Scuba Diver Asia-Pacific Issue 11

SOUTH EAST ASIA

GEAR GUIDE: REGULATORS

REPORT – OZTEK 2019

AL HORNSBY WAXES LYRICAL ABOUT FOUR HOTSPOTS IN A GRAND TOUR OVERVIEW

THE TEST TEAM RATES AND REVIEWS A SELECTION OF TOP-OF-THE-RANGE REGS

ADRIAN STACEY HEADS TO SYDNEY FOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

MISSION

Maldives

Stuart Philpott had an aim – to SHOOT BIG FISH and PRODIVERS delivered...

+

Siladen, Indonesia

‣ Cold-water diving hints and advice

ISSUE 11 | FREE MAGAZINE!

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EDITOR’S NOTE

FREEDIVING WORLD RECORDS UNDER THE ICE I am constantly in awe of freedivers, who make breath-hold look so effortless, gliding around underwater powered by a mono-fin or elegant freediving bi-fins, totally at home in the underwater realm and not hindered by cumbersome scuba gear or closed-circuit rebreathers. My aim this year is to get some entry-level freediving courses under my belt and lift my breath-hold game from basic snorkelling duck dives, which is where I am at currently! However, I will have to go some to top the subject of a news story that hit the headlines last month. New Zealand freediver Ant Williams headed off to northern Norway in the Arctic Circle and set not one, but two Guinness World Records for the deepest Constant Weight (CWT) dives under ice. Setting a world record is one thing, but doing two is incredible, especially when preparations included his team digging through two metres of snow and then sawing through the thick ice covering the fjord.

He clocked up a ridiculously impressive 70m (adding 5m to the

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Mark Evans Email: mark.evans@scubadivermag.com

DESIGN

Matt Griffiths Email: matt@griffital.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS

Mario Vitalini, Adrian Stacey, Al Hornsby, Byron Conroy, Lena Kavender, Olivia Johnson, Stuart Philpott, Deborah Dickson-Smith

existing record), a Herculean effort he described afterwards as ‘a super-challenging dive’, admitting that the ‘brutal cold and the darkness were far beyond anything I have experienced in the sport’.

Not one to rest on his laurels, 47-year-old Williams then set about bettering his record just two days later, and this time he added another 5m on to his depth to post a new World Record of 75m. After this dive, he said ‘the weather was perfect and I guess the pressure of reaching a record was over, so I just got to enjoy the dive’. I am not sure how ‘enjoy’ can be added into a sentence about diving in the freezing cold waters under Arctic ice, especially only clad in a freediving wetsuit, but I take my hat off to him - that is one truly incredible World Record.

Mark Evans Editor-in-Chief

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Wakatobi’s shallow-water paradise

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

The House Reef at Wakatobi Resort has been named the world’s best shore dive. And with good reason. A bird’s-eye view of this site shows a shallow coastal shelf that transitions dramatically to the cobalt hues of deep water. Divers and snorkellers can hover at the edge of this submerged cliff by simply making a short swim from shore, or an entry right from the ladder on the resort jetty.

With ample sunlight, the upper rim of the reef reveals a cornucopia of macro life hiding among the hard and soft corals. Within a few fin strokes of the jetty, several species of clownfish find shelter in their anemone host, creating one of the underwater world’s favorite portraits. A closer look among the anemone’s tentacles might reveal a delicate porcelain crab, while a study of the patterns of a gorgonian could lead to the discovery of one of Wakatobi’s true treasures, a pygmy seahorse.

The depths beckon, and many heed the call. But there are also good reasons to stay near the surface and explore the sunlit shallows that stretch to the far corners of the resort and beyond. Between the beach and the drop-off lie a diverse range of shallow-water ecosystems that includes sand flats, seagrass beds, debris fields and patch reefs. This area is home to a wealth of marine life, some colourful and easily seen, others cryptic and requiring sharp eyes to discern. Flitting among the coral heads and gliding over the grass beds are numerous species of damselfish, wrasses, and small parrotfish. It is a rich environment for odd and beautiful creatures such as frogfish, stonefish, cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus, moray eels, blue-spotted stingrays, ghost pipefish, jawfish, shrimp and goby pairs. This landscape also provides a safe haven for a wide range of juvenile reef fish, many

which sport distinctly different colourations from their adult counterparts.

Wakatobi’s seagrass meadows are the underwater equivalent of a rainforest in terms of biodiversity. In fact, it’s estimated that an acre of seagrass can support upwards of 40,000 fish and many thousands (perhaps millions) of small invertebrates. Keen-eyed snorkellers and divers may see through the undulating grasses to penetrate the camouflage of a drifting robust or ornate ghost pipefish, or zero in on a colourful nudibranch or slow-moving slug.

Some of the most-fascinating small finds are the crabs especially the decorators and pom-poms. In much the same way as human snipers attach leaves and branches to a ghillie suit to blend into the background, decorator crabs will adorn themselves with bits of seaweed, sponge and marine detritus to escape detection. Pom-pom crabs embrace a different strategy, forgoing camouflage in favour of biological weaponry. This small crab will cultivate an even smaller live anemone on each of its claws, and when it brandishes these stinging add-ons, it resembles nothing so much as a cheerleader brandishing a colourful pair of pom-poms.

Mixed in with all the tiny creatures that hide among the

office@wakatobi.com www.wakatobi.com

grasses is a mid-sized cast of characters that can provide hours of fish-watching enjoyment. One that is often seen gliding through the grass beds is the blue-spotted stingray.

The distinctive blue spots that decorate the ray’s upper flanks make it easy to identify, and serve as a warning to would-be predators, as the blue-spotted packs a venomous punch in its long, barbed tail.

Sea turtles are also frequent visitors to the shallows of Wakatobi. For many of these animals, it could be a homecoming, as the adjacent beach is a favourite nesting site. But often it’s not nostalgia that draws these wellarmoured grazers, but rather the chance to chew on some tender seagrass. Green sea turtles are one of the few large aquatic herbivores that feed on the grasses, and their grazing represents a benefit rather than a threat to the plants.

These are just a sampling of what awaits right off Wakatobi’s beach. And this shallow-water paradise is available to divers and snorkellers day and night. Whether spending the day in the shallows or visiting after a day of boat diving in the resort’s private marine preserve, the rewards of staying close and shallow are many. n Learn more at: www.wakatobi.com

SOUTH EAST ASIA

GEAR GUIDE: REGULATORS

REPORT – OZTEK 2019

AL HORNSBY WAXES LYRICAL ABOUT FOUR HOTSPOTS IN A GRAND TOUR OVERVIEW

THE TEST TEAM RATES AND REVIEWS A SELECTION OF TOP-OF-THE-RANGE REGS

ADRIAN STACEY HEADS TO SYDNEY FOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

ON THE COVER

MISSION Maldives

Stuart Philpott had an aim – to SHOOT BIG FISH and PRODIVERS delivered...

+

Siladen, Indonesia

‣ Cold-water diving hints and advice

ISSUE 11 | FREE MAGAZINE!

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: STUART PHILPOTT

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES...

8 News

22 The Maldives

Unveiling the Great Barrier Reef’s latest Master Reef Guides, a new vessel for the New Zealand Navy, and liveaboards in Indonesia and Maldives.

16 Medical Q&A

Dr Oliver Firth answers reader questions about the potential issues of diving with a cast, and whether diabetes can mean the end of diving.

18 Dive Like A Pro

This issue, our panel of experts offer useful hints and advice on how to prepare and equip yourself for cold-water diving.

66 Scholar

Olivia Johnson takes on a personal challenge when she goes diving with great white sharks with Rodney Fox in South Australia.

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Stuart Philpott headed to the Maldives with one mission in mind - to shoot big fish and pelagics. The team at Prodivers were more than willing to help, and over the course of an action-packed trip, he got up close and personal with turtles, sharks, eagle rays and much more.

30 Underwater Photography

Mario Vitalini is in the hotseat this month, and he focuses his attention on the best and most-effective methods of taking wide-angle photographs of large schools of fish, such as barracuda, unicornfish, batfish and snapper.

34 Southeast Asia

Al Hornsby has been travelling round and diving in the marine-life-rich waters of Southeast Asia for more years than he’d probably wish to mention, and here we draw on his vast experience of the region to give us his top dive spots for four main dive areas - Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

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CONTENTS

...CONTINUED

GEAR GUIDE

44 Indonesia

54 What’s New

Lena Kavender and Byron Conroy continue their Indonesian adventure, this issue spending time at the luxurious Siladen Island Resort and Spa, and exploring the wonders of the Bunaken Marine Park. While the walls and bountiful marine life more than exceeded their high expectations of what it was going to be like, they also got to see the appeal of some of the lesser-known dive sites, including some muck-diving locations that can rival near-neighbour Lembeh Strait for weird-and-wonderful critters.

50 TECHNICAL: OzTek 2019

Adrian Stacey braved thunderstorms and lightning strikes to get from Brisbane down to Sydney for OzTek 2019 - the 20th anniversary edition of this advanced diving conference and exhibition. What started out in life as a tech-diving event has grown over the years to have something for everyone, whatever their level of certification, and Adrian jumped at the chance to get immersed in the show.

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New products recently released, including the Momentum Aquamatic II watch, Mares Genius dive computer, Fourth Element X-Core leggings, and the ground-breaking Mares XR Horizon eSCR.

56 Group Test: Mid-price regs

The Scuba Diver Test Team headed up to North Wales and the Snowdonia National Park to brave low single-digit temperatures for the latest group test - top-of-the-range regulators.

64 Long Term Test

The Scuba Diver Test Team reviews a selection of products over a six-month period, including the Shearwater Research Teric dive computer, Aqua Lung Rogue BCD, Bare Ultrawarmth 7mm hood, and the Halcyon Infinity backplate-and-wing set-up.

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Each month, we bring together the latest industry news from the Asia-Pacific region, as well as all over our water planet. To find out the most up-to-date news and views, check out the website or follow us on our various social media (@scubadivermag) www.scubadivermag.com/news

MEET THE GREAT BARRIER REEF’S FIRST MASTER REEF GUIDES

The Great Barrier Reef has welcomed its first official interpreters, story tellers and ambassadors - the Master Reef Guides PHOTOGRAPHS BY GBRMPA / COLYN HUBER

T

he programme, delivered by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators and Tourism and Events Queensland, is the first of its kind for the reef, and now includes 26 certified Master Reef Guides working in tourism operations throughout the reef to educate visitors about reef management and protection, responsible practices, and citizen science.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Director of Education, Stewardship and Partnerships Fred Nucifora said the guides would be fantastic ambassadors for the reef.

“We’re delighted to welcome the Master Reef Guides to the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

“These world-leading storytellers and reef ambassadors will enhance visitors’ experiences along the reef by providing in-depth information about the marine environment and its management.

“They’ll also get visitors involved in citizen science, which is a unique and valuable way anyone visiting the reef can contribute information and inform reef management.”

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The Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators Executive Officer Col McKenzie said the guides provided an opportunity for tourism operators to raise the bar.

“The Great Barrier Reef tourism industry plays a vital role in presenting the values of the World Heritage Area to millions of visitors annually, and the industry really got on-board with this programme,” he said.

“The programme ensures tourism operators and staff have up-to-date and accurate information on the Marine Park and are trained to share this information with visitors in a valuable and memorable way.”

This inaugural cohort of 26 Master Reef Guides will now be seen in uniform on tourism operations along the reef.

Among the new recruits is Natalie Lobartolo, a marine biologist and dive instructor on Lady Musgrave Island.

“I’m part of a small group with a big potential for impact by educating visitors about the reef and why it’s important to protect it, that’s how I can make a difference,” she said.

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“Through this programme I’ve been empowered with tools, knowledge, support and encouragement. We’re set to educate, enthuse and excite people about this magical place.”

