Scuba Diver March 2019

CRITTER HEAVEN

UPY 2019 WINNERS

SCAPA FLOW: 100 YEARS ON

BYRON CONROY GOES EXPLORING INDONESIA’S ICONIC LEMBEH STRAIT

WE UNVEIL THE WINNERS OF THE PRESTIGIOUS UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

LAWSON WOOD PRESENTS AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SCOTTISH SHIPWRECK-DIVING MECCA

IN-DEPTH REPORT OF THIS IMMERSIVE & INTERACTIVE EVENT ISSUE 25 | MAR 19 | £3.25

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Q&A: Miranda Krestovnikoff

‣ The Philippines ‣ Spain

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EDITOR’S NOTE ISN’T IT TIME TO LIFT THE FLIGHT BAN ON SHARM? As I write this editorial piece, Prime Minister Theresa May is in Sharm el Sheikh for a summit with other EU leaders and the League of Arab States. During her time there, direct flights will have been arriving from European countries including Italy, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Denmark and Switzerland, yet there are still no direct flights from the UK into the Sinai peninsula airport, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are still stating ‘we advise against all but essential travel by air to or from Sharm el Sheikh’. So the ban is remaining in place due to security concerns for British nationals, yet at the same time, our PM considers Sharm el Sheikh airport is safe enough for her to travel to and from. That just doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

Also as I write this, I am recovering from the inaugural GO Diving Show at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Many of the major manufacturers, training agencies and tour operators, not to mention dive charters, liveaboards, resorts and diverelated charities, threw their support behind this immersive and interactive dive show, which boasted a massive lineup of speakers - including BBC stars Andy Torbet, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Monty Halls, National Geographic’s Jill Heinerth, Discovery Channel’s Mehgan Heaney-Grier and freediving legend Umberto Pelizzari - as well as two gigantic 100 sq m trydive pools, a 30-metre caving system, and several exciting Virtual Reality dives.

Visitors included both divers (of all levels of certification and experience) and non-divers keen to delve into the sport, and it was great to see lots of families and children wandering the exhibition hall.

As the dust settles on this ground-breaking first show, plans are already afoot for the 2020 event, so watch this space for developments and announcements of the headline acts!

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.co.uk

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WHERE IT ALL BEGINS WWW.EGYPT.TRAVEL

HURGHADA RED SEA THIS IS A FRIENDLY LOCAL

ASK YOUR TRAVEL AGENT

CRITTER HEAVEN

UPY 2019 WINNERS

SCAPA FLOW: 100 YEARS ON

BYRON CONROY GOES EXPLORING INDONESIA’S ICONIC LEMBEH STRAIT

WE UNVEIL THE WINNERS OF THE PRESTIGIOUS UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

LAWSON WOOD PRESENTS AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SCOTTISH SHIPWRECK-DIVING MECCA

ON THE COVER

IN-DEPTH REPORT OF THIS IMMERSIVE & INTERACTIVE EVENT ISSUE 25 | MAR 19 | £3.25

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Q&A: Miranda Krestovnikoff

‣ The Philippines ‣ Spain

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: JASON BROWN

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01/03/2019 13:35

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES...

8 News

22 Philippines

28 Dive Like A Pro

32 Scotland

50 Underwater Photography

38 The Next Generation

A turtle is rescued from a ghost net in the Maldives, Blue Abyss gets a new home in the northwest, and another World War Two wreck is located in the Pacific Ocean.

This month, our panel of experts discuss what to do when you arrange a dive online and when you meet up, your buddy is a prat.

Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield looks at piers and jetties, and explains how these man-made structures offer rich pickings for underwater photographers.

98 Scholar

Eric Jorda ventures back to Antarctica after securing a spot as a diver on another expedition.

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Adrian Stacey has travelled the world extensively, but he had never been to the Philippines - until now. He enjoyed a whistlestop tour of some of the region’s diving hotspots on a liveaboard, and now he is counting the days until he can go back!

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the scuttling of the German Imperial Navy’s High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow, and here regular visitor Lawson Wood gives an overview of this incredible wreck-diving destination.

Kris Fearnley from Blackburn-based Canary Divers explains the thinking behind his Youth Diver Network, and associated YouTube Channel.

42 Indonesia

Lena Kavender and Byron Conroy continue their Indonesian odyssey, this time exploring the wonders of the Lembeh Strait with Solitude Resort and being blown away by the multitude of critters.

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CONTENTS

...CONTINUED

GEAR GUIDE

56 REPORT: GO Diving Show 2019

82 What’s New

The GO Diving Show at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry was a truly immersive and interactive experience for visitors, and here we give an in-depth report of the entire weekend.

66 Q&A: Miranda Krestovnikoff

Scuba Diver contributor and GO Diving Show headline speaker Miranda Krestovnikoff chats about combining diving with presenting, using fullface masks, and what the future has in store.

70 Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019

Showcase of the winning photographs from the prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year, which was announced by Alex Mustard MBE on stage at the GO Diving Show in Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

76 TECHNICAL: Spain

Garry Dallas heads underground in the Murcia region of Spain to explore the Cueva del Aqua - Cave of the Water - which is an extensive cave system with many unique qualities.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

We take a look at new products to market, including the Mares Magellan BCD, Fourth Element Ellipse dryglove system, Santi Diving apres-divewear hoodies and T-shirts, and xDeep double-ender boltsnaps.

84 Group Test

Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans and the Test Team head to North Wales to focus on midpriced regulators from a selection of major manufacturers.

94 Long Term Test

The Scuba Diver Test Team rate and review a selection of products over a six-month period, including the Shearwater Research Teric, BARE Ultrawarmth 7mm hood, Halcyon Infinity wing, and Aqua Lung XL4+ regulator.

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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 our various social media (@scubadivermag) www.scubadivermag.com/news

TURTLE RESCUE IN THE MALDIVES Stuart Philpott was on assignment in the Maldives when he and the Prodivers team encountered a ghost net containing many victims. Luckily, they managed to rescue one stricken turtle and return him to the wild after a spot of TLC PHOTOGRAPHS BY STUART PHILPOTT

I

t was one of life’s cruel ironies to find a ghost net so soon after surfacing from a magical 60-minute dive.

With some help from Prodivers instructors Mosti and Sina, I had encountered an abundance of turtles. The lush seagrass beds growing around Kuredu, located in the Lhaviyani Atoll (North Maldives), attract more than 160 green and hawksbills, with the occasional Olive Ridley sighting. Sadly, six out of the seven species of sea turtle are now classified as endangered on the IUCN red list, making it a rarity to find so many inhabiting one particular area.

At a dive site called Caves, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that divers will see turtles during a dive. We had made our way along the reef wall, stopping to watch several hawkbills nibbling on the corals. The much-larger green turtles were either lying asleep under the overhangs, or having a shell scratch. My camera was just a minor hindrance. I’m sure I wasn’t the first photographer to have bothered them.

We had just got back on board and were returning to Hurawalhi resort when the boat skipper spotted a mass of discarded fishing net floating on the surface. Ghost nets are a complete death traps for marine life. They drift along on the ocean currents killing everything that gets caught in their path. Mosti said Prodivers had recently found a net more than ten metres wide with many species dead and rotting inside, including fish, sharks, dolphins and turtles. Mosti thought that our ghost net, which was slightly smaller, had probably

been drifting for several months and had originated off the coast of Sri Lanka. There was no doubt that the ghost net had to be destroyed, but would we be able to save anything trapped inside? We could see several sea turtle carapaces bobbing in the centre of the debris field, which included plastic bottles, oil cans and bamboo. Sina and I immediately jumped in to check whether they were still alive, not giving

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DS N E I R DIVING WITH F

MALDIVES

NEW: Faarufushi Maldives a second thought about the possibility of marauding sharks. I was surprised to find hundreds upon hundreds of tiny fish swimming underneath the filament net canopy, including a shoal of stripy sergeant majors.

We found a dead Olive Ridley and a hawksbill that was miraculously still alive, although barely. One of its rear flippers had been severed. I’m not sure if this had happened while it was struggling to break free, or whether a passing predator had taken a bite. When Sina cut the hawksbill free, it swam straight back into the ghost net. The frightened animal was obviously afraid of us and must have been trying to find some protection.

We eventually got the little hawksbill aboard the dive boat and on further inspection there didn’t seem to be any other serious injuries. Sina wrapped a wet towel around the now-passive turtle and put it in the shade. Mosti got on the radio and spoke to the turtle rescue and rehabilitation centre based on nearby Naifaru. This is a volunteer operation run by a company called GoEco. Within a few hours of us returning to Hurawalhi, the rescue centre had sent someone out to collect our poorly turtle, and I’m pleased to report that apart from being badly dehydrated, has responded well to treatment. In the coming months divers visiting Kuredu and Hurawalhi may well catch sight of our hawksbill swimming about at Caves. With only one rear flipper, it should be easy to recognise.

Although we managed to save the hawksbill turtle, there had been at least one dead Olive Ridley that we couldn’t help. The ghost net was towed back to Hurawalhi beach and the staff at Prodivers did a complete inspection of its contents, checking types of rope and nylon filament. The Olive Ridley was cut free and then buried under some trees by the beach. As for the offending net, this was incinerated. At least it wouldn’t be killing any more marine life. We also found a sargassum frogfish, which normally inhabits floating seaweed. This was popped into a bucket and set free on the house reef.

Ghost nets have become a serious problem in our oceans. World Animal Protection (WAP) have quoted that more than 640,000 tons of fishing gear is dumped every year. These killer nets are left to drift around on the ocean currents creating carnage. WAP also claim that around 100,000 dolphins, whales, turtles and seals will become entangled and die in the same timescale.n

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UK RESTAURANTS SERVING EXTINCTION British restaurant-goers ordering sharkfin soup are highly likely to be consuming endangered shark species without knowing, according to Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation. The UK charity is advising diners to avoid all shark-fin dishes after DNA research by Exeter University discovered shark fins from endangered PHOTO CREDIT: SCUBAZOO scalloped hammerhead and threatened shortfin mako sharks among generically-labelled shark-fin products on sale at an Asian food wholesaler. The fins were destined for the restaurant trade.

Once the fins are removed from the shark, dehydrated and packaged, it is extremely difficult to know which species they came from.

Campaign director at Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation, Graham Buckingham, said: “We’re making huge strides in shark conservation but the continued appearance of shark-fin soup on menus confounds us. Out of the ten fins analysed by the university, two came from species that are either endangered or threatened. Clearly anyone ordering shark-fin soup, or buying the ingredient, could be contributing to the extinction of rare and majestic sharks. It’s time that British restaurants ditched this highly controversial dish.”

Wildlife expert and TV presenter Steve Backshall is the patron of Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation. He said: “Right now one-in-four shark species is listed as endangered or threatened. It’s clear that demand for shark-fin soup could wipe out many of the ocean’s most-remarkable and fascinating predators.

This DNA research is all the evidence you need to know that it’s simply not okay to eat shark-fin soup.”

SAD DAY AS LONDON DIVING CHAMBER CLOSES After 15 years of providing a medical service to the diving industry and recreational divers, the London Diving Chamber (LDC) at St John’s Wood, London, will close at the end of March 2019. This is a result of NHS England’s intention to halve the number of Recompression Chambers in London, i.e. leaving one chamber only. The London Hyperbaric Medicine (LHM) Chamber at Whipps Cross Hospital has been awarded the NHS contract for the London area.

Therefore, those divers with suspected decompression illness will no longer be able to be treated at the LDC. Dive schools, instructors and recreational divers will need to update their Emergency Action Plans to remove information about the LDC and replace it with another chamber. As Whipps Cross Hospital is in northeast London, those to the northwest of London may find that the Midlands Diving Chamber (MDC) at Rugby is now their closest and those south of the River Thames may find the chamber at Chichester their nearest. Remember there is also the British Hyperbaric Associations (BHA) national helpline emergency number that can assist you in finding an operational chamber.

Emergency numbers: The Midlands Diving Chamber (Rugby) - 07940 353816 (the previous LDC and MDC combined number) LHM Chamber (Whipps Cross Hospital) - 07999 292999 Chichester Hyperbaric Unit - 01243 330096 BHA national emergency number (Plymouth) – 07831 151523

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The LDC was also one of the largest providers of both HSE Commercial Diving medicals and recreational fitness-to-dive medicals in the UK. A spokesperson for the chamber said: “We thank the staff for their dedicated service to divers over the years and hope that they now have more time to go diving themselves.”

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LET´S EXPLORE. TOGETHER.

SUUNTO D5 The new Suunto D5 is designed to be so clear and easy-to-use that you can just enjoy and focus on exploring the wonderful underwater world.

Play with style by changing the strap to match your looks. After diving, connect wirelessly to the Suunto app to re-live and share your adventures with friends. www.suunto.com

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AMBITIOUS BLUE ABYSS PROJECT GETS NEW DOCKSIDE DEVELOPMENT LOCATION The ambitious project to build Blue Abyss, the world’s deepest indoor pool facility, eclipsing the likes of Nemo33 and Y-40, is one step closer to a reality, and has involved a move to the northwest.

According to the body behind Blue Abyss, “In the late summer of 2018 we were made aware of the Wirral Waters regeneration project within the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone. From first review, a significant, natural synergy between the region’s commercial maritime interests and history and our objectives, was evident.

“In the ensuing months, we built a very good network of connections among local and regional government officers, alongside commercial organisations in the local maritime sector, and forged a strong relationship with the owners of the Wirral Waters site, part of the Peel Group. “With the support of the local maritime community we have also made significant inroads at national level with Maritime UK, and the Department for Transport.

“On the strength of these developments, we have engaged with a substantial international equity fund that has expressed a firm interest in providing the build capital requirements for the Wirral Waters Blue Abyss facility in full.

“The Blue Abyss Board believes this engagement will progress positively over the coming months, with a fully worked up facility design, and planning approval completed by late spring.”

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Malta is home to a multitude of wartime shipwrecks and airplane remains, and now this veritable underwater fleet has been bolstered by the announcement that eight new technical-depth wrecks have been made officially accessible to divers from May. Scuba Diver readers will remember Stuart Philpott’s article on the Junkers88 bomber – he was the first photojournalist to officially dive it last year – but it has taken several months for the Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit, which is co-ordinating diving on the sites, to get everything in place for members of the public. The eight wrecks present a dive into history, and each of the sites has a story to tell – in some cases, a tragic one.

Pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Russell sank on 27 April 1916 when it struck a mine. She took 125 men to the bottom with her, and can now be found in 114m.

World War One minesweeper HMS Nasturtium ironically sank into 67m after hitting a mine just one day after the HMS Russell, but thankfully only seven crew were lost. The sister ship to the HMS Southwold – already a popular tech-wreck off Malta – joined its sibling after hitting a mine on 16 Juner 1942. The HMS Oakley, at the time carrying the name ORP Kujawiak and in the Polish Navy, now lies in 90m.

Making it a clean sweep for mines, the HMT Trusty Star – a trawler requisitioned during World War Two and put into action as a minesweeper – sank after hitting a mine on 10 June 1942 and plummeted to 85m.

The final shipwreck is a British collier, SS Luciston, which was torpedoed on 29 November 1916 and can now be found in 105m.

Rounding out the new sites are three aircraft remnants – the aforementioned Junkers 88 bomber, which sits in 60m off Bahar ic-Caghaq, a Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bomber biplane that lies at 55m, and an unidentified plane down at 90m.

At least four more tech-wrecks are due to be announced later in 2019.

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NEW RED SEA PHOTO TRIPS WITH DUXY, DIVERSE TRAVEL AND EMPEROR DIVERS TRAIN WITH US

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Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield has joined forces with Emperor Divers to lead two Red Sea liveaboard trips offering relaxed flexibility and personal advice on photo, video, processing and production.

At the forefront of underwater photography and travel for many years, Duxy brings with him a light-hearted take on the diving world and how it has changed the way we now take underwater photographs and video. He combines his time helping people to choose and use cameras, housings, strobes and lenses, escorting trips and running workshops around the world. Each itinerary has been specifically tailored to provide fantastic photographic opportunities with the bonus of Duxy’s knowledge.

Enjoy ‘open deck’ diving on at least three days during your week - dive with your buddy between 6am to 6pm at times that suit you. There will also be three guided ‘excursion dives’ with the Emperor guides and/or with Duxy himself.

The first trip (21-28 June) is a North and Easy with Duxy and Diverse Travel, that takes in Ras Mohammed, the Straits of Tiran, the Thistlegorm, the Dunraven, and the Straits of Gubal, and is aboard the Emperor Superior.

