Cover OCT v2_April Cover(final) 02/09/2014 16:40 Page 1
DIVE 2014 SHOW SPECIAL ISSUE
BRITAIN’S BEST-SELLING DIVING MAGAZINE
EXCLUSIVE!
OCTOBER 2014
divernet.com
THE REAL T’GORM
SIERRA LEONE On an 18th-century treasure wreck
That vehicle cargo is not what we thought!
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TEDDIES & GREMLINS Bizarre beasts on the Komodo run
MONTY’S MARAUDERS How Great were those British Diving Expeditions?
WILL IT STING? Dodging ‘dangers’ on Australia’s GBR
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First In OCT_May First In 01/09/2014 17:05 Page 03
STEVE WEINMAN, EDITOR
FIRST IN THE TRUCK STOPS HERE IN THE YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR TWO, a headmaster called Charles Warnell launched the I-SPY series. Few parents would have been without a selection of these cheap little spotter books in the following decades, because they proved such an effective way of keeping their kids quiet on long car or train journeys, before computer games were an option. Every item spotted, whether a make of car, species of bird or tree, was ticked off, and when the child had enough points, based on the rarity of the sighting, he or she received a certicate from “Big Chief I-SPY”. divEr biology consultant David Bellamy was in fact the last of those Big Chiefs. Surprisingly, the concept still seems to work in the digital age, because Michelin revived the books a few years ago and they’re said to sell well. But back in the day I-SPY nurtured generations of what, when I worked on a truck publication, we called “gricers” – a term borrowed from trainspotting to denote men (typically) who can distinguish any Mk VI from a Mk VII at a glance and put not just a year but a month on its production. Now gricers have teamed up with divers to perform a service we’re all going to appreciate. The Thistlegorm sank 73 years ago this month off Ras Mohammed in the Red Sea and, despite time’s ravages, lives on as one of the world’s most popular wreck-dives.
ALEX MUSTARD HAS SPENT OVER A YEAR ON A SECRET MISSION
Much of the appeal is based on the vehicles Thistlegorm was carrying for delivery to British forces in Egypt during WW2.
It was an article by John Bantin in divEr in the early 1990s that alerted the diving community to the position of the wreck, but initial inventories of the contents have gone unchallenged since that time. divEr has been as guilty in this regard as anyone else, although a few
details were cleared up by Chris Frost in our pages eight years ago. But now we bring you the first major reappraisal in the 22 years since Thistlegorm was rediscovered. Alex Mustard, the underwater photographer who each month provides us with amazing images and photographic advice, has spent over a year on a secret mission that he set himself, cataloguing the contents of Thistlegorm’s main holds with the help of some of the finest gricers available. Seen under such a merciless spotlight, it seems that for years we’ve been looking but not seeing. “What’s really exciting, and very surprising, is that the majority of vehicles have not been identified correctly before,” Alex told me. Two common types of lorry that account for more than 20 of the vehicles on the wreck were previously unknown. And those “Bedford trucks” always mentioned; you’ll be surprised to learn their exact numbers. Military vehicle restorers studied Alex’s detailed high-res underwater photos and videos to secure positive ID. “This really transforms what we know about the vehicles and also the diving experience, which is so much richer knowing what everything is, where it is, how to recognise the vehicles and how many of each type there are,” says Alex. We expect Thistlegorm enthusiasts to be booking flights to revisit the wreck and dive with fresh eyes after reading Alex’s article. We’ve called it I-SPY because his achievement seems to be the perfect union of observation, recording, gricing and persistence. Big Chief I-SPY would have been proud.
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Contents OCT_Contents_MAY 02/09/2014 10:53 Page 05
0CTOBER 2014 Volume 59 No 9
CONTENTS
FEATURES 26 I-SPY
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Alex Mustard puts the Thistlegorm in a whole new light
incorporating
Published monthly by Eaton Publications, 8 Mount Mews, High Street, Hampton, Middlesex, TW12 2SH Tel: 020 8941 8152, Fax: 020 8941 8813 Email: enquiries@divermag.co.uk Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Nigel Eaton nigel@divermag.co.uk Editor Steve Weinman steve@divermag.co.uk
39 Four Expeditions In Diving the UK’s least accessible sites with Monty Halls
Publishing Consultant Tony Weston tony@divermag.co.uk Technical Editor Nigel Wade divingnige@btinternet.com
47 Go Komodo 39
Diving some of Indonesia’s more challenging regions
53 DIVE 2014 Your planner for this year’s Dive Show at the NEC
70 Be the Champ! 47
Get your super-macro lens ready for some nudi shots
Production Manager George Lanham george@divermag.co.uk Webmaster Mike Busuttili webmaster@divernet.com
Advertisement Manager Jenny Webb jenny@divermag.co.uk Classified Advertisement Sales Sara Duncan sara@divermag.co.uk
75 Record-Breakers Underwater Guinness World Records at 60
82 The Vanishing Dutchman 82
News Editor Paul Fenner paul@divermag.co.uk
Leigh Bishop joins a wreck expedition to Sierra Leone
90 Myth-Busting Down Under Out on a liveaboard in the Great Barrier Reef
Senior Advertisement Executive Alex Khachadourian alex@divermag.co.uk Advertising Production David Eaton david@divermag.co.uk Subscriptions Manager Teresa Pullen teresa@divermag.co.uk Marketing, Sales & divEr Bookshop Dorothy Eaton dorothy@divermag.co.uk Elizabeth Puttock uwp-mailshop@divermag.co.uk Financial Controller Kojo Gyamera kojo@divermag.co.uk
96 Shooting For Tethys 90
Photographers get among the world’s megafauna
Reception enquiries@divermag.co.uk
EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS
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Archaeology Martin Dean Biology Dr David Bellamy Industry Dr John Bevan Law Prof Mike Williams Medicine Dr Ian Sibley-Calder Photography Saeed Rashid, Brian Pitkin Ships Richard Larn Wrecks Rex Cowan
http://tiny.cc/b2uld
THE MAGAZINE THAT’S STRAIGHT DOWN THE LINE… HOW TO GET YOUR divEr: SUBSCRIPTION: Twelve issues, including p&p, cost £52.80 (UK); £64.80 (Eire/Europe/Worldwide surface); airmail rates available on request. Pay by Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, sterling cheque or UK Postal Order. Contact the Subscriptions Dept, divEr at the above address. NEWSAGENT: If you prefer to buy divEr over the counter, place an order with your newsagent now? All newsagents can obtain the magazine, but in case of difficulty please notify the Circulation Manager at the above address. divEr (ISSN-0141-3465) is published monthly by Eaton Publications, Periodicals Postage Paid at Jamaica NY 11431. USPS no. 22517. US agent: Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. US POSTMASTER: Send address changes to divEr Magazine, C/O Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA.
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Contents OCT_Contents_MAY 02/09/2014 15:07 Page 06
CONTENTS REGULARS First In
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Editor’s view
Off-Gassing
8
No flatulence in the underwater world
News
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More deaths mar this summer’s diving 8
Beachcomber
22
Marriage proposals are risky under water
Trewavas
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The fascination of international diving magazines
106 Reviews Shark Q&A heads new book reviews
108 Booking Now All the holiday news
112 Diver Tests DSMB, wing, hoods & mobile chargers
120 Just Surfaced
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New but untested diving products
122 Dive Holiday Directory 124 Liveaboard Directory 126 Classified Ads 128 Dive Centre Directory 128 Advertisers’ Index 129 Subscribe Here – and get a free Apeks diving watch!
130 Deep Breath Why sharks are getting a better press
Cover shot: Diver and motorbike on the Thistlegorm, Red Sea, by Alex Mustard The reproduction in whole or in part of any of the contents of divEr is expressly forbidden without the written permission of the Publishers. Copyright © 2014 by Eaton Publications. divEr reserves the right to reproduce on-line any articles that it has published in print. The views expressed in FIRST IN are not necessarily those of anyone but the Editor, and other editorial should be ascribed only to the authors concerned. The publishers accept no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions or alterations, or for any consequences ensuing upon the use of, or reliance upon, any information contained
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120 herein. Due caution should be exercised by anyone attempting dives on any site herein described or indicated. The company does not accept liability for submitted photographs. The printing of an advertisement in divEr does not necessarily mean that the Proprietors endorse the company, item or service advertised. divEr is distributed by Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT (tel: 020 7429 4000) and printed by Headley Brothers Ltd, The Invicta Press, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH (tel: 01233 623131).
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OFF GASSING
This month’ s selection from the divEr inbox… as “spending the rest of his days behind bars”. I realise that at the time of writing your comments appeared to be true to you, but the fact is that while Mr Mackenney did go to prison for murder, in 2003 his case was proven to be a fabricated story. He was released, after serving 24 years, with a very small amount of compensation, still not fully received, that could never make up for the taking away of so much of somebody’s life. Mr Mackenney now resides in Chelmsford and is nearly 83. After going through the turmoil, upset and truly life-changing experience of false imprisonment, he has missed out on many of his life’s passions, including flying and, of course, diving. Unfortunately his health is so poor now that he is on 24-hour oxygen support and is unable to walk even a couple of steps. So I would like to ensure that he is remembered well for the invention of which he is so very proud.
PASSING WIND THOUGHTS
MATTHEW ALLEN, BASILDON, ESSEX
NIGEL WADE
On a recent dive trip to Egypt, a fellowdiver raised an interesting but seldom talked-about subject of passing wind while diving. He commented that he has never broken wind under water, and this was echoed by other divers on the boat. This got me thinking (something to do to occupy my mind on the way back from Ras Mohammed). Humans produce 0.5-1.5 litres of flatus every 24 hours (at sea level) and we pass wind 10-20 times a day on average. This is made up of 25% nitrogen and oxygen, 74% hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane and the remaining 1% consists of hydrogen sulphide, methanethiol and dimethyl sulphide, giving flatus its characteristic odour. 26% of the flatus is from the air we swallow as well as gases produced from food and beverages. The remaining gases are produced from the action of micro-organisms on the unabsorbed food materials. Factors that may increase the volume of flatus include an increase in salivation and swallowing associated with seasickness experienced by some divers. With the dry air we inhale under water, we also increase our swallowing to try to moisten our oral cavities. Also, we must not forget the increase in consumption of fermented beverage that is customary after a day’s diving. On another note, some divers adopt a head up position instead of a horizontal trim because of photography or the desire to admire a beautiful wall, which has a tendency to empty the rectum of gas as it migrates upwards, therefore reducing the desire to pass wind. However the most overwhelming effect is
the compression of gas in the rectum, in accordance with Boyle’s law. At sea level the average volume of flatus of normal subjects is between 5-375 millilitres but at 30m the volume of the gas in the rectum is compressed to 1-94 millilitres. This reduces rectal distension and the sensation of needing to pass wind. This supports the observation of my learned fellow divers. As for our behaviour after a dive, your gas is as good as mine (please pardon the pun).
Comment: The Divernet entry has now been amended to omit the reference to Harry Mackenney’s whole-life tariff, and our apologies to him and to his family for not having been aware that he had been exonerated. His Aqua-Lift design was a British-made ABLJ (Adjustable Buoyancy Life Jacket) fitted with a direct feed. Previous ABLJs had to be operated via a small dedicated cylinder – the Aqua-Lift was the first to take air from the diver's own tank, using a "junction box" to share the contents-gauge hose and a handwheel to regulate air flow. The direct-feed system was primarily an emergency breathing apparatus to be used in case of regulator failure but the Aqua-Lift approach paved the way for today’s BCs.
DR PHILIP TING, LONDON
GET ON THE CASE! Send us our lead letter and you win a watertight NANUK 905 case, measuring 31 x 25 x 15cm, from Beaver Sports. With cubed foam inserts and weighing just 1.5kg, the case retails at £59. NANUK cases come in four colours and seven sizes – full details at www.nanukcases.co.uk
BC pioneer’s pardon My compliments on Divernet; it is a great site. An article of particular interest to me is one called BC Basics by John Bantin (divEr, August 2011). Not only is this a good article but I am very grateful for some of the comments included within it. I am the stepson of Harry Mackenney, who was very proud to tell me about his invention of the Aqua-Lift Direct Feed ABLJ back in 1962. However, even though he obtained patents for his invention in 1971, he was full of disappointment about
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This NANUK case and all the other products from Beaver Sports are obtainable at all good dive shops. For a free colour brochure, prices and stockist list, call 01484 512354 or visit www.beaversports.co.uk
having received no recognition for his life-saving ideas in any shape or form. After finding your site, my family and I were very happy and thankful to have seen his name in the feature; today most such articles do not even mention who the inventor of the Direct Feed ABLJ was. In February 1972 Triton magazine [divEr’s predecessor] carried a picture of Mr Mackenney wearing his invention, bearing his company logo. The article does however go on to refer to him
www.divErNEt.com
Off-Gassing OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:30 Page 09
Anemones see off blue aliens While diving near Arrochar, Loch Long, I came upon evidence of a failed alien invasion, repulsive blue lifeforms which had been attacked and repulsed by sea loch anemones (Protanthea simplex). The anemones had obviously penetrated the aliens’ every orifice after which, judging by their hideously contorted features, the aliens had died in agony.
GRAHAM BROWN, BLANDFORD, DORSET
Too free? While not wishing to detract from their fun, the picture of Freya Greatwood, aged 10, in charge of a twin 85 RIB at speed, apparently without a kill-cord or life-jacket, is not a good advert for nautical safety (Oh, So Free!, September). The deaths and maiming of the Milligan family off Padstow recently spring to mind as a reminder that these items are there for a purpose.
CM DODSON, BURTON ON TRENT, STAFFS Freya’s father Marcus Greatwood comments: I do not drive a boat, and acknowledge the expertise of trained boathandlers. In this instance the skipper (with kill-cord) had been controlling the boat with Freya standing in front of him. At his suggestion, and in a suitably safe part of the journey, he stood just out of shot for the fraction of a second it took to take the image. Other photos in the series are available showing him holding the wheel accordingly. We are sorry if this image could promote unsafe practices – this was clearly not our intention.
Wanted in Paradise I am working on a new BBC2 TV series called Wanted in Paradise and we are looking for UK families and couples who are seriously considering a move abroad. Perhaps one member of the family is keen to move and needs help convincing the others? Families taking part in the series will road-test real life in places that are very far from life in the UK, gaining an insight into what it’s like to live and work in the location of which they've always dreamed. I’m looking for UK families to take part in the series who are genuinely looking to make the move and for whom this could be a genuine opportunity, and would ask anyone interested to email us at wantedinparadise@ bbc.co.uk or call 0117 974 6666.
CLAIRE PARRY, CASTING PRODUCER, BBC, BRISTOL
Not that northern I very much enjoyed Sue Daly’s article in your last issue (Diving With a Viking, September), but the geography seems to be seriously askew – Trondheimsfjord is not “northern Norway”, as mentioned in the intro, yet covering 4000 nautical miles in the first week as stated in the story would have taken her on one hell of a northern trip!
LISA NELSON, MACCLESFIELD Comment: Please allow us this opportunity to absolve the meticulous Sue Daly from any blame here – the northern Norway reference was erroneously included by divEr later, and the extra zero added to 400 miles too. Our apologies!
Got something diving-related you’d care to share? Email steve@divermag.co.uk, including your name and postal address – and please confirm that you’re writing exclusively to divEr
www.divErNEt.com
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News OCT_Layout 1 01/09/2014 17:17 Page 10
DIVER NEWS
Five die off UK coast and inland F
IVE BRITISH DIVING DEATHS occurred in the last nine days of August, bringing to 13 the number of Britons who have died in diving incidents at home or abroad this year. On 22 August a diver, described by Kent Police as being a man in his 50s, got into difficulty during a night-dive off Dover. An emergency call at 9.40pm informed Dover Coastguard that the diver was aboard the diveboat, unconscious. A lifeboat met the dive-boat two miles off Dover harbour, but despite the efforts of the paramedic aboard the diver died at the scene. On 23 August, Will Smith, 40, from
Hinckley, Leicestershire, lost his life while cave-diving with two other people in the disused Aber Las quarry and mine in the Glyn Ceiriog valley, in the Nantyr area of Llangollen in north Wales. An emergency call was made just before 2pm, with reference to a diver collapsed or injured beyond a long sump (flooded passage). Searchers arrived from North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation, North East Wales Search & Rescue Team, Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation and, from north Yorkshire, the Cave Rescue Organisation, flown in by Northumberland’s RAF SAR helicopter. The missing diver’s body
Liv Philip wins in Greece
Liv Philip, winner of the Mediterranean World Cup.
NAS COMES UP WITH WRECK DETECTIVE COURSE FOR PADI THE NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY has combined with PADI to launch a new course and certification, the PADI Wreck Detective Speciality. The course involves a day in the classroom, for “an overview of what wreck diving is all about and why it is relevant to life today”, followed by a day of diving. “I am delighted to announce that the NAS has written and had approved its very own PADI course,” said Mark Beattie-Edwards, NAS Programme Director. “This has been a long time in coming. However, it now
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enables us to introduce a unique skillset and understanding of our underwater heritage to a global diving population. “It is our ambition to have as many competent PADI instructors as possible around the world teach this new interesting speciality.” As divEr went to press in late August, an inaugural course launch in Portland, Dorset was slated for the weekend of 6/7 September, with members of the NAS and PADI attending. www.padi.com, www. nauticalarchaeologysociety.org ■
was located next morning 300m into the sump, and recovered in stages. On 24 August, Paul Brown, 49, from Manchester, went missing on a group dive off St Abbs, in Berwickshire. His buddy was reported to have lost contact with him and surfaced to find that he had not ascended. Searches were carried out by lifeboats from Eyemouth and St Abbs and by an RAF Sea King helicopter, co-ordinated by the Coastguard in Aberdeen. After a full day’s searching on 25 August, the operation was called off the following day in rough sea conditions, and the diver was presumed lost. Two further fatalities occurred as
divEr was going to press. On Bank Holiday Monday (26 August), a 63year-old man died after getting into difficulties on a wreck-dive with friends near Trevose Head, Cornwall. Airlifted to Royal Cornwall Hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival. On the last day of August a 41-yearold male died following an incident reportedly at 40m in the unofficial inland dive-site Dorothea Quarry, near Caernarfon in Wales. The man was airlifted to hospital but was dead on arrival. Two other divers who had tried to rescue him were taken to a recompression unit at Murrayfield Hospital on the Wirral, their condition described as serious. ■
BRITISH FREEDIVER Liv Philip won the 7th Mediterranean World Cup, held off the island of Crete at the beginning of August and hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis. Despite coming off a tight work schedule at home, which meant a short preparation in Greece, Philip managed 55m in Constant Weight, 40m in Constant Weight No Fins and 50m in Free Immersion. Twenty-five freedivers from 13 countries took part in the event. Other Britons were Tim Money (fourth in the men’s), David Tranfield, Chris Crawshaw and Beci Ryan. Meanwhile, as divEr went to press, British men’s and women’s teams due to attend September’s AIDA Team World Championship in Sardinia were Mike Board (captain), Tim Money, Adam Drzazga, Jay Cluskey (reserve), Georgina Miller, Liv Philip and Beci Ryan. ■
Success prompts donation CORNWALL WILDLIFE TRUST has received a £15,000 donation from Frugi, a children’s organic clothing producer based in Helston. The company, which recently received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, has been donating to the Trust for some time, but the bumper sum came after it grew by 45% in a single year. “Everyone at Frugi is extremely proud to continue to help to support the fantastic work that the Trust do to protect Cornwall’s wildlife and wild places,” said Kurt Jewson, a Frugi co-founder. “They are great guys, doing great things.”
Ruth Williams, Marine Conservation Manager for Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: “The amazing donation this year from Frugi will be used to fund both one-off projects as well as ongoing work to help protect our wonderful marine wildlife.” She said that beneficiaries would include “our Cornwall Good Seafood Guide to help people make good decisions when choosing which fish to eat” and “collecting information from dive surveys to find out what really lives beneath the Cornish seas”. www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk, www.welovefrugi.com ■
www.divErNEt.com
News OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:18 Page 11
DIVER NEWS
THE BIG QUESTION Don’t worry, breathe easy “Do you worry that your gas consumption could be better?“ we asked readers last month. It turns out that more than half – 54% of you – do worry. However, as a number of the happy-go-lucky “No”-voting 46% point out, worrying about it only makes matters worse. Tricky!
NO Red Sea liveaboard blue Melody.
Red Sea liveaboard in dry-dock after fire CHARTERERS AND CREW had to be evacuated from the Red Sea liveaboard blue Melody when a fire broke out at the end of July, as the vessel lay moored at Sha'ab Ali, pending a dive on the wreck of the WW2 transporter Thistlegorm. blue o two, which operates blue Melody, stated that the fire was caused by an electrical fault in the engineroom. It was, added the company, doused before it could spread to other parts of the vessel. Those aboard were transferred to another blue o two liveaboard, blue Horizon, and taken back to port. Three crew were hospitalised with smoke inhalation but, according to blue o two, “fully recovered”.
The day after returning to harbour, evacuated charterers were able to join the liveaboard Red Sea Adventurer, run by sister company Red Sea Divers, to continue their holiday. As divEr went to press in late August, Mel Roach of blue o two’s marketing department confirmed that blue Melody remained in dry dock having the engine-room refitted but was expected to be back in operation soon. “Our target is to depart with a group of charterers due aboard on 12 September,” she told divEr . The 5*, air-conditioned blue Melody, which was built in 2007, won Liveaboard of the Year in the divEr Awards of 2012. ■
Somerset survey reveals diverse creatures FOUR PROFESSIONAL DIVERS and marine ecologists have surveyed areas off north Somerset for which little information on marine life exists. Commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts, the dives turned up surprises, with several key species recorded. The team dived off Porlock Weir and found a boulder reef north of Gore Point and a sand and shell plain in the centre of Porlock Bay in the Bristol Channel. Recorded were rare stalked jellyfish, bunches of cuttlefish and squid eggs, squat lobsters, many crab, fish and sponge species, brittle and sunstar starfish plus many sea hares, which are large molluscs. Conditions were challenging, with strong tides, poor vis, difficult access
www.divErNEt.com
and a lack of diving infrastructure. Nigel Phillips, for Somerset Wildlife Trust, said that the Trust was “delighted that this diving survey has shown just how amazingly diverse the shallow offshore waters are here”. Joan Edwards, Head of Living Seas at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “The UK’s vital marine natural resources can only be managed properly if they are first understood. Although some sites are well dived, there is still much we don’t know about the rich and diverse marine life we have around the UK, including Somerset.” The Wildlife Trusts was “delighted to support our colleagues at Somerset Wildlife Trust” in learning more about marine life in the region. ■
“Why worry about something you can’t control; if one’s consumption rate is bad, save up for a rebreather!” Tom Chilcott “My current rate allows me to do the dives I want.” Stuart Clough “Years ago yes, but to anyone new just keep diving, stop worrying about it and you will improve quicker than you realise.” Dave Barber “After 22 years, if it’s not right yet, it never will be.” Geraint I Owen “I still end most dives with 50bar more than my buddy.” Dawn Trusler “Worry about skills like buoyancy, weighting and slimlining and consumption will improve naturally.” Rob Griffin “I couldn’t be happier with my consumption.” Jeiram Jeyaratnam “Diving is a sport, train for it like any other.” Jack Parker “Worrying about your gas consumption is a good way to increase it. Relax, we do this for fun.” Jay Benson “It could be better but I can dive long enough in most conditions not to worry about it and I know my limits!” Nathan Blau “I did at first, especially with group dives, but the Peak Performance course put an end to my worries.” John Williams
YES “As an ex-smoker I do worry but it’s getting better, slowly!” Scott Hartley “I’m pretty good on air but see others (it always seems to be women and/ or smokers) who can make a tank last far longer.” Richard Boutcher “I like to think of it as a competition to beat my buddy.” Giles Coventry “I drink air like water. Practice makes perfect and I hope to try CCR, which should help my dive times.” Kevin Jordan “I often have to use a 15-litre cylinder just to allow my buddy a reasonable dive-time.” Chris Haddock “Dive sidemount, sorted.” Andy Whittle “I remember emptying a 15l tank in 20min, now I can get well over an hour, but who wouldn’t like better consumption?” Allan Forsyth “I tend to tank through air. On a training weekend my instructor uses just one 15l tank. I end up changing every dive.” Gareth Rogers “Being on a 15l cylinder while the rest of the party is on a 12 isn't fun, and they're bloomin’ heavy too.” Chris Heath “So much so that I have a 7-litre pony!” Mark Sanders-Barwick “I hate being first to run low and hope to improve.” Matthew Ferguson “When it gets to a certain level, usually 100 bar, I start thinking about it a lot more and blow through the last 50bar in record time!” Laura Grange “I feel I use too much air due to not being as cardio-fit as I could be.” Hugh McNally “I’ve been nicknamed Guzzler so I’m thinking my consumption could be better!” Zoe Griffiths
Go to www.divernet.com to answer the next Big Question and you could win a £118 Luxfer 3-litre compact emergency pony cylinder from Sea & Sea. More on Luxfer cylinders at www.dive-team.com. Our latest winner is Timothy Joicey.
THE NEXT BIG QUESTION After opening your tank-valve, do you move the knob back a fraction of a turn? Answer yes or no, and feel free to comment
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News OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:19 Page 12
DIVER NEWS
Robson Green goes wreck-diving for TV D
IVERS HAD THE CHANCE to buddy up with actor Robson Green this summer, as he filmed for a second series of the TV series Tales of Northumberland. The producers decided that an underwater episode would be informative and entertaining, so tasked Green with some wreck-diving off the Northumberland coast. Andy Hunt, the British Sub-Aqua Club’s chief examiner for First Class Divers and a member of the club’s Tyneside branch, was approached to organise dives to be filmed for the series and to buddy up with Green for the filmed dives, with other branchmembers also taking part. Two sites were chosen in the area of the Farne Islands: Gun Rocks, where the remains of an ancient wooden ship lie in about 7m of water, and the wreck of the WW2 merchantman Coryton, in 10m. “The Gun Rocks unidentified wreck was discovered by Tyneside Club divers more than 40 years ago and became the subject of an archaeological survey,” said Hunt. “It was first thought the wreck was a man o’ war from the Spanish Armada, as there are lots of cannon scattered on the seabed… but I think it was finally decided that the ship was of Dutch origin. “However, whether it was indeed a man o’ war or a cargo ship carrying guns remains a mystery.” Last year English Heritage asked Tyneside BSAC to re-survey the site with a view to possible protective legislation. “The ss Coryton sank after being attacked by German forces and running aground off the Farne Islands in 1941, with the loss of one life,” said Hunt. “Apparently the captain refused to abandon ship and his body washed ashore the following day.” Clear remains include a large boiler, propeller-shaft, winches and hull
Clockwise from top left: Robson Green training with Sarah Conner; a dive at Gun Rocks; on the Coryton; getting used to the full-face mask. structures spread out on a sandy seabed. Working with Green was a pleasure. “Robson’s enthusiasm shines through and he really wants to show his audience a side of Northumberland, such as her many wreck-sites, they wouldn’t normally get to see.” In preparation for filming, Green gained a diving qualification with Gary Mawston of Aquanorth Diving Centre in Newcastle. So that he could talk to camera under water, he was then versed in the use of a full-face mask by Sarah
Conner, a BSAC Direct instructor and trainer, at Ashington swimming pool. Conner, who works in television making natural history and science programmes, also accompanied the open-water team as safety diver. She described Green’s approach to diving as “very careful”. Robson Green said: “There are three words very close to my heart when it comes to diving, that’s ‘health and safety’, and during my BSAC training I have never felt in safer hands. “I’m from Northumberland of course and have recently returned to
live in the area. Diving with Andy Hunt and the rest of the BSAC team has been a wonderful and unforgettable experience.” Green added that seeing cannon and artefacts where they had come to rest was far better than viewing them in a museum. “The Farne Islands is a place of such beauty and yet tragedy too. ” Equipment and logistical support for the dives came from Cormeton Dive Support, of Seaton Delaval. The second series of Tales of Northumberland is to be aired by ITV early next year. ■
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News OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:20 Page 13
HISTORIC ROW FOR THE LIFEBOATS
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A TEAM OF SCUBA-DIVERS have marked the 100th anniversary of a WW1 sinking by rowing with others some 20 miles from Scarborough to Whitby in a historic RNLI lifeboat. The divers, from the British SubAqua Club's Scarborough and South Bay Scuba branches and from Whitby Anchors Dive Club, joined other rowers from the Scarborough RNLI Lifeboat crew, Scarborough Rowing Club and Scarborough Yacht Club.
They were marking the sinking of the passenger steamer Rohilla, which succumbed to a storm off Whitby on her way from Scotland to Dunkirk to collect wounded soldiers. While 145 men and women were rescued, 84 lives were lost, making the sinking Whitby’s worst maritime disaster. The row was made in the restored William Riley lifeboat which, a century ago, was hauled through Whitby and lowered down a 60m cliff to get to the
The William Riley lifeboat.
NEWS IN BRIEF False alarm A SUSPECTED DECOMPRESSION illness case had a happy ending when a diver fell ill on a visit to the Scylla wreck off Plymouth, Devon in late August. The 28-year-old woman was returned to Plymouth’s Mount Batten, transferred to the recompression unit at DDRC Healthcare in Derriford for assessment – and found to have suffered nothing worse than a bout of sea-sickness. ■
Finning ban A BAN ON SHARK-FINNING by New Zealand comes into force in October. Previously it had been illegal to remove fins from live sharks, but the new regulations also ban the removal of fins from dead sharks and the disposal of carcasses at sea. Conservation Minister Nick Smith has said that the new law will support New Zealand’s reputation for sustainable practices and marine conservation. ■
Seasearch report SEASEARCH, THE MARINE Conservation Society-affiliated marine-life voluntary research group, has published its annual report. The document highlights Seasearch activities around the UK last year, including “survey findings on priority habitats and species, and records of nationally scarce rare
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species”. Download the 2013 Seasearch report at www.seasearch.org.uk ■
ScubaEarth hit-rate MEMBERSHIP OF PADI’S ScubaEarth social network has hit seven figures, the organisation has said. The interactive site has “amassed the advice and expert opinions of over 100,000 PADI members and other experienced divers from around the world, as they offer first-hand knowledge that will prove invaluable to help water enthusiasts dream, plan and share their travel adventures and help divers make the most of their dive lifestyle”. ScubaEarth can be accessed on the move via an app designed for iPhone and Android devices. ■
Recoveries help educate DIVERS HAVE RECOVERED historic pottery fragments in the Trent & Mersey Canal – to help with a local skills-awareness programme. They were raised from an area in which barges were loaded in Victorian times – with pottery sometimes lost into the water. The recovered pieces were delivered to nearby Middleport Pottery, where a workshop was being run to highlight historic pottery skills. Participants were encouraged to “imagine the shape of the pots from these fragments and make pots based on this”, said an arts organiser. ■
Rohilla, which lay grounded close to shore. Involving more than 50 people as rowers or on support boats, the relay row started at 8am and finished at 4pm, with good conditions at the beginning but rougher seas in Robin Hood Bay as the wind rose, nearly causing the row to be curtailed. The William Riley worked as a lifeboat from 1909 to 1931, when it was sold and converted as a cruising vessel. It was found derelict on a Devon beach in 2005 and restored in 2008 as a fund-raising vessel by Whitby Historic Lifeboat Trust. The RNLI fund-raising rows from Scarborough to Whitby were started by local diver Colin Bell in 2005 as a biennial event. Bell died in 2009 aged 52, following a dive. Since then, and in his memory, the row has been organised by Anne Morrison, Treasurer and Membership Secretary of South Bay Scuba, and other BSAC divers. This year’s row raised some £4000 for the RNLI, bringing to about £20,000 the total gathered by the rows since their introduction. ■
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Finds point to medieval wreck ISLES OF SCILLY historic wrecks researcher and surveyor Todd Stevens believes that he may have found the site of a medieval wrecking, which would be one of the oldest wrecks found in the islands. Stevens first found items of pottery around Nut Rock, near Tresco. A return to the site yielded more in a distinct area of concentration, and he realised the finds could originate from a vessel. Dating confirmed the pottery as being 14th century pieces. Just one medieval vessel is documented as lost in the Isles of Scilly, in 1305. However, artefacts from another wreck, in the Tresco Channel and excavated last year, have been dated to 1200. Further dives revealed iron objects buried in the sand in 9-10m, their presence indicated by rust stains on the seabed. Light fanning of the sand revealed what looked like mast-straps, part of an anchor and a rudder pintle, still with some wood sandwiched between the metal surfaces. All pottery pieces raised for analysis have been reported to the Receiver of Wreck. ■
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News OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:21 Page 14
DIVER NEWS
Eco-DIY in Indian Ocean C
OASTAL COMMUNITIES in the western Indian Ocean are increasingly generating their own ways of implementing effective marine-conservation measures, having recognised the need for action if livelihoods are to be protected. That’s the conclusion of an international team of researchers that assessed 11 states from Somalia down to South Africa. Communities, they found, have been setting up their own conservation zones called “locally managed marine areas”, or LMMAs. Some of the areas were not previously designated as protected, while others have been established in state-designated zones so that the community can have better control over conservation management. The team examined 62 local initiatives and 74 state-established marine protected areas (MPAs). The findings come at a time when the establishment of MPAs by governments has gathered momentum as states rush to meet
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conservation needs and protect fisheries and tourism interests. “MPAs are vital tools for marine conservation but often fall short of their potential and can have negative impacts on local fishing communities,” said lead author Steve Rocliffe, a PhD researcher in the Environment Department of the University of York. “Our results show that dissatisfaction with these ‘top-down’ approaches is leading coastal communities across a vast swathe of the Indian Ocean to take more responsibility for their resources… “LMMAs put people at the centre; it’s the fishers themselves who are making the management decisions, based on their needs, priorities, and traditional ecological knowledge.” Report co-author Shawn Peabody, of research participant Blue Ventures, said: “LMMAs have proven to be a cost-effective, scaleable, resilient and more socially acceptable alternative to more traditional ‘top down’ methods of marine-resource
management. They have also shown promise as a means to safeguard food security, address coastal poverty and help coastal communities to adapt to climate change. “We found that although locally managed marine areas are hampered by under-developed legal structures and enforcement mechanisms, they are emerging as a tool of choice in mainland Tanzania and Madagascar, where they cover 3.5 and 4.2 times more area than centrally-managed MPAs respectively.” Mialy Andriamahefazafy, Policy Officer Blue Ventures, added that LMMAs protect, in some cases, “up to 1000sq km of ocean”. “The way forward now is to establish a network through which LMMA practitioners can share experiences and best practice,” said Peabody. The research report Towards a Network of Locally Managed Marine areas (LMMAs) in the Western Indian Ocean is published in the journal PLOS ONE (www.plosone.org). ■
Caymans rays to get greater protection THE CAYMAN ISLANDS government has moved to provide protection for all sting rays to be found in Cayman waters, for marine conservation and the need to protect a valuable tourism resource. Visiting divers enjoy close encounters with large southern sting rays at two sites off Grand Cayman’s North Sound, Stingray City and the Sandbar. Until now the law has protected the creatures only in these areas, designated as Wildlife Interaction Zones, and in marine parks or designated environmental zones. However, an amendment to Cayman conservation law has extended that protection to all southern sting rays in Cayman waters. The protection extends to eagle and manta rays. ■
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Dive Worldwide (PNG FP) – 10_14_PNG 28/08/2014 15:05 Page 1
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Located just north of Australia and adjacent to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea’s hundreds of dive sites are among the best in the world. You’ll discover atolls, passages, lagoons, wrecks and world famous Muck diving. It’s no wonder PNG is dubbed as the underwater photographer’s paradise. Visit www.papuanewguinea.travel/UK or contact PNG and Wantok dive specialists Dive Worldwide.