After a merit-based nomination process, 26 of the best tourism guides operating along the reef were selected for the programme and took part in a comprehensive online training course and field school.

Held in November 2018 and March 2019 the four-day intensive and immersive field schools cover key skills like public speaking, interpretation, science communication and storytelling.

The Master Reef Guides programme includes ongoing training, networking and leadership development to assist the guides and other staff along the Great Barrier Reef to further their knowledge and experience.

INDIGENOUS RANGERS HELPING TO PROTECT THE GBR More Indigenous rangers will soon be out on the water enforcing Marine Park laws, helping to manage and protect the Great Barrier Reef and their sea country.

At a graduation ceremony Indigenous compliance rangers at their graduation, with Great in Cairns in Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Board Chair Dr Ian Poiner and Authority CEO Mr Josh Thomas late-March, 21 indigenous rangers were awarded Certificate Four in Government Investigations as part of the Capacity Building for Indigenous Rangers Strategy.

The nationally-accredited training course by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority provides rangers with the skills to ensure Marine Park users comply with its rules and traditional lore.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Chairperson Dr Ian Poiner said many of the rangers lived and worked in remote communities. “It is invaluable having their local knowledge and insights to partner with fellow Traditional Owners to protect their sea country and support the traditional management of their estate,” he said.

“The Authority understands that having an effective and meaningful partnership with Traditional Owners is essential to protect cultural and heritage values, conserve biodiversity and enhance the resilience of the Reef.”

The course comprised 13 subjects, including training on country, learning about legislation, and how to give evidence in court. The training also included work within their ranger or land and sea country management groups, with partner agencies such as the Authority, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol over the past nine months.

Wilfred Peter, from the Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation based at Port Stewart on Princess Charlotte Bay, is one of the graduating rangers and is keen to educate the community about Marine Park rules.

“I am proud to be a ranger and - now with these qualifications - there’s greater recognition of our role in looking after country,” Mr Peter said. “Being on country most of the time, we see a lot of visitors doing the wrong thing. With myself and Karen - who is one of our senior rangers - completing the course, it will give us powers to ensure people do the right thing and follow the Marine Park rules. This enables us to keep our country strong and healthy for our next generation.”

The programme is part of the Australian Government’s $30 million Capacity Building for Indigenous Rangers Strategy to 30 June 2020.

This is the second round of rangers who have graduated through the programme, which is on track to train 75 rangers in total. The next round of training starts in May. n

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DS N E I R DIVING WITH F

MALDIVES

NEW: Faarufushi Maldives

INDONESIA THAILAND EGYPT S PA I N

NEW: Roses, Costa Brava

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

INDONESIAN LIVEABOARD EMPEROR HARMONI UNDER CONSTRUCTION Currently under construction and ready to launch in July 2020, Emperor Harmoni is Emperor Divers Indonesia’s brandnew liveaboard, the second for Emperor Indonesia, and one of only a select few liveaboards in this region to have two engines – and at 48 metres, she happily welcomes 20 guests in spacious surroundings. Emperor Harmoni has been designed and built taking into consideration Indonesia’s unique and diverse conditions; harnessing the Emperor Indonesia team’s extensive experience in liveaboard and charter vessels to meet the very highest standards and expectations.

Built of Sulawesi ironwood and offering a truly new experience to liveaboard holidays, experience a true sense of sailing the Indonesian seas in freedom, style, comfort and confidence with her two engines. Itineraries include Komodo, Raja Ampat and Banda Sea. Emperor Harmoni’s three decks have six guest cabins on the lower deck and four on the upper. The main deck features a spacious restaurant, lounge area with a 49-inch HD flat screen, digital movie and music library, board games, bar and a camera suite. Enjoy spacious diving and relaxation areas or relax with a massage on deck; whatever your choice, she’s sure to bring harmony and joy.

All diving is done from two large RIBs with outboards to get you to the perfect dive spot every time. She offers free nitrox, all diving and safety equipment, including SMBs, free of charge, and up to four dive guides. www.emperorindonesia.com/emperor-harmoni.php

JILL HEINERTH’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY TO HIT SHELVES IN AUGUST

LET´S DO IT: DIVING WITH EURO-DIVERS! B O O K I N G A N D I N F O R M AT I O N :

www.euro-divers.com 10 ED_scuba_diver_mag_55x251.indd 1

Cave diver Jill Heinerth is releasing her highly anticipated autobiography Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver in August. She’s a diver with plenty of accolades under her belt, as a 2017 NOGI Award recipient and the first person - man or woman - to dive into an Antarctic iceberg. She also led a team into a Mexican cenote that found the remains of a Mayan civilisation.

The book covers the crucial decisions that can determine whether divers live or die in underwater caves, as well as the challenges of pursuing a career as a female diver. She also writes about the sad experience of having to recover a fellow diver’s body from an underwater cave.

Heinerth also writes about her work with scientists to find new underwater species, track our changing climate, and measure how much freshwater remains on Earth. Heinerth’s Into The Planet comes out 27 August in book and audio formats.

22.01.19 12:00

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NEW DIVE CENTRE OPENS IN MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO Awei Pila, an exclusive resort set on a remote tropical island in the Indian Ocean, has opened a diving centre in Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago. As well as courses up to Divemaster, three daily dives are conducted for certified divers. Currently there are 12 dive sites, including the famed Shark Cave and Rocky Island, with more being discovered all the time.

“We go out in the morning for two dives, stop for lunch, then take one dive in the afternoon,” said Awei Pila’s resident marine biologist and dive instructor Marcelo Guimaraes. “We also have night dives upon demand, where you’ll see squid, lobster, turtles and an array of open corals.”

The Mergui Archipelago is known for its diversity and quantity of marine life. Guimaraes said divers can expect to see schools of fish so massive and so tightly packed that they often can’t see their buddy just a few metres away.

Guimaraes said his team aims to provide a ‘sustainable tourism experience’ and will include a complimentary course in Coral Conservation to all advanced divers as part of their Green Fins initiative, a UN-backed programme to encourage environmentally astute policies among divers and dive centres.

Located some 50 miles from the mainland and nestled

among an archipelago of 800 islands, atolls and reefs, travel to the island of Pila involves a 2.5-hour speedboat ride from the port of Kawthaung. The island boasts 40 mostly deserted beaches, three sources of freshwater, and one Moken ‘Sea Gypsy’ settlement.

Owned by Yangon-based Memories Group, Awei Pila is the only resort on the island, opening its doors to guests on 15 December last year. It has 24 air-conditioned tented villas, a spa, and a restaurant with 24-hour service. www.memoriesgroup.com

ROB STEWART DOCUMENTARY SHARKWATER EXTINCTION GETS CINEMATIC RELEASE An eye-opening, epic new feature documentary Sharkwater Extinction from Rob Stewart, the award-winning director of Sharkwater and Revolution takes us on one man’s mission: to protect sharks from extinction and save the oceans before it’s too late.

More than 150 million sharks are being killed every year.

The oceans are in danger. Sharks play a hugely important role to the environment. Who is the real enemy: shark or human?

We join the courageous filmmaker and renowned activist on a hugely inspirational, thrilling but hazardous journey, as he dives deep into oceans and travels across four continents to investigate the eye-watering scale of corruption, destruction and danger that the multi-billion-dollar pirate fishing industry and vast illegal shark-fin trade bring.

This action-packed story takes us from the seas of West Africa to Spain via Panama, Costa Rica, France, and even North

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America as Stewart exposes a shocking truth that is leading the oldest remaining predator to extinction. Shark finning is still rampant, shark-fin soup is still being consumed and endangered sharks are now being used to make products for human consumption.

Sharkwater Extinction celebrated its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and has gone on to garner critical acclaim and earn multiple international awards. The film recently received its UK Premiere hosted by HRH Princess Eugenie of York.

Sharkwater Extinction stands as Rob Stewart’s legacy, as he was tragically killed in a diving accident in the final stages of shooting the film in January 2017. His parents Brian and Sandy Stewart dedicated themselves to completing the film, which is now in cinemas, certificate 12A, with a run-time of one hour 28 minutes.

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EMPEROR EXPLORER SETTING SAIL IN THE MALDIVES

Expeditions On the Wild Side The Best Diving at the Coral Sea & Great Barrier Reef!

Sharks Galore!

Sailing from this August, travellers can dive into a brand new ‘flagship’ liveaboard in the Maldives – Emperor Explorer.

Part of the Emperor Maldives fleet, she will be offering contemporary and spacious accommodation. At 42 metres, she easily accommodates 26 guests in 13 well-appointed ensuite cabins. She also has a spa, spacious diving and relaxation areas and sets high standards throughout.

Up to four dives a day are on offer and, as with all Emperor liveaboards, nitrox is free of charge and a complimentary glass of wine is served with dinner. www.emperormaldives.com

Save $100*on Private Shark Shoot.

CREDIT CORRECTION

In Scuba Diver Asia-Pacific issue 10, we included a feature on diving in the Solomon Islands by Neil Bennett. Three of the images were taken by Elmar Dette but not credited we apologise for any confusion caused.

MAN BITTEN ON BUTTOCK

BY SHARK OFF HARDY REEF A man swimming off a private boat at Hardy Reef on the Great Barrier Reef on 25 March was bitten by a shark on his buttock and left hip and had to be airlifted for treatment.

According to the Queensland Ambulance Service, Hobart native Ryan Bowring sustained ‘multiple penetrating toothlike marks’, but had been able to swim back to his boat before emergency services made it to the area.

His wounds were bandaged by the first responders, and after being taken by boat to the Heart pontoon he was winched aboard the CQ Rescue helicopter and flown to Mackay Base Hospital, where his condition was described as serious but stable.

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NEW SCUBA SIGNAL – THE ‘P’ FOR ‘PLASTIC’ A group of Dutch divers, diving companies and the campaigning Plastic Soup Foundation are introducing a new hand signal for divers – the ‘P’ for ‘Plastic’.

Every year, thousands of marine animals get caught in plastic or mistake plastic for food and die out of starvation. This plastic soup is also causing coral reefs to get sick because plastic works as a magnet, attracting toxins. It’s a disaster for underwater life and a threat to what we love doing - diving! But now plastic in our oceans has never been more high-profile.

As we know, divers use underwater hand signals for communication, but while there are signals for most marine species, there is not yet one for the largest polluter in our ocean – plastic. If nothing changes, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. As a diver, you are constantly confronted with the ongoing decay and damaged state of the sea and the coral reefs. This is why a group of diving companies and divers, together with the Plastic Soup Foundation, have introduced a new hand signal – the ‘P’ for ‘Plastic’. This signal can be used by divers underwater to let their buddies know that they see plastic and they want to pick it up. The goal of this hand signal is to encourage as many divers around the world to spread awareness and take action against the plastic plague that our ocean is facing right now. www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/divers

STUDENTS CHALLENGED TO PROTECT THEIR ‘PATCH’ OF THE BARRIER REEF Over 400 students across Queensland gathered throughout March and April for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Reef Guardian School Future Leaders Eco Challenges. Held annually since 2013, the Future Leaders Eco Challenge is a series of hands-on workshops in regional locations along the Great Barrier Reef catchment area. The workshops are designed to empower Reef Guardian students and teachers to take action for the reef by sharing knowledge, skills and key projects. The Authority’s Assistant Director of Stewardship, Megan Connell, said the Future Leaders Eco Challenge was a key opportunity to foster on-ground action and promote a community culture of custodianship for the Reef.

“Throughout the Future Leaders Eco Challenge, students learn that their actions on land have a major impact on the Great Barrier Reef — just because the reef may be out of sight, it can’t be out of mind,” Mrs Connell said.

The Great Barrier Reef catchment area lies adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and comprises approximately 25 percent of the land area of Queensland.

