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SCUBA TESTS 11 NEW COMPUTERS — PLUS 3 WITH HEAD-UP DISPLAY

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R O C K ING T HE B O AT Between world-class wrecks, bountiful reefs and famous antiquities, Egypt’s allure is strong for divers.

56 42

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T HE B E S T ME DIC INE

NO P L A C E L IK E HOME

I S L A ND OF GI A N T S

With current comes life, and there are few better examples of this than Komodo National Park, where the flow helps everything from tiny critters to massive mantas flourish.

There’s a gem of a dive just a few steps away from a Florida parking lot. And the treasures found here are so beloved by the local dive community that it’s willing to fight for them.

Offering the rare chance to encounter mammoth Asian elephants and blue whales on the same trip, Sri Lanka truly is the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.”

4 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

66

Y OU T H DI V ING W I T H A P UR P O S E Young divers plunge into the sport with a mission: to document and conserve submerged cultural treasures—and have fun along the way.

TOBIAS FRIEDRICH

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D E PA R T M E N T S

13 ASCEND Saved by oxygen toxicity? A diver witnesses a harrowing underwater rescue; November’s Sea Hero, Colin Limpus, has dedicated fiveplus decades to studying and protecting sea turtles in Australia; gone too soon—the sad tale of the vanishing vaquita porpoise; and Jill Heinerth, one of the world’s most accomplished explorers, recounts an incredible career in her newly released memoir.

86 ON THE COVER

A false clown anemonefish defends its turf in Komodo National Park. Photo

by Gerald Nowak

6 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

73 TRAINING How to improve your communication underwater with oldschool and high-tech tricks; find the right amount of clarity with these photo-editing pointers; rushing to dive with unfamiliar gear leads to big problems in this edition of Lessons for Life; and expert advice from the pros at Divers Alert Network.

85 TRAVEL Our readers select the world’s best dive destinations for beginners; a new dive site draws wreck lovers down under; uncovering a local gem in Kentucky; and the best things for divers to do in Baja California, Mexico.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: BRANDON COLE; JON WHITTLE (2)

25 SCUBAL AB Our team of divers put 14 computers to the test, including wristmount, console and head-up display models. See which computers earned Testers Choice and Best Buy honors.

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MARY FRANCES EMMONS joined Sport Diver in 2009 and Scuba Diving in 2012, serving as features, senior and deputy editor. A diver since 2006, she was named editor-in-chief in 2018.

scubadiving.com ∂ edit@scubadiving.com

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Mary Frances Emmons Senior Editor Andy Zunz

Cultivating young, diverse divers makes ours a more welcoming sport

“We believe that visitors to national parks should look like the citizens of the United States.”

That quote comes from Dave Conlin, chief of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, which conserves our nation’s underwater heritage. He was explaining why he helped found Youth Diving with a Purpose (pg. 66) with Scuba Diving’s 2018 Sea Hero of the Year, Ken Stewart.

Sometimes, dive boats don’t look much like most of our country either, with comparatively few young people or divers of color.

Stewart and Conlin are doing something about that. (Learn more about Stewart in “Ken Stewart Named 2018 Sea Hero of the Year” and Conlin in “The Real-Life Superheroes of Scuba Diving,” both at scubadiving.com.) A veteran diver looking for a new challenge when he founded the adult-oriented Diving with a Purpose, Stewart saw a need for a spinoff program for divers ages 16 to 23, most from culturally diverse backgrounds. Conlin saw a similar need to cultivate “a new generation of stewards for our shared national treasures and to—perhaps—groom the next generation of park rangers.” Working with the Our WorldUnderwater Scholarship Society, the park service has for more than a decade sponsored the NPS/OWUSS Diving Internship for young divers 20 to 28 years old (pg. 70).

“When I visit trade shows, I see nothing but older divers,” Stewart lamented in his 2018 interview. Thanks in part to organizations such as YDWP, OWUSS and the NPS, that might be changing for good.

MARY FRANCES EMMONS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

FOLLOWING

SHOW TIME Follow Scuba Diving at the 2019 DEMA Show in Orlando, Florida The dive industry will come together for four action-packed days in November. Scuba Diving will be on the ground, reporting on the new gear being displayed and big announcements being made.

Here's how you can follow along: Follow us on @scubadivingmagazine @scubadivingmag for photos and video.

Sign up for our enewsletter for a full rundown of our DEMA coverage here: scubadiv.in/enews

Scuba Diving (ISSN 1060-9563) is published 11 times per year (J/F, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, S/O, Nov, World's Best Special and Dec) by PADI Worldwide, 30151 Tomas, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688. Vol. 28, No. 9, Nov 2019. Periodicals postage paid in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, and additional offices. Annual subscription rate: U.S. $21.97; Canada $30.97; all other foreign countries $39.97. U.S. funds only. Contents copyright 2019 by PADI Worldwide. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Scuba Diving, P.O. Box 3286, Harlan, IA 51593-0466. CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement Number: 40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: IMEX, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. For subscription questions, email: SCDcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com.

8 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

ScubaLab Director Roger Roy Digital Editor Becca Hurley Associate Gear Editor Robby Myers Associate Editor Dave Carriere Copy Editor T.L. Favors CONTRIBUTORS Eric Douglas, Tobias Friedrich, Jennifer Idol, Adrienne Jordan, Michael Langhans, Suzan Meldonian, Eric Michael, Brooke Morton, Erin Quigley, Terry Ward

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Art Director Monica Rodriguez Art Director Victoria Cocchiaro Staff Photographer Jon Whittle BONNIER MEDIA CONTRACT PUBLISHING Executive Vice President Gregory D. Gatto Vice President, Managing Director Glenn Sandridge Financial Director Tara Bisciello Editorial Director Shawn Bean Creative Director Dave Weaver Editorial Operations Director Stephanie Pancratz Copy Chief Cindy Martin Advertising Sales Manager Lauren Brown Group Marketing Director Haley Bischof Senior Marketing Manager Kelly Sheldon Marketing Manager Franki Giordano Marketing Project Manager Annie Darby Production Director Rina Viray Murray Associate Production Director Kelly Weekley Senior Production Manager Stephanie Northcutt Production Artist Peter Coffin Digital Strategy Director Mike Staley Digital Content Director Mark MacKenzie Custom Audience Manager Jackie Fry Digital Content Production and Presentation Director Michellina Jones Digital Producer Daniel McSwain ANDY ZUNZ

GENERATION NEXT

FOR BOTH YOUR WORLDS.

© 2018 Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. 1GPS tracking does not work underwater

DREW RICHARDSON, ED.D., president and CEO of PADI, has logged more than 6,000 dives worldwide and received many industry awards, including 1992 DAN/Rolex Diver of the Year.

PADI WORLDWIDE President & CEO Dr. Drew Richardson

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Chief Marketing Officer Kristin Valette-Wirth M.B.A.

25 million strong, a force for good and a voice for the oceans

Managing Director, PADI Club Dave Freygang

As a PADI Club member you’re connected solidly with your fellow PADI Club members, PADI Divers, PADI dive operations and PADI Professionals—the global PADI family. It’s a connection that can benefit enjoying and getting more out of diving, but there’s a more important side to think about.

With about 30 million divers around the world, diving in general and the PADI family in particular (25 million-plus) are a growing, influential force on behalf of ocean preservation and other issues. Earlier this year, PADI Divers joined Project AWARE and others to petition CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to protect the mako and other overfished sharks by listing them as endangered. CITES agreed, and these species now have protective restrictions. This is just one example of how, together, we’re making a difference.

The PADI family believes in this so strongly, we’ve formalized our commitment with our Four Pillars of Change: Ocean Health, Marine Animals, People & Community and Healing & Wellness. Each of these symbolizes areas where we can join together as a force for good and positive change. (Visit scubadiv.in/pillars for more about the pillars.)

You don’t have to be a PADI Club member to be part of this growing force, of course, but your membership adds strength in at least three important ways: » You’re in the know. Through Scuba Diving, scubadiving.com and diversalertnetwork .org, you know what’s going on, and who’s doing what, when. It helps you identify the things you’re passionate about changing so you can contribute and broader issues that you can support. » You’re in contact. Your PADI Club connection not only keeps you informed, but makes you easy to reach, which is especially important when the best action calls for a quick, timely unified response. » You’re more influential. Because you vote, post and buy, it’s often the size of our collective voice that gets diving heard when PADI joins others in approaching government and regulating institutions. As a PADI Club member, this has extra weight because you’re an active, informed and engaged diver. You generate more power, more influence and a louder voice.

German cartoonist Oliver Gaspirtz once said, “Good things you have to make happen. Bad things happen all by themselves.” True. So, thanks for being a PADI Club member. Thanks for being part of making good things happen.

Education & Content Development Executive Karl Shreeves Managing Director, PADI Travel Joel Perrenoud Marketing Director Courtney Taylor Brand Director Katie Thompson PADI MEDIA GROUP Associate Publisher Jeff Mondle 760-419-5898 jeff.mondle@padi.com Associate Publisher David Benz 850-261-1355 david.benz@padi.com Territory Manager Linda Sue Dingel 407-913-4945 lindasue.dingel@gmail.com

All contents copyright 2019 PADI. Reproduction and distribution of the materials contained herein without express written permission is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact us at PADI Worldwide, 30151 Tomas, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688-2125 Publications Mail Agreement Number: 40612608 Canada Post Returns: IMEX Global Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London ON N6C 6B2 Canada Printed in the USA Retail single copy sales: ProCirc Retail Solutions Group, Tony DiBisceglie

DR. DREW RICHARDSON

P.S.: If you’re not yet enrolled in PADI Club, please join us in helping shape a future with a healthy planet. Visit, call or text your PADI Resort or Dive Center to get signed up today, or go to padi.com.

10 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

For customer service and subscription questions, such as renewals, address changes, email, billing and account status, go to: scubadiving.com/cs. You can also call 800-666-0016, or write to Scuba Diving, P.O. Box 3286, Harlan, IA 51593-0466.

LUKAS WALTER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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OUT OF THE BLUE: DISCOVER THE WORLD BELOW a 17 TALKING TURTLE 20 VANISHING ACT 22 TO BOLDLY GO

LUREEN FERRETTI

“ ULTIMATE SACRIFICE A mother’s work is never done, but for this octopus, the end is in sight. Females tend their eggs, covering them and wafting oxygenating currents. Photographer Lureen Ferretti discovered this Florida octopus on the eggs’ first day; after they hatch, the exhausted female dies, her service to her species complete.

My most important role now is to pass on what I have learned, and to be the woman I wish I had met when I was 10 years old.”

JILL HEINERTH, INTO THE PLANET, PAGE 22

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 13

ASC EN D: WH AT I T ’S L I KE

What It’s Like

TO WITNESS AN OXYGEN TOXICITY EMERGENCY

I

was teaching a cave-diver course at Jackson Blue Springs in Marianna, Florida, when a DPV zoomed overhead.

Just as it did, I felt a leg kick me.

I thought, Well, that was messed up.

Then I quickly realized that this cave is 100 feet deep, and nobody scooters out of here without decompressing. Is that leg attached to a dead diver?

I rounded up the class, and we exited just as I saw the driver of the DPV try to place his unconscious buddy on dry land.

By the time we readied to start CPR, an ambulance had arrived, and we loaded him up. I assumed the diver was dead.

Several days later, I got a phone call from the diver who had been unconscious,

14 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

thanking me for being there to assist.

I’m 99.9 percent sure he had oxygen toxicity. He was young and in fantastic health. What caused him to pass out was that the gas mix he was using in his rebreather had too much oxygen. As he descended into the cave, the partial pressure of oxygen spiked on the rebreather.

Because he likely had oxygen toxicity rather than some other cause, it appears he survived what would normally kill you—not breathing for 20 to 25 minutes.

Experts say that after about 4 minutes without oxygen, your brain starts dying.

Typically, chances of surviving this are so low, they’re not even calculable. But in his case, what should have killed him

might have saved his life. My theory: Because he was breathing such high levels of oxygen, his brain was saturated with it.

A body that isn’t breathing doesn’t supply enough oxygen to the brain, but he had a surplus, which carried him through.

One of the main signs of oxygen toxicity is that a body will convulse. Every muscle twitches at once. But as soon as that overload of oxygen is taken away, the person will snap out of it. The only residual effect is soreness from having every muscle tighten up at the same time.

The diver doesn’t remember anything about the incident—which is typical—but fortunately, he has not shown any signs of lasting effects either.

ILLUSTRATION: STEVEN P. HUGHES

BY EDD SORENSON, AS TOLD TO BROOKE MORTON

SHOP THE COLLECTION AT SEIKOUSA.COM © 2019 Seiko Watch of America. SRPD21

YEAR DIVE CERTIFIED:

1973 AGE WHEN CERTIFIED:

33 D I V E C E R T I F I C AT I O N L E V E L :

Open water WORDS TO LIVE BY:

“I want my children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy the natural world that I have enjoyed.”

Sea Hero

COLIN LIMPUS A childhood love of turtles inspires 50 years dedicated to their conservation

I ON

COURTESY COLIN LIMPUS

LORAT

Q: Are there lessons from your research that can aid turtle conservation beyond Queensland?

A: We are among the global leaders who identified that the sex of hatchling marine turtles is determined by the temperature within the nest, not by sex chromosomes. Our studies also have demonstrated that the size of the annual green turtle nesting population in the Great Barrier Reef is determined by the ELNO Southern Oscillation weather variation some 18 months before the nesting season, and that rainfall and hence flood runoff, is the most important factor leading to strandings of sick and dead green turtles and dugong in Queensland.

With our half century of research data, we are in an ideal position to

NC O

N

VATION INNOVATI R E ON S

EXP

Q: You started out in 1968 with a fouryear study on flatback turtles that “got out of hand”—how has that led you to where you are today?

A: I grew up in an area with marine turtle nesting and spent most summers visiting the nesting beach—initially to gather eggs to eat, later just to watch and enjoy the turtles, and still later as a teacher, to gather information to use in classroom lessons about the reptilian life cycle. In 1968, a visiting biologist identified some problems facing

our turtles and, given my experience with them, encouraged me to take on a small research project. I was already a research scientist with a strong interest in herpetology and researching sea snake toxicology. By that time my understanding of the complex biology of marine turtles and the threats to their populations from human activities enticed me into long-term turtle research and conservation.

EDUCATIO

C

olin Limpus got certified in 1973.

But he’d already been diving, after a fashion, for more than 20 years.

“I made my first ‘underwater breathing apparatus’ when I was 12 years old, after watching a movie about World War II frogmen,” he recalls. “Totally unsupervised. I was very fortunate that I did not harm myself. Not a recommended way to start diving.” When he did start for real, it was for his job as a research scientist. Fifty years later, he is godfather of the sea turtles of Queensland, Australia, inspiring more than 10,000 of his fellow Aussies to volunteer in service of their preservation; for that lifetime of work, Dr. Limpus is our November Sea Hero.

People of action, devoted to protecting the planet’s oceans and marine life through conservation, technology or by simply helping others. If you spot a Sea Hero, join Scuba Diving, Seiko and the 2019 Sea Heroes program by nominating him or her at scubadiving .com/seaheroes

Q: What’s been your most satisfying moment?

A: Meeting a turtle that I had tagged as a hatchling when she returned as an adult to lay eggs in her first breeding season at 29 years of age.

Q: How are visitors affected when they witness turtles hatching for the first time?

A: There would rarely be a visitor watching the hatchlings emerging from a nest who was not emotionally drawn in by such small, cute but defenseless animals having to face the harsh reality of life with no parental care and assistance.

Empathy with the newly hatched turtles regularly evokes a desire to help them.

Q: What do you view as the greatest challenges in marine conservation today? How are these challenges reflected in your work?

A: Minimizing the negative impacts of expanding human populations and modern technology on marine turtles and their habitats to ensure that marine turtle populations have a reasonable chance of surviving for future generations.

Those threats include urbanization and industrial development of coastal habitats that is alienating and/or damaging essential marine turtle habitat, and sky glow (light pollution) from coastal development that results in reduced numbers of adult turtles arriving to nest on adjacent beaches and increasing hatchling mortality on the beaches and in adjacent waters.

We also have increased damage to our coastal marine habitats caused by sediment and chemical outflow from rivers as a consequence of land clearing

18 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

Limpus—seen diving an Australian reef and releasing a tagged turtle—has worked for more than 50 years on furthering our understanding and protection of sea turtles.

“Even though turtles lay lots of eggs in a single nesting season, because of their long delay to first breeding, severely depleted populations require more than 100 years of concerted conservation action to return their population back to ‘natural’ levels.” for agricultural and pastoral industries, and urban and industrial development within the catchments, which causes increased mortality of our turtles and reduces their breeding rates.