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News OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:22 Page 17
DIVER NEWS
Bennett backs club fund-raising A
UTHOR AND PLAYWRIGHT Alan Bennett has supported a British diving club in its efforts to raise money for the RNLI. Bennett heard how the Ribble Valley’s Clitheroe branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club had been engaging in sponsored acts to raise the funds, in memory of a former member, Duncan Priestley, who died from cancer last August, aged 59. Bennett donated four signed copies of his books and, as divEr went to press, the club was planning to sell them by online auction on eBay. It hoped to raise another £1000 or so to add to £4000 already garnered from an underwater relay event held at Lake Coniston, involving 16 divers submerging for a total of more than eight hours. Responding to a request from club training officer Fiona Imlach, Bennett
Fiona Imlach with the letter from Alan Bennett (above). sent the copies of Smut, The Uncommon Reader, Untold Stories and Four Stories to her, with a letter describing his own scuba experiences of some 50 years ago. “I’ve only once been scuba-diving,”
ANCIENT VESSEL FOUND OFF MALTA
Marine films tour UK
Still from the film The Giant And The Fisherman.
A FILM FESTIVAL centred on oceanic subjects is taking place at theatres around Britain. The 2014 International Ocean Film Festival UK Tour started on 4 September but continues until 30 October. From 18 September, 13 venues remain in Brighton, Llandudno, Portsmouth, Leeds, Edinburgh, Inverness, Exeter, Bath, Poole, Bristol, Cambridge, Malvern and Birmingham. At each venue 11 short films, some related to diving and marine life and ranging from three to 38 minutes, will be shown. The festival organiser is donating 25p from every ticket sold to the Project AWARE Foundation for its conservation projects. Project AWARE will exhibit at the Bristol venue on 11 October, www.oceanfilmfestival.co.uk ■
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he wrote. “It was in Sardinia in the early sixties before Sardinia was a holiday resort and was just a primitive island. “We went diving – I say diving but it was only in five feet or so of water – in
an idyllic bay, the sandy floor of which was strewn with broken earthenware wine jars from centuries of Roman and mediaeval shipwrecks. “I brought up the handle of a wine bottle which I still have somewhere, although it’s hardly a priceless artefact. “Ten years or so later a character in a TV play of mine, Our Winnie, is mad keen on what was then called ‘subaqua’. He’s a bit of a clown and by the end of the play he’s gone off sub-aqua and got onto something else.” Donations can still be made to the club’s RNLI fund-raising enterprise at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ ribblernlirelay Clitheroe has 34 members, 20 of whom are “actively diving on a regular basis”, says Imlach. The club is “blessed with numerous in-house instructors including national instructors”. www.rvsac.org ■
OFF MALTA, DIVERS have been examining an ancient vessel the cargo of which could be the oldest Phoenician items ever found. Twenty lava-grinding stones and 50 amphorae of seven varieties date the ship, which lies in 120m of water about a mile off Gozo, to around 700 BC, said University of Malta researcher Timothy Gambin. Samples have been raised for examination. “This discovery is considered to be
unique… because it is the oldest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean and is in a fantastic state of preservation,” he told the Times of Malta. “The technical team… are creating a very high-resolution 3D model of the site.” Wreckage is spread over 70sq m. Researchers from France and the USA have joined Maltese experts on the project under the Superintendence of National Heritage. ■
SEAL ALLOWS HUMAN TO HELP IT A DIVER WAS ABLE to remove a plastic wrap from the body of a seal when she came across the entangled creature as she snorkelled in marine reserve waters off Lundy Island, near the Bristol Channel. Lesley Harper, of Seastyle Diving, had entered the water from the charter-boat Jessica Hettie. “The seal suddenly appeared with this plastic wrap around it,” she said. “Luckily I managed to coax it off and stuff it in my pocket. The seal was acting like it was a toy!” Harper’s successful move was all the more remarkable for the fact that the reaction of the young female grey seal contradicted the more usual reaction of seals, which is to allow humans to get close but never
The seal before removal of the plastic. manhandle them. Beccy MacDonald, the Lundy Warden, said it was the first seal she knew of “to allow a person to remove an entanglement”. She added: “Normally we would discourage anyone from having direct physical contact with the seals;
however on this occasion Lesley did a wonderful thing and helped this curious youngster. “Unfortunately, there are a number of seals around the North Devon coast, and across the UK, who carry scars of past entanglements. “Many of these scars are found around their necks, as curious seals have a tendency to play with rubbish, particularly nets, within which they become ensnared.” Beach cleans and underwater clean-ups, such as those run by the Marine Conservation Society and Surfers Against Sewage, can, says MacDonald, “reduce the chances of marine mammals coming into contact with potentially harmful rubbish”. ■
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News OCT_Layout 1 01/09/2014 17:28 Page 19
DIVER NEWS
Scientists recognise long-term changes
RY MYSTERY DIVERDIVER
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ELLERTON PARK, YORKSHIRE Warmwater stalked barnacle found only at a few locations in south-west Cornwall but increasing in abundance. THE VALUE OF LONG-TERM observations in identifying shifts in marine-life patterns has been highlighted by a report by Plymouth’s Marine Biological Association on marine eco-system studies in the north-eastern Atlantic. Referring to its paper published by the Royal Society in late August, the MBA said that its “sustained observations” had highlighted “massive changes across UK marine systems”, related to “climate change, ocean acidification, exploitation of commercial fish stocks and pollution”. The UK has, says the MBA, the “longest-running sustained biological records of ecosystems, habitats and species” which date to the 1800s – and “many of which were started, and continue to be collected” by the association. “Observations of marine life dating back over a century are key to detecting how the impacts of our society have dramatically, and in
some cases irrevocably changed our coastal ecosystems and the life that they support,” said the paper’s lead author, Dr Nova Mieszkowska. Climate change has driven many species towards cooler seas further north, says the MBA, meaning “losses of native species in southern coastlines and arrival of species (including invasive species) that are more suited to warmer seas” and a resultant altering of “the structure and the healthy functioning of ecosystems”. Commercial fish stocks are “declining due to overfishing”. Affected populations and habitats have included plankton, fish, kelp forests and rocky shore communities, factors that have raised “major concerns for all marine ecosystems and the life that they support”. The paper, The Role of Sustained Observations in Tracking Impacts of Environmental Change on Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystems, is published at dx.doi.org/10.1098/ rsta.2013.0339 ■
Alcoholic drink survives two centuries A SEALED BROWN stoneware bottle raised from a 200-year-old shipwreck near Gdansk, Poland has been dated to the early 1800s and found to contain an alcoholic beverage of 14% alcohol, perhaps a type of gin. The find is rare, as stoneware containers of that time normally held beer or wine. Tomasz Bednarz, an archaeologist at the National Maritime Museum who has led
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work on the wrecked cargo vessel, told press that the 30cm-high, 1-litre bottle’s contents could probably be drunk, in that it “would not cause poisoning” – even though “it does not smell particularly good”. The wreck was found in just 12m of water, not far from the shore, during routine surveying last year. Other finds raised include wooden blocks and ceramic and metal vessels. ■
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RANQUIL AND NATURALLY beautiful were my first thoughts as I entered the car park for Ellerton Park in North Yorkshire. Ellerton’s 60-acre lake is often used as a training location – with a maximum depth of 10m and a large car park just metres from the lake’s edge, my immediate thoughts were of how easy it would be to get kitted up and into the water. It was at this point that I turned to the practicalities of diving. I had already asked at the Farmshop and Country Café (great menu and well-stocked children’s play area) about the diving facilities, only to be told that I should get on with diving and that someone would collect the £6 entry fee. I waited at the car park for just under an hour but didn’t see anyone remotely interested in collecting a fee off me. The toilets and changing rooms are just by the water’s edge and offer a clean if basic environment for getting changed. It was then that I realised that this was it – you could get into the water without anyone checking your diving credentials, and without any information as to what to expect. AFTER A GOOD WALK around the car park, a revisit to the Farmshop and a check of the site’s web pages, it dawned on me that there don’t appear to be any rules or regulations governing this site. I’m sure there are divers who find this appealing – an inland dive-site devoid of “club” membership and rules that govern what you can and can’t do.
However, this is a commercial venture, not an. open-access lake. ather An APD rebre So, what was missing? As part of planning for any diving-related activities at a commercial location such as this I’d expect some sort of regulation to ensure that safe diving practices are adhered to, either on the website or on a prominent notice-board at the centre, or both. I would also expect a briefing and an underwater map: which areas if any are out of bounds and why? What hazards (it’s a popular fishing location) exist? What can I look at and where can I find these spots (there is a training platform and a few sunken cars, boats and caravans)? I ALSO FOUND THE LACK of information about on-site first aid, oxygen and nearest emergency telephone (don’t rely on your mobile phone in this remote location) a concern, because there wasn’t any. Finally, what was the procedure for an in-water rescue, and did the on-site staff have this capability? I called by phone a few days after my visit in case I had visited on a day when the site had been short of staff who could advise about diving. “Just kit up and go diving, someone will find you and collect the fee,” was the response. While part of me quite likes this unregulated approach, another part is busy shouting: “Risk, risk, risk!” Ellerton Park’s owners need to read the HSE publication Managing Health and Safety at Recreational Dive Sites – doing so might just save a life one day. ■
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Beachcomber OCT_Beachcomber 29/08/2014 13:44 Page 22
BEACHCOMBER
IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS Underwater proposals and marriages are just so yesterday, dahling! Everybody is doing them now, including Alex Montgomery, who wanted his proposal to girlfriend Lauren Schuhle, who is his regular scuba buddy as well as the love of his life, to be something really special. Clearly, a cunning plan was required, and was duly hatched. Alex wrote a lovely poem and his marriage proposal and had it printed into a waterproof booklet that went into a small treasure chest that was placed on the seabed for Lauren to find when they next
Wreck art You cannot judge art and artists in the same way you do ordinary people. Pickling a shark in formaldehyde and claiming it as art goes a long way to demonstrating the fundamental validity of that point of view, in my opinion, but by that standard artist Simon Faithfull’s latest project is positively mainstream. Simon bought a boat called Brioney Victoria and sank it in the name of art off the Dorset coast, streaming the event live. Continual filming will document the wreck as it gently becomes an artificial reef and this development will be shown in real time in art galleries in Brighton, Calais and Caen, or to you at home via an app. Presumably, you could go dive it and become part of the show yourself.
Mussel power Scientists are wonderful people, but sometimes they don’t really get it. For example, did you know that mussels secrete a protein under water that has healing properties? It’s how they attach themselves so firmly to rocks. By analysing the way mussel proteins work, scientists have developed a way to make other proteins self-heal in wet situations, and are immediately talking about this as a way of making biomedical
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went diving. How romantic, and what could possibly go wrong? Well, for a start Lauren’s reg was leaking water and she couldn’t understand why Alex wanted her to drown instead of getting out of the water. And then the box wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it was 50m off, which is a long, long way even in warm blue water. In fact it required Alex to surface and ask the accomplice who had placed the box for directions before they eventually found it. Anyway, she said yes, so it was all OK in the end.
implants last longer, the interior of the human body quite possibly being the ultimate in wet environments. Yes, very good, well done. But what divers really want is something to paint onto the backs of their heels where their fin-straps rub blisters. Failing that, plasters that will actually stay on attached in the water would do. Is something so basic really too much to ask?
Thermal shocker Stig Severinsen can hold his breath for 22 minutes, something he demonstrated in 2012, and judging by the exact time shown on the stopwatch used to time his feat he could probably have added a few seconds if he had wanted to do so. The Dane from Aalborg took up freediving in 2003, broke three world records in his first year of training, hit Guiness World Records with his ice diving last year and is known as “The Man Who Doesn’t Breathe”. His book Breatheology tries to help others get in touch with their inner dolphin to improve their freediving. The key seems to be the entering into a meditative state in which your concentration on something else is so powerful that you don’t actually need to breathe. Of course, when Stig has to move around he can’t hold his breath
anywhere near as long – he can only manage a couple of minutes and around six lengths of the pool! All of which is by way of introduction, because the really remarkable thing about this guy is that he seems to be impervious to cold. Take a look at the pics on the Daily Mail site and you’ll see him freediving beneath 6in of ice wearing nothing but a faraway expression and a pair of budgie-smugglers. Not only that, but he sits on the ice to calm his breathing before entering the water, still in nothing but his Speedos. On the other hand, perhaps it isn’t that he doesn’t breathe for 22 minutes – maybe the shock is just so great that he can’t!
G-men submerge The FBI’s Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team (USERT) is a specialist unit, as you’d expect, and it undertakes some challenging stuff. One example was an Alaskan bodyrecovery mission sparked by the confession of a serial killer that saw the team diving using surface-supply gear under 5ft of ice. To join you would need a minimum of two years’ FBI experience plus a PADI Open Water certification, but you get the opportunity to do lots of other PADI specialties after you’ve signed up.
Into the abyss Japanese entrepreneur Takayuki Fukusawa has created a new concept for necklaces that depend on the generous sizing of the female chest above which they will be mounted. His range of little figures includes a cliff-diver, poised in the act of diving, arms spread wide, back arched and ready to plunge into the waiting cleavage below; a climber glancing back apprehensively at the peaks already surmounted; a spaceman heading into unknown territory and a skydiver plummeting toward terminal velocity. The artist, whose designs have been described as “slightly perverted’”, has not yet released a scuba-diver version. This seems to be an oversight, but he has presumably already rejected a tech-diver version because you’d see nothing but chain vanishing into the depths.
Mountain high A team from Heriot-Watt University has discovered rare corals on the slopes of Britain’s largest undersea mountain. Standing 1400m proud of the surrounding seabed, the Hebrides Terrace Seamount is taller than the far more famous Ben Nevis, which stands a mere 1344m high, and is what remains of an extinct underwater volcano. But surely there must be higher underwater mountains nearby? After all, there are islands that stick up out of the water and go all the way to the seabed, and this one goes only from the seabed towards the surface. Anyway, it’s all very nice and the corals are lovely.
Talking addiction Maldives Dive Travel recently listed 19 tell-tale signs that you’re addicted to scuba-diving. One of these seems to sum it all up: “The time you spend diving is only a small fraction of the time you spend talking about it!”
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Thistlegorm v2_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:41 Page 26
I-SPY … THE THISTLEGORM, IN A WHOLE NEW LIGHT
D
ARK, SILTY AND CONFUSING. Words that regularly represent the reality of a dive into the amazing underwater museum that fills the holds of the Thistlegorm. But that is not what I am experiencing today. For the first time, everything makes sense. I know that the trucks I am swimming over are Zwicky aircraft-refuellers and the next row of lorries are Crossley Type Qs, another favourite of the RAF. For years I had pretty much labelled all my photographs of trucks on the Thistlegorm as Bedfords! Today, I know that there were only five Bedford lorries out of 63 trucks and lorries in the two forward holds. The Thistlegorm is one of the most dived wrecks in the world, and one of the most written about. And as the main lure for divers is seeing what’s inside, you’d imagine that the identities and positions of the WW2 vehicles in the holds were sorted out years ago. Not so. I find it almost impossible to believe that nobody has done a proper survey of the wreck before, but what motivated us is that the correct information about the 170-plus vehicles in the holds is definitely not out there. THROUGHOUT THIS PROJECT, each time we figured out a new vehicle ID, I’d Google the “name + Thistlegorm”, and time and again get almost zero returns. It was very exciting to realise that so much of the story had not been told in 20 years as one of the world’s most popular dive-sites. And now, making my first dive on the wreck after completing the research, I am revelling in the fruits of that labour. I can see the symmetry in how she was loaded and that the two levels have almost completely different vehicles. Even among the 100-plus motorbikes, the lower level was loaded only with Nortons and the upper level BSA bikes. All the BSAs were stacked in lines of four with a fifth across the back in Morris trucks, and all the Nortons are threes in the back of Ford trucks.
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I now know that there are no Bedford MWs nor Tilling Stevens lorries. There are also no trailers. Without their windscreens and canvas roofs, many of the lorries can be easily overlooked. It’s like learning to read: the jumble of rust and dust is now resolved into radiators, engines and cabs of Albion BYs and Leyland Retrievers. The Thistlegorm is also not home to Rolls-Royce armoured cars nor, despite the number of bikes, motorcycle sidecars. The “sidecars” are actually RAF accumulator trolleys used for powering up aircraft, and the “armoured cars” are pundit lights, used for identifying airfields. What is very clear is that much of the cargo was destined for the RAF. The degree of confusion is not surprising, however. First, the ship’s manifest apparently lists the cargo as “Motor Transport“, giving no other clues. Furthermore, the vehicles have been immersed in salt water for almost 75 years, and they are also halfburied in debris and at least partially dismantled. During the Thistlegorm’s first couple of years as a publicised dive-site, it was a free-for-all for looting. It was almost expected of divers to bring up a trophy, and it didn’t take long for all the name-badges and other identifying features of the vehicles to be pilfered by people seeking something to rust away unseen in garden sheds. It remains a tough place to work. Our maps have been through umpteen editions, and while we feel we’ve reached a point of reasonable
certainty, I’ve still yet to make a dive on the wreck without seeing something new, hidden behind bedframes, beneath aircraft spares or between airfield equipment. Some of what we have discovered is definitely new; other findings simply confirm what’s been known for a long time. However, I am certain that nobody has produced such accurate maps of the holds, and it is these that have really transformed my dive today. Like many readers, I’ve been visiting this
Thistlegorm v2_Layout 1 29/08/2014 14:42 Page 27
WRECK DIVER
It’s more than 20 years since John Bantin’s original exposé on the Thistlegorm was published in divEr. It has since become one of the world’s most visited wrecks, subject of countless articles, books and even TV documentaries. Surely there is nothing new to say? ALEX MUSTARD, in collaboration with the RAF’s Tony Edge and Keith Francis, set out to properly identify and map all the vehicles in the wreck’s holds. Their findings, presented exclusively here, will transform your next dive on this classic site
wreck for years, but I have never experienced it like this. The chaos of deteriorating vehicles has been transformed into a parade, in perfect military order. I marvel at each one – it’s a deeply fascinating experience and I am, without doubt, seeing the Thistlegorm with completely new eyes. THIS ADVENTURE STARTED FOR ME, not on my first dive on the wreck, but after many years of collecting Thistlegorm images. The more vehicles I photographed, the more motivated I became to know what they were.
Previously I used books and magazine articles. Instantly, I could tell I’d photographed the same truck and copied down the name (and happily sent my images off to publishers, further propagating misinformation). As my interest grew, I found others working on the same problem. Tony Edge and Keith Francis were surveying the wreck as part of an RAF expedition. It was an ideal project for them, not only because of the cargo’s Air Force connections, but as a challenge for developing servicemen in the RAF’s adventurous training programme. We quickly found that the more we tugged at the strings of established knowledge, the more the supposed facts unravelled. We started out checking names against historic images of vehicles and the pictures would rarely match. Bits can be pulled off trucks, but they can’t grow wheel-arches or an extra pair of wheels! Something was wrong. But how could we identify 75-year-old military vehicles, rusted, buried and purposely stripped of their badges and markings? I stumbled onto the answer completely by chance: the HMVF. The Historic Military Vehicles Forum is a website where restorers swap tales, find parts and share details of their latest rebuild project. It’s a concentration of people who not only know their British WW2 machinery, but are also probably more used to seeing it disassembled than complete! I posted pictures and began to get answers
Pictured: View of a steering wheel inside a Bedford OYC water tanker 3-ton lorry from another Bedford OYC truck, deep inside a hold of the wreck of the Thistlegorm.
like this: “The Fordson WOT3 trucks are early models, as I can make out the early air-cleaner hose in your photo. Also the radiator hoses are one-piece rubber rather than later rubber and metal tubing.” The 12 Fordsons are some of the most commonly seen and photographed vehicles on the wreck, being mostly uncovered and complete in a spacious area of the lower deck of hold 2. But they have been almost universally misidentified as Bedfords, a mistake I think that comes from the BBC documentary, because the narrator casually mentions Bedford trucks as the camera pans over them. The name stuck. Piece by piece, the jigsaw came together. With a bit of digging I found both Jacques Cousteau’s original 1950s footage and the BBC’s 1994 documentary online, which were very useful for glimpses of the vehicles in better condition than they are today. THE FINAL PART OF MY STORY came from attending historic military vehicle rallies and seeing restored versions for myself, as a final confirmation of identities. There remains much more to describe about the Thistlegorm’s cargo. Our account describes just the main vehicles in holds 1 and 2, with the maps drawn as we feel they were loaded into the ship. A few motorbikes have been moved or removed, a couple of vehicles have fallen down to the lower level, and in a couple of places vehicles are buried too deeply to be properly visible. These are shown as slightly faded in our maps. There is a lot to cover! So, for now, we’re ignoring the Stanier locomotives and Universal carriers outside the holds, or the Lysander and Bristol aircraft parts, accumulator trolleys, boots, rifles, airfield lights etc inside the holds. I strongly recommend also reading Chris Frost’s excellent piece Plane Truth About The Thistlegorm, which is now on Divernet, for more info on these artefacts. ☛
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Clockwise, from far left: A pair of Fordson WOT3 trucks in the lower deck of holds; a Fordson WOT truck photographed at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford; a Norton 16H motorbike; three Norton 16H motorbikes, halfburied in debris, in the back of a Fordson WOT3 truck.
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WRECK MARINEDIVER LIFE Most dives start exploring the holds on the lower level, circulating anticlockwise from the rear, starboard corner, so I’ll cover the vehicles in that approximate order, giving key identification features in their current condition (well aware that their name badges are long gone). ENTERING THE LOWER LEVEL of hold 2, from the aft end, the first vehicles are two rows of Fordson WOT3 trucks, most of which are loaded with three Norton 16 H motorbikes. Fordson was a sub-brand of Ford, and WOT stands for War Office Transport. The WOT3 was a large 4x2 pick-up, used by both the Army and RAF, with a 3.6-litre V8 engine. These trucks stood quite high off the ground, although with deflated tyres and buried in debris, you don’t get this impression floating over the top of them. There are 12 in total in a symmetrical layout, all facing forward. Two of the Ford WOT3s are partially buried so we can’t tell what was in their load bays, but of the remaining 10, nine have three Norton motorbikes in the back. This means there are definitely 27, but 33 Norton motorbikes were probablyloaded into the Thistlegorm. The motorbikes are either Nortons or BSA M20s. The two makes look very similar but can be distinguished in a few ways, despite most identifying features having been removed. One that survives is the drum brake, which is on the left side of the front wheel on the Norton and on the right on the BSA. Easier still, all Nortons are on the lower level and all BSAs on the upper. Curiously, the Thistlegorm’s Nortons are not military-standard bikes, having exhausts that dog-leg up at the end.
Pictured: Vehicle positions in the upper and lower decks of the holds of the Thistlegorm.
Albion BY5 bridging lorry Albion BY3 lorry Leyland Retriever lorry Crossley type Q lorry
Bedford OYC water tanker Albion AM463, Zwicky refueller Fordson WOT3 truck Morris-Commercial CS11/30 truck Morris-Commercial CS8 light truck
THE OTHER 10 LORRIES in the lower level of hold 2 are all Crossley Type Q, which are a similar size to the Retrievers, despite having two fewer wheels, and were powered by a 5.3-litre four-cylinder engine with all-wheel drive. These lorries are positioned around the centre of the hold, their rears against the hull or bulkheads and the fronts of ☛
Right: A Leyland lorry, photographed at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. Below: One of two Leyland Retriever lorries in the lower hold, showing the radiator, without its covering, and the front of the cab.
SWIMMING OVER THE WOTs on the starboard side, we find a lorry parked across the ship, with the cab buried. This is a Leyland Retriever. Although very hard to see, you can make out the large transmission tunnel in the cab and the characteristic vertical fuel tank behind the passenger side of the cab. There are two Retrievers on the wreck and the other is much easier to see, just a little further on in the same hold, facing aft and against the starboard hull. The distinctive oval radiator is clearly visible. The Leylands were large and tall 6x4 lorries with six-cylinder, 5.9-litre engines (the biggest engines in the holds). Their canvas roofs and doors are gone, as are their four-pane windscreens, although the second one does have one pane still in place. Field-Marshal Montgomery used a converted Retriever as his field caravan.
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WRECK DIVER
their cabs partially, or entirely, buried. The Crossley Type Q is a rare truck, which was not used by the Army but favoured by the RAF. I am not sure if any in this configuration survive on land, despite there being 10 in the Thistlegorm. The cab is distinctive, and always reminds me of a garden shed, with an arched roof and vertical sides. The windscreen is split in two and the radiator protrudes only slightly from the flat front. These vehicles have been confused with the more common AEC Matador, which also has an arched roof but is larger, with a sloping front windscreen split into four panes, not two, and is not present on the wreck. MANY GUIDES LEAD GROUPS through into hold 1, through a hole in the bulkhead on the starboard side, and this brings us out between some unusual trucks. These are Albion AM463, with a Zwicky aircraft-refuelling system consisting of a fuel tank with three fuel trumpets guiding the fuel hoses from the valves at the back of the truck to the roof of the boxy cab. These 4x2 vehicles were powered by four-cylinder 4.4-litre engines, with 450gallon fuel tanks.
Above: An Albion AM463 truck, fitted with a Zwicky aircraft-refuelling system. This photo shows the characteristic boxy cab section – the rear fuel tank has collapsed, although the distinctive spring-like coils of the fuel hoses remain. There are six of these aircraft fuelling trucks across the rear of hold 1.
The cabs remain in good condition and there are six Zwicky refuellers across the back of hold 1, three on each side of the central bulkhead. You can still see the fuel hoses, which look more like springs because the rest of the hose material has disintegrated. ON THE STARBOARD SIDE, the next vehicles are those that have fallen through the opening to the upper level of hold 1, crushed under the covers that sealed the top of the hold. This suggests that there was a temporary floor on the upper level of hold 1, because there is no space around the edges of the upper level for these vehicles to have been parked. We show them in their original positions on our map, in faded colours. Pictured: Two of the 10 Crossley Type Q lorries in the lower hold, showing the rear of the distinctive arched roof cabs and rear load areas. This lorry was typically used by the RAF. Left: The front of a Crossley Type Q lorry, with windscreen split into two, half-buried in debris. The top of the radiator is just visible.
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The final vehicles on the lower level of hold 1 are almost entirely buried, but the eight distinctive pylons sticking up out of the debris are from two bridging lorries, almost certainly Albion BY3 or BY5. This would make them the only vehicles found on both the upper and lower level of the holds. ASCENDING TO THE UPPER LEVEL, we’ll start at the aft end of hold 2 and then head into hold 1. The upper level is a tighter squeeze, and was almost impenetrable for a diver when Cousteau first dived the wreck, with bedframes and the framed canvas roofs and glass windows of the trucks entirely blocking access. Parked up against the rear bulkhead of hold 2, easily seen in the light that ☛
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WRECK DIVER penetrates the opening behind the bridge, are the five Bedford OYC lorries. The Bedford OY was one of the most abundant British 3-tonners, with some 72,000 built during the war. The ones on the Thistlegorm are the OYC tanker variants, with the cylindrical tank (probably for water rather than fuel) concealed beneath a frame and canvas roof. The Bedford OY has a distinctive, metal-roofed cab, with a bluff, squared nose and flat bonnet joined to a curiously curvy cab section, with split screen. These 4x2 lorries were driven by a 3.5litre, six-cylinder engine. There are three Bedford OYCs on the port side, the rearmost two still with their steering wheels, and two OYCs on the starboard side. They all face-to-stern, except for the one against the starboard hull, which faces forward.
SWIMMING FORWARD FROM the Bedfords into the dark narrow space on the starboard side, we encounter the most common vehicles on the wreck: MorrisCommercial CS11/30 trucks, which were loaded with five BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) M20 motorbikes. The BSA motorbikes were typically loaded four in a line with the fifth across the back of the pick-up load section. There are 15 Morris CS11/30 trucks on the Thistlegorm, which, fully loaded, would make 75 BSA motorbikes. I have not counted and checked the identity of all 75, but have yet to see any on the upper deck that are not BSAs, nor any Morris CS11/30 trucks that don’t have five bikes. Cousteau is reported to have taken one; perhaps others did too. The wreck is reported to have also contained Matchless G31 motorbikes, which are quite distinct from the BSA or Norton bikes, probably most easily differentiated by having a single, large front fork on the front wheel. I have yet to see a Matchless on the wreck, though there are two “potentials” I have to check on my next dive. The Morris-Commercial CS11/30 was a 4x2 truck, powered by a 3.5-litre six-
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Pictured: An Albion lorry bridging vehicle, this one most likely a BY5, whereas the other Albion lorries on the wreck are BY3s. The rear section contained floating sections for rafting or building bridges over rivers.
Above: A Bedford OY lorry. Right: Bedford OYC bowser lorries. The metal frames behind the cab are actually beds, although this lorry’s water tank would have been covered by a frame and canvas.
cylinder engine. Like many of the Thistlegorm’s vehicles, most are partly buried, with deflated tyres and missing windscreen and canvas roof. This acts to conceal their height, making them look more like a car than a truck. It is a common trick of the wreck. Distinctive features are the bluff vertical radiator, wheel-arches that were attached to the nose swooping up over the wheels, and cooling slats down the side of the nose. They all also have a spare wheel attached to the side, just behind the driver’s seat. The 15 Morris CS11/30 are in varying states of disassembly, but one feature that remains visible in almost all of them is a large cylindrical water tank for the engine at the rear of the engine bay. ☛
Pictured: A MorrisCommercial CS11/30 truck. There are 15 of these large pick-ups on the upper levels of the holds, typically loaded with five BSA motorbikes.
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Pictured: An Albion BY3 lorry squashed by the collapsing deck on the port side of hold 1. Visible are the front wheel and wheel-arch, side of the cab and spare wheel behind the ladder.
The Morris CS11/30 and BSA motorbikes account for almost all the remaining vehicles in hold 2, upper level, with the exception of the engineless, and very distinctive, stepped pundit lights, used as airfield markers. These are on the port side and difficult to miss. You can see the controls inside one of them, and at the rear the small pylon that would be placed on top as the light. HEADING FORWARD ON THE starboard side and swimming through into hold 1 we find ourselves floating over what appear to be trailers, although if you shine your torch through to the wheels below you’ll see the driveshafts and differentials of these Albion BY3 6x4 lorries. With their canvas roof and glass windscreens gone, the highest point of these workhorse 4.2-litre, six-cylinder lorries is actually the spare wheel that was behind the cab. Spot these and the cabs become obvious. There are seven of these large lorries in hold 1, six in a line across the rear of the hold and then one in at the forward end on the port side. The Albion BY3s on the port side are in better condition, and you can see the distinctive peaked radiator, rather like that of a classic Rolls-Royce, on the flat fronts of the cabs. They all face forwards, except for one on the port side, which is missing its rear. This has fallen down to the lower section, crushed under the falling roof of the hold. Another of the Albion BY3s has been
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Top: A BSA M20 motorbike from the upper level of the holds, in the back of a Morris-Commercial CS11/30 truck. Above left: A BSA M20 in desert colours.
squashed by the collapsing deck on the port side, as indeed has the rear of another Morris CS11/30, although its nose escaped the crush. Seemingly the largest vehicle on the wreck is another Albion BY, this time probably a BY5. It isn’t actually any larger than the others, but because it is not buried and has more of its bodywork intact, it appears much bigger. It is also a 6x4 lorry, powered by a 4.5litre six-cylinder engine. The four pylons on the corners of the load bay and the structure behind the cab make this a bridging vehicle, which would have carried equipment for both bridging and
rafting across water. It is the most forward vehicle on the starboard side of the hold. THE FINAL VEHICLE in hold 1, upper level, is the Morris-Commercial CS8 light pick-up truck. There are four in the hold, with a pair against the hull on each side. This vehicle is easy to recognise because of its distinctive angular bonnet and wheel-arches that are not attached to the rest of the bodywork. The canvas roofs and small flip-up glass windscreens are no longer present on this 3.5-litre four-cylinder 4x2 truck. These are the smallest trucks on the Thistlegorm and their load bays are empty, save for the soldierfish that now stand guard in all the military vehicles.
Above: A Morris-Commercial CS8 light pick-up truck. Note the characteristic angular bonnet and separate wheel arches. Photographed at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. Right: A Morris-Commercial CS8 truck on the port side, upper level, of hold 1.
T
HE WRECK OF THE Thistlegorm has captivated the imagination of divers since its rediscovery more than two decades ago. As a wreck it is fairly standard above decks, but once we descend into its dark holds we are treated to one of the most amazing spectacles in the underwater world – a larger collection of British WW2 vehicles than you’ll find in almost any museum. Our survey has also revealed that much of the cargo was destined for the RAF, indeed that there was almost everything aboard needed to
set up an airfield. Perhaps the cargo would have been enough to provide decent air defences in the region and, ironically, stop the German bombers roaming down from Greece – just like the Heinkel He111 that bombed and sank the Thistlegorm. Much of what has been previously written about the wreck has focused on the Thistlegorm’s human stories. We hope our work in deciphering the MT or Motor Transport will enhance every diver’s appreciation of this unique diving experience.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
FOUR EXPEDITIONS IN I T ALL STARTED – as most good ideas tend to – with an entirely random event. More specifically, the Great British Diving Expedition was born the moment I had to winch a stranded delivery truck out of a ditch near my Devon home. I’m aware that this is a moderately random statement, so perhaps I should elaborate. I had recently returned from the filming of the Dive Mysteries television series, which had been a global venture encompassing Japan, Egypt, Namibia and the Great Lakes. This series was the culmination of a lifetime’s ambitions and dreams – to travel the world seeking out legends and myths with a group of mates epitomised all the reasons that I had started to dive in the first place. But I was home now, the Boys’ Own adventure over, and as I contemplated the festering mound of dive-kit in my garage, I wondered what on earth I could do next. I had responded to this lull in my nomadic life in traditional form, by retail therapy. Nowadays, this merely requires the click of a mouse, and as such all manner of boxes and bags were winging their way towards me.