“This year’s theme, Protect your Patch, encouraged students to develop a sense of ownership and responsibly to protect the reef in their area and acknowledge that small local changes can have a big impact on the long-term protection of the Great Barrier Reef,” Mrs Connell said.

“Across the state, students learnt about marine debris and other major threats to the reef, as well as tackling local issues.

This helped connect their community to the bigger picture and encourage them to get involved in local citizen-science activities to assist reef recovery.”

Now in its 17th year, the Authority’s Reef Guardian Schools programme includes more than 270 schools and over 114,000 Queensland students within the Great Barrier Reef catchment.

NEW ZEALAND NAVY’S NEW DIVING SUPPORT VESSEL STARTS JOURNEY FROM NORWAY The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new diving and hydrographic support vessel has started her journey from Norway to Auckland, New Zealand.

Formerly known as offshore support vessel MV Edda Fonn, the vessel was sold by Norway’s Østensjø Rederi to the New Zealand Navy in August 2018.

The vessel was modified for navy needs and was repainted from a bright yellow to navy grey. Edda Fonn completed sea trials earlier this month before sailing to her new home. Once in New Zealand, the vessel will be commissioned as HMNZS Manawanui and will undergo final modifications before entering service by November 2019.

The New Zealand Navy was initially scheduled to receive a custom, newbuild vessel but an NZ$148 million cost blow-out in the country’s frigate upgrade project forced the government to consider a used vessel. Defense officials identified Edda Fonn as the most-suitable option from an initial list of over 150 candidate offshore and subsea support vessels. The vessel will be homeported in Gosborne and will replace the decommissioned dive tender HMNZS Manawanui and hydrographic survey ship HMNZS Resolution.

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BLUE PLANET LIVE GREAT BARRIER REEF SEGMENT LEAVES VIEWERS IN SHOCK

Critter Board entry #32: magnificent, magenta jellyfish

Conservation-minded viewers of BBC’s innovative Blue Planet Live were left stunned when a baby turtle was snatched up by a seagull – just seconds after it had been released to make its way to the sea.

Presenter Liz Bonnin was taking part in a green turtle release on Heron Island, and as wildlife worker Janine Ferguson tipped six baby turtles out of a bucket so they could crawl across the sand to the safety of the ocean, she spoke to camera about how important it was to protect the ‘precious individuals’ from predators. Literally seconds later, as she continued to do her piece to camera, a seagull was seen to run in, snatch up one of the hatchlings and make off with it, prompting a flurry of complaint emails and a host of outraged posts on Social Media.

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Keep your eye on the dive,

MEDICAL Q&A

not your dive computer.

Dr Oliver Firth is a diving doctor with over 22 years of diving experience. He is an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers for the UK HSE and a medical referee for the UK Diving Medical Committee, performing many hundreds of diving medicals a year. As the senior doctor at London Diving Chamber for the last 13 years, he has supervised the treatment of hundreds of cases of decompression illness. He has now set up Hyperdive (www.hyperdive.co.uk) to continue his diving medical work with a global audience. With his accumulated experience, he has seen most things a diver might come across, but remains eager to hear from anyone with a medical conundrum they need a solution to! divingdoctor@scubadivermag.com Q: I’ve got a question about earplugs and diving. I’ve heard that they can help stop infections and make equalising easier, but when I mentioned this to a friend who is a GP, she thought it sounded like a bad idea. What’s your view?

A: Earplugs and pressure don’t mix well in my opinion. The idea of vented earplugs is that a narrow passage through the plug allows air to move in and out, while stopping water entering the ear canal. In theory this reduces the risk of ear infections, and makes equalising easier. Anecdotal evidence from divers seems to support these assertions, but there are potential problems. If the vent becomes blocked with wax or other debris, you suddenly have a closed-off air space which could lead to barotrauma. If this occurs on a dive, the manufacturers recommend you take the plug out, but the sudden influx of cold water if you do this could then lead to vertigo, nausea and vomiting. I’d suggest it’s probably best to get to the root of the ear problem and sort that out.

Q: As part of an investigation into abnormal levels of iron in my liver, my consultant wishes to perform a liver biopsy. This involves a 1 in 1,000 risk of a punctured lung. I am a very active diver and would therefore not like to jeopardise this. What advice would you give? Does an ‘accidentally’ punctured lung heal? Thank you.

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A: As a kid, I remember games of Risk that went on for days over Christmas.

I realise now that it was a tactic to keep the aunts and uncles from each other throats while they deployed their armies and biscuit crumbs across the globe. But dealing with medical

risk is an altogether-more-interesting concept. What does ‘1 in 1,000’ mean to you? If I told you that the chance of needing emergency treatment in the next year after being injured by a bed mattress or pillow is 1 in 2,000, would that make you more or less likely to take this 1 in 1,000 risk?

Oodles of stuff has been written about ‘risk perception’ – how an individual understands and judges risk (and how that influences behaviour). People are much more willing to accept voluntary risks (such as driving a car, where the lifetime risk of dying in a crash is 1 in 100) than risks where they have no control. The risk of lung cancer from a-pack-a-day smoking habit is about 1 in 125 over a lifetime; for skin cancer from sun exposure it’s a staggering 1 in 3 (although most are non-fatal). 1 in 1,000 is about the same probability as a 4-4 draw in a football match.

According to the HSE, the average annual risk of death from scuba diving is 1 in 200,000 dives. Pretty safe really.

Ultimately then, each individual has their own perception of risk, which is shaped by their personality, previous experiences and probably hundreds of other factors yet to be determined. On this aspect it’s therefore difficult to give black and white answers.

The bottom line with a punctured lung in this scenario is that the cause of the lung injury is known (in this case, an errant biopsy needle). So there is no reason to suspect that the underlying lung tissue is more susceptible to barotrauma or another puncture. Most of these injuries heal up and all that is required is some confirmation that the repair is complete, usually a CT scan and some lung function tests. Word of advice - take care in the bath. There’s a 1 in 685,000 chance you’ll drown in it before 2020...

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

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f you are an avid diver, sooner or later you are going to end up wanting to dive somewhere that a 5mm wetsuit isn’t going to cut the mustard. So this month, our Dive Like A Pro section is focused on cold-water diving, or rather, what items of kit you need to safely and comfortably dive in chilly conditions. We also asked our experts for any tips and techniques for diving in cold water.

So read on, and remember – just because the temperatures plummet, doesn’t mean you can’t go diving.

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

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

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

“Cold-water diving can be very rewarding with a bit of forethought and preparation. As someone said to me once: ‘there’s no such thing as a cold dive, just the wrong kit!’”

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Garry Dallas, from RAID UK and Malta, said: “To be honest, diving in cold water has plenty of benefits. Less algae, more nutrients in the sea and therefore more marine life. It’s a nobrainer, although sometimes in very cold water a lack of good thermal protection on yer bonce can lead to brain freeze in the first 20 seconds or so.

“Looking at thermal protection… don’t skimp, keep warm!

Everywhere from head to toe needs another layer. Only wearing the extra sweater does add more buoyancy to the top of your body and knocks your hovering trim out a bit. To keep yourself in trim, wear the socks and bottoms too. Wet gloves… well, here’s the time to invest in some dry gloves, they prevent water contact with the skin that chills your hands down to the bone! So, you’ll be glad you got them. The thicker the underglove, the more air gets in your gloves to keep you warm. Just make sure both inner and outer gloves fit you… well… like a glove!

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

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What topics would you like to see put to our panel of experts?

Email your suggestions to: mark@scubadivermag.com

the battery runs out will cause your blood circulation to slow down, preventing normal off-gassing and can cause your body to develop DCI symptoms.

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

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

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

Mark Powell, TDI Instructor Trainer and Training Advisory Panel Member, commented: “Many divers seem to laugh or think you are joking when you mention diving in truly cold water. Cold-water diving may not appeal to everyone out there, but for some, cold water brings the best visibility, solitude, and a very unique aquatic environment. Around the

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world, quarries, lakes, rivers and even ocean dive sites are swamped with people when the weather is warm and the required exposure protection is minimal. When the weather turns cold, you often have many of these dive sites to yourself. This means when you head to the water to dive, you and your buddy may not have many other divers to ask for support, so you need to take the items you need to remain comfortable. A few of the items are listed below.

“Any type of physical activity can cause a person to get dehydrated. When the weather is warm and the sun is shining, it is much easier to recognise that we have been sweating and need to replace fluids. Conversely, cold weather often makes us bundle up and avoid cool drinks. When you head out to any dive site, especially a cold-weather site, remember to throw some water in the car. Between dives and around our aquatic activities, we need to remember to replace fluids and stay hydrated. This will make us feel better and ensure time at the dive site is much better. Similarly, cold weather always means it is a good time for hot drinks. Prepare a thermos and take some hot chocolate (or another hot fluid) out to the dive site. Nothing is better than leaving the water, throwing on your warm clothes, and then sipping a hot cup of coffee or chocolate drink. Your dive buddy will think you are the greatest person in the world.

“Just like fluids, we burn off calories when we dive. The act

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of adding bulky equipment such as extra exposure protection and the longer preparation time needed to set up and don gear for cold-water diving can make a diver burn off a large number of calories. As we exercise, we get tired and our bodies need more fuel to operate at a maximum level. Taking snacks to the dive site will make sure we have something to replace calories after a long dive in cold waters.

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

“If you have never seen a first stage fail in cold water, it is amazing to see. Many divers would be surprised to know that a first stage can freeze in water temperatures well above freezing. Cold high-pressure gas moving through tight spaces expedites the freezing process. So, if you know you are planning on diving in cold water, why not give yourself peace-of-mind? Make sure you get your hands on regulators ready for cold-water diving. Often, these are diaphragm first stages or a first stage with an environmental seal to protect the system. You should not have to worry about temperatures and failing life-support gear during a dive when worries such as these can be completely avoided.”

GUE’s John Kendall said: “Diving in the cold can be incredibly rewarding. You are often greeted by very good

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visibility, and often the dive sites are a lot quieter. However, there are numerous downsides and risks. The two obvious risks are equipment malfunction and diver malfunction. As the air and water get colder, there is a much-higher likelyhood of freeflows from your regulators. To avoid this, make sure that the regs are correctly tuned, and turn down any venturi assists. Also avoid breathing the regulators above water too much. In truly freezing conditions (such as ice diving), none of the regulators will be breathed above water. Believe it or not, the water will help keep the first stage warmer (as the water rarely gets much below 4 degrees C, whereas the air can be well into negative temps). You should also consider having truly redundant gas sources (such as a twinset) so that neither first stage is feeding more than one second stage.

“In terms of diver malfunction, we have all experienced this to some degree. Humans get more stupid as they get cold. The body starts changing its blood flow to keep the central organs warm, and the brain goes into a survival mode. This means we are less likely to make good decisions when we are very cold.

Staying warm is a must, and this starts before the dive. Make sure you are well rested, and eat a proper breakfast before the dive. Slow release carbs, such as porridge, are great for this.

Then make sure you don’t get too cold on the surface prior to getting in. Standing around on a cold carpark is a pretty good way of losing core body temperature before we even get wet.

Make sure you have adequate and good undergarments, and a dry drysuit. The best undergarments will still keep you warm if you are a little damp, but a flooding suit can be particularly dangerous in cold water. A good measure of how well an undersuit will insulate you is the amount of buoyancy that it has. Generally more buoyancy means more trapped air, and it’s that air that keeps you warm. A good hood and gloves are also essential. Personally, I wear drygloves for any cold diving.

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

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rodivers instructor Mohamed Shameen Ali said: “Diving in the Maldives is all about the currents”, and after experiencing Fushivaru Kandu at full flood, I wholeheartedly agree. Marine life activity is focused around the channel entrances, where the water flow is strongest. When the current subsides, showtime is over - but only until the next tidal change.