The second trip (30 November to 7 December) is a South for Winter with Duxy and Diverse Travel, and takes in Abu Dabab, Fury Shoals, the Hamada Wreck (Zabargad), and Elphinstone, and is aboard the Emperor Elite. www.diversetravel.co.uk/egypt/photo-trips-with-duxy

FORD AND RNLI CREATE A SPLASH WITH NEW VEHICLE DEAL

Get in touch with the SAA We would love to hear from you!

T: 0151 287 1001 E: admin@saa.org.uk saa.org.uk

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Ford is pushing the boat out for the RNLI by supplying the charity that saves lives at sea with a replacement fleet of new vehicles.

Ford will ship 210 new vehicles to the RNLI this year, followed by a further 120 in 2020 and again in 2021, including 100 Ford Rangers total as beach patrol vehicles for its lifeguard service.

Andy Barratt, Ford of Britain chairman and managing director, said: “Ford as UK vehicle market leader partnering one of this country’s national treasures is a real coup for us. The RNLI does an outstanding job keeping us safe around the coast, which we’re excited to be supporting.”

Ford takes its social responsibility as an industry leader, employer and charity supporter seriously. Ford will be collaborating with the RNLI on water safety messages to raise public awareness of risks around the water to help people enjoy coastal and inland waterways more safely.

The 2019 fleet of RNLI Fords will include ten Fiesta, ten EcoSport, 80 Focus, ten Kuga, 80 Transit, Transit Connect and Transit Customs plus the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), as well as 20 four-wheel-drive Rangers.

Nick Saunders, RNLI senior procurement manager, said: “We’re delighted that Ford is able to supply vehicles so well-suited to carrying out our life-saving work.

The RNLI is excited to be working with such an iconic brand.” www.rnli.org

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CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN FOR BOOK ABOUT MARTIN ROBSON’S FATEFUL RUSSIAN EXPEDITION What would you do if hit by the bends on a decompression stop after a deep dive? Would you head for the surface or stay put? That was the frightening dilemma British explorer Martin Robson faced during an expedition to find a cave system never before seen by the human eye. Now his life-or-death drama has been turned into a book, and Robson has launched a crowdfunding campaign with award-winning publisher Unbound to get it onto the shelves.

In 2012, Robson was exploring a remote lake in Russia. Returning from a dive more than 200m down, and with hours of decompression still to complete, he was ambushed by the bends.

“It felt like I’d been shot in the back and I was paralysed immediately from the waist down,” Robson says. “Many divers would head for the surface, but I knew that would probably kill me. To live I needed to descend back into the depths.”

Written by journalist and diver Mark Cowan, Between the Devil and the Deep recounts in chilling detail Robson’s desperate battle to survive and the dramatic rescue mission to save his life and his legs.

For full details of the book and to pledge for your copy, visit: unbound.com/books/between-the-devil-and-the-deep

WWII AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS HORNET DISCOVERED NEAR SOLOMON ISLANDS

www.puredivinggrenada.com

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The advanced research vessel Petrel is continuing her run of amazing discoveries, with the announcement that the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, which was lost some 77 years ago, was found at the end of January lying in more than 5,000m in the South Pacific.

The USS Hornet, which is best known for launching the important Doolittle Raid in April 1942, and its role in winning the Battle of Midway, was bombed by Japanese aircraft in the fierce Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942, with the loss of 140 crew. After the remaining crew abandoned the ship, she was sent to the bottom by enemy torpedoes.

The ten-man expedition team on the Petrel, , pieced together data from national and naval archives that included official deck logs and action reports from other ships engaged in the battle, and utilised charted positions and sightings from nine other US warships to generate a starting point for their search grid. However, they end up discovering the shipwreck on the very first dive mission of the Petrel’s autonomous underwater vehicle.

Video footage from the ROV showed the ship’s designation – CV-8 – proving it was the Hornet. As with previous wrecks found by the Petrel, the USS Hornet was in remarkable condition, with anti-aircraft guns clearly visible, and even an International Harvester aircraft tug sat on the hangar deck.

Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Vulcan, the organisation that operates the Petrel, said: “We had the Hornet on our list of World War Two warships that we wanted to locate because of its place in history as an aircraft carrier that saw many pivotal moments in naval battles.”

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£1,500 REWARD FOR RETURN OF STOLEN LAPTOP CONTAINING PRECIOUS ROYAL OAK DATA Divers and academics have offered a £1,500 reward for the safe return of a highspec laptop containing ‘irreplaceable’ survey data from the British battleship Royal Oak, which was due to be used for 80th anniversary commemorations of its sinking in Scapa Flow by a German U-boat in October 1939.

The laptop computer and back-up disks were taken from a flat at Stromness in Orkney at the weekend, and they contained months of work being used to create three-dimensional images of the mighty warship, which was torpedoed by U47, which had slipped through the defences of the Royal Navy’s supposedly secure anchorage, and sank with the loss of 800 sailors. The project members have spent months working with the Royal Oak Association and the Royal Navy, collecting data from the wreck along with video and photographs which were to be shared with relatives of those who were on the ship.

Prof Chris Rowland, from the University of Dundee, was working to create 3D images from the data, and he said: “Losing the data that we’ve been processing is devastating to us. We have a team of excellent volunteers who have dedicated their time, their money and their equipment to examining the Royal Oak.” Emily Turton, who runs the Stromness-based dive boat Huskyan, has appealed to the thieves to return the laptop, commenting: “Just from a data point of view, this is months of someone’s time. We have got a few months before this data was supposed to be ready to share with the families and the relatives of the people who died on that ship. The thieves are taking away the possibility of us giving as much as we were planning to give to that commemorative event in October. Just hand it in, give the stuff back.”

The stolen laptop is a distinctive Schenker model. Also stolen were a Dell monitor and two dive lights.

ST HELENA GAINS ADDITIONAL FLIGHTS FOR SUMMER SEASON

To find out more, why not visit us for Aptitude Day? Experience a Surface Supplied Dive, view the Facilities and meet the Training Team Please visit the website for more details 2019 Course Dates available www.commercialdivertraining.co.uk info@commercialdivertraining.co.uk 01726 817128 | 07900 844141

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The remote island of St Helena has confirmed additional flights for their summer season 20192020. In addition to the ongoing weekly service to St Helena that operates each Saturday from Johannesburg, this additional flight will be scheduled on a Tuesday between December 2019 and May 2020.

These additional flights, much like those for 2018/19, have been programmed to take into account the peak period of travel, to meet anticipated demand and to offer a greater flexibility in the length of stay on St Helena – three, four or seven day stays (and multiples thereof). Mantis St Helena can provide sample itineraries for the different lengths of stay, and is happy to bespoke itineraries for operators.

St Helena’s summer period coincides with peak aggregations for whalesharks.

The adventure enthusiast can snorkel with these gentle giants from January to March. Humpbacks, many with calf, can be spotted between June and November, while the local superpod of Pantropical dolphins dazzle with acrobatics all year round. Historians should note that 2021 marks the 200th year anniversary of the death of Napoleon. The French Emperor was exiled to St Helena in 1815 and died on 5 May 1821. There is a series of events planned to commemorate Napoleon’s time on the island during the month of May.

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MEDICAL Q&A Dr Oliver Firth is a diving doctor with over 22 years of diving experience. He is an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers for the UK HSE and a medical referee for the UK Diving Medical Committee, performing many hundreds of diving medicals a year. As the senior doctor at London Diving Chamber for the last 13 years, he has supervised the treatment of hundreds of cases of decompression illness. He has now set up Hyperdive (www.hyperdive.co.uk) to continue his diving medical work. With his accumulated experience, he has seen most things a diver might come across, but remains eager to hear from anyone with a medical conundrum they need a solution to - keep those queries coming! divingdoctor@scubadivermag.com Q: I recently broke my thumb (tripping over my wet dog in the dark, would you believe), and have an appointment to have it treated later this week. In five weeks time, I am booked on the liveaboard of a lifetime in the Galapagos…

So, my questions are probably obvious! Will this injury pose a problem for my diving in itself? And if my hand/arm is put in a cast, will I be able to dive? I have no intention of missing out on this chance if at all possible, but I’m now 65 and I’m aware my healing will be slower than a younger person’s, so I will be longer in a cast (if that’s the treatment).

A: All sorts of factors need to be considered here - injury severity and complexity of the surgery, your individual recovery speed (which as you say may be slowed by your advancing years), the type of diving you are doing, etc. It is possible to dive with a ‘waterproof’ cast (no such thing exists in reality) but if it is your dominant hand that is affected, it can present practical difficulties as your pincer grip is rather important.

There is also a theoretical concern over an increased risk of DCI at the site of recent injury, due to heightened blood flow to the damaged area. However, I have not seen any good evidence that this has actually contributed to DCI, and after five weeks I would expect this risk to be negligible.

If you’re out of the cast and have reasonably good hand function before you go, then I think it’s safe to proceed with the trip.

Q: I have been diving since 1988 and have only had to break from diving while carrying my twins.

During my pregnancy four years ago

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I experienced gestational diabetes and this completely cleared the day I gave birth to my boys. However, I was warned that the diabetes could return. Well, unfortunately, it appears to have done just that. Last week I had a blood test and the result was high glucose. However, the only symptoms that pointed me towards having diabetes were gum problems, athlete’s foot and thrush! I had no other symptoms. I’m going to be 40 in August. My doctor has recommended that I take metformin and I have an appointment to see a diabetic nurse.

What I am most concerned about is not being able to dive! I’ve got many trips planned this year. Please can you advise me regarding diving on metformin and with diabetes, I am feeling very ‘gutted’ at the moment!

A: There are many different types of diabetes, but it’s still a mystery as to why being up the duff would bring it on. Anywhere from three to ten percent of pregnancies are affected.

The currently fashionable explanation is that pregnancy hormones interfere with the action of insulin, leading to insulin resistance and a similar condition to type 2 diabetes. Once the pregnancy resolves then often the diabetes does too, but in some cases the condition becomes lifelong.

Metformin is one of the mainstays of oral treatment for diabetes of any type. It’s a very safe drug that lowers blood sugar but at recommended doses is very unlikely to cause hypo’s (low sugar attacks). It doesn’t cause weight gain, but does handily lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels too. Once you’re used to the lifestyle changes and medication coming your way, you should be able to make those dive trips you’ve planned.

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28/11/2016 10:14

Next issue available 10th April

CRITTER HUNTING IN INDO

Byron Conroy gets his inner macro nerd on as he grabs his macro lens and goes hunting tiny beasties in the iconic Lembeh Strait

ABOVE 18m: SCAPA’S BLOCKSHIPS

Q&A: CHANTELLE TAYLOR-NEWMAN

DIVER-FRIENDLY MALDIVES

INTO EGYPT’S DEEP SOUTH

GEAR GUIDE: HIGH-END REGULATORS

Women Divers Hall of Fame member Chantelle talks about dive medicine, keeping divers safe, and the importance of good insurance cover Long-time Red Sea fan Lawson Wood ventures into the Deep South of Egyptian waters in search of pristine dive sites and myriad fish species

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Scapa Flow is not just for experienced divers, even newbies can explore the Blockships Stuart Philpott visits a newly opened island resort aimed squarely at divers wanting decent accommodation and top-quality diving The Test Team heads to North Wales to rate and review regs! This month, it is the turn of the upper-priced models.

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Adrian Stacey has dived extensively around the world, but until now he’d never been to the Philippines.

One liveaboard later and this destination is now firmly on his return list PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIAN STACEY

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Philippines W

hen Mother Nature was handing out marine bio-diversity, the West Pacific region of the world was certainly one of the more-favoured areas of the planet and it is fair to say that the Philippines received more than their far share of spectacular marine life. As one of the countries that makes up the fabled ‘coral triangle’, the Philippines offers a vast assortment of different dive locations.

Comprising of over 7,000 islands, it can be a bit daunting choosing where to go. So what better place to start than on a liveaboard that included Anilao, the birthplace of diving in the Philippines, as one of the numerous destinations on a seven-night trip. Apo Island, Puerto Gallera and Verde Island were also on the programme. The All-Star Philippines liveaboard, the Stella Maris Explorer, is offering a sampler menu of a diving itinerary with something for everyone, from wide-angle to macro, from the sedate to the thrilling.

The All-Star Philippines (www.allstarliveaboards.com) boat is a sturdy-looking, 30-metre, steel-hulled vessel with a capacity of 22 guests and just as many crew who tend to your every need. The cabins are clean and comfortable and all equipped with air-conditioning and an ensuite with hot running water. There is a sundeck at the stern and a further sundeck at the bow next to the jacuzzi. Also towards the bow, on the upper deck, there is a covered out-door area with tables, seating and bean bags, a great place to relax with a beer after a gruelling day of diving and eating. Small details, such as universal adaptors in every room, mean that you do not have to rummage through your adaptor draw at home to find the right one.

Transformers are also in every room, so your electrical equipment does not get fried when they switch generators, and it shows that a lot of thought has been put into making a stay on the All-Star Philippines as easy, relaxing and pleasant as possible.

The service that we received on the boat also made a big difference to the enjoyment of this trip. I took my boots off after the first dive and by the time I had taken off my wetsuit, one of the crew had already washed them and hung them up. When my regulator started leaking just before the first dive, I was furnished with a spare and when I got back on the boat and went to identify the cause of the troublesome leak, the crew had already found it and resolved the problem. There is a never-ending supply of towels and when you return from a dive there is a crate full of them waiting for you; fresh ones are supplied after every dive. My only gripe would be the food - there is far too much of it and it tastes far too good, so you feel obliged to eat copious amounts and never skip one of the four meals per day, plus snacks.

One of the advantages of this particular itinerary is that the boat departed from the port of Batangas, which is about a three-hour drive from Manila. This means that you do not have to catch an internal flight, which you would have to do if you were visiting some of the dive hotspots in the Philippines.

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Vibrant soft corals and sponges Fish swirl around a coral-encrusted cross

Our first destination was the marine sanctuary of Apo Island, located just off the southwest corner of the Island of Mindoro.

After travelling through the night we arrived at our tropical island paradise, a more-tranquil setting to spend a couple of days you could not hope to find. The diving at Apo Reef is all wall diving, a gentle current carried us along sheer walls that drop into the depths. Tuna and trevallies provide the entertainment as they constantly patrol these waters, looking to make a meal out of one of the many smaller reef fish that try to find sanctuary in hard corals that cling to the plunging wall. We saw whitetip or blacktip reef sharks on almost every dive, turtles also made regular appearances and we even had sightings of a manta ray. To further add to a serene start to the trip, on day two we had lunch on Apo Island, after which there was plenty of time to snorkel in the warm water, explore this tiny tropical Eden, or simply relax on the beach. The only inhabitants on the island are the park rangers, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

If the first two days were typified by relaxing, both above and below the water, the next few days were conducted at a brisker pace, underwater at least. After a great start to the trip at Apo Island, we moved to Puerto Gallera, a small resort town nestled in the forest-covered hills on the Island of Mindoro. This is where the current junkies could get their fix. The most-memorable of the dives here was at a site called

My only gripe would be the food - there is far too much of it and it tastes far too good, so you feel obliged to eat copious amounts and never skip one of the four meals per day, plus snacks

Nudibranchs cruise past crinoids

Canyons. This is where we had a white-knuckle ride over acres of undulating reef that is completely carpeted in pink soft corals. Hurtling along at breakneck speed, the guide would suddenly disappear from view as he ducked into a canyon; we all followed his lead and gained some respite from the current. This little breather would allow us to catch our breath, take a few pictures and watch the procession of fish battle their way through the rushing water. Then it would be time to leave, up over the canyon wall to continue our ride to the next safe haven. Puerto Gallera also boasts some small coral-encrusted wrecks and if ripping currents are not your thing, there are plenty of other dive sites that offer colourful coral gardens and a chance to spend your diving looking for

The Stella Maris Explorer

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Tuna and trevallies provide the entertainment as they constantly patrol these waters, looking to make a meal out of one of the many smaller reef fish that try to find sanctuary in hard corals that cling to the plunging wall The topside scenery is equally stunning

nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses and other strange critters.

The town itself is a mixture of bars and diving resorts and it is well worth having an evening off the boat to explore this entertaining little place.

Our next port of call was Verde Island; this is only about a two-hour journey from Puerto Gallera across the Verde Passage. More thills abounded on the dives close to this aptly named, very green island. We were only here for two dives, so unfortunately we did not have time to discover all the sites the island offers, but the dives we did were fantastic. Both dives were at The Rocks, this is an undersea mount that just breaks the surface. Below the barren rocks that poke above the lapping waves there was a visual explosion of colour and activity. The whole reef pulsed to the agitated movements of thousands upon thousands of orange anthias. We dived on the leeward side of the site; sheltered from the current, we zigzagged our way up from 30m. Marine life was abundant on this gem of a dive. Other than the anthias that danced above the jagged hard coral reef, an impressive school of jacks collected in large numbers just of the reef, fans sprouted from the steep slopes and frogfish disguised themselves in the patch work of colours and textures that fought for space on this craggy rock.