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Somebody had to start exploring those British waters that nobody has dived before, and who better than the intrepid Monty Halls? The first dive of 2014’s Great British Diving Expeditions was, however, distinctly underwhelming… Unbeknownst to the deliverymen involved, the last mile to my house resembles one of the more precipitous tracks in the Camel Trophy, and as such I was ready to be called out to a series of puce drivers standing next to white vans at interesting angles. Sure enough, the phone had rung that very morning, and I had gleefully swung into action. The van-driver and I had rigged ropes, shouting things like: “To me, to me, to me, whoa!”, and generally had an
Below: The Snowdonia team triumphant after tackling Llyn Brenig. Below left: Dark nights on wild hillsides was what the Great British Diving Expedition was all about.
excellent time. The van was now rattling its way back up the hill, and I had returned to my house reeling with the heady manly musk of having finally used the winch on the Land Rover to rescue someone. And then it dawned on me. Why not share this wondrous feeling with all and sundry? Why not head out with vehicles packed to the creaking gunwales, and seek out the wild spots in our own Sceptred Isle? Surely there must still be places in Britain that have yet to see a diver? Surely there were deep mountain pools, silent drop-offs, lone islands and mysterious coves? Several excited phone-calls later (ah, Fourth Element, divEr Magazine and Suunto, where would I be without you?), and the Great British Diving Expedition was born. Several months and a great deal of emotion later, we were ready to rumble. I had recruited the inimitable Andy Torbet and the ludicrously capable Rich Stevenson as my co-conspirators and, armed with nothing more than a sense of optimism, some dodgy research, and an Ordnance Survey map, we were off on the first project. The Land Rover thundered up that self-same lane, hilariously overloaded, heading towards the wilds of Snowdonia and three mysterious lakes, shrouded in legend and keeping their counsel, their secrets held in the crystal twilight of glacial depths. ☛
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LLYN BARFOG & LLYN BRENIG
LLYN (WELSH FOR “LAKE”) BARFOG was our first destination. According to local myth, it was from here that a magical white cow had emerged, bringing blessings to all the local farmers, until it became upset at some perceived slight. How you upset a cow has been lost in the annals of time, but it was plainly pretty miffed, because it led all the other cows from the hills and back into the lake to their deaths. Oh, and just to add to the Barfog legend, this was also where King Arthur had fought and subdued a dragon, before binding it in chains and dragging it to another lake far away. Sacred cows, evicted dragons and swashbuckling kings – sounded worth a dive to me. The GBDE was to consist of several
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Above: Base camp at Llyn Barfog. What magic awaits? Not a great deal. Below, from left: Andy Torbet prepares for a 3m dive; a logistics challenge of some dimensions; the traditional campfire – an expedition essential.
expeditions in total throughout the year, but this was the first gathering, so was a significant event in itself. The team met in the rather lovely Tal y Llyn Hotel (all good expeditions start
getting very carried away and likening the whine of the winch to the roar of a Spitfire engine over Kent). On arrival at the site we pitched camp, a gigantic siege-style affair that would have graced a 1921 Himalyan assault, and prepped our gear for the next day. It was at this point that it dawned on me that these expeditions were all about the diving, and yet had absolutely nothing to do with the diving. This baffling contradiction was bought home to me as we eyed the lake in the gloom of dusk. It was the reason we had driven many a mile over rutted tracks, and now talked of epic adventures around a spitting camp-fire. We might have been only a few miles from wi-fi and warmth, from bed, beer and bar-food, but we were in a base camp sitting next to a site that no-one in the history of mankind had ever dived. It was heady stuff. We went to bed dreaming of Mallory and Irvine, of Shackleton and Scott. The next morning, it became rapidly apparent just why no one had ever dived
THE MYTHICAL DRAGON WAS PLAINLY THE SIZE OF A GECKO. AND KING ARTHUR WAS A LIAR with a cappuccino, a little tradition of mine) and introduced themselves before setting out in a fleet of vehicles of varying suitability to the site next to the lake. The drive proved terrifically hairybottomed, requiring the use of my winch once again to tow out a vehicle of Japanese origin (to say I was pleased is a colossal understatment, at one point
it. Even a Neanderthal goat-herder would have glanced into it and thought: “Blimey, the vis is rubbish and it’s only 4ft deep – I’m not diving that!” All I can say is that the eight impressive giant strides of the team saw a series of giggling divers standing up to their waists in the middle of the lake. If there was a sacred cow, it must have been a fairly small one. And the mythical dragon was plainly the size of a gecko. And King Arthur was a liar. The team took it in good form, the general body language being a shrug and a rueful smile. This was of course the essence of the project – not having the
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BEHIND THE SCENES first idea of what you’d find as you stepped into the water was all part of the intoxicating mix. There might have been a deep inner canyon in the lake with a lost Lancaster bomber in it. But there wasn’t. I did see a baffled stickleback at a depth of 1.4m (the bottom), however, which is almost as good.
LLYN BRENIG UNDAUNTED, WE TURNED OUR attention to the great, glowering monster of Llyn Brenig. This was very much the elephant in the room, the feature nearby that we had all quietly ignored because of the maroon massing of contour lines that surrounded it on the map. Even on the map it looked knackering, but we had three days to go, a willing group of stout-thighed divers, lots of kit, and a grim determination to do something special. Our local contact was a hill farmer called Gwyn who, when questioned about Llyn Brenig, smiled and – in that gentle, bewitching Welsh lilt – said: “Ah yes, Llyn Brenig is as wild as the hills and as deep as the mountain.” Oh, I say. Right then, let’s crack it. How easy is the route, Gwyn? Another slow smile. “Oh, not too bad. Just walk up that ridge over there” – an expansive wave of the hand took in a steepling green colossus nearby – “and you’ve cracked it, really.” Now, a word to the wise. When a Welsh hill farmer tells you a walk isn’t too bad, be very, very afraid.
spread-eagled in the heather, awaiting death as optimistic crows circled like vultures in a spaghetti western. We finally staggered over the ridge that led down into Llyn Brenig, and disgorged dive-kit out of rucksacks and shoulder-bags. This created an impressive pile, which was duly sorted and shifted until we had something close to four sets of gear. Without further ado, the first diveteam slipped beneath the crystal-clear glacial waters of the lake. The result was a beautiful dive. This was partly due to the heroics of getting there, but also the clarity of the water and the grandiose setting. Drifting through the Llyn was akin to gliding through a glacial cauldron filled with Evian, and to roll over and look through the surface at the magnificent amphitheatre of the surrounding hills was an unforgettable experience. The return journey down the hill was almost as emotional as the trip up, mainly due to the fact that your femur was being driven enthusiastically through your pelvis on the steeper downwards bits by the combination of gravity and the immense weight of wet dive-kit on your back. But make it we did, standing triumphant together in the car park, all aching thighs, wide smiles and warm memories. ☛
Clockwise from right: ‘Just walk up that ridge over there’; into the unknown; like swimming in Evian; Llyn Brenig – worth every step; a truly aquatic organism.
AFTER A PLANNING SESSION that evening, where plans were made in terms of the caching of gear and load allocation, we set out the next morning carrying our dive-kit. Our jaws were set firmly, our shoulders squared, our steps springing and our morale high. Fast-forward four hours to see a rudderless rabble spread along the side of the hill, several of them now lying
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BEHIND THE SCENES
THE SLATE ISLANDS
THERE ARE CERTAIN SITES THAT, when you’re told about them, seem too good to be true. Such was the case with the Slate Islands, a beautiful set of islands, made of slate (do you see what they did there, with the name and all, fiendishly clever…) with centuries-old flooded quarries of unknown depth dotted throughout. Slate-mining began here off Scotland’s west coast in the 17th century, and was carried out with such enthusiasm that one of the islands – Eilean-a-beithich – was actually mined completely out of existence, devoured by pick and by shovel until the sea claimed the skeleton. Several fascinating sites remained, and these were our target. We were kindly given permission to camp on the tiny island of Belnahua by the owners Paul & Jane Carling. Though the island is small, it has two quarries on it, and an eerie ruined village, once home to those who worked the slate. The island basically ceased to be a working concern after the men went to fight in World War One, with the houses
Above: The ruined village of Belnahua. Above right: The team triumphant on Easdale.
Below: A great deal of kit, not a lot of RIB. Bottom: Andy Torbet and Rich Stevenson share a moment. Bottom right: Moving on to murkier waters at Cape Wrath..
standing as tombstones to a lost generation who left to serve – home by Christmas – and never returned. The quarries on the island were said to be 90m deep, so we had equipped ourselves accordingly. This was the only phase of the Great British Diving Expedition that involved a technical set-up, resulting in a mind-boggling array of gear that required transporting from our launch-point on Easdale via RIB to Belnahua. There were rebreathers galore, stage cylinders, compressors, twin-sets – in essence all the whistling, bungee’d, D-ringed, P-valved splendour of a good technical-diving expedition. This then had to be carried up the beach – made largely, and unsurprisingly, of bits of slate – to the line of ruined houses that constituted base-camp. By the time we settled in, we were knackered (by now a familiar feeling). It would all be worth it, however, and we spent the evening discussing decotrapezes and handing-off techniques (look it up, it’s not as rude as it sounds). IMAGINE THEN OUR DELIGHT the next morning when we discovered that the first quarry was about 6m deep, and the other about 10m. The one bonus was that we could guarantee massive duration, with several members of the team still down there as far as I’m aware. Once again, initial disappointment at what can charitably be described as a lack of depth was neatly offset by the array of old kit we found in the quarries
– a frozen image of another time, when the islands bustled with industry and echoed to the shouts of the men who worked the slate. A swift emergency meeting in the nearby Puffer Pub (go there at once, this might just be the best pub on Planet Earth) resulted in the unanimous decision to move lock, stock, and bailout cylinders to Easdale, and dive every quarry on that island. There were six of these, so this was a formidable mission, but it’s amazing how ambitious you feel when you’ve had three pints and a huge slab of cheesecake. The next four days were intense. Our mission was accomplished mainly due to the efforts of the folk on the island, who helped us ferry kit, supplied us with information and spoilt us rotten. The maximum depth achieved was 35m, and that was by one of the divers burying an arm up to the shoulder in the silt. Nonetheless we had a splendid time, chasing the dives with fanatical intensity. There is marked stratification in the quarries, with a distinct line where light ends and impenetrable blackness begins. Imagine being inside a cow. Wearing sunglasses. With your eyes screwed shut. Well, it’s like that, but a fair bit darker. We ventured into this gloom a few times but always popped back out again, to drift along at a sedate 20m or so, admiring the chipped stonework and the rusting pipes of centuries old quarry workings, surrounding us with the memories of when the very essence of these islands, their dark geology, roofed the world. ☛ UNDERWATER STUDIO
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BEHIND THE SCENES
CAPE WRATH
Above: The Cape Wrath team. Above right: A staggering array of life.
like the noise I make when I’m doing a press-up. It’s important to note at this juncture that these sites have been dived before – for this leg of the project we were following in the wake of previous teams – so our rationale was that, given such a wide choice of rugged islands, lochs and tide-swept pinnacles, there had to be a new dive or two in there somewhere. THE FOUR DAYS’ DIVING that followed were spectacular. We dived next to an extraordinary island in Loch Eriboll, drifting next to dark rock walls, a tenement block for huge edible crabs and lobsters. We pushed out to the tip of
the headland that jutted into the wild waters of the Atlantic like an arthritic, crooked finger, and dived an echoing cavern big enough that the RIB could sit overhead as we crawled through the green twilight beneath. And finally – and most memorably – we moved the whole expedition 30 miles overland to Kinlochbervie, and dived Loch Inchard. Fittingly for the last dive of the project, the team encountered a massive skate, a wannabe manta lying on the seabed like a mottled barn door. Magic, pure magic.
Below: Diver and moon jellyfish get acquainted. Right: And onwards to the next one…
AND FINALLY… A HUGE THANKS to the local people who helped us out at every stage of this project. Thanks to all the organisations that backed us – Suunto, Fourth Element, divEr and Land Rover. And thanks to all the team-members – it was a genuine pleasure to travel with you. The project was a resounding success – we live on a battered lump of rock in the Atlantic, one that still holds secrets in its convoluted
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UNDERWATER STUDIO
I PARTICULARLY WANTED to go to Cape Wrath, because it had the word “Wrath” in it, and the word “Cape” for that matter. Both of these evoked mental images of towering breakers, and of people in baggy white shirts clinging to rocks as swarthy mutton-chopped locals rowed out to save them. I had plenty of time to idly reflect on these thoughts, as the drive from my home in Dartmouth to Cape Wrath is pretty much the entire length of Britain. Fourteen hours of expectation was, I’m pleased to say, more than matched by the reality. Cape Wrath is stunning. We set our base camp at the head of a tiny cove a mile or so from Durness. If I’d ever had a mental image of what a base camp on the Great British Diving Expedition would look like, it was encapsulated by this site. A hidden bay, a long sweep of white sand, all overlooked by a raised grassy mound next to an ancient stone bridge. We set up the camp in good order, and – sipping a cold beer as the sun set – surveyed our options. These were many, varied, and of the highest standard in diving terms. The chart showed a dazzling array of sites, the names themselves speaking of just how far off the beaten track we were. There was An Cruachan, A’Ghoil-sgeir, and An Dubh-sgier, the latter sounding
coastline and glacial mountains. I like to think we made several forays along these roads less travelled. The memories of the dive-sites will linger, but perhaps the real joy was each night spent around the campfire, talking about the day before and the diving tomorrow, with every morning offering the potential for a new discovery. This is a rare beast indeed in the modern world, and is the lasting impression of the Great British Diving Expedition 2014. Roll on 2015!
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INDONESIA DIVER
GO KOMODO! M
ADE UP OF 17,000 islands, Indonesia’s rich and diverse marine life is world-famous. That’s a lot of ocean to cover, so it’s not surprising when diving around the Nusa Tengarra region and Komodo National Park (KNP) that it’s all about the liveaboard. I chose Komodo Dancer’s 10-day trip from Bali to Laban Bajo (Flores), a) because I like exploring lesser-known sites as well as the “famous” ones, and b) because my last Aggressor/Dancer Fleet trip blew me away. This time, I swapped white glass-fibre luxury for a beautiful 30m twin-masted wooden sailing yacht. Komodo Dancer
Teddy bears and gremlins – the stuff of Hollywood and storybooks, not creatures you’d expect to find lurking beneath the waves. MARIE DAVIES explores one of Indonesia’s most challenging dive regions and discovers that there’s far more to Komodo than dragons
Above: Ever spotted one of these chaps before? See panel on the last page of this feature. Below: Komodo dragon.
was built pinisi-style in 2001 – she’s sturdy, spacious, comfy and performed the job of a floating hotel perfectly. All meals were taken outside on a large deck, which also served as the dive-deck. There’s a huge camera and storage area along one side and, with a maximum of 16 guests, the boat and three tenders never felt crowded.
Travelling up the east coast of Bali, the first stop on our 28-dive journey was Indo’s most famous wreck – the ss Liberty. Torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1941, this WW2 US supply ship now lies in 30m a stone’s throw from shore. Having dived the Liberty in 1999, ☛ I was excited to see how much it had
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changed. We weren’t blessed with good visibility (7-10m at best) but it still offered up a profusion of marine life, including spotted garden eels, cuttlefish, boxfish and hundreds of glassfish dancing around the rib-like structures. Our guide also pointed out candy crabs, pink squat lobsters and a shy harlequin ghost pipefish. The elements haven’t been kind to the Liberty, and nowadays it’s definitely more reef than wreck, but what a first dive! Subsequent dives at the Moyoa and Satonda Islands included Angel Reef, Long Reef and Lake Entrance, the first of these being the most memorable. This steep pinnacle is covered with colourful gorgonian fans and
surrounded by schools of fusiliers, jack and triangle butterflyfish. A pregnant pufferfish caught our attention, then an eagle-eyed diver spotted a juvenile angelfish hiding in a clump of staghorn coral. The hard corals were especially pretty at this site, which hosted a huge variety of angelfish and wrasse. Other creatures included cuttlefish, octopus, moray eels, sting rays, bumphead parrotfish and a banded sea-snake scuttling to the surface. Our guide found a pygmy seahorse but, of course, I had my wide-angle lens fitted. He assured me that there would be many more chances to see them. DIVING VOLCANOES ALWAYS adds a touch of mystery and adventure to a trip, and Sangeang did not disappoint. The almost 2000m peak became a recurring backdrop to our journey. Deep Purple proved to be one of my favourite dives of the trip. Dropping onto volcanic sand in 7m we were at once engrossed in a small coral outcrop teeming with critters – pipefish, frogfish, anemone shrimps, spider, porcelain and an orangutan crab and numerous colourful nudibranchs. By the end of the dive it was meh, not another nudi! This site is 360° of critter heaven – we spotted mantis shrimp out for a stroll, a striking swimmer crab out for a peep, and blue and black ribbon eels out for a waft in the surge. Popping to the surface, slightly shivering from our 80-minute dive, one of the guests announced: “That was better than Lembeh!” And it would get
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better! Hot Rock, aka Bubble Reef also loomed large on my fav list. Finning down through “streaming bubbles of toastiness”, the volcanic underwater vents rule out any danger of getting cold on this dive. Once we’d all taken childlike delight in the underwater Jacuzzi, it was time to veer down the black sandy slope to a coral bommie rich with marine life, including soft coral crabs, white frogfish, longnose hawkfish, giant scorpionfish, sweetlips and pretty clownfish. Tikno Reef and a night dive at Bontoh Reef also wowed us with critters including mantis shrimp, zebra
crabs, juvenile emperor angelfish, cuttlefish, skeleton shrimp, ghost and pygmy pipefish, decorator crabs, squat lobsters and “lots more weird creatures” (in the words of our illustrious guide Komang). For a madfor-macro photographer, Sangeang Volcano is my version of paradise. So, five days in and we finally steamed into KNP, and our first stop was one of Komodo’s most exhilarating dives, Castle Rock. It got mixed reactions from my fellow-divers, but on one thing everyone was agreed – it’s not for the inexperienced. The pinnacle begins at 4m and plummets to murky depths. Finning madly against the current at 15m, we were suddenly enveloped by schools of butterfly bannerfish, banded angelfish and fusiliers. Next, three whitetip sharks glided past in front of schools of surgeonfish, jack and tuna. I’m told that the visibility is never great here (10-15m), so it’s not ideal for photography. This dive is all about hooking on and watching the underwater world go by. Surfacing was probably the hairiest part; down-currents are common here, and dangerous. Hiding out behind the top of the rock, we watched warily as our bubbles swirled behind us like a giant washing machine. It wasn’t the easiest dive but it did offer the most fish life we’d seen so far, and made a great introduction to KNP. Komodo Island South is where
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INDONESIA DIVER divers get the chance to dive Manta Alley. Within a minute of descending our first manta loomed out of the haze, closely followed by another, then another. After a while we cruised over to the alley itself, and I don’t think any of us were prepared for the traffic-jam of rays on display before us. There were mantas flying over our heads, mantas being cleaned, mantas sucking up plankton – so many that I lost count.
Best of all, none of them seemed bothered by the small group of divers watching with wide eyes and big smiles. The visibility was murky, the current was ripping and the temperature was much cooler than in the north, but there wasn’t one complaint. Not surprisingly, we did three dives here, and during the second were lucky enough to see a school of cownose rays in the distance, too. After a day spent playing with mantas, it was back to KNP for another famous site. Dropping into the channel at 12m we were greeted by a large ☛
Above: Komodo Dancer. Far left from top: Hawksbill turtle; bobtail squid; longnose hawkfish; Cuthona yamasui nudibranch; pom-pom crab. Pictured: Manta ray in Komodo National Park.
STARGAZING Let me be honest with you, over the past 20 years of diving I have not, and have never been, an enthusiastic night-diver. Given the choice between a glass of wine and jumping into the same ocean I’ve already spent 4-5 hours exploring, just to see a couple of shrimps, a parrotfish sleeping in its vomit cocoon and perhaps an octopus – I’ll take the vino any day. And don’t get me started on how much colder it always feels during a night dive… That said, Komodo, you’ve changed me. I’m converted! I ended up doing every night dive, bar one, and even then, while I was sitting on the top deck appreciating the sunset and indulging in a different kind of bubbles, I felt anxious, as if I was missing out somehow. Clear standouts were the Circus at Gili Banta, and Wainilu in the park itself. The shallow slope at the Circus looked like an
ordinary patch of rubble but on deeper inspection it blossomed into Critter Central. Dropping in directly next to our first stargazer we had finned only a few metres before we found a coral outcrop with two leafy scorpionfish, twin spotted lionfish, decorator crabs, white mantis shrimp and a giant stonefish hiding under plate coral. Tag on an octopus, cuttlefish, baby clown frogfish and more nudibranchs than spots on a cheetah –it was a spectacular 60 minutes. Wainilu is perhaps the most famous night dive in KNP. There is so much life in the harbour that the whole dive went by in a blur of weird and wacky creatures. Decorator crabs moved stealthily through the rubble; arrow, zebra and spider crabs hid within coral clusters and frogfish, short-fin lionfish and bobtail squid were easily found and photographed. We also spotted more
stargazers (right), juvenile sweetlips, cuttlefish, snake-eels and sea-pens. Now, I promised you teddy bears and gremlins – well, this is where they lurk! The teddy-bear crab (Polydectus cupulifer) took me weeks to identify and gets the “cutest critter of the trip” award. “Ugliest” award goes to the demon stinger or Indian walkman (Inimicus didactylus), which looks remarkably like evil Stripe from the Gremlins movie. Both were found within metres of each other on this site. And just when I thought I could add no more critters to my list, the final night dive offered up mating mandarinfish and dragonets. Komodo, you rock!
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INDONESIA DIVER expedition of bumphead parrotfish and a small school of barracuda swimming in the blue. Drifting with the current, we spotted turtles and lots of parrotfish. Skirting a wall covered in colourful soft corals, we took a sharp left and emerged into a second channel. Fusiliers, fairy basslets, sergeantmajors and butterflyfish whooshed past us as we looked for more mantas. Instead we were rewarded with whitetip sharks, a mobula ray, more turtles and large crocodilefish. PRETTIEST DIVE OF THE TRIP was awarded to Current City on the north side of Batu Bolong, a site marked at the surface by a small rock with a hole in it. Hidden below is a giant landscape of life that slopes to 70m and beyond. It’s another site with visibly strong currents, great for attracting pelagics such as spotted dogtooth tuna and jack, but also dangerous without experienced guides. We floated along a steep slope of orange blossoms, pink fans and barrel sponges before dipping into an amphitheatre and its main attraction, mating octopuses.
BEAR-FACED CHEEK! If the teddybear crab (Pilumnus vespertilio) isn’t the coolest critter I’ve ever found under water, it’s certainly the cutest. When my torch passed across it on a night dive I had to do a double flick. There may or may not have been an “OMG!” squeal through my regulator. My initial impulse was to touch it to see if it was as fluffy as it looked. Of course I didn’t, because (a) touching underwater marine life is bad and (b) though I wasn’t sure what it was, anything that adorable had to have claws!! My instincts were correct. The claws of the teddybear crab are often disguised with anemones, although this one was a mass of fuzz, too overgrown to confirm either way. Sometimes called the “hairy crab”, it belongs to the family Xanthidae, is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region and hides in sandy or muddy areas, with minimal coral. Apparently it isn’t great to eat, either, often containing toxins (similar to pufferfish) that are not destroyed by cooking. Giving it a cuddle is one thing, eating it? Ewwgh.
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In the shallows we encountered the prettiest and most colourful corals so far, accompanied by a cloudburst of pink, orange and fairy basslets. It’s such a special site, and two dives are scheduled here so that you get to experience both sides of the rock. This area of Indonesia is as rich as it is diverse – walls, pinnacles, channels and volcanic black sand all wrapped up into one unforgettable trip. Throw in spectacular views and a chance to come face to snout with the infamous Komodo dragon, and KNP is well worth the schlep from Europe, and the price tag. You could combine the trip with diving at Lembeh Strait or elsewhere in North Sulawesi (and decide for yourself who has the better muck stuff!). Otherwise there’s plenty of land exploration and relaxation to be done on any of the islands – Bali, Lombok, the Gili Islands and/or Flores. I’ll never forget the delight of finding something as awesome as a yellow, fluffy creature with eyes that sparkled in my torchlight (see left). It just goes to show, it doesn’t matter how often you dive, sometimes it’s the journey and destination that count.
Pictured: Diver at Current City. Above left: Gremlin? Demon stinger (Inimicus didactylus) at Gili Banta Circus.
FACTFILE GETTING THERE8 Garuda Airlines allows 30kg of baggage and an extra dive bag (20kg) on international and domestic flights, www.garudaindonesia.co.uk. If you need local flights from Bali it’s cheaper to book them through www.garudaindonesia.com than Garuda UK. You can queue for a visa when you land, but it’s easier to get it online in advance. DIVING & ACCOMMODATION8 Komodo Dancer, www.aggressor.com. For laid-back overnights in Bali head to the Oasis Lagoon, Sanur, 15 minutes from the port pick-up. WHEN TO GO8 Year-round diving, although the AprilDecember dry season seems to be recommended. Water temperature is 27-31° in Bali and North Komodo, 22-26° in South Komodo, where you might consider a 5/7mm wetsuit. MONEY8 Indonesian rupiah and US dollars. PRICES8 Return flights from London to Bali with Garuda cost £527-765. Oasis Lagoon Bali overnight US $82 per night. Tenday trips on Komodo Dancer are priced from $4250, or seven days from $2700. Extras include park fees ($130) and unlimited nitrox $150 on a 10-night trip. TOURIST INFORMATION8www.indonesia.travel
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER
IT’S SHOW TIME AGAIN! I
F YOU’RE A DIVER, if you want to be a diver
or if you just want the diver or divers in your life to have a great day out, the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham is the place to be in the last weekend of October. You’ll find thousands like you in the hall at DIVE 2014, and if you’ve been diving for a while you’re almost certain to bump into people you know, in the aisles, on the stands or even on stage. Although the time is getting closer, you can still book ahead for DIVE 2014, which is organised by the divEr Group. Early booking means significant savings but every ticket sale brings with it the chance to win a three-week dive trip for two to Papua New Guinea worth £12,500 – the biggest Show Grand Draw prize yet! Details at the end of this planner. First, the special guests. You’ll find a powerful line-up of diving presentations not only on the main divEr STAGE and the CENTRE STAGE, but in the two OCEAN THEATRES too…
DIVE 2014, the diving event of the year, takes place over the weekend of 25/26 October at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. Plan your visit with the help of this handy planner
AUDIO-VISUAL TREATS IN PERSON on the divEr Stage Late shock news is that Paul Rose, for the first time in living memory, won’t be able to make it to the Show after all – he is being made to dive in French Polynesia! It won’t be quite the same back in Birmingham, but we’re confident of having many great speakers to fill those big shoes…
10.30-11.15 Jack Ingle
WRECK-DIVING TECHNIQUE Jack Ingle’s popular workshops on the finer points of kit configuration shaped the habits of a generation of divers, but these days the wreck expedition leader’s Show sessions are aimed at fine-tuning our approach to wreck-diving – and are going down equally well. When Jack gives a practical demonstration of line-laying in low visibility, you remember it!
11.30-12.15 Mark Powell
REBREATHERS: ARE THEY SAFE? Technical diving instructor Mark Powell can always be relied upon to come up with a provocative presentation title, and this one is no exception.
Over the years there have been too many incidents, some fatal, involving closed-circuit rebreathers, but rarely are they shown to be anything other than the result of human error. The new generation of recreational rebreathers claim to be fail-safe, but is that the case? Let Mark be your guide.
12.30-1.15 Andy Torbet
TECH DIVING ON TELE BBC1’s The One Show might seem a strange place to see technical diving, but in the past 12 months Andy has convinced it to let him explore lost mines in Wales, search for unknown shipwrecks at 80m in the Channel, investigate the biodiversity of Scapa Flow’s deepest seabeds and even go cave-diving in old Victorian diving kit. And the next season is heating up to include more dives, going deeper and longer to inspire and inform the public about the darker corners of our submerged nation. Prepare for some gripping tales from the dark side of diving on The One Show.
Laura Walton-Williams, Claire Gwinnett, Sally the model body and (below) a cartridge case found at a crime scene.
1.30-2.15 Claire Gwinnett & Laura Walton-Williams
DEATH IN THE DEPTHS Investigating underwater crime scenes: Staffordshire University’s Forensic & Crime Science department delivers the only course outside the USA in underwater crime scene documentation, ☛
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
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Show Preview OCT_Layout 1 01/09/2014 15:31 Page 57
DIVE SHOW PLANNER interpretation of evidence and body recovery. Lecturers Drs Claire Gwinnett and Laura WaltonWilliams will take us through some case-based analysis – this one promises to be compelling.
2.30-3.15 Monty Halls
GREAT BRITISH DIVING EXPEDITIONS
4.30-5.15 (Sat only) Leigh Bishop
OUT OF WEST AFRICA Mounting an expedition to locate and explore a 300-year-old
historic cannon shipwreck from the jungle-based shores of Sierra Leone was never going to be easy. Leigh Bishop joined an international team of divers and discovered a life full of surprises. Winning the heart of the local tribal chief for permission to be there was easy compared to finding food daily and diving off the local boats. Leigh will talk about the problems the team had to overcome, from building airlift compressors from parts of old machines to the diving itself. Expect lots of images and a very entertaining presentation seen here for the first time anywhere. ☛ LEIGH BISHOP
Last year Monty’s purposedesigned Land Rover Defender was a big talking point at the Show. This year his 4x4 pride and joy has something to pull – Monty is bringing along his new ”sexy as hell” Humber dive-RIB, purpose-designed to make divers drool. He’ll tell us about this and the related series of projects that have dominated his activities in 2014, the Great British Diving Expeditions to hard-to-reach sites, with some great footage along the way.
a shark-based operation known worldwide, and today his son Andrew runs both Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions and the Fox Shark Research Foundation. Andrew Fox debuts at the Dive Show to talk about shark cage-diving with a difference – you don’t meet these sharks just beneath the surface, but on the seabed.
3.30-4.15 Andrew Fox
GREAT WHITE EXPERIENCES Half a century ago, Australian Rodney Fox became the great white shark-attack survivor who hit the headlines and became a household name. He went on to build
Cannon at the Sierra Leone wreck-site.
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER
ROGER HORROCKS
his NoTanx team, exploring a cold, dark and flooded slate quarry in Wales without the help of scuba gear. Marcus, who has done more than most to popularise freediving in the UK, knows that the cave-freedive combination that he calls Extreme2 isn’t for everyone, but hopes it will at least gain a foothold!
Discover Durban wrecks with Patrick Voorma.
IN PERSON on the Centre Stage The CENTRE STAGE, near the PHOTOZONE, offers a rolling programme of image-based presentations, many designed to improve the skills of photographers and videographers.
10.10 -10.50 (Sat only) David Jones
SARDINE RUN, MEXICO-STYLE South Africa’s Sardine Run grabs the headlines, but it isn’t the only place to witness epic predator-baitfish confrontations. David Jones reports from Mexico and promises, among other treats, “lots of great sailfish footage”.
10.10 -10.50 (Sun only) Stuart Philpott
STRIKE THE POSE! A magazine cover must be an eye-catching composition with wide appeal. ”Most editors will choose a combination of vibrant colours, exciting marine life and a diver interacting somewhere in the frame,” says photo-journalist Stuart Philpott as he reveals the secrets of the trade.
11.00-11.40 John Carlin
INSPIRING UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY Marine biologist, photographer and PADI Regional Manager John Carlin explores the components of taking a great picture, with hints and tips on turning an average shot into a great one, and how to share your images with friends and family.
11.50-12.50 Saeed Rashid, Martin Edge & Nigel Wade
DIGITAL CLINIC Three big names in British underwater photography
get together to host a one-hour discussion in which the audience sets the pace – it’s a great chance to air any photographic problems you might be having and find out what the experts would do about them.
1.00-1.40 Paul ’Duxy’ Duxfield
SMALL CAMERA: BIG PICTURE Duxy looks at how the new crop of compacts, super-compacts and mirrorless cameras is proving a game-changer in the world of underwater photography, and how you can take advantage of these teeny-tiny techno marvels.
1.50-2.30 Patrick Voorma
DURBAN’S GHOST FLEET This South African wreck-diver has been exploring sites off Durban to find a series of previously unknown wrecks, such as the submarine HMS Otus; the Istar/ USS Nahma; a possible WW2 Japanese submarine; and the Umzimvubu/ Namaqua on which Winston Churchill escaped the Boers, on a voyage he later described as “the worst I have ever experienced”.
2.40-3.20 Marcus Greatwood
EXTREME2 CAVEFREEDIVING Last month’s divEr brought you the story of a remarkable first outing for freedive instructor Marcus Greatwood and
3.30-4.10 Martin Edge
ADVANCING YOUR SKILLS When it comes to underwater photography, Martin Edge wrote the book – The Underwater Photographer, long considered a bible by generations of picture-taking divers. At DIVE 2014 he plans to offer a torrent of tips, tricks and advice for everyone from beginners to experienced shooters. Have your notebook or tablet to hand!
4.20-5.00 (Sat only) Steve Jones
SEASCAPES & VISTAS As a photo-journalist, Steve Jones considers his skills with a wideangle lens to be vital. He takes us through a multitude of techniques and tips learned in more than 20 years in the field. Seascapes, wrecks, big animals and even capturing critters using wide lenses will be in there, along with composition, lighting and equipment considerations.