I was gunning for big fish shots, particularly eagle rays.

But to fill the frame of my trusty 16mm fisheye lens, they needed to be close - meaning less than an outstretched arm’s distance away. Eagle rays are not the easiest marine creatures to photograph. Usually found at the channel entrances in squadrons of up to 20, they are very sensitive to sounds and movement. When one member of the group gets agitated and bolts, they all bolt. Sometimes the largest, most-dominant eagle ray will hang back and, if approached cautiously, there may be an opportunity to get close.

My chances of keeping up with an eagle ray in full flight using fin power alone were pretty slim, so to give ourselves a fighting chance, Mohamed Shameen Ali (Mosti) had equipped us with Apollo AV-2 DPVs, aka scooters. If scooters had a distinct purpose in life, then the Maldives has to be the perfect venue. With a top speed of 2.5mph, it was far easier to manouvere in and out of the currents. Prodivers (www. prodivers.com) offer scooter rental at all of their resort dive centres. Visiting divers need to complete a basic two-dive course before they can hire them out, or hold the appropriate PADI Specialty cert. The scooters really did make a difference.

Without them I would have had far less photo opportunities and my air consumption way higher due to the extra exertion.

There are two ways to drive an Apollo AV-2, either held out in front or sat on like a saddle. Most divers prefer the ‘hands-

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free’ saddle option. Adding a camera to the mix made my job slightly more interesting.

Fiddling with the threespeed throttle lever and lining up for a shot at the same time took a while to master. If the turtle wasn’t moving very fast or the shoal of snapper looked relaxed, I would hand over my scooter to Mosti so I could move around more freely.

Prodivers were also happy to loan me a rental AP Valves Inspiration rebreather, but having to think about picture compositions, scooter controls and keep an eye on rebreather settings was just too much task loading for my poor brain to handle. I much preferred to keep things simple!

Another Prodivers instructor, Sina Leupi, had drawn the short straw and agreed to model for my pictures. The grand plan was to get as close as possible to every marine creature we encountered. Fortunately for me, Sina from Switzerland turned out to be absolutely perfect for the job.

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Maldivian SHOWTIME Stuart Philpott was on a mission to get shots of big fish and other pelagic species, and the team at Prodivers in the Maldives were more than happy to step up to the challenge and deliver encounter after encounter PHOTOGRAPHS BY STUART PHILPOTT

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Napoleon wrasse

Bumphead parrotfish

Eagle ray fly-past

Huge swirling shoal of snapper

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The water villas offer a taste of paradise

Large marbled ray

Whether we were taking pictures of eagle rays, turtles or bumphead parrotfish, Sina was in the thick of it, wide-eyed and perfectly poised.

Beforehand I sat down with Mosti and Sina to work out an itinerary. The channel crossings were definitely ‘action city’. Strong currents attracted predatory reef sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, Napoleon wrasse, shoals of jacks, barracuda as well as other passing pelagic species. Fushivaru Kandu was probably my best bet for eagle ray encounters, but this depended on the time of year. When the currents changed around Fushivaru it is not the preferred crossing, and divers usually choose Kuredu Express instead. For turtle sightings it has to be Caves off neighbouring Kuredu, and there’s always hundreds of anemones at Anemone Thila, and so on and so on, until we had sorted out several days worth of exciting dive sites. I saw plenty of reef sharks throughout but couldn’t quite get close enough for a good enough shot. Usually Prodivers offer a two-tank morning dive (returning to the resort around lunchtime), one dive in the afternoon and night dives. There are also daily guided snorkelling trips.

I had based myself at the recently opened five-star Hurawalhi resort located five to ten minute’s boat ride from the third-most-popular resort in the whole Maldives, Kuredu. I could tell Hurawalhi was sheer class from the Friendly turtle at Caves

There is a huge variety of marine life on offer and that’s a combination of big and small creatures, both rich in colour and quantity very first moment I stepped foot onto the jetty. Covering an area of approximately 165 metres by 400 metres, this adult’s only island is not massive. A row of 60 ocean villas extended out over the shallow lagoon by another 400 metres, boosting accommodation to a total of 90 rooms. The ocean villas seemed to be favoured by the Chinese, and the beach villas European clientele. At present about 50 percent include infinity pools (by the end of the year, all of the beach villas will have private pools). I had chosen an ocean villa without pool. There was something deeply therapeutic about waking up to a sea view. When I wasn’t diving or dining, I would sit and watch the parrotfish cruising by below me. If I was feeling particularly energetic, I could always walk down my personal stairway to the water’s edge and go snorkelling.

Maybe paradise does actually exist?

Guests have a choice of no less than three restaurants and bars. The main attraction has to be 5.8 underwater

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restaurant. With a seating plan for 30, this is one of the largest underwater restaurants in the world. Surrounded by a thriving reef, it’s the perfect venue for non-divers that want to experience the underwater world. There are three two-hour sittings each day offering either a five-course lunch or sevencourse dinner menu. I managed to book a lunchtime slot and was totally mesmerised by the display of colourful marine life. For once I didn’t have to sit and entertain my dinner date!

The evening session is even more insane. The sea is in total darkness apart from the lights illuminating the surrounding reef. Giant trevally hunted among the shoals of fusiliers, while puffers and parrots munched on the corals.

Over the course of my stay I managed to experience quite a few channel crossings. We would usually begin our dive at

25

one side of the channel, scooter along the wall into the high current areas and then at the later stages drift back inside onto the shallower pinnacles. Absolutely anything could happen, nothing was predictable. Underwater visibility easily topped 30 metres on the majority of my dives, so I could see way into the distance and plan my marine life confrontations.

We encountered hawksbill turtles nibbling on the corals, stingrays cruising along the seabed and inquisitive Napoleon wrasse, which mainly stayed on the periphery. Nearer the epicentre I saw plenty of reef sharks, on some occasions more than 100, and at other times just a few swimming along beside me. Always schooling jacks, sometimes barracuda, and occasional shoals of batfish. Slightly deeper, beneath the wall, there were ledges and overhangs inhabited by grouper and swathed in giant sea fans. Eagle rays would mainly be found in the stronger current areas. Back inside the channels on the shallower pinnacles I would see large shoals of fusiliers, blue striped and humped-back snapper.

Hurawalhi’s house reef called Aquarium turned out to be the biggest surprise. There were so many picture opportunities The view from the restaurant

Chunky frogfish

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Bannerfish

including bannerfish, shoals of blue-striped snapper and a football-sized bright red frogfish. A smaller yellow frogfish was supposedly hiding somewhere, but we couldn’t find it.

Frogfish are known to be cannibalistic, so maybe big red froggie was now slightly bigger! There wasn’t too much current to contend with so I could take more time to compose a picture. Prodivers’ dive centre and shop is situated right on the beach, so for shore dives it’s just a short walk down to the sea. The dive boats ran from the main jetty, which is less than a minute’s walk away. All of the dive equipment is prepared and transferred to the boat by the guides. I just had to turn up and jump over the side!

Sea turtles are often seen at the diving and snorkelling sites around Hurawalhi, but if divers want 100 percent guaranteed encounters, then Caves is the place to visit.

More than 160 different turtles have been recorded at this dive site located off Kuredu, and it is mainly frequented by hawksbill and green turtles, with the odd olive ridley sighting from time to time. There are plenty of overhangs and shallow caves for the turtles to have a snooze or a sneaky shell scratch. We explored the wall, which basically starts at a depth of 5m and dropped to around 20m, checking out all of the darker recesses. We found three hawksbills and four green turtles in the space of an hour. I sat and watched one big female having a shell scratch for several minutes. She seemed totally unperturbed. I’m sure they were used to being hassled by divers and photographers. I had planned a dive on Kuredu’s shallow seagrass beds mainly for turtle shots but when we arrived on site, the wind had whipped up, turning the underwater visibility very milky. At a depth of around 3m, this is a popular spot for snorkellers. We tried stalking

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Strong currents attracted predatory reef sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, Napoleon wrasse, shoals of jacks, barracuda as well as other passing pelagic species

At last, a decent eagle ray shot!

a number of turtles but it was quite obvious I wasn’t going to get anything worthwhile so we decided to change tack and explore the house reef instead. I spotted an eagle ray with two smaller juveniles, but they shot off into the blue before I could raise my camera. Mosti said it was even more difficult to get close to the young ones. I could just about make out a dark shadow in the distance. This materialised into a small fishing boat wreck inclined at a 30-degree angle with the bow pointing up towards the surface. I noticed a large fish hovering close to the wreck. This turned out to be a massive one-and-a-half-metre plus bumphead parrotfish.

I could see there was some heavy scarring all over the fish and a chunk missing from its tail fin. We initiated the usual attack plan and the parrotfish didn’t seem at all bothered by our advances. With Sina hovering slightly above and me angling from below, I managed to take around 15 extremely intimate pictures. Mosti said: “It’s very rare to get this close to a bumphead parrotfish”. We carried on along the reef wall stopping to take pictures of batfish and several green turtles, so all in all not a bad dive.

After several failed attempts I was beginning to think that I was never going to get close enough to the eagle rays. I had tried approaching from below and to the side and then slowly veering in, but as usual when I got two to three metres away they would all scatter. I had managed to get a few group shots, but nothing overly spectacular. On my penultimate dive at Fushivaru Kandu, we spotted a gathering of five eagle rays and a shoal of around 100 barracuda. I had to make a quick decision so followed the eagle rays. I approached from below and as I got closer, the whole group scattered in all directions apart from the largest eagle ray, which didn’t seem to be too phased by my presence. Sina had automatically got into position behind, which gave me a crack at the perfect composition. We were speeding along side by side for more than a minute, the eagle ray no more than 50cm away from my dome port. I had no idea why it didn’t freak out. I took about six or seven pictures and on the last shutter click got the shot I wanted - it really wasn’t going to get much better than this!

As a diving holiday destination, the Maldives rarely fails to deliver. There is a huge variety of marine life on offer and that’s a combination of big and small creatures, both rich in colour and

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Stuart employed scooters with Mosti and Sina

quantity. From an underwater photographer’s perspective, as long as I took my time and approached slowly and calmly, I could always get close enough to fill my wide-angle lens.

Okay, I admit the scooters had given me a helping hand! The channel crossings are guaranteed intense activity and this is complimented with the more-serene house reefs, Caves, Shipyard and Anemone Thila sites.

When the diving had finished for the day, I settled down to an evening of sheer luxury. I couldn’t fault Hurawalhi’s food, accommodation or service, and even the weather turned out to be pretty much perfect. For once, I couldn’t find anything to complain about! n

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The perfect island escape invites you to dive into the beautiful underwater realm. Here, anything is possible.

A charming hideaway surrounded by first class dive spots and a house reef only 15m from the beach.

Interested? For more information please visit our homepage:

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

BACK TO SCHOOL

A vast school of fish swimming together is always impressive. However, taking a good picture is not always easy – as Mario Vitalini explains, the trick is to show the group as a unity, and not as a messy, disorganised random group of individuals PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIO VITALINI

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ish come together for different reasons and at different times. Protection and feeding are the most-common drivers, but many species create huge aggregations for spawning at a determinate time of the year. This can be more predictable and therefore easier to capture because the location and time can be pinpointed precisely.

Schooling fish can be photographed all over the world at different times. The seasonal aggregations are more predictable and easier to photograph. The place that comes to my mind is the northern Red Sea, where snapper, jacks, batfish, unicorns and barracuda are among the many species that come together during the summer months.

On the other hand, striped catfish can be found around the Indo-Pacific all over shallow reefs year round, forming very photogenic feeding aggregations on a regular basis, and in areas such as the Tulamben region in Bali, or Apo Island in the Philippines, you can find horse-eye jack. While other species that are commonly found in groups require a bit more luck, you need to be at the right place at the right time. On a plus side, these ‘more-common’ fish tend to be overlooked and you can have the encounter all to yourself.