In the blink of an eye our last of six diving days was upon us. Anilao was our final destination and having sampled some of its delights the day before, after having left Verde Island, Anthias swarm around a huge seafan

I was looking forward to the encore. Anilao covers a large area around the port town of Batangas, where we started our journey. Numerous bays house small resorts, all with easy access to a multitude of diving opportunities. This region is well known for its macro life but as we discovered, it offers a lot more. Some dives in this vast area are along seafan-covered walls, others provide swift drift dives over coral fields and closer to Batangas there are muck dives.

The final dive of the trip was a night dive under a pier that promised plenty of opportunities for critter spotting. I am assured that this was indeed the case, but unfortunately I was unable to go on the dive due to a prior appointment with a San Miguel on the sun deck. What I can say from first-hand experience is that this was a very enjoyable liveaboard, the food was amazing, the crew were fantastic and the dive guides were always eager to please, often going above and beyond. The diving, however, is the reason for going on a liveaboard and as this was my first in the Philippines, I was not sure what to expect. I was not disappointed; there were some truly stunning dives, and I would definitely come back to this stunning archipelago. n Frogfish

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This month, we gave our agency experts a bit of an unusual topic. Not training, not equipment, but advice on what to do when you meet someone on social media, arrange a dive, and then don’t like the way they dive/behave PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS

J

ohn Kendall from Global Underwater Explorers said: “One of the big strengths of GUE’s training and its system is that any diver who has taken GUE training anywhere in the world has been taught exactly the same procedures and processes. That means that, as a GUE -trained diver, you can meet up with any other GUEtrained diver and know how they dive. Unfortunately, this doesn’t preclude that diver being a bit of a prat. I have had some awesome dives over the years with GUE divers who didn’t even speak the same language as me, as once underwater, we could communicate easily.

It is rare, but occasionally I dive with a diver who isn’t behaving as I think they should. Often this comes down to a lack of awareness either of me as their buddy, or awareness of their environment. While it is tempting to simply walk away at the end of a dive, chalk it up to experience, and start coming up with excuses as to why you can’t dive with that person again, a more-productive (yet harder) route is to simply talk about the issues. Often you will find that the diver has never had any feedback about their behaviours. One route of softening the talk is to suggest a post-dive debrief, and then start by asking ‘Is there anything I could have done better?’.

That way you open the door to honest feedback, but do be prepared to be given feedback, and to take it constructively.

By building this debrief into every dive that you do, it will become much less awkward when you need to do it with a

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Not everyone was born to be a diver, neither were we born to drive cars or motorbikes, but with help, tuition, empathy and practice while being approachable and considerate, we can do both easily

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buddy who has issues. You will also become a better diver.

The other thing that you can do as part of the debrief is to offer to spend the next dive helping the diver improve. Now, if at this point the diver just tells you to get stuffed, then I would consider my job to be done, and I would simply tell the diver that I wouldn’t be diving with them again.

Sometimes just being straight is the only option.

Garry Dallas from RAID commented: “Meeting and diving with someone for the first time is just one part of scuba diving’s social aspect and part of human nature - that’s why we love it!

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Sure, you might meet someone who doesn’t necessarily follow the same principals and protocols you do, but that doesn’t mean they are unsafe - unless they are!

In that instance, you have three options…

Kindly let them know you won’t be diving with them again and end the comradeship. Give them a piece of your mind and end the comradeship. These two options don’t really help anyone much, and could potentially result in either party not diving again for fear of repercussions, or…

Have a good, constructive debrief about the positives of the dive and discuss where either party could benefit from improving their own or the team’s disciplines, planning, logistics, organising, signalling, gas management, protocols, trim, buoyancy and awareness.

The result of the third option, most likely, will improve the team’s safety throughout their future dives and make diving more fun for everyone. Not everyone was born to be a diver, neither were we born to drive cars or motorbikes, but with help, tuition, empathy and practice while being approachable and considerate, we can do both easily.

We would all like to be, and can be, the best diver we can be, through good practice within the restraint of our commitments. Never put yourself on a pedestal. There is always someone better than you, and someone worse. Putting yourself in this mindset and diving to the level of your lessexperienced buddy is humbling, compassionate and very

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appreciative of the buddy. This conduct is good role model behaviour, inspirational and an ambassador for good diving practices. If you have these qualities, RAID UK and Malta would love to hear from you!”

IANTD’s Tim Clements said: “Online and social media offers us all so many more chances to meet divers than before. This can be great to find like-minded individuals, or just occasionally we find someone who doesn’t fit our ethos or idea of safe diving. The rules here are very much like online dating – no one runs out of gas on the forums (shame sometimes), but when you dive with someone the first time, it needs to be in a ‘safe place’. It would be pretty irresponsible to hop in for a cert-busting dive with a buddy you don’t know. If they’re going to be a good buddy, then they will respect a relaxed ‘checkout’ dive and some small talk. As instructors, this is something we need to be aware of too – we are always meeting new students and, in some cases, these unknowns can present a risk to us as educators, but we can also work thorough any issues – the sense of achievement when any student develops new skills makes overcoming their particular issues worthwhile, especially safety-related ones.

Plenty of phone chats first, some talk about what they want from a course, their experience all form a better bond and set some foundations for realistic, constructive progress. Quite often a student with initially unsafe or ill-informed attitudes can progress much further than they thought with the right bespoke training. So, get to know your buddies, from either the club or online, start easy and work up to the lifetime diving relationship. Bless.” n

This can be great to find like-minded individuals, or just occasionally we find someone who doesn’t fit our ethos or idea of safe diving 30

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Why is a German Navy underwater? Why and when did it happen? What’s the attraction, and why are we still diving these wrecks 100 years later? Lawson Wood explains the lure of Scapa Flow PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWSON WOOD AND JASON BROWN

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J

ust a short ferry ride off the north coast of Scotland lie the Orkney Islands. Created by submergence, the islands of Orkney give the impression of tipping westwards into the sea and there are great sea stacks, arches, caves and caverns all around the coast, some of which are world famous, such as the Old Man of Hoy. On the same latitude as southern Greenland, Alaska and Leningrad (all places which are synonymous with extreme cold), Orkney is bathed in the warm waters of the North Atlantic Drift that first started out as the Gulf Stream in the Caribbean.

Subsequently, the islands have a fairly equable climate and sea conditions are generally fair all year round.

To its credit, Orkney has the almost-perfect naval base with calm sheltered waters surrounded by protective islands, creating a deep natural harbour first named by the Vikings. Scapa Flow to the south of the islands was the base chosen by the British Naval Fleet having been used over several generations and had already served the nation well during the Napoleonic War and the American War of Independence. The large natural harbour of Scapa Flow has a protection of surrounding islands and was therefore the perfect place for housing the combined navies from two countries.

As a direct result of the negotiations of surrender within the armistice terms at the end of World War One, it was agreed that the entire German High Seas Battle Fleet would be interred in Scapa Flow, the base of the British Home Fleet. On 23 November 1918, the people of the Orkney Islands woke up on a cold winter’s morning to the most-amazing spectacle of the largest assembly of naval shipping on the planet. 96 ships and over 70,000 men all appeared out of the early morning mist. This included 74 German naval ships and comprised of her top 11 battleships and five battlecruisers.

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The diving is actually fairly simple and uncomplicated – jump off a boat, dive down a shotline, do some wreck exploration and perhaps some photography within your time limit, back up the shotline and onto the boat again!

Due to the ignominy of this surrender and internment, the German fleet’s commander, Ludwig von Reuter, took it upon himself to scuttle the entire fleet lest it fall into the hands of the Allies. Taking advantage of the coincidence of the almostentire British Fleet leaving on exercise at the same time, with the aid of various coded messages within the fleet, von Reuter co-ordinated the sinking of the entire German Fleet on Midsummer’s Day, 21 June 1919. This was the largest intentional sinking of any ships, anywhere in the world, at any time, before or since. Over 400,000 tons of enemy shipping sunk that day.

Several salvage companies were employed in raising the fleet and between 1923 until the mid-70s, these ‘scrappers’ systematically raised, scrapped and reduced these sunken ships into their constituent parts (some of which were then resold back to Germany to help build their next fleet as events moved steadily towards a second world conflict!).

When war broke out once more, the British Admiralty did not expect a hostile intrusion into the base of the Home Fleet, however, just six weeks after the outbreak of war, the German U-Boat U47 gained entry into the Flow and sank HMS Royal Oak with the loss of 733 officers and men. Until this time, the open sea entrances into Scapa Bay were protected from enemy shipping by various booms, nets, barriers of various varieties and principally by placing derelict ships, which were sunk as ‘blocking’ or block ships. As a direct result of this overwhelming and tragic attack, Winston Churchill visited Orkney and ordered the building of the Churchill Barriers.

Built by over 1,400 Italian prisoners of war, the Italians not only left behind a lasting legacy (of hardworking, expertise, friendship and respect), they also built a chapel out of a disused Nissan hut. The ‘Italian Chapel’ is fully restored by the original artist and is a must see when visiting the islands.

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Anchor capstan

Divers kitting up for a Flow dive

Scapa Flow has now risen to become one of the top scuba-diving destinations on the planet with wrecks dating from the world’s last great conflicts. The German fleet wrecks are located in the centre of Scapa Flow near an obvious outcrop of rocks, the Barrel of Butter. The Blockships to the west in Burra Sound are visited by the day diveboats, but only at slack water.

The Blockships to the east at the Churchill Barriers are done as shore dives.

Scapa Flow is undoubtedly recognised as the best wreck diving in Europe and certainly ranks in the top five of the world. There is more wreckage in Scapa Flow than any other location on the planet. At present there are still three Inside one of the blockships German battleships; three light cruisers; one mine-layer; five torpedo boats (small destroyers); a World War Two destroyer; one submarine; 27 large sections of remains and salvor’s equipment; 32 Blockships and two British battleships (the Vanguard and the Royal Oak – restricted War Graves); a further 19 identified British wrecks and many other bits of destroyed aircraft; supply barges and shipping wreckage as yet, still unidentified.

DIVING THE FLOW

Sitting in the early morning calm, the cold air of daybreak was leaving a slight foggy residue around the dive boat. We could see no land, or in fact any other living thing, except a tiny orange marker buoy with a frayed bit of line attached. I could hear seagulls, but couldn’t see them, indicating that we were fairly close to some land mass, but it was invisible.

The natural harbour of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands has the largest concentration of shipwrecks in the world and I was about to dive on one of those ancient warhorses, in both eerie and spectacular fashion. This dive is set in a bay amid some of the most-dramatic scenery in Europe, considerably heightening the diving experience. Jumping into the water, the first cold splash of water on my face almost

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took my breath away. Soon though, my training took over and I dropped down the shotline from the buoy, dropping through 25m of water to arrive near the stern of a German light cruiser called the Karlsruhe, just one of the three remaining German light cruisers, one mine-layer and three battleships which were scuttled in 1919.

Through the descending gloom, the graceful arch of the stern approached and my dive buddy and I dropped to the shelly, stony seabed to gaze upwards in awe at this massive ship lying on her starboard side. The hull is completely festooned in plumose anemones (Metridium senile) and feather starfish (Antedon bifida). From here we swam along the remains of the near-vertical decking, past the superbly scenic rear guns and approached the superstructure which is mostly collapsed. Maximum depth is 27m, but with average depths much shallower than this, you do get plenty of time to make a first exploration of this amazing shipwreck, but all too soon it is time to make the way up the mooring buoy line to the dive boat. The Karlsruhe is regarded as one of the wrecks often seen as a ‘training’ dive before facing the rest of the deeper German fleet, but in reality it is a superb dive and

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The main guns on the Kronprinz

The natural harbour of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands has the largest concentration of shipwrecks in the world

most divers plan to explore the wreck more than once during a week’s dive trip.

Over the years, a certain unfounded and unjust notoriety has evolved when talking about diving on the wrecks of Scapa Flow. Nowadays, divers are more informed, better trained and have the very latest of diving computers to guide them through the complicated variables of multi-level diving. For those divers who only use air or nitrox, all of the wrecks can be dived without any decompression penalties. Yes, this may cut down your time on the wrecks, but no matter what your level of expertise is, safety should always be your top priority.

Those doing more technical diving with trimix and closed circuit all have their own sets of rules with extended time on the wrecks, but inevitably the penalty of this diving time at depth results in the length of time taken to get back up to the surface safely. This can also dramatically reduce your range of dives in a week’s diving in Scapa Flow. In reality, diving in Scapa Flow should never be overlooked or even passed over by anyone – no matter what the level of expertise is. The diving is actually fairly simple and uncomplicated – jump off a boat, dive down a shotline, do some wreck exploration and perhaps some photography within your time limit, back up the shotline and onto the boat again! The shallowest parts of the German Fleet are in only 15m and the shallowest blockship remains are in less than 6m, so the wrecks of Scapa Flow are well within the reach of every diver.

All of the shipwrecks in Scapa Flow have protected status under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1974 and are scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas 1979. For those visitors who do not understand what this means – do not penetrate the wrecks; do not touch and do not remove any ‘souvenirs’! For those who do, you will be arrested, taken to court, heavily fined and may have the possibility of incarceration. n Diver lifts make things so easy

Karlsruhe gun lying on the seabed

LAWSON WOOD: BIOGRAPHY

Lawson Wood is from Eyemouth in the southeast of Scotland and has been scuba diving since 1965. Now with over 15,000 dives logged in all of the world’s oceans, he is the author and co-author of over 50 books, including some specifically on Scapa Flow and the Orkneys. He made photographic history by becoming a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the British Institute of Professional Photographers solely for underwater photography. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Lawson is founder of the first marine reserve in Scotland, co-founder of the Berwickshire Marine Nature Reserve and co-founder of the Marine Conservation Society.

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THE NEXT GENERATION

Kids Sea Camp is the undoubted world leader when it comes to children and diving - more than 7,000 youth certifications and counting! - and founder Margo Peyton has painstakingly crafted a series of unique itineraries with unparalleled adventures, allowing families to bond, interact with local cultures, learn history, engage with wildlife and meet like-minded families from around the globe.

www.familydivers.com

YOUTH DIVER NETWORK

Kris Fearnley, from Blackburn-based Canary Divers, is keen to promote diving among younger people, and has set up the Youth Diver Network.

Here he explains why

T

he YDN is a non-profit entity I set up as I wanted to firstly try to promote some achievements that youth are getting in diving, and secondly hopefully create jobs for divers in the future.

So the first section of the YDN is to get some promotion for what youth are doing, as they are the future of the dive industry, and the last thing we want to do is discourage them.

So an example would be a ‘most-progressed diver of the year’ award, or someone under the age of 16 achieving Master Diver qualification, or simply doing well , receiving a congratulatory award, a new set of fins or a congratulatory voucher of ‘X’ amount off some new regulators, even a half-price place on a dive trip would mean a lot to them. This would also encourage people to follow continuous education and learn more in diving, possibly opening up diving as a career option.

I fully understand discounts are not what the dive industry needs or wants, but £130 for a set of fins and £1,500 for a dive holiday may be a good price to a working adult, but to a teenager that is a very large amount of money, even more so to their parents for the child’s hobby. Canary Divers do what we can to help youth and keep them diving, the YDN’s aim is hopefully other centres will do the same and potentially even manufacturers could contribute something.

The other part of this also creates a small competition although we don’t want to push ‘Cert Chasing’, competition can be a good thing. I also own another company coaching table tennis. Table tennis and other sports thrive off tournaments, with people travelling all over the UK and even the world to compete and even spectate, Youth especially like the thrill/ challenge of competing, there isn’t really anything in the dive industry like this, which could be one of reasons the dive industry isn’t an everyday sport like others. If there’s a ‘desire/motive’ for youth to continue down the diving path, this could be something that gets more people diving.

The second section of the YDN is promoting diving careers.

I currently volunteer for the Positive Footprints Network, going round schools informing and promoting careers in diving. A lot of people, not only youths but also schools, don’t realise there are so many different careers in and related to diving.

The YDN goal is also to create some events for youth divers to network and work together, as they could be the dive leaders of tomorrow. My view is if divers and dive centres work together, we can build the dive industry rather than destroying it by constantly trying to undercut each other.

By creating a network of the next generation of divers that

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work together that are the future of the dive industry, it will start rebuilding the industry and start creating more jobs and careers for divers in the future.