And there are excessive amounts of plastic waste entering our oceans, with resulting excessive mortality of turtles, especially of the small post-hatchling

turtles during their open ocean dispersal phase—along with decades of past and continuing dependence on coal and oil-based fueling of industry and transport, causing major environmental changes that are putting the survival of many species, including marine turtles, at risk of extinction while also making the world a less safe place for us to live in.

While our national and international leaders endeavor to reverse these impacts, we are directing our research and management responses to understanding these effects on marine turtle population function and exploring options for minimizing or reversing them. Our current studies include addressing the extent to which rising temperatures are causing an excessive reduction in numbers of male hatchlings; how we can cool beaches at risk from rising global temperatures; identification and quantifying metal and organic pollutants occurring in marine turtles; and investigating management of lighting to minimize sky glow and its disruptive impact on marine turtle breeding. Results from these studies enhance the quality of the advice that we can give to agencies that determine policy and management of the environment and management of threatened species like marine turtles.

Q: What’s been your most surprising moment?

A: Realizing that even though turtles lay lots of eggs in a single nesting season, because of their long delay to first breeding, severely depleted populations require more than 100 years of concerted conservation action to return their population back to “natural” levels.

Q: What can divers and our readers do to help?

A: Take the time to enjoy turtles. Join a local community group committed to caring for our beaches and seas and make a difference by looking after your local environment. Share your observations and photos of turtles, especially those with tags, with me or your local researchers. Reduce your use of plastic in all its forms, and take care in disposal of plastic waste, to ensure that it doesn’t end up in the sea. Let’s leave the ocean in better condition than our generation has made it.

COURTESY COLIN LIMPUS (2)

ASC EN D: S EA H ER O

continue our investigation and testing of climate-change impacts on turtle populations. Training of turtle conservation volunteers, young researchers and managers has been part of our turtle conservation work since we began in 1968. This has expanded to include training of students and managers in numerous countries throughout the western Pacific and Asia. Also, I’ve been the Scientific Councilor for marine turtles to the United Nations Convention for Conservation of Migratory Species for 25 years. In this role, I’m a global advocate for marine-turtle conservation.

DIVE COMPUTER

by Aqua Lung Ocean Ambassador Alicia Ward @SeeThroughSea

Connected by Color

• •

capability to sync with our free DiverLog+ App app allows you to manage your dive data, computer settings, and share favorite dives and photos to social media • 4 operating modes – Air, Nitrox, Gauge, and Free Dive • User-changeable standard battery allows for easy changes while retaining your data

aqualung.com | @aqualungdivers | #aqualung75

THE LAST DAYS OF THE VAQUITA? A desperate race to save Mexico’s rare porpoise from extinction

BY BROOKE MORTON

N

ine. About nine vaquita porpoises remain on the planet, according to conservation group Viva Vaquita at the time of press. This 4- to 5-foot-long porpoise, the world's smallest, exists only in the Sea of Cortez, and probably not for much longer. As the animal’s habitat becomes increasingly threatened, divers might have to accept that they will never encounter this species, distinguishable by its rounded face with black markings around the eyes and mouth, giving it a cartoonish appearance.

Its survival is linked to the totoaba, a silvery relative of the drum fish roughly the same size as the vaquita. Illegal totoaba fishing is thought to be responsible for the steep decline in the vaquita’s numbers: More than 80 percent vanished between 2008 and 2015, just as appetites in China and Hong Kong fixated on the totoaba’s swim bladder. Totoaba poachers in the Baja Peninsula use gill nets—vertical walls of filament line that indiscriminately entangle and trap everything, including vaquitas, that crosses paths with the nets. “If they used a

20 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

The estimated number of vaquita porpoises left on Earth, according to experts

80% of the vaquita population vanished between 2008 and 2015

21 A vaquita's natural lifespan, in years

different type of fishing gear—such as hook and line—there would be no problem at all,” says Juan Carlos Cantú, Mexico’s director of programs for the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife.

But because capturing the totoaba— itself an endangered species—is illegal, the methods used to fish for it can’t be regulated. Even if the law were changed, activists say it wouldn’t be enough to save the vaquita. “When you are deal-

FROM TOP: THOMAS A. JEFFERSON/VIVA VAQUITA; ALEX ROCKHEART/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

ASC EN D: C ON S ERVATIO N

The tiny vaquita porpoise is threatened by illegal fishing in the Sea of Cortez.

ing with the illegal trade of any species, legalizing it will not decrease the illegal trading of the animals, but would likely increase it,” Cantú says. “Sometimes when you legalize the illegal trade, all that serves to do is cover up the illegal trade.”

There is, as he sees it, just one solution.

“The only way to attack illegal trade is to attack the demand,” he says, adding that public service campaigns in China and Hong Kong could deter demand. “But that takes decades.”

The future for the vaquita looks grim.

It’s a species that has only been recognized since the 1980s, and even then, the numbers of the animal were small.

The problem was further compounded by the fact that the animal is elusive, shying away from the sound of boat motors.

“For a long time, even government authorities thought the animal was a myth,” Cantú says. When the species was finally acknowledged in the ’90s, Mexican fishing authorities refused to allow stricter regulations for the animal to survive.

If efforts had been established then, the vaquita’s story might have had a different ending. As recently as 10 years ago, the vaquita population was stable at around 1,000 to 1,500 animals. But no such protections were put in place. It wasn’t until 2010 that the Mexican government initiated conservation measures, including creation of a few small sanctuaries for the porpoises. By then, surging prices for totoaba bladders undermined what little protection existed.

Cantú says organized crime rings trading in totoaba swim bladders have taken over fishing communities in the area.

Workers for nongovernmental organizations trying to remove gill nets from the Sea of Cortez, such as Sea Shepherd, have been threatened with violence.

“Operation Milagro is currently our most dangerous campaign,” says Capt.

Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd’s efforts in the area. For the past five years, the group has been a fixture in the vaquita sanctuaries, seizing some 950 nets.

The remaining vaquitas haven't been tagged, which means tracking so few in a 61,776-square-mile area is near impossible, especially with a lack of funding.

“It’s going to be difficult for a few decades for scientists to say when the vaquita is extinct,” Cantú says. But it will likely happen. “This should be a wake-up call not only for Mexicans, but for the whole world,” he says.

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AS CE ND : ACHIEVEMENT

INTO THE PLANET Cave diver Jill Heinerth has faced death a hundred times and never blinked.

What worries her? Your driving.

BY MARY FRANCES EMMONS

WHY WAS NOW THE TIME TO TELL THIS TALE? “I’ve been working on this for the better part of 10 years!

It took me a while to find my voice. Writing about your life and choosing to reveal personal details is daunting.

After a prominent literary agent reached out to me, I figured it was a sign to get to work finishing the book.”

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST STORY TO TELL? “My editor became more of a psychologist, urging me to get personal and share details of relationships and emotions. That said, it was extremely difficult to write

22 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

about my dead friends. When I recorded the audiobook, I kept breaking down, and could not even get through my own written words. Finding a way to honor my former creative partner Wes Skiles [a National Geographic photographer who died in a rebreather accident in 2010] in a way that balanced the tough background story was extremely challenging too. I really miss him and hate the way he died, but I want the world to know the contributions he made to diving safety and water advocacy.”

YOU’VE SACRIFICED A GREAT DEAL TO REACH THESE HEIGHTS — DOES JILL HEINERTH HAVE REGRETS? “I offer that all the good, bad and ugly experiences that we have in the end are positive; they build who we are today. There are times I wish I had spoken up more, but comfort in your own skin comes with experience and wisdom. If I had challenged the old guy who told me there was no place in commercial diving for women, I would have had a different life completely.”

WHAT BRINGS YOU THE MOST JOY? “When I am speaking to a classroom full of kids and I reach one with a spark of inspiration. My most important role now is to pass on what I have learned, and be the woman I wish I had met when I was 10 years old.

In diving, it’s the sublime stuff. Alone on the floe edge in the Canadian Arctic, preparing for a dive while a polar bear moves in, or just sitting in the cavern zone of a turquoise spring while the sunbeams penetrate the water—I am in my element.”

FROM TOP: COURTESY JILL HEINERTH; COURTESY HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

O

h, gosh, I am not fearless. I am scared all the time!” protests explorer and cave diver Jill Heinerth. “It’s how I prepare to deal with scary situations and risk that has kept me alive. But I am still not fond of driving. All those people careening out of control on highways make me nervous.”

If you know her—or have been taught by her or watched any of her documentaries or read her stories in this magazine or, more recently, caught her on NPR’s Fresh Air, talking about her new book Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver—you can hear Heinerth’s mellifluous voice behind the email.

That’s a principal joy of Into the Planet (Ecco; $26.99), a memoir about her transformation from a Toronto graphic designer with a yen for broader horizons to Explorer in Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. The book reads as though Heinerth is speaking directly to you, in her understated way, quietly and simply telling a story that is anything but.

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HEADTO-HEAD TESTING

RUNNING THE NUMBERS ScubaLab tests 14 new wrist, console and head-up-display computers

s

SUUNTO

2

0

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9

D5 PRICE Starting at $849.95 CONTACT suunto.com BATTERY Rechargeable Li-ion

The three-button operation of the air-integrated D5 is so simple you can confidently navigate menus before even glancing at the manual. That earned the D5 a very good score for intuitive operation. The high-contrast color screen uses a reflective technology that enhances visibility in a wide range of light, and was easily visible in full sun—sometimes a weak spot for color displays. “Super easy to see in dark, sun or in between,” noted one test diver. The display packs a lot in without being cluttered, partly by putting some info in a changeable window at the bottom.

The display makes good use of attention-getting colors, and audible and vibrating alarms are unmissable. Divers rated the display very good overall for quality of data—though not all liked the hash-mark indicator for minutes, which to nonmetric minds can mean feet. Slightly liberal in IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION our chamber dives, the D5 was simple to set up, see and understand, and test div- POOR EXCELLENT ers chose it as an overwhelming favorite.

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y The D5 is our Testers Choice for computers over $500.

EXCELLENT POOR

ROGER ROY has been a diver for more than 35 years and ScubaLab director since 2013.

He first learned to dive while working as a firefighter, training to join the department’s search-and-rescue team.

Test Dive Protocol Test divers evaluated computers in nine categories.

Test dives were conducted at Blue Grotto Dive Resort in Williston, Florida, where divers recorded their scores in written comments about their experiences using each computer.

Test categories were: Q Intuitiveness and ease of operation, including configuring settings Cont’d on page 26>>

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 25

OVER $500

TESTERS

HOW WE TEST Our test evaluated two aspects of a computer’s performance: How easy it is to operate and understand before, during and after a dive; and an objective measure of its decompression algorithm relative to other computers in the test.

WRIST MODELS

HOW WE SCORE The top graph shows the score for intuitiveness of operation and the bottom graph shows the combined score for readability— surface and underwater—and data display, with scoring of: 5=excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=fair 1=poor

SCU BAL A B

OVER $500

WRIST MODELS

>> Cont’d from page 25

Q General ergonomics such as size and shape, comfort and effectiveness of buttons, straps Q Ease of reading screen at the surface, including in sun Q Ease of reading screen underwater, including performance of backlight Q Overall quality of dive data display, including selection, layout and presentation of data, with a focus on how clearly it presents critical dive information Q Usefulness and ease of accessing alternate dive screen data Q Safety stop performance, including alerts and timer Q Ease of accessing and usefulness of surface interval data, including no-fly time Q On-board log data, including ease of accessing ScubaLab staff also tested computers in a benchtop compression chamber to observe screen displays, warnings and alarms in conditions not suitable for testing by divers, such as rapid ascents and missed deco stops. The goal of these tests is to gauge how well

AQUA LUNG I450T PRICE $699 CONTACT aqualung.com BATTERY User-replaceable

The i450T screen is loaded with data, but despite being less than 1¼ inches wide, it's relatively uncluttered, with bold, high-contrast characters. That helped it earn great scores for readability at the surface and at depth, where the programmable backlight was rated among the best. The four-button navigation is simple to master, and the menus are logical, earning a good score for intuitive operation. Rapid ascent, safety stop, deco entry and other alerts are crystal clear, with beeps and a flashing red light, along with clear instructions. Two gripes testers noted were the minutes-only safety stop display and the lack of Bluetooth. Divers liked the sophisticated look and feel of the i450T—a watch, as one tester noted, that you could “wear to dinner.” In our chamber dives, the i450T was average on the conservative/liberal scale.

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION EXCELLENT

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

GARMIN DESCENT MK1 PRICE $999.99 CONTACT garmin.com BATTERY Rechargeable Li-ion

Since our last test, the Descent has gotten a software upgrade to add CCR capability. It must be getting crowded in there: surface GPS, navigation, heart-rate monitor, fitness trackers, etc. But the Descent retains a remarkably user-friendly operation. Even more, the features don’t trip over one another; when you use the Descent for diving, it feels completely like a dive computer. The color display has an easy-to-read layout and makes good use of graphics. The menus and button operation, with clear prompts, are simple to navigate. Is features include the tap-to-access digital compass and the choice of customized or preset algorithm-gradient factors. It scored among the top for ergonomics, and won praise for its high-quality look and feel.

In our chamber dives, the Garmin was on the liberal side.

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION EXCELLENT

POOR

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

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EXCELLENT

EXCELLENT

MARES GENIUS PRICE $1,051 CONTACT mares.com BATTERY Rechargeable Li-ion

The Genius is big—nearly 3¾ inches wide— and no wonder, since it’s stuffed with advanced features. You can set its algorithm from eight preset rec or tec gradient factors, or choose your own custom factors. You can fine-tune with conservatism for “physio” (what shape you’re in), “today” (how you feel now), “dive” (dive conditions) and for repetitive or multi-day diving. The full-color screen was rated excellent for its data and readability, and it pairs with up to five tank transmitters. Still, the Genius is disarmingly simple to navigate, guided with screen prompts— though some icons took a while to figure out.

It’s not really a computer for beginners; but for those with the diving chops—and wrist— to handle it, the Genius does it all. We set the Genius for average NDLs in our chamber dives, but its algorithm is highly adjustable.

EXCELLENT

EXCELLENT

MARES QUAD AIR PRICE $526 CONTACT mares.com BATTERY User-replaceable

Computers with crystal-clear displays can become cluttered once tank pressure is squeezed in. But that was no worry when the Quad (a previous Testers Choice) got an upgrade to the Quad Air, thanks to its 1½ x 2¼inch screen. The Quad Air remains, as one test diver said, “super-clear and easy to read.”

It earned very good scores for readability at the surface and underwater. Basic data is clearly displayed, as is advanced info such as the runaway deco alarm. The four-button operation is a cinch to master, and the Quad Air was surprisingly ergo-friendly, even on smaller divers.

Slightly conservative in our chamber dives, it has no digital compass, and Bluetooth requires an optional clip-on interface. But the Quad Air delivers AI, advanced features, simple operation and an easy-read screen at an attractive price. The Quad Air is our Best Buy.

EXCELLENT

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y

BEST BUY 2

POOR

Objective Test Protocol To gauge the relative conservatism or liberalism of the computers’ algorithms, they were subjected together to a series of four dive simulations in the University of Southern California Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber.

Meant to simulate a day of diving, the multistage profiles were: 100 feet/55 minutes; a onehour surface interval; 70 feet/45 minutes; a twohour surface interval; 80 feet/45 minutes; a onehour surface interval; and 60 feet/40 minutes.

To see full objective test data, graphics and results of chamber profile dives, plus test notes and features of each computer, go to scubadiving.com.

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION POOR

each computer performed in providing a diver with clear, understandable guidance in those conditions.

0

1

Special thanks to Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber Director Karl E. Huggins and chamber operators Benjamin Wright, Larry Harris and Aaron Kissel.

9

EXCELLENT

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 27

SCU BAL A B

UNDER $500

WRIST MODELS

POWERING UP User-replaceable computer batteries are handy, inexpensive and (usually) simple to swap. But screwing up the job can lead to a flooded computer. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Check the instructions.

Most manufacturers recommend replacing the Oring with every battery swap, and sell battery-andO-ring kits.

Use the correct tool. Whether it’s a two-pin key, tiny Phillips head or coin, don’t improvise with a makeshift tool that can cause damage.

Check the spin. On some computers, the battery cover turns opposite the usual lefty-loosey, righty-tighty direction.

Confirm the battery type. The common CR2450 and CR2430 cointype batteries may look similar, but are different thicknesses and are never interchangeable.

Be squeaky clean.

Make your swap somewhere clean and dry. Inspect for signs of leaking or corrosion in the battery compartment, which might require professional servicing.