Seasonal aggregations attract a huge number of divers and finding the right photo opportunity can be tricky. A good example of this can be seen at Shark and Jolanda Reef, in Ras Mohammed National Park in the Red Sea. Here during the end of June and the beginning of July, huge numbers of snapper congregate to spawn. This, of course, attracts many divers wishing to witness the event. The number of divers in the water can be a problem for the photographer.

SECURE A GOOD SHOT - TIPS AND TECHNIQUES Try to time your dive when there is the least amount of people around, but if it is not possible, remember that the curious attitude of many divers that wish to ‘be in the middle of the action’ drives them to swim towards the school. You can

use this towards your favour by positioning yourself opposite these divers. The fish will swim away from the disturbance and head towards you, giving you a chance to capture the perfect shot. Equally, never swim under the school hoping for a good upward shot or a silhouette, your bubbles will only break the formation and split the school.

Contrary to normal underwater photography, the rule of getting as close as you can does not apply. When shooting fish groups, you will obtain much better results if you try to maintain a respectful distance. By doing so, you will make the group feel safer, and you will not be considered a predator

- which in many cases will cause the school to split. You are much better maintaining your position and letting the fish swim to you, not the other way around. This may require a fair amount of patience and time, but the results can be very rewarding.

If you swim towards the school, the group may start swimming away from you, resulting in pictures of fish tails or, even worst, the group may split and form two or three smaller and less-photogenic groups.

Shooting from a considerable distance creates a series of problems, and the most important is light. The light from your flashguns will struggle to reach the subject. The only way to maximise the reach of your strobes besides cranking up the power is to remove the diffusers. These are designed to soften and spread the light, the opposite of what you want in this instance. To avoid problems with backscatter, position your strobes wide apart and behind the housing facing straight forward. Other options are to use ambient light if the action happens at a shallower depth, or to convert your pictures to black and white.

Not every school behaves the same way. Some species are easier to photograph, such as snapper, jacks and barracuda.

They normally prefer to remain in a fixed position and not wander along the reef or into the blue. Barracuda, for example, tend to stick together in a pack formation and these are very easy to approach because they do not break the formation. Other fish are much harder - the unicornfish, which in Egypt come together at the same time as the snapper, behave in the completely opposite way. They are together but each individual wanders around on its own, making it almost impossible to get a good photo. The blue parrotfish swim along the reef fast and do not stop at all, so a good

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY photo opportunity is a question of quick reactions from the photographer and a healthy dose of luck.

LENS SELECTION AND COMPOSITION A wide-angle lens is essential when photographing schooling fish. If the school in question is a large one, you can go for a fisheye. But always bear in mind the barrel distortion these lenses create and aim to frame the group of fish in the middle of the frame from a distance so the distortion does not affect the image. If you know the school is not very big, a traditional rectilinear lens will be ideal. In my opinion, if in doubt go for a fisheye, that way you will have a great lens to shoot other reef scenes in case the schooling action you were hoping for is not playing along.

Try to time your shot so the school is in a pleasing formation, usually this will be a spherical group or a ring (jacks and barracuda). When the school is very big, it can yield very impressive pictures, remember these work best when you place a diver in the scene, such as a fellow photographer. This way, you can get a sense of scale.

When you frame your school, always look around the edges, try not to cut the formation and if possible, make sure the fish are surrounded by blue water and not the reef.

If you do not have a wide-angle option, you can use the school as a compositional element in the background, or try to get a detail or portrait of an individual within the school.

For this, a macro lens is ideal, but you will need to get fairly close, which may not be appreciated by other photographers in the group, so be polite and let them shoot the school before you approach it.

The next time you find yourself in front of a school of fish, take your time, set your strobes apart and back, keep your distance and let the fish come to you. Your chances of coming back home with a great picture will be massively improved. n

BIOGRAPHY: MARIO VITALINI

For nearly 30 years, Mario has sailed the globe and dived the seas, working as a PADI instructor and dive guide. Today, he shares his passion for underwater photography.

His students love his real-world expertise and patient approach. He has an extensive working knowledge of most underwater camera systems, having spent several years at the UK’s largest photo retailer. Mario’s images have won several awards and he has featured not once, but twice, among the top categories at the prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year, including Most Promising British Underwater Photographer in 2015.

Eastern Southeast Asia offers some of the most-superlative diving in the world, and Al Hornsby presents a round-up of the top dive destinations within this neck of the woods PHOTOGRAPHS BY AL HORNSBY

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INTRODUCTION

Southeast Asia is world-renowned as being a hotspot for scuba diving, boasting everything from weird-and-wonderful critters and stunning coral gardens to sheer walls, adrenalinefuelled drifts and dramatic shipwrecks. With more flights than ever accessing this part of the planet from wherever you live, there has never been a better time to sample some of the best Indo-Pacific diving you are ever going to experience.

Over the following pages you will find a brief overview of several of the top destinations within this region, with information about some of the top dive sites you have to put on your ‘must-dive’ list.

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ndonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is the world’s largest archipelago and comprises a staggering 17,508 islands and 33 provinces. The vast country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Indonesia is home to ten to 15 per cent of the world’s coral reefs, so as you can imagine it has some of the most-impressive diving sites out there. About 4,000 different species of fish are found in Indonesian waters (that is over 25 per cent of the planet’s fish species), as well as numerous invertebrates.

Given the enormous size of the country, as you can imagine, there are dive destinations throughout the islands.

Liveaboards can take you through the Banda Sea – rapidly gaining a reputation for great diving – to the critters of Ambon and to Komodo, world-famous for its ‘dragons’, but also a fantastic location to dive. Diving from a boat is also the best way to access Raja Ampat, widely regarded by many as the best diving area in the whole of Southeast Asia.

But you don’t have to earn your sea legs to see the best of Indonesia, there are many land-based resorts offering fantastic diving just minutes from their dock. North Sulawesi is home to two very different, but equally intoxicating, diving areas – the Bunaken Marine Park and the Lembeh Strait.

Bunaken offers sheer walls, fast drifts and encounters with sea snakes, sharks and rays, while Lembeh is the birthplace of ‘muck diving’ and the habitat of all sorts of weird and wonderful critters.

Then you have Bali, which boasts a world-class wreck in the shape of the Liberty, off Tulamben, as well as the chance to dive with mola mola and manta rays.

Anemonefish

INDONESIA Expect pristine reefs teeming with life

The topside scenery is impressive too

You never know what you will encounter muck diving

About 4,000 different species of fish are found in Indonesian waters (that is over 25 per cent of the planet’s fish species), as well as numerous invertebrates WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

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hailand - or officially, the Kingdom of Thailand - is a country located at the centre of Southeast Asia.

It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma.

Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.

Thailand is blessed with gorgeous weather, fantastic beaches, and great diving just a few kilometres from an action-packed shoreline.

Phuket, Khao Lak, Phi Phi Islands and Ao Nang Beach on Krabi are the best resort areas for a Thailand diving holiday, offering plenty for non-divers to do as well. Phuket is best placed to serve the whole region, and is particularly popular with party-goers, while Khao Lak is ideally placed to focus on the northern Thai Andaman Sea. Ao Nang is set on the peaceful and spectacularly beautiful Krabi coastline across Phang Nga Bay, and Phi Phi’s magic draws sunseekers and travellers for the beaches and a slice of island-life.

The Bidah Islands are suitable for all levels of experience.

Schools of fish hang out in the blue and also cover the beautiful reefs, ranging from giant barracuda to trevally to yellow snapper. Reef sharks, leopard sharks, stingrays, moray, seahorse, ghost pipefish and so much more inhabit the waters as well.

Shark Point, near Phuket, is actually three pinnacles, two of which are submerged, and they all boast beautiful corals covering the entire reef and a very diverse marine life. This dive site is great for both experienced and new divers, and photographers will love it. Eagle rays and whalesharks have been spotted here from time to time, and leopard sharks are a common sight. If you are lucky you can spend your safety stop with them swimming around you!

Anemone Reef is a huge limestone pinnacle that rises 30m up from the seafloor to just beneath the surface. This barely submerged reef is a well-known shipping hazard and is located less than a mile north of Shark Point. Vast swathes of anemones cling to every conceivable surface and as they move with the current, it creates an illusion that the entire structure is one giant living rock. The pinnacle is always surrounded by enormous schools of tropical fish, snapper and

Coral grouper Huge fish shoals are common

grouper, plus the odd pelagic like tuna and barracuda.

The area gained a decent wreck dive on 4 May 1997 when the 85-metre passenger ferry King Cruiser strayed off course while enroute to the Phi-Phi Islands and hit Anemone Reef.

This unplanned addition to Anemone Reef rapidly became one of the area’s most-popular dive sites.

Sat in a depth of 30m, and rising in places to 12m, the King Cruiser offers multiple decks to explore, and is smothered in marine growth, as well as many scorpionfish and lionfish.

One of the biggest draw-cards in Thailand are the liveaboards cruising around world-class dive sites in the Similans, Burma and Hin Daeng.

Above water is just as stunning

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Whaleshark

THAILAND The picturesque Similan Islands are the most-popular destination, with superb underwater scenery and excellent visibility in its aquamarine waters. Huge deep water boulder formations create daring swim-throughs, as well as providing dramatic back-drops to its vibrant coral gardens and reef slopes. You can dive here by liveaboard or diving day tours.

The world-famous Richelieu Rock is perhaps Thailand’s most well-known site, and it is known as a place to dive with whalesharks. Jacques-Yves Cousteau listed the site in his top ten list of the world’s best dives. Koh Bon and Koh Tachai are great for manta rays and whitetip reef shark encounters.

Hin Daeng off Hin Muang is your best chance to see grey reef sharks, patrolling the walls. Besides that, it’s also the second home in the Andaman Sea for whalesharks and mantas. Dive Hin Daeng and you’ll experience the excitement of diving Thailand’s highest vertical wall. Nearby caves and caverns add to the thrill of adventure.

Koh Samui is the ideal base for exploring the dive sites on the Gulf of Thailand. The diving may not be quite as varied as Phuket and the Similan Islands, but there are some very good dive sites around Samui and Koh Tao, which can be combined with a stay at one of Samui’s excellent resorts.

You can dive Thailand all year round. The best conditions exist from November to April, with whalesharks visiting from February to May, and manta rays all year round.

The picturesque Similan Islands are the most-popular destination, with superb underwater scenery and excellent visibility in its aquamarine waters Deck gun on a shipwreck

Guitarshark

The soft corals are amazing

Late-May to October brings monsoon winds and surface swells to the Andaman Sea, making some remote sites, such as Richelieu Rock and Hin Daeng, inaccessible and reducing visibility in general by about 30 per cent at the open dive sites. October can also see heavy rains in the Andaman Sea.

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World Travel Awards - Indonesia’s Leading Dive Resort 2018

info@bunakenoasis.com

www.bunakenoasis.com

Set in the world-famous Bunaken National Marine Park, Bunaken Oasis offers a truly luxurious diving experience.

2018 Indonesia's Leading Dive Resort

Exceptional air-conditioned cottages with sea-view balconies.

Chill-out bar, and gourmet panoramic restaurant.

Custom-built spa with qualified therapists.

Panoramic freshwater infinity pool

From water-makers, with UV treatment, to blackwater treatment, Oasis was designed to minimise any impact on the environment.

5* PADI-affiliated dive centre, designed for photographers, and dive boats that are second to none, with freshwater deck showers, toilets and, above all, space.

ASIA’S SHORE DIVING CAPITAL

Timor-Leste

If you love easy shore diving, big coral gardens, macro critter hunting and the biodiversity that the Coral Triangle brings. Look no farther than Timor-Leste for you next diving adventure. Don’t believe us, speak with an operator today to learn more.