The reasons behind doing this are: 1) Coming from when I was a youth in diving, there wasn’t much you could do, the dive club would go for a dive then go to the pub, which being a youth, I couldn’t join in the second part. Other than the fact I wanted a career in diving, there wasn’t much reason to continue the courses - it being an expensive sport for a teenager, it’s takes a lot of car washing and pocket money to keep in the sport, which leads to... 2) when I was in school, there were lots of career events/meetings to help guide you into a career, however when I said ‘I want to work as a saturation diver’, none of them knew what to do or say - one even had to Google what it was - so obviously they couldn’t give any advice on how to get into this industry. At times, I almost gave up and looked at settling for other careers as no one could advise or help, so my goal is to promote diving as a sport and give youth a reason to stay doing the sport and support people wanting a career in diving. www.canarydivers.com

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THE CANARY DIVERS

YOUTUBE CHANNEL As part of the Youth Diver Network, Canary Divers has created a YouTube Channel that was designed to offer a non-biased review of dive products, with reviews done by enthusiastic recreational divers.

The reason for this is as fantastic as elite divers are, and the amazing diving they’re doing, not every diver can relate to them, they don’t have their fabulous buoyancy skills or competency in the water, which could come across as intimidating to the new diver whose trim is far from perfect.

Often these people will review products to such a fine degree it’s great, but a lot of it is irrelevant to the every-otherweekend diver which populate the majority of the recreational dive industry in the UK. Grace Westgarth is in the hotseat for the first reviews, and she is a perfect person to do the reviews, as she comes across as non-threatening as a youth, despite having excellent trim, buoyancy and knowledge of diving. She’s also a good example that everyone can dive in the UK, and it’s also aiming to help her towards a career she wants, so it’s all the promotional reasons that the YDN is for.

Grace commented: “I initially agreed to start filming these reviews as I felt that it was something different to anything I have done before. It was a perfect opportunity to try out a wider range of equipment, which is beneficial for me to experience, allowing me a chance to get comfortable with other kit apart from my own. Also, it’s a great way to improve my knowledge of each product as before I sit down in front of the camera, I make in-depth research notes.

“When originally asked to do these, I thought that the reviews were going to be easy, but it turned out that this was definitely not the case. I had made my notes on the first product I was reviewing, sat down in front of the camera and suddenly became extremely nervous, not knowing where to start! But once I had tried the introduction a few times and got the nervous laughter under control, it all came together.

After filming and editing the first video, I started to record the

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second and was so much more comfortable with the camera than before. Hopefully this new confidence will continue to grow as I make more videos.

“My upcoming reviews include a dive computer, a universal underwater camera housing for a phone and a couple of other smaller items. I will also be incorporating more video footage of using these products underwater, together with photos as before.” https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCpeYeclPRfEdrOKzz6CNULA

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OUR MISSION: Kids Sea Camp’s mission is to inspire families to dive, travel and explore environmentally and culturally diversified destinations, and thus we have created family-friendly resort packages, activities and tours designed to provide safe, fun and educational vacations to children and their families.

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f you’re into muck diving, critter spotting or macro underwater photography, you have most likely heard of or even visited Lembeh – the ‘mecca of muck’. The Lembeh Strait is situated between the island of Lembeh and the mainland of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It’s an area developed through volcanic eruptions and therefore the bottom of the strait is mainly made up of very fine black sand. The strait itself is 16km long and 1.2km wide, but despite its limited size, this fantastic place hosts over 80 top dive sites and is home to some of the most-stunning and rare critters on the planet.

INVALUABLE GUIDING

When you first jump in the water you very often see nothing but black sand. The trick when muck diving is to swim slowly and look closely, and soon the magic will happen. I’m a diver that on most dive trips prefers to dive just with my partner/buddy and no dive guide. We enjoy planning our own dive, taking our time for photography and we typically dive much slower than many guides prefer. However, in Lembeh, the local dive guides are worth their weight in gold. They are pure experts on critter spotting and without a guide you will find only a fraction of what’s there to see.

At Solitude Lembeh (www.solitude-lembeh.com), we had the pleasure to dive with one of the best and friendliest guides in the area, Epit. On the first day, Epit asked what we wanted to see during our week in Lembeh, and planned the dive sites so that we would have the best chance of spotting our ‘requested’ critters. Day one in the water we saw blue-ringed octopus, several common sea horse, yellow goby, juvenile bamboo shark, ribbon eel, cardinal fish with eggs in its mouth, painted frogfish, robust ghost pipefish, and that’s only to mention a few! Half of our wish list was now already ticked off after three dives, and so we spent the rest of the evening making it much, much longer.

Next day, Epit took us to probably one of the mostfamous areas of the strait - the ‘TK’, made up by the dive sites TK1, TK2 and TK3, all black sand muck diving with what turned out to be an abundance of critters. Diving in Lembeh is incredibly exciting because you never quite know what you will see, just that you will for sure see some very cool stuff. We descended down the black sandy bottom at TK, following Epit’s experienced search pattern, while still of course keeping our own eyes on the sand. Most critters are found between 15-30m depth and so Epit quickly led us down to this ideal depth. The fun began right away with a hairy frogfish about 10cm long sitting next to a tiny sponge. Not far from there a painted frogfish, and then a warty one. Before the first dive was over we also spotted a pair of robust ghost pipefish, thorny seahorse, and clownfish polishing its eggs, in which we could see a pair of eyes

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Byron Conroy and Lena Kavender visit the Solitude Resort in the Lembeh Strait eager to log some serious critter-spotting dives in the ‘mecca of muck’ PHOTOGRAPHS BY BYRON CONROY WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

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5 nights stay with full board meal plan on sharing basis 12 boat dives Round trip transfer by speed boat Service charge and taxes

Anemonefish

in each egg. Again, this is only mentioning a few highlights of the dive. The groups are always kept small when diving with Solitude. Often you will find you and your dive buddy alone with a guide, and private guiding can of course be requested in advance. This together with the huge selection of dive sites ensures that you will never be too crowded at any site, and only occasionally you will see other groups during your dive.

Photographers can take the time needed with each critter to get the shot while your guide will search for the next subject.

Nice and relaxed, just as diving should be.

EASY LOGISTICS

At Solitude, you can choose to do up to four dives a day, with a surface interval and usually a meal or a snack in between each dive while relaxing at the resort. Every dive site is within a 20-minute boat ride from the resort, and most sites are simply no more than a few minutes away, making the logistics very easy. Photographers can, for example, change their batteries or lenses between the dives in the very spacious camera room, dedicated for photographers only, and complete with separated working stations including power outlets, drying area, air-con, as well as inspiration in the form of photographs, books and magazines.

Lizardfish

EVENTFUL EVENINGS

Thursday evenings are your chance to see the illusive mandarinfish, as the resort offers an additional dusk dive especially allocated for this species. Dive site Bianca is home to some of the largest and most-active mandarin fish in the world.

Just after dusk, the mandarinfish come out from their home in the staghorn corals, and start the mating process where two fish slowly dance together just above the corals. A show not to be missed! The fish do not only perform on Thursdays, however the different resorts at the strait have an agreement between them to ensure the site never gets too crowded by divers and have therefore split the days between them.

Another event not to be missed is night diving in the strait. We did so at Aer Prang, meaning the ‘water pier’. The characteristics of the site is black sand with small patches of corals. Here we met several shoals of colourful squid (squid

fishing at night is popular among the locals), tiny bobtail squid, coconut octopus, stargazer, red devil scorpionfish, dragonettes and Shaun the Sheep nudibranch, along with a ton of other nudis. What felt like a second later, our dive computers were showing a dive time of 90 minutes and it was unfortunately time to ascend.

Diving in Lembeh is incredibly exciting because you never quite know what you will see, just that you will for sure see some very cool stuff

Peacock mantis shrimp with eggs Gobies

Seahorse Tiny frogfish

Magnificent

Muck Diving Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait offers the best muck diving on Earth, with a magnificent selection of weird and wonderful marine life.

Incredible marine biodiversity Outstanding reefs and legendary muck diving Photographers’ paradise Pygmy seahorses, octopuses and more

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At Solitude, you can choose to do up to four dives a day, with a surface interval and usually a meal or a snack in between each dive while relaxing at the resort

Hairy frogfish

Jawfish

WORLD’S SMALLEST PRIMATE AND STUNNING SUNRISES

Emperor shrimp

If you don’t want to dedicate your whole holiday week to diving, Solitude Lembeh also offers a selection of interesting land excursions. Local guides can take you to the Minahasa highlands and the Tangkoko national park for a chance to see some rare wildlife. The black macaque, hornbills and the world’s smallest primate (the tarsier) can be seen through a two-hour jungle trek. Trips to the local fish market, or the ‘extreme’ market, in Manado can also be arranged by the resort. In other words, plenty to do if you opt for a couple of non-diving days.

The resort itself is the ideal place for relaxation.

Surrounded by nothing but jungle and a stunning sea view over the strait. To see the sun rise over Lembeh Island and the water is a very special experience and definitely worth getting out of bed for. We were lucky enough to get some very nice drone footage of this event.

EASY DIVING

Shrimp nestled inside an anemone

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It is relatively easy to dive in Lembeh. You need to be on top of your buoyancy for the sake of not landing on top of any critters or to kick up sand, but you are unlikely to encounter any major currents or rough surface conditions. You will be diving with a guide who takes care of the navigation for you, and the helpful boat crew will assist you with getting in and out of the water if you wish. n

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY PIER REVIEWED

This issue, Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield focuses on shooting underwater photographs under and around piers and jetties PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL DUXFIELD

T

hinking of a quirky title was easy for this article, I like a play on words, it’s one of the things I love about our language so much. I also had ‘Pier pressure’ in the firing line too… Anyway, it’s taking pictures we’re interested in and not my lexicographical quirks. And so I think you can probably guess this month’s piece is about shooting under and around piers and jetties.

Batfish shoal around a pier support

SAFETY FIRST

Okay, it’s prudent to mention the safety aspects of shooting in the environs of a pier or jetty at the top of the article, for the fairly obvious reasons that there may well be boat traffic, and comings and goings, in the vicinity of the aforementioned manmade structure - after all, that is its main purpose.

Please check first that it’s okay to dive, and also be conscious of the fact that you really need to be suitably competent to have a handle on your buoyancy, so that you’re not randomly going to be popping up to the surface willy-nilly.

You also need decent in-water skills so that you’re not bumping into the legs of the jetty, as apart from being covered with marine life, they can cause you harm with sharp edges from coral growth or metal and stone work fittings and fixtures.

So take heed, check first, and keep your observational mindset to the fore, your situational awareness needs to be front and centre, and don’t let the photographic aspects take precedence over yours or others safety.

There is also a tendency because you’re very shallow to pay less attention to things like reverse and sawtooth profiles, but as we learn more and more about hyperbaric science, I’d say that because there’s a bigger pressure difference when shallow, you shouldn’t throw your normal safety protocols to the wind and instead be even more mindful of your wellbeing.

And definitely don’t start holding your breath, as I have seen a lot of underwater photographers do, as you should realise that you’re at a greater risk of a barotrauma in the shallows.

A photographer going for the shot above!

JETTY LIFE

One of the few positives about man-made intrusions into the underwater world is that when we plonk something into the water, be it a wreck or more relevant in this scenario, a manylegged structure, then it quickly becomes a great place for marine life to gather, attach and set up home on, in or under it.

It provides shelter and shade, and very quickly from the man-made catalyst of the structure, springs forth a tiny and vibrant ecosystem. Soft corals, then hard corals over time, attach themselves. Small nurseries of fish harbour in relative safety, tiny crustaceans and nudibranchs feed on the growing corals, and each other. Larger fish cruise on by picking off the less-wary individuals that stray beyond the safety of the pier.

Ambush predators can hide among the sponges and coral with a steady supply of hapless prey to feast upon.

So very quickly a pier can become a densely packed example of the reef system at large, and usually fortuitously positioned for divers and snorkellers to easily visit, and for us underwater photographers, provides rich pickings for our digital goody bags.

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BIOGRAPHY: PAUL DUXFIELD

Can you spot the frogfish?

WIDE-ANGLE OR MACRO?

The title should really say Wide Angle AND Macro, as these environments will provide plentiful subject matter for either type of underwater photography enthusiast.

Personally speaking, I prefer wide angle, as I like the bigger picture, but I’m well aware that there is a significant proportion of underwater shooters that love the teenier life, and to be honest, whatever lens you went down with you’d have to dive with your eyes shut not to come back with a card full of shots.

On my last Indonesian adventure we visited Alor and there was a dive we all voted to return to as one of our favourite spots of the week, which was a pier around half an hour away from the beautiful Alami Alor Resort, which was our home for the week. Most of the pictures for this article came from that dive alone, so productive was it. To be honest, I was torn re lens choice, as although I had dived it with my fisheye lens firmly fixed, I could really have done with another dive just armed with a macro lens and a snooted flash to tick all the boxes.

For those of you with the choice of using a wet lens with both a wide angle and macro lens you can use on the same dive, you’ve got all the options covered, and your only problem will be making a decision. Sites like these are not places for those that struggle with making decisions!

Even if you are shooting wide angle like myself, take the time to enjoy the dive and have a good look on the pier legs for the myriad of life that resides there. Frustrating as it can be uncovering gmacro subjects when you’ve got a fisheye lens, remember you’re still allowed to enjoy the dive in its own right!

Frogfish

Duxy has been part of the dive industries fixtures and fittings now for well over a decade, delivering help and advice to the growing band of divers looking to take pictures on their underwater escapades.

He’s been witness to the huge changes in digital photography that has meant that most divers now have, or are thinking of having, a camera as an integral part of their dive kit.

His past as a dive guide and his patience and good humour puts him in the prime position to deliver his trips and workshops to all, from the merely curious to the super-keen aquatic photographer.

He’s now well-established working with Dive Safari Asia for his longer haul excursions, and with Emperor Divers for his popular Red Sea itineraries.

Closer to home he is back visiting a dive club or centre near you, and if you’d like to book him for a talk to your club, then get in touch via: takeiteasyduxy@gmail. com, or through his various Social Media Channels Take It Easy Duxy on Facebook or Instagram, or Dux Soup Q&A for any questions you’d like to pose about diving and underwater photography.

If you’d like to develop your underwater photography on an overseas itinerary, then get in touch with Dive Safari Asia on 0117 369 0443 or Diverse Travel (Red Sea Trips) 01473 852002.

Black and white lends an atmospheric quality to this shot

PIER PLANNING

Rather than just diving in and feasting upon the smorgasbord of photo opportunities that will inevitably present themselves at your choice of pier, why not take a bit of time, sit back and make a rough plan of action.

At the off-site pier in Alor, I had no previous experience of the site, and so listened even more carefully than usual to the briefing, trying to pick up some locational clues. So my rough plan was to descend around 30 metres from the pier and make my approach, looking for subjects to place in the foreground, with the structure of the pier making a silhouette in the shot.

It also meant my dive profile started at my greatest depth, as I knew the bulk of the dive I’d be in the shallow area just under the structure itself. It also meant that things like frogfish, and batfish, etc, would already been have been found by the guides for the others in our group.

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY PIER(ING) INTO THE LIGHT

Sorry about that, I couldn’t resist. Okay, bad pun out of the way, I really love a jetty on a sunny day, as it really gives you fantastic opportunities to use the sun as a great compositional element in your shots. The trick is to try and use a nice small aperture and the fastest shutter speed your camera will allow with a strobe, and then to find something nice and colourful for the foreground, and only just hide the sun, either just out of the frame, or just being blocked with a piece of the structure itself.

When practiced, and finding out where your camera sensor starts to blow out the highlights, if you pull back from this point it will reward you with lovely beams of light bursting dramatically into your shot. Apart from dramatic sunbeams, the environment of a pier will really allow you to exercise all your camera exposure techniques, as in one dive you’ll be able to try everything from low light, slow shutter speed shots, to classic deep blue background shots.

Vibrant sponges in the foreground...

...can be an effective focal point

52

Under the boat at the end of the jetty Even black-andwhite shots can be effective

RIGHT ON YOUR DOORSTEP

On the last day of our trip to Alami Alor, I opted for an afternoon dive on the house reef, and of course as is the case at most of these resorts they had their own jetty, which I’d used daily to embark and disembark from our daily trips to the reefs further afield, but never ventured beneath.

And such was the quality of the diving in this incredible part of the world that I’d neglected to stick my head underwater not 50 metres from my room and see what was right on our doorstep.

Now being right on the doorstep may seem slightly oxymoronic when I’m talking about travelling all the way to Indonesia, but loads of my friends dive UK piers, with Swanage being a particular favourite, with them waxing lyrical about its charms, so why not delve beneath your local pier closer to home and see what you can come up with? n

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Wakatobi land-and-sea combination

‘The best diving we’ve had in 22 years underwater’ ~ Bill and Dessa Barnes

Wakatobi’s Resort provides divers and snorkellers with a unique opportunity to discover Indonesia’s best coral reefs and marine life while also enjoying all the perks of a luxury resort, including beach time, fine dining, spa treatments and impeccable guest services. And, by combining a stay at the resort with a one-week voyage on the luxury dive yacht Pelagian, they can broaden their horizons and add an additional dimension to the Wakatobi vacation experience.