4.20-5.00 (Sun only) Jane Morgan
FROM HEAD TO TOE From Lands End to John O’Groats and beyond, this is a celebration of the colour and diversity of British diving featuring the two extremes and two of Jane Morgan’s favourite diving locations, Cornwall and the Scottish isles. This freelance underwater photojournalist lives in Cornwall and dives all around the UK and overseas.
IN THE PHOTOZONE Talks on the Centre Stage apart, all things photo- and videographic can be found in the PHOTOZONE, including suppliers of all the apparatus you’re ever likely to need. If the presentations including the DIGITAL CLINIC forum don’t answer your queries, one-to-one advice on kit and technique is available from the camera experts, BRITISH SOCIETY OF UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHERS (BSoUP) members and others. BSoUP’s annual PRINTS COMPETITION entries will be displayed, with the chance for you to get involved in the judging. Around the Centre Stage you can also enjoy first sight of the travelling Megafauna exhibition of big-animal photographs taken by DOUG PERRINE and DANNY KESSLER.
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
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www.diveshows.co.uk
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER 5.10-5.50 (Sat only) Brian Stanislas
MAKING UNDERWATER FILMS Underwater cameraman Bryan Stanislas discusses how technology has developed to help leisure divers and instructors capture fantastic underwater footage. He covers everything from GoPros and compacts to broadcast camera systems and examines the main underwater filming methods.
FISH OUT THE FREEBIES OONASDIVERS says it is celebrating 30 years as a leading dive tour operator by lining up ”a crazy amount of giveaways”. This bonanza includes up to 30 free flights to Egypt if you book one of its holidays before the end of 2014, flying into Marsa Alam between April and October 2015. A ”Shark Raving Mad” bag will be handed to you at the Show entrance – if
IN PERSON in the Ocean Theatres You’ll find all sorts of good things going on in the two Ocean theatres, from dive-destination seminars given by exhibitors to special presentations by a variety of speakers. Keep an eye on the notice-boards to see who’s on when. Here are some of the presenters: CAROL BASHAM (Scuba Tours Worldwide); SHARON BERNSTEIN (Grenada Tourism Authority); SUE NOAKES (Dive Worldwide); CHANTELLE NEWMAN (The Diver Medic); ALYSON O’REILLY (blue o two); RALPH PANNELL (Aqua-Firma Worldwide); and STEVE RATTLE (Pharaoh Dive Clubs).
you find a ”funky fish” inside, take it to the Oonasdivers stand and see whether you’ve won a holiday, dive-kit or vouchers. Trips for two to Egypt, Tobago or its latest destination, Fiji, are up for grabs,
as well as an additional £30pp discount if you book your holiday at the Show. Red Sea dive centre CAMEL DIVE CLUB & HOTEL in Sharm is also approaching the 30-year mark, and it too will have a free prize draw on its stand. Top prize is a diving holiday for two (seven nights’ B&B with five days’ diving but not flights), with Mares dive gear and Camel Tribe goodies as runner-up prizes. Camel is pushing its ”bundles” at the Show – if you like to travel light and maximise your diving, it has three- or five-day packages including unlimited third dives, full kit rental, transfers from Sharm hotels and nitrox. AQABA, JORDAN is holding a prize draw with the chance to win a fortnight’s trip visiting Aqaba, Wadi Rum, Petra and the Dead Sea, including diving, flights, accommodation, meals and excursions. SCUBAPRO is giving away a Chromis dive computer each day – register at the stand any time before 3pm and be
there again at 3pm for the draw. If you’re there and your ticket is picked out, you can take it home with you. SUBGEAR ’s giveaways are a highperformance SG50 regulator each day – go to the stand, buy a pair of Subgear sunglasses for £3, and then wear them! The money goes to Earthwatch, and the ”Subgear Fairy” will tour the hall to pick out winners in shades. SAFARI DIVING LANZAROTE promises a free holiday draw, but you do need to be wearing one of its tees to qualify. Dive-gear manufacturer AP DIVING has a free prize draw for a chance to win an AP SMBCi worth £110. The MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY has free copies of Great British Marine Animals by Paul Naylor and Octonauts goodies for children for any visitors who join up at the Show. PADI has free T-shirts for anyone booking a course at DIVE 2014.
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
www.diveshows.co.uk
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER
STATE OF THE ART M
BCs, drysuits, wetsuits, masks, snorkels, fins and bags. Included is its latest highperformance regulator, the ZEO FDXi.
AJOR DIVING EQUIPMENT manufacturers, distributors and retailers take stand space at the Dive Show to keep you up to speed with the latest developments. Get a flavour by stopping off at the NEW PRODUCTS SHOWCASE, where exhibitors display their most significant advances. ✹ APEKS is launching a special limited-edition product to celebrate its 40th anniversary year – we’re sworn to secrecy so you’ll have to swing by the stand to find out more. It’s promising a whole raft of new products to follow, too. ✹ ANCHOR DIVE LIGHTS is showing its full range of video lights, handhelds, umbilicals and accessories – new this year are Goodman handles and gloves, video-light arms, GoPro mounts and head-mounts. Also find out about the CRi 85 video light, due for launch next year. ✹ AP DIVING showcases its latest developments in both open- and closed-circuit ranges. Earlier this year it switched to selling BCs, accessories and spares direct from the factory via its website apdiving.com and at dive shows, so says it can now offer divers better deals. ✹ CATHX OCEAN designs, makes and supplies the Euphos range of dive lights, delivering, it says, constant brightness from 1250 to 150 lumens, with various beam angles for any dive, four-level battery indicator and 250m depth rating. ✹ CUSTOM DIVERS is launching accessories at the Show along with a new wing and harness system suitable for use with both open- and closedcircuit configurations. It will also have its full range of reels, couplings, protectors, SMBs, twinning-bands and cylinder-mounting kits. ✹ EXPOSURE MARINE unveils its SUB M3 Mk 2 dive light, which offers a new tap control to add to its motion control technology. A simple tap sequence, responsive to both gloved and bare hands, is said to allow full control of the light without distracting the diver. ✹ HOLLIS will reveal its newest additions, the BTR500 drysuit featuring a specially developed heatrepairable material, and AUG Base, 260 and 450 undersuits. The Explorer and Prism II rebreathers will also be on display, with the Training Director in the pool offering you the chance to dive the Explorer Sports model. Sidemount systems, harnesses, wings, regulators, masks, fins, lights and accessories will also be on show. ✹ HUMBER One piece of kit everyone will want to
see is the new Humber 7m dive RIB, purposedesigned and built for Monty Halls’ Great British Dive Expeditions and set to make its debut at the Show. It’s all still under wraps as we write! ✹ INTOVA plans to showcase the Sport HD II POV camera, and will also exhibit many accessory mounting items, such as the Floating Multi-Grip and Extension Pole. Tovatec torches will be featured on the stand, giving visitors the chance to compare models. ✹ LAVACORE is showing its exposure protection systems, which are not only for diving but any watersports. Three-layer Lavacore is said to have the thermal properties of neoprene but without the weight out of, or the buoyancy in, water, so offers an alternative to wetsuits for snorkelling or can be used as an additional layer beneath a diving wetsuit. ✹ LIGHT AND MOTION is showing the GoBe range of lights with interchangeable heads. Spot, Wide and Fluorescence models can be interchanged for the type of diving you are doing on the day. ✹ LIQUID SPORTS is showing Ursuit drysuits; Sharkskin exposure apparel; a range of lights from back-up torches to 15,000-lumen video lights; and Cetatek Aquabionic WARP1 fins. ✹ METALSUB is bringing its slim-line XRE-400 and XRE-700 torches, the former 400-lumen model battery-operated or rechargeable and the other rechargeable only. It says that the newly updated
KL-1242 package gives everything needed for a high-end torch solution, with a 3500-lumen lamphead, 9Ah battery and fast charger. ✹ OCEANIC is exhibiting its entire range of diving equipment, which means regulators, computers,
✹ SEA & SEA is showing thermal-efficient Pinnacle dive suits with merino wool lining; UK accessories for GoPro POV cameras and housings, including lights, poles and cases; Dive Rite tech-diving gear celebrating 30 years in the business; and new accessories for the Liquivision Lynx computer including boat/location transmitter and U2 aluminium pressure transmitter. ✹ RESCUEAN POD: ”I have never been so pleased with something I don’t ever want to have to use…” one diver reported back about this product, an additional rescue aid to be used alongside emergency oxygen kit for those who often dive on nitrox or other enhanced-O2 mixes. ✹ SEEDIVE lenses are a solution for divers needing optical correction to be able to read their computer or gauges easily. ✹ TUSA will have its M-1001 Freedom HD mask on show alongside all its other masks, fins and snorkels. It will also show off its new ”Jacket Packages”, a ”very aggressively priced” combo that includes BC, regulator, octopus and console. ✹ UNDERWATER VISIONS will display its latest Nauticam underwater housings and other specialist underwater photo equipment. ✹ WATERPROOF has new additions to its ranges: the B5 marine boot, 3D mesh vest and two new drysuits, the D7 ISS and D9 Light Weight, alongside existing hoods, boots and gloves. It will also have the UK range of wetsuits from 2.57mm, and drysuits.
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
www.diveshows.co.uk
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER
PICK UP NEW SKILLS T
dive-gear in their own TRY-DIVE POOL, carefully supervised by staff from the DIVE SCHOOL AT STONEY COVE.
HREE THEMES DOMINATE the Dive Shows – places to dive, equipment to take diving and boosting your skills. Whether it’s a child taking his or her first underwater breath, a scubadiver wanting to learn more about unfamiliar kit or configurations, or a visitor simply looking to move further along the learning curve with a speciality course, every possibility is covered at DIVE 2014.
Agencies and clubs
Hold your breath MARCUS GREATWOOD and his NOTANX APNEA are once again offering a free introduction to freediving disciplines without you having to get wet. Take part in an hour of stretching and oxygenefficiency sessions followed by the popular 3D SIMULATOR and TOTAL IMMERSION FREEDIVE EXPERIENCE, in which you can test your new-found body awareness. The course may
indicate an aptitude for freediving or show existing scuba-divers how to improve breathing technique and gas consumption. And to see what happens in the next stage of training, watch the breath-hold demos in the pool.
Kit up, take a dip If you’ve been getting wet all summer and don’t want to stop now, the TECHNICAL POOL run by MIDLANDS REBREATHER DIVING might be the place for you. It provides a rare chance to try out unfamiliar kit under water, with experts on hand to quiz about it. Youngsters and the not-so-young can also try out
Even if you don’t intend to book a training course you might welcome the opportunity to compare who is offering what going into 2015. For the professionals who aim to cover all the bases, from entry-level through to instructor via a clutch of specialities, the extensive PADI VILLAGE is the eyecatching first port of call, and you can get a first look at PADI’s Open Water Diver Touch, a ”tablet-based independent study tool”. SSI will also be at the Show to offer its own broad range of training programmes. If you’re considering the club route to diving enlightenment, there is always the BSAC, with plenty of chances to chat to members with their BRANCH PODS, and the offer to non-divers of a full BSAC Try Scuba Experience for £10. Also offering club-based training from its stand will be the SAA. Look out too for the specialist training bodies such as the NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY, which has teamed up with PADI to offer a new Wreck Detective speciality.
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
! W NE
Magazine/Journal for those in the fields of Diving Medicine, Aquatic hazards and Drowning, prevention, management, investigation and education. What makes this magazine unique is that it is the ONLY magazine completely devoted to the health, safety and effectiveness of divers of all kinds and of all water rescue/recovery personnel. It is the only truly encompassing magazine for all divers (recreational, working dive leaders, public safety, diver medics, technical, commercial, and military) and for all members of the water rescue and recovery community. Articles written by Doctors, Paramedics, Fireman, Policeman, Scientists, Marine Biologists, and many others in specialist fields.
Available to download now on the APPLE NewsStand and http://www.magzter.com/ For advertising and article contribution please email: info@thedivermedic.com or call 020 8326 5685
First issue
FREE!
Visit us at DIVE 2014, NEC Birmingham, on the 25th and 26th October at Stand GB108 62
www.diveshows.co.uk
Dive Saint Lucia (FP) – 10_14_Full Page Bleed 29/08/2014 09:59 Page 1
The island’s leading dive school
Saint Lucia simply beautiful • • • •
PADI Five Star Dive Centre Purpose-built 15m pool Two spacious, fully-equipped, 30 diver capable dive boats Partnered with London School of Diving (LSD), one of the UK’s top dive centres and a PADI Career Development Centre. • Beginner to Instructor level courses and guided dives conducted in English, French and German • State-of-the-art facilities & equipment • Big dive and watersport shop
Dive Saint Lucia | P.O. Box GI 2042 | Rodney Bay | Gros-Islet | Saint Lucia
Phone: +1 758 518 4571 | info@divesaintlucia.com | www.divesaintlucia.com
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divEr
PADI Village
HALL 10 Entrance
➧➧➧
Try-Dive Pool
Food Court
Ocean Theatre 1
AsiaPacific Showcase
Caribbean Village
P N SH RO EW OW DU CA CT SE
➧
divEr
En HAL ➧ ➧ tra L 9 nc e
Organisers Office
Restaurant
Freediving Feature
Centre Stage
PhotoZone
Rebreather Pool
Ocean Theatre 2
British Isles Experience
Real Ale Bar
The divEr Stage
Show Preview OCT_Layout 1 01/09/2014 15:37 Page 64
DIVE SHOW PLANNER
DIVE 2014 tickets cost £12.50 – but only £9.50 in advance. Book now at www.diveshows.co.uk
www.diveshows.co.uk
Show Preview OCT_Layout 1 01/09/2014 15:38 Page 65
DIVE SHOW PLANNER 4th Element Diving 1240 & 1140 AP Diving 1420 Aggressor Fleet & Dancer Fleet 222 Ambient Pressure Diving 142 Amphibian Productions / Santi UK 1346 Anchor Dive Lights 1044 Andark Diving & Watersports 1290 Apeks Marine Equipment 1050 Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, The 430 Aqua-Firma Worldwide 910 Aquaholics GB120 Aqua-Lung UK 1050 AquaMarine Silver 1072 Atlantic Scuba GB60 Avalon Cuban Diving Centers 320 Azores, The 1144 Balearic Islands Tourism Authority 1279 Barbados Tourism Authority CV10 Basking Shark Scotland GB50 Bauer Kompressoren UK 930 BBC Ocean 1344 Beaver Sports 1400 Billy Shiel/Farne Islands Diving GB100 Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation 1042 Black Fish, The 970 blue o two 815 Bonaire Fun Travel & Caribbean Fun Travel CV12 British Divers Marine Life Rescue 1172 British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) P12 British Sub-Aqua Club B100 Buddy Dive Bonaire & Galapagos (Bonaire Hospitality Group) CV12 Cameras Underwater P10 Caribbean Tourism Organisation CV14 Cathx Ocean 226 Central Compressor Consultants 332 Coral Cay Conservation 442 Custom Divers 102 D Vessey & Co (Innerspace Systems Corporation) 1316 DDRC Healthcare 1436 Deep Blue Diving Fuerteventura 1000 Deep Impressions 972 Deptherapy 1310 Dewi Nusantara AP6 Digital Distribution (GB) 950 Dirty Divers 1280 Discover Diving GB40
Dive Ability 1282 Dive Master Insurance 954 Dive Newquay S2 Dive Provo CV30 Dive Safari Asia 109 Dive School At Stoney Cove, The Try Dive Pool Dive The Azores S5 Dive Worldwide 900 DIVE.IS 971 Divequest 1142 Diver Magazine 110 & 710 Diver Medic / Code Blue Education GB108 Diver's Ink Logbook Stamps 1340 Divers United 310 Divers Warehouse 510 Diverse Travel 604 Divewise 108 Diving in Depth GB20 Dominican Republic Tourism Board CV6 Droversway Catering GB10 Eagle Divers 322 Egypt 310 Emperor Divers 602 Evelthontos Diving Centre - CREST 232 Explorer Ventures Liveaboard Fleet 326 Exposure Marine 1182 Florida Keys & Key West 416 Fourth Element 1450 Freediving 2000 S3 Galaxsea 404 Go Dive/G D Training 800 Green Force / rEvo 1440 Grenada Tourism Authority CV9 H20 Films P4 Hammond Drysuits 1080 Health & Safety Executive 1094 HL Healthcare 1278 Hugyfot / rEvo 1440 Infinity2 Diving CV18 Intova 620 Isle of Man Diving Holidays GB90 JJ-CCR 1272 Kent Tooling & Components (Diving Products) 1430 KLJ Diver Travel 922 Light & Motion 620 Liquid Sports 500 Lochaline Boat Charters GB100 London & Midlands Diving Chamber 1210
Lumb Bros (SM) 912 M & M Diving Technology 722 Malta Tourism Authority 1046 Maltaqua 422 Manta Trust 732 Marine Conservation Society 1260 Marinepix (Pash Baker Photography) 1270 Mermaids Dive Center AP28 Metalsub 620 Miflex Xtreme Diving Hoses 1370 Mike Ball Dive Expeditions 406 Monty Halls Great Escapes 1455 & 1274 MR Diving (Rebreather Pool) RBP NEMO 33 S4 Nick Oneill Art 610 No Tanx Apnea 990 Northern Diver 1520 Ocean Leisure Cameras P6 Oceanaddicts 1104 Oceanic (SW) 1412 Oman Ministry of Tourism 230 Oonasdivers 714 Orange Shark H2O (H2O Divers) 951 Original Diving 944 O'Three 960 Otter Watersports 724 PADI Diving Society PV7 PADI EMEA PV2 Pharaoh Dive Club 300 Philippines Department of Tourism 210 Poni Divers AP4 Pro Dive Mexico Dive Centers CV8 ProDivers Maldives PV14 Professional Diving Academy 420 Project Aware Foundation PV17 RAID International 100 Red Sea Diving College PV16 Reef Jewelry 946 Regaldive Worldwide 600 RescuEAN 409 rEvo Rebreathers 1440 Robin Hood Watersports 810 Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) 1090 & 1181 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) 712 Safari Diving SL 1110 Scuba Cat Diving AP2 Scuba Place, The 1160 Scuba Tours Worldwide 615
SEARCH PATTERNS
B
EING DUTIFUL DIVERS, you may intend to explore the Dive Show by employing a methodical search pattern, to make sure that you leave no stand of potential interest unvisited. On the other hand, you might prefer to forget the training and pass the day browsing the hall in enjoyably haphazard fashion. It doesn’t matter either way – we make it easy for you by setting out landmarks and “zones” to help you navigate the site. A quick glance at the floor plan will reveal the landmarks, such as the two main Stages and the Ocean Theatres, the two Pools, the freediving interactive feature and the PADI Village.
www.diveshows.co.uk
The New Product Showcase and divEr stand should also be on your list of drop-ins. The PADI Village included, the zones are mainly dedicated to dive destinations. The BRITISH ISLES EXPERIENCE is for Show visitors who enjoy their diving close to home. You’ll find dive centres and charter-boat operators there, plus a
very BRITISH BAR. It’s all sponsored by SUUNTO, which as usual will have a number of free dive computers to give away! For divers planning to travel further from home, including areas such as the Coral Triangle, the ASIAPACIFIC SHOWCASE is vital. It’s dedicated to passing on information from dive centres, resorts, dive vessels and tourist boards from this dive-rich area. The diverse destinations found in the Caribbean should also be coming back into their own with the recent cuts in airline tax – follow the sound of steel drums to find out which are the hottest prospects by chatting to exhibitors in the CARIBBEAN VILLAGE.
Scuba Travel Worldwide Holidays 1124 & 1126 Scuba Trust 914 ScubaClick 942 Scubapro UK 1320 SDS Watersports 830 Sea & Sea 1170 Sea Bees Diving AP26 Sea Shepherd UK 1120 Secret Paradise Maldives 940 SeeDive 620 Seychelles Tourism Board, The AP22 Shark Trust, The 1070 ShawTek 952 Siladen Island Resort & Spa AP14 Simply Scuba 1180 Sinai College 444 South West Diving GB60 Sport Diver Magazine PV6 & 1382 Sportif Dive 920 SSI (Scuba Schools International) UK S1 Stingray Charters GB60 Sub Aqua Association 1371 Subgear 1320 Submarine Manufacturing & Products 1040 Suunto Diving UK 1460 & 1261 Suunto Prize Draw GB70 Swanage Boat Charters GB50 Tasik Divers Manado AP24 Tethys P5 Top Atlantico DMC 330 Tourism Malaysia 730 Trinidad & Tobago Tourism Development CV4 TUSA 620 Two Fish Divers AP12 U-Dive (Abyss Diving Club) Malta 236 Ultimate Diving 1276 Underwater Centre, The 440 Underwater World Publications 110 UnderWaterVisions/ Nauticam UK P14 Underwaterworld at Stoney Cove 1470 Utila Dive Centre PV18 Vandagraph 105 VooDoo Divers 924 Wakatobi Dive Resort 424 Waterproof Wetsuits 542 Waterworld Aquaventures 107 Westfield Sub Aqua & Marine Insurance 1372
Booking now Book online for DIVE 2014 in advance and you save £3 per ticket, because advance tickets cost just £9.50, instead of £12.50 on the door. Under-16s accompanied by an adult enter free. Order six or more advance tickets and you’ll save even more, paying only £8.50 per ticket. Just visit www.diveshows.co.uk
divEr DIVE 2014 is a divEr Group event in association with the Egypt State Tourist Office in London and Oonasdivers
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DIVE SHOW PLANNER
WIN A £12,500 DREAM DIVE-TRIP FOR TWO
IN PNG! GRAND DRAW PRIZE
S
URELY THIS HAS TO BE the most highly valued Dive Show Grand Draw prize yet? This year’s holiday is worth £12,500, so it surely is! All connoisseurs of fine diving will be pleased to know that their Show ticket gives them a chance of winning this amazing dive-trip to Papua New Guinea with a chosen companion. UK tour operator Original Diving is organising the prize trip, which includes all flights, transfers, fees and taxes. This is no quick break. It’s a full-on, three-week, three-centre holiday that kicks off at the celebrated Walindi Plantation Resort in Kimbe Bay. There you’ll spend seven nights in a bungalow, full-board, and get in six days’ diving. Then it’s on to Lissenung Island Resort in Kavieng for six nights’ full-board in a bungalow and four days’ diving, before wrapping the experience up in style with five nights’ full-board in a deluxe room at Tufi Dive Resort in Oro Province
66
and another three days of diving. That’s 52 dives between you in some of the world’s most biodiverse and colourful seas. In Kimbe you’ll be struck by the abundance and good condition of the hard and soft corals, and there is also a sunken Zero fighter to dive. Kavieng is all about big pelagics – it’s not uncommon to see up to 20 grey reef, white and blacktip sharks on one dive, says Original Diving – but it’s also strong on macro life, with enough critters to keep photographers enthralled. And Oro’s dive-sites range from muck-
diving in the fjords and inner reefs to big stuff such as hammerhead and reef sharks in the outer reefs, and shipwrecks too. Your time will fly by. You’ll find full details of the diving, the resorts and facilities at Original Diving’s website www.originaldiving.com. The winner will be announced on the Sunday at the Show and the prize will be valid for one year from that time (except during December, January and from 2-10 April). Flights and accommodation are both subject to availability at the time of booking. Terms and conditions apply.
www.diveshows.co.uk
Exhibitor Preview PAGES – Oct. ’14_DIVE 2014 02/09/2014 16:26 Page 67
Advertisement Feature
DIVE2014 Exhibitor Preview SATURDAY
25 October SUNDAY
26 October
DIVE 2014 Free Prize Draw
Stand 1420
AP Diving – manufacturers of the worldbeating Inspiration rebreather and Commando BCD range – will be at the NEC once again, showcasing all of the latest developments to both their open circuit and closed circuit kit. Visit them on Stand 1420 and ENTER THE AP DIVE 2014 FREE PRIZE DRAW for a chance to WIN an AP SMBCi (worth £110) with a quick esignup to their newsletter or by opening an individual or club account (no purchase required).
Tel: 01326 561040 info@apdiving.com
www.apdiving.com Stand 920
7 nights full board inc. diving, flights, transfers + 30kg FREE luggage Over 50 destinations – Liveaboards – Courses Group Discounts & FREE Places
Tel: 01273 844919 www.sportifdive.co.uk
Stand 1142
Exhibitor Preview PAGES – Oct. ’14_DIVE 2014 02/09/2014 16:31 Page 68
Waterworld
Stand PV17
Stand 107
Longest running dive centre in IRELAND Harbour House, Scraggane Pier, Castlegregory, Co Kerry, Ireland 00 353 (0)66 713 9292 stay@iol.ie
Packages from
www.waterworld.ie
€169
Stand 602
Over 21 years in the Red Sea
Oonasdivers Celebrate 30 Year Anniversary!
Stand 714
FIVE resort dive centres + Fleet of liveaboards
And now in the Maldives
www.oonasdivers.com Email: info@oonasdivers.com Tel: (01323) 648924
Liveaboards + Dive resort
BOOK ONLINE today or see us at the show www.emperordivers.com reservations@emperordivers.com
Stand 1124/1126
FIND A FUNKY FISH AND WIN!
Holidays to Fiji, Tobago, Egypt, dive kit, vouchers and much more! Grab your Oonasdivers 'Shark Raving Mad' bag at the dive show entrance on 25th & 26th October. If you find a funky fish inside, you are a winner! Take your funky fish to the Oonasdivers stand 714 to claim your prize! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
TWO FISH DIVERS
AP12
INDONESIA Relax and dive Manado/Bunaken, Lembeh and Bali, three small, friendly tropical island dive resorts and PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Dive Centres offering the best diving in Indonesia. Clean comfortable cottages or villas with fans/AC. No crowds we have a maximum of 24 people at our resorts with groups of 4 guests per dive guide. All PADI courses from entry level to professional qualifications and TEC diving. Why not dive all
three of our resorts on our Indo Safari - the award winning walls of Bunaken, the mola mola in Bali and critters galore in Lembeh!! We don't think you'll find better diving at a better price anywhere else on earth! Visit us at booth AP12 at the show and stay tuned through our Facebook page
Tel: +62 811 432805 • Email: info@twofishdivers.com www.twofishdivers.com
DIVE2014 Exhibitor Preview
Exhibitor Preview PAGES – Oct. ’14_DIVE 2014 02/09/2014 16:34 Page 69
CRAYFISH CAPERS
Stand AP20
present ‘Tastes of the Asia Pacific’ Up until now, the Asia Pacific Showcase has been focused on the colourful culture and breathtaking beach and island vistas throughout its region, not forgetting the excellent diving and marine life in the surrounding waters - now it’s proud to introduce its tastes and flavours! Aquatic ambassadors and TV celebrity chefs, Crayfish Capers will be serving up a selection of sumptuous culinary causing creations, including crayfish; all with a fish stocks to fall dramatically and unique tropical ‘east meets west’ twist! immense damage to the environment. Signal crayfish occupy numerous But … trapped, prepared and cooked waterways throughout the UK. These by experts, they’re delicious! aggressive intruders are vicious and destructive, competing and destroying any aquatic flora and fauna in their path,
www.crayfishcapers.co.uk
Pull up a seat or takeaway and eat, whilst doing your bit to protect UK waters!
DIVE BRUNEI
Stand AP4
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BE THE CHAMP! T
HE BEST THINGS IN LIFE
come in the smallest packages. There are certainly many divers who would agree with that sentiment, because the underwater world becomes ever more fascinating when we learn to dive slow, look close and appreciate the little things in life. Most nudibranchs are smaller than the end of your thumb, but their gaudy colouration and kaleidoscopic patterns ensure that they are among diving’s brightest jewels. And this is treasure we can find on dives across the seven seas. Yes, we’re just as likely to meet nudis, as they’re known to their friends, whether we dive on coral reefs or British wrecks. They are irresistible subjects for underwater photographers, both because of their looks and also their speed! Moving at snail’s pace means that they aren’t going to outpace even the most methodical snapper. Ironically, while most nudibranchs do have eyes, they are just tiny spots and too basic to appreciate their own stunning colouration. Smell, using their characteristic chemo-sensory rhinophores, is probably their most important sense, especially for locating food and mates (although taste and touch, with their mouths and oral tentacles play a role too). And these are usually the most important focal point in our pictures. THE FIRST CHALLENGE in nudibranch photography is finding the little blighters. I can remember my excitement in finally seeing my first nudibranch while diving in the Seychelles. It had taken me years of searching – swimming far too quickly over reefs, looking in the wrong places. Nudis aren’t distributed evenly through the oceans. There are definitely hot-spots and specific seasons where we’ll see far more than our fair share. In the tropics, the best nudibranch destination I have visited is the Philippines, particularly around Anilao, although plenty of other places push it close. Nudibranchs can be far more numerous in cold waters, although biodiversity is lower. On several
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They’re usually tinier than a thumbnail but, when wellcaptured by a photographer, the image of a nudibranch can look both seductively colourful and spectacularly alien. This month ALEX MUSTARD thinks small
’Dive slow, look close and appreciate the little things’
occasions in the UK, I have dropped into the kelp to find it covered in hundreds of slugs (although usually all of them are from just a single species). By far the best way to see nudibranchs is to dive with other nudi-hunters. Nudi diving events take place around the world, from liveaboard trips in deepest Indonesia to the popular Nudibranch Safari in Gulen, Norway. The nudi-nut
STARTER TIP Nudibranch photos are all about showing off the subject’s natural beauty. Simple compositions, sympathetic lighting and nondistracting backgrounds are our goals. Single-strobe front lighting is often better than twin-strobe as it reveals a little more texture and drops a tiny shadow beneath the slug, to help pop it off the background.
Above: A side-on angle suits many slugs, allowing the subject’s beauty to shine through. Taken with Nikon D4 and Nikon 105mm with Subsee +5. Subal housing, Inon strobes. ISO 200, 1/320th @ f/32.
sub-culture is a surprisingly vivacious branch of diving, and always keen to include new members and educate them in the ways of the slug. Once you learn where to look, you can usually spot nudis on most ocean dives. Nudibranchs are carnivores and feast on non-moving invertebrate life, so the best way to find them is to look for their prey. Non-moving invertebrates generally thrive in areas of water movement, which they rely on to bring their food. So we’ve our best chance of finding nudis in areas of current, particularly pinnacles, wrecks and rubble. Often the best giveaway are their large, brightly coloured eggs ribbons, as they usually lay them close to where they are living. THE MOST DRAMATIC angle from which
to shoot nudi portraits is dead ahead, framing the slug coming towards the lens. Our aim is to have the rhinophores sharp in the foreground, framed against the colourful slug behind. Typically vertically framed pictures work best, yet are less commonly ☛ www.divErNEt.com
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PHOTO TECHNIQUE
Pictured: Head-on is the classic angle for nudis, and this shot includes a commensal shrimp for additional interest. Taken with Nikon D4 and Nikon 105mm with Subsee +10. Subal housing, Inon strobes. ISO 200, 1/250th @ f/36.
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PHOTO TECHNIQUE
taken. We want to position our camera right down at “eye” level for the most engaging angle, and it is usually best to wait for the nudi to crawl up onto something, so that we can compose it against a clean background. Nudibranchs are small, so we often need to push beyond 1:1 and into the realm of super-macro for frame-filling shots. Accessory close-up lenses, such as the Subsee or Nauticam SMC, are the perfect tools. But going for such magnification means that depth of field will be razor-thin, and our focus must be precisely on the rhinophores. The alternative angle to celebrate nudibranch beauty is from the side, to show the whole animal in an IDstyle shot. To maintain a degree of connection with the view, it is usually best to approach from a roughly three-quarters side-on position, so that the subject is
Above: The alternative to filling the frame is a wider shot showing the slug in its habitat. Taken with Nikon D800 and Nikon 60mm. Nauticam housing, Inon strobes. ISO 200, 1/250th @ f/14.
MID-WATER TIP Nudibranchs come in many sizes and colours, and rather than just take natural-history images we can use them to create art. For example, think bigger than one picture and shoot a series of close-ups of different slugs and tile these patterns together in Photoshop to create a composite of nudibranch abstracts.
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still coming onto the camera slightly. If the nudi’s pattern is mostly on its back, then I will often shoot slightly down on the subject, rather than staying at its level. When the nudi is on a particularly photogenic background, such as a colourful sponge, a clean kelp frond or the repeating pattern of a colonial bryozoan, I often try a completely top-down angle. I will usually shoot a co-operatively positioned nudi from several angles and choose the best shot afterwards. As a rule of thumb, I find that the front-on angle works best with the “sausageshaped” dorid nudis, while the side angle suits aeolid nudis, the ones with “many sausages on their backs”! NUDI-NUTTERS ARE totally satisfied just
collecting as many species as possible, but for the more photographically motivated, a great nudi should just be our starting point for a compelling underwater photo. We can really make our nudi-snaps special by looking to incorporate some behaviour, endowing the photos with secondary interest. Fortunately, nudibranchs are regularly up to something and, if I am honest, there have been more than a few occasions on which I have set out to shoot a portrait and ended up with
ADVANCED TIP The best nudibranch photos are really about the rest of the frame. Search for slugs on great backgrounds, with commensal shrimps or mating. It is this secondary interest that will really elevate a nudibranch photo into something memorable.
behaviour as the by-catch. Each type of nudi species has a very specific diet and they usually live on their food, so we’ll regularly catch them feeding. We will also frequently see them paired up, right side to right side, mating, or going round in circles, laying their characteristic spiralled egg ribbons. We can even find other animals hitching a ride, such as beautiful emperor shrimp. Photographing nudibranchs is addictive. Earlier this year I judged the inaugural Nudibranch Photo Competition, a contest just for pictures of sea slugs, and it attracted almost 1000 entries! You can see the results in the June edition of divEr. And if you are interested in underwater photography competitions, watch this space next month, when we’ll have news you definitely won’t want to miss…
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RECORD DIVER
RECORDBREAKERS! S
IXTY YEARS IS A LONG TIME when it comes to raising the bar. When Guinness World Records first published what would become its celebrated book on global record-breaking achievements back in 1955, for example, the Most Expensive Bottle of Wine record was what now seems a modest £4.93. Today's equivalent figure is a cheeky £74,521.89. Sixty years on, some records have, however, stood the test of time. Robert Wadlow has not been overtaken as the World's Tallest Man (8ft 11.1in, 1940) and Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley & the Comets, 1954) remains the BiggestSelling Single by a Group. Record bids can give rise to bitter argument, but as the stature of the Guinness World Records book has grown, inclusion within its pages has in many cases been enough to lay such controversy to rest. And talking of controversy, naturally the book contains a number of underwater
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Guinness World Records is 60 years old – what does the book have to tell us about its underwater achievements?
records. The under-ice freediving exploits of Denmark’s Stig Åvall Severinson (see also this month’s Beachcomber) are the most recent to be included in the 60th anniversary edition of what constitutes a record in itself – “the world's best-selling copyright book”. Severinsen in fact set his records in 2013. For the Longest Swim Under Ice – Breath Held (No Fins, No Diving Suit) category he swam no fewer than 76.2m under ice at Qorlortoq Lake in Ammasslik Island, east Greenland on 17 April. The previous day he had enjoyed the luxury of a suit when he set a record for Longest Swim Under Ice – Breath ☛
Above & right: South Africa’s Verna van Schaik became the world’s Deepest Scuba Diver (Female) in 1994.