AQUA LUNG I200C PRICE $369 CONTACT aqualung.com BATTERY User-replaceable

The "C" in the name reflects the welcome addition of Bluetooth, allowing easy connectivity to Aqua Lung’s free DiverLog+ app.

Test divers gave the i200C a very good score for ergonomics, noting the sporty, compact design and the finger-friendly four-button operation, and scored it good for intuitive operation, thanks to its relatively simple menus and settings. The 1¼-inch display is basic but uncluttered, earning good and very good scores for reading at the surface and un-

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION EXCELLENT

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

CRESSI NEON PRICE $399.95 CONTACT cressi.com BATTERY User-replaceable

Despite the optional bright color accents, the Neon isn’t really about flash. What impressed testers was its simple operation, easy-reading display and pleasing ergonomics. The two-button control makes it a snap to navigate menus, and the high-contrast display is easy to see and understand, with info clearly labeled. “Basic functionality, but a joy to use and operate,” one tester observed. Test divers noted the Neon’s arm-friendly size, but our calipers showed it’s only millimeters less than some here; the trick is the recessed band lugs that make it seem smaller. One gripe was the lack of Bluetooth, which requires a download cable. But testers gave it top scores for intuitive operation, display quality and ergonomics. Slightly conservative in our chamber dives, the Neon is our Testers Choice for computers that cost less than $500.

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION EXCELLENT

POOR

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

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EXCELLENT

2

0

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9

EXCELLENT

OCEANIC GEO 4.0 PRICE $399.95 CONTACT oceanicworldwide.com BATTERY User-replaceable

The 4.0 version of the Geo has a four-button layout, and high-contrast LCD screen with bold, relatively large characters, given its watch-size design. “Pretty easy to see and read,” one tester commented; others agreed, giving the Geo 4.0 good and very good scores for legibility at the surface and at depth. The computer’s onboard log data is fairly basic, but Bluetooth makes it simple to download to the DiverLog+ app. Divers scored the Geo 4.0 good overall for ergonomics; while some found the Geo’s round control buttons a bit hard-edged on bare fingers, they liked the quick-release strap attachments with little slide bolts that allow speedy swaps between the regular and the long, over-the-wetsuit band. In our chamber dives, the dual-algorithm Geo was about average using the Z+ algorithm, and on the liberal end with the DSAT. IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION POOR

EXCELLENT

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

OCEANIC VEO 4.0 PRICE Starting at $329.95 CONTACT oceanicworldwide.com BATTERY User-replaceable

TOP RIGHT: ROGER ROY

It's a little chunkier than some of the more watchlike models here, but divers still scored the Veo 4.0 good overall for ergonomics, as well as for its simple operation. “Very comfortable and easy to use,” one tester remarked. The two big oval buttons make it simple to confirm settings and navigate menus. The nearly 1¾-inch screen earned good scores for readability at depth and very good scores on the surface, thanks to its big, bold characters, clean layout and good backlight. The data itself is basic, both on the dive display and in the log. But it’s presented clearly and makes the most of the generous screen real estate, while Bluetooth allows easy downloads. We used the Z+ algorithm, which was about average in NDLs in our chamber divers, but the dual-algorithm Veo 4.0 also has the more liberal DSAT. IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION POOR

EXCELLENT

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

EXCELLENT

EXCELLENT

WELCOME TO THE BLACK BOX Some manufacturers are making deco algorithms both more transparent and more diver-programmable, allowing divers to better manage risk. But, as we learned from Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. In this case, that means ensuring we thoroughly understand the effects of, for example, choosing custom gradient factors to alter stop depths and nodeco times. Fortunately, it's easy to learn more.

For starters, Divers Alert Network (diversalertnet work.org) has a wealth of info on gradient factors.

And user manuals (all available online) are no longer the dry slog they once were. Some, like Shearwater’s NERD 2 manual, are practically page turners, with crisp, concise writing and color illustrations to boot. As that manual cautions, “Don’t use the system until you understand how it works.” Amen.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 29

SCU BAL A B

OCEANIC PROPLUS 4.0 PRICE $799.95 with QD and compass CONTACT oceanicworldwide.com BATTERY User-replaceable

CONSOLES

“Bigger and better than ever,” Oceanic says of this latest ProPlus console. As for bigger, the characters are 22 percent larger than the ProPlus 3—now more than a half-inch tall. “I could read this screen from the parking lot,” quipped one diver. Not surprisingly, it took excellent scores for readability. Bluetooth does away with the need for a download cable and lets you access settings from a smart phone.

The PP4 retains the dual algorithm and Dive Time Remaining display, which shows the least of no-deco or O2 time. Testers rated the two-button control very good for intuitive operation. Though it’s a handful, the ProPlus 4 took an excellent score for ergonomics, with its easy-grip curves letting it rest comfortably in our hands. In our chamber dives using the DSAT algorithm, it was on the liberal side.

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION POOR

EXCELLENT

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

SHERWOOD WISDOM 4

ASK ROGER

Q. What are the advantages of a “head-up display”?

A. It frees your hands, which can be a convenience and a safety aid; consider hovering on a drifting safety stop while tending an SMB reel and helping your buddy with a gear issue.

Also, a HUD allows you to keep your attention on the dive itself while still tracking critical dive data.

PRICE $830.00 with QD and compass CONTACT sherwoodscuba.com BATTERY User-replaceable

The Wisdom 4 shares many features with the other console in our test, including Bluetooth, an intuitive two-button operation (one on the side), a quick-disconnect hose and large display characters. But its appearance is quite different, with slightly smaller overall size, oval-shaped screen and four-line display.

The Wisdom 4's big, bold characters helped it take a very good score for readability both at the surface and at depth. It features a simplified “Safe Minutes” display that shows the dive’s current time-controlling factor, whether it’s no-deco limit, O2 exposure or gas time.

A cool, functional feature on the Wisdom 4 is a dive simulator that runs single or repetitive profiles to see NDL and other calculations based on actual dive settings. In our chamber dives, the Wisdom 4 was on the liberal side.

IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION EXCELLENT

POOR

DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y POOR

30 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

EXCELLENT

EXCELLENT

SCUBAPRO GALILEO HUD PRICE $1,399 CONTACT scubapro.com BATTERY Rechargeable Li-ion

The HUD’s optics make the thumbnail-sized display appear about the size of a 12-inch laptop screen viewed from arm’s length. Testers rated the color display very good for readability at depth, although they noted occasional glare at the surface. The display has standard, “lite” and profile views in dive mode; along with air integration, the HUD has adjustable algorithms, surface GPS, eight gas mixes, digital compass and Bluetooth. The pushwheel control is intuitive and makes for simple setting changes. The included mount—there's one for some Scubapro masks, and a universal mount that zip ties in place—has a quick adjustment to align the screen and swivels out of the way when it’s not needed. Test divers found themselves quickly appreciating the hands-free nature of the HUD. As one said, IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION “Afraid this has ruined me for wrist computers.” In our chamEXCELLENT POOR ber dives the HUD was on the DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y conservative side, but its algorithm is widely programmable.

EXCELLENT POOR

HEAD-UP DISPLAYS

SHEARWATER NERD 2 PRICE $1,550 CONTACT shearwater.com BATTERY Rechargeable Li-ion

The reg-mounted NERD 2 uses a micro LCD display with a magnifier lens to produce a crisp, vivid color image of the advanced air-integrated computer inside. It’s no knock to note that the internal workings, like the screen view, appear to be lifted from Shearwater’s Perdix, a two-time ScubaLab Testers Choice winner and a model of pairing advanced capabilities with user-friendly operation. The NERD 2 has multi-gas compatibility; rec, tec and closed-circuit modes; a digital compass; two-button operation; detailed onboard log; and Bluetooth. The swiveling, hinged, almost-universal mount has a large range of adjustment but worked best on regs without oversize hose fittings. The screen was easy to read when in proper alignment, but also tended to shift with movement in the reg or hose—or even hard IN T UI T I V E OPER AT ION button pushing—though it was easy to nudge back into place.

EXCELLENT POOR The NERD2's algorithm was set DISP L AY A ND RE A D A B IL I T Y slightly liberal in our chamber dives, but is highly configurable.

EXCELLENT POOR

THALATOO MĀOÏ PRICE $950 CONTACT thalatoo.com BATTERY Rechargeable Li-ion

Although it's not yet widely available in the U.S., we were curious to try a prototype of the Māoï because of its display, which projects onto a curved, transparent screen. Setup required plenty of adjusting, as our mount was held in place by a suction-cup bracket and elastic strap. (Another option is available for masks with an integrated GoPro mount.) The bright green screen characters stand out well at depth, though we weren't able to eliminate the faint ghost images in the display. The Māoï's “smart” screen option clears all but a luminous “still on” dot for an uncluttered display until nodeco time or other data demands attention. We’re told air integration is in progress, but for now you'll need to check the SPG. The front-facing buddy display makes it easy to confirm settings before donning the Māoï.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 31

FIRST LOOK AT NEW GEAR BY ROBBY MYERS AND ROGER ROY

g

SCUBAPRO X-BLACK PRICE $979 CONTACT scubapro.com

The X-Black’s three zippered cargo pockets—plus a smaller one on the cummerbund—and eight aluminum D-rings almost seem like overkill, but it’s a nice change to see a BC with too much stowage rather than too little. Though short and stocky, the X-Black provides up to 38 pounds of buoyant lift. The air cell is strategically squeezed by bungees threaded throughout the BC, which results in a stable ride and good buoyancy control.

It weighs 10½ pounds and features heavy-duty construction built for long-term wear and tear.

ATOMIC AQUATICS VENOM FRAMELESS PRICE $169.95 CONTACT atomicaquatics.com

Atomic’s new Venom mask uses a hybrid skirt that combines two different silicone materials and bonds them directly to the lens.

The stiffer stuff gives the skirt rigidity, so it won’t distort in current, while the ultra-soft silicone used along the edge of the skirt increases comfort and fi t. The face seal has been redesigned to take advantage of the supple material and provides an effective seal for a variety of faces.

PINNACLE STINGER FULL SUIT

ROBBY MYERS is the associate gear editor and a ScubaLab testteam diver. He has been diving since 2014.

32 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

Made of trilam fleece, brushed Lycra and merino wool, this easy-entry front-zip does it all. Under a drysuit it insulates and wicks moisture; beneath a wetsuit it adds warmth without buoyancy; as a stand-alone it blocks the wind and sun (UPF 50-plus). Also available in separate top and pants, and in men’s and women’s sizes.

JON WHITTLE (3)

PRICE $149.95; $84.95 (top or pants) CONTACT pinnacleaquatics.com

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The Blue Hole in Palau with Sam's Tours by Margo Peyton

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K I D S @ K I D S S E AC A M P. C O M

FAMILY DIVE ADVENTURES

WORLDS BEST FAMILY DIVE VACATIONS OUR 20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

2020 SPRING BREAK DOMINICA: Fort Young Hotel, MARCH 7TH -14TH GRAND CAYMAN: Cobalt Coast, MARCH 14TH - 21ST ROATAN: Mayan Princess, MARCH 21ST - 28TH Turquoise Bay Resort, MARCH 28TH - APRIL 4TH (NEW DIVE & FLY FISHING WEEK) BELIZE: Thatch Caye Resort, APRIL 4TH - 11TH DOMINICA: Fort Young Hotel, APRIL 11TH -18TH 2020 SUMMER BREAK PHILIPPINES CABILAO: Ocean Vida, DAUIN: Pura Vida Homes JUNE 13TH - JUNE 25TH BONAIRE: Buddy Dive Resort, JUNE 13TH - 20TH (NEW) TURKS & CAICOS Explorer II, JUNE 20TH - 27TH KOMODO: The Arenui, JUNE 26TH - JULY 5TH & JULY 7TH -JULY 15TH ROATAN: Turquoise Bay Resort, JUNE 27TH - JULY 4TH ROATAN: Mayan Princess, JULY 4TH - 11TH BONAIRE: Buddy Dive Resort, JULY 11TH - 18TH & JULY 18TH - 25TH PALAU: Sam’s Tours & PRR, JULY 18TH - 28TH ST. LUCIA: Anse Chastanet, JULY 25TH - AUG. 1ST & AUG. 1ST - 8TH THANKSGIVING BREAK FIJI: Jean-Michel Cousteau, NOV. 21ST – 28TH THANKSGIVING BREAK ST. LUCIA: Anse Chastanet, NOV. 21ST – 28TH Please note: Some dates may change due to weather or other conditions

LET US HANDLE ALL YOUR DIVE VACATIONS! Family Dive Adventures builds custom family vacations year-round with our highly trained and family friendly resorts from around the world. So give us a call!

KIDS NOT PART OF YOUR DIVE VACATION PLANS? Well, we can take you without them. Call us about our "Empty Nester" dive trips such as Lembeh, Dominica and the Maldives. Book your next dive adventure today! 803-419-2556

W W W. FA M I LY D I V E R S . C O M

803 - 419 - 2556

K I D S @ K I D S S E AC A M P. C O M

BY ANDY ZUNZ

THE BEST MEDICINE

Arenuiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deft dive guides unveil untamed beauty and variety in Komodo National Park

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BETH WATSON; OPPOSITE: FABIEN MICHENET

( OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE CURRENT )

A chaotic mass of tropical fish—especially anthias—helps make Komodo diving a thrill. Opposite: The gorgeous Arenui shines on the water.

A WORD OF ADVICE: NEVER SEARCH YOUR SYMPTOMS ON WEBMD WHEN YOU’RE FEELING A LITTLE OFF.

From left: Life collects at Komodo’s current-swept pinnacles; Arenui’s sky deck offers unbeatable views in a comfortable setting; the wood in Arenui’s cabins is strong in “character.”

In just a few keystrokes, you can go from the sniffles to smallpox and three weeks to live.

Yet here I am, staring bleary-eyed at my phone, committing the equivalent crime in the dive world.

I Google Is Komodo safe for diving? and scroll past a few pages to find a host of message-board entries.

It’s a silly query from a diver who knows better, but for some reason this area of Indonesia has always carried a rep.

My eyes widen as I see tales of current ripping the masks off unsuspecting divers (Do I have dengue fever?), channels sweeping people up and spitting them out far from sight (Maybe it’s the swine flu?) and unexpected down-currents sending folks to the depths without warning (Looks like it’s scurvy.).

Gulp. I’m confident in my skills, but after this search I feel like a hypochondriac. Luckily, I know a good doctor—or the Komodo equivalent.

Guillermo Alcover and Lisa Herding have guided thousands of dives in Komodo National Park. They can navigate these sites as well as anyone, but it’s kind of like parenting a 12-year-old: You know them really well, but they’re changing every day, and they sure are temperamental.

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“When you dive here, you need to make sure the people you go with know the area,” says Alcover, who has been diving Komodo since 2011 along with Herding. “When guests come to us and say, ‘We don’t want to dive Komodo because of the current,’ we tell them, ‘Do one trip with us. You will see the difference.’”

T H E L I T T L E WAV E Poll the passengers aboard any Arenui excursion and you’ll find the vessel itself is one of the main attractions. Some divers would sign up for a harbor tour as long as they could spend time on this ship.

Approaching Arenui’s Bali mooring on a dinghy, we round a corner to find the classic phinisi-style vessel shining like a diamond. Managing director Luigi Russo joins us on board to give a quick tour of the 140foot liveaboard. He explains that local craftsmen built the ironwood hull in South Sulawesi; local people in Java and Bali completed the remaining structure using 13 different types of wood.

Russo has pinpointed three of the most common complaints he’s heard about liveaboard travel—cramped cabins, stuffy shared bathrooms and

FROM LEFT: COURTESY THE ARENUI; OPPOSITE: BETH WATSON

uncomfortable entries and exits—and turned them upside down with Arenui. He’s a firm believer in quality over quantity, and it shows in the craftsmanship of the boat, the service on board and the safety-minded dive operation.

Arenui is a luxury vessel that caters to the needs of North American divers—aka plenty of air conditioning and a wide range of food options—but is truly in touch with its Indonesian roots. The teakwood used on much of the boat can trace its history back a century. You see the lines where the softer part of the wood has receded and the hard parts remain, something Russo proudly calls “character.”

“With traditional yachts, the designers try to go with a very sleek, polished, refined design,” he says.

“But there is a lot of character in the organic, dry finishing. We did not finish it in a modern way because we believe that the character, the spirit of Indonesia, is reflected in the organic finish.”

Russo started out working on interior design and construction in Italy, where using reclaimed materials is seen as a virtue, a maximization of the spirit in a piece of wood.

This view was not shared in Indonesia circa 2007, where shiny yachts were seen as luxurious and traditional wooden vessels were viewed as cheap. He and

his team constantly fielded doubts from local managers: “Are you sure you want to do this?”