All arriving guests are met at Bali’s international airport by Wakatobi’s concierge staff. This team handles all details of transfers and can assist with layovers before morning flights by private air charter, which bring guests directly to the resort’s remote island in the Sulawesi region in just two-anda-half hours.

At Wakatobi, a collection of beachfront bungalows and oceanfront villas overlook the waters of a private marine reserve that encompass some of Indonesia’s most-protected and pristine coral reefs. A fleet of custom-built dive boats provide daily excursions to more than 40 sites that showcase colourful slopes, dramatic underwater walls and an intriguing collection of marine life. Both divers and snorkellers can enjoy these sites, as many underwater formations rise to within a few metres of the surface, creating ideal conditions for viewing with mask and snorkel, along with chances for divers to perform long multi-level profiles that often reach beyond the one-hour mark. Experienced divers are given appropriate freedoms to pursue their personal goals, while experienced guides are always on hand to ensure guest safety, provide assistance when needed, and point out rare and hard-to-find creatures such as pygmy seahorses and pipefish. Guests also have day-and-night access to

the House Reef, which has been called the world’s best shore dive. With critter-filled grass beds and colourful coral formations beginning just yards from shore, this famous site offers endless hours of exploration. To reach more distant portions of this site, the resort operates a fleet of taxi boats.

In addition to diving and snorkelling, guests can try watersports such as kayaking, paddleboarding and wakeboarding, relax with indulgent spa treatments, and broaden their interests with cultural presentations such as Indonesian cooking classes. The Wakatobi staff takes pride in delivering the highest levels of personal service by not just meeting requests, but by always making the extra effort to learn and anticipate each guest’s needs.

Meals are served at the waterfront restaurant, and can also be enjoyed in the privacy of a bungalow or villa, or for special occasions in a romantic setting on the beach. Many visitors comment on the exceptional quality and variety of the food created by the resort’s culinary team. In addition to serving ever-changing offerings of international and Indonesian dishes, the chefs are able to accommodate special requests and dietary requirements.

The second half of the Wakatobi land-and-sea experience

office@wakatobi.com www.wakatobi.com

takes place aboard the dive yacht Pelagian. This 35-metre vessel departs from the resort for week-long cruises to the outer reefs of the Wakatobi archipelago, as well as the critter-rich muck diving sites of Buton Island’s Pasarwajo Bay. To ensure the highest levels of personal comfort and service, Pelagian accommodates just ten guests, who are attended to by a crew of 12. The yacht’s spacious staterooms are more reminiscent of an upscale hotel room that a typical tight cabin, and include features such as rain showers, individual climate control and entertainment centres. Daily diving and snorkelling activities are conducted from fast launches that visit a wide range of sites from shallow coral gardens to dramatic underwater pinnacles. For many, the highlight of a week aboard the Pelagian is the time spent in Pasarwajo Bay. The otherwise unremarkable shallows of this bay hold treasured finds such as wonderpuss and blue-ringed octopus as well as enigmatic ghost pipefish. The most-famous residents of Pasarwajo are the mandarinfish, which stage nightly courtship rituals to the delight of divers and underwater photographers. Pelagian cruises can be added before or after stays at the resort. n Learn more at: www.wakatobi.com

The Ricoh Arena was a popular location

Some 160 scouts went for trydives

W

ith just shy of 5,000 visitors in attendance over the three-day show (Friday was tradeonly, Saturday and Sunday were aimed at consumers), divers of all ages and disciplines were welcomed into the 6,000sqm space by the team behind Scuba Diver magazine, as they perused and purchased from more than 80 exhibitors offering the latest gear and travel experiences, and we entertained and inspired by the impressive line-up of world-class speakers and presenters.

Co-ordinated by Scuba Diver magazine and www. deeperblue.com, the lofty goal of this debut event was to attract both budding new divers, novice underwater explorers and seasoned pros through an unparalleled array of interactive activities related to freediving, scuba diving, technical diving, underwater photography and marine conservation that were showcased in an eye-catching, professional manner, more reminiscent of cycling or surf shows than dive shows of old. And with free parking thrown into the mix, what more could you want?

The GUE VR experience was amazing

TIME TO TRADE

The diving industry has been crying out for a trade show for many years, and GO Diving certainly delivered on that front. The Friday trade-only day in conjunction with SITA (Scuba Industries Trade Association) was awash with industry stalwarts - from retailers and manufacturers to training organisations and diving tour operators - many of which had gone the extra mile with their stands, with Suunto featuring a Finnish vodka bar and Aqua Lung/Apeks a cinema complete with popcorn! Many other stands featured sofas or easy chairs, which all helped to create a laidback, chilled-out vibe around the show, and invited visitors to sit down and interact

The legendary Scuba Diver industry party

The inaugural Go Diving Show kicked off with buzzing queues lining the corridors of Coventry’s Ricoh Arena in anticipation of the brand-new ultimate dive show, which ran from 22-24 February and as Lorna Dockerill reports, the crowds were not left disappointed PHOTOGRAPHS BY JASON BROWN 56

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Scouts after their trydives

The two 100 sqm pools were always busy

with the exhibitors rather than just have a fleeting chat.

PADI, RAID and SSI took over the Jaguar Lounge and the Jaguar Suite, which were just across the entry atrium from the main exhibition hall, in the morning from 9am while smaller stands were still being set up for the show itself, and ran member forums, talks, presentations and seminars.

The main hall opened from midday, and being trade-only, it meant that visitors and exhibitors could talk trade prices and deals in a relaxed environment. From 4pm-6pm, many of the exhibitors began entertaining with drinks and snacks on their booths – Aqua Lung and Apeks even had their own brand ale! – which lent a social feel to round out the day.

To kick off the weekend in time-honoured style, Friday night saw the legendary – no, iconic! – Scuba Diver industry party, this time held in the art-deco Club House bar beneath the Ricoh Arena. The team clearly underestimated how a bunch of hungry divers can put the mythical Harpies to shame, and over £1,000 worth of pizza, chicken wings and potato wedges vanished in less than 14 minutes! Thankfully, once their hunger was sated, the free bar managed to hold out till 10.30pm, but this didn’t stop the celebrations and for many it continued long into the night, including into the onsite casino next door!

The two huge 100sqm pools on site were a hit with the public over the weekend, and saw divers of all levels get kitted up for Discover Scuba sessions, closedcircuit rebreather and sidemount trydives WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

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INTERACTIVE ATTRACTIONS DREW THE CROWDS

The two huge 100sqm pools on site were a hit with the public over the weekend, and saw divers of all levels get kitted up for Discover Scuba sessions, closed-circuit rebreather and sidemount trydives. A group of more than 150 enthusiastic scouts took to the water too, keen to dip their toe into the world of scuba. And those who took the plunge on one of the CCRs often decided to try the other two units – Poseidon, AP and Revo units were available – so they could see the differences between brands.

The long list of ‘dry’ immersive experiences at the show also proved popular with punters, including the adrenaline-pumping Discovery Channel virtual reality shark dive, Global Underwater Explorer’s 3D photogrammetry ‘flight’ over the Stubborn and Snelboot wrecks from Malta, Suunto’s VR cave dive with Andy Torbet in France, and Pelagic Fleet’s VR cage dive with great white sharks off Guadalupe.

The incredibly realistic 30-metre caving experience was absolutely rammed all weekend, and the exhibit owners said they’d never had so many adults keen to navigate their way around the twists and turns of a mock cave expedition. A steady stream of wannabe cave divers of all ages lined up outside this attraction to test their mettle, and one of the star speakers from the show - British cave diver Chris Jewell, who performed an insightful presentation on the Thai cave rescue mission was even seen emerging from the exit of the cave! Of course, he hadn’t spared any of the safety gear and was fully kitted out in a head torch and helmet, proving that no matter where he is in the world, a cave will always draw him in.

The Suunto-sponsored Navigation Challenge saw visitors don a head guard that seriously restricted their vision, and they then had to use a compass to navigate a series of bearings that took them from floor marker to floor marker, while the Apeks-sponsored Shutdown-drill Challenge saw people don a twinset and then run through a shutdown drill in the fastest time possible, which was then put up for all to see on the Wall of Fame. That was the aim of the weekend, to bring those with a pure passion for diving together and provide something fun and tantalising for even the most-experienced divers in the world.

The word ‘community’ was heard several times over the weekend from visitors, staff and the line-up of stellar speakers, who shared their unique underwater experiences. The turn out proved that there is a thriving UK diving scene, and a generation of young underwater explorers hungry to learn more and move up the ranks. This was evident by the number of teens and little ones dotted among the bustling crowds and those that arrived at The Next Generation for a ‘mermazing’ selfie with famous freediver, ocean advocate, YouTube sensation and real-life mermaid, Linden Wolbert, and to make their Mission 2020 pledge on how to reduce plastic pollution on the Graffiti Wall.

Monty Halls

Discovery Channel VR shark dives

Andy Torbet hosting a Q&A with most of the Main Stage speakers Suunto’s Ryan Crawford with Jill Heinerth

Andy Torbet and partner Bex enjoying the Scuba Diver industry party with Penney Evans The PADI stand was busy all weekend

Queues lined the atrium waiting to enter the hall

Umberto Pelizzari on the Main Stage

Monty entertaining the crowds on the Main Stage

Craig Mainprize from Ocean Reef demonstrating full-face masks

Linden hugging young fan Georgia Whelan

GUE’s trim machine was popular Cat Braun running Revo trydives

Miranda Krestovnikoff on the Main Stage

The Navigation Challenge Scuba Diver’s Mark Evans with RAID’s Garry Dallas and Dom Beverley from Fourth Element

Garry Dallas on the Tech Stage

Mary Tetley on the BSAC booth

Bex and Andy enjoying Aqua Lung and Apeks ale

DIVING STARS ACROSS SIX STAGES

As whispers spread throughout the hall about initial reactions to this relaxed but original dive show, one thing became clear.

The masterclasses and talks from more than 50 speakers across no less than six stages were going down a storm.

Deliberately offering individual platforms designed to meet the interests of every diver, visitors could choose from the Main Stage hosting the headline acts, or the dedicated Technical Stage, Freediving Stage, Underwater Photography Stage, Travel Stage and Inspiration Stage. Most gravitated toward those which resonated with them, but the hope was that with such an abundance of choice, they may end up transfixed by a talk that might not have been on their radar.

These dedicated stages played host to several familiar faces, but there were also plenty of newcomers making their first foray onto the speaking circuit.

Amid a star-studded programme of celebrity divers on the Main Stage, underwater explorer and professional technical diver Andy Torbet entertained audiences with cold-water tales of giant Japanese spider crabs, the HMHS Britannic and an atmospheric diving suit that could give the Michelin man a run for his money.

Canadian cave diver and film-maker Jill Heinerth delivered captivating presentations about her 40m deep experiences underneath icebergs that involved documenting walrus and polar bears, and her phenomenal Mayan discoveries in the Yucatan Peninsula.

British TV broadcaster Monty Halls inspired the masses about the Galapagos while chatting about his Channel 4 series, My Family and the Galapagos, while The One Show and Coast favourite Miranda Krestovnikoff shared her passion for UK wildlife.

Stephan Whelan, founder of www.deeperblue.com (one of the premier online destinations for divers, and particularly renowned for its freediving content), took to the stage for intimate fireside Q&As with Discovery Channel star and Hollywood stunt double Mehgan Heaney-Grier, and Italian freediving legend Umberto Pelizzari.

The word ‘community’ was heard several times over the weekend from visitors, staff and the line-up of stellar speakers, who shared their unique underwater experiences

The Shutdown Drill Challenge

Pete Wilson talking about KUBI

Some of the winners of the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2019

One of the stand-out moments of the show was reserved for underwater photographers. Over on the Underwater Photography Stage, a ceremony hosted by professional underwater photographer Alex Mustard MBE on the Sunday afternoon unveiled the winners and runner’s up in the prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019 competition, some of whom were present to collect their awards.

Richard Barnden from the UK was crowned Underwater Photographer of the Year with an action-packed photograph of grey reef sharks catching and devouring a parrotfish.

Barnden’s photograph triumphed over more than 5,000 underwater pictures entered by photographers from 65 countries around the world. Mustard revealed that the number of photographers who entered the competition increased by 10 percent this year, and that it was brilliant to have an exhibition space for all of the spectacular images at the show - the glossy prints of the finalist images were displayed around the outside of the two in-hall classrooms, where underwater photographers Martyn Guess and Mario Vitalini were conducting intimate masterclasses in underwater photography techniques over the weekend.

The incredibly realistic 30-metre caving experience was absolutely rammed all weekend, and the exhibit owners said they’d never had so many adults keen to navigate their way around the twists and turns of a mock cave expedition

Andy in full flow on the Main Stage

A youngster getting into VR

THE FATHER OF UNDERWATER BREATHING DEVICES

The Mares Horizon garnered lots of attention

The final production model was named the CG45, and it was this ground-breaking model that became the first mass-produced scuba-diving regulator 62

Perhaps the most goosebump-raising piece of diving equipment on the show floor was over on the Aqua Lung stand. Encased in a glass cabinet, the first scuba-diving regulator, the CG43, which was developed by French oceanographer and naval officer Jacques Cousteau and engineer Emile Gagnan in 1943, stood loud and proud.

This now rather simple-looking device, which resides in the French office of Aqua Lung in a carefully controlled environment, was where it all started. Five or six prototypes named the CG43 were originally produced when test diving began in 1943. The final production model was named the CG45, and it was this ground-breaking model that became the first mass-produced scuba-diving regulator.

It seemed apt that Aqua Lung had brought along their own branded ale to be enjoyed at the show. As divers clinked their bottles and got fired up about all things underwater, it became obvious that without those inventors 76 years ago, much of the underwater world might still remain a mystery and diving as we know it may not exist. Thanks to those innovators, we’re able to meet like-minded folk at events such as Go Diving, shows which celebrate our passion and bring us one step closer in our pursuit of adventure. So it’s cheers to those guys, and cheers to everyone who made it along. Until next year! n

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The 7.8-metre Ballistic dive RIB formed a great centrepiece

Kenny McGuire led the Poseidon CCR trydives Luke Evans in the cave

Mehgan Heaney-Grier

The cave system always had a queue

PRIZE DRAW WINNERS Michael John Price | Heated Vest with 6Ah Battery & Thermovalve – Santi Diving Equipment Ken Johnson | $500 Holiday Voucher – Aggressor Adventures Catherine Stewart | $1,500 Holiday Voucher – Wakatobi Dive Resort Kathryn Starling | £250 Holiday Voucher – Diverse Travel Stuart Green | Selection of Bolt Snaps and T-Shirts – Nautilus Diving plus Rum & Spice Basket – Pure Diving Grenada Maria Cristina Ceuca | Momentum Watch – Nautilus Diving plus Project AWARE Kit – Project AWARE Susan Kennerley | Dive Tour Silfra Fissure – Magma Dive Gemma Palmer | Cold Water Diving Pack – Dirty Divers Kieran Wood | £500 Holiday Voucher – Scuba Travel Sophie Finnerty | Otter Thermal Jacket – Otter Drysuits Charlotte George | Ratio Colour Easy Dive Computer – Liquid Sports Hannah Blake | A Pair of Ocean Reef IDM & Comms Experience – Ocean Reef Lauryn Riley | X-Core Vest & Leggings – Fourth Element Gavin Williams | PADI MSDT Training - 5 PADI Specialty Instructor Courses – ProDiveUK Amelia Welker | Three Night Stay & Six Air Dives – Siladen Resort & Spa Alex Mustard MBE announces the UPY winners

Scuba Diver’s Ross Arnold with Mehgan Heaney-Grier and Linden Wolbert

Imagine if all your staff could deliver that kind of customer service!

THE SECRET

TO SUCCESS

Jim Donaldson looks at the road to running a successful business – in this case, operating a dive centre!

IMAGES COURTESY OF BIG BLUE DIVING

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t the tender age of 22, I got my first real job! I worked in porn. I wasn’t there oiled, soiled and ready to shoot. I was there to sell space in topshelf magazines. The busy dagger in your back, powder up your nose, throat slashing world of 1990s London advertising.