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RECORD DIVER Held (Fins & Diving Suit) of 152.4m at the same site. Severinson’s are far from the only underwater endurance records recognised in the book. The Longest Scuba Dive (Enclosed Environment) record of 192hr, 19min 19sec was achieved by Cem Karabay (Turkey) in a pool at the Activity Plaza of Cadde Bostan in Istanbul, Turkey, from 21-29 October, 2011. UK diver Sean McGahern set the Longest Open Saltwater Scuba Dive (Cold Water) record of 12hr 34min in St George's Bay, Malta, on 4 March, 2012. And McGahern was back and immersed at the same venue later the following year (3-5 October, 2013) to set a Longest Open Saltwater Scuba Dive record of 49hr 56min. The Longest Open Fresh Water Scuba Dive record remains the preserve of Jerry Hall (USA), who remained at a depth of 3.6m on a submerged platform in Watauga Lake, Tennessee for 120hr 1min 9sec, from 29 August to 3 September, 2004. In accordance with the rules, he did not surface at any time. THEN THERE IS DEPTH. The First DeepOcean Dive record was set long before Guinness World Records first appeared but was already enshrined in history – on 15 August, 1934, Americans William Beebe (1877-1962) and Otis Barton (1899-1992) descended to a then-record depth of 923m in a tethered bathysphere off the Atlantic island of Bermuda. Both the Deepest Scuba Dive in Sea Water and outright Deepest Scuba Dive (Male) records in Guinness World Records are attributed to Nuno Gomes (South Africa) with a dive to 318.25m in the Red Sea off Dahab, Egypt, on 10 June, 2005. Nine years earlier, Gomes had set the Deepest Scuba Dive in a Freshwater
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Above & top: For proven depth rating, you can probably count on a Montres Charmex Divers’ CX Swiss Military Watch. Right and below: Nuno Gomes is credited with three Guinness World depth records, one of them set 18 years ago.
Cave record (23 August, 1996) by plumbing a depth of 282.6m at the Boesmansgat Cave in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Essentially a very deep sinkhole, the cave at the surface resembles a small lake with vertical sides. The Deepest Scuba Dive (Female) record was also set in the Boesmansgat Cave by a South African, Verna van Schaik. She dived to a depth of 221m there on 25 October, 2004. The dive lasted 5hr 34min, of which only 12 minutes were spent descending. How deep can you take a pressurised watch? The Deepest Watch Diving Limit was set by an instrument that can function at 6000m. Swiss manufacturer Montres Charmex SA reached this depth with the 20,000ft model of its mechanical Divers’ CX Swiss Military Watch on 5 January, 2009. Finally in this round-up, the Oldest ☛
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PADI (eLearning) – 10_14_Full Page Bleed 28/08/2014 10:52 Page 1
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RECORD DIVER
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Above and right: Under water, coming out and a computer reading you won’t see very often – Sean McGahern is the seadive endurance supremo. ALL PHOTOS BY COURTESY OF GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS
Diving Suit record belongs to “The Old Gentleman of Raahe”, which can be found at the Museum of Raahe in Finland. Dating from some time in the 18th century, it was donated to the museum by Captain Johan Leufstadius (1795-1867), a Finnish ship-owner and mariner. A replica of the suit, made from stitched calfskin, was successfully tested in 1988. Other underwater records can be found in the annual Guinness World Records book, which has sold more than 132 million copies in more than 100 countries since it was first published in 1955. Overall the special 2015 edition is said to feature thousands of new records and photographs, as well as Augmented Reality animation, which allows you to download a free app, point your mobile device to a page and watch the records come to life in 3D.
There is also a digital bonus chapter designed to take the reader on a behindthe-scenes tour, while the start of each chapter is a retrospective of what has happened in that particular category over the past 60 years. The 2015 Anniversary edition is priced at £20. For more information, visit www.guinnessworldrecords.com
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The Scuba Place – 10_14 (DPS)_Layout 1 03/09/2014 15:05 Page 80
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W
ITH THE MID-DAY SUN high in the sky, light levels and vis at such a shallow depth could not have been better. My American girlfriend and dive partner Kiersten Mottl was close by my side as we worked our way through the wreckage spread across the rocky reef. A hint of gold had caught her eye and raised her excitement level. According to records of lost ships along the African coast, the wreck at this site could possibly have been carrying gold. Although we weren’t treasure-hunting, it was an exciting prospect. A clear buzzing in Kiersten’s earphones from the Garrett underwater metal detector had signalled a promising lead beneath the seabed. As she dug in the sand, the bright sunlight revealed a beautiful gold ring, possibly a signet ring of some description belonging to one of the ship’s officers. Could we determine the name of this ship lost to history, and what exactly she was carrying when she sank? WE HAD TRAVELLED to Africa’s west coast and Sierra Leone, a country that rarely crops up on divers’ radar. This was to be an expedition the likes of which I had never experienced before – the chance to base myself on a remote jungle island with a group of international divers, and explore a shipwreck much older than I had ever experienced. During the surface interval, Kiersten and I made plans for our second dive as we changed cylinders. The wreck lay only 10m below us and extremely close to the shore, and we couldn’t wait to get back in the water. Could this have been a heavily armed slave ship, wrecked in a storm? This part of Africa was well-known as a slave-trading location and we were
An unidentified 300-yearold shipwreck off the coast of Sierra Leone intrigued an international team of divers enough to investigate. Mounting an expedition to a remote African island was never going to be easy – divEr’s LEIGH BISHOP was part of the team
MYSTERY VANISHING DUTCHMAN OF THE
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EXPEDITION DIVER close to the town of Kent, in which the remains of slave-trading compounds and holding buildings were still evident. We rolled over the side of the small banana boat for our second dive. Our task was to search in and among the rocks of the shallow reef for any signs of porcelain, other cargo or anything that would give us a clue as to why the ship met her end on the western tip of Banana Island. Previous dives on the site had already recorded 29 large cannon and five large anchors, so this was no small ship. Towards its southwestern end lay an extensive area of fragments of porcelain from the Kang Shi dynasty, most probably a stern cargo area located in the lower hold. We made our way to where several cannon were located at the stern, checking under every rock as we went. With several resident moray eels spotted, care had to be taken when feeling under rocks, so it became easier to move each one as a team. Our average dives would last about an hour with no deco time; visibility was good and working as a team made the dives easier. The first two weeks of the expedition had been spent recording and making a non-intrusive analysis of the site. Kiersten and fellow-American Mark “Sharky” Alexander, also from Missouri, worked with me to set up an archaeological grid system so that we could photograph systematically. We wanted to produce a photo-mosaic of the entire site. Thirty-five grids were prepared and left in overnight so that the following day’s work could be continued without confusion. SO HOW EXACTLY HAD MY African adventure begun? The previous year I had received a phone call from a good friend, Polish diver Peter Wyszynski, and was asked to join the expedition he was leading. “It’s not deep,” he had said, “but logistically it will be quite challenging.” Peter had organised a previous expedition to the island with his Polish colleagues to investigate the site. Now he wanted to return with another team. He had originally heard about the wreck from a Greek diver called Greg Delichristos, who had set up a small dive location on Banana Island during his travels across Africa, and had dived the site. We knew that there were a number of cannon, anchors and fragments of porcelain on the site, and began researching the
manufacture of English and Swedish cannon from around 1720 to see if that might offer any clues. Peter told me that all I would need was a wetsuit and a stab jacket, but where was the trusty, bullet-proof Buddy Commando BC that had seen me
through the 1980s when I needed it? It had been years since I had dived with a standard scuba rig rather than a closed-circuit rebreather, and I needed to make sure that I had suitable equipment for such shallow dives. My O’Three shortie was still in Truk and my regulators were all set up for side-slung cylinders for deep wreck dives. It was back to the drawing ☛
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board and in some respects like starting diving all over again! In the months leading up to the expedition plenty of preparation was necessary for all the team-members in their respective countries. Sierra Leone is subject to serious health issues, as seen since we got back this summer with the Ebola outbreak there. So many painful injections and weeks of prescribed tablets were required. We finally arrived in the capital city of Freetown, which is an experience in itself. We spent several days navigating its bustling streets in search of the supplies that would be needed on remote Banana Island, because Greg was not set up to cater for an expedition like ours. We planned among other things to build our own airlift to excavate the seabed below the rock reef, so would need compressors not only to fill our cylinders daily but also to drive any such lift from a surface dive-boat. Any equipment we had not brought from home or bought in Freetown we would have to build or make.
This page, from top: Marine life was abundant on the wreck-site; expedition leader Peter Wyszynski with cannonballs from the site; Kiersten inspects broken fragments of porcelain; the chief of the local tribe and his committee with Peter; one of the large cannon.
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SIERRA LEONE IS ONE of the poorest countries in the world. It’s best known to many from the film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and telling the story of the corrupt diamond trade set against the backdrop of the civil war that ended in 2002. Electricity comes from private generators, and at night the whole country is wreathed in darkness. Medical care is a privilege few enjoy, and life expectancy is around 43. The people are, however, extremely friendly and dignified. To undertake a full archaeological analysis of the wreck-site and recover artefacts for further scientific investigation, full permission was required. The team had an expedition permit to work from the Monuments & Relics Commission, a Sierra Leone
Tourism & Culture department. During our stay it would be necessary to travel back to the capital periodically to brief government officials on the expedition’s progress. Artefacts recovered and not deemed necessary for further scientific analysis would be donated to the Museum of Sierra Leone for conservation and display. Receiving permissions pre-arrival in Africa had meant a long drawn-out process of paperwork and correspondence, yet gaining permission from the government was easy
compared to gaining that of the island’s tribal chief. It was clear that he wasn’t pleased for us to be there. Neither was he pleased that the Monuments & Relics Commission had granted us permission without asking him first. It had taken another day for things to be smoothed out and the team made to feel welcome. After all, this was Africa! The island consisted mainly of jungle, and the only barrier at night between us and the unwelcome touch of a spider or scorpion was a mosquito net over a bed. Following one dive I returned to base camp to see billows of smoke from my bamboo jungle hut. In a state of panic,
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EXPEDITION DIVER I soon discovered this to be a proven method of flushing out the 2m cobra that villagers had seen slithering into my bedroom! The wreck-site was a 45-minute boat ride from the camp but everything was done at African speed, which of course does come with a degree of rhythm and style. “TIA” was the acronym we kept in our heads – This Is Africa. Diving continued on the site for almost three weeks, with hundreds of images taken and all the cannon fully documented. Having received expert
advice prior to the expedition, Peter and his dive partner Robert Gluchowski were able carefully to remove coral and marine growth from one gun and reveal markings on the trunnions to help with dating and manufacturer identification. One marking discovered was an F – most likely for Finspong, a Swedish gun-maker but within a Dutch context. The De Geers, a family of FlemishDutch origin, ran Finspong, the single biggest supplier of cannon for the Dutch market. Its customers included the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or, in English, the Dutch East Indian Company), which was set
up in 1602. Our wreck was most likely a VOC ship. My knowledge of ships of this vintage, especially those with cannon, had been limited, but the more I investigated the site, the more I learned. WE DISCOVERED SEVERAL fixtures that helped to expand our knowledge, one example being “coaks”, the bronze bearing bushes fixed in the centre of wooden sheaves or pulley-wheels to reduce wear. These coaks rotated on an iron pin, and their octagonal shape meant that they couldn’t work loose within the sheave, while the lugs with holes on each side allowed them to be fixed in place. These fixtures were common finds on 18th century VOC ships, and identical examples had been discovered on the Adelaar (1728) wrecked off western Scotland, the Zeewyk (1727) lost off Western Australia, and the Hollandia (1743), wrecked on the Scilly Isles. Sadly, our expedition yielded no such solid evidence of the vessel’s name. Positive identification of a ship of this vintage is difficult but we hope that continued research deep into the archives will help, or perhaps a follow-up expedition will reveal that elusive clue. The way in which the vessel lies on the reef indicates that it most probably came close to the island with stern to the west, possibly to shelter from a ferocious storm, and was pushed onto the reef by high seas. The positions of the cannon and anchors indicate that the port hull was almost level alongside the shore, and the location of porcelain and other fragments of cargo suggest that the keel was in slightly deeper water, but almost touching the reef. Whether or not any of the crew survived remains a mystery, though being so close to shore it is likely that they did. How long these sailors ☛
Left: Several moray eels were seen among the wreckage. This page, from top: A gold ring discovered on the wreck-site; village children see their photo for the first time; measuring artefacts on the wreck; villager Mr Mohammed carried heavy gear to the boat daily; documenting the huge bow anchor.
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EXPEDITION DIVER
WHETHER OR NOT ANY OF THE CREW SURVIVED REMAINS A MYSTERY would have survived in the jungle 300 years ago is anyone’s guess, particularly in a part of the world known to be a slaving location, where they would have been regarded as the enemy. Porcelain recovered from below the seabed using the airlift has made a more precise indication of the date of this mystery shipwreck possible. Ceramics specialists dated the porcelain to between 1725 and 1750. We are still waiting for detailed porcelain reports and chemical analysis of metal samples, although the results of these will perhaps do no more than confirm existing findings. If this was a Dutch East India
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Company ship that sank in the second quarter of the 18th century, according to Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th & 18th Centuries only two ships fit the description in this location – the s-Graveland, which left Cape Town on 18 June, 1729, and the Abbekerk, which left the same port on 12 June. Neither ship reached its destination, but what happened to them has always been a mystery. After two years of research, the team is now on the border of certainty that one of these vessels found its resting place on the western tip of Banana Island in Sierra Leone. But which of these vanishing Dutchmen was it?
Clockwise from top: The great majority of the site was discovered in shallow water; Banana Island was base camp for the expedition; villagers helped to load the boat each day; the expedition team-members.
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AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 SCUBA-DIVING MAGAZINES. It sounds like an obscure specialist subject for a Mastermind contestant, but it’s one of my pet hobbies. Wherever I go, I always have to check out the national diving publications. Even when you don’t speak a word of the language, you can always get a pretty good idea about how people feel about scuba by looking at the photos, the featured destinations and the proportion of the magazine devoted to hardware – lots of loving detail about kit. I found an eastern European diving magazine that looks more like a foreign version of the Screw-fix catalogue. Italian magazines – lots of spearfishing and sporty/fashion shots, but also plenty of danger and drama. While in the USA, the style seems to be full-on vacation porn, and lists: 5 Rules for Wreck-Diving, or 15 of the World’s Most EPIC Dives. Chunks, soundbites, infographics – are these a sign of smart marketing and making the subject accessible to all, or just the hallmarks of dumbing-down? There’s a whole world of hidden meaning in these magazines. If only we could decipher what’s going on, it might open up new understanding between nations. Or possibly just a new set of stuff to argue about and fight over. But then I started wondering what other nations’ scuba-divers would make of our magazines. They might reasonably conclude that we’re completely shark-obsessed (in our dreams) but actually spend most of our time trying to identify which widgetty bit of wreck or species of blennie we’ve stumbled across. I guess most diving publications would regard themselves as inspiring people to do more and better diving. In my experience, the inspiration to dive often comes from unexpected places. My friend Bob recently presented me with a postcard of Lake Louise in the Rockies, a huge body of astonishingly blue water, surrounded by picturesque mountains. So, I thought, how cool would it be to dive in Lake Louise? Now Canadians are super-polite people, but every time I asked about it they would give me an oddly sympathetic look and say: “I’m not sure that there is any diving in Lake Louise…”, which, of course, just made me even more determined to try it. Unfortunately, when I got to Lake Louise I realised why nobody dives it. The gorgeous blue colour in the postcard is a reflection of a milky blue colour in the water caused by a chalky kind of silt that runs in from the glacier melt. In true UK-diving style, you wouldn’t be able to see your hand in front of your face. Then there’s the freezing temperature and the impact of the altitude to take into consideration. But when has that ever stopped anyone having a good time? If you do happen to be in the vicinity of Lake Louise and just happen to have your dive-kit and a full cylinder to hand, please let me know how you get on. If we really want to inspire people to go diving, we need to increase the cool factor. And I may have found the answer in the Travel section of the Sunday Times: wetsuits that come in a variety of amazing animal prints. Go diving as a giraffe. Sadly, it appears that these are available only in children’s sizes. Dream on. LOUISE TREWAVAS
‘I’M NOT SURE THERE IS ANY DIVING IN LAKE LOUISE…’
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MYTH-BUSTING
DOWN I
HAD HEARD STORIES of highly venomous sea monsters and ferocious predators living and thriving on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) off the coast of Queensland. I had also heard tales of widespread damage to the reefs from over-diving, pollution and environmental disasters. It’s a long way from home, so for a long time Australia was under my radar; I preferred tropical destinations a little closer to home, with the guarantee of pristine corals and safe marine creatures. However, that all changed when I was invited to see for myself what the GBR had on offer, on a liveaboard expedition with long-established Mike Ball Diving Adventures operating out of Cairns. After the long flight I took a day out to catch my breath at the Cairns Hilton. Refreshed and raring to go the next day, I made for James Cook University (JCU) to meet local marine biologist and underwater film-maker Richard Fitzpatrick, the man behind the camera in the Great Barrier Reef documentaries shown on BBC / Discovery Channel and narrated by Monty Halls. Fitzpatrick has studied the GBR’s marine environment for years and works closely at JCU with expert venomologist Dr Jamie Seymour. Some people worry about deadly underwater inhabitants off North-eastern Australia, so who better to ask about them?
Pictured: Stonefish sting resistance? ‘Nah, they still hurt like hell!’
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AS RICHARD SHOWED US around his research establishment, I asked about Australian marine stingers, specifically the deadly box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) and its invisible but equally venomous cousin the tiny irukandji. “The box jellies are the Ferraris of the jellyfish world,” he told me. “They can swim at up to 5 knots, they’ve got 24 eyes but apparently no brain” (a bit like some football teams I could name, then). “To prove how potent they are, we took the venom of 50 of the world’s most toxic creatures and tested them against human cell tissue. The Indian taipan [one of the world’s deadliest snakes] killed 20% of the cells after 10 minutes. The box jellyfish venom killed 100% in 90 seconds. “They’re only a problem during the stinger season in Northern Queensland
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GBR DIVER
Pictured: Olive sea- snake at Lighthouse Bommie.
UNDER
Below left: Richard Fitzpatrick hugs a captive leopard shark.
NIGEL WADE, worried about a few stingers and biters? Surely not! Still, a chat with local experts seemed to be in order before venturing onto the Great Barrier Reef
[November-May] and mostly frequent the coastal and estuarine areas. They pose little or no threat on the outer reefs where the bulk of divers visit – an encounter is extremely unlikely.” The best protection when diving is a full wetsuit, because the jellies fire their stingers only if they come into contact with a biological surface such as skin. “Everyone thinks it’s an Australian problem,” said Richard. “It’s not, it’s a global issue. These animals can be found in most of the tropical seas around the world. In Hawaii alone some 900 people were hospitalised in one day due to box jellyfish encounters, and irukandji have reputedly stung swimmers off the Florida Keys.” Cone-shell snails are another extremely venomous animal found in tropical waters around the world. They spear their prey and inject a cocktail of 60 different venoms, each one attacking
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specific organs in humans. Cancer researchers are looking at this guided missile approach to its venom and are investigating using it to deliver drugs targeting only the diseased organs in humans. “It’s a case where the killers are becoming the curers,” said Richard. Stonefish are a common sight on most tropical reef-tops and a sting can be extremely painful, though rarely lifethreatening. While researching the reef, Richard has been stung 13 times by these well-camouflaged ambush predators. Had he developed an immunity to the venom? I asked. “Nah, it still hurts like hell!” he replied. THEN THERE ARE THE LARGER predators associated with the area, such as saltwater crocodiles. “They’re here all right,” said Richard, “but to see one out on the GBR would be a little like encountering a salty walking down Cairns main high road – I suppose it could happen, but the chances are extremely slim to none.” Richard’s advice is not to be put off from enjoying the Great Barrier Reef. “It’s as safe an environment as any in the world – just do a little research and listen carefully to your dive briefings, look but don’t touch and you’ll be as safe as houses.” Myths busted! Reassured, we boarded a light aircraft to take us over the outer reefs to meet Spoilsport at Lizard Island. The low-level flight took us 150 miles north of Cairns and 17 miles from the coast. The views of the Great Barrier Reef were spectacular as we reached our maximum altitude of just 200m. The immense reef system just kept on stretching to the horizon ahead. ☛
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The GBR is the world’s largest coral reef system comprising nearly 3000 individual reefs and nearly 900 islands. Stretching for more than 1600 miles and covering an area of about 135,000sq miles, it can be seen from space and is the world’s biggest single structure made by living organisms. A World Heritage Site since 1981, it is regarded as one of the seven wonders of the natural world. Spoilsport is a luxury liveaboard vessel that can carry 24 divers. the immense and well laid-out dive-deck provides plenty of space for kitting up without the bun-fights I’ve experienced in the past. Mike Ball Dive Expeditions is a forward-thinking operation so I wasn’t surprised to see that every diver was supplied with a Nautilus Lifeline diver location device, comprising a VHF marine radio as well as satellite GPS and an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), though this was the first time I had seen these devices in use since comparing models for divEr (Where’s Wally?, May 2011). A DSMB is a requirement and one is supplied if you’re silly enough not to have your own. This was also the first time my solo-diving qualifications have
Right: Diver and coral trout. Below: A potato cod at Cod Hole. Bottom: Jack and grouper share the shelter of Spoilsport’s twin hulls.
been recognised on a liveaboard and, armed with a redundant air supply, I was going to be diving on my own with my camera for a buddy. Skipper Trevor Jackson is a veteran on these waters and a diver too, preferring to dive with mixed gas and an old Buddy Inspiration rebreather. He negotiated the route to our first site, the famous Cod Hole, which
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probably sees more dive action than anywhere on the GBR. What better a place in which to assess the health and condition of the reef? A couple of hours after boarding and following a comprehensive briefing I was rigged up and ready to go. A STRIDE OFF THE entry platform put me in Australian waters for the first time in my life. I got my bearings and made a slow descent to a sandy-bedded channel. The area was flanked by a coral wall with various-sized bommies dotted around the seabed. A small anemone was playing host to two pretty pink anemonefish in the very first bommie I investigated. The majority of the corals looked in good health, though there were signs of damage here and there, especially to the delicate branching corals, an indication of the heavy diver traffic this site sees. The draw here are the numbers of large potato cod that give the site its
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GBR DIVER “Whales off the starboard bow!” came the cry, prompting frantic attempts to don wetsuits, find fins and snorkels and get in the water before the whales lost interest and moved on. Floating lines were already attached to the dive platform, and we quietly snuck into the water, trying not to spook our marine visitors. We had been briefed on how to interact with these big boys or, in fact, on how they were likely to interact with us, because it’s the minkes that peoplewatch, rather than the other way round. I just hung on the line at the surface with my camera and waited for them to get curious and close enough for some decent photos. Visibility was about 12m and the whales hung right on the cusp
name. As if on cue one leviathan came to investigate me, swimming with the confidence only great size can impart. Fearlessly he approached the camera and nudged my dome-port. I swear he could have engulfed my whole rig in one easy bite, such was the size of his mouth. Grey and whitetip reef sharks cruised the coral walls looking for free offerings, as some operators conduct small-scale feeds from time to time. Little clouds of orange and purple anthias mixed with chromis and damselfish danced above the bommies looking for tiny morsels and creating vivid dots of living colour. Cod Hole is a pretty site but most of it will go unseen, as visiting divers tend to concentrate on the larger species. THE EXPEDITION HAD BEEN arranged around encounters with dwarf minke whales, which can be found on the Ribbon Reefs in the Australian winters, so between dives Trevor would take Spoilsport off in search of them – if we saw none we would moor at a nearby site to go diving instead. After one unsuccessful whale hunt we arrived late in the day at Challenger Bay, a small reef frequented by large shoals of jack, trevally and barracuda. I jumped in last of the divers and found a huge shoal of jack taking shelter under the boat’s twin hulls. The late afternoon sun was causing the yellowing sunbeams to dance around the water, creating a photo opportunity that was just too good to miss. I stayed under the boat for the entire dive, swimming through the shoal as the fish opened up in front and closed ranks behind me. It’s a good indication of a healthy environment to have this many predators thriving in one place. We travelled through part of the night to reach our next destination on the Ribbon Reefs. Lighthouse Bommie is an area where minkes are often encountered. We jumped in just after sunrise. There is only light coral growth there but a lot of fish life to be seen. The remnants of the night hunters were off to their hidey-holes as the dayshift took over. Colourful coral polyps slowly disappeared as the light levels increased, and large shoals of planktonfeeders took their positions in the mild current above them. I found a highly venomous olive sea snake hunting on the sand-and-rocky seabed, probing the small cracks and holes for breakfast. It was tirelessly persistent, stopping only to swim to the surface for a breath of air before continuing the pursuit, and showed no interest in me. This was probably because it was used
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WHALES HUNG JUST ON THE CUSP LIKE GHOSTS IN THE MIST to sharing the hunt with other large predatory species, though probably none as inept under water as me. THE TERRAIN DROPPED sharply to around 35m into a channel with a dense shoal of blue-lined snapper hugging its contours. They too seemed unfazed by the bubble-blowing gatecrashers, grudgingly moving aside as diver after diver attempted to swim through them. Bannerfish swam in pairs on the periphery, joined by the odd big-eyed squirrelfish and groups of larger yellowfin snapper. The GBR was proving prolific beyond my expectations.
Above: Bannerfish and blue-striped snapper at Lighthouse Bommie. Below: Dwarf minke whale on the Ribbon Reefs.
like ghosts in the mist; the surface had been churned into a decent chop by increasingly strong winds. Inevitably it wasn’t long before I became nauseous and had to retreat to the stability of the boat. I watched the action as I recovered on deck. A pair of whales dropped below the snorkellers, then surfaced to spy-hop just out of their range of vision. They swam around just under the surface, showing us brief glimpses of their small dorsal fins. I just had to get back in and try to get a shot or two. My second attempt was a herculean one as I tried to fight off the seasickness. It’s amazing how such feelings and thoughts disappear as soon as a dwarf minke swims into vision. ☛
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GBR DIVER The specimen before me was peppered with small light-coloured spots, which I later learned were wounds caused by cookie-cutter sharks biting out small discs of flesh. The whale dropped below me and disappeared into the gloom but was followed by another. All too soon the encounter was over. I felt exhilarated as I joined the other excited divers back on the boat. WE VISITED NEARBY reef-sites in the hope of more whale encounters, but unfortunately they didn’t reappear. The reefs were excellent, however. Twin Towers, two large pinnacles rising from the seabed, housed numerous anemones with various species of resident fish. I spotted Clarkes, pink, and the rarely seen tomato anemonefish living among the healthy hard corals. Steve’s Bommie was the most beautiful of the sites we visited. Pristine gorgonian fans and bright purple elephant-ear sponges grew around this small hard-coral pinnacle, with fish life as profuse as I have seen anywhere on my travels. Brightly coloured anthias mingled with shoals of shimmering silver glassfish, and a resident shoal of tightly packed snapper moved as one seeking safety in numbers. I spied an intensely coloured mantis shrimp scurrying away from the attention it was receiving from its unwelcome visitors. This dive-site seemed far removed from those accounts of man-made and environmental damage inflicted on this area of the Great Barrier Reef. In fact the only place that I’d seen showing signs of stress was Cod Hole and to be fair that was minimal. Another myth busted? The long journey to get to the GBR was just a distant memory as we sailed overnight to Trinity Wharf in Cairns. The dive staff were busy preparing for the next trip and replacing all the cylinder O-rings (now that’s a first) as
STEVE’S BOMMIE WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF THE SITES
their excited guests, wearing big smiles, gorged on the culinary delights prepared by the ship’s cook Levi. I’d been reluctant to get down under in the past but now I’ve realised just how big this destination is and how much it still has to offer the visiting diver, I’ll look forward to checking out more of it. ’Nuff said!
Above: Elephant ear sponge. Below left: Tomato anemonefish at Twin Towers.
FACTFILE GETTING THERE8 Nigel Wade travelled from London to Cairns via Dubai and Sydney with Qatar Airways, www.qatar airways.com. A tourist visa can be obtained online, www.australia.visabureau.com/tourists DIVING & ACCOMMODATION8 Spoilsport, Mike Ball’s Diving Expeditions, www.mikeball.com. Cairns Hilton, www.cairns.hilton.com WHEN TO GO8 Year round, but May-November is the best time to dive. Dwarf minke whales are seen in June and July – dry season is June-August. Water temperatures vary little at around 23-25°C, but a 5mm full wetsuit is recommended. MONEY8 Australian dollars, credit cards. HEALTH8 Nearest chamber is in Townsville, 280 miles south of Cairns. DAN insurance is recommended. PRICES8 Dive Worldwide can arrange a package joining the Mike Ball Minke Whale trip on 11 June, 2015, with return BA flights from Heathrow, seven nights on Spoilsport (twin-share cabin) with meals and diving, two nights’ accommodation in Cairns and transfers for £3195pp, www.diveworldwide.com TOURIST INFORMATION8www.experiencequeensland.com
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SHOOTING FOR
TETHYS T
ETHYS WAS A SEA GODDESS in Greek mythology, the wife of Oceanus. Tethys was also the name given to a large ancient sea that can be regarded as the predecessor of today’s smaller Mediterranean. And, thirdly, Tethys is a cetacean conservation group that today studies whales, dolphins and porpoises in the Mediterranean. This sea once abounded with marine life, including many species of great whales, but it has been adversely affected by infrastructures needed to support local and tourist populations, industrial pollution and overfishing. Tethys monitors cetacean populations throughout the Mediterranean and makes recommendations on how best to manage and conserve remaining local populations of whales and dolphins. It also studies and advises on protecting migratory species for which the Med is a vital habitat. It is one of the main conservation groups leading the fight to
A long-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus capensis) leaping in the bow wake of a tanker off South Africa’s Transkei coast, by Doug Perrine. During the annual Sardine Run, mega-herds of thousands of common dolphins go racing up and down the Wild Coast, chasing shoals of migrating sardines. When they find such a shoal in shallowenough water, they co-operate to break off pieces of it, and bring them to the surface as baitballs. If large ships are travelling in the same direction, the dolphins take advantage of the wake pushed ahead of the ship to get a free forward boost, often leaping high, as if jumping for joy.
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bring about a recovery of this sea. Tethys works with schools and public aquariums in many Mediterranean countries to educate people about cetaceans, and has a strong Internet presence to share valuable information internationally. It provides opportunities for paying volunteers to join its sea-going expeditions. Underwater photographers Doug Perrine and Danny Kessler met on a private expedition to document pilot whales in the Straits of Gibraltar. Now they have teamed up to work with and support Tethys with a travelling exhibition of megafauna portraits from around the globe. Doug Perrine grew up far from the ocean in Dallas, Texas, but felt the sea calling him from an early age. After studying at the University of Hawaii he worked as a lifeguard, teacher of English as a foreign language, marine biologist and scuba instructor in a number of coastal and island nations. Back in the USA he earned a master’s degree in marine biology, and only in his 30s took up his true calling. He is now widely regarded as one the world’s foremost marine-wildlife photographers. His work has been published in thousands of publications, and he has written seven books and numerous magazine articles on marine life. He has also been a consultant for filming projects
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PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER
Part of a new travelling exhibition of big-animal portraits called Megafauna can be seen in the following pages and at this month’s DIVE 2014 at the NEC. In aid of cetacean charity Tethys, it features the work of underwater photographers DOUG PERRINE and DANNY KESSLER. STEVE WARREN makes the introductions
for the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery, Disney and other companies. His photographs have won a number of awards, including grand prize in the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in 2004. Perrine lives near the ocean in Hawaii. Danny Kessler’s infatuation with the great whales began on a gap-year trip to Patagonia. Encountering a right whale, he entered the water alone and, in almost-zero visibility, took his first underwater whale pictures using a disposable film camera. Since then he has travelled the world seeking out megafauna for his camera. He originated three expeditions to the Straits of Gibraltar, dubbed Europe’s own Sardine Run, that revealed, through divEr, the confluence of pilot whales, orcas, sperm and fin whales at the peak of bluefin tuna migration. He kept his world-class images in his private collection until contacts among leading marineconservation champions persuaded him that they should be used to help raise awareness of threats to marine life and encourage support for its protection. Surprised after joining a Tethys charter to learn how important the Mediterranean is to many species of cetacean, Danny Kessler and Doug Perrine have chosen to fund-raise for Tethys and share their message. ☛
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PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER Left: Copper sharks or bronze whalers (Carcharhinus brachyurus) feeding in a baitball of sardines or pilchards along with bonito and releasing a cloud of fish scales and blood on South Africa’s Wild Coast, by Doug Perrine. These sharks were among thousands attracted to a large baitball created by common dolphins. The secondary predators, including sharks, tuna, gannets and bottlenose dolphins, overwhelmed the common dolphins and drove them off the baitball. At least four species of sharks were attacking the sardines, with a “pecking order” determined by their size. The photographer was pummelled by the smaller sharks excluded from feeding because of the primacy of the larger sharks. Large dusky sharks fed at the top of the baitball, with copper, blacktip and bull sharks at the middle and lower levels.
Below left: A yearling female Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi), a critically endangered species, at Mahukona, Kohala, the Big Island in Hawaii, by Doug Perrine. Known as Pup to the volunteers who cared for her, this seal was the only one born in 2006 on Hawaii Island, where the population hovers at around five. She had to be relocated around the island several times because of hazards from excessive interaction with humans and diseases carried in freshwater streams. However, the island was not big enough to prevent humans continuing to feed her, touch her and try to turn her into a pet.