If he left the work site, carpenters would start polishing the wood to give it a sleek effect. But Russo held firm to his vision.

“In Ambon at the very beginning of the operation, the local harbor master inspector asked our cruise director: ‘Your boat must have no money, right? Because you didn’t finish the boat,’” Russo recalls with a laugh. “For them, the style looks like it’s half done.

The inspector went on to say, ‘I hope you can get enough money to do some nice painting so you can finally finish the boat.’”

A decade later, Russo’s vision still holds up. Many guests are first-time liveaboard divers—people who might be used to diving from resorts and are skeptical of the bunk beds and shared-toilet lifestyle on other boats. The rooms are classy and cozy while offering plenty of storage. Divers are divided into

“We did not finish it in a modern way because we believe that the character, the spirit of Indonesia, is reflected in the organic finish.” / NOVEMBER 2019 / 39

DIVERS GUIDE When to Go Arenui visits Komodo from May to early October, the Forgotten Islands in April and November, Raja Ampat from December through April and Alor in May and October to maximize the peak season in each region.

Dive Conditions Divers should feel comfortable controlling their buoyancy in current and deploying an SMB. A full Komodo itinerary includes dives in north and central Komodo, where the temperature averages 84 degrees F and visibility ranges from 40 to 100 feet, and in south Komodo, where the average temperature drops about 5 degrees.

Recommended Training Drift Diver (padi.com) Operator The Arenui (thearenui.com) is a 140-foot vessel with a 30-foot beam. A staff of 23 serves a max of 16 guests, with eight cabins that include a private head, shower and climate control. The boat has three main decks, including a spacious sky lounge.

Guests are offered one complimentary 30-minute massage on board. Arenui runs on a Mitsubishi marine 10-cylinder 440 hp engine common in Indonesia. This is a strategic choice so it can be fixed in remote areas should problems arise; no trips have been canceled due to engine issues in a decade.

groups, allowing for ample room on deck to spread out and gear up in peace before going out with fewer than four divers to a guide.

An all-wooden boat does present difficulties.

Arenui goes through an extensive—and expensive— dry-docking process once a year, where much of the wood is refinished or replaced. This gives the team the chance to make improvements to cabins and common areas, if needed. This is also why our expedition begins in Bali, where the vessel was docked before heading back to Komodo to start the season.

We make the 150-mile journey east to our first dive at Moyo Island, ready to get in the water but in no hurry to leave our luxurious floating digs.

T H E G I F T T H AT K E E P S O N G I V I N G Price Tag An eightnight 2020 Komodo excursion starts at $5,200. Park, port, fuel and nitrox fees are not included.

While the design of the ship will take your breath away—I never get over the detail in the carving on the stairs leading to my cabin that depicts the Hindu Ramayana epic poem—but the service is what will stick with you long after departure.

After one simple order, my first step in the dining

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room each morning coincides with an eager “Latte?”

The food—five meals a day, including a diverse lunch buffet, several entrée options for dinner served individually and absolutely addicting butter cookies always on hand—is second to none. But it’s the dive service that makes this liveaboard accessible for divers of various skill levels and ages.

You forget all about any reservation you may have had about up-currents, washing machines, the leviathan, whatever.

With small groups and extremely competent guides, the staff of Arenui makes every diver feel completely comfortable and shines a spotlight on what’s important: the world-class dive sites.

And, oh, is the diving good.

The channel that contains all of Komodo’s dive sites stretches just 35 miles from north to south, bringing warm water down from the Flores Sea and colder water up from the nutrient-rich Indian Ocean.

This convergence makes for a Whitman’s Sampler of everything divers love about Indonesia. Over 20 dives, I stuff my log with exclamation points, stars

FROM LEFT: ALLISON VITSKY SALLMON; JENNIFER PENNER; GERALD NOWAK; OPPOSITE: BETH WATSON

and loads of bucket-list items ticked.

I watch in awe as a manta soars by at Taka Makassar (aka the Air Strip), flapping its massive fins, stretching 20 feet across, in slow motion against the current. I stare in disbelief as Herding points out the tiniest pygmy seahorse at Black Diamond, a blacksand macro site in the shadow of an active volcano on Sangeang Island.

I encounter hawksbill and green sea turtles munching on bits of sponge, bamboo sharks weaving through buzzing coral reefs, anemonefish bravely defending their home, a field of staghorn coral stretching as far as the 80-foot viz would allow and hundreds of flowerpot coral polyps opening and closing in unison.

Each successful dive is a direct result of Herding’s experience and know-how. Every dive is conducted from one of Arenui’s two fiberglass dinghies. As we reach each site, she slips into the water with mask and freediving fins, diving down to read the current and find the exact location we need to drop. She nails it time after time, planning the entries perfectly to

limit fighting against current or running into trouble. Any time we make a negative entry, it’s a straight shot to our target, and we enjoy epic dives at Crystal Rock and Castle Rock, where we deploy hooks and hang with the reef sharks and massive spadefish patrolling the area.

“Without the current, we don’t have all these amazing experiences.”

“Komodo in particular has the most variation of any location we visit,” Herding says. “You can find any weird critter, and at the same time you can see sharks; you can see manta rays; you have blue water; you have soft coral; and you have hard coral.”

I realize that, with the right expertise, current isn’t a symptom of some horrible disease. It’s a blessing.

“Without the current, we don’t have all these amazing experiences,” Herding says. “Diving in Komodo can never get old. I never get bored of these dives.”

From far left: Arenui’s design reflects the spirit of Indonesia; a moray eel in a vibrant reef; ladybug amphipods attract macro photographers; passing mantas delight divers of all levels.

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Prime time for diving at Blue Heron Bridge begins about an hour before slack tide.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

T h i n k t h e r e ’s n o m u c k w o r t h b o t h e r i n g w i t h i n U . S . w a t e r s ?

South Florida divers have long known of a magical spot that can yield Indonesia-style encounters—just off a busy parking lot near Riviera Beach.

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY SUZAN MELDONIAN

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P L A C E

L I K E

H O M E

DIVING IS ALL ABOUT DISCOVERY. The lure of coming face to face with a polka-dot batfish, dueling Lancer dragonets, sea robins and seahorses, or brushing shoulders with a giant spotted eagle ray, or bumping into a lumbering manatee in less than 25 feet of water has enticed thousands of divers and underwater photographers from all over the world to an unlikely location that’s one of the top shore dives in the United States. One soon realizes that you never know what you’ll see at Florida’s Blue Heron Bridge, affectionately known as the BHB. Nestled within Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach, the BHB encompasses a whopping 33 acres, with a small beach, shaded area, kiddie park and boat ramp. With dives centered on a swim zone bounded by a boat channel, you can submerge on the bridge’s east or west sides, under the bridge off the park or along a snorkel trail south of the beach.

One could dive for a lifetime without encountering half the wild critters you can see here, animals more commonly found in far-flung points abroad.

Because of its proximity to the Gulf Stream, which 44 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

The structure of Blue Heron Bridge offers refuge for diverse species, including: octopuses, seahorses, cuttlefish, angelfish and more.

runs up Florida’s eastern coast, BHB can deliver visiting schools of cownose rays, spiraling masses of crevalle jacks and even a full-grown manta: It’s a photographer’s delight.

BHB is considered a muck dive—the shallow site typically yields two-hour, one-tank macro dives— but wide-angle opportunities beckon as well. The dive is tide-dependent, meaning you’ll dive one hour before slack tide; night dives are offered by permit on full- and new-moon evenings by local dive shops.

As access to shore dives seemed to dwindle away in the U.S., divers looked for places to experience wildlife whether diving or snorkeling. By 1998, the BHB secret was out, in the form of an article in Southern Diver magazine. Realizing the rarity of the life found here, in 2008 a local attorney prepared a petition requesting that collecting of marine life be prohibited—it gained 800 signatures overnight.

The Palm Beach Diving Association joined forces with the county commissioner’s office to explore what could be done to satisfy the boaters, sailing

N O

community, swimmers, divers and fishing folk who all used the park—BHB was fast becoming an important tourist destination for Palm Beach. In 2012, Florida, no stranger to the benefits of artificial reef systems, approved the committee’s proposal to install an artificial-reef snorkel trail, which brought still more locals and tourists—and fish collectors.

Sometimes, it takes a village. In 2018, a bizarre set of circumstances brought the community together in one focused effort that changed everything.

While Florida waters were under assault by red tide, a Texas aquarium with permits issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to collect species from four counties discovered BHB was still relatively unaffected by the algal blooms. Local divers quickly became alarmed by the presence of a large truck with huge collection bins.

The chatter went viral, with clicks and shares topping 100,000 hits by the time local advocates demanded the state permits be pulled. FWC retracted the permits, determining that an area this small— with a sensitive ecosystem—and already a major tourist attraction could not tolerate any sort of har46 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

P L A C E

L I K E

Divers revel in the critters at Blue Heron Bridge, including bluethroat pikeblennies (top left), rainbow parrotfish (bottom right) and seahorses that can be seen hiding in pink sponges (bottom left).

H O M E

vesting. The aquarium contends that it only collected within its permits. However, the public was so deeply moved that another highly charged committee was formed to request that the state recognize the importance of protecting the marine life here from all collection. Those efforts paid off April 1, when a law went into effect prohibiting harvest, collection and possession of tropical-aquarium species within the park and surrounding waters.

You might not have a BHB in your backyard, but there are many local nooks and crannies along all our coastlines just waiting to be explored by you and your camera. More beach and shore dives need to be approved, to relieve pressure on the few remaining. As we learn more about our oceans, we often must start with the small stuff, documenting the life around us and helping scientists and the public understand what divers see beneath the horizon.

As a local diver and author of Under the Bridge and The BHB Companion, my heart swells when I hear children squeal with delight, “I think I saw a turtle!” or “Oh, I saw an octopus!”

Life at BHB has rebounded for us all.

NEED TO KNOW Where: Phil Foster Park is at 900 Blue Heron Blvd., Riviera Beach, Florida. Diving is permitted around the swim zone and north of the boat channel. There is no charge to dive here. The park is open dawn to dusk and until 10 p.m. (permit required) for night dives.

When to Go: Year-round, but the diving is best May through July.

You should plan to enter the water one hour before high tide; diving is possible up to an hour after high tide; after that, tides can become swift and potentially dangerous. No

spearfishing or collecting of tropical fish is allowed.

range from 68° to 86°. Snorkeling is popular for nondivers.

What It Takes: You’ll need one dive flag for every four divers. There is no diving in the swim zone; you must kick out beyond it to submerge. There is no diving permitted in the boat channel. Plan to dive one section of BHB—east, west, snorkel trail, sandy areas— per dive. Head back to the beach area with extra reserve because currents can be strong when the tide turns.

Night Dives: Available only on fullmoon and new-moon evenings, by permit only; permits are free and can be obtained from dive shops.

All night divers must obtain permits and must leave the park by 10 p.m. sharp. The permit is placed on your dashboard to avoid being towed from the park. Night divers must have primary lights, tank lights and dive flags.

Diving Conditions: Water temps

Travel Tips: Fly into WPB, 30 minutes from West Palm Beach, Flor-

ida. Parking at Phil Foster Park is hectic; arrive one to two hours before your dive time. Bring a waterproof container for your keys; do not leave valuables in sight in vehicles.

Operators: BHB diving maps and tide-table charts are available at Force E Scuba, Riviera Beach (force-e.com) and Pura Vida Divers, Singer Island (puravida divers.com).

Updates: Visit Facebook pages for the Blue Heron Bridge Preservation Society and Blue Heron Bridge Dive Club.

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GIANT ISLAND OF

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TS

KNOWN AS THE PEARL OF THE INDIAN OCEAN, SRI LANKA SHINES AS HOME TO THE WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LARGEST LAND AND MARINE MAMMALS, A BLEND OF VIBRANT C U LT U R E S A N D E N D L E S S O P P O R T U N I T I E S FOR THE ROAMING ADVENTURER. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY TOBIAS FRIEDRICH / NOVEMBER 2019 / 49

T

There is an undeniable power to being in the presence of a giant—something that completely overwhelms your sense of being. In Sri Lanka, an island nation roughly the size of Ireland off the southeast coast of India, you can see nature’s greatest examples: the elephant and the blue whale. Visitors can travel to the island’s north region and witness the world’s largest Asian elephant gathering—the Sri Lankan elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant, slightly smaller than the African elephant yet a wonder to behold. Off the south of the island, pygmy blue whales feed in the deep, nutrient-rich trenches offshore.

But all over the island a different type of giant is felt, that of a rich culture that shares common ground with Indian, Southeast Asian and European peoples, with a beautiful emphasis on music and visual arts.

A VISUAL FEAST Buddhism is the nation’s official religion—with about 70 percent of the population claiming it in a 2011 census—but the presence of Hinduism is felt. This is clear in the Pathirakali Amman Temple in Trincomalee, which is dedicated to the goddess Bhadrakali. The temple displays imagery of lions, horses and elephants in a dizzying array of colors. Its date of origin is unknown, although it traces to at least the 11th century.

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A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Local buses (top left) deliver travelers to a fascinating site: the Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple.

This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a Buddhist monastery and series of five cave shrines, with painted murals and 157 statues.

Home to Buddhist monks since the third century B.C., this site is known as one of the most notable Buddhist complexes in southern Asia. The statues inside vary in subject and size, including a reclining Buddha in the first cave that stretches more than 40 feet in length (bottom right).

JUMBO PYGMIES Sri Lanka may be one of the most reliable places on Earth to see blue whales, but these creatures are shy and deceptively fast, with the ability to reach speeds of 30 mph. Here, you find the pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda), although the name is misleading as it can grow to 78 feet in length and weigh up to 140 tons. These mammoths enjoy the tasty microorganisms in the deep trenches off the coast of Trincomalee. Boats scan the water here for the whales; when they hit the jackpot, freedivers must carefully enter the water and cause little disturbance to maximize time with these majestic mammals. / NOVEMBER 2019 / 53

ALL YOU CAN EAT These waters are an ideal resting place for blue whalesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; 100-plus rivers rinse rich minerals into the water, which in turn attracts countless microorganisms for the whales to feed on. Blue whales ďŹ lter food through their baleen plates, and can eat up to 40 million krill per day. Peak season for the blue whales is from February to May, but these waters are also home to sperm whales starting around mid-March.

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NEED TO KNOW WHEN TO GO Blue whales can migrate great distances in a year, but their exact patterns and locations are not clear. There is some presence of blue whales off Sri Lanka year-round, but the best time to see them—because of the density of whales, water temperature and clarity—is February through May, with March and April being the prime time.

DIVE CONDITIONS The city of Trincomalee is on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka. During peak whale season, the water temperature averages in the mid- to high 80s F, and visibility can be as far as 100 feet. It’s important to maintain composure and strictly follow the rules of local operators to avoid upsetting the whales and extend your time with the giants.

TRAVEL TIP Tack on an extra week to explore the untamed beauty of the Sri Lankan interior. Stay at the Aggressor Safari Lodges (aggressor.com) in the north near Wilpattu and Minneriya national parks to see elephants, leopards, crocodiles and more in the parks, and take an excursion to Monkey Kingdom to see primates in their natural habitat.

OPERATOR Find a list of local PADI shops and resorts at locator.padi .com, some of which offer whalewatching and snorkel tours.

HOW TO VET AN OPERATOR Blue whales are fast for their size, but responsible tourism practices are crucial to ensure the whales remain safe and return for years to come. Ask these questions of your operator before booking: Is there an expert guide on board?

Is there a cap on the number of snorkelers per trip? Does the captain always approach the whale slowly and from the side? Does the captain avoid corralling the whale with other boats? Does the guide encourage divers to approach the whale calmly and discourage chasing them? / NOVEMBER 2019 / 55

Coral coverage on Chrisoula K—like many sites in the northern Red Sea— is extraordinary.

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BY MARY FRANCES EMMONS

Rocking

THE BOAT

TOBIAS FRIEDRICH

For thousands of years, Egyptians built boats on the Nile, hauled them across the desert, and set sail for

p a r t s u n k n o w n . T h a t h i s t o r y m i g h t b e o n e r e a s o n t h e y ’r e so passionate today about protecting the northern Red Sea—one of the best places to dive on the planet.

A N C I E N T E G Y P T I A N S A B H O R R E D C H A O S . T H E C U LT U R E T H AT P R E T T Y M U C H I N V E N T E D C I V I L I Z AT I O N A L O N G T H E B A N K S O F T H E N I L E 5 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S A G O D I D S O T O E N S U R E O R D E R . S TA B I L I T Y P R O D U C E D A S T O N I S H I N G M O N U M E N T S T H AT AT T R A C T E D T R AV E L E R S S U C H A S H E R O D O T U S , A G R E E K H I S T O R I A N W H O I N A R O U N D 4 5 0 B . C . F O U N D E G Y P T A L A N D W H E R E R E S TA U R A N T S , H O T E L S A N D T O U R G U I D E S

They didn’t invent marine parks. But when it comes to defending their seas—pressured by the plagues of marine debris and coastal development as well as the very real danger of being loved to death by millions of tourists and hundreds of thousands of mostly European divers every year—modern Egyptians are as intent as their forebears.