A world where shouting, swearing, instant dismissals and relentless pressure to sell the last 1/4 page, back page or classified ad by an hour ago was the daily norm. Staff turnover was so high that new recruits would rarely last their probation period, while the old hands were alcoholics and weekend pill poppers unemployable in any other company because of the ‘porn stain’ they now held with shame on their CVs. I was shocked and extremely disheartened at the prospect of working the rest of my career in an environment where all my friends and colleagues were as unhappy with their work and lives as I was. And spent the next few years stumbling in and out of employment where the same recurring theme appeared to exist in every job I worked. I was worthless and everyone in management was better than me. I packed up my suit and tie and left the 1990s with one goal in life - to be a dive instructor

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and live on a beach without having to deal with little people with massive egos.

By January 2000, I found myself under the employment of little people with massive egos again. They call themselves dive instructors. Bossing Divemasters and DMTs and new instructors with not as much experience as my own three months’ worth, I suddenly realised I had become the very same person I had left the real world to avoid. I vowed to change, but it was too late.

By 2003, I had become… a manager.

My favourite phrase to my staff who had a legitimate moan about something was ‘If you don’t like it here then there’s the door. Use it!’ The business faltered and staff turnover was higher than ever, but I didn’t care, because I had so many applicants to take their places, I literally took anyone.

Then one day, running a brand-new liveaboard operation in Khao Lak, a young couple signed up to do their Open Water course. Our first customers. It was a disaster. The boat died the day before they were supposed to go out in the ocean and the dives had to be postponed. Instead of everyone going home for the day, the instructor took his two students for a day’s outing around the local area and visited some waterfalls and a temple

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

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or two. The couple were so impressed with how out of the way Marcel their instructor had gone to keep them happy that after completing their Open Water they signed up for their Advanced and came back the following year just to dive with us. It struck me then. Imagine if all your staff could deliver that kind of customer service. You could run the crappiest boat to the worst dive sites, but as long as the staff kept the customers happy then your business wouldn’t suffer. From that day on I made a concerted effort to employ the very best available people I had at my disposal and utilise them to their best of their abilities.

Almost 20 years later, and the owner of one of the largest scuba diver training centres on the planet, I put the success of my business not down to any other factor than throughout the years I have been running Big Blue Diving, I have maintained one essential rule - To understand the value of our staff. It is them that are the most-important part of my business. Not the customers. If you take care of the employees, they will take care of the customers. And in a hugely competitive business like scuba diving, what gives me a competitive advantage in this industry is my staff. The staff are the secret to operating a successful dive centre. n www.bigbluediving.com

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PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

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MIRANDA KRESTOVNIKOFF 66

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Q: When did you first get into scuba diving, and what attracted you to the sport?

A: I wish I had learnt as a child, but it was when I started at university and was looking through the list of all the clubs and societies I could join. I signed up for hot air ballooning as something I had always wanted to do, and also the dive club. In the queue was a rather-attractive vet who I got chatting to - so we signed up together and I ended up doing my AR training on/with him! I had no idea back then that this would be a major part of my career!

Q: How did you get into TV presenting?

A: Do you want the long or short version?! After my degree, I started off working for the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol as a television researcher, but after a while I had the urge to try my hand in front of the camera. I attended a training course for directors to teach us how to work with presenters and on that day, I was able to have a go at being a presenter for the first time. I got the bug and the rest is history. Of course, there were a few ups and downs as it’s a very competitive world - you can be really busy for months on end and then there’s nothing. I had a few really lucky breaks - one screen test (for Channel 4’s Wreck Detectives series), I turned up to with a broken foot, which seemed to amuse the director! I got the job, though. That gave me a great opportunity to break into the world of underwater presenting, and that led to working on Coast and then The One Show for the BBC. It’s the best job in the world working outside every day and spending a lot of time on the water with the wildlife that I know and love.

Q: You are perhaps most well known for your work with the BBC, notably on The One Show and Coast. What have been some of your ‘best’ BBC moments?

A: There are just so many to choose from… I guess the access to protected wrecks has been pretty incredible knowing that so few people will ever see that particular ship underwater. But for me, as a wildlife enthusiast, it’s the animal encounters. My best moments have been diving with the grey seals up in the Farnes with Ben Burville. I could dive there every day and not get bored. There’s always something new that the seals do and they are so much fun in the water they just don’t want to leave you alone!

Q: You often use full-face masks to be able to ‘talk’ to camera while diving? How long did it take to get used to this kit, and master the art of ‘underwater speaking’?

A: Ah - the mask of doom…! Well, the first time I used one, I wasn’t even asked if I had tried one out before; I just sort of got on with it. I had absolutely no training whatsoever! It was my very first presenting job, they said ‘hey, you’re a diver - why not stick on this mask and give it a go…’ and that was it. They are designed as a ‘one size fits all’ and there are days when I just don’t get the fit right at the surface and on descent, I just can’t equalise (I have a small face and a small nose, so it’s really hard to equalise with one on as you can’t just pinch your nose and breathe out). I feel like I’m holding

Miranda has become a staple feature of Coast and The One Show, and she relishes being able to combine diving in any of her filming productions. Here she chats about how she got started, dealing with full-face masks, and what the future holds for her PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIRANDA AND NICK KRESTOVNIKOFF, EPIC PHOTOGRAPHY, JIM LENNON, FRANCES GARD AND MARK EVANS 67

everyone else up on the dive because I can’t get down. In the early days, I just used to end up with a headache but now, I’ll just go back to the surface, have a re-fit and try again. As the years have progressed, I have had a ‘personalised’ snot block made for me which comes on every dive shoot! I’d still rather have a half mask on, any day!

Q: Fellow BBC presenter Andy Torbet has carved a niche for himself doing extreme diving, be that deep wrecks or inside caves. Have you ever been tempted to get heavily into technical diving?

A: Well, I did dip my toe in a while back. I did a trimix course for a deep U-boat dive when I was filming for Wreck Detectives and I loved it. I really enjoyed the challenge of the training and pushing myself a bit out of my comfort zone. The problem is keeping up the training and doing deep dives frequently enough. I am limited in what I can squeeze into life and if there isn’t a filming project that requires that level of diving, then the months go by and I feel a bit stale. Also, having kids and juggling work means you have less spare time, so over the years I have decided to keep it simple and easy. As my children get older and do more diving qualifications, I aim to do some more training, and cave diving is most definitely on the list.

Q: What has been your most-memorable incident while scuba-diving?

A: We’ve all had dives where you just don’t want to get out of the water. I think my best one was diving the Volnay and being approached by a friendly dolphin. She wasn’t just inquisitive, she was really quite forceful in the fact that she wanted to play with us and kept presenting her belly to me as if to ask to have it tickled. I am generally a ‘look but don’t touch’ sort of presenter, but I couldn’t help myself tickling her belly with my fins. She did not want to stop playing with us and I did not want to get out of the water. The Dive Supervisor was calling me up and I just kept ignoring him - the dolphin and I were having too much fun!

Q: On the flipside, what has been the worst moment while scuba-diving?

A: I have had a few scary moments while scuba-diving: running out of air, losing contributors in murky water, being bitten by sharks, losing a contact lens at 60m, but nothing particularly life-threatening! Having a family that I need to go home to at the end of the day keeps me from trying anything too dangerous!

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Q: You have just had a children’s book published. Is this your first foray into publishing, and what made you want to write a book aimed at youngsters?

A: I have written a couple of books (one with Monty Halls on diving, and another on British Beaches - but those were a while ago). Having two kids who are passionate about the marine world, it wasn’t a big leap to want to write a book on The Sea - exploring the diversity of habitats around the world and the unusual creatures which inhabit them. The illustrator, Jill Calder, has done the most-amazing job of bringing my text to life with her magical pictures. I am delighted with how it looks - the images are just stunning and she has really captured the feeling of each habitat that I have written about.

Q: You have a young family. How exciting is it to see them being enthralled by the underwater world?

A: It’s the best thing! My daughter got her PADI Junior Open Water last year and I am lining up my son, who is now ten. He can dive to 2m on a Bubblemaker ticket and just having the four of us together underwater for the first time was really incredible. I can’t wait until they are a bit older and we can arrange some epic diving trips together. Just to show them the wonders of coral reefs, manta rays and whalesharks will give me such a buzz.

Q: What does the future hold for Miranda Krestovnikoff?

A: The future looks exciting! I have another book coming out later in the year (with my RSPB hat on, I have written one all about birds) and have been asked to write a third children’s book - I just need to find the time. I did some exciting projects last year for Channel Five and one with the underwater sculptor, Jason deCaires Taylor, for BBC World Service Radio, so that might be an area I’d like to venture into more. Who’d have thought that diving on radio would’ve worked so well! In the meantime, plenty more work on The One Show and other projects on UK wildlife. Watch this space! n

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Hunting sharks

GRAB INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE UK diver Richard Barnden’s shot taken in French Polynesia nabbed him the title of Underwater Photographer of the Year

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thrilling photograph showing the exact moment a pack of grey reef sharks catch and devour a parrotfish saw British photographer Richard Barnden named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019 at the GO Diving Show. Barnden’s photograph triumphed over 5,000 underwater pictures entered by underwater photographers from 65 countries worldwide.

The Gauntlet was taken underwater, late at night on the reefs of French Polynesia in the centre of the Pacific Ocean.

Barnden explains: “As I descended, hundreds of sharks covered the bottom. This unlucky parrotfish flinched, and that tiny movement alerted the swarm of sharks. The mayhem hurtled straight towards me and I instinctively pressed the shutter, moments later all that remained was a rain of parrotfish scales in the darkness, and this photo on my camera.”

Barnden, 40, is originally from Brighton, England, but now lives on the small island of Palau, in Micronesia.

Chair of the judges, Dr Alexander Mustard MBE, commented: “Photography is about preserving moments and what an unforgettable instant this is. Using a wide-angle lens, the photographer takes us into the full drama of the hunt, as

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a melee of grey reef sharks rise like a breaking wave to tear apart their prey, truly revealing the ocean’s wilder side.”

Spanish photographer Eduardo Acevedo, from Tenerife, was named Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year 2019 for his photo showing a loggerhead turtle entangled in a discarded plastic fishing net. Acevedo says: “The turtles come to the Canary Islands by crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean and have to avoid many man-made dangers, like plastics, ropes and fishing nets. This individual was one of the lucky ones because we were able to free it and recover the net.”

Judge Mustard added: “Plastic pollution and ghost fishing are ever-increasing serious issues threatening the ocean, this sad image highlights both issues.”

The Underwater Photographer of the Year competition also aims to promote new photographic talent. Korean Taeyup Kim was named as Up and Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019 for a technically challenging image half in and half out of the water. Paradise shows healthy corals growing in front of a resort in French Polynesia. Kim explains: “This photo was physically tough to shoot, holding the heavy camera exactly in this position while floating in the water.”

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Enrico Somogyi from Germany was the Compact winner

Arthur Kingdom won the British Waters Macro

Ian Michael Wade was runner-up in the British Waters Compact

Scott Portelli from Australia was runner up in Behaviour

Competition judge Martin Edge commented: “A perfect under and over split. One of the best examples I have seen of this type of image for some time.”

The title of Most Promising British Underwater Photographer 2019 goes to Malcolm Nimmo from Plymouth in England. His image Marine Compass was taken while snorkelling in the Scilly Islands, in the UK. Nimmo explains: “Maintaining both the surface features and subject illumination requires high strobe power settings and hence careful strobe positioning. Hopefully this image highlights the beautiful marine environments we are lucky to have around the UK.” Competition judge Peter Rowlands commented: “Composition, colour vibrancy and contrast combined with an unusual angle kept it rising in the rankings with each viewing.” n Robert Bailey won the British Waters Wide Angle

Ken Kiefer from the USA was runner up in Black and White Germany’s Tobias Friedrich was runner up in Wrecks

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Joao Rodrigues was runner up in Marine Conservation

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Arthur Kingdom was runner up in British Waters Living Together

Francois Baelen from Reunion won Wide Angle

Henley Spiers from the Philippines won Black and White

Italy’s Fabio Iardino was winner of Macro

Flavio Vailati from Italy was runner up in Macro

Martin Edser won British Waters Compact

Rene B Andersen from Denmark was winner in Wrecks

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Jack Perks was runner up in British Waters Wide Angle

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Spain’s Acevedo was winner in Marine Conservation, and also named Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year 2019

Paul Pettitt was runner up in British Waters Macro

Jessica Farr from the USA was runner up in Wide Angle

Bruce Sudweeks from the USA was runner up in Portrait Greece’s Nicholas Samaras won Portrait

Korea’s Taeyup Kim was winner in Up and Coming

Slovenia’s Matej Bergoc was runner up in Up and Coming

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

The prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year is an annual competition, based in the UK, that seeks to celebrate photography beneath the surface of the ocean, lakes and even swimming pools. British photographer Phil Smith was the first underwater Photographer of the Year, named in 1965. Today’s competition has 13 categories, testing photographers with themes such as Macro, Wide Angle, Behaviour and Wreck photography, as well as four categories for photos taken specifically in British waters. This year’s judges were experienced underwater photographers Peter Rowlands, Martin Edge and Alex Mustard.

ASSESSING BASIC VITAL SIGNS

Brian Harper explains how assessing vital signs is a key component of good first aid, and why it should be a core procedure in any emergency situation

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ssessing vital signs (‘vitals’) is a key component of good first aid. It consists of taking a series of simple measurements that provide data about a body’s functioning. These measurements can help reveal how sick or hurt a patient is and, when taken over time, whether he is getting better or worse. While the full meaning of these measurements might elude the lay provider, a carefully documented series of vitals can be very helpful to the healthcare professionals who will eventually take over the care of an injured person.

Vital signs can be helpful even to first-aid providers with limited medical training. Sets of vitals that are outside normal ranges typically indicate the need for some treatment or possible evacuation to a higher level of care. As an example: Anxiety, elevated heart rate, elevated respiratory rate and pale, cool, clammy skin may indicate shock, a potentially life-threatening medical condition. Shock is relatively easy to address, but it can go unnoticed if vitals aren’t monitored. Vital signs that move increasingly further from their normal range may indicate an even more urgent need for evacuation.

TIME

To organise and keep track of your measurements, it is very important to document the time of day along with each set of vital signs. This allows you (or a subsequent caregiver) to make comparisons between sets of vitals and observe trends in the patient’s condition. The frequency with which vitals are taken

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depends on patient condition. Seriously injured or ill patients should have their vital signs reassessed every few minutes, while hourly checks are reasonable for those who are stable.

LEVEL OF RESPONSIVENESS

An injured person’s mental status, or level of responsiveness, is probably the most-important vital sign. Since the brain has top priority in the body’s distribution of resources, a decline in its status is especially important to recognise. To assess a patient’s level of responsiveness, begin talking to the person.

If the person is able to respond to you, ask him the following questions: What is your name?

Where are we?

What time is it (approximately)?

What happened?

Answers to these four questions allow you to gauge a patient’s orientation to person, place, time and event. If the patient can answer all four appropriately, he would be considered ‘Alert and Oriented to Person, Place, Time and Event’ or, more commonly, A+Ox4 (read ‘A and O by four’). In addition to quantifying the patient’s level of responsiveness, it’s also helpful to write down a qualifying term. Helpful qualifiers include ‘irritable’, ‘anxious’ or ‘combative’.

In the event that an injured person is awake and can respond to you but does not know the answers to any of these questions, that person can be considered alert but disoriented.

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DIVERS ALERT NETWORK: EUROPE DAN Europe is an international non-profit medical and research organisation dedicated to the safety and health of divers.

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A common scale used to describe a person’s mental status is the AVPU scale. AVPU is an acronym that stands for ‘alert, verbal, painful and unresponsive’. The paragraph above describes patients who have an A rating on this scale, but sometimes ill or injured people are not alert. If the person does not respond when you attempt to engage him in conversation, talk louder. In a loud voice, ask if he is okay.

If he responds to this elevation in volume, he can be considered responsive to verbal stimulation or V on the AVPU scale. The person doesn’t have to respond verbally to be considered V; he may simply grimace or open his eyes, but any response to sound means he is a V. If the person does not respond to your verbal stimulus, you should assess his responsiveness to pain. It is important not to cause harm, but simply elicit a response. A good way to do this is to pinch the patient’s tricep, just above the elbow. If this causes the patient to respond, they are a P on the AVPU scale. Finally, a patient who does not respond to verbal or painful stimulation is considered unresponsive, or U, on the AVPU scale.

PULSE

A strong heartbeat is required to ensure an adequate supply of oxygenated blood to the body’s tissues. To assess the pulse in an unconscious person (V, P or U on the AVPU scale), you can use the carotid artery in the neck. Place two of your fingers gently on the patient’s trachea and slide them laterally. Do not reach across the trachea (use the near side), and do not try to assess on both sides of the neck at once.

You should feel the pulse in the carotid artery right next to the trachea. In a conscious patient (A on the AVPU scale), it is best to find the radial pulse on the wrist; this is less invasive.