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Inevitably she became more demanding and aggressive until she became a public safety hazard, grabbing people and pulling them under the water. When relocated, she continued to swim to areas where she could interact with humans. Eventually she was moved to a very remote location, but did not survive in the unfamiliar habitat. This endangered animal was literally “loved to death” by humans who placed their own desires for amusement above her need to remain wild and free. There are about 1100 Hawaiian monk seals left on the planet. The population shrinks about 3% a year.
Below: Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), the largest of the toothed whales, off Gibraltar, by Danny Kessler. Sperm whales use echo-location not just for finding their way in the abyssal depths but also as a weapon. The sound wave can be used to stun prey, and divers have reported being pummelled by sonic impulses from sperm whales warning them off. Here three sperm whales, part of a much larger group, are relaxed in the photographer’s presence. The spermaceti for which the whale is named is actually a substance contained in the head. Some scientists contend that it is used for buoyancy control, changing its density under the whale’s control to become heavier for diving and allowing the whale to drop effortlessly. Others believe it is a refinement of the echolocation system, helping the whale predict the position of moving prey. ☛
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Right: A green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), a threatened species in Hawaii and endangered elsewhere, is cleaned of algae by yellow tangs (Zebrasoma flavescens) at Puako, Kona, Hawaii, by Doug Perrine. Not all cleanerfish eat parasites. Green turtles are slow-moving and subject to the growth of algae fouling their shells and reducing their hydrodynamic efficiency. To rid themselves of this nuisance they swim slowly through the cleaning station where throngs of yellow tangs or goldeye surgeonfish and other herbivores await the delivery of a “breakfast platter” loaded with tasty algae. Carnivorous cleanerfish may also attend in smaller numbers, picking off the invertebrate parasites that attach to the turtles’ skin.
Left: Reef mantas (Manta alfredi) chain-feed on plankton in Hanifaru Bay, Baa Atoll, Maldives, by Doug Perrine. Hanifaru Lagoon in the Indian Ocean is the only place in the world where mantas are known to engage in “cyclone feeding”. Chain-feeding, as seen here, is another co-operative feeding strategy by which the mantas maximise their efficiency. Each manta takes advantage of the eddies created by the ray swimming in front of it, as well as the prey-avoidance response of the plankton, which jump up to avoid the mouth of one manta, only to be sucked directly into the mouth of the next in the chain. The feeding chain loops back on itself at both ends.
Right, above: In the Straits of Gibraltar, a nursing longfin pilot whale (Globicephala melas) escorts her young calf to the surface to breathe, by Danny Kessler. The second-largest of the dolphin family, running up to 7m long and weighing as much as 2300kg, longfin pilot whales are numerous in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Straits, which divide African and Europe and through which the Atlantic flows into the Mediterranean, longfins may mix with the shortfin pilots found more often in the tropics. Whales in the Straits are greatly outnumbered by the more than 100,000 ships that pass through this trade route every year. Collisions are inevitable and some whales bear injuries such as missing dorsal fins as a result. Others do not survive.
Right: A Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera brydei or edeni) with its throat pleats expanded after feeding on a baitball of sardines off Baja California, Mexico, by Doug Perrine. Bryde’s (rhymes with Freda’s) are medium-sized baleen whales. They feed on schooling fish and krill by engulfing a large mass of prey and water in a cavernous mouth that expands because of the elasticity of the accordion-like throat pleats. After making a high-speed lunge through the school, water is squeezed out through the fibrous baleen fringe hanging from the upper jaw, trapping the prey inside the baleen to be licked off by the massive tongue and pushed down the throat. ☛
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PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER
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Right: Able to surpass 62mph, sailfish (Istiophorus albicans) wield their bills with perfect accuracy, by Danny Kessler. The photographer had to depend on this precision for his safety as he angled for shots among 50 sailfish pursuing a fish shoal off Isla Mujeres, off Mexico’s east coast – “like standing in the middle of an autobahn and trying to photograph passing cars”. Working together, the sailfish corral the baitfish to force them to bunch up, forming a baitball. The sailfish then charge through, swiping left and right, to stun and kill the fish before feeding on them. Flashing iridescent stripes along their flanks may serve to communicate intentions between the hunters or simply further frighten the baitfish. Tag-and-release programmes let game fishermen enjoy sportfishing billfish, while underwater photographers will pay to dive with them. Sustainable activities like these afford some protection to billfish, as their monetary value alive can bring much more benefit to local communities than if they are fished.
Below: Southern sting rays (Dasyatis americana) glide through the shallows of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean in search of free food hand-outs, by Danny Kessler. First lured there by discarded fish-scraps from fishermen, the rays now keep a pact with sightseers who, in exchange for tidbits, can handle the habituated rays with little fear of being stung. Interactions at Stingray City attract revenues to the Caymans estimated at US $30m a year. However, the ray population is showing signs of decline and there are calls to better protect animals the live value of which to the local economy far exceeds that of their worth dead. Stingray City raises questions about eco-tourism and the positive and negative impacts of staged marine-life encounters that divers may be best-placed to answer.
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PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER
Revered as the largest animal that ever lived, the blue whale was nearly rendered extinct by commercial whaling. Though no longer threatened directly in this way, man still threatens its environment, by Danny Kessler. The war between Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers inadvertently created a sanctuary off Trincomalee on Sri Lanka’s Eastern seaboard. Here blue whales congregate in their tens – a tiny fraction of a species the population of which may have declined by 99% in the 100 years between the invention of the harpoon gun and IWC protection in the 1960s.
The whales seek out plankton-rich water in which to feed. This turns the water green and reduces visibility to near-zero, making it impossible to photograph an animal approaching 25m long. Danny Kessler had to wait on the outskirts of the green zone, trying to predict when and where a blue whale would emerge into the clearer waters. Even then, the whales were evasive, staying right on the edge of visibility. This, the best image of a pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) from an 11-day safari, was snatched on the last possible dive of the trip.
Right: Male great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) at Guadalupe Island, Mexico in the Eastern Pacific, by Doug Perrine. The shark is charging a tuna bait being pulled toward the cage by a wrangler on the ship. After many years of persecution, populations of white sharks and the seals on which they prey are all recovering here. ☛
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PHOTOGRAPHIC DIVER
Above: Swallow of the sea, this winged manta ray (Manta alfredi) might just as easily slip the boundaries of the ocean and take flight. Mantas are known to breach high above the waves, possibly to shake off parasites, by Danny Kessler.
fingerprints, and allow researchers to identify and document rays in the lagoon. Satellite-tagging enabled Guy and his team to track the rays during migrations and successfully make the case for international protection under CITES.
Hosting the largest of all the rays, Hanifaru in the Maldives has long been the focus of studies by The Manta Trust under the leadership of Guy Stevens. Mantas gather in the lagoon in their hundreds to take turns in an orchestrated underwater ballet called cyclone-feeding. Invited by Guy to join him in documenting the mantas, Danny Kessler saw this opportunity for a rare split-level portrait. Markings on the ray’s underside are as individual and distinctive as a human’s
Below: Off the coast of South Africa, a blue shark (Prionace glauca) tracks a chum slick to the waiting photographer, by Danny Kessler.
TRAVELLING EXHIBITION You can see the Megafauna exhibition in the PhotoZone at DIVE 2014, at the NEC, Birmingham. Should you miss it there, it will also be at London Sealife Centre’s Ocean of Stars event on 18 November, with Danny Kessler discussing the stories behind his and Doug Perrine’s images. Other speakers are to be confirmed. The event, which starts at 7pm, is in support of the Sea Life Marine Conservation Trust, www.visitsealife.com/london For donations to Tethys, please visit www.tethys.org/tethys/productcategory/donations-cat
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Among the most common and widely distributed of sharks, blues have been devastated both by deliberate fishing and, incidentally, as bycatch. It is estimated that 20 million are killed annually Blue sharks are listed as “near threatened” by the IUCN. They are found in British waters and in recent years several operators, mainly working
out of Cornwall, have offered divers the chance to snorkel with these charismatic animals. The concept, pioneered by Richard Peirce, was designed to show how sharks in UK waters could have a greater commercial value alive than dead, as shown in destinations such as the Caribbean. South Africa is a perfect example of the draw of sharks and how they attract inward investment from tourists. Divers from all over the world travel to South Africa to encounter and photograph species as diverse as great whites, tigers, blacktips, seven-gills and makos. This blue shark was an opportunist, trying to follow a trail of rubby-dubby set to attract makos. For either species there was no reward. Regulations ban the deliberate feeding of sharks. But for the photographer the reward is a stunning image of the most graceful of all sharks.
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Reviews OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 13:37 Page 106
BOOK REVIEW UK DIVING
So what was your query? Sharks, The Animal Answer Guide, by Gene Helfman & George H Burgess WHEN REVIEWING NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS about specific species, a phrase often used by reviewers is: “All the reader will ever need to know about…” Only rarely does the book live up to that description. This one does. Helfman and Burgess have produced an easyto-read volume that the shark enthusiast will find fascinating and invaluable, while the experts will discover gaps in their expertise. I particularly like the way in which questions are asked and answered, and found the chapters on shark colours highly informative. Much of the content may be standard stuff but it is often presented from new and different angles. The chapters on “Human Problems” (from a shark’s viewpoint) and “Shark Problems” (from a human’s viewpoint) in particular fell into this category. My favourite chapter is “Sharks in Stories, Media and Literature” – in fact I have been so inspired by it that I’ve decided to base a presentation on the same subject and take it on the road. On no level is this book a field guide, but then it doesn’t set out to be one. What it does set out to do is answer questions, and in this respect it ticks most of the boxes. The book is available in both hard and soft covers, and at £17.50 the paperback is good value. It’s an ideal companion on a diving trip but not something to leave lying around on a liveaboard – you might not see it again!
Richard Peirce John Hopkins University ISBN: 9781421413099 Softback, 288pp, £17.50
REEF SOLID Reef Fishes of the Indo-Pacific by Matthias Bergbauer & Manuela Kirschner Now this is the sort of marine-life ID
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book I like at first sight – chunky appearance, good-quality paper, solid binding, well-reproduced, accurate colour photographs, and, most important, a lot of them. When you’re dealing with the IndoPacific region you can’t skimp on content – after all, it accounts for 40% of all coral reef fish known worldwide, as the introduction points out, and that’s a lot of species. As for the words of Dr Bergbauer accompanying each image, they’re either succinct or sketchy, depending on what you need. Such brief notes on description, size, biology and distribution might not satisfy a marine biologist hungry for knowledge but they seem sufficient for those of us just looking for a name and a little guidance on differentiation. I don’t take these beefy reference books away with me – they’re too heavy, and the best ones can usually be found in dog-eared form on the boat or at the dive centre anyway. Where they come into their own is
when you’re back home trying to identify some unfamiliar-looking creature in your photos. The cheap, portable ID books with poor repro or drawings and restricted to familiar species invariably let you down. This is especially so when your mystery fish turns out to be some juvenile to all intents and purposes unrelated to it parents. This book covers a number of such variants and in all features a generous 800 species. This does however include small sections at the back on invertebrates and reptiles/mammals, and as there are so many thousands of possibilities in the former category alone, I’d rather these had been left for a separate volume, and the space devoted to even more fish. If all ID books had reference photos as good as Manuela Kirschner’s, identification would be that much easier.
Helmut Debelius and Paul Humann & Co remain very much the big beasts to beat when it comes to comprehensive tropical marine-life ID books, but this is a good new contender and, with its production quality, good value too.
Steve Weinman John Beaufoy Publishing ISBN: 9781909612310 Softback, 352pp, £19.99
TOP 10 DIVING BOOKS as listed by www.amazon.co.uk (26 August, 2014) 1. Fifty Places to Dive Before You Die, by Chris Santella (1) 2. Manual of Freediving, by Umberto Pelizzari & Stefano Tovaglieri (3) 3. Discover UK Diving, by Will Appleyard (-) 4. The Scuba Diving Handbook, by John Bantin (7) 5. Dive England’s Greatest Wrecks, by Rod Macdonald (-) 6. Reef Fish Identification, Tropical Pacific, by Gerald Allen, Roger Steene & Paul Humann (-) 7. Scuba Confidential: An Insider’s Guide, by Simon Pridmore (-) 8. Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World, by Tim Ecott (-) 9. Snorkelling Guide to Marine Life: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Paul Humann & Ned deLoach (-) 10. Scuba Diving, by Monty Halls (-)
BANTIN GOES SOFT Amazing Diving Stories by John Bantin A few years ago I took a call at the divEr office from a publisher looking for someone to put on paper a collection of diving stories, and I had no hesitation in recommending that he speak to John Bantin. If anyone had a multitude of diving stories to relate it was Bantin, and he was always good at telling them, whether in person or on paper. A great many such stories had appeared in the pages of divEr over several decades, but I had been telling him for as long as I could remember that he should find time to put together a book about his experiences. John had plenty of his own stories but he also set about pestering his heavy diving friends for more. The result, produced in what to me seemed a surprisingly quick time, was Amazing Diving Stories, a collection of 64 short tales herded into such categories as “Dangerous Animals”; “Interesting Characters And Difficult Moments”; and “Treasure Seekers and Finders”. Subtitled Incredible Tales From Deep Beneath The Sea, the book has been around for a couple of years now in hardback form and has proved a success, if the Amazon Top 10 Diving Books is a guide, selling more than 5500 copies to date. Now it is out in paperback and, as the publisher points out eagerly as summer nears its an end, would make a suitable Christmas gift for any diver. It’s the sort of book you could binge-read, bring on a trip or dip into at bedtime – take your pick. We look forward to Volume 2.
Steve Weinman Fernhurst Books ISBN: 9781909911154 Softback, 280pp, £12.99
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INON UK WORKSHOPS by Lisa Collins – INON UK Underwater Photography Instructor/Trainer and regular feature writer for divEr
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Booking Now OCT_Bubbling 29/08/2014 13:33 Page 108
HOLIDAY NEWS
Diverse diversifies Tour operator Diverse Travel has added two remote eastern Pacific diving destinations, Cocos and Socorro, to its portfolio. Cocos offers not only the promise of large schools of hammerheads but, most recently, tiger sharks, says Diverse. Prices start from £4083pp for an 11-night twin-share package including return flights from London, a night in San Jose, Costa Rica, 10 nights’ liveaboard including all meals and beer and seven full days’ diving, with three dives a day. The four remote volcanic Socorro islands also shelter schooling hammerheads, Galapagos, oceanic whitetip and silky sharks, whale sharks and manta rays, with migrating humpback whales December-March. Prices are from £2980pp for a 10night twin-share package with flights, a night in San Jose Del Cabo, eight nights’ liveaboard including all meals and six days’ diving with up to four dives a day. Diverse Travel is also now arranging trips to Palau.
8 www.diversetravel.co.uk
BOOKING NOW…
Moonspawn & blackwater
RAYS OF THE MOON Palau’s bumphead parrotfish and snapper aren’t the only fish to have their strings pulled by the Moon (left). In the Maldives the manta rays and other big fish respond to it too, and a seven-night trip on the liveaboard Sting Ray from 3-11 May next year will celebrate the fact. Equator Diving says that May is a great time in the Maldives to see big fish, including not only mantas but whale, hammerhead, guitar and grey reef sharks. Sting Ray will visit sites in Male and Ari Atolls, including the Kuda Giri and Machafushi wrecks, Kandhooma, Kudarah, Hafta and Maaya thilas and Fish Head, with a hunting-whitetip night dive thrown in. Price is from £1495pp, including seven nights on Sting Ray, 17 dives, all meals and refreshments, a beach barbecue, flights and transfers.
8 www.equatordiving.com Siren Fleet is teaming up with Paul Collins and Richard Barnden of Sam’s Tours Unique Dive Expeditions to offer guests on the Palau Siren liveaboard what promise to be spectacular encounters with spawning aggregations of thousands of bumphead parrotfish and red snapper in Palau. The snapper aggregations can also signal exciting encounters with preying oceanic blacktip and bull sharks, says Siren Fleet. The spectacles occur during full- and new-Moon periods and few divers have ever witnessed them! Collins and Barnden are also said to have pioneered
Omani proposition The Chedi Muscat in Oman is an established resort with its own private beach located near al Ghubra, about 20 minutes from Muscat's old city. It has 158 rooms and suites and six restaurants and is now offering guests dive packages to explore the fish and corals found in the Daymaniyat Islands marine reserve, a 45-minute boat ride away, although it says that diving on local sites is also available. Rooms start from £171 per night and boat-dives cost 49 Omani rials (about £75).
8 www.ghmhotels.com
“blackwater” diving. Far out from the reefs, night divers can watch migrations of weird deepwater creatures rising closer to the surface to feed, from tiny postlarval fish to cephalopods. The duo also deliver onboard presentations on the ecology of the dives and how to photograph them. There is no additional charge for this blackwater adventure. Seven-night trips cost 3100 euros and 10 nights 4250 euros, the next being 13-20 February. The price includes all meals and beer, free nitrox and essential dive gear. Flights are extra.
8 www.sirenfleet.com
Project Shark moves on to Galapagos Tour operator blue o two is taking the Project Shark itinerary to Galapagos next May. It had previously run Project Shark trips in the Red Sea, led by Dr Elke Bojanowski) and in the Maldives with marine biologist Nikki Weeden, who will be leading the Galapagos venture. Weeden will conduct seminars to help divers gain a better understanding of the biology, behaviour and conservation needs of sharks, supporting the Galapagos Conservation Trust. The Galapagos Islands are home to some 35 shark species as well as varieties of rays. The itinerary is based on blue o two’s collaboration with Worldwide Dive and Sail and its liveaboard Galapagos Master. Running from 24 May to 5 June, the trip has been “massively discounted”, says the operator, from £5750 to £4995 including flights. blue o two loyalty club members get another £375 off. In a separate development, blue o two says that it has responded to customer demand concerning control over sleeping arrangements on its Red Sea and Maldives liveaboard fleet. Guests willing to pay an extra £60 a week now have the chance to guarantee their cabin position, subject to availability. The offer is not available to solo travellers.
8 www.blueotwo.com
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HOLIDAY NEWS
BOOKING NOW…
RSE goes GUE
Oonas heads into Fiji
Red Sea Explorers has become a GUE Instructor Development Centre (IDC), one of only eight in the world. It says it is also unique in being a liveaboard operation, with access to many diving locations with varying conditions that offer interesting diving for those divers who follow GUE (Global Underwater Explorers) disciplines. Group pricing is being set, but anyone interested in GUE training at any level or interning as an instructor is invited to get in touch.
8 www.redseaexplorers.com
40th discount
Astrolabe barrier reef, the world’s fourth longest, with sheltered coral lagoons with fish and critters, deep-toshallow channels that attract pelagics, and the Manta Reef ray feeding area. For an idea of prices, 10 nights’ twin-share full board at the Matava with 18 dives, all-day access to the Critter Junction site, domestic and international flights costs from £2795.
Sinai Divers, with centres in Sharm, Dahab, Marsa Alam and Aqaba, is celebrating 40 years in the Red Sea diving business with a special anniversary offer. Until the end of October it is offering 10-dive packages for 145 euros and PADI Open Water Diver courses for 195 euros. Dives are mainly on house reefs and wrecks such as the Thistlegorm or Dunraven. Or you can opt for a seven-night Northern Red Sea itinerary aboard its Ghazala I liveaboard for 475 euros.
8 www.oonasdivers.com8
8 www.sinaidivers.com
Tour operator Oonasdivers has chosen its 30th anniversary year to move into new territory in the shape of Fiji, with four resorts selected for its portfolio. The Voli Voli Beach Resort at Rakiraki is on the largest island of Viti Levu, a coral reef location with its pinnacles and drop-offs. Further south towards Pacific Harbour is Waidroka Resort and the chance of bull and
tiger shark encounters at Sharks Reef, plus the soft corals and pinnacles of Beqa Lagoon. The Paradise Taveuni Resort on Taveuni gives divers the chance to explore Somosomo Strait, the “soft coral capital of the world” and Vuna Lagoon for larger pelagic and schooling fish. Finally Matava Resort on Kadavu Island gives access to the Great
New career waits in Bali
FROM TOBAGO TO BOHOL
Ready for a change of life? Blue Season Bali in Indonesia, a 5* PADI Career Development Centre, is running its third Best Dive Job in the World initiative – it could be your cue. The international job offer requires hopefuls to submit a 90-second video to the contest website answering the question:“Why do I want to become a PADI professional scuba instructor and win the Best Dive Job in the World?” Blue Season Bali wants healthy certified divers aged 18 and above who can demonstrate a keen sense of adventure, dive and travel experience, as well as social media, marketing, photo- and videography expertise. Eight candidates will be invited to travel to Bali next May to take on a challenging six-week training programme to become PADI Divemasters. During the final week, they face an elimination round until the Grand Prize winner is revealed. Entry to the contest closes at the end of October.
8 www.bestdivejob.com www.divErNEt.com
The latest specialist tour operator to recognise the diving attractions of Tobago is Ultimate Diving, which has just added the southern Caribbean destination to its listings. Seven-night trips start from
£899pp in October and November, including B&B accommodation, five days’ diving with two dives a day and airport transfers. Looking ahead to next September, meanwhile, Ultimate is offering solo visitors a week of diving in Bohol in the Philippines, at the Magic Oceans Dive Resort. It promises few other divers around, pristine reefs and excellent walls, great visibility, turtles, lots of critters and even the possibility of spotting resident whale sharks. The trip leaves on 19 September, 2015, and costs £450pp including ferry transfers from Cebu, seven nights’ B&B and 10 dives. Possible add-ons include half or full board, additional dives and a deco-day excursion to Chocolate Hills. International flights can be booked separately.
8 www.ultimatediving.co.uk
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HOLIDAY NEWS
BOOKING NOW…
Cousteau route in Cozumel
Regaldive is inviting divers to follow in the fins of Jacques Cousteau from 9-14 December at the Cozumel Scuba Fest in Mexico. The event includes a programme of nine dives on nine reefs over four days, allowing divers to explore what Cousteau pronounced “one of the best places around the world for diving”. The Scuba-Fest JM Cousteau Route 2014 visits the Palancar Caves, Paso Del Cedral with its fish and nurse sharks, and Punta Sur, a deeper cavern dive. Regaldive clients can pre-book a Scuba Fest Dive Pack including the dives (one at night), logbook, polo shirt, air or nitrox and mask and fin hire for £252pp. A seven-night package at the all-inclusive Allegro Cozumel Resort costs from £1199pp, also including flights and transfers.
8 www.regaldive.co.uk
New boat for Mevagh Mevagh Dive Centre in County Donegal on Ireland’s west coast has taken delivery of a new 11m diveboat from Blyth Workcats. It’s job is to carry groups of up to 12 divers to wreck and other sites along the Atlantic coast. The Laura Dean is powered by two Iveco 420hp engines and features a hull design said to have been developed for optimal performance linked with reliability and sturdiness even in extreme conditions, allowing it to operate up to 60 miles offshore. There is a small saloon seating area with toilet and galley and a sheltered area for divers. Stainless-steel seating is fitted along each side with central tank-racks, and a gated hydraulic divelift. Two boat-dives cost 60 euros.
8 www.mevaghdiving.com
Emperor Atoll follows Voyager in Maldives Following the introduction of the Emperor Voyager liveaboard in the Maldives, Emperor Divers Maldives has added a second vessel to its portfolio. Emperor Atoll, formerly SeaQueen, sails from Male and caters for up to 12 guests in twin-berth cabins. Dive routes are designed to show divers the “big stuff“ and include Best of the Maldives, Sharktastic and Pelagic Magic. Prices for a seven-night trip start from £988 and include six days’ diving, meals and refreshments, 17 dives including a night dive, free nitrox and transfers. Flights are not included.
8 www.maldives.emperordivers.com
INDIAN OCEAN LUXURY AT A PREMIUM Winter whale If the Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles float your boat, the 5* Savoy Resort & Spa on Beau Vallon Bay on the island of Mahe says it can arrange not only luxury accommodation but for your diving needs to be met. Of the 24 dive schools in the Seychelles it says it works mainly
with Big Blue Divers and Blue Sea Divers, which explore sites around Mahe as well as Ile au Vache, Praslin, Therese, Silhouette and La Digue. Coral, turtles on most dives and the possibility of giant grouper, reef sharks, humphead wrasse and whale sharks are on the agenda, depending on the time of year.
The resort has what it says is the biggest pool in the Seychelles, and a 24-hour fitness centre (sounds exhausting). There are 163 double rooms and suites, with prices starting at (gulp) 520 euros a night, while 10 boat dives with Big Blue will set you back 357 euros.
8 www.savoy.sc
Return to Normandy wrecks in 2015 After what he describes as a “very successful” expedition to visit often little-dived historic military and merchant wrecks in the 30-50m depth range off France’s north coast this year, Jack Ingle Technical Diving is planning a rerun. You pay £900 for six days’ boat-diving and liveaboard accommodation on mv Salutay, a full technical-diving platform with ease of entry and a lift for diver recovery. A deco station with support diver and back-
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up gas on the line will be provided. Nitrox and helium are available but charged for separately. Salutay heads for sheltered moorings at night so divers can go ashore if they wish. They decide on the exact itinerary between themselves based on conditions, qualifications and experience. The boat sails to Normandy from Weymouth and there are still places available on the sailing on 5 September.
8 jack@jackingle.co.uk
spectacular
The largest gathering of orcas and humpback whales in the world takes place each year in the Norwegian fjords, where the animals feed on herring shoals, says Netherlands-based Waterproof Expeditions. The company has exclusively chartered the expedition yacht Malmo for whale experiences early next year, promising opportunities for photography and snorkelling in the clear Arctic waters on any of eight one-week Winter Whales of Norway trips in January or February. Prices for the expeditions start from 3075 euros.
8 www.waterproofexpeditions.com www.divErNEt.com
Aquanauts advertorial Oct_Layout 1 21/08/2014 15:24 Page 1
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
Grenada Traffic So you think the M25 is busy? Guess you haven’t seen our “French Grunt” traffic – that IS busy! Looking for your dive guide? Just ascend a few feet and you might see him above the crowd…
Not only do we have traffic snarl-ups underwater here in Grenada, but our dive guides are happy to find you that elusive sea horse, frog fish or even a pipe fish; the latter for those with good eyesight. Maybe they will take you on a picture hunt for that red-lipped batfish? Join the staff on a hunt to decimate the invasive lion fish? As beautiful as this fish is, it has no predators in the Caribbean and devastates the indigenous fish population. It is also very tasty; as one of our guests recently commented: “Thank you again for the lion fish. Antonia and I are just back from dinner and the chef did a spectacular job preparing the filets four
Back to Grenada’s traffic – want to try to direct the eagle ray traffic at the wrecks of King Mitch or Hema? You should have good stamina and know how to deal with currents; or just sit leewards and enjoy the show! Almost forgot, we have some traffic on our beaches too – all summer when sea turtle hatchlings are hustling to the ocean, after picking their way out of the egg to freedom. Even the largest of them all – the leatherback turtle has tiny hatchlings on several nesting sites all around Grenada.
styles: poached, fried, grilled and blackened. We found the fish itself quite tasty, with a very pleasant texture. On top of that, it really is the most environmentally friendly dish you can have!” So come to Grenada and taste the lion fish for yourselves, while at the same time helping nature to cope with the invasion, as she will eventually.
So next time you’re in a jam on the M25, remember Grenada’s traffic and resolve to escape to a different type of crowd. We offer hotel and dive packages, all courses from beginner to technical and rebreather diving – and even scuba yoga; special deals and events throughout the year for families, groups and singles. Just check out our website:
www.aquanautsgrenada.com – but not while driving please!
Diver Tests_OCTOBER_v2-5pp v2_Layout 1 29/08/2014 13:21 Page 112
WELL AND TRULY
TESTED
Frankly it hurt a bit when NIGEL WADE’s practical research into maximising SMB visibility a few years ago seemed to fall on deaf ears, but now a new product has made him feel a whole lot better
DSMB
BLUE OCEAN DIVING TEC THREE LONG YEARS AGO, I SPENT A frustrating day sitting onboard a dive charterboat while everyone else (except the skipper) was under water exploring a deep wreck. All wasn’t lost, however – I was there to research surface marker buoys with diver, skipper and Weymouth Lifeboat cox’n Ian Taylor for a feature (Skipper’s Point of View, July 2011). The outcome was that a mixture of red and black proved the easiest to see in nearly all conditions found off the UK coast. It seems that no one read that little piece of wisdom (well, no one that makes marker buoys, at least) – until now, that is. Maidstone Course Director and technicaldiving instructor trainer Ryby Stonehouse saw the need, and has produced a delayed SMB that actually ticks all the boxes.
The Design What can be said about a DSMB? It’s a polythene-lined nylon tube that’s filled with air and sent to the surface from depth while attached to a line on a reel. Here’s the scary thing: some divers see this bit of kit as an optional extra, when in fact it should be mandatory dive gear. Ian Taylor has few rules, but this he does say: “If you haven’t got a DSMB, you’re not getting in the water from my boat.” It follows that this is a piece of essential safety kit, and you can’t just pay lip service to something on which you rely for your personal safety. Ryby has incorporated all the best DSMB features in his design. It has an open base by which air can enter from various sources, such as exhaled gas or purged gas from an alternative second stage. Once the SMB is inflated, internal pressure closes and seals the base so that it won’t dump
The 2m DSMB can be easily used as a surface-support raft.
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Above: Blue Ocean Tec DSMB in black and red. air at the surface if it lies flat. Air is exhausted instead via a pull dump-valve that is overpressure-sensitive and will prevent the DSMB from rupturing as gas pressure increases on its ascent. There is an alternative method of filling the buoy, which is via a dedicated tube with a oneway valve that mimics the standard male type of low-presure inflator connector found on drysuits and BCs. This inflation tube doesn’t have a recess, so the lp hose will always slip off as the buoy ascends. For rebreather or technical divers with bailout stage cylinders and regs fitted with spare lp hoses, this is said to be the safest option when deploying the buoy. The colour is the next bit of genius. It’s twotone, solid black on one side and solid fluoro red on the other. There’s a webbing loop and small D-ring at the base for reel and line connection, plus a small loop of bungee to keep everything in place when it’s rolled up and waiting to be deployed. The whole thing measures 2m x 20cm when deployed, and it packs down to just 20cm x 7.5cm diameter and weighs in at a paltry 340g.
In Use I used this DSMB on a rebreather trip in the Egyptian Red Sea. Rolled up and connected to a stainless finger-spool it took up very little space, and I had it clipped to a spare D-ring during the dives.
Getting ready for deployment using the lp inflator hose. When it came to deployment I used my spare low-pressure inflator. I connected it to the inlet spigot, and it took only a small push to add a substantial amount of air in a very quick burst. The DSMB sped to the surface, expanding even more as the ambient water pressure was reduced. I had never deployed a DSMB in this manner before, and it was by far the easiest method I have used. On subsequent dives I deployed it using exhaled gas (open-circuit) from my regulator through the bottom opening in the conventional way, and the buoy behaved exactly as it should. www.divErNEt.com
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DIVER TESTS
SPECS PRICE 8£70 SIZE 82m x 20cm WEIGHT 8340g COLOUR 8Black, red CONTACT8www.blueoceantec.co.uk DIVER GUIDE ★★★★★★★★★★
The length of this buoy means that it sits well above the surface, making it even easier to spot. The black side contrasts well with water reflecting a white sky, while the red side is highly visible against water with a darker surface. During the photo-shoot I laid it flat and used it as a surface support. It held my weight (admittedly without a scuba unit) and kept my upper torso out of the water.
Conclusion Why such an important piece of safety equipment has taken so long to evolve into something that’s so fit for purpose is beyond me. Credit has to go to Ryby Stonehouse for this ultimate DSMB. I will always have one with me, no matter where I’m diving. I know what it’s like to be in mid-channel, set adrift miles from the boat, and it’s bloody terrifying. ■
WING
FINNSUB FLY 13D RESCUE THERE ARE MORE MAKES, STYLES and genres of BC on the market than you could believe. Whether you’re looking for an initial purchase or a replacement, the choice can be bewildering. Some are lightweight, built from substandard materials, and probably wouldn’t see out a busy season of diving. Others are built like brick outhouses and will seemingly last forever. There are conventional jacket designs, and wings with lots of permutations from horseshoes to doughnuts, some with bungee compression straps, some without. Then, just to add more confusion, there are BCs that are a combination or hybrid of both. For my own style of diving I’ve found that a compact wing holds me in the best position under water, so I was interested when distributor Suunto Diving UK asked if I would like to test the latest from Czech-based dive-kit manufacturer Finnsub. I was sent a Fly 13D Rescue wing with a comfort harness and aluminium backplate.
The Design The Fly 13D Rescue wing is designed to take only a single cylinder. With a bladder shaped like a doughnut, it has an internal capacity of 13 litres, offering 13.8kg of lift. It’s made from welded TPU-coated 500 denier Cordura, and sits inside a zipped outer shell constructed from 2000 denier Cordura, with a high-quality corrugated inflator set on the left-
hand side. The inflator has an integral shoulder pull-dump. A further exhaust valve is set at the bottom inside-left edge of the wing and, combined, these provide three options for expelling air. The low-pressure inflator head has stainless-steel buttons and components that add a certain amount of “heft” to stop it floating, aided by a bungee-keeper set on the harness. Heavy-duty YKK nylon zips allow access for bladder maintenance or replacement via the top and centre of the wing. Twin cam-bands are located in the centre section of the doughnut for securely attaching the single tank. These have rubber spigots to help hold it in place. Two colour options are available, red (as tested) and black, and both versions sport good-quality embroidered graphics.
Harness Design
Finnsub 13D weight-pouch release. www.divErNEt.com
The Fly harness is made from the same heavyduty Cordura as the wing, with padded shoulder-straps and a padded backplate cover. The shoulder straps have no breaks and, along with the waist- and crotch-straps, are constructed with heavy-duty 50mm webbing. Marine-grade stainless-steel fittings are used throughout, and include the waist-belt buckle, shoulder-strap stoppers and five large D-rings. There’s a choice of backplate material, stainless at 2.75kg or aluminium at 0.75kg.
Integrated weightpockets sit at the hips, secured inside an outer pocket by plastic trident clips, and each will take up to 5kg. Each weight-pocket has a stainless D-ring for attaching gauge and alternative regulators. Again there is a choice of red or black to match your choice of wing colour. Both the wing and harness comply with current European standards and are CE-certified.