We’re approaching our first dive at Ras Mohammed National Park, on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where Africa meets the Middle East. Low coastal cliffs of granite and basalt glow golden in the morning sun; higher, more distant mountains soar in shades of red and chocolate brown, contrasting with the gleaming white minarets and boats of Sharm El Sheikh, just beyond the park. “From now, we have proper diving,” says Adel el Beialy, co-cruise director of Red Sea Aggressor II, with evident satisfaction.

El Beialy warns us to expect enforcement—no touching, no taking. Rangers don scuba to capture misbehaving divers on video; violators can be banned from the park.

Fifteen pairs of eyes widen; you can almost see each diver—two-thirds of them 20- and 30-somethings new to the sport—resolving not to be “that guy.”

When we submerge at Ras Ghozlani, one of more than a dozen sites in the park, it’s clear why they’re so vigilant.

In a region popular with dayboats and liveaboards, the hard-coral coverage is extraordinary.

We drop in on an easy drift; the viz is limitless. (The Red

Sea has virtually no natural runoff.) In the sapphire water, we spy all of the usual reef fish, but the star is the coral.

From 50 feet to the surface, it’s a solid cliff of coral, coral, coral. And it’s not just inside the park. At nearby Beacon Rock, we drop to one of the prettiest sloping reefs anywhere, with healthy hard coral from the surface to around 70 feet. Everywhere is fishy as can be, layered with clouds of salmon-orange anthias. A small, free-swimming moray undulates across the white-sand seafloor like a champion belly dancer—all curves, no straight lines. We romp down the reef, stopping to play with the anthias—they’re not shy, perhaps believing themselves safe in their hordes— butters, angels, and broomtail and Napoleon wrasse.

For divers better acquainted with less-healthy seas, the breadth of Red Sea coral amazes. A 2008 study found about a quarter of surveyed Red Sea sites had coverage of up to 70 percent, numbers more commonly associated with Indo-Pacific Coral Triangle diving.

DIVING THROUGH TIME Boats and Egypt go way back. “Egypt is the gift of the Nile,” Herodotus wrote; in a country that is 90 percent desert, the river was, and still is, lifeblood and highway. Boats ferried dead souls to the underworld; in this world, they floated the stones for those extraordinary monuments. Departed pharaohs crossed the sky twice a day in a “solar boat.” A 4,500-year-old example—almost the exact length and beam of Red Sea Aggressor II—was unearthed next to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Even the sun god Ra crossed the sky daily in a boat made of papyrus reeds.

Egyptians also were perhaps the first to explore the Red Sea. Pharaohs built navies on the Nile, then disassembled entire fleets and hauled them across the desert to be reassembled near Hurghada. Today that burgeoning resort town is shipyard and port to many of the region’s dive boats, including Egyptian-built, 138-foot Red Sea Aggressor II. Formed in 1992 by the local dive industry, the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association works to ensure a sustainable future for boating and diving, Left: Luxor Temple; installing and maintaining more opposite, clockwise from top left: El than 1,000 moorings and training Mina, near Hurghalocal captains in their use. da; Temple of Horus, Where man has taken to the sea in Edfu; Ras Mohamfor eons, wrecks are a given—those med National Park; Giza’s Great Pyramid. of the northern Red Sea are some Cont’d on pg 62 >>

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REINHARD DIRSCHERL; OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FELIPE BARRIO; REINHARD DIRSCHERL; TOBIAS FRIEDRICH; MARY FRANCES EMMONS

WERE NOT A NEW IDEA. (EGYPTIANS PRETTY MUCH INVENTED TOURISM TOO.)

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RED SEA AGGRESSOR II: NEED TO KNOW

When to Go Red Sea Aggressor II, based out of Hurghada, dives the northern Red Sea March through December. Summer brings a greater chance of seeing pelagics, particularly around the Straits of Tiran, although air temps can be very warm—routinely in the 100s.

Winter can be windy.

Dive Conditions Water temps are in the low 80s in summer, dropping to the mid-70s at the coldest times of year, when a 5 mm fullsuit or heavier, with hood and extra garments, can be necessary for comfortable repetitive diving. Visibility—which can hit 100 feet in any season—is best in winter.

Three wrecks at the Abu Nuhas reef— Chrisoula K, pictured, and nearby Carnatic and Giannis D—have many easy entry and exit points.

FROM LEFT: TOBIAS FRIEDRICH; COURTESY AGGRESSOR ADVENTURES

Recommended Training Peak Performance Buoyancy (padi.com) Operator Aggressor Adventures (aggressor.com) operates Red Sea Aggressor II, a 138-foot yacht with a 26-foot beam; 11 staterooms accommodate 22 divers attended by 12 staff members, who will eagerly wait on you if you let them, greeting you after a dive with sweet dates and a warm face cloth, or sahlab, a creamy pudding drink laced with mango and served warm. The dive deck is huge and bilevel; even with 19 divers, it never felt crowded. All dives are from the mothership or two RIBs. Between dives, relax on the cushioned and partially covered upper deck; an even higher, lounge-strewn top deck has tall sides that block wind.

The chefs make the region’s vegetarian fare seem rich and decadent; American favorites—from steak and potatoes to chicken and rice—round out every menu.

Price Tag Deluxe staterooms start at $2,455 per person, not including port, marine park and visa fees.

Travel Tip Start times might seem awfully early, but you’ll be glad when yours is the first van in the parking lot at the Valley of the Kings in the cool of the morning, or you are among the first divers of the day on Thistlegorm.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 61

of the world’s most famous. Thistlegorm, sunk in the Suez Canal in 1941 by German bombers, stands out. “You don’t feel like you are diving,” el Beialy says. “You feel like you are walking through a museum.”

We’re lucky on our first plunge—although several liveaboards are moored to the wreck, there are few divers below. At more than 400 feet long, Thistlegorm is massive.

The newbies are wide-eyed but eager, and closely follow our briefing and their training. Our luck gets better: Contrary winds mean we will stay put, for a total of four dives here.

Our first penetration comes after dinner: “This will be the best night dive ever in your life,” el Beialy promises.

Nothing can prepare you for the sheer amount of stuff packed into Thistlegorm—the motorcycles alone must

“The bikes, the cargo, the history…oh, man. The mystery of it. I feel like Indiana Jones! It takes you back in time.” number in the hundreds, most still stacked in crates. The first thing we see are decomposing rubber boots—it’s a relief to recall only nine men died here. Still, as you advance into holds full of smashed and twisted trucks and equipment—along with some so intact, you could almost drive them away—it feels like something terrible happened here.

The next morning we do the same route at 5:30 a.m., when creeping dawn adds an eerie quality. On our last visit, we follow a chain of footlong links forward to the anchor, at about 90 feet, then ascend to the bow, where I’m surprised at the fish life; it’s Grand Central Station.

Minds are blown. “The bikes, the cargo, the history…oh, man,” says Sid Nagabhyrava, 33, of Hyderabad, India, one of the new divers aboard. “The mystery of it. I feel like Indiana Jones! It takes you back in time.”

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Dahabiyas on the Nile; a turtle at Jackson Reef, Straits of Tiran; opposite: possibly the dive world’s most photogenic motorcycle, inside Thistlegorm.

BETTER AND BETTER

“Do you know why we do a back roll from the Zodiac?” el Beialy asked a day earlier, briefing us on Jackson Reef, one of four in the Straits of Tiran named for British cartographers who produced the region’s first charts. “Because if you go forward, you stay in the boat!”

We groan and laugh and head for the RIBs. The reef does not disappoint, with anthias everywhere, a wriggling orange wall 50 feet high, dense enough to obscure my buddy, and schools of fusiliers running laps around us.

Shark and Yolanda followed; scattered toilets from a wreck that slid to the deep decades ago still captivate divers. But it’s the wrecks of Abu Nuhas reef, not far from Hurghada, that capture my heart.

Although more than a century separates their sinkings—in 1981 and 1869, respectively—Chrisoula K and nearby Carnatic are wrecks of great beauty, and accessible.

Chrisoula K—known as the Tile Wreck, for its cargo—has large openings that let in natural light, crossed by beams that rise like the ribs of a leviathan. Carnatic’s remains display an open-weave pattern, like a basket or a jungle gym.

Both are intriguing within and without, and the surrounding coral is almost mind-bogglingly pretty.

But the pièce de résistance is Giannis D, north of Carnatic. As soon as we descend, it’s obvious this too is a beautiful wreck, and full of life, from coral to schooling fish and a couple of baitballs. Listing at 45 degrees to port, its detached stern creates a disorienting playground for divers—if M.C. Escher had designed a wreck dive, it might look like Giannis D. Following narrow catwalks, divers pass in opposing directions, and nothing is really vertical—only your bubbles confirm which way is up. But exits are many, to cerulean seas and limitless viz that beckons you over the enormous debris field and toward the nearby bow.

FROM LEFT: SCOTT JOHNSON; BROOK PETERSON; OPPOSITE: TOBIAS FRIEDRICH

>> Cont’d from pg 58

COURTESY AGGRESSOR ADVENTURES; OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SCOTT JOHNSON; TOBIAS FRIEDRICH (2)

Clockwise from top left: Hatshepsut’s temple, near the Valley of the Kings; Giannis D offers divers a playground inside and out; Straits of Tiran’s Jackson Reef.

“It’s a labyrinth,” marvels Edi Stieben, a young German naval officer who’s one of those new divers.

“Like an Oktoberfest fun house.”

JOURNEY TO PUNT

To Americans, desert can mean any barren bit. In Egypt, desert means sand, whipped into pyramidshaped peaks everywhere you look. From our van, we hardly spy a living blade; we could be crossing the moon.

We’ve left Hurghada for a four-hour ride to Luxor, where we’ll board Aggressor Nile Queen, a new venture for Aggressor Adventures, which is branching out with a safari lodge in Sri Lanka, a Nile river cruise, and plans for more river cruises in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

We pass a statue of Cleopatra, and our guide rolls his eyes. Poster child for invasion—she was in fact Greek—hers is a legend trotted out for tourists. Ask about female pharaohs, and one name is repeated again and again: Hatshepsut, who ruled from 1473 to 1458 B.C. Her greatest monument is at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Deir el-Bahari, adjacent to the Valley of the Kings. Her most interesting legacy, for divers: She was a pharaoh who understood the importance of travel—and the sea.

Hatshepsut’s “Voyage to Punt” still fascinates scholars nearly 3,500 years later, not least because no one knows where Punt was. (Somalia is a popular guess.) There’s no doubt how her expedition reached it: by the Red Sea, probably departing from near Safaga, south of Hurghada. Stone reliefs document the voyage in detail on the walls of her strikingly modern-looking temple; any Red Sea diver will recognize turtles, rays, dugongs and all kinds of pelagic fish.

Aggressor Nile Queen also takes us through time, but to a different era, the mid-19th century, when Europeans and Americans such as Mark Twain were just “discovering” Egypt, sailing for weeks on similar dahabiyas, which offer a more intimate experience than Nile cruise ships. Agatha Christie would have been right at home on Nile Queen— she set Death on the Nile on a similar ship—with its pol-

ished hardwoods, antique furnishings, silver sconces, white linens and huge windows with Moorish screens. It’s as close to Cleopatra as I’m going to get, and I’m entranced by the yacht, the service, the daily tours of antiquities and the upclose views of life along the Nile.

We have the good fortune to be sailing on Sham an-Nessim, an ancient celebration of spring. Everyone is on or in the fast-moving river, so clear that I can see my toes on the white-sand bottom. A gaily painted little boat pulls alongside us, and suddenly tablecloths and wall hangings are flying over the railing as our companions bargain with the boatman. A joyful call and response of greeting and waving to those onshore goes on all day, until we can hardly raise our arms.

Who’s to say Egyptians won’t lead the way to a future where there’s space for all living things under the sun and sea?

NOW AND FOREVER As impressive as the Nile monuments we visit is the heroic effort to conserve them. That effort, and its success, reminds me of our last Red Sea dive.

Dolphin House is only an hour’s ride from Hurghada, and popular with dayboats and snorkelers—it’s a party scene.

But I’m astonished once again as we descend to pictureperfect coral bommies scattered across crystalline sands, each one bursting with flittering, finning, vibrating life, all thriving under the bright Egyptian sun.

Suddenly I am filled with hope. If coral and its attendant communities can thrive here, in such close proximity to man, why not elsewhere too? Egyptians brought the world great wonders, and have shown they can care for them; HEPCA’s conservation also has brought about many successes, from slowing unregulated coastal growth to a ban on shark fishing. Who’s to say Egyptians won’t lead the way to a future where there’s space for all living things under the sun and sea?

AGGRESSOR NILE QUEEN: NEED TO KNOW

When to Go Aggressor Nile Queen makes five-night, six-day runs from Luxor to Aswan year-round.

(It’s scheduled to be in dry dock January through mid-February 2021.) The four-hour van transfer from Hurghada to Luxor gives you an up-close view of the eastern Sahara desert.

Conditions Cooler months mean high season, and bigger crowds at the antiquities, although Aggressor Nile Queen does a super job timing its arrival in ports to be out of sync with the big river cruise ships. (On a late April cruise, we had some temples almost entirely to ourselves.) Summer routinely brings temperatures in the 100s, although river breezes—and individually controlled stateroom air conditioning—keep things comfortable aboard.

Operator Aggressor Nile Queen is a new venture for Aggressor Adventures (aggressor.com).

The traditional wooden split-level

dahabiya-style yacht is a 155-foot sailing vessel with a 25-foot beam that is mostly towed upriver by an attendant tug. The yacht has eight staterooms that can accommodate 16, tended by a crew of 14.

Meals emphasize fresh, local ingredients—the mild white-meat Nile perch, a staple from pharaonic times, is to die for—and are served alfresco on the large, covered central deck; a hot tub is situated on the stern deck.

Both decks have lounges and seating areas where you can relax and watch the Nile slide by.

A candlelit “Bedouin barbecue” staged on a rural riverbank one

evening felt very Out of Africa; games and dancing afterward offered a chance to learn more about the lives and culture of the Egyptian crew.

Price Tag Deluxe staterooms start at $1,729 per person in 2020; find deals and introductory offers at aggressor.com.

Travel Tip Americans frequently ask about security in the Middle East; virtually all tourist sites had scanners and other Western-style security in evidence, and the Egyptians we met invariably went out of their way to make us feel safe and welcome.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 65

Instructor Andrew Lyons (right) assists Ben Snazzelle with a measurement.

DIVING WITH A PURPOSE / NOVEMBER 2019 / 67

Blankets of sea-green turtle grass jut from a sandy bottom and sway rhythmically in tune to a light current. The hypnotic show becomes more apparent as we descend to a shallow dive site just 22 feet deep in Biscayne National Park. As we approach the sea floor, pieces of wood covered in sand and large clumps of colorful coral nest on numerous odd-shaped artifacts. The pieces of the wreck lie strewn in a way that looks simultaneously orderly and chaotic. What was this ship’s story?

What was the moment like when it finally went down? There are so many questions to be answered about sunken marine vessels around the world, their countless passengers and mysterious cargo.

Ninety-seven percent of South Florida’s 200-square-mile Biscayne National Park lies underwater, host to hawksbill turtles, manatees and rays. It’s also the final resting place of more than 70 shipwrecks.

We are spending this week in a maritime archaeology course offered through Youth Diving with a Purpose, an international organization that teaches certified scuba divers ages 16 to 23 the basics of marine archaeology.

Thirteen students have traveled from Costa Rica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, United Kingdom and the United States to get certified as PADI Archaeology Survey Divers.

They will be studying out of a classroom at Biscayne National Park; I am taking the course alongside them to get a peek into the world of underwater archaeology.

Ken Stewart developed YDWP in 2011 with Justine Benanty after starting the 68 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

EXPERIENCE YDWP Youth Diving with a Purpose gives divers ages 16 to 23 the tools to foster exploration of submerged cultural treasures. Participation requires an intense, one-week instructional course that teaches the lay scuba diver the basic tenets of maritime archaeology. Information on the summer 2020 YDWP session will be available in January at divingwithapurpose.org.

adults-only Diving with a Purpose a year before, when he realized that adults were not the only ones capable of documenting shipwrecks for archaeological purposes.