Aquatica Dive Resort www.aquaticadiveresort.com Atauro Dive Resort www.ataurodiveresort.com Compass Diving www.compassdiving.com Dive Timor www.divetimor.com Dreamers Dive Academy www.timordiveacademy.com

Flamboyant cuttlefish

THE PHILIPPINES Mantis shrimp

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he Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is located in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from the other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorised broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

There are diving opportunities throughout the Philippines, from quiet spots like Cabilao and Anilao to tourist hotspots like Boracay, Puerto Galera and Alona Beach, not to mention the world-class sites off Dumaguete, Moalboal, the whalesharks of Donsol and the World War Two shipwrecks of Coron Bay and Subic Bay. One of Balicasag Island’s best dives is the Black Forest, which ranges from 10m-40m. This is one of the only places you can find black coral at a shallow 30m. An enormous variety of trevally, barracuda and sweetlips swarm around this site, and you can see why it is one of the region’s top dive sites.

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the Shark Point site is famous as the only place in the world where the magnificent thresher sharks can be seen everyday

Some 45 minutes from Puerto Galera, you have Verde Island, which has depths ranging from just a few metres to over 150m. The tip of this underwater ‘mountain’ protrudes a metre or so above the ocean surface. Hiding below is a spectacular wall dive. Miss this and you won’t forgive yourself!

Off Malapascua, Monad Shoal is an underwater island on the edge of a 200m drop-off, and the Shark Point site is famous as the only place in the world where the magnificent thresher sharks can be seen everyday. The shoal attracts other pelagics, such as devil rays and hammerheads.

The Dona Marilyn wreck is said to be one of the best wrecks in the Central Philippines. It was a Cebu-Manila passenger ferry that sank in a typhoon over 20 years ago.

It lies intact on its starboard side in 32m and is around 100 metres long. It is covered in plentiful soft coral and abundant marine life. The Dona is usually dived on a day trip combined with nearby Gato Island, one of Malapascua’s best dive sites.

It has at least five dive sites with a huge diversity of marine life: huge whitetip sharks, sea snakes, cuttlefish (often while mating), pygmy and larger seahorses, nudibranchs, frogfish, scorpionfish, porcupinefish, and smashing mantis shrimp.

The coral is in good condition and the rocky island has many interesting underwater rock formations.

Pygmy seahorse

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alaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy that consists of 13 states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres. It is separated by the South China Sea into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo (also known as West and East Malaysia respectively).

Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Peninsular Malaysia is connected to Singapore via two bridges, one which transports traffic and water, and a second link just for traffic.

Malaysia plays host to an amazingly diverse range of scuba destinations teeming with marine life. From diving on sheer walls and in the company of more turtles than you can imagine in Sipadan, to the pristine coral atoll and hammerhead sharks in Layang Layang. You can find migrating whalesharks around Lankayan and macro diving in Mabul and Kapalai islands, to name just a few of the spectacular opportunities available. Mataking Island, located fairly close to Sipadan, is becoming a new diving hotspot, and with 25 great dive sites all less than 15 minutes away, there is something for everyone’s taste. A staff favourite is the Turtle Playground, a drift dive on a sloping reef wall from 5m-60m plus that puts you face to face with both green and hawksbill turtles. Many of the Malaysian dive resorts are situated on the islands of Sabah, which are fringed with epic sand beaches and coconut trees - a beautiful setting to complement the excellent diving.

The Scuba Junkie House Reef off Mabul Island ranges in depth from 2m-20m, yet it is arguably Mabul’s best dive site.

There are so many unusual critters here, even the mostexperienced of divers will be amazed. It is common to see rhinopia, mandarinfish, wonderpus, frogfish and seahorses on most dives. However, don’t be surprised to see a manta or an eagle ray swimming over your dive buddy’s bubbles!

Third Beach, off Si Amil Island, Sabah, has only recently been discovered and is already becoming a world-renowned dive site. At Third Beach you start the dive at the top of a pristine

Angelfish

Malaysia plays host to an amazingly diverse range of scuba destinations teeming with marine life coral reef that slopes from 5m-30m, and here you will see pristine soft and hard coral and lots of whip coral with xeno crabs. Among the coral it is a macro heaven, with weedy rhinopia, Ambon scorpionfish, thorny seahorse and flamboyant cuttlefish seen most of the time. At 30m you hit a sandy slope that is often visited by devil rays.

Manta Point, on the Borneo Barrier Reef, Sabah, is the point where the continental shelf starts and is just a stone’s throw from Sipadan. The dive starts in a shallow sloping coral reef full of unusual critters, then from around 15m-30m there is a sandy sloping reef that attracts many different species of rays. At 30m you hit another reef and some interesting overhangs that disappear into the blue. Venture into the blue yourself and don’t be surprised to be met by large pelagics such as sharks, tuna and large manta rays.

MALAYSIA

White-tip reef shark

Turtle

CONCLUSION

Southeast-Asia is home to myriad dive sites scattered through several countries, and each has its own unique charms.

Whether you are a novice diver, an experienced veteran, or somewhere inbetween, you will find much to keep you enthralled underwater, and with so many options to choose from, you could keep going back to the region time after time and not visit the same place twice. n

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WORLD’S

10 BEST

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

In the first instalment of a new column, Diveplanit Travel’s Deborah Dickson-Smith turns her attentions to the world’s ten best Marine Protected Areas – which by definition also means some of the world’s best diving destinations!

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Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, covering an area over 4,500 hectares, with a buffer zone over 130,000 hectares. It’s the largest stand-alone reef in the Northern Hemisphere, and one of the healthiest.

Vastly biodiverse, teeming with life, with over 100 documented wrecks, it’s home to turtles, reef sharks, manatees and the world largest, purest population of American crocodiles.

Palau – the world’s first dedicated shark reserve was declared in Palau in 2009, and the Micronesian nation has now declared full protection of 80 percent of its sovereign waters.

Being surrounded by very deep water, it attracts spectacular pelagic action, with large numbers of reef sharks, manta rays and huge schools of barracuda, jacks, snapper and bumphead parrotfish. The full moon and new moon spawning events are fast becoming a big attraction for divers.

Maldives – there are no fishing nets allowed in the entire Maldivian archipelago so it’s possibly the only

© Pete McGee

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new film recently premiered in Australia, that documents the birth of a global movement to protect the sea. Map to Paradise is an uplifting film that takes you from the ice-filled oceans of Antarctica to the coral sanctuaries of Southeast Asia.

The filmmakers, Danielle Ryan and James Sherwood, set themselves a challenge to replace the hardhitting ‘doom and gloom’ message prevalent in most marine conservation documentaries with one of hope, using character-driven stories to show audiences what it takes to create positive change.

As divers, we can play a positive role as well, by supporting the destinations that protect their seas. We may grumble about paying the marine park fee, but it’s protecting our precious marine environment, and delivering a great dive experience. Here are ten of the best: Galapagos – possibly the most-famous marine protected area, the Galapagos Marine Reserve in Ecuador covers 133,000 square kilometres, and the marine park management here is used as a model for many others around the world. Due to its remote location, the creatures that evolved here are mainly endemic, famously studied by scientist Charles Darwin.

French Polynesia – the Commune de Fakarava, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, covers an area of 930 hectares and due to its isolated location, the number of visitors is low, with only a couple of liveaboard options available.

While there is fantastic diving here year-round, the big attraction is the grouper aggregation in June and July, which brings with it hundreds of hungry reef sharks.

Mexico – the Banco Chinchurro UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is located on

country in the world where the seafood is truly sustainable. There are very healthy fish stocks on all of the fringing reefs, and plenty of pelagic action on these Indian Ocean atolls - in the south, a year-round population of whalesharks, in the Central Atolls, large numbers of reef sharks and the world’s largest aggregation of nurse sharks, and in the north, Hanifaru Bay attracts hundreds of mantas between June and December each year.

Indonesia – At the heart of the Coral Triangle, Raja Ampat is on most divers’ bucket lists, and for good reason.The Coral Triangle, which encompasses

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East Borneo, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, is the most biodiverse region on Earth, with over 600 coral species and 2,200 species of fish. And the highest diversity is found in West Papua’s Birds Head Peninsula, in Raja Ampat.

Philippines – a thriving marine reserve culture has been established in the Philippines over the years, with marine protected areas such as Apo Island some of the first in the world to be established in the early 1980s. Its star, Tubbataha, can only be dived for a few weeks each year, with liveaboards booked out sometimes years in advance.

Similans – stricter fishing controls, a new permit system for Similan Islands and a recently introduced ‘No Foam No Plastic’ initiative, have saved the Similan and Surin Islands from over-tourism.

Within a few months of the strict measures being put in place, divers could see a remarkable difference, with vibrant soft coral coverage extended and large schools of fish returning.

Sipadan Island – Malaysian Borneo has had a permit system in place for Sipadan Island for many years, and it is still booked out months in advance. This

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Deborah Dickson-Smith is one half of the Diveplanit Travel team.

Together with her partner Simon Mallender, they launched Diveplanit five years ago, an online platform designed to inspire more people to get underwater, and care about our oceans. In that time, Diveplanit has grown from a blog to a dive travel agency, sending hundreds of people on dive holidays each year, and inspiring more ocean advocates. www.diveplanit.com

© Pete McGee

© Jayne Jenkins

As divers, we can play a positive role as well, by supporting the destinations that protect their seas

ancient seamount descends over 600m to the sea floor, attracting all sorts of pelagic action, with large schools of barracuda, jacks, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead sharks and, of course, turtles.

The Great Barrier Reef – the world’s longest barrier reef has survived a hammering over the years, with Crown of Thorns outbreaks, bad agricultural management and coastal development, and most recently in 2016 and 2017, bleaching events and tropical cyclones.

But this reef system is now certainly one of the world’s best looked after – and proving to be the most resilient.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GRMPA) recently launched the Master Reef Guides programme, an intensive training and certification process, based on (and with help from) the Galapagos Islands National Parks management. The role of these elite reef ambassadors is to give visitors a truly immersive experience, even getting them involved in citizen science.

According to GRMPA’s Fiona Merida, who developed the programme: “If you treat your environment with the highest care possible, your visitors will appreciate that message and think better of you as custodians.” n

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SILADEN I

n the heart of the Coral Triangle lies the Bunaken National Marine Park. Well known for its clear turquoise water, warm tropical climate, pristine coral reefs and vast marine biodiversity, this place is nothing short of a diver’s paradise.

My partner Byron Conroy and I have wanted to experience diving in this marine park for a long time, and we are certainly not the only ones to have this destination on our bucket list.

We arrived at Manado airport in North Sulawesi after quite a few hours travelling from Iceland, where we are based. Our friendly local driver Michael from Siladen Resort and Spa (www.siladen.com) greeted us with a smile. During the short drive to the jetty, we found out that Michael had been with the resort for five years, and many of his colleagues for well over ten years, thanks to the great working environment.

Next we boarded one of Siladen’s comfortable, spacious wooden boats. Just 30 minutes later we arrived at Palau Siladen, the smallest of the five islands situated within the Bunaken National Marine Park.

This small island is built up by limestone and sits right between the impressive Manado Tua volcano and the picturesque North Sulawesi coast. This unique location offers not only world-class diving but also some staggering views from the island and the resort itself, in particular during the evenings as the sun sets over the volcano.

