courses there is always a broad cross section of society… military, boffins, geeks, sickly people, solid types (upstairs) and loonies! We had our fair share of every variety but they all seemed to gel and the team atmosphere made the weeks fun.

School finished on the Friday and on the Monday, the training team were now part of the contracts team doing the annual moorings job that lasts five weeks in a harbour in Devon. At CDT, we always try to give former students a ‘first job’ out of school, so I always keep one place on the team for them. I cannot dilute the team too much or it may impact on the job schedule, but this way we can achieve our contract goal and the experienced guys can help the rookie.

The job is to work in-conjunction with the harbour moorings team, who operate a barge that follows us as we work. Our job is to dive down, disconnect the mooring from a block on the seabed, inspect the block and once the mooring chain has been serviced. reconnect it to the block. All pretty simple stuff, though some are surprisingly deep, others very shallow, and sometimes we have amazing vis but mostly we work in the dark digging in the mud! It’s a good contract and the harbour guys are mega-friendly and we get together after work to debrief the day in the pub (as it’s got a fire and we need to warm up). This year we rented the floor above the Lifeboat house, it had amazing views of the harbour, was 100 metres from the boat and ten metres from the pub!

Living above an RNLI Lifeboat house certainly makes you feel safe and festive, visions of the Giles cartoon Christmas cards and all that, but when the boathouse comes alive… at any hour… the fact that someone may be in danger comes home. Just such an occasion happened during our stay, but what made it more surreal was the fact that we made the boathouse come to life and by pure chance!

Picture the scene… All was quiet in the divers’ dwelling above the Boathouse, crusty diver Will had decided to crash over on the sofa after we had been to the pub (to warm up!) which looked out onto the water. He was roused from his slumber by faint calls for ‘help’. After a

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couple more shouts of ‘help’, crusty old Will decided he wasn’t dreaming - across the harbor, someone, somewhere was in trouble.

Will got up and knocked on my door… no answer. At the next door, the two lads inside had the terrible sight of Will in his meagre sleeping attire waking them up, but within seconds were out the door and running along the waterfront trying to home in on the calls for help.

Across on the other bank was a fisherman who was stranded after falling from his boat at 2am, soaking wet, in the wind and getting hypothermic no doubt. Now armed with this information, Will called the Coastguard, who in turn mobilised the lifeboat, and within minutes the fisherman was rescued and brought back to the boathouse to await the ambulance to take him to hospital. Due to the delay of the ambulance by the overstretched service, the cold fisherman was looked after by the lifeboat lads until 4.30am! It then all went quiet again and sleep continued in the divers’ house… it was at this point that being over 47 but younger than 49, my bladder kicked in, I removed my ear plugs (we live next door to a pub, after all) and went to the bathroom before getting another couple of hours sleep. I only knew about the rescue when the bleary-eyed lads told me over breakfast… I had slept through the whole thing!

The lads had done all that, been up for hours during the night, and got up as normal to get on with a full days diving without any complaints.

Fair play and well done! If Will hadn’t stayed over, if the wind wasn’t blowing the cries for help in that direction, and if the lads weren’t as quick to react to a guy in the water with no lifejacket and no light or whistle, how long would he have lasted? And I know they get praise from all quarters, but the RNLI never say no, they help mariners and divers alike… it’s good to know they’re there.

With a well-earned break upon us, we have a lot of preparation to do before it all kicks off again, but already booked in are more courses, contract jobs and TV support.

Until next time… safe diving! n

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