To find the radial pulse, place two of your fingers where the base of the patient’s thumb meets his wrist. The pulse will most likely be between that spot and the most-prominent tendons of the wrist. If you are having difficulty finding the heart rate, you may be pressing too hard, or not hard enough.

Once you locate the pulse, count the number of beats in 15 seconds. Multiply this number by four, and you’ll have the patient’s heart rate in beats per minute.

In addition to the rate, it’s important to document the rhythm and quality of the pulse. The rhythm will be either regular or irregular, and the quality will usually be described as strong or weak. Most healthy adults have a resting heart rate of between 60 and 100 beats per minute, regular and strong.

People experience a natural elevation in their heart rate when performing exercise or in stressful situations. The heart beats faster to ensure sufficient oxygenation of tissues, allowing the body to respond quickly in emergencies. A person’s pulse may be elevated shortly after an emergency, but this should stabilise in people who are not seriously injured.

and skew your measurement. To get around this, transition smoothly to counting respirations as soon as you are finished checking the pulse. Once you have counted the heart rate, shift your focus to the breathing. Leave your fingers on his wrist, but watch for his chest to rise. If you’re unable to detect respirations by watching the chest, it might be helpful to watch the abdomen or the shoulders instead. Folds of the patient’s clothing might also aid your observation of respirations.

Since respirations are less frequent than heartbeats, count respirations for 30 seconds, then double the number to achieve an accurate result. As with pulse, measuring the rhythm and quality of respirations is important. Rhythm will be either regular or irregular. Words like ‘unlabored’, ‘gasping’, ‘wheezing’ or ‘labored’ are used to describe the quality of respirations. An adult at rest typically breathes between 12 and 18 times per minute, regular and unlabored.

SKIN

Skin is the body’s largest organ, and it can be an excellent window into the body’s functioning. If the skin is pale, cool and clammy, this is a sign that the body’s resources (i.e, blood) are being diverted to more vital organs. When assessing the skin, you should take note of three different characteristics: colour, temperature and moisture.

Skin colour, of course, varies widely among individuals, but there are non-pigmented areas of the body where all humans are pink. The most accessible of these places is the inside of the bottom lip. Take a look and note whether the colour is indeed pink or some other colour. It might be pale if the person is cold, blue if he is hypoxic, red if he is hot or even yellow if he is suffering from some illness. Temperature and moisture of the skin are best assessed on the abdomen. These are generally more consistent there than on the hands or the face. The abdomen should be warm and dry, so if it’s cool, cold, hot or moist, that is especially important to document.

Level of responsiveness, pulse, respirations and skin condition are by no means the only vital signs, but they are important and relatively easy to assess. The only equipment necessary to measure these is a watch, a pen and paper. Other vital signs include blood pressure, lung sounds, pupils and body temperature. Though training, experience or equipment may limit your ability to care for an injured buddy in a remote environment, assessing basic vitals is something just about anybody can do to help. n

RESPIRATION

Since the body can survive for only a few minutes without oxygen, it’s important to check the function of the respiratory system. If a person knows you are trying to count his respirations, he will probably change his rate of breathing

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

75

I

n a quiet little town in the suburbs of Cartagena in southern Spain, Cueva del Agua - meaning Cave of the Water - resurges literally on the edge of the main road through Isla Plana and is one of the most-popular and most-accessible sinkholes in Europe.

This quaint little spot in the driest, warmest and sunniest region of Murcia has been my destination for the last five years where I dive and teach cave courses. The structure of this cave is similar to cenotes normally found in Mexico, where sinkholes in the ground naturally filled with water, or have water flowing through it. Originally the word ‘cenote’ was used by the native Mayans in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, which they pronounced ‘seh-noht’, meaning ‘sacred well’. When the Spanish settlers came to Mexico in 1519, they interpreted the word as ‘seh-note’. Over the years, the pronunciation has been better known as ‘cenote’ by people around the world. The Spanish terminology for this type of sinkhole has been used around the world and here in Spain for this cave.

Cueva del Agua was formed in a geological Karst terrain, but unlike most solution caves where the colder water flow comes from the high mountains in these areas, extraordinarily, this cave is hypogenically and geothermally heated to 29.5 degrees C throughout the year, except for the first 6m of fresh drainage water from rainfall. As the water flows from the mountains, possible ancient seismic faults in the deep underground terrain cause this water to be heated and driven by hydrostatic pressure upward to the surface, where it meets the fresh/sweet-water halocline, before it goes out to sea.

The water table has never been low enough here for speleological formations like stalactites and stalagmites to evolve, however due to the abundance and composite nature of the minerals and ores within the cave, she reveals some pretty stunning colours.

Dive teams from all over the world arrive here throughout the year, usually in drysuits based on the dive times they intend to make. Parking isn’t ample, so it does mean getting there early doors and be cautious leaving anything around. Once you’ve rigged up your tanks, sidemount here being marginally preferred, the ‘steps’ down to the water consist of small secure boulders modified by local teams to make life a bit easier, so take care, or you could use the pulley system left there by the Spanish exploration team. Fernando Gázquez, José María Calaforra, Tomás Rodríguez-Estrella, Andrés Ros, José L. Llamusí and Juan Sánchez are members of that original exploration team, some of whom I’ve met over the years, which was an honour. It’s hard not to notice on the left-hand wall of the entrance there are two plaques, always decorated with flowers, in honour of three experienced recreational divers who didn’t make it back home to their families.

Kitting up in this crescent-moon-shaped pool is a doddle ample surface light means buddy checks and final plans can all be made without any difficulties.

Rock faces are covered in stunning fern-like calcite deposits which are extremely delicate, especially to exhaust bubbles from the open circuit diver

www.narkedat90.com

THE CAVE OF THE

water Southern Spain is not the first place you’d think of being home to a stunning sinkhole, but Murcia’s Cartagena has been a regular haunt for cave diver Garry Dallas for the last five years, and he is entranced by the Cave of the Water PHOTOGRAPHS BY GARRY DALLAS

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A diver approaches the entrance

The cave features some amazing topography

Mind you, just watch out for the occasional happy jumper from the overhanging rocks!

As you descend to make your primary tie-off out of sight from the tourists, visibility can be breath-takingly gin clear with a stunning light show piercing its way through the rock entrance and refracting through the water. Secondary tie-offs are plentiful in a few metres of water, large boulders provide reference with smaller rocks jutting out from them and the walls to attach your line to as you descend towards the dripline. At 6m you hit the halocline! What was charmingly warm suddenly feels like an emersion into a very warm bath. The temperature difference from 20-24 degrees C at the surface rises to 30 degrees C instantly as you descend past the 6m mark and continues for the rest of your dive throughout the entire cave system.

You realise the size of this huge cavern as you make your way towards the main line using the bearings you took from the map. There are a few short permanent lines around this cavern that are definitely worth investigating. After 80-100 metres swim at 10-12m depth, belaying along the way and depending on the route you take, brings you to the main line

concealed slightly behind a large rock formation hanging from the ceiling. The big white notice attached to the main line is clear for those not trained in cave diving.

After connecting to the main line, a team confirmation of gases and attendance markers, you head off along the clear large passages or detour along some interesting smaller ones.

All the main lines at junctions are clearly marked from each direction which is the way home. Slightly different marking system from other country’s methods, but nonetheless, clearly marked to indicate the direction of the main line home.

Around 200 metres from the entrance along the main line, as you look to your right and below, is a single tank attached to a BCD and regulators. This is a stark reminder of the misadventure of a diver who lost the line in zero visibility and didn’t have sufficient gas to return home. Training, practice and the realistic measure of one’s abilities and experience is something that can only be emphasised for this type of diving.

As you reach the next junction, the second ‘T’, you check gases and place a team marker on the exit line. Taking a left brings you onto a lovely circuit dive, illustrating large areas of brilliant white quartz mineral as well as other calcite deposits on the walls and ceiling. Turning right takes you further into the cave. Moving further into the cave, if you just stare at the diver’s fins in front of you, or focus entirely on the line, you’ll

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Not where you’d expect to find a cave dive!

There are several air bells along the way, so I must stress to anyone not to breathe the ‘air’ in these pockets as they have been recorded to contain less than 16 percent oxygen in them

Full cave training is needed in the deeper portions of the system

Garry often runs cave courses in Spain

Who says caves aren’t colourful!w

miss the pictures on the walls and ceilings that show other geology and minerals in the rock. They are quite spectacular and decorative and not really what you’d expect to see in some caves. There are plenty of markers identifying ‘jumps’ to other passages along the way, but these are for the moreexperienced cave diver. Visibility can soon deteriorate when percolation from the diver’s exhaust bubbles hits the ceiling around you. For some unknown reason, the letters SAS have been inscribed in the silt floor in a wide open passage around 350 metres in, which can only be described as graffiti. This is entirely frowned upon in the cave-diving community and disrespectful. Elevations will change some 400 metres into the cave and there’s a chance to see more haloclines as you pass through fresh and ‘sweet water’ around 8m or so. Sweet water is the slightly salty version of fresh water, with the notability of being somewhat warmer too. Cave dimensions tend to change a little from here on becoming narrower and wider, before you hit a maze of multi-directional lines. Good solid navigation techniques are required here, as well as ample gas before continuing towards Juan Sanchez’s Pass at 860 metres.

It’s taken the Spanish exploration team several years and hard work to make the next part of the cave system ‘accessible’. The hole in the floor, where the hydrostatic pressure of the warmer water gives its name to this

hypogenic cave system, is tricky to get through and this requires sidemount configuration, while reserves are left on the home side or planned and carefully transferred through.

On the other side, it’s a different world. Temperatures are a little warmer still and the water has definitely got a more blue-ish tint to it. Rock faces are covered in stunning fern-like calcite deposits which are extremely delicate, especially to exhaust bubbles from the open circuit diver. Passages have a totally different shape to them: one I passed and noticed was the size of two double decker buses next to each other, while the main passage was becoming more fissure-like.

It was a wondrous and worthwhile experience to dive beyond the Juan Sanchez Hole with my buddy Victor and appreciate the work of the Spanish explorers before me to ascertain the phenomenon that resides in this cave.

Over 4km of passages have been have been surveyed, including deeper levels going down to 22m. The expedition and study continues to this day as the team members are getting excited to reveal more of the nature of this cave system. n

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DISCOVER

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What’s New

BEUCHAT RETURN TO THE UK MARKET

Beuchat is a long-established French firm which has sadly been missing a solid following in the UK for several years, but now it is back in a big way and set to make waves on British soil. The company has been around for a long time – it was founded way back in 1934 by Georges Beuchat in Marseilles in 1934. A keen spearfisherman, items he created for himself paved the way for products in the Beuchat line-up.

This included products like the Compensator mask, which was the first mask with an angled lens and finger wells for equalisation, and he followed this up with the tried-andtested JetFin. Incredibly, all products are still conceived and developed at 82

Beuchat’s headquarters on the French Riviera.

A full range will be available in the UK, but for starters, products include the Focea Comfort 6 wetsuit, available in 5mm and 7mm thicknesses and male and female cuts, which features Elaskin neoprene, Fireskin lining and Supratex kneepads; the Maxlux S mask, which has a very low profile, hypoallergenic silicon skirt, and comes in a vast array of – in some instances – extremely vibrant colours; Powerjet fins, which are constructed from three materials and have a large, flexible blade; and a large range of luggage, from cabin bags and mesh bags to full-on dive bags and rollers. www.beuchat-diving.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

FOURTH ELEMENT ELLIPSE DRYGLOVE SYSTEM (SRP: £99.95)

Fourth Element have launched the Ellipse, a simple, reliable, ergonomic system, designed to provide an easy solution for drygloves. The ergonomic elliptical shape offers a slimmer profile while still allowing a larger hand to pass through.

Aligning the glove and suit rings is made easier by an intuitive key system; the gloves are attached by pressing the rings together. A robust nitrile O-ring provides a reliable seal for the gloves, which will stay secured throughout the dive.

Removing the gloves is a simple process - using the heel of your hand, pop off one side of the glove ring to break the seal.

When not using drygloves, the O-ring can be removed and replaced with a silicone band to protect the O-ring groove.

Designed by Fourth Element and manufactured by Si-Tech, the Ellipse system is designed to work with existing systems and can be used to replace the QCS Oval system on any drysuit. The Ellipse set includes two suit rings, two glove rings, a pair of silicone bands, four O-rings, silicone grease, O-ring tool and a case which can be used to keep your drygloves after the rings have been fitted.

NB: Please note that drygloves are not included. www.fourthelement.com

MARES MAGELLAN (SRP: £266) Mares have released an extremely lightweight travel back-inflate BCD, the Magellan, which weighs just 2.1kg (size S/M). It has concave, ergonomic shoulders providing increased comfort in the chest and shoulder areas, for both men and women, and is equipped with an integrated weight system.

It is completely foldable as it has no rigid backpack, features four aluminium D-rings, and it has a roll-up self-draining pocket for smaller accessories.

Optional non-dumpable trim weights that fit on the tank band are available. www.mares.com

SANTI DIVING HOODIES AND T-SHIRTS (SRP: £18-£64.80)

SUUNTO D5 (SRP: £545-£595) The Suunto D5 is a new, easy-to-use dive computer for entry-level divers with a full-colour display and an interchangeable strap.

The D5 promises a clear, high-contrast screen and simple-to-use menu system so divers can focus on their underwater adventures.

Users can take wireless tank pressure readings by pairing this with the Suunto Tank POD, and can also connect wirelessly to the Suunto app to upload dive information and share experiences with friends.

It features three buttons to easily switch between views and settings, a rechargeable battery, a stainless-steel bezel and reinforced composite case. Weighing in at 90g, the D5 has a playful side, as it also allows divers to alter the look of their dive computer with a range of silicone and leather straps that can be changed with a quick-release system.

The D5 is available in four colours (black/lime, all black, white and black). The premium models (all black and lime/ black) will be priced at £595, while the white and black models will be priced at £545. www.suunto.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Speed is the men’s hoodie, made of light knitted fabric in two colours: dark grey melange and black. With a simple silhouette and minimalistic finishing, it has huge pockets in the front and a big, comfortable hood.

Back to Black is the ladie’s hoodie, made of soft, thick fabric.

It has a feminine silhouette and minimalistic trimmings, and a small pocket on the left sleeve, as well as a huge, comfortable hood.

The T-shirts come in three styles – Pictogram in blue, Girls2Dive in navy, and Serial Diver in red. The T-shirts are made of high-quality cotton with rubber print on the front and decorative tape on the neck. www.santidiving.com 83

Gear Guide

THIS ISSUE: MID-PRICE REGULATORS

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.

MID-PRICE REGULATORS (£250-£400)

This issue, we again look at one of the mostvital pieces of the modern divers’ kit bag - regulators, or more specifically, middle-of-theprice-range regs.

Without a solid, reliable reg, you aren’t going anywhere underwater, as this is your true life-support system.

As many of our readers dive in the UK, and some all year round, we always test regulators in February and March, when water temperatures are at their lowest in the inland sites - much to the chagrin of the Test Team members. We push the units to their max by extensively purging them underwater and topside, over-breathing them underwater to simulate a panic situation, breathing them in every orientation, working any Venturi and/or cracking resistance controls, and various other trials - if they can handle this over-the-top usage, they can handle a normal diving situation.

A large array of manufacturers produce regulators, and our aim here at Scuba Diver is to give you the widest selection in each review. Now that Oceanic and Hollis are back in the UK market through Huish Outdoors, we have a good array from these two manufacturers, along with Apeks, Aqua Lung, Zeagle, and Scubapro. Mares and Atomic Aquatics are missing as they had nothing available in this price bracket.

ON TEST THIS MONTH: • APEKS XL4+ • AQUA LUNG CORE SUPREME • HOLLIS 100LX DC3 • OCEANIC ALPHA 10 SPX • SCUBAPRO MK17 EVO/ C370 84

• ZEAGLE ONYX II Location: Tested at Vivian Dive Centre, Llanberis

www.viviandivecentre.com

Water temp: 5 degrees C WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

APEKS XL4+ | SRP: £400 Blackburn-based Apeks Marine Equipment has been around for over 40 years, and since that time the company’s regulators have found a special place in the heart’s - and kit bags - of many British divers. The XL4+ is their newest regulator - effectively an XL4 but with an added high-pressure port and a nifty white colour scheme - and as with its predecessor, was designed from the outset to be a very lightweight, travel-friendly unit, but crucially, also cold-water rated. The body of the second stage is reminiscent of the lightweight Flight reg, except this has a large purge on the front, and an easy-to-operate venturi lever.

This over-balanced diaphragm reg features an innovative over-moulded first-stage endcap, one high-pressure port, four low-pressure ports and comes with a braided hose.

The XL4+ is a nice-looking regulator, especially with that white finish, and its subtle styling is matched by a stunning performance.