In Use I set off for a day of wreck and drift dives off the coast, an ideal way to put this wing to the test. The Fly 13D wing and comfort harness felt indestructible. The materials used are top quality and substantial, but there is a weight penalty to pay, with the whole package weighing in at 4.5kg. ☛
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Diver Tests_OCTOBER_v2-5pp v2_Layout 1 29/08/2014 13:23 Page 115
DIVER TESTS position at all times. The dumps are placed where they should be, and made getting rid of unwanted buoyant gas a doddle. The integrated weights sat nicely on my hips, and the waist-belt and shoulder-straps were easy to adjust. The use of a crotch-strap allowed the wing to sit and remain precisely where I set it, regardless of the amount of inflation. The wing held me in my preferred slightly head-up position with ease as I finned effortlessly around the wreck. The compact and streamlined design ensured that there was minimal drag under water. After a second dive, drifting and collecting scallops, I hit the surface an hour later to find that the weather had deteriorated, leaving me to await pick-up in relatively rough seas. The Fly, fully inflated, kept my head above water, but only just. I had to shut down my drysuit dump-valve and add air to get enough extra lift to get my head well out of harm’s way. The doughnut shape to the bladder meant that air could move to the highest point without the diver worrying about it getting trapped. I knew exactly where this was in relation to my
Conclusion The Czech Republic’s Finnsub has created a range of wings and harnesses that exude
SPECS PRICE 8£549 SIXES 8One size fits most (S-XL). XXL available WEIGHT 86.5kg with ss backplate, 4.5kg with alloy backplate
D-RINGS 8Seven, 5mm stainless-steel INTEGRATED WEIGHTS 810kg total capacity LIFT CAPACITY 813.8kg DIVER GUIDE ★★★★★★★★✩✩ qualityand look built to last; they can be mixed and matched to provide an optimal set-up. The combination I had on test meshed seamlessly together, providing a solid platform that I found ideal for my type of recreational single-tank coldwater diving. The slight lack of buoyancy at the surface wasn’t that big an issue, even in the choppy conditions I encountered. However, Finnsub does have larger-capacity wings in its line-up. If the majority of your diving is done at recreational depths in or around the UK, you really should check this little red number out. ■
HOOD
O’THREE CLASSIC 5mm SEMI & THERMAL FLEX 2.5mm I HAD NEVER REALLY CONSIDERED conducting a test of hoods. Mine have always been there, either in the pocket of my drysuit or tucked away in the bottom of my dive-bag – I’ve just pulled them on and gone diving without giving them a second thought. That was, until I left my lightweight version on a liveaboard in Papua New Guinea and then recently lost my very old but much-loved 5mm model overboard during a scallop hunt in the English Channel. I couldn’t face the rest of the dive season getting ice-cream headaches, so I asked those bad boys at O’Three in Portland to send me replacements, only to find that its latest hoods are actually very hi-tec, and completely different from my “run-of-the-mill” originals.
Classic 5mm Design For me the workhorse in the hood division is a 5mm-thick semi-dry model. O’Three’s version is cut from specific high-end super-flexible 5mm neoprene with a smooth nylon outer skin and bronze-coloured glide-skin panels on the inner surfaces. The centre section is twin-skinned, with the inside panel constructed from a porous nylon material. The outer neoprene section has small holes in a repeating pattern of six dotted www.divErNEt.com
O’Three Classic 5mm Semi-dry hood in the water. Right: The O’Three Classic 5mm hood has a perfectly shaped yoke.
throughout the panel to allow trapped air to escape and avoid that “beehive hairdo” look. The O’Three guys call this section a “Twin-ply Airprene vent”.
The yoke is contoured to fit snugly around the throat and over the shoulders. The glide-skin panels are strategically placed at the face and neck to provide a better seal than standard ☛
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DIVER TESTS neoprene and so reduce water exchange. This gives the hood a semi-dry rating, and will help to keep you warm where the body is said to lose most of its heat.
SPECS PRICES 8Classic 5mm Semi, £27.50. Thermal Flex 2.5mm, £24.95.
SIZES 8S, M, L, XL in both with XXL available
Thermal Flex 2.5mm Design
in the Classic 5mm Semi.
COLOUR 8Black CONTACT8www.othree.co.uk DIVER RATING: CLASSIC 5MM SEMI ★★★★★★★★★★ THERMAL FLEX 2.5mm ★★★★★★★★★★
The 2.5mm temperate-water hood is made from Ultra-stretch neoprene and features a full bronze glide-skin lining. The centre Airprene vent is completely perforated to allow trapped air to escape. The hood doesn’t have the contoured yoke of its coldwater sibling; instead it’s finished with more of a square profile. The face-opening is larger than on the Classic version, too. Both hoods have blind-stitched and glued seams with double-stitching at the stress points. They are finished in all-black with screenprinted graphics in white, graphite and metallic silver. There’s even a small white panel on the inside in which to write your name and avoid any confusion should it get mislaid.
and a joy to use. The super-stretchy neoprene coupled with O’Three’s clever contoured design made this hood a perfect fit on my bonce, as it moulded itself snugly to my profile. Again, I had to encourage water ingress at the beginning of the dive to allow for trouble-free equalising, but once this had been done there were no problems to report. Getting both hoods on and off was an easy task, aided by the flexibility of the neoprene and their construction.
In use To be honest, the UK summer weather and my recent dive destinations haven’t lent themselves to teeth-chattering water temperatures. So when I put the Classic to the test in Egypt I suffered for these pages, because my head felt as if it was boiling in a body-hugging bag. The hood, however, did everything I expected of it. Air bled out through the Airprene section quickly and efficiently, even after I had puffed big bubbles into the hood through my mask with the skirt tucked inside. One fact of note was that the glide-skin seals did such an amazing job of sealing my face that I had to poke a finger under the lip to let some water flood the inside. It’s very difficult to equalise with air around your ears.
O’Three Thermal Flex 2.5mm hood.
Conclusion
I needed to do this only once during the dive, at the start of the descent. The water exchange for the rest of the dive was minimal. The Classic’s yoke is beautifully contoured and sat perfectly around my shoulders. I’m going to buy my old technical dive buddy and Wraysbury entrepreneur Richard Major one of these for his birthday, because his own hood has a yoke so long it turns inside-out and makes him look as if he’s been fitted with a cone by a vet to stop him chewing his leg. The lighter-weight Thermal Flex model was more suited to the Red Sea water temperatures,
There are hoods, and there are Hoods. Those amazing neoprene junkies down in Dorset have hit the jackpot with theirs. Using hi-tec materials and pouring years of expertise into designing an anatomical fit, they have ended up with what I see as the perfect solution for keeping divers’ heads comfortably warm no matter where they might be diving. When I was a kid, my mum used to tie a piece of string to my gloves and pass it through the sleeves of my coat in the vain hope that I wouldn’t lose them. I’m thinking of employing the same tactic with these hi-tec hoods, because they’re too good to be without. ■
MOBILE CHARGER
MST AQUA TREK & TRAVEL SOLAR I LOVE TECHNOLOGY – I know, I’m a geek! I have so many electronic devices that run on rechargeable batteries and I’m not on my own – everyone in the UK over the age of eight and under 80 seems to own a mobile phone, iPod, iPad, GoPro, compact camera, Kindle – the list is endless (as is the list of geeks among us). I wake in a cold sweat dreaming that my precious, much-needed “Carlos Fandangle” solid-state, digital hand-held hoojamaflip has flat batteries, rendering it as useless as my buttoned socks. What I need in order to sleep easy is a mobile charging-pack that breathes life back into those dead microchips no matter where I am. ☛
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Both the Aqua Trek (left) and Travel Solar mobile chargers are robust and beautifully crafted. www.divErNEt.com
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The long-awaited second edition of John Lippmann’s best-selling book on deeper diving is now available. * Deeper Into Diving is for the diving enthusiast, the experienced diver, the technical diver, and the dive instructor – as well as other diving and dive medical professionals. * It contains expert information on a range of decompression procedures and other technical topics that is not easily obtainable elsewhere. * It also provides valuable insights into diving physiology and various physical and medical aspects of deeper diving. * This new 512-page softback edition includes more than 70 pages on technical diving. Available from
Underwater World Publications Price: £32.95 (plus £2.50p&p*) * p&p applies to UK and BFPO addresses only; for overseas rates, call 020 8941 8152
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Deeper into Diving
Diver Tests_OCTOBER_v2-5pp v2_Layout 1 29/08/2014 13:24 Page 118
DIVER TESTS Dorset-based Mobile Solar Chargers appeared like a knight in shining armour to loan me two versions of its portable power-packs to try out.
SPECS AQUA TREK PRICE 8£44.95 BATTERY 8Samsung high-performance,
Aqua Trek 7800mAh This model is a compact, waterproof, rechargeable power-bank that can fit easily into your pocket. It can be charged directly from the mains, USB, PC or car USB. The Aqua Trek model featured has a highcapacity “Grade A” Samsung battery with a capacity of 7800mAh, enough to fully charge my mobile phone four times, but there is also a 9000mAh version that will give five charges. The power-bank is housed in a robust, shockand dust-proof rubberised body with a USB port cover that needs to be securely closed to give the unit its 1m-depth rating. This unit is fitted with an integral LED torch that will also flash SOS if the need arises. The Aqua Trek is compatible with all USB 5V devices including mobiles, GPS, tablets, mp3s, handheld VHF radios and Intova and GoPro cameras.
Travel Solar 6000mAh The Solar is a robust dual-USB charger with a battery capacity of 6000mAh (three mobilephone charges). It can be charged from the same sources as the Aqua Trek but also has a solar panel that converts light to trickle-charge the internal polymer lithium-ion batteries. The solar panel produces 100mAh and can recover up to a single phone charge after a full day in direct sunlight. The Travel Solar isn’t waterproof but does have a rubberised shockand dust-proof body similar to the Aqua Trek’s.
Charging an iPhone with the Aqua Trek.
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7800mAh capacity
BATTERY LIFE 8Minimum 500 full charges / discharges
The Aqua Trek charger features a built-in LED torch that also flashes SOS.
In Use I have taken both these models with me on multiple trips overseas. They have worked faultlessly, charging my electronics without any fuss or bother. They’re compact and unobtrusive, slipping neatly into a pocket or bag, and they seem to hold their charge forever. I’ve had the Aqua Trek on the deck of an inflatable, getting soaked as the waves crashed over the bow without the slightest hint of a short circuit. I’ve also topped up the Solar model after leaving it on my south-facing balcony all day to catch the sun. I’ve charged my iPhone, iPad and iPod, and can report that the power-packs took a little longer to fully charge them compared to their generic mains USB chargers. I’ve also tried to charge an Intova Sport compact video camera that I had on test, hoping to get enough power back into its batteries between dives, but alas a mere hour’s
INPUT 85V DC, 1A OUTPUT 85V DC, 1A CHARGE TIME 87hr (mains charger) WEIGHT 8240g DIVER RATING ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩ TRAVEL SOLAR PRICE 8£34.95 BATTERY 8Polymer lithium-ion 6000mAh BATTERY LIFE 8Minimum 500 full charges / discharges
INPUT 8Micro USB, 5V DC /1000mAh OUTPUT 82 x USB 5V/1A and 5v/2.1mAh CHARGE TIME (MAINS) 85hr CHARGE TIME (SOLAR) 845hr in direct sunlight WEIGHT 8178g DIVER RATING ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩ CONTACT8www.mobilesolarchargers.co.uk
surface interval was insufficient to provide enough of a charge for the camera to be used for more than a few minutes.
Conclusion Both of these mobile battery-chargers are beautifully constructed, work faultlessly and are small and light enough to be truly portable. Here, however, is the rub. Try as I might, I couldn’t find a real-world use for these power-packs, especially from a diver’s perspective. I tested them by charging my devices, but I didn’t “need” to do so. I didn’t actually find myself in a situation in which they were the only power sources available. Everywhere I’ve ever stayed had mains electricity. Even on remote island retreats, there were plentiful two-pin sockets supplying 110V to charge everything I had taken with me. The liveaboards from which I’ve dived have more charging sockets than you could need – all my electrical gear gets charged overnight while I sleep, giving a full day’s use before I need to do it again. I can see lots of instances in which I would benefit from having these hi-tec devices available, but unfortunately they have nothing to do with diving, and this is, after all, a review for diver. If I was back-packing, camping or trekking to some remote outpost I doubt if I would leave home without one. As a travelling diver I’d rather pack an extra T-shirt and use the plentiful mains charging facilities I’ve found wherever I go. Now that I’ve said that, Murphy’s law dictates that next time I travel I’m going to be stuck on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere with a flat phone battery when I need to call for emergency assistance. Perhaps I should sacrifice that T-shirt and take an Aqua Trek just in case? ■ www.divErNEt.com
Robin Hood – 10_14_Full Page Bleed 01/09/2014 12:09 Page 1
meet June
roho - designed, developed and manufactured in the UK by RobinHood Watersports; established 1981
she works in Yorkshire yet her work is known throughout the world June has been making drysuits for Roho for many years; she is one of a team of three with over 50 years of combined experience. With their pattern cutting, sealing, shaping and FRPPLWPHQW WR TXDOLW\ 5RKR KDYH EHHQ OHDGLQJ WKH Ă€HOG since 1981. Check out the new range of Roho drysuits June and the team has created - including the “Enduranceâ€? – our new Ă DJVKLS VXLW WDLORUHG IURP WKH ODWHVW IDEULFV LQFOXGLQJ &RUGXUD and Rhombus trilaminates with Kevlar for high impact DUHDV 7KH VXLW DOVR IHDWXUHV 3RODU Ă HHFH QHFN SURWHFWLRQ external zip protection, braces, neoprene lined boots and 2 expanding pockets. The extra comfortable “X-Flexâ€? range has proven to be very popular. The “X-Flex Tekâ€? has the same X-Flex comfort combined with Hi Vis Cordura for extra durability. The “X-Flex liteâ€? has the same comfort as the others but lightweight, ideal for global divers. The “Commercialâ€? LV RXU RULJLQDO EHQFKPDUN VXLW LW¡V D tried and tested suit used by professionals in the most demanding dive areas. With its high tenacity fabric it is used in both commercial and leisure use - the Commercial represents excellent value for money. Finally the “Duratekâ€? trilaminate drysuit is manufactured from Cordura, a tough durable suit with seamless construction in high stress areas. All Roho drysuits for men, women and children are available made to measure at no extra cost. June and her team would love to help you design your bespoke drysuit. - After all there are no two divers the same, so why not have a drysuit that UHDOO\ Ă€WV \RX
www.roho.co.uk contact our team on
01924 444888 dive@roho.co.uk
roho dive
Just Surfaced_OCTOBER_v1a(Q8)_Layout 1 29/08/2014 13:03 Page 120
NEW BUT
UNTESTED The latest kit to hit the dive shops
Scubapro X-Tek Sidemount System 4444
HDS Kevlar Gloves 5555
Scubapro has released its new system for sidemount diving. The X-Tek is a modular design with individual components featuring 12- or 20-litre capacity wings with Scubapro’s newly designed power inflator. The system also features a soft Airnet backpack, which is compatible with X-Tek backplates, and a harness complete with bungees, eyelets and D-rings. A fabric cover is said to optimise the shape and provide protection for the wings. The X-Tek system costs £229-£249, depending on wing size. 8 www.scubapro.com
British drysuit manufacturer Hammond Drysuits has added HDS Kevlar Gloves to its protective-equipment range. They feature heavy-duty Kevlar protection across the palm and fingers, together with a high gauntlet and Velcro wrist-adjuster. An ergonomic cut is claimed to offer full articulation of the hand, and the lightweight neoprene material to the back of the wrist ensures protection in that area. The gloves cost £31 per pair. 8 www.hammond-drysuits.co.uk
Subgear Rash Guards 4444 Subgear has added a range of rash-guards to its expanding inventory. Made from “technically advanced” materials, they are said to have been tested to the new European EU EV-standard 801. Said to provide UV sun protection while snorkelling or swimming, the rash-guards can also be used under wetsuits to provide additional insulation. The material is claimed to be breathable, lightweight, quick-drying and to have anti-bacterial properties. Sized from S to XXXL, the apparel is available in men’s and women’s models for around £34. 8 www.subgear.de
O’Three Kit Bag 6666 Portland-based O’Three has marked its 25th anniversary with the launch of a new kit-bag, with the design reportedly based on feedback from divers. It features an integrated changing mat, corrosion-resistant zips and a capacious main pocket with a full opening and two collapsible accessory pockets. A shoulder-strap, grab-handles at each end and a small identity pocket complete the package. The bag is finished in black and silver with O’Three’s distinctive livery. Expect to pay a little under £60. 8 www.othree.co.uk
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Calumet WT1905 Watertight Hard Camera Case 6666 UK camera retailer Calumet has a range of waterproof hard cases suitable for underwater shooters. The range includes the WT1905, which is sized at 55 x 35 x 25cm and fits within most airline carry-on baggage allowances. It features a thick plastic resin body, which is claimed to provide exceptional resistance to impact, corrosion, water and dust, a neoprene seal, pressure-relief valve, ergonomic handles and self-lubricating wheels. The case comes complete with a diced foam insert and is priced at £175. 8 www.calphoto.co.uk
www.divErNEt.com
Just Surfaced_OCTOBER_v1a(Q8)_Layout 1 04/09/2014 10:36 Page 121
JUST SURFACED
Archimede SportTaucher Watches 4444 German watchmaker Archimede has launched its latest SportTaucher Bronze Divers range of watches. The timepieces feature Swiss-made automatic movements set in 41.5mm brushed-finish bronze cases with screw-down backs and crowns, anti-reflective sapphire crystal faces and unidirectional bronze bezels. A range of strap choices is available, including rubber, rubberised leather and NATO styles. All SportTaucher watches are said to be water-resistant to 300m. Expect to pay around 980 euros. 8 www.archimede-watches.com
Beaver OceanFlex 5mm Semi-dry Wetsuit System 4444 UK-based Beaver Sports has released its latest range of wetsuits. The OceanFlex system comprises a one-piece, front-zip, semi-dry suit using superstretch and Guardflex neoprene. The suit carries PVC logos, YKK zips, protective spine-pad and damage-resistant knee, chest and shoulder areas. An additional Flexplus 5mm over-jacket is available to provide extra thermal insulation, and can be purchased separately or as a combi package complete with a long-yoke semi-dry hood. The full Combi system is available in a total of 17 sizes in both male and female models for £199. 8 www.beaversports.co.uk
FUTURISTIC EXPLORERS
NEXT ISSUE NEUTRAL BUOYANCY Turns out there’s a real art to getting it just right
RIVER RUN The cool pleasures of Ireland’s Kenmare
PHILIPPINE JEWELS NIGEL WADE
We put the Hollis recreational rebreather through its paces in the Red Sea www.divErNEt.com
Diving Puerto Galera and Verde Island
ON SALE 16 OCT
DHD – Oct 2014_Holiday Directory 03/09/2014 17:06 Page 122
HOLIDAY DIRECTORY FACILITIES INCLUDE:
Hotel or guesthouse
Self-catering
Equipment for hire
Dive boat charter arranged
Suitable for families
Packages from UK
Compressed Air
Nitrox
Technical Gases
BSAC School
PADI Training
NAUI Training
TDI Training
SSI Training
DAN Training
Disability Diving
AUSTRALIA GREAT BARRIER REEF – CORAL SEA MIKE BALL DIVE EXPEDITIONS 143 Lake Street, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia. Tel: (00 61) 7 4053 0500. Fax: (00 61) 7 4031 5470. E-mail: mike@mikeball.com www.mikeball.com UK Agent: Divequest – divers@divequest.co.uk
OCTOPUS DIVING CENTRE PO Box 40124, Larnaca, Cyprus. (Dive centre located on the Larnaca to Dhekelia Road, 100m from the Princess Hotel.) Tel/fax: (00 357) 24 646571. Mobile: (00 357) 9965 4462. www.octopus-diving.com E-mail: octopus@spidernet.com.cy PADI 5* Gold Palm Resort & Cyprus’ only BSAC Premier School.
SHARM EL SHEIKH
BALI
ELITE DIVING
AQUAMARINE DIVING – BALI
Divers United Dive Centre, Karma Hotel, Hadaba, Sharm El Sheikh, Red Sea, Egypt. Tel: (00 20) 1224 308 780. E-mail: info@elite-diving.com www.elite-diving.com British owner managers.
Jalan Petitenget 2A, Kuta, Bali 80361. Tel: (00 62) 361 4738 020. Fax: (00 62) 361 4738 021. E-mail: info@AquaMarineDiving.com www.AquaMarineDiving.com
FRANCE
CANARY ISLANDS
COTE D’AZUR
FUERTEVENTURA
DIAMOND DIVING 11 Rue des Pecheurs, Golfe Juan. 06220. Tel: (00 33) 615 305223. E-mail: info@diamonddiving.net www.diamonddiving.net Quality PADI training French Riviera. PADI 5*IDC Resort, six IDCs per year.
DEEP BLUE P.O. Box 33, Caleta de Fuste, Antigua E-35610, Fuerteventura. Tel: (00 34) 606 275468. Fax: (00 34) 928 163983. www.deep-blue-diving.com E-mail: info@deep-blue-diving.com CMAS, IAHD. Harbour location. Special group rates.
RAJA AMPAT
PAPHOS
PAPUA DIVING
CYDIVE LTD Myrra Complex, 1 Poseidonos Avenue, Marina Court 44-46, Kato Paphos. www.cydive.com Tel: (00 357) 26 934271. Fax: (00 357) 26 939680. E-mail: info@cydive.com PADI 5* CDC. First Career Development Centre in Cyprus and Eastern Mediterranean.
GREECE
Sorido Bay Resort and Kri Eco Resort, Kri Island, West Papua. Bookings Office: +62 (0)811 4804610. E-mail: info@papua-diving.com www.rajaampatdiving.com First dive operator (since 1993) and conservation centre in Raja Ampat. Resorts open 365 days.
CRETE CRETE UNDERWATER CENTER Mirabello Hotel, Agios Nikolaos, P.O. Box 100, P.C. 72 100. Tel/fax: (00 30) 28410 22406. Mob: (00 30) 6945 244434, (00 30) 6944 126846. www.creteunderwatercenter.com E-mail: info@creteunderwatercenter.com IANTD Nitrox training. Groups, individuals & dive clubs welcome.
LANZAROTE SAFARI DIVING LANZAROTE Playa Chica, Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote. Tel: (00 34) 625 059713, (00 34) 928 511992. www.safaridiving.com E-mail: enquiry@safaridiving.com English owned, award-winning BSAC School and Seamanship centre, SSI Instructor trainer facility and PADI dive centre. Open every day of the year. Daily shore and boat dives, night dives too – all same price. Great deals for groups, universities and the solo diver.
GRENADA ST. GEORGE’S DIVE POINT Parmenionos St. No4, Tombs of the Kings Rd, Kato Paphos, Cyprus 8045. Tel/fax: (00 357) 26 938730. E-mail: divepointcyprus@hotmail.com www.divepointcyprus.co.uk British BSAC/PADI instructors.
SCUBATECH DIVE CENTRE Calabash Hotel, L’Anse Aux Epines. Tel: +1 (473) 439 4346. Fax: +1 (473) 444 5050. E-mail: info@scubatech-grenada.com www.scubatech-grenada.com Discover The Difference!
IRELAND CO. CORK OCEANADDICTS Ballynaloughe, Nohoval, Co. Cork. Tel: (00 353) (0)87 7903211. E-mail: anne@oceanaddicts.ie www.oceanaddicts.ie Day boat and liveaboard diving.
EGYPT HURGHADA ILIOS DIVE CLUB Steigenberger Al dau Resort, Yussif Affifi Road, Hurghada. Tel: (00 20) 65 346 5442. E-mail: info@iliosdiveclub.com www.iliosdiveclub.com PADI Dive Centre, border free.
CYPRUS LARNACA RECOMPRESSION CHAMBER 24/7 professionally manned and fully computerised, privately owned and operated 14-man recompression chamber, internationally approved and the DAN Preferred Provider for the island. If in doubt … SHOUT! Poseidonia Medical Centre, 47a Eleftherias Avenue, Aradippou, Larnaca 7102, Cyprus. 24hr Emergency Dive Line: +357 99 518837. E-mail: info@hbocyprus.com www.hbocyprus.com
122
LIVEABOARDS
INDONESIA
KENYA KISITE MPUNGUTI MARINE PARK
SEA QUEEN FLEET
ALOR
FIREFLY OCEAN CAMP
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Tel: (00 20) 12 218 6669 or (00 20) 12 100 3941. E-mail: seaqueen@link.net or karen@seaqueens.com www.seaqueens.com Red Sea liveaboards. Dive Centre.
ALOR DIVERS
Shimoni Beach Road, Shimoni. Tel: +254 (0)724 442555 or +254 (0)720 205120. E-mail: info@pillipipa.com www.pillipipa.com Tropical waters, dolphins, snorkelling and diving.
Jl. Tengiri N. 1 Kalabahi, Alor Island, NTT, Indonesia. Tel: (00 62) 813 1780 4133. E-mail: info@alor-divers.com www.alor-divers.com Pristine. Diving. Exclusive. Covert. Destination.
To advertise in the divEr Holiday Directory contact Alex on 020 8941 8152 • e-mail: alex@divermag.co.uk
DHD – Oct 2014_Holiday Directory 03/09/2014 16:01 Page 123
HOLIDAY DIRECTORY MALAYSIA
PALAU
TANZANIA
TOBAGO
BORNEO, SABAH
KOROR
PEMBA
THE REEF DIVE RESORT
BLUE WATERS DIVE’N
FISH ’N FINS DIVE CENTER / OCEAN HUNTER I & III LIVEABOARDS
DIVE 710
Batteaux Bay, Speyside. Tel: 1 (868) 395 9343. E-mail: wpalmer@bluewatersinn.com www.bluewatersdiven.com PADI 5* Dive Centre.
(Mataking Island), TB212, Jalan Bunga, Fajar Complex, 91000 Tawau, Sabah. Tel: (00 60) 89 786045. Fax: (00 60) 89 770023. E-mail: sales@mataking.com www.mataking.com PADI 5* Dive Resort.
PADI 5* IDC & TDI. Technical diving. 6 & 16 pax luxurious liveaboards. 30+ WWII Japanese wrecks to explore. Check our special events! www.fishnfins.com www.oceanhunter.com
Fundu Lagoon Beach Resort, P.O. Box 3945, Pemba Island/South Region, Zanzibar. Tel: +255 (0)7774 38668, Fax: +255 (0)777 419906. E-mail: reservations@fundulagoon.com www.fundulagoon.com PADI 5* Gold Palm.
PHILIPPINES THRESHER SHARK DIVERS Malapascua Island, Daanbantayan, Cebu 6013. Tel: (00 63) 927 612 3359. www.thresherdivers.com E-mail: dive@thresherdivers.com British, PADI 5* IDC, IANTD.
MALTA (inc. GOZO & COMINO THAILAND
GOZO GOZO AQUA SPORTS Rabat Road, Marsalforn, MFN9014, Gozo, Malta. Tel: (00 356) 2156 3037. www.gozoaquasports.com E-mail: dive@gozoaquasports.com PADI 5* IDC & DSAT Tec Rec Centre, BSAC Dive Resort. Premier Technical Diving Support Service.
TURKS & CAICOS IS.
SURAT THANI/KOH TAO DAVY JONES’ LOCKER 9/21 Moo 2, Mae Haad, Koh Tao, Koh Phangan, Surat Thani, Thailand 84280. Tel: (00 66) 77 456126. Mob: (00 66) 79 700913. www.techdivethailand.com E-mail: djl_kohtao@hotmail.com Recreational, reef, tech, deep, wreck.
DIVE PROVO Tel: 001 (649) 946 5040. Fax: 001 (649) 946 5936. E-mail: diving@diveprovo.com www.diveprovo.com 1990-2010, 20 years of Diving As It Should Be!
SPAIN BALEARIC ISLANDS – MALLORCA SCUBA MALLORCA
MALTA
THE divEr TRAVELGUIDE
MALTAQUA Mosta Road, St. Paul’s Bay. Tel: (00 356) 2157 1111. Fax: (00 356) 21 580064. E-mail: dive@maltaqua.com www.maltaqua.com On-line booking service. BSAC Centre of Excellence 007, PADI 5* IDC. ANDI
Don’t make a move without consulting it! BALEARIC ISLANDS – MENORCA BLUEWATER SCUBA
ANCHOR DIVING MALTA Sunhaven, Lampuki Street, Bugibba/St Paul’s Bay, SPB 03. Tel: (00 356) 2756 7238. e-mail: info@anchordiving.com www.anchordiving.com
Calle Llevant, Centro Civico Local 3, Cap D’Artrutx, 07769 Ciutadella de Menorca. Tel/fax: (00 34) 971 387183. www.bluewaterscuba.co.uk E-mail: sales@bluewaterscuba.co.uk Dive the famous Pont D’en Gil cavern!
ANDALUCIA – COSTA DEL SOL HAPPY DIVERS MARBELLA AQUAVENTURE LTD The Waters Edge, Mellieha Bay Hotel, Mellieha MLH 02. www.aquaventuremalta.com Tel: (00 356) 2152 2141 Fax: (00 356) 2152 1053 e-mail:info@aquaventuremalta.com PADI 5* Gold Palm. Watersports available.
Happy Divers Marbella & IDC College, Hotel Atalaya Park Marbella-Estepona. Tel: (00 34) 609 571920, (00 34) 952 88 36 17. E-mail: college@idc-spain.com www.happy-divers-marbella.com The only PADI 5* CDC & NG center in Spain, Nitrox & DPV speciality center.
How will you decide which overseas dive destinations to visit in the coming year? Will you be guided by price, type of diving, convenience, seasonal marine life, presence of wrecks or photo opportunities? THE divEr TRAVEL GUIDE is the travelling companion that can help you make that important decision. ● Special Price £6.95 (inc p&p) – SAVE 12% ● divEr Subscribers’ Price £4.95
Deep Blue Lido, 100 Annaniija Street, Bugibba. Tel: (00 356) 21 583946. Fax: (00 356) 21 583945 E-mail: dive@divedeepblue.com www.divedeepblue.com PADI 5* Gold Palm/BSAC Premier. Technical Diving support service. ANDI
TO ORDER
DIVE DEEP BLUE
(inc p&p) – SAVE 27% Call The divEr Bookshop on 020 8941 8152 or go to www.divernet.com Offer open to UK and BFPO addresses only. Please add £2 per copy for postage to overseas addresses.
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123
2013/14
C/d’el Cano 23, 07470 Port de Pollença, Mallorca. Tel: (00 34) 971 868087. Mobile: (00 34) 615 875609. E-mail: info@scubamallorca.com www.scubamallorca.com PADI 5* IDC.
Liveaboard Directory – 10_14_Liveaboard Directory 03/09/2014 15:16 Page 124
LIVEABOARD DIRECTORY DWw Dive Worldwide
HD
Holiday Designers
RD
Divequest
0
Oonasdivers
STW Scuba Tours Worldwide
OD
Original Diving
AF
Aqua-Firma
A
Aquatours
DQ
CT
Crusader Travel
Emp Emperor
CT DWw STW UD
AUSTRALIA – Cairns Spirit of Freedom www.spiritoffreedom.com.au Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
26 11 Y 37m steel
240V Y Y Y N
www.mikeball.com Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
26 15 Y 30m alum
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
16 8 Y 32.3m
240V Y Y Y N
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
16 8 Y 40m wood
STW
www.explorerventures.com
www.explorerventures.com
DQ Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
RD 110V Y Y Y N
TSP DWw AF STW
COCOS IS. – Puntarenas, Costa Rica Argo www.underseahunter.com Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
16 8 Y 39m steel
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
20 10 Y 38.2m wood
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
14 7 Y 30m wood
A
110V Y Y Y N
EGYPT – Sharm el Sheikh & Hurghada South Moon
MALDIVES – Malé Sea Queen & Sea Spirit
www.seaqueenfleet.com
www.scubascuba.com
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
CT 20 10 Y 27m wood
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220V Y Y Y Y
HD
EGYPT – Sharm el Sheikh VIP One www.vipone.com Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
124
16 8 Y 29.5m wood
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220V Y Y Y Y
16 9 Y 38.2m Steel
16 8 Y 34m wood
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220v,110v Y Y Y Y
DWw UD AF STW
PALAU Ocean Hunter Palau www.oceanhunter.com Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
16 8 Y 31m steel
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
240V Y Y Y Y
RD CT DWw STW AF DQ
PALAU S/Y Palau Siren Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
16 8 Y 40m wood
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220V Y Y Y Y
CT DWw UD DQ STW www.worldwidediveandsail.com
220V N Y Y Y
CT DWw AF DQ Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
DQ UD DWw STW
www.trukodyssey.com
240V Y Y Y N
www.maldivesdivingadventure.com
www.worldwidediveandsail.com
DWw
MICRONESIA – Truk Lagoon M.V. Odyssey
AF RD
PHILIPPINES S/Y Philippine Siren
www.explorerventures.com
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Ultimate Diving
www.worldwidediveandsail.com Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
MALDIVES S/Y Maldives Siren
20 10 Y 37.8m alum
UD
220V Y Y Y Y
A DWw DQ AF
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Silver Bank DQ Turks & Caicos Explorer II Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
Sportif
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
MALDIVES – Malé Eagle Ray
110V Y Y Y Y
S
TSP The Scuba Place
N Y Y N
CT DWw STW DQ AF www.worldwidediveandsail.com
MALDIVES – Malé Carpe Vita Explorer
18 9 Y 35.1m alum
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
RD
INDONESIA S/Y Indo Siren
CARIBBEAN – St. Maarten & St. Kitts A DWw Caribbean Explorer II Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
Scuba Travel
A DWw DQ RD AF STW
GALAPAGOS Humboldt Explorer www.explorerventures.com
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
CT DWw
AUSTRALIA – Cairns Spoilsport
ST
Regaldive
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
16 8 Y 40m wood
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220V Y Y Y Y
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220V Y Y Y N
THAILAND & INDONESIA M.V. Queen Scuba www.queenscuba.com
220V Y Y Y Y
STW
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
21 9 Y 28m steel
A
TURKS & CAICOS Turks & Caicos Explorer II
DWw DQ
www.explorerventures.com Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
12 6 Y 26m wood
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
220V Y Y Y Y
Pax Cab EnS Lth Hull
20 10 Y 37.8m alum
Elec Cour A/C Ntx CCR
Showcase your vessel in the UK’s most authoritative diving magazine, complete with colour picture, web address, and summary details (including UK agents). This advert will cost you only £330 for 12 issues (one year).