Luxury with a home-away-from-home atmosphere, Siladen Resort and Spa is an exclusive yet relaxed boutique dive resort in a lush environment surrounded by numerous

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fantastic dive sites. It’s built on flat land with rich vegetation providing lots of shade, making it convenient and easy to move around the resort without getting overheated by direct sunshine. Guests have the option of Deluxe bungalows featuring a private outdoor bathtub and secluded beach area, Beach bungalows or Garden bungalows, all which are spacious with high comfort and are serviced twice daily.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted and shown around the grounds by resort managers Ana and Miguel, and dive managers Romina and Galen. We already got the sense that our stay here was going be a very personal and inclusive experience. It was like we were already part of the Siladen family, despite it being our first day. This welcoming and embracing atmosphere is what really makes Siladen stand out. The whole team is incredibly friendly and makes you feel at home. It goes without saying that Siladen has a high percentage of repeat guests, many who come back several times a year. John and Tia, a lovely couple we got the pleasure to meet during our stay, travel from California to Siladen three times a year, spending a total of six months each year at the resort. That’s what you call a real ‘home away from home’!

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Lena Kavander and Byron Conroy had always longed to pay a visit to the renowned Bunaken National Marine Park, but would it live up to their expectations?

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BYRON CONROY

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Lena shooting anemonefish

WONDERFUL WALLS AND MAGICAL MUCK

Surrounded by over 40 world-class dive sites, you would think that evolution had divers in mind when creating this area. The islands of Bunaken provides great reef walls ideal for wideangle photography. All dive sites are easily accessible from Siladen by one of the resort’s four private boats, all locally designed and purpose built for diving. Each boat has a shaded seating area, toilet, sun deck and hot and cold-water station.

We did the first dive with our private dive guide Erin at a site called Negri, next to the Manado Tua volcano. We were lucky, there was literally zero wind, no current, the water was blue and 29°C warm, and visibility exceeded 30 metres. In other words, perfect conditions. It is not often you can look up from 20m depth and see white fluffy clouds in the sky above you. The wall itself blew our mind with the variety of colourful sponges, gorgonian fans, soft and hard corals, anemones and tunicates. An enormous school of yellow pyramid butterflyfish were swimming below us. Towards the end of the dive we spotted two giant yellow frogfish sitting at the top of the reef at 5m – a great place for a safety stop.

In addition to the fantastic wall dives, this area offers some excellent muck diving full of fascinating macro life. We visited Bolung and Tiwaho, two dive sites just off the North Sulawesi mainland coast. The macro life here is astonishing and all a macro lover or macro photographer can ask for. I could hardly count the number of juvenile frogfish spotted during a single dive here, along with pink and yellow leafy scorpionfish, Ambon scorpionfish, ornate ghost pipefish, bobtail squid, longarmed octopus and much more. Our guide Erin was born and raised on Siladen island and amazing at spotting the tiniest critters for us, even at night time.

Guests at the resort have the option of doing up to four dives a day. Two morning dives with a surface interval on the boat and snacks, fruits and hot or cold drinks provided between the dives, an afternoon dive, and a night dive or mandarinfish dive. I highly recommend doing at least one night dive at one of the muck sites - you will see an abundance of freaks and geeks in the dark. Great subjects for macro photos, or just for the pure entertainment of watching the nocturnal critters come out to play.

The end of another great dive

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FOOD ON THE BEACH

I think all divers can agree that doing up to four dives a day makes you feel hungry like nothing else, and the food at Siladen is worth a section of its own. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are included for all guests staying at the resort. Meals are served buffet-style, with a selection of food exceeding our expectations. With an Italian and a local Indonesian chef running the kitchen, you will have a selection of both Western and local dishes to choose from.

The dinners have different themes each night over a 14day period. Every other Saturday, it’s pizza night, a favourite for many of the return guests (the perks of having an Italian chef). Other themes during our stay was BBQ night, sushi and sashimi, pasta night and local cuisine. The selection of tropical fresh fruits with every meal was phenomenal.

Mangosteen, passionfruit, mango, dragonfruit, kiwi and watermelon, just to mention a few. Food is served on the beach just metres from the sea, a really nice setting.

Anemonefish

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Shrimp nestled in bubble anemone

Frogfish

ANOTHER DIMENSION OF RELAXATION

A few days and many dives into our stay, I was more than ready for a visit to the Siladen Spa. As I arrived at the spa, I got to smell samples of massage oils and chose the delightful mango and passionfruit oil. The local therapist trained in Bali delivered one of the best massages I have ever experienced. The spa itself was beautiful and the air-conditioned treatment rooms were tastefully designed with peace and relaxation in mind.

THE JOY OF GIVING

Aerial view of the island

The island of Palau Siladen has a population of just over 300 people, of which 70 are employed by the resort. The resort takes great pride in working together with the local community through educational, clean up and recycling projects. For example, school books and educational material are provided for the local kids, and every month a beach clean-up is organised.

All electricity on the island is provided by the Siladen resort’s four generators, which each day is connected to the local village. What a way to bright up everyone’s evening!

It is clear that the locals have a true passion about conserving their unique environment, although they were still happy to share it with us. Refreshingly, the dive guides are not afraid of taking action if divers are seen being disrespectful to the reef or the marine animals.

Barrel sponge

Macro heaven for photographers

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Safety stops are full of marine life

The resort is, each year, providing free dive training from Open Water to Rescue Diver for a number of people from the island. Some ambitious and motivated individuals have been provided with Divemaster and Instructor courses as well and are now working at the resort.

WE DON’T SAY GOODBYE, BUT SEE YOU LATER

During our stay at Siladen, we had the pleasure of experiencing the very best of what Bunaken National Marine Park had to offer, both from a wide angle and macro perspective. I would highly recommend this destination for Dramatic wall

Shoal of fish so thick you can barely see through them

any diver thanks to the fantastic biodiversity. In just a few days of diving, we saw everything from juvenile frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish and seahorse, to reef sharks and probably close to 100 turtles. Worth noting is that some dives might turn into drift dives as the currents can pick up.

Therefore, it helps if you are comfortable with drift diving, or have some previous experience in diving with currents.

We came to Siladen for diving, but actually got so much more. We made several new friends thanks to the genuine and friendly atmosphere. The food and the spa treatments added another dimension to the whole experience. When leaving Siladen, we didn’t say ‘goodbye’, but ‘see you later’. A big thank you to the whole team, and a special thanks to Ana and Miguel, who made us feel at home in their paradise. We will be back. n Manado Tua behind the dive boat at sunset

I highly recommend doing at least one night dive at one of the muck sites - you will see an abundance of freaks and geeks in the dark 48

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BEYOND TECHNICAL

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O

zTek, the Advanced Dive Conference and Exhibition, is Australia’s longest running and most-successful dive show. It is focused on the latest developments in diving, and its associated technologies. The 2019 show, which ran over the weekend of 16-17 March, was the 20th anniversary for OzTek, and I was eager to see what the event had to offer. I was keen to see what new equipment was being launched.

I was enthusiastic about looking at the images on display for the photo competition.

I was very interested about some of the speakers, in particular Richard Harris and Craig Challen, the now-famous duo from the 2018 Thai cave rescue, and I was generally looking forward to the clamour and excitement that dive shows tend to produce.

The exhibition is a show case for new innovations, training techniques and equipment. Everything from rebreathers, photographic equipment and much, much more was on display. There was something for everyone, including freediving, a first for Oztek and a new addition that was very well received. The Cave VCR experience was another hit, and was as fun to watch as it was to actually do, as people tentatively made their way around the guide ropes that had been laid out.

ON THE ROAD TO

Adrian Stacey had to deal with freak thunderstorms and lightning strikes, but eventually he made it to Sydney and the 20th anniversary OzTek dive conference and exhibition PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIAN STACEY 50

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We design, manufacture and retail scuba and rebreather equipment. We have fully equipped test and certification labs, and can pressure test large items in our vacuum chambers, as well as run fully automated leak test and dive simulations down to 400m. Our EMC and EMF lab is filled with state-ofthe-art equipment for testing electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic fields. We also have a large in-house laser for cutting and engraving on plastics and metals. www.narkedat90.com

The exhibition is held bi-annually at the International Convention Centre, which is located in the heart of Sydney at Darling Harbour. The venue is only 8km from the airport and getting there could not be easier, with trains, light rail and taxis providing the main transport. Water taxis and ferries are another option for those who have been visiting some of Sydney’s iconic landmarks a couple of bays over.

I was due to make the short one hour 30 minute flight from Brisbane down to Sydney on the Friday night, so I could be at the convention centre bright and early and ready for when the doors opened. Unfortunately, the weather gods had other ideas and after months of virtually no rain, a huge thunderstorm rolled in. It announced its presence with booming thunder. It then proceeded to dump huge amounts of water over the airport and lash out at any planes that dared to be in the sky with multiple lightning strikes. My flight was one of many to be cancelled. The next day I tried again and this time, my flight did leave. Unfortunately, it was routed via Melbourne and I only managed to get to the exhibition at around 4pm.

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Thankfully, the day was not a complete waste - I arrived just in time for the underwater photo competition presentation. There were some amazing entries in the six categories of Cave, Macro, Marine Life, Marine Life with Diver, Wreck and Nikon Dive Shot of the Year. The deserved overall winner was Emma Holman, with a fantastic shot of humpback whale interaction between parents and calf. This was a competition well worth winning - the first prize was a Nikon D850 with Nikkor AF-S60mm lens.

The event boasted a huge range of talented speakers across the range of diving genres. There were plenty of tech specialist, cave enthusiasts, wreck divers, photographers, dive doctors and freedivers, all eager to impart their considerable knowledge. The biggest draw was Richard Harris and Craig Challen, Australians of the Year and key members of the team of cave divers that help rescue a youth football team from the Tham Luang Caves in Thailand. A huge queue formed outside the auditorium well before the talk was due to begin. The rescue captured the attention of the world last year and it was good to hear what actually happened straight from the

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COMPUTERS • O2 CELLS • GAS ANALYSERS CABLES & CONNECTORS • REBREATHER PARTS PATHFINDER STROBES • SENSORS TOOLS • SOLENOIDS I think for a dive show to capture the interest and fuel the imaginations of its patrons, it needs to have a good mix of exhibitors, not just manufacturers and distributors, but also training agencies, tourism associations, dive centres and liveaboards

horse’s mouth and to separate the myths from the truth. Both are excellent orators and delivered the facts in an interesting, informative and sometimes humorous manner.

The Sunday promised more accomplished speakers and the chance to have a proper look around the exhibition and chat with some of the exhibitors. With over 80 stands there was no shortage of people to see. I think for a dive show to capture the interest and fuel the imaginations of its patrons, it needs to have a good mix of exhibitors, not just manufacturers and distributors, but also training agencies, tourism associations, dive centres and liveaboards. Divers need somewhere to show off their fancy new equipment, after all! OzTek have done this very well, with a diverse collection of exhibitors.

Of course, a lot of the big names in diving were there. Mares were in attendance and were excited to be showing off their revolutionary new product, a semi-closed rebreather system called the Horizon, an amazing piece of equipment that extends dive times, is lightweight and as easy as nitrox diving - a real show-stopper. Suunto were promoting the elegant D5, and Nikon had their latest mirrorless camera on display. DAN was in attendance, making sure we all dive safely, and the training agencies were represented by SSI, TDI and RAID. Those people who had come to plan their next trip were spoilt for choice. For attendees who were looking to learn, or go for a dive not too far from home, Sydney-based dive

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centres such as Frog Dive, Dive Centre Manly and Bay City Divers catered for their needs. For those eager for some sharkfuelled adrenaline dives, Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions, the cage-diving specialists, were happy to help, and representing the Great Barrier Reef was Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Divers looking to venture a little further afield had the difficult task of choosing between the Philippines; the Solomon Islands - which now have direct flights from Australia to the popular dive destination of Munda; Fiji with its wealth of diving hotspots, including the Volivoli Resort a mere twohour drive from Nadi; Papau New Guinea and Indonesia with its huge arsenal of impressive dive spots, from Wakatobi to Raja Ampat to Thalassa, not to mention the Velocean liveaboard, which is taking luxury to a new level. To help enthusiastic divers book their dream holiday were the likes of Dive Planit, Dive Adventures and Allways Dive - all specialists in getting people to and from the world’s diving meccas.