The first stage is chunky but quite compact, while the second stage is extremely small and lightweight - you almost don’t feel it in your mouth. The Comfo-Bite mouthpiece is also very comfy. The large purge is easy to locate and depress, and the Venturi, while fairly small, can be operated even with thick gloves. The wide exhaust tee disperses exhaled bubbles well clear of your face. www.apeksdiving.com/uk

CHOICE 2019 GROUP TEST

REGULATORS

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 923kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Neat little regulator, the perfect blend of cold-water performance and travel-friendly weight. Great all-round regulator.

SCORE

••••••••••

AQUA LUNG CORE SUPREME | SRP: £303 Aqua Lung has been making diving equipment for 75 years, and their regulators have always been solid units, but they have really come on in recent years - the Core Supreme is a belting little unit for just over £300. It has a chrome-coated brass balanced diaphragm first stage with two highpressure ports and four low-pressure ports, which is paired with a balanced demand valve equipped with a Venturi control and a large purge button.

The Core Supreme is a decent-looking regulator that delivers a smooth breathe, doesn’t break the scales when it comes to weight, and at just over £300, represents excellent value for money. The large purge is easy to locate and operate even with thick gloves, and the same goes for the venturi lever. The exhaust is fairly compact, but the routing is sound and it disperses exhaled bubbles efficiently.

The first stage is pretty small, which helps keep the weight down, and with its shiny chrome and polyurethane protector it certainly looks eye-catching. It is equipped with Aqua Lung’s patented Auto Closure Device, or ACD, which prevents any accidental water ingress if you accidentally submerged it without putting the cover back on the DIN or Yoke fitting. www.aqualung.com/uk

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

BEST VALUE 2019 GROUP TEST

REGULATORS

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 874kg | HOSE: rubber | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Eye-catching regulator with a great all-round performance, large purge, comfortable mouthpiece and efficient exhaust.

SCORE

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85

HOLLIS 100LX DC3 | SRP: £344.95 It is great to see Hollis back in the spotlight. While all the behind-the-scenes wheeling-and-dealing was going on as AUP sold Hollis to Huish Outdoors, the company’s products were missing from many group tests, which is a shame as they are well worth checking out.

The 100LX features a braided hose and large venturi lever, and has a big purge. It can also be converted from right-hand to left-hand.

It has four low-pressure ports and two high-pressure ports on its DC3 first stage.

As with all Hollis regulators, it comes with a lifetime warranty, only requires a service every two years - and you get service kits free-of-charge for the life of the regulator.

It is easy to see the benefits of being part of the Huish Outdoors family. The super-comfy mouthpiece, which is soft but has harder inserts in the ‘bite’, is very reminiscent of Atomic Aquatics. The breathe is smooth and dry in all orientations, and the big, chunky venturi lever, which has a rubber grip built in, is easy to use even wearing drygloves, as is the monster purge, which is effectively the entire front of the second stage. It looks good too, in an understated way, and I like the red-and-black colour scheme. www.hollis.com

86

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.08kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Good-looking regulator with its black-and-red colour scheme. Huge purge and venturi lever, comfortable mouthpiece and awesome warranty.

SCORE

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WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

“The choice of diving explorers worldwide”

THE NEW STANDARD IN

EXPLORATION GRADE DRYSUITS Introducing the NEW

OTTER ATLANTIC y NEW Seamless underarm pattern for even greater flexibility y Telescopic body with crotch strap and front entry zip for easy entry/exit y NEW Turbo boots with ankle strap y Tough yet extremely light material y Large Velcro side pockets y Strong internal braces y Apeks or Sitech valves y Made to measure available on all our drysuits y OPTIONAL Sitech neck ring / glove ring system y OPTIONAL Otter balanced pee valve y OPTIONAL KUBI glove ring system

0% FINANCE ASK US ABOUT OUR

SPREAD THE COST! Only available to UK residents over 18, subject to status.

Terms and conditions apply. We may pay brokers some consideration if they introduce business to us.

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

CALL OTTER DRYSUITS TODAY ON 01274 379480

OCEANIC ALPHA 10 SPX | SRP: £259.95 It is great to see Oceanic back in the limelight. As with Hollis, while all the discussions was going on as AUP sold Oceanic to Huish Outdoors, the company’s products were missing from many group tests, which again, was a shame as they are generally good units.

The Alpha 10 SPX is a budget-priced regulator - it is the cheapest here by quite a margin - but it doesn’t skimp on performance. This test model came with an SPX piston first stage, with two high-pressure ports and four low-pressure ports. The second stage is pneumatically balanced and has a compact venturi lever and a shaped purge.

As with the Hollis, the Oceanic reg benefits from being in a family with Atomic Aquatics, and features the same soft-with-harder-insert mouthpiece. The venturi is a bit dinky compared with the Hollis, so a bit more awkward with gloves on.

The purge is effective, buy it feels a bit odd being a hard plastic ‘button’, compared to the soft, tactile Hollis. Despite the SPX first stage not being environmentally protected, it didn’t falter in the cold even with robust testing. www.oceanicworldwide.com

88

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 860g | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Cheap-and-cheerful budget regulator, with braided hose, comfortable mouthpiece, and it benefits from a great lifetime warranty.

SCORE

••••••••••

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

XL4

+

Lightweight | Compact | Cold Water Unique Freeze-Resistant First Stage 2 HP Ports | 4 MP Ports Designed For Cold Water Lightweight - Just 905G | 2Lb*

Image © APEKS. All Rights Reserved

*Din Version

Picture: Vis | Croatia

a p e ks div in g.com | @ap eksdivin g | #ap eks d i vi n g

SCUBAPRO MK17 EVO/C370 | SRP: £329 Scubapro has been churning out high-quality dive gear for over 50 years, and the MK11/ C370 certainly slots into the roll-call well.

The tried-and-tested air-balanced diaphragm MK11 has a compact chrome-plated brass body and boasts four low-pressure ports and two high-pressure ports. The C370 second stage body is made from fibreglass reinforced nylon and now features a balanced valve (a major change from the C350 predecessor) and new exhaust tee. It retains its good looks, though - when SubGear was still in existence, the earlier incarnation of this was their regulator for the next price bracket up. It is one of only two regs in this price segment to feature both a venturi lever and a cracking resistance control.

The MK11/C350 was a nice little unit, with good looks matched to a decent performance, but the C370 has upped the ante, and the performance is now noticeably improved.

Scubapro has managed to retain the high-end good looks of the second stage while providing an even-smoother breathe. It was nice and dry in all positions, coped admirably with whatever we threw at it, and the venturi - and in particular, the cracking resistance control - really did make a difference to the breathe. Nice large purge, comfy mouthpiece, neat first stage and awesome price point. www.scubapro.com

90

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.23kg | HOSE: rubber | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: The MK11 EVO/C370 pairing at under £330 is excellent value for money, and with its flashy metal second-stage inserts, it looks to be worth far more.

SCORE

••••••••••

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

new in ladies first line

ZEAGLE ONYX II | SRP: £399.95 Zeagle is a US brand that has built up a strong following for its robust, well-made BCDs, and it looks set to follow suit with its regulators.

The Onyx II blends an environmentally sealed balanced diaphragm brass first stage equipped with two high-pressure ports and five low-pressure ports with a thermoplastic second stage via a flexible braided hose.

This was one of only two regs in this price bracket to feature both a venturi lever and a cracking resistance control.

The Zeagle Onyx II is a great-looking regulator, benefitting from a stylish metal insert into the front of the second stage around the large, soft purge, which belies its price point and you’d be mistaken for thinking it was in the next test bracket. The first stage, with its black finish, neatly sets it off. In the water, it breathed effortlessly in any orientation, and the venturi and cracking resistance control really made a difference to the air flow, allowing us to finetune it.

The mouthpiece is very comfortable, and the exhaust sends exhaled bubbles up the side of your head. This is one of the more-expensive regulators on test, but it has plenty of features of merit, and it has a fantastic performance to match its eye-catching good looks. www.zeagle.com

VERDICT Regulators are something we rely on underwater, so you want to know you can count on it, and none of these regs was found wanting, despite some, shall-wesay, robust testing!

In the Best Value category, it was a close-run thing between the Oceanic Alpha 10 SPX and the Aqua Lung Core Supreme. The Oceanic is a capable little unit, but the Aqua Lung just took things to another level for a little bit more expenditure. At just over £300, it is a bargain, and well deserves the Best Value Award.

The Choice category was a tougher battle. The Hollis 100LX DC3 and the Scubapro MK11 EVO/C370 put up a good fight, and both are great regulators, offering up decent performance at a good price, but in the end, it was a straight up battle royale between the Apeks XL4+ and the Zeagle Onyx II. Both the Apeks - in its previous XL4 guise - and the Zeagle had been recipients of the Choice Award. In the end, there was literally nothing to separate the two, with both offering sublime performance, solid build quality and good looks, so we decided to make them joint winners of the Award.

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CHOICE 2019 GROUP TEST

REGULATORS

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.09kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: The OnyxII is a great-looking regulator whose neat design points are matched by a fantastic performance.

SCORE

••••••••••

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Long Term Test OTTER WATERSPORTS ATLANTIC Mark Evans: Otter Watersports’ Britannic II earned a legion of followers, and the Atlantic - defined

by John Womack as ‘the new standard in explorationgrade drysuits - is sure to soon garner similar praise from discerning divers. It features a seamless underarm pattern for more flexibility, has a telescopic torso with frontentry zip, and is equipped with the new Turbo boots with ankle straps. www.drysuits.co.uk

INFORMATION Arrival date: February 2019 Suggested retail price: £1,560 Number of dives: 0 Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins

FINNSUB 20D AND COMFORT HARNESS Mark Evans: All Finnsub products I have tested have got that nice, solid, well-built feel to them, and the 20D and Comfort Harness is no different. The whole thing oozes quality.

It is no lightweight, having a good heft to it, but everything - from the thick shoulder straps to the heavy-duty bolts to the sturdy D-rings - is built to last. www.finnsub.com 94

INFORMATION Arrival date: January 2019 Suggested retail price: £579 Number of dives: 5 Time in water: 4 hrs 25 mins

MARES EPIC ADJ 82X Mark Evans: The first thing that you notice with the Epic ADJ 82X is the nifty finish on the first and second stages. This PVD coating is not just for looks, it also protects the regulator, but it does give it a very-distinctive style.

I was also glad to see the pivoting purge button design making a welcome appearance - this just works for well, even if you are in cold water with thick gloves on. www.mares.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: February 2019 Suggested retail price: £545 Number of dives: 4 Time in water: 3 hrs 20 mins

SHEARWATER RESEARCH TERIC Mark Evans: The Teric is still going strong, and while I was already a Shearwater Research fan from my Perdix AI, I am really enjoying using this wristwatchstyle computer.

I just can’t get over how clear the screen is despite being more-compact than a Perdix, for instance, it is just as easy to read. And it is nice knowing you always have your dive computer on your wrist for when you need to get in the water. www.shearwater.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: December 2018 Suggested retail price: £918 Number of dives: 7 Time in water: 6 hrs 35 mins WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

HALCYON INFINITY

Mark Evans: More dives on the Infinity, and the one thing that stands out more than anything is how comfortable it is. The dense padding on both the backplate and the shoulder straps themselves just remove any pressure points. You might not notice too much in a INFORMATION Arrival date: October 2018 drysuit, but in a 3mm Suggested retail price: £777 wetsuit or over a rashvest, Number of dives: 18 it is like heaven.

Time in water: 17 hrs 10 mins www.halcyon.net

BARE ULTRAWARMTH 7MM HOOD

Mark Evans: The Ultrawarmth hood is still doing a sterling job keeping my bonce warm during cold, winter dives temps have been low single figures - and the little venting system on top works well in preventing any INFORMATION Arrival date: November 2018 trapped air from giving you Suggested retail price: £64.95 that classic British-diver Number of dives: 18 ‘conehead’ look.

Time in water: 17 hrs 35 mins www.baresports.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

APEKS XL4+

Mark Evans: The XL4+ has been getting a cold-water workout recently, both on stand-alone test dives and as part of the mid-price Group Test, in which it scored very highly. Next month it will have been in warmer waters Sudan, to be precise - and so it will be good to test out its lightweight capabilities as a travel regulator. I have no INFORMATION Arrival date: February 2019 doubt it will be more than Suggested retail price: £409 up to some deep sharkNumber of dives: 7 hunting dives.

Time in water: 6 hrs 15 mins www.apeksdiving.com/uk

ZEAGLE SCOPE MONO

Mark Evans: The Zeagle Scope Mono has finally reached the end of its six-month run in Long Term Test, and the Test Team has been impressed by this mask.

A big plus is that elasticated ski-mask-style strap, which is supremely comfortable but just so easy to put on and take off. I never needed to adjust it from bare head to hooded, which is great if you dive in the UK and abroad.

Normally I don’t get on with single-lens masks - they always press on my forehead - but the Zeagle didn’t. LowINFORMATION Arrival date: September 2018 profile, easy to clear and Suggested retail price: £59.95 comfortable. What more do Number of dives: 28 you want?

Time in water: 26 hrs 20 mins www.zeagle.com 95

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97

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

THE UNDERWATER WORLD OF THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA

A

fter our intense journey on board of the Aquiles vessel, and many attempts to disembark, we finally made it to the Chilean military base of Bernardo O’Higgins, in the Antarctic peninsula.

The whole site was a spectacle of nature. Picture a small rock, next to a huge glacier that expands farther than your eyes can distinguish along the horizon. And in the middle of that rock sits the big red building of the base! 360 degrees of amazing views 24/7. What is special as well about this place is that it hosts a big colony of gentoo penguins, chinstrap penguins and some shy individuals of adelia penguins. And where there are penguins, usually, there are their predators!

In Antarctica, one of the kings of the trophic chain are the impressive and intimidating leopard seals. With their big mouth full of sharp teeth, penguins can do very little other than trying to run away from them. Every day there were about ten of these amazing animals laying on the ice flows around the base. And guess what, we were going to dive there! How exciting!

Together with the chief scientist, Roger Sepúlveda, and the diving team - Paula, Valentina, Pedro and me - we were planning to sample the benthic communities of the surroundings of O’Higgins with the objective to unveil more secrets about the trophic pathways that different invertebrates associated to substrates like sponges, hydrozoans, algae and rock present in these ecosystems.

The first dives were just memorable. We first went to Sapo Island to sample a vertical wall which was full of encrusting and extremely diverse fauna such as big sponges and uncountable amphipods and other colourful invertebrates.

Afterwards, we visited Stays Island, which had also an impressive, though smaller wall, where we conducted another successful sampling point. Two of the most amazing moments occurred after the exploratory dive that we did close to Kopaitik Island. After the dive, we saw a group of humpback whales passing by close to us and we approached them

gently, at the point that we were swimming among at least ten whales passing by us at around three metres distance.

Without any doubt, seeing these impressive animals so close, and staring at them eye to eye, produced a thrilling feeling which is hard to explain with words. Together with the whales, a herd of chinstrap penguins were swimming effortlessly next to the whales, trying to catch some distracted krill. It was kind of ironic to see these birds being so graceful underwater, as opposed to when they are on the ground walking clumsily, and stealing you some laughs when they fall to the ground.

With very little time to recover from this once-in-a-lifetime encounter, on our way back we stopped with the boat nearby an extremely beautiful iceberg. And for our surprise we got the chance to see the king of the Antarctic waters, the leopard seal. With the aid of the amazing camera that Paralenz has provided me, I had the opportunity to record some astonishing images of the magnificent seal swimming gracefully along the ice break, getting extremely close footage, as the seal was very curious of our presence.

Without any doubt, these two encounters have reinforced my conviction that I want to dedicate my future professional career to studying the polar environments and unveiling more secrets to know what is happening to all this fauna due to our actions everywhere else in the world.

After the two weeks exploring the surroundings of O’Higgins, we moved to King George Island, in the South Shetlands Archipelago where we stayed in the Chilean base of Julio Escudero to conduct more diving sampling at other sites in Fildes Bay. Although the waters were a bit more turbid than in the Península, the amazing colourful walls didn’t have anything to envy the prior sites we visited.

After spending the last two months diving the white continent, I have discovered inside me a true love for this region of the planet. It’s hard to describe the feeling of being exposed to such a rough environment where life thrives anyway! n

Eric Jorda

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At Wakatobi Resort, we take great pride in providing the ultimate in exclusive and personalised service. Our dive staff and private guides ensure your in-water experiences are perfectly matched to your abilities and interests. At the resort, or on board our luxury dive yacht Pelagian, you need only ask and we will gladly provide any service or facility within our power.

For all these reasons and more, Wakatobi takes top honors among discerning divers and snorkellers.

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