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110V Y Y Y N
DIVER torch-bags subs 0914_ DCD – Apr. 2005 03/09/2014 12:38 Page 125
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Classified page 126-127_10_Classified LHP 03/09/2014 11:39 Page 126
CLASSIFIED ADS CHARTER BOATS Scotland
South Lymington - “Wight Spirit”. Diving West Wight, East Dorset, English Channel. Beginners to technical and small groups. Electric lift. Easy access, easy parking. Owner/skipper Dave Wendes. Tel/Fax: (023) 8027 0390, e-mail: wightspirit@btinternet.com www.wightspirit.co.uk (37161)
DI V
DIVE 125 E1
25.CO.UK
OUR W
07
764
53 58 53
07764 585353
Custom built 42' dive vessel, huge deck space, Diver lift, large wheel house + separate toilet.
Air + Nitrox
Onboard Compressor
BOOKING FOR 2015
www.dive125.co.uk Eastbourne Charters www.channeldiving.com Midweek diving for individuals. Tel: 07970 674799. (45824) www.sussexshipwrecks.co.uk “Sussex” Eastbourne. Fast Cat, lift, O2, toilet, tea/coffee. Groups and individuals. Diver/skipper Mike mobile: 07711 570294, e-mail: dive@sussexshipwrecks.co.uk (37040)
Scotland (Scapa Flow)
DIVE BRIGHTON www.brightondiver.com 10m cat with dive lift. Individuals and groups. All levels, novice to technical. BSAC Advanced and trimix skipper. Call Paul: 07901 822375 or 01273 301367
Dive Littlehampton “Final Answer”. Shallow to deep, we cater for all. Skipper & crew onboard, available 7 days a week. Maximum 10. Book for 2015. Tel: (01243) 553977 or 07850 312068. www.ourjoy.co.uk (45961)
South West
With full shelter deck for all weather, six spacious double cabins with hot & cold water, two showers, two toilets, large saloon, central heating throughout, galley with all facilities and two dry changing areas. Long established, high standard of service. Nitrox, trimix & onboard meals available. Reduced off-peak season rates.
Bovisand Lodge Estate, Plymouth. 4* self-catering holiday park, 2.5 miles from Mountbatten Diving Centre. Range of quality accommodations. Free parking for RIBs. Indoor heated pool. Weekend and part week bookings available. Tel: (01752) 403554 www.bovisand.com (37840)
Now taking bookings for 2015 & 2016.
Contact: leigh@divescapaflow.co.uk
INSURANCE
Wales Quest Diving. Hardboat with lift. Diving Anglesey and North Wales. Tel: 07974 249005. Visit: www.quest diving.co.uk (46365) Anglesey. Hard boat diving aboard “Julie Anne” and “Empress”. Diver lift. Visit: www.julie-anne.co.uk or tel: (01407) 831210, mobile: 07768 863355. (44125)
Northern Ireland Dive Belfast, Strangford Loughs and Rathlin Island. Weekend break packages from £190 per person, inc ferry, accommodation and diving. Tel/fax: (02891) 464671, web: www.dvdiving.co.uk (33972) Aquaholics. Diving from Rathlin Island to Malin Head www.aquaholics.org (39035)
North East
Farne Islands All year round diving from our hard boats and RIB for groups and individuals. Air Station with air fill collection service. diver@farne-islands.com WILLIAM SHIEL www.farne-islands.co.uk Tel: 01665 721297 Mob: 07799 666573 www.farneislandsdiving.co.uk
REIGN O VE
DIVING
ACCESSORIES
Seahouses
Dive or snorkel with friendly seals at Lundy Island. We are offering big discounts togroups of snorkellers, see our new website. Clive Pearson is one of the area’s most experienced skippers. Wrecks, reefs, drop-offs, basking sharks July/August, some weekends still available. Normally three dives a day, individuals can book midweek. Please phone for a chat and a brochure: (01237) 431405. www. clovellycharters.com (39522)
DIVING SOUTH DEVON. 10m Aquastar, MCA Category 2 coded. Spacious, sheltered deck area. Owner/skippers Tony Hoile & Laurie Fraenkel, diver/instructors with 50+ years’ experience of diving this area. Gas station available near Dartmouth. Bookings 07970 759172 or someTrwy h www.dartboat.com different!ere
FARNE DIVING SERVICES • TWO CHARTER BOATS WITH LIFTS • TWIN/DOUBLE ENSUITE B&B • DORMITORYS • CAMPING • AIR STATION • RIBs WELCOME
STAN/LEE HALL (01665) 720615 www.farnedivingservices.com e-mail: leehalldiving1@aol.com
WANT TO ADVERTISE? Call Sara on: 020-8941 8152 e-mail: sara@divermag.co.uk
HOLIDAYS IN UK Scotland
Swim with Hebridean Giants!
info@baskingsharkscotland.co.uk SCAPA FLOW, ORKNEY'S NORTH ISLES, SHETLAND IS., EAST & WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND We cater for all types of diving from the wrecks in Scapa Flow through to deep technical projects. Air, Nitrox and Trimix onboard, dayboat or liveaboard option.
COMPRESSORS Used HP compressors. Electric/diesel/petrol. Many makes, models & sizes available. New stock available daily. Spares & servicing all compressors also available. Tel: (01772) 687775 for details. www.smp-ltd.co.uk (46098)
WANTED Wanted: Dive gear. Anything considered. Cash waiting! Tel: (07834) 640 659, e-mail: DiveGear2000@aol.com (39193)
Plymouth, Discovery Divers, Fort Bovisand, boat charter, air, nitrox, trimix, from £15pp. Groups + individuals. Contact Danny 07739 567 752. (39314)
www.baskingsharkscotland.co.uk
www.jeanelaine.co.uk
Yasawa Princess with full board 15 dives – 7 nights Excursions – Group Rates info@kljdivertravel.co.uk www.kljdivertravel.co.uk
Tel/fax: (01665) 720760 or www.sovereigndiving.co.uk
Falcon II OF DARTMOUTH
(01856) 850055
Venture Dive Charters. For quality diving from Plymouth, visit: www.venturecharters.co.uk or Tel: 07778 494274. (33344)
S
DIVE LIFT
divescapaflow.co.uk
PLYMOUTH DIVE year round on CEEKING Price per diver or full boat. Boat only or with B&B. Side lift. Free drinks 01752 663247 07702 557317 www.divingplymouth.com & cylinder hire.
HOLIDAYS ABROAD
Dive the Farne Islands aboard Sovereign II & III Seals, scenic and wrecks. Own quality B&B. Fully stocked dive shop and air station. Air to 300bar and nitrox available. Tank hire also available. Ailsa, Toby & Andrew Douglas.
2015 SPACES AVAILABLE Tel: 01856 874425 Fax: 01856 874725 E-mail: dougie@sunrisecharters.co.uk
Diving in Newquay - Atlantic Diving. Two 10mtr super fast catamarans, both with diver recovery lifts. Superb visibility, stunning wrecks, basking sharks, seals, blue shark cage diving. Accommodation, midweek specials. Air, nitrox & trimix available. www.atlanticdiver.co.uk Tel: 07860 927833. (43532)
WRECKS • WALLS • REEFS • SEALS See the best of underwater Argyll www.diveoban.com 07975 723140 | dive@diveoban.com
DIVING MEDICALS Diving medicals: London. HSE, Sport and phone advice. Tel: (020) 7806 4028 www.e-med.co.uk (36919) Dr Des McCann, Dr Gerry Roberts and Dr Mark Bettley-Smith. HSE Medicals and phone advice. Tel: (01202) 741345. (43992)
Classified page 126-127_10_Classified LHP 03/09/2014 11:40 Page 127
CLASSIFIED ADS Diving Medicals - Midlands (Rugby) - HSE, Sports Medicals and advice at Midlands Diving Chamber. Tel: (01788) 579 555 www.midlandsdivingchamber.co.uk (42102) Diving Medicals - Nottingham. Sport Diving medicals: £50. HSE Commercial Diving medicals: £110. OGUK Offshore medicals: £100. Student and Group discounts. Combine with an HGV/taxi medical for an extra £5. Tel: 07802 850084 for appointment. Email: mclamp@doctors.org.uk (41871)
PHOTOGRAPHY SEAPRO - SUBSEA MODULES are HOUSINGS for SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT and VIDEO SYSTEMS Special Packages on Video Cameras and Housings See web site:
www.greenawaymarine.com “PACKAGE DEALS”
GREENAWAY MARINE Tel: (01793) 814992
REPAIRS/SERVICES WET & DRY SUIT
REPAIRS All makes, all types
0161 304 8471 9 Waterloo Court Waterloo Road Stalybridge Cheshire SK15 2AU
email: repairs@gybe.co.uk
www.gybe.co.uk
CLUB NOTICES
FREE OF CHARGE. (Max 25 words). Non-commercial clubs, no sales. Active and friendly BSAC club. All year diving in local lake. New and qualified divers of all agencies welcome. Own clubhouse with 7m RIB and compressor. For further information visit www.mksac.co.uk (42723) Alfreton (Derbys) BSAC 302 welcomes new members and qualified divers. A small but active club with own RIB, wreck diving a speciality. Contact Charlie on (01246) 236328. (32569) Bracknell Sub Aqua Club welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Meets poolside at Bracknell Sports Centre, Thursdays from 8.30pm. Diving, training and social calendar: www.bracknellscuba.org.uk or tel: 07951 855 725. (30001) Braintree Riverside Sub Aqua Club based in Braintree, Essex. A friendly club, we welcome divers of all abilities and have an active diving and social programme. Come and join us! email: denise.f.wright2@btinternet.com www.braintreeriversidesac.co.uk (35861) Brixham Divers (BSAC) Torbay. East Devon reefs/wrecks. Novices/experienced/visitors/groups all welcome to join us. 7mtr RIB, new 150hp Evinrude electronics. Cruises 30 knots. Takes 10 divers. Club/social nights. Tel: Gary: 07740 288 670. (33845)
Banbury SAC. Friendly, active club with weekly meetings and training sessions, own boat, compressor and equipment. Welcome divers/non divers. www.bansac.org or call 07787 097 289. (35354) Bromley/Lewisham. Active divers required. Full programme of hardboat diving throughout the year. Check out Nekton SAC www.nekton.org.uk or contact Jackie (01689) 850130. (40225) Buckingham Dive Centre. A small friendly club welcoming all divers and those wanting to learn. We dive throughout the year and run trips in the UK and abroad. www.stowesubaqua.co.uk Tel: Roger 07802 765 366. (34499) Buntingford Horizon Divers (East Herts). All welcome. Pool meetings. Dive trips UK and abroad. 5.8m RIB. Social calendar. Tel: 07971 491702, or visit: www.horizondivers.org (32814) Chelmsford and District SAC meet at 8pm every Friday at Riverside Pool. New and qualified divers are welcome. See our website for details: www.chelmsforddiveclub.co.uk (38379) Cheshire. Icicle Divers SAA club. Meet every Monday evening 9pm at Crewe Pool, Flag Lane. New and experienced divers welcome. Try Dives available. www.icicledivers.com (31968) Chingford, London BSAC 365. Friendly and active club welcomes divers from all agencies and trainees. Meet Wednesday 8pm, Larkswood Leisure Centre E4 9EY. Information: www.dive365.co.uk Email: loughtondivers365@gmail.com (33464) Cockleshell Divers, Portsmouth, Hants. Small, friendly club welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Meets at Cockleshell Community Centre, Fridays at 8pm. Email: cockleshell.divers@aol.co.uk (45588) Colchester Sub-Aqua Club welcomes experienced divers and beginners. Sub-Aqua Association training. Diving at home and abroad. Meets at Leisure World Friday evenings. Contact Tony (01787) 475803. (35204) Cotswold BSAC, a friendly club based at Brockworth Pool, Nr Cheltenham, Fridays 8pm. Regular inland diving and coast trips. Tel: 07711 312078. www.cotswoldbsac332.co.uk (38258) Darwen SAC, in Lancashire, with an active diving programme. Own RIB. New members welcome regardless of agency/training. We provide BSAC training. Weekly pool sessions. www.darwensac.org.uk (35279) Dream Divers. Very friendly dive club in Rotherham welcomes divers of any level/club. Meet at the Ring O Bells, Swinton, last Thursday of the month at 19.30. Email: info@dreamdiversltd.co.uk (36419) Ealing SAC, BSAC 514. Friendly, active club, own RIBs; welcomes new and experienced divers. Meets Highgrove Pool, Eastcote, Tuesday nights 8.30pm. www.esac.org.uk (32403) East Cheshire Sub Aqua. Macclesfield based BSAC club. Purpose built clubhouse, bar, two RIBs, minibus, nitrox, compressor. Lower Bank Street, Macclesfield, SK11 7HL. Tel: (01625) 502367. www.scubadivingmacclesfield.com (30271) East Durham Divers SAA welcome new/experienced divers of any agency. Comprehensive facilities with own premises half a mile from the sea. Contact: John: 07857 174125. (36631) East Lancs Diving Club based in Blackburn. Friendly and active club welcomes new members at all levels of diving from all organisations. Tel: 07784 828961 or email: ELDC@hotmail.co.uk www.eastlancsdivers.co.uk (34574) Eastbourne BSAC; RIB, banked air (free) to 300bar, nitrox, trimix. Enjoy some of the best diving on the South Coast, all qualifications welcome. www.sovereign divers.co.uk (30181) Eastern Sub Aqua Club SAA 1073. We are a small friendly dive club and welcome new and experienced divers alike. We are situated north of Norwich for training. For more information please see out website: www.esacdivers.co.uk (30091) Eastleigh (Southampton) Sub Aqua Club (BSAC). Whether you want to learn or are an experienced diver, interested in a course or a try dive. We meet every Tuesday at 10pm in the Fleming Park Leisure Centre bar. Call: 07923 553645. www.eastleighsubaquaclub.org.uk (32313) Ellon Sub Aqua Club, Aberdeenshire, welcomes newcomers and experienced divers. We dive year round and meet on Thursday evenings. Contact www.ellonsubaquaclub.co.uk (30361) Flintshire Sub Aqua Club based in Holywell, Flintshire, welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Full dive programme. Meet Wednesdays. See us at www.flintsac.co.uk or call (01352) 731425. (42606) Haslemere Sub Aqua Club based at Haslemere, Surrey, friendly active club welcomes new and experienced divers, offers full training. Meets Thursday nights. Contact Mike 07754 968297. (44695) Hastings SAC 58 years old SAA club (0044) welcomes new and experienced divers. 2 hard boats. Meets 8.45pm Tuesdays at Summerfields, Hastings. See www.hastings subaqua.co.uk (31698) Hereford Sub Aqua Club, is looking for new members. Regular diving off the Pembrokeshire coast on own RIBs. Training and social nights. Contact: rusaqua@googlemail.com (36229) HGSAC. South Manchester based friendly, non-political club welcomes newcomers and qualified divers. Lots of diving and social events. Family. Three RIBs and compressor. www.hgsac.com (40313)
High Wycombe SAC. Come and dive with us - all welcome. Active club with RIB on South coast. Call Len: 07867 544 738. www.wycombesubaqua.com (35599) Holborn BSAC, central London club. 50% M & F. Diving every weekend from our 6.5mtr RIB on the South Coast. Contact Kate: 07561 801 886 for more details. (31578) HUGSAC - BSAC 380. Experienced club, based around Hertfordshire, with RIB on the South coast. Members dive with passion for all underwater exploration. All agencies welcome. www.hugsac.co.uk (44804) Ifield Divers. Crawley-based club. Twin engine dive boat with stern lift in Brighton Marina.Training for novices, diving for the experienced - all qualifications welcome. www.ifield-divers.org.uk Email: info@ifield-divers.org.uk or tel: 01883 345146. (41118) Ilkeston & Kimberley SAA 945, between Nottingham and Derby, welcomes beginners and experienced divers. We meet every Friday night at Kimberley Leisure Centre at 8.30pm. Contact through www.iksac.co.uk (40147) K2 Divers, covering West Sussex/Surrey. A friendly BSAC club, but all qualifications welcome. Training in Crawley, boat at Littlehampton. Email: k2divers@yahoo.co.uk or tel: (01293) 612989. (32725) Kingston BSAC, Surrey. Two RIBs , clubhouse and bar, active dive programme, 2 compressors, nitrox, trimix, full training offered at all levels. All very welcome. www.kingstonsac.org or tel: 07842 622193. (35774) Leeds based Rothwell & Stanley SAC welcomes new and experienced divers, full SAA training given. Purpose built clubhouse with bar, RIB, compressor. Meet Tuesday eves: (36137) 07738 060567 kevin.oddy@talktalk.net Leicester Diving - Friendly & active BSAC club based at Wigston pool. Meet Tuesday nights at 8pm. Contact Daniel on 07957 507517 www.delmardiveclub.co.uk (30451) Lincoln - Imp Divers. Small, friendly, non-political diving club with our own RIB are looking to welcome new and experienced divers. Tel: Richard: 07931 170205. (36052) Lincoln and District BSAC. Active club with own RIB, compressor and other facilities. Regular trips and training. www.lincolndivingclub.co.uk (35690) Lincs Divers BSAC 1940. Friendly, active dive club offering dive trips and training for new/experienced divers, Lincoln based. www.lincsdivers.co.uk (32148) Llantrisant SAC, two RIBs, towing vehicle, welcomes new and experienced divers. Meet at Llantrisant Leisure Centre 8pm Mondays. Contact Phil: (01443) 227667. www.llantrisantdivers.com (40303) London No. 1 Diving Club encourages divers of all levels, from all agencies. Based in Central London with 7m RIB, compressor, hire kit etc. www.londondiver.com (31788) Manta Divers. Norfolk wreck & reef diving. Small, friendly, experienced club. All agencies welcome. SAA training. www.mantadivers.org (42840) Mercian Divers (BSAC 2463) Active & friendly club. New, experienced & junior divers welcome. Own RIB. Based in Bromsgrove, West Midlands. Tel: (01905) 773406 www.mercian-divers.org.uk (30466) Millennium Divers. Active, friendly club for all levels and certifications of diver, based in Portland, Dorset. UK diving and holidays. Club social nights www.millenniumdivers.org (32644) Mole Valley Sub Aqua Club. Surrey based SDI club, own RIB, active diving UK & abroad, training and social events. Trainees/crossovers welcome. Contact: 07552 498558 or email: committee@mvsac.org.uk (36525) Monastery Dive Club (Dunkerton Branch). New divers welcome to join our club. Trips to Plymouth and NDAC. GSOH is a must. South Wales area (Crosskeys, Risca.) Please text me: Flinty 07971 432803 or email: welshflinty@hotmail.com (30542) Nekton SAC. Based in Bromley, we are a friendly and active SAA club that welcomes experienced and new divers alike. Info@nekton.org.uk or call Steve: 020 8467 4599. (32478) Nemo Diving Club. Small, friendly dive club offering dive trips and training for non/experienced divers in Retford and surrounding areas. Contact: www.nemodivertraining.co.uk (43442) North Glos BSAC 80. Friendly, active club welcomes new and experienced divers. Own boat and equipment with weekly pool sessions, Thursdays, 8.30pm at Gloucester Leisure Centre. www.nglos.co.uk (40389)
North Notts Nautilus SAA942, Mansfield. Family dive club, diving and social members welcome. Own clubhouse with bar. Regular dive trips and holidays. www.NNN Divers.co.uk Tel: (01623) 622130. Facebook. (30632) Nuneaton. Marlin BSAC welcomes experienced divers to Pingles Pool every Thursday. Active training, diving, social programme in a flourishing club with no politics allowed. www.marlinsac.com (35428) Orkney SAC. Small, friendly active dive club, based in Kirkwall, welcomes divers of any level or club. Own RIB and compressor. Contact Craig: 07888 690 986 or email: craigbarclay31@hotmail.com (44578) Preston Divers SAA 30. The friendliest dive club. Come and meet us at Fulwood Leisure Centre, Preston on Monday nights between 8.00pm - 9.00pm. www.prestondivers.co.uk (42504) Reading BSAC28 offers an active, friendly diving club. Open to all grades and agencies. Pool training Mondays, club night Thursdays. www.rbsac.org.uk Email: rbsacinfo@gmail.com Tel: Sue 07772 172 575. (43310) Reading Diving Club. Experience the best of UK diving with a friendly and active club. All welcome. Tel: 01183 216310 or email: info@thedivingclub.co.uk www.thedivingclub.co.uk (34394) Rochdale Sub-Aqua Club. Beginners and experienced divers welcome. Full training provided. Pool session every Wednesday. Club has two boats. More info at www.RochdaleDivers.co.uk or call Mick 07951 834 903. (30723) Ruislip & Northwood BSAC. Friendly, active club, RIB, welcomes new and qualified divers. Meets Highgrove Pool Thursday nights 8.30pm. www.rnbsac.co.uk Tel: 07843 738 646 for details. (34319) Scotland Plug Divers. Small, friendly dive club welcomes newly qualified and experienced divers to join us. Regular hardboat diving around Bass Rock/Firth of Forth/ Eyemouth and trips abroad. Tel George: 07793 018 540. Email: plugdivers@btinternet.com (41275) Selby Aquanauts SAA 1117. Family friendly club, welcomes new and qualified divers. Regular trips UK & abroad. Meet every Thursday, Albion Vaults, Selby at 9pm. Contact Mark: 07831 295 655. (43855) Sheffield BSAC36. Friendly, social and active dive club welcomes newcomers or qualified divers. Trips, socials, weekly pool and club/pub meetings, club RIB. See www.bsac36.org.uk (33554) Slough 491 BSAC; small friendly club welcomes divers at all levels. Meet at Beechwood School Fridays 19.30. Diving holidays and South Coast. Email: malcolm@uv.net or tel: Tony (01344) 884 596. (36331) South Coast Divers (SAA 1150) Portsmouth. A friendly and active club welcomes new and experienced divers from all agencies. Email: southcoastdivers@hotmail.co.uk or call Darren: 07449 794 804. (33720) South Queensferry SAC, near Edinburgh. Two RIBs, gear for hire. Pool training during the winter; trips & expeditions in the summer. Pub meeting at Hawes Inn. Call Warren: 07980 981 380. www.sqsac.co.uk (45472) Sutton Coldfield SAC, friendly BSAC club, welcomes all divers from trainee to advanced. All agencies. Own RIBs and compressor. Meet every Wednesday, 8.15pm at Wyndley (3.4m pool). For free try dive call Alan: 07970 573638 or Mark: 07787 106191. (45691) Teddington Pool, Teddington, Middlesex, Wednesday’s 21.00. Training and good social side. Diving near and far. deepexplorer@blueyonder.co.uk Tel: 07951 064448. (43427) Totnes SAC (Devon). We are an active multi-agency club and welcome new members and qualified divers from all organisations. Two RIBs and own compressor/nitrox, plus club 4WD. Based in Totnes, but dive all round South Devon and Cornwall. Visit www.totnes-bsac.co.uk for details. (33644) Watford Underwater Club BSAC. Family friendly, approachable, established and fun club. Portland based 7m RIB. Development & training all levels. www.wuc.org.uk email: info@wuc.org.uk (32058) Wells Dive Group. Friendly, active club in Somerset welcomes new or experienced divers. Meeting/training at The Little Theatre or the pool on Thursdays, try dives available. Regular RIB diving, trips around the UK and abroad. Visit: www.wellsdivers.co.uk or tel: Rob, 07832 141250. (46503)
WEBSITES www.lumb-bros-das.co.uk
www.otterboxes.co.uk
Quality Diving Products Rugged waterproof cases for every environment
www.tek-tite.co.uk
Torches, strobes, marker lights for diving and outdoor pursuits
www.unidive.co.uk
A quality range of masks, snorkels, fins and knives
DCD – Oct 2014_Centre Directory 04/09/2014 12:21 Page 128
DIVE CENTRE DIRECTORY IANTD
FACILITIES INCLUDE:
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BSAC School
PADI Training
SSI Training
TDI Training
IANTD Training
Member of SITA
IDEST approved
DAN Training
Cylinder testing
Regulator servicing
Equipment for hire
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Compressed Air
Nitrox
Technical Gases
Disability Diving
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WARWICKSHIRE
DIVE MACHINE
CORNWALL PORTHKERRIS DIVERS PADI 5* IDC Centre. Porthkerris, St. Keverne, Nr Helston TR12 6QJ. Tel: (01326) 280620. www.porthkerris.com E-mail: info@porthkerris.com 7 days a week, tuition from novice to instructor, hardboat/RIB charters, escorted dives, dive shop, beach café, basking shark trips, camping, shore dive.
Unit 11 Orchard Business Centre, Sanderson Way, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1QF. Tel: (01732) 773553. Fax: (01732) 773663. E-mail: robert@divemachine.com www.divemachine.com Mon-Sat 0930-1730, closed Sunday. Friendly, helpful, huge stocks. PADI CDC Centre.
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AQUAHOLICS DIVE CENTRE 14 Portmore Road, Portstewart BT55 7BE. Tel: (028 70) 832584. E-mail: dive@aquaholics.org www.aquaholics.org Open 0900-1730. Diving Malin Head to Rathlin Island.
148 Coventry Road, Warwick CV34 5HL. Tel/fax: (01926) 493797. E-mail: dc-rs@hotmail.com Open Mon-Fri 1030-1800. Computer/watch batteries and pressure testing.
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NORTHERN IRELAND
DIVING CYLINDER AND REGULATOR SERVICES
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WEST YORKSHIRE LEICESTERSHIRE
THE DIVERS WAREHOUSE
STONEY COVE – THE NATIONAL DIVE CENTRE Leicester, LE9 4DW. www.stoneycove.co.uk www.underwaterworld.co.uk Sales & service: (01455) 273089; The Dive School (PADI 5* IDC): (01455) 272768; Nemo’s Bar & Diner: (01455) 274198. UK’s leading dive company. Dive “Stanegarth”, Britain’s biggest inland wreck.
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Otter House, 911 Wakefield Road, Dudley Hill Slip Road, Bradford BD4 7QA. Tel: (01274) 307555. Fax: (01274) 730993. E-mail: sales@diverswarehouse.co.uk Mon-Fri 0930-1730; late night Thurs ’til 2000; Sat 09301700; closed Sun. Manufacturer of Otter drysuits. PADI 5* Centre. PSAI.
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11 Power Road, Chiswick W4 5PT. Tel: +44 (0)20 8995 0002. Fax: +44 (0)20 8995 5100. E-mail: info@londonschoolofdiving.co.uk www.londonschoolofdiving.co.uk Open 1000-1800 Mon-Thurs, 1000-1700 Fri-Sat. PADI CDC, onsite pool, kids parties.
DIVERS DOWN SWANAGE The Pier, High Street, Swanage, Dorset. Tel: (01929) 423565. Mob: (07977) 142661. E-mail: medina@madasafish.com www.diversdownswanage.co.uk Open 7 days a week during the dive season. The UK’s oldest dive centre.
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ANDARK DIVING
WIRRAL SPORTS & LEISURE
256 Bridge Road, Lower Swanwick, Southampton SO31 7FL. Tel: (01489) 581755. Fax: (01489) 575223. E-mail: bookings@andark.co.uk www.andark.co.uk Open 7 days, PADI 5* IDC, RYA powerboat, 3.5m pool & classrooms, large shop, mail order, kids parties, Club, helo escape, disabled friendly, 300bar.
164-192 Cleveland Street, Birkenhead CH41 3QQ. Tel: (0151) 647 5131. Fax: (0151) 666 2631. e-mail: sales@wirralsports.co.uk www.wirralsports.co.uk Mon-Fri 0900-1730; Sat 09001700. Air to 300bar. Diving, watersports, mail order and online shopping. Friendly, helpful staff, PADI Centre.
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MIDDLESEX G&H DIVING SERVICES Unit 1 Willow House, River Gardens, North Feltham Trading Estate, Feltham TW14 0RD. Tel: (020) 8751 3771. Fax: (020) 8751 2591. E-mail: Ghdiving@aol.com Mon-Fri 0900-1800; Sat 0900-1230. ANDI Training.
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ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
LONDON LONDON SCHOOL OF DIVING
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DIVE CENTRE DIRECTORY
139 Babbacombe Road, Babbacombe, Torquay TQ1 3SR. Tel: (01803) 327111. Fax: (01803) 32463. E-mail: info@diversdown.co.uk www.diversdown.co.uk Open Mon-Fri 1000-1730; Sat 0900-1730; Sun 1000-1600. PADI 5* IDC.
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AGGRESSOR FLEET 51 ANTHONY’S KEY RESORT 74 AP DIVING 45/67 APEKS MARINE 7 AQUA-FIRMA 12 AQABA SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE AUTHORITY 55 AQUANAUTS GRENADA 111 ATLANTIS PHILIPPINES 107 BEAVER SPORTS 38 BLUE O TWO (RED SEA) 32 BLUE O TWO (SIREN FLEET) 59 CAMEL DIVE CLUB 3 CAMERAS UNDERWATER 60 CODE BLUE EDUCATION 62 CARIBBEAN FUN TRAVEL 36 CATHX OCEAN 57 CRAYFISH CAPERS 69 DANCER FLEET 51 DEMA SHOW 114 DIVE MASTER INSURANCE 60/69 DIVE SAINT LUCIA 63 DIVE WORLDWIDE 46 DIVEQUEST 67/95 DIVER APP 117 DIVER SUBSCRIPTIONS: MAGAZINE ONLY 114 OVERSEAS 88 RUCKSACK & DIVER TRAVEL GUIDE 125 TORCH 125 WATCH 129 DIVER TRAVEL GUIDE 123 DIVERS BLING 88 DIVERS EMERGENCY SERVICE 14 DIVERSE TRAVEL 52 ELITE DIVING 37 EMPEROR DIVERS 68 EURO DIVERS 78 EXPLORER VENTURES 52 FUJIFILM 23 FOURTH ELEMENT 42 GOPRO 4 INON UK 74/107 LIQUID SPORTS 52 MALTA TOURIST AUTHORITY 56 MALTAQUA 69 O’THREE 16
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Deep Breath OCT_Layout 1 29/08/2014 13:06 Page 130
DEEP BREATH
Shark attitudes – a sea change for the press? Grisly shark-scare stories were once a mainstay of the UK mainstream media, but close observer RICHARD PEIRCE has noticed something peculiar happening
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attitudes to sharks change. The media have to be finely tuned to public sentiment, and I think two things have happened. Firstly, editors realise that mad, scary, over-the-top shark stories are now likely to annoy readers rather than interest them. Secondly, I believe that because of shifts in public awareness, editors want to play to global sentiment, rather than sing yesterday’s tired old song. Coverage earlier in the year of Lydia, the great white shark, was curious. A Malaysian jet had disappeared, the Russians started invading European countries, a new financial crisis threatened and, just for good measure, an oil crisis loomed. Among all this serious global activity, British newspapers decided to devote front-page space to Lydia, who was a 1000 miles away but seemed to be swimming in our general direction! At first glance the coverage indicated that nothing had changed in terms of Britain’s obsession with
tidal river on the Isle of Wight caused a public outcry. This was almost immediately followed by a mirror incident involving 70 discarded sharks in south Wales, and again both press and public responded angrily to the news. In late July the Daily Mail broke a story telling the public that they had unwittingly been eating shark for years in fish & chip shops all over the UK. Not only did the Mail make clear that “rock salmon” had everything to do with sharks and nothing to do with salmon, they also banged on, and I do mean banged on, about how the spiny dogfish (spurdog) was fished almost to extinction, and how the nursehound shark, blackmouth cat shark, smooth-hound and small spotted cat sharks were under threat because of no-catch limits!
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N THE “OUT OF 10” improbability scale, what would you give to a Martian snorkelling up the River Thames singing “I love smoked mackerel”, while eating gherkins and pickled onions? Ten out of 10 improbable? I agree! Here is an even barmier one. What score would you give to the idea that the tabloid press, particularly the red-tops, would stop depicting sharks as man-munching monsters and start portraying them with balance, recognising their IN EARLY JUNE I GOT A CALL from ITV asking me to vulnerability, and promoting their conservation? appear on a daytime show called Loose Women. Totally incredible, 11 out of 10! This would have I had never heard of or seen the show but as soon been my opinion too, but it as I heard the words Loose isn’t any more, because Women, and knew there were something strange seems to going to be four of them, I got be happening. excited and slightly nervous! Because I wear many shark I have survived many close hats, as it were, I get a lot of calls with potentially calls from the media to dangerous animals in the sea comment on shark stories. and on land, and never worried And in the past two years I’ve beforehand about the noticed that the press has encounters I was planning. stopped assuming that large I can promise you that on triangular fins (mostly those live TV the gaping jaws of four of basking sharks) are likely loose women is a far more to be those of great whites. stressful experience than the I have come across several gaping jaws of a great white instances in which members shark. of the public have tried to Nevertheless it was fun, and interest newspapers in what was interesting, in the stories, and the editors won’t context of this piece, is that not Sharks are enjoying more positive exposure, in the Sun and elsewhere. bite unless the story has only the “loose women” but something special to offer, the audience as well clearly such as photographs. sharks. However, the type of coverage was had quite a lot of sympathy for sharks, and saw them At the same time the conservation message has interesting. Most papers didn’t urge the closure of as more sinned against than sinning. been gaining ground, and the media are almost our beaches as soon as the holiday season started; A month later, in early August I was asked to write starting to be shark champions. instead, they seemed fascinated by Lydia and in a list of my Top 10 shark tips for the National Shark stories are being spun to underline the speculating on which route she would take Geographic Shark Week and, guess what, they didn’t threat that man poses to sharks, rather than the I am probably sticking my neck out by writing this, want only stuff about how to avoid the gaping jaws other way round. because I am doing so in early August just as of death, but wanted me to make conservation Parliament is breaking up, and the media silly season points as well. IT’S BEEN A LONG HAUL, and I have been singing is about to hit. Does all this mean that we’re winning? It’s the shark song for more than 20 years now. During The question and the challenge is this: will I look probably too early to tell, but it may mean that at that time we’ve gone from being a few lone voices like a complete idiot by the end of September if a least we have stopped losing. to becoming a massive global pro-shark movement. loony great white or other shark-scare story The Chinese are reducing shark-fin soup Yesterday’s handful of scientists, conservationists dominates the tabloids during the holidays? I hope consumption, the British press may become shark and activists has become today’s army of divers, not, but we will have to wait and see. champions, and the Martian in the River Thames has snorkellers, eco-tourists, nature-lovers, wildlife Discoveries of the heads and fins of more than 50 just choked on his pickled onion – thank God enthusiasts and many more who are ensuring that smoothhound sharks that had been dumped in a something is still as expected.
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