“Most of the students who go through the program enter into some facet of marine biology, or internships with the National Park Service,” Stewart, 74, says with pride. His passion for diving started in the ’90s, when he and his son got certified together.

“As my commitment to diving progressed, I became involved with the National Association of Black Scuba Divers— a life-changing event—where I was able to work with young people, some at-risk, and introduce them to diving,” Stewart explains in his easygoing manner.

Shipwrecks ranging from merchant vessels to battleships are scattered throughout Biscayne. A driving goal of Stewart and his organization is to locate

the Guerrero, a Spanish slave ship that sank somewhere in the southern end of the park in 1827.

“We should be able to tell our own story by examining slave ships,” YDWP instructor Ernie Franklin tells students— mostly of African-American and Hispanic descent—during our first day in the classroom. NPS partners with YDWP to lead these weeklong maritime archaeology classes.

“We believe that visitors to national

Clockwise from top left: YDWP founder Ken Stewart talks with students; Greg Hood does a giant stride; an instructor goes over data collection; students compare measurements mid-dive.

parks should look like the citizens of the United States; that's why Ken and I started YDWP,” says Dave Conlin, chief of the Submerged Resources Center at NPS. “The archaeology of shipwrecks is like excavating time capsules on dry land—a ship's crew carried everything they needed to survive with them on their voyage.”

Although YDWP and NPS have been searching for the Guerrero for 14 years, this week is not focused on that wreck. Instead, the focus is an underwater archaeology training session to help NPS map a shipwreck site named BISC-60, also called “Captain Ed” after the man who discovered the wreck.

BISC-60 is a 120-by-45-foot shipwreck from the mid-1800s that features the starboard side of a sailing vessel. The wreck lies in 22 feet of water just east of Hawk Channel.

Some of the artifacts found at the site and identified by NPS are an iron hawse pipe—the pipe that the anchor chain passes through—ceiling planking, iron nails, chain plates, cargo straps and shrouds.

We will be helping NPS take drawings and measurements at the site to support the archaeology work done previously.

Surveyi g a ocume i g Working from the classroom, students receive instruction on how to conduct archaeological work underwater. YDWP instructor Andrew Lyons is a licensed architect who enthusiastically explains that everyone on the team will get a portion of the wreck to draw, perhaps artifacts or a section of the ship’s hull, using 8½-by-11inch waterproof mylar paper attached to clipboards and mechanical pencils. Drawings are done in situ underwater, with a second drawing sketched to scale in the classroom using graph paper.

The “base line” would become our most important asset underwater: a long piece of secured measuring tape that stretches 120 feet along the wreck. “There is always a base-line tape measure set up underwater, with measurements made between the base line and the object within the debris field of the wreck,” Lyons says. Students were split into groups of three, with each group responsible for artifacts along a 10-foot stretch of the base line.

After an intense day of classroom / NOVEMBER 2019 / 69

training, the second day of the course brings us to the water. From a Key Largo marina, it takes an hour by boat to arrive at the BISC-60 site. “Make sure you do not disturb the base line because it voids all measurements, and we will have to redo all of the work we did underwater,” Stewart warns students on the ride over.

We enjoy the trek to the site, with little wind and no waves. The first dive is a survey to get acclimated and put down numbered flags next to the artifacts in order to mark points of interest for measuring and sketching over the course of the week.

Eighteen-year-old Tristan Cannon from Nashville, Tennessee, is a second-year YDWP student; he’s in charge of a team that includes myself and another female journalist. “I had to redo some of your measurements because you recorded in feet instead of meters,” he says with a smile when we’re back on the boat after the first dive. “Also, make sure you keep your fins off of the base line and corals.”

My second dive goes better, where I practice my buoyancy while making measurements. I try my best to hover in place just above the artifact, and of course, keep my fins off the seafloor.

70 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

INTERN WITH NPS The National Park Service preserves and protects millions of acres of submerged lands and thousands of shipwrecks, along with countless amazing dive sites. Divers ages 20 to 28 can get involved with this mission by applying for the National Park Service/Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society Diving Internship, which provides money, equipment and logistical support for a young person to travel and work with any of approximately 35 NPS dive teams from American Samoa to Crater Lake, Oregon. Internships are tailored to the interests of the individual and typically involve extensive travel over a period of two to four months. The application process opens October 1 and ends January 15, 2020. For details, including requirements and how to apply, visit owuscholarship .org/internships. << 2019 NPS/OWUSS INTERN MICHAEL LANGHANS SHOT THIS STORY.

Working on sketches with my team, I am impressed by Cannon’s ability to stay vertical upside down while taking measurements. He later tells me just how hard he was working: “I feel a bit lightheaded because I was breathing shallow to conserve air.” Although I am down here to work, at times it’s hard to concentrate, surrounded by marine life. Some of the artifacts I am measuring have already been claimed by arrowhead crabs, starfish, huge gray angelfish and mischievous high-hats. I pause to admire a lone yellow stingray resting on the sea grass.

One of the unexpected but fun parts of the work is learning how to tango underwater: Because many people are mapping artifacts close to one another, space is tight. After a couple dives, I get used to the accidental fin to the face or an arm to the midsection as I maneuver around team members and artifacts.

After I finish my sketching duties close to the end of one of our dives, I explore the length of the wreck, impressed by how riveted students are, concentrating on their work. The most diverse coral growth on the shipwreck is at the midsection of the base line. There, I find one of the students

Clockwise from top right: Instructors demonstrate mapping techniques on land; the author at work; co-founder Justine Benanty assists with measuring part of the wreck.

planted safely again.

“Not only would the anchor dragging potentially disrupt the artifacts, but it also creates dust storms and messes with our visibility,” Franklin says back on the boat. “We had to take people away from the boat until we corrected the problem.”

Ge i g Resul s

making a drawing of a plank of wood covered in a mountainous star coral. A large, spiny lobster seeks shelter under the coral, while a crab tentatively makes its way around the grooves.

Back on board and dripping wet from the second dive, 22-year-old Royer Coloner from Costa Rica, and Franklin, his team instructor, perform a secret handshake.

Glancing down at the measurements on the slate, Franklin offers some suggestions on Coloner’s drawings.

“Finito?” he asks.

No, “Terminamos,” Coloner corrects, as Franklin laughs at his own limited Spanish.

Maria Suarez Toro, who runs an ocean-archaeology cultural organization in Costa Rica, comes to translate. She's on site for the week to supervise the five Costa Rican youth who joined the program.

“We have archaeology programs in Costa Rica, so this type of work is not new for the students, but coming here is a way for them to learn new techniques and experience cultural exchange,” she says.

Coloner tells me he is a volunteer and president of a community dive center in Costa Rica, and was chosen to participate in YDWP for a second year: “I want to be a dive instructor, so by completing this course, I get hours toward my certification. When I learned pirates really existed by seeing artifacts in the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada, I realized I wanted to be an archaeologist too.”

The in-water portion of the course is not without drama, and the students get a lesson: Always be alert. During one of our mapping dives, Franklin suddenly yells underwater and speedily swims around tapping students and giving the “up” signal.

Fifteen divers or so tread water on the surface, where we learn that the anchor had suddenly slipped and was moving perilously close to the shipwreck site, which could destroy the remains. After 10 minutes, the anchor is retrieved and

On return journeys, students are splayed out on the boat in a comical fashion, tired from the two dives that usually each last an hour. Gatorade in hand, Pedro Ramos, superintendent of the Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Park, joins them on the boat. “If we don’t know our history, it’s hard to know where we came from,” he says with passion, addressing a group of students drying off. “From floating on the surface, it was amazing to see you young people document a place that might otherwise be forgotten.”

Once the mapping dives conclude at the end of the week, we spend a long day polishing up and correcting measurements on our graph drawings, migrating from the cool classroom to take breaks on the benches outside in the humid Florida heat. Talking with the students shows that they had different expectations and visions for what the site would look like and what they would find.

“I was expecting more decay,” 16-yearold Greg Hood says of the wreck. “Some of the artifacts that I identified were wooden planks and some type of metal.”

Michaela Strong, 19, was fascinated by having to measure a 50-foot-long wooden plank, while 18-year-old Tyrese Evelyn surveyed some of the nails and iron fasteners that had held the ship together.

The glue that holds all of our work together is transferring our graph sketches to the final site map.

“Once I have scale drawings of the dozens of artifacts on paper, I use a system called AutoCAD to recreate a cohesive picture of what we have all seen underwater,” Lyons says. Although combining all of our sketches to create a final product is the ultimate goal, the students and I gained something far more valuable: teamwork and the importance of conserving human history. / NOVEMBER 2019 / 71

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SAFETY, SKILLS AND BOTTOM TIME t 74 CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? 78 TEXTBOOK TEXTURE 82 POTT Y TALK

BETH WATSON

“

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Scuba diving is not quite like riding a bike. Taking the time to review and practice important in-water skills such as regulator recovery and mask replacement will give you more confidence, and resources such as the PADI ReActivate program are helpful for divers coming off a layoff.

If you feel uncomfortable with a dive or a piece of equipment, ask for help or seek additional training. Don’t simply struggle with it from pride or fear of embarrassment. ” HIGH AND DRY PAGE 80

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 73

2

3

4

Can you identify all of these basic hand signals? Test yourself then head to the bottom of page 76 to see the correct answers.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN How to get your message across underwater when it matters most

BY ERIC MICHAEL

T

alk is cheap. We do so much of it on dry land that the underwater world should be a welcome respite from the constant flapping of jaws. Diving is a team sport, however, so communication between buddies, groups and guides is critical to our safety and enjoyment.

From the simplest hand signals to the most complex tech solutions, consider these tips for getting your point across.

GET HANDS-ON Hand signals are fundamental. We all learn the basics early in our open water course and build upon this all-important foundation as we progress through more

74 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

advanced levels of training. But, unfortunately, even the most basic signals are not often intuitive. How many times have you seen a new diver give an enthusiastic “thumbs-up,” instead of an “OK” when prompted? Obviously, they’re not signaling that they want to surface. This type of mistake is common—even for experienced divers who might have been out of the water for a while—reinforcing why it’s important to practice hand signals until they become muscle memory.

Incorporating dive signals into your topside lifestyle is a great way to keep it all fresh in your mind, especially during extended breaks in diving. Flashing

signs at your dive buddy during dinner or teaching your kids simple signals to share are helpful methods to increase your opportunities to practice. And don’t ignore the chance to create custom signals with your dive buddies so that you can increase your nonverbal vocabulary—and the opportunity for inside jokes.

GRAB THEIR ATTENTION If divers perform perfectly executed hand signals underwater and no one sees them, are they actually communicating?

There are so many worthy distractions bombarding us during a dive that seizing the attention of our buddies is essential when there’s information to relay.

Being mindful to maintain situational awareness and stay disciplined about basic buddy protocol is the first step in keeping a sightline for communication.

The next is a good tool. All divers should have some kind of audible underwater signaling devices in their kits.

A simple noise maker—such as a tank banger, rattle or shaker—will create enough sound to carry through water to reach the ears of nearby divers. Most are small enough to fit inside a BC pocket, and others include a BC attachment clip for secure transport at depth. These simple options are affordable, nearly foolproof to use and easy to maintain with proper cleaning and storage.

Even more effective is a mechanical air horn that blasts big decibels at a high pitch for a signal that’s nearly impossible to ignore by even the most absentminded divers. These models connect to your BC power inflator and offer settings for use both underwater and topside (see “Hearing Aids”), which can be a lifesaver in emergency situations.

WRITE IT DOWN When hand signals won’t convey enough information to fully realize your communication, only the written word will do. A dive slate provides a waterproof page on which to scribble messages, simple diagrams, maps or other nonverbal cues.

The simplest is a white plastic board that can be erased at will and comes with a tethered clip and an attached pencil.

Basic slates are inexpensive and convenient for sharing with a buddy or a group.

(Some even glow in the dark.) Another option is a wrist-mounted model, which offers improved streamlining, but increases the challenge for others to read

COURTESY PADI (4); OPPOSITE, FROM TOP: JON WHITTLE; COURTESY AQUASKETCH; JON WHITTLE

TRA I N : DI VE HAC KS

1

HEARING AIDS Tools that will help you get your point across underwater

DIVEALERT PLUS

$88.85 (DV1); divealert.com This auditory signaling device quickly attaches to a BC’s power inflator, using gas to emit a loud sound in air or water with the push of a button. It can be heard a mile away out of water, a crucial resource in a stranded-diver situation.

AQUASKETCH MINNO

$54.95; aquasketch.com There are plenty of slate options, but the Minno provides convenience with its scrolling function, allowing you to access 8 feet of waterproof paper by twisting a knob. It can be worn on the wrist, attached to your kit or stowed in a pocket.

At ANSE CHASTANET

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$399 (mask); $819 (transceiver); oceantechnologysystems.com This full-face mask lets you attach your own reg by disconnecting the mouthpiece. When coupled with the transceiver, it can be used for communication between divers or surface stations.

Tel. 1 800 223 1108 www.scubastlucia.com • www.ansechastanet.com

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 75

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ADOPT A SHARK

sharkangels.org

GO WIRELESS You’ve likely seen full-face masks with integrated communication units on TV or in films, but these high-end rigs aren’t just for frothing celebrities screaming about sharks. Once the privilege of scientific, technical and public safety divers, full-face masks have become far more accessible to the recreational diver.

Armed with a wireless transmitter linking an internal microphone and a strapmounted, external earpiece, divers can talk to each other in a method similar to a traditional two-way radio over a range of several hundred feet. Don’t expect a stereo-quality audio experience akin to your best noise-canceling headphones, but the systems absolutely allow divers to hold conversations. Some models offer a simple push-to-talk system, while other voice-activated systems require divers to work out a wait-your-turn-tospeak cadence to avoid talking over each other. Other benefits include improved cold-water comfort, no jaw fatigue and the ability to breathe through your nose.

Specialized training classes for each model are a necessity to use these rigs safely; there are setup, clearing and emergency operating aspects that you might not consider intuitive. But with a financial investment and some practice, the days of fumbling through hand signals and scribbling on slates can be gone forever—that is, unless you prefer the silent approach.

ERIC MICHAEL is a former editorin-chief of both Scuba Diving and Sport Diver magazines, a veteran ScubaLab test-team diver, and the author of Dive Hacks since 2015.

1. OK? OK. 2. Stop, hold it, stay there 3. Ears not clearing 4. Low on air

TRA I N : DI VE HAC KS

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when attached to your arm. Some feature a scroll of vellum that can be wound with a dial to produce a clean page without erasing. Waterproof notebooks can be preloaded with words and drawings but can be challenging to write on underwater. One of the most versatile is the magnetic slate that can be cleared with a single sweep, although the interface doesn’t allow for very detailed drawing.

Asking other divers—especially your local pros—about their experiences with different types of slates is a good method to inform your decision.

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TRAI N: I MAGI N G

Fig. 1

scale. All three controls are variants of sharpening, but each targets a different range of frequency in an image, resulting in perceived sharpness and contrast changes that can also involve luminance (tone) and saturation (color).

What Is Frequency?

In an effort to avoid getting too wonky, it’s best to simplify the concept of frequency by describing it in terms of edges.

Details of an image that change rapidly from light to dark, such as the sharp edges that define individual hairs, are considered high frequency. Low frequency areas exist where the change from light to dark along edges is gradual, as it is on a gradient or bokeh (blurred) background.

Fig. 2

TEXTURE, CLARITY AND DEHAZE Finding your own recipe for well-edited photos

BY ERIN QUIGLEY

I

simultaneously love and fear the addition of any significant new feature in Lightroom or Photoshop. Love, because it potentially enriches my editing bag of tricks. Fear, because for a time after its initial introduction it is used in excess by pros and enthusiastic amateurs alike, resulting in a spate of overprocessed pictures. Luckily, the recently introduced Texture slider is more nuanced than

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nuclear, and has some interesting applications for underwater photos.

The slider is nested with Clarity and Dehaze in the Presence section of the Basic panel, and also can be used locally with the Adjustment Brush, and Graduated or Radial filters.

Texture, Clarity and Dehaze share the common goal of enhancing or diminishing detail, but they each do it on a different

Texture Texture is a unique control that shares similarities with Clarity, Sharpening and Noise Reduction. It’s built to work primarily on mid- to high-frequency areas of contrast, and because it typically affects narrow edges that span a small range of pixels, Texture is subtler than Clarity or

Dehaze. It can still be a strong enhancement, but across smaller edges. Unlike both Clarity and Dehaze, Texture doesn’t significantly shift color or saturation.

Texture is great for creating the appearance of local sharpness on slightly out-of-focus areas, and adds a nice boost to coral texture, scales and watersurface detail. Use it on multiple brushes or filters for maximum effect.

Fig. 3

luminance, and can leave the photo with a gritty, “worked” feel.

Clarity does an excellent job of enhancing light rays, and applied on a brush or filter is a fantastic way to pop detail in critters with translucent bodies or fins. It performs near magic on black-water images. Clarity works well in combination with Texture and Dehaze. A multislider “recipe” I use frequently is:

Black-and-white photos benefit from a more intense level of contrast, and color shifts aren’t an issue.

Be gentle when using Dehaze—a heavy hand on the slider delivers a gummy mess of color and contrast, resulting in an artificial, amateurish-looking edit.

Fig. 5

1. Brush an elevated Exposure value across an area that needs emphasis.

2. On the same brush, add a pinch of positive Clarity.

3. Again on the same brush, add a drop of positive Dehaze.

4. Adjust Texture to taste.

Elevated Exposure tends to make the brushed area appear washed out and flat, but adding Clarity enhances midtone contrast, and increased Dehaze replaces lost color. Voila!

Fig. 4

ERIN QUIGLEY

When it's set to a negative value, Texture functions as a smoothing tool that can help eliminate small particles of powdery backscatter at the edges of images where strobes were too bright or positioned too far forward.

Clarity I’ve heard Clarity aptly described as one part sharpening, one part tone mapping and one part magic. It’s capable of much stronger effects than Texture, but it doesn’t have the same impact on fine detail as Texture or across wider swaths of low-frequency tone and color like Dehaze.

Clarity helps users define light and shadow areas and general textures within an image, increasing or diminishing the appearance of sharpness and overall “punch.”

Large positive values of Clarity tend to desaturate color and significantly shift

You can vastly improve your photos by understanding how Texture, Clarity and Dehaze each work, the kind of images each works best with, and how they interact. But don’t take it from me. True magic only happens when you develop a sense of how these controls work with your own pictures. Dive in and explore— there’s no better teacher than hands-on experience.

Dehaze Dehaze is intended to add or remove atmospheric haze from an image. Contrast and color are reduced when a photo is shot with too much water between subject and lens, or in less-than-perfect visibility. Dehaze increases contrast in lowfrequency areas (broader areas of color or tone), and saturates color casts—even in very bright or dark areas.

It does a great job of amplifying color and contrast where an image might appear “washed out.”

Underwater photographers typically aim to neutralize the same color casts that Dehaze intensifies—so it’s not always a perfect global tool for color images. It excels with local tools to sharpen up silhouettes of reef edges, divers or faraway objects. It’s also an effective control for black-and-white images.

PRO TIP: Always check a zoomed-in 1:1 view as well as a zoomed out 1:2 view to accurately assess the effects of Texture, Clarity or Dehaze.

ERIN QUIGLEY is an Adobe ACE-certified consultant and award-winning shooter.

Goaskerin.com provides tutorials and instruction for underwater photographers.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 79

TRA I N: LESSONS FOR LIFE

ERIC DOUGLAS has been a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, medic, and author on scuba safety and adventure. Visit his website at booksbyeric.com.

HIGH AND DRY

advanced open water certification. He'd been diving for one year and was in good health, with no known medical conditions. He'd logged about 40 dives.

BY ERIC DOUGLAS

T

he dive started with some difficulty, but after a few minutes Tom settled down and figured out his buoyancy in the drysuit. This was his first dive using it; his buddy had given him a quick overview on what he needed to do. Tom wasn’t comfortable with the suit, but he had to admit it was keeping him warm in the chilly water around the wreck. His buddies

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signaled it was time to ascend, and Tom began swimming for the surface. He attempted to release air from his BC, but nothing came out—then he remembered all the air was in his drysuit. But by then, he was already ascending much too fast.

THE DIVER Tom was a 53-year-old male with an

THE DIVE When Tom’s buddies told him they were going to take a special day trip to dive on a wreck, he was in. He had heard stories and seen photographs, and was excited about the dive. Although it was May, the water was cold, with surface temperatures in the mid-50s and closer to 50 degrees at the bottom. Tom rented a drysuit from a local dive shop, and one of his buddies told him how to use it.

They planned to make two dives to the wreck; its main deck was at about 90 feet of fresh water. They were using a nitrox

ILLUSTRATION: CARLO GIAMBARRESI

Lack of training leads to a fatal ascent for a new drysuit diver

mix that gave them plenty of bottom time at depth without worrying about nostop limits.

The dive site was in a river with a strong current, but they made their way down the anchor line without incident.

Tom struggled to adjust his buoyancy. He finally got his suit inflated enough that it provided him the needed thermal protection and allowed him to hover. The divers explored the wreck for 30 minutes before deciding to head toward the surface.

THE ACCIDENT As soon as the group began ascending, Tom was in trouble. He tried to deflate his BC as he ascended, but it took him a few seconds to remember that wasn’t where his air was. He attempted to release air from his drysuit, but it was too late. He was already ascending rapidly. Witnesses on the surface said he broke the surface with a splash in a cloud of bubbles.

He lost consciousness immediately. One of his buddies had followed Tom to the surface and got to him a minute later.

The buddy immediately towed him to the dive boat.

The boat captain realized the dire situation. With other divers providing CPR and first aid, he alerted authorities and headed toward emergency medical care at maximum speed. Although the captain reacted as quickly as possible, Tom was pronounced dead upon arrival at a medical care facility. The autopsy report wasn’t released, but it is reasonable to conclude that Tom died due to an air embolism caused by a rapid ascent.

ANALYSIS A drysuit does a fantastic job of keeping you dry in cold-water environments, down to near-freezing water temperatures for ice diving. But like any gear, you have to know how to use it. In the same way you wouldn’t just throw on a BC and regs and jump in the water, you need to receive training on how to use a drysuit before making a dive.

Drysuits work by keeping a layer of air inside the suit, which insulates the diver well. You have to add more and more air inside the suit the deeper you descend because the air compresses. When diving with a drysuit, you use your BC for surface buoyancy, to hold your cylinder (of course) and as backup buoyancy if your drysuit has a problem. With most types of drysuits,

at depth you use only your suit to control buoyancy, though with a few types of drysuits, and in tec diving, you may still use your BC. Witnesses on the boat said that Tom didn't seem comfortable with his drysuit before entering the water, and one of his buddies coached him through the setup. When it came time to begin their ascent, Tom’s training and muscle memory kicked in. He began swimming up and reached up to release air from his BC. That didn’t accomplish anything.

It was only then that he remembered to release air from the suit using the valve on his shoulder. By that time, the air in his suit was already expanding and he was ascending rapidly. General guidelines for a normal ascent are 1 foot every two seconds, or 30 feet per minute. By those standards, Tom needed about three minutes to ascend from 90 feet to the surface. He made it in six seconds.

Tom immediately lost consciousness on the surface. Combined with a rapid ascent, this is a textbook description of an air embolism. It begins with a lung overexpansion injury. The air in Tom's lungs expanded so rapidly it tore a hole in the alveoli and escaped into his lung cavity. The pulmonary barotrauma to his lungs allowed that expanding air to enter his circulatory system.

An arterial gas embolism occurs when air enters the arterial circulation and sends an air bubble directly to the brain, causing stroke-like symptoms. The only way to prevent or avoid this situation is to follow your training.

If you need to make a rapid continuous ascent, keep your airway open, exhaling all the way to the surface. Tom was likely panicked and struggling with his gear.

Because his ascent was so rapid, it is questionable that he'd have been able to vent enough air from his lungs even if he had been trying.

LESSONS FOR LIFE Q Seek training from a certified dive instruc-

tor in equipment and techniques that are new to you.

Q If you feel uncomfortable with a dive or a piece of equipment, ask for help or seek additional training. Don’t simply struggle with it from pride or fear of embarrassment.

Q Ascend slowly from every dive while breathing normally and keeping your airway open. Make a safety stop.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 81

TRAI N : ASK DAN

SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL ADVERTISING

ASK DAN How do divers relieve themselves in a drysuit?

BY DIVERS ALERT NETWORK

D

ivers are known for their frank and frequent discussions of bodily functions, and it’s not because we lack class.

Diving puts us in a foreign environment that makes many normal activities complicated, time consuming and occasionally embarrassing. And as if that weren’t enough, we need to hydrate to reduce our risk of decompression sickness (DCS), which increases the need to urinate. Just entering the water causes our bodies to shift fluid to our core, which compounds the situation further.

With all these considerations in mind it’s easy to see why divers might find themselves discussing the finer points of relieving themselves. Here’s everything you’ve wanted to know about

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urological matters and diving but were afraid to ask.

IMMERSION DIURESIS Ever wonder why you have to pee as soon as you hit the water? The condition is called immersion diuresis, and it occurs whenever the body is immersed in water.

Immersion—along with cold water temperature—can cause the narrowing of blood vessels in the arms and legs.

This narrowing, called vasoconstriction, primarily occurs in the skin and superficial tissues of the body, as well as in the muscles of the arms and legs.

The result is an increase in the volume of blood sent to the central organs of the body, including the heart, lungs and large

internal blood vessels. The shunting is designed to keep the core warm in cold conditions, and it has some significant side effects for divers.

When this increased blood volume shunts to the core, the body interprets it as fluid overload and signals the kidneys to stop producing antidiuretic hormone (ADH). When ADH levels drop following this signal, the kidneys immediately begin producing urine.

While the circulating blood volume returns to near normal once you leave the water and those constricted vessels widen again, you might still experience a full bladder in the water or shortly after your dive. It’s a totally normal response to immersion, and unless it causes undue discomfort or other complications, it’s nothing to worry about.

You’ve hydrated properly, your body has shunted fluid to your core, and immersion diuresis is in full effect—what now? If you’re in a wetsuit the decision is easier to make. Aside from needing to wash your wetsuit after a dive, underwater urination poses little concern for divers. In a drysuit, however, the issue

can be a little trickier.

Adult diapers have been a solid option for divers of all levels for decades, and remain an easy way to deal with a full bladder underwater. In the past decade an influx of options and education have driven many divers to opt for P-valves instead of diapers.

P-VALVES Typically made of a waterproof valve and a hose that connects to an anatomically suitable condom/catheter, P-valves offer men and women a way to relieve themselves through their drysuit and without the mess of a diaper.

Learning how to properly choose and operate one of these devices might initially be embarrassing, but it doesn’t have to be. P-valves are an excellent way to ensure hydration and comfort before, during and between dives, and they can improve the safety of the divers who use them. Take a deep breath and broach the topic with one of your buddies before your next drysuit dive; most divers are more than happy to help, even if the topic is a little personal.

P-valves do come with some points of concern. All types require a certain amount of hair management and adhesive application to create a seal, and attaching them to the drysuit can be tricky.

Using a quick-disconnect valve between the user and drysuit end of the device can facilitate easy setup and preserve some dignity when suiting up in public. Make sure the tubing isn’t kinked before use, the condom is correctly sized, and the valve on the outside of your drysuit is functioning appropriately.

Some P-valves come “balanced,” which means they have a one-way valve that equalizes the inside of the relief tube with the gas in your drysuit, but those that do not will require use before submerging to prevent an uncomfortable squeeze.

When your dive is over, a hot shower and soap can help remove the user-end of the device, and it should be thoroughly rinsed and cleaned before storage.

Urinary-tract infections are inconvenient and uncomfortable, but they can be easily prevented by regularly cleaning the P-valve.

For more information on drysuit diving, visit dan.org/health.

DOWN HERE, MISTAKES CAN BE COSTLY. THE COST OF A DIVE ACCIDENT CAN EASILY SURPASS $50,000.

That’s why experienced divers understand the value of DAN Dive Accident Insurance. + Covers the Medical Costs of Dive Accidents Up to $500,000 + Picks Up Where Your Primary Coverage Stops + Recognized Worldwide + Affordable Annual Plans

Explore with DAN @diversalertnetwork

DAN.org/INSURANCE

*Explore DAN.org/INSURANCE for complete plan and coverage details. Coverage may vary by state.

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 83

GREAT SPOTS FOR SAVVY DIVERS

t 92 NEW WRECK DOWN UNDER 94 THE BLUEGRASS STATE

MICHAEL ZEIGLER

98 VIVA BAJA

The beauty of Indonesia underwater is undeniable. It offers such a wide array of diversity and color—thanks to sites like this lively pier in Raja Ampat—that no new diver can visit without yearning for more. See our readers’ picks for the best beginner destinations on page 86.

Here in Queensland, most dives are spent on sunlit reefs hunting for Nemo, potato cod and giant clams. But not today. We’re in for a proper wreck dive.”

A CHANGE O F S C E N E RY, PAGE 92

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ANTONIO BUSIELLO

T RAVE L : R EA DE R S CH OI CE 86 / NOVEMBER 2019 S C U B A D I V I N G . C O M

READERS CHOICE:

BEST DESTINATIONS FOR BEGINNER DIVERS Small diver-to-instructor ratios, standards for safe diving practices, shallow reefs and choice conditions make these destinations popular with our readers

BY BROOKE MORTON

fortable with your equipment and buoyancy—there is no rushing here,” Midkiff says.

2

1st 0 P lac e W1 inn er

Caribbean and Atlantic

8

BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP: STEVE JONES (2); TIM CALVER

1

A diver fins past a giant barrel sponge at Half Moon Bay Wall in Roatan, Honduras.

“It starts with our staff,” says Elizabeth Midkiff, owner of CoCo View Resort on the island of Roatan, Honduras.

“Our divemasters are attentive and really help a new diver feel comfortable in the water.”

The same is true for many dive resorts on this scubacentric island, making it one of the top choices for the just-certified set.

CoCo View also stands out for its shore diving.

From the dining and hangout area, it’s steps to the water, where divers have cleared a path through the sea grasses, leading to a floating platform—in other words, it’s obvious where the best diving is.

Shore diving also allows divers to take their time, setting their own pace for the day and for the trip.

“You can slowly go deeper and deeper as you feel com-

READERS PICKS RESORTS Anthony’s Key Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands

OPERATORS Anthony’s Key Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands Dockside Dive Center at CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands

LIVEABOARDS Roatan Aggressor, Bay Islands

AUSTRALIA

2

The 900 islands and cays of the Great Barrier Reef seem to do the impossible: deliver daily encounters with megafauna, all within reach of the openwater diver. This destination stays atop divers’ bucket lists thanks to sites such as Cod Hole, where visitors are greeted mask to gaping jaw with 6-foot potato cod. Elsewhere in the Ribbon Reefs, the best destination for newbies, are dives with dozens of gray reef sharks—all on the itinerary for liveaboards based there, such as awardwinner Spirit of Freedom.

READERS PICKS LIVEABOARDS Spirit of Freedom, Australia

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T RAVE L : R EA DE R S CH OI CE

HAWAII

3

Safety comes first in the Hawaiian islands.

“Kona has high safety standards, being in the U.S.,” says Byron Kay, owner and operator of Kona Honu Divers on Hawaii Island.

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tures—including arches, swim-throughs and some shallow wrecks—allowing newcomers to try different experiences without leaving their comfort zone.

READERS PICKS OPERATORS Jack’s Diving Locker, Big Island, Hawaii Kona Honu Divers, Big Island, Hawaii Scuba Shack, Maui, Hawaii Big Island Divers, Hawaii Kona Diving Company, Big Island, Hawaii

LIVEABOARDS Kona Aggressor II, Hawaii

CAYMAN ISLANDS

4

On Grand Cayman, you can’t drive far without running into a dive center—great news if you’re new to the sport.

“Our shore dives usually have a dive shop at them, so you can get a proper briefing before you go in—and you can choose to go in with or without a guide,” says Emma-Jane Fisher, part of the Sunset House dive operation.

“A lot of places have shore

BRANDON COLE (2)

1st P lac e W inn er

Pacific and Indian

Kona Honu Divers allows a maximum of four students per instructor. For the Discover Scuba Diving program, it allows only two participants per instructor.

And in Hawaii, most dives are guided—which means that underwater, there is always a professional present to keep an eye on the group.

“Diving without a guide just isn’t a thing here,” Kay says.

These islands are also great for beginners because they offer a variety of fea-

take before getting into advanced diving. Plus, most of them you can do from shore— without being limited to a schedule or boat availability.”

Sulawesi, Indonesia Misool Eco Resort, Raja Ampat, Indonesia

OPERATORS Wakatobi Dive Resort Dive Center, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

LIVEABOARDS READERS PICKS RESORTS Little Cayman Beach Resort Sunset House, Grand Cayman Brac Reef Beach Resort, Cayman Brac

OPERATORS Ocean Frontiers, Grand Cayman Reef Divers, Little Cayman

LIVEABOARDS Cayman Aggressor IV (replaced

by Cayman Aggressor V)

INDONESIA

5

Southern stingrays hover over a sandy bottom in Grand Cayman. Right: Indonesia is home to vibrant reefs filled with marine life.

diving, but you’re just reading out of a guidebook to know what to expect.”

Grand Cayman isn’t limited to just shore diving, Fisher says. The island has boat options too.

Plus, the list of specialty courses available and wellsuited to the topography of Grand Cayman is long, and includes Peak Performance Buoyancy, Navigation, Night Diver and more.

Fisher adds: “We have lots of little baby steps you can

The archipelago nation of Indonesia is a buffet of options, thousands of square miles of possibility.

Smack in the Coral Triangle, it’s home to the type of reefs every diver drools over: pristine, colorful and diverse, with 400-plus coral species.

The sheer brilliance and biodiversity of this worldclass diving hub will have new divers hooked for life, and the large nation offers a variety of experiences. There are locations where the current picks up and sites dip beyond 60 feet, so new divers should select operators who will give them the proper attention.

Liveaboards such as Readers Choice winners Pelagian and Arenui are mindful of this. Arenui has five divemasters on board for 16 guests, so groups of two to four have their own guides. Brand-new divers are sometimes treated to one-on-one service.

After all, many divers fly across oceans to visit Indonesia, and award-winning operators want to make sure that you enjoy yourself so much that you can’t help but come back for seconds.

The Arenui, Indonesia Pelagian, Wakatobi, Indonesia

BONAIRE

6

Bonaire’s location outside the hurricane belt contributes to reliable conditions suited to all levels of diving.

Bonaire is known as the world’s shore-diving capital.

The main island’s 60-plus official sites are marked, allowing any certified diver to go explore its nearshore reefs with a buddy.

But the Caribbean island wouldn’t be so popular with divers if it weren’t for the conditions. Divers rarely have to contend with tides, currents or swells. Visibility here extends 70 to 90 feet on most

days, allowing divers to better enjoy the sights, take great underwater photos and navigate easily—it’s much easier to build confidence in yourself as a diver when you know where you are.

READERS PICKS RESORTS Buddy Dive Resort, Bonaire Divi Resort, Bonaire

OPERATORS Buddy Dive, Bonaire

THAILAND

7

Official censuses have yet to confirm, but it seems as if every third person in Ko Samui is a scuba instructor. Just about everyone you meet is certified, and it’s easy to see why: The reefs here abound with the exotic.

Best of all, because diving is so popular, it’s cheap to book a private guide for the day or week, helping you take your skills to the next level.

READERS PICKS RESORTS Wakatobi Dive Resort, Southeast

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1. Bay Islands 2. Bonaire 3. Bahamas 4. Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman) 5. U.S. Virgin Islands UNITED STATES AND CANADA

1. Florida Keys 2. California 3. Washington PACIFIC AND INDIAN

1. Hawaii 2. Indonesia 3. Philippines 4. Australia, Great Barrier Reef 5. Thailand What Is Readers Choice?

More than 5,000 readers chose their favorite destinations, resorts, operators, liveaboards and more for our 2019 awards. Here we highlight some of the top vote-getters for each category, and point out the winning resorts, operators and liveaboards that operate in that area, listed in order of votes received.

1st P lac e W inn er

North America

FLORIDA KEYS

8

For more: scubadiving .com/readerschoice

BROOKE MORTON got hooked on diving at age 14, and went on to teach scuba on St. Croix after college. She’s dived and snorkeled on every continent.

A Florida Keys reef. Opposite: An octopus shelters in a can off Anilao.

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Key Largo offers new divers 2 miles of reef within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

“Most of that is within the 25- to 40-foot depth range, perfect for open water scuba classes and for new open water divers,” says Angie Stringer, an instructor for Horizon Divers.

With such a range of sites, dive operators can offer customers variety.

Operators such as Horizon Divers leave the sites up to the boat captains, who choose based on conditions.

“We don’t want to run into current, and our ultimate goal is to make every trip the best possible one for our customers,” Stringer says.

FROM TOP: DAMIEN MAURIC; WATERFRAME/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; OPPOSITE: ALEX MUSTARD

T RAVE L : R EA DE R S CH OI CE

CARIBBEAN AND ATLANTIC

Shallow reefs with superior visibility play host to abundant marine life in the Bahamas.

colorful backdrops—are the same reasons Hollywood directors looking to shoot on location keep the Bahamas atop their short lists.

READERS PICKS RESORTS Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort, Key Largo Hawks Cay Resort and Marina, Duck Key Looe Key Reef Resort, Ramrod Key

OPERATORS

READERS PICKS OPERATORS

Rainbow Reef, Key Largo Ocean Divers, Key Largo Horizon Divers, Key Largo Dive Key West Key Dives, Islamorada Quiescence Key, Key Largo Florida Keys Dive Center, Islamorada

Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas, New Providence Island, Bahamas

LIVEABOARDS Aqua Cat, Bahamas Blackbeard’s Cruises, Bahamas Bahamas Master Bahamas Aggressor

BAHAMAS

9

The Bahamas has shark dives, sheer walls and deep shipwrecks—plenty to increase your underwater street cred.

But it’s also home to shallow reefs thriving in waters so clear that visibility of 100 feet is just another Tuesday.

“It’s very easy diving,” says Stuart Cove, owner of

PHILIPPINES the dive center of the same name, based in Nassau.

Beginners can relish in shallow reef dives, then work their way up to exploring walls and wrecks.

After all, the reasons these islands are a strong choice for new divers—good conditions, warm water and

10

Beginner divers don’t always hone buoyancy skills until they find themselves in situations that demand them.

Diving in the Philippines is dominated by critters—mandarinfish, pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefish and other finds so small that

only divers with dialed-in buoyancy can truly appreciate what they’re looking at.

That’s a pretty solid reason to practice.

Luckily, working on buoyancy isn’t something that anyone has to do alone in the Philippines. Dive operators such as Atmosphere Resorts focus on education, encouraging divers to take classes.

Even those who don’t opt for official instruction can’t help but learn a few tricks from their dive guides thanks to ratios that ensure no more than four divers per instructor.

READERS PICKS RESORTS Atlantis Dive Resorts, Puerto Galera, Philippines Atmosphere Resorts and Spa, Dauin, Philippines Turtle Bay Dive Resort, Cebu, Philippines

TRAV EL : DE STI N AT ION S

A CHANGE OF SCENERY Queensland’s newest dive site provides wreck lovers with a playground near the Great Barrier Reef

BY ANDY ZUNZ

ittle by little, I progress down the line, peering through greenish water to see an outline take shape. Here in Queensland, Australia, most dives are spent on sunlit reefs hunting for Nemo, potato cod and giant clams. But not today. We’re in for a proper wreck dive.

The structure appears: Tobruk is a hulk. The viz is gritty, the water is chilly, and I’m loving every second of it.

Welcome to Queensland’s newest metal masterpiece, a ship that didn’t sink according to plan but now offers divers a perfect change of pace, on the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef.

“The best part about diving the Tobruk is the variety and amount of marine life that inhabit her—it’s incredible,” says Brett Lakey, managing director of Bundaberg operator Lady Musgrave Experi-

The Tobruk (shown sinking at opposite, left) sits on its side, which makes for interesting dive routes. Opposite, right: aerial view of Townsville.

ence. “The dive exceeds all expectations, due to the unique layout and ease of the dive over multiple depths.”

The 415-foot vessel served for three decades in the Royal Australian Navy as a landing craft. It was designed with massive bow doors to load large vehicles, creating an epic route for advanced divers. Penetration dives start at the stern, allowing divers to explore the cavernous tank deck for more than 300 feet. For those who prefer not to explore the tank deck, the top of Tobruk extends to within 40 feet of the surface. It’s been less than a year since divers first descended to the deck, and there’s already a resident

DIVERS GUIDE CONDITIONS Viz typically falls between 20 and 60 feet depending on tides, with water temperatures in the high 60s to mid-70s. Current is also affected by the tides, ranging from low to medium strength. Lady Musgrave Experience conducts an exterior dive first, allowing divers to get their bearings before performing a penetration dive, which is reserved for experienced divers. WHAT TO WEAR A 5 mm to 7 mm wetsuit with a hood; gloves to prevent injury on the descent line; a dive light and backup for penetration dives; and fins suitable for current.

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TRACY OLIVE; OPPOSITE FROM LEFT: TRACY OLIVE; CORAL BRUNNER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

L

PADI Travel Tips Booking a trip to Queensland? Get insider info from the experts at PADI Travel.

green sea turtle—Brookie—schools of spadefish, barracuda, trevally and even some tropical species such as parrotfish and lionfish.

Originally intended to sit upright, Tobruk turned over when it was scuttled, landing on its starboard side. This came as an initial disappointment to local divers and operators, but the site was salvaged thanks to cut-out adjustments that allow divers to penetrate safely with its new orientation. Tobruk’s location between Bundaberg and Hervey Bay allows access on day trips from either town.

It’s hard to take a day off from diving the Great Barrier Reef, but sometimes you just need to get your wreck fix.

1. Travel to Tropical North Queensland in July to freedive with minke whales; wait until August to catch the humpback migration off the Sunshine Coast; or head to Flinders Reef any time of the year to get up close with giant turtles and wobbegongs.

2. Queensland has strict regulations on dive insurance compared to other popular destinations. PADI Travel offers free DAN insurance on trips that cost more than $1,000 per person.

3. Queensland is huge—double the size of Texas! To save cash and minimize carbon emissions, opt for Greyhound

coaches over domestic flights. hills of Agnes Water, spotting You can hop on and hop off, ex- kangaroos and wallabies as the ploring the coast as you wish. sun is just about to set.

4. Channel your inner biker and head to Townsville for an unforgettable Scooter Roo experience. There’s no bike license required, but your bike, helmet and vintage leather jacket will be provided. Drive through the

5. Those in search of paradise can’t miss Fraser Island or the Whitsunday Islands, both hotspots for white-sand beaches, crystal-clear blue lagoons, jaw-dropping tropical scenery and bags of adventure.

T RAV EL : DRI VE AN D DIVE

JENNIFER IDOL is the first woman to dive all 50 states in the U.S., author of An American Immersion, and a PADI AmbassaDiver. She’s also a member of the Ocean Artists Society.

N EED TO KNOW When to Go Water is warmest in summer and clearest in winter, although reservations are required for winter diving.

Dive Conditions The temperature drops steeply below the thermocline, making drysuits a near necessity in cooler seasons.

Operators Enter the quarry with Pennyroyal Scuba Center [pennyroyalscuba.com].

A motorcycle is just one highlight awaiting divers at the bottom of the bright-blue quarry.

the pile of big rocks and the blue boat on the way to the advanced-diving platform. Warm up in the shallow section, where navigational lines run between shallow attractions that range from a vintage motorcycle to a UH-1 Huey helicopter. Snorkeling and freediving are also possible from this area. Afterward, enjoy a glimpse of Southern charm with an adults-only tour of the Casey Jones Distillery, where they’ve been brewing moonshine for generations.

KENTUCKY Escape to leisurely blue-water diving and sample the surrounding charm of a spring-fed quarry

BY JENNIFER IDOL

IF YOU HAVE ONE DAY Visit as many sites as possible along the pavilion area and down to the shallow-water dive area. Standouts include a 1941 fire truck, one of the first sites created when the quarry opened to diving.

Fish congregate in shallow areas but can

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be found inside cars and trucks. Visibility is generally superior, especially above 80 feet, but heavy rains might stir up the silty bottom. Lines take you between sunken treasures such as rock-crushing equipment and an old television. The small western Kentucky town of Hopkinsville boasts authentic American treats from an old-fashioned ice cream parlor to Amanda’s Cupcake Cafe.

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IF YOU HAVE TWO DAYS Choose a deeper destination along the quarry wall on the far side, where catfish hide. Observe the quarry’s natural landscape and trees at the bottom. Pass

Kentucky Blue Springs Resort

Tennessee

JENNIFER IDOL (2)

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nexpectedly clear water at Blue Springs Resort in Hopkinsville—a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Louisville—provides a training environment to build photography and dive skills independent of weather. Stay in a nearby hotel, or add a little adventure to the experience and camp out with the family.

IF YOU HAVE THREE DAYS Explore the little-seen deep section with a diver propulsion vehicle or as a deep diver to see original components from the quarry, such as the conveyor line and sump-pump hole. This section is the smallest and deepest with the closest proximity to the ledge. Practice taking photographs looking up to create a dramatic effect. Few divers visit the far side near the south ramp, where large trees line the bottom. More than 37 attractions have been sunk throughout the limestone quarry, providing buoyancy opportunities, photo subjects and interest. Register online so that you can spend more time diving.

MA RK ET P L AC E

• Includes all meals, beverages and transfers • Free Nitrox • Tech diving available • Nine spacious suites

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DIVE WITH MARTIN SCUBA C L ISLAND’S FASTEST BOATS, ISLAND’S BEST DIVE MASTERS!! y 20+ years diving Cozumel! y 4 day / 2-tank boat dives $265 y FREE use of Sherwood dive gear y Group Rates y Hotel Packages y 2-4 bedroom Condo rentals

Email Stacey for package rates & knowledgeable service Voted one of the Best Dive Operators in the Caribbean & Atlantic ] u t – No Fees 888-512-8747 | sburton@airmail.net | www.divewithmartin.com

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Call 1-800-432-5646 (JOIN) savethemanatee.org Photo © David Schrichte

/ NOVEMBER 2019 / 97

T RAV E L : P ER F E C T 1 0

tions, coral gardens that blaze with color and schooling fish galore.

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GO GLAMPING IN ESPIRITU SANTO November through April’s perfect Baja weather is prime time for sleeping in a luxury tent and bathing under a solar shower on a remote island beach in the Sea of Cortez.

SALVATIERRA WRECK This 320-foot-long former landing craft reborn as a Baja ferry sank in 1976 after running aground off La Paz. Everything from schooling barracuda to nudibranchs thrives in depths that max out around 60 feet.

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Soak up some sun in between underwater encounters with wrecks, sea lions, schooling fish and more

BY TERRY WARD

URIBE 121 Roughly 50 miles south of San Diego off Rosarito, the 220-foot-long wreck of this Mexican navy patrol boat was purpose-sunk in 2015 to form the first artificial reef in the Rosarito Underwater Park. Visits to the Uribe 121 are usually paired with dives in a nearby kelp forest— a win-win.

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LAND’S END You’re in both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean when you dive this favorite Cabo San Lucas site, where you can often see underwater sand falls where the bodies of water meet. Schooling baitfish, tuna and sea lions abound.

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LOS ISLOTES Ochre-hued islands rising from the Sea of Cortez near La Paz draw sea lions and those who adore their antics to this shallow site, also referred to as the Colony. Hundreds of sea lions live here yearround; the in-water action takes place at depths between 25 and 50 feet.

GO WHALE-WATCHING IN SAN IGNACIO LAGOON Watching whales watching you is pure magic. December through April is peak season for taking boat tours to spot eastern Pacific gray whales showing off their calves in San Ignacio Lagoon, where the whales spend the winter.

LORETO BAY NATIONAL MARINE PARK You could spend your entire dive vacation at this preserved underwater volcanic paradise, home to 800 species of fish, sea turtles, Humboldt squid and much more. Uninhabited islands such as Danzante and the Coronados thrill divers with striking underwater rock forma-

DIVERS GUIDE AVERAGE WATER TEMP From 65 to 75 degrees F WHAT TO WEAR 3 mm to 7 mm wetsuit with hood AVERAGE VIZ 40 to 80 feet with the best visibility from August to November WHEN TO GO August to March MORE INFO travel.padi.com/d/baja-california

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GORDO BANKS A shot at seeing whale sharks, giant manta rays and schooling hammerheads draws advanced divers to this deepwater seamount some 28 miles off Cabo San Lucas, where you can try your luck diving with giants in around 110 feet of water.

SWING BY TODOS SANTOS About an hour north of Los Cabos, Todos Santos, designated a Pueblo Mágico (magic town) by Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism, is worth at least a day trip if not several days of your time.

Beginner surfers can try their luck—or lessons—at the mellow break at Playa Cerritos, south of town.

TERRY WARD got certified in Florida’s springs for a college course, and has since dived everywhere from Halmahera, Indonesia, to Norway’s icy Svalbard archipelago.

MAP ILLUSTRATION: STUART HILL

BAJA CALIFORNIA

VISIT A HISTORIC MINING TOWN A visit to Baja’s historic gold- and silver-mining town, El Triunfo, is a real surprise, complete with restored colonial buildings to explore and stylish cafes, such as Bar el Minero. (Don’t miss the paella and draft root-beer floats.)

ONE BAG. A LIFETIME OF ADVENTURE.

Introducing the PADI x Osprey Collection, exclusively at padigear.com.*

*Only available to customers in the U.S. and its territories

© PADI 2019