The show had a nice, easy-to-navigate layout. There were three auditoriums all located at the back of the venue and away from the main hall, so there was less noise to contend with while listing to the speakers. To further aid with this, headphones were provided, a first for the show and a huge success. There was a separate imaging centre where the photos were displayed, and there were seating areas located at the entrance next to the cafe and at the rear of the

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view all products online

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exhibition hall. These areas provided a place to rest, look at new purchases, or simply somewhere to relax and read the latest edition of Scuba Diver Asia-Pacific.

The show’s organisers were offering a whole host of prizes, including liveaboard trips, resort holidays, DAN packages and a variety of dive equipment. For some of the prizes, all you had to do was turn up, while others were given to competition winners or for a notable achievement. After two action-packed days, the event culminated in a gala dinner held at the National Maritime Museum. This was a celebration of the past year in the diving calendar, and a chance to recognise the achievements of some of Australia’s most-prominent divers.

This is so much more than just a dive show for tech-diving enthusiasts, it is a dive show for anyone interested in the many facets of diving. It is a platform for manufacturers to exhibit new technologies and innovations. It is a chance to hear some of the leading lights of the industry speak with passion about the wonderful world of diving, and it is a great forum for the exchange of ideas and diving philosophies. n

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What’s New

MOMENTUM AQUAMATIC III

The latest version of the legendary Aquamatic features a high-precision Japanese automatic movement, virtually scratchproof sapphire crystal and a display back. Small productions ensure quality, fit and finish that make this classic Divemaster’s watch a true standout.

It has a 40-hour power reserve, is depth-rated to 300m (and features a screw-down crown), and is fitted with a custom strap made with 316L stainless steel, with all solid links and endpieces, for unrivalled dependability on any adventure. Special half-links on either side of the clasp allow for more-precise sizing, and a foldout extension (under the clasp) can be flipped out to allow you to wear the watch over a thin wetsuit sleeve. www.momentumwatch.com

MIFLEX XTREME LP BCD/INFLATOR HOSES

ANCHOR DIVE LIGHTS SERIES 3K SPOT (20°)

The latest Series 3k Spot (20°) from Anchor Dive Lights features advanced optics that enable wreck divers to see more of the wreck when diving in clear, deep water, but this compact handheld light is also perfect for diving in clear warm water, both during the day and at night. The Series 3k Spot is designed for divers who want a high-performing hand-held dive torch.

The Series 3k Spot has a similar intensity to the Series 1K Spot, but the increased output combined with the advanced optics produces a less tightly focused beam, allowing the diver to see more.

The easy-to-use single button operation controls both the intensity and signalling modes. The incorporated battery indicator also displays the remaining state of battery charge. The powerful 4,315 lux beam provides a generous 75-minutes burn time at 100 percent power. The modular head can be upgraded to an umbilical system, boosting the full power burn time to over three hours. www.anchordivelights.com

MARES GENIUS

Miflex Xtreme LP hoses are now available in a range of 11 colours (nine for inflator hoses) with the new Orange colour being launched for 2019. This allows divers to personalise and configure their equipment as required for visibility, safety and personal choice. Available with standard 3/8” UNK male fittings for the first stage, the reg hoses come in lengths ranging from 56cm to 210cm, and the BCD/inflator hoses come in lengths from 50cm to 90cm.

All Miflex hoses are supplied complete with manufacturer re-usable drybag packaging, as well as important Miflex user information and warranty details. www.deepblueimports.com.au 54

The Genius is the latest full-colour dive computer from Mares that not only supports recreational air and nitrox diving, but also hypoxic and normoxic trimix gas mixes, making it their most advanced computer so far.

Four push buttons along the bottom of the housing provide easy navigation through the various menus, screens and settings. An oversized elastomer strap makes the computer easy to secure to your arm, with waved sections in the strap designed to compensate for suit squeeze at depth.

As you can imagine, the Genius is packed with features including the ability to support up to five optional wireless transmitters, a full-tilt digital compass, large dive profile memory, built-in smart battery management for up to 40 hours of time from the rechargeable battery, Bluetooth connectivity to smart devices, and so much more. www.mares.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

FOURTH ELEMENT X-CORE LEGGINGS

MARES XR HORIZON ESCR

The X-Core leggings complement the X-Core vest, which was launched last year, and provides the critical core areas with the enhanced protection of X-Core fabric with lighter fabrics, to make the leggings easy to layer up underneath an Arctic. A lightweight waistband avoids too much bulk around the midriff, while the insulating material extends to just below the knees for exceptional thermal protection, especially when on trim. Bulk is minimised in the lower legs and behind the knees for maximum mobility. Fast-wicking fabric makes this an excellent next-to-skin layer, or can be used with an additional base layer. The X-Core fabric is 76 percent recycled plastic from post-consumer waste, making this product part of Fourth Element’s OceanPositive collection. www.fourthelement.com

DE-OX ANALYERS De-Ox are an Italian brand of diving analysers.

They are known throughout the world for their military and commercial instrumentation, and are now available to UK recreational and technical divers.

De-Ox Easy O2/ He – This is a simple, and very-affordable trimix analyser.

The analyser is built into a waterproof explorer case, and comes ready to use with a rubber flow restrictor. The power button also toggles between oxygen and helium readings, which makes it very easy to use.

De-Ox Zip O2 – A lightweight and very portable nitrox analyser. One button for on/off and an adjustment knob for calibration make this analyser very easy to use. The calibration knob is not easily knocked, so it works great when several people are using the same analyser, and the Zip O2 comes in a padded case to protect it.

De-Ox SAFE CO – An unusual unit, the De-Ox SAFE CO is a carbon monoxide analyser/detector. Every year, we hear more and more stories of divers having issues due to ‘bad air’ in both foreign locations and in the UK. This very affordable CO detector should be a part of any diver’s safety tool kit, and definitely should be part of any commercial operation’s risk assessment. www.divinganalysers.com

There is a new recreational rebreather in town! The decades of expertise behind Mares and ReVo rebreathers have combined to create a unique semi-closed unit like no other.

What makes it stand out immediately is the compact size, and the fact that it is designed to be used with standard nitrox cylinders that are available at any dive destination.

The Horizon, which only weighs 12kg for easy transportation, features two scrubber canisters, each containing 1kg of CO2 absorbent that can be refilled by the user, two integrated weight pockets, a fully adjustable harness system (from XS to XXL), two oxygen sensors, a 2.8-inch full-colour, highcontrast dive computer, three sets of redundant electronics, each with an individual battery system, and a safety gag on the mouthpiece.

It is designed so that it reverts automatically to full nitrox breathing in case of failure, and no tools are required for preparation, use and cleaning.

It will work with nitrox mixes from 30 percent right up to 99 percent, and with one stage cylinder as gas supply it is 30m no-deco limit, with two stage cylinders as gas supply it is 40m with decompression. www.mares.com * = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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Gear Guide

THIS ISSUE: HIGH-END REGULATORS

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

HIGH-END REGULATORS

This issue, we round out our reviews of one of the mostvital pieces of the modern divers’ kit bag regulators, or more specifically, top-of-the-line regs. Without a solid, reliable reg, you aren’t going anywhere underwater, as this is your true life-support system.

We always test regulators in February and March, when water temperatures in North Wales are at their lowest in the inland sites - much to the chagrin of the Test Team members. We push the units to their max by extensively purging them underwater and topside, over-breathing them underwater to simulate a panic situation, breathing them in every orientation, working any Venturi and/or cracking resistance controls, and various other trials - if they can handle this over-the-top usage, they can handle a normal diving situation, particularly if you only ever dive in warmer climates.

A large array of manufacturers produce regulators, and our aim here at Scuba Diver is to give you the widest selection in each review. Now that Oceanic and Hollis are back in the market through Huish Outdoors, we have a good array from these two manufacturers, along with Apeks, Aqua Lung, Zeagle, Mares, Atomic Aquatics and Scubapro.

ON TEST THIS MONTH: • APEKS MTX-R • AQUA LUNG LEGEND SUPREME • ATOMIC AQUATICS Z3 • HOLLIS 200LX DCX • MARES EPIC ADJ 82X • OCEANIC ZEO FDXI 56

• SCUBAPRO MK25 EVO/A700 • ZEAGLE F8 Location: Tested at Vivian Dive Centre, Llanberis www.viviandivecentre.com Water temp: 5 degrees C WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

APEKS MTX-R The Apeks MTX-R is the civilian version of the military-spec MTX (it was developed in accordance with the United States Navy Experimental Dive Unit’s extreme cold-water test), and this regulator - which can perform in almost-freezing waters at a depth of over 60m - looks super-slick in its classy iPhone white and matt-silver with engraved stencilling.

A first-of-its-kind over-moulded first stage end cap and environmental diaphragm prevent ice build-up, and the forged body, which has five low-pressure ports (on a swivel) and two high-pressure ports, gives maximum thermal performance.

The second stage has no dive adjustment controls, has a patented heated exchanger surrounding the valve mechanism, and is equipped with a double-swivel braided hose.

All of the Test Team were very complimentary about the construction and looks of both the first and second stages of the MTX-R, and positive comments were made about the lack of controls - it just works well out of the box, there is nothing to fiddle with - and the comfort of the ComfoBite mouthpiece. It breathes well in all positions. As you expect, all of the regulators in this price bracket performed well, but the MTX-R is ultra-smooth in all orientations and however you are breathing through it, making it a clear favourite. www.apeksdiving.com

CHOICE 2019 GROUP TEST

REGULATORS

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.25kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: no VERDICT: Good-looking, very well-made cold-water regulator that stands out from the crowd and gives a silky smooth breathe in all positions.

SCORE

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AQUA LUNG LEGEND SUPREME The Aqua Lung Legend Supreme is an eyecatching cold-water-approved regulator that features some nifty styling and performance points.

The chunky but compact environmentally sealed, over-balanced diaphragm first stage has two high-pressure and four low-pressure ports, and is equipped with Aqualung’s Auto Closure Device (ACD), which keeps any corrosive water out of the first stage inlet by automatically closing as it is removed from the cylinder valve.

The pneumatically balanced second stage has a heat exchanger to help dissipate the cold, Comfo-Bite mouthpiece (with removeable lip shield for added warmth) and a decent-sized venturi lever for helping to prevent freeflow at the surface.

The Legend Supreme comes in at a strong price point and scored highly with all the Test Team members, who were impressed by its smooth, dry breathe, comfortable mouthpiece, efficient purge and slick good looks. The venturi lever was easy to use even with thick gloves on, though the effects on the performance were not that noticeable - it just breathed well all the time. We did manage to get it to freeflow after some serious abuse, but in normal usage it coped well. Well-priced, well-built regulator with a proven history. www.aqualung.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.01kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Attractive set-up benefitting from some neat design features, comfy mouthpiece, smooth performance and solid build quality.

SCORE

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* = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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ATOMIC AQUATICS Z3 Atomic Aquatics are renowned for producing high-end, high-performance regs, but with the Z3, they have managed to bring all this workmanship and technology into a well-priced package.

The Zirconium - that’s what the ‘Z’ stands for - delivers corrosion-resistance apparently three to four times that of conventional chrome plating, and the second stage lever, orifice and spring are titanium, as with the higher-spec (and price) models.

It is equipped with a factory sealed first stage, huge purge button, comfort swivel, and no less than seven low-pressure ports and two high-pressure ports.

As with all Atomic products, the reg benefits from a limited lifetime warranty - not contingent on proof of service and boasts a two-year/300 dive service interval.

The Z3 scored very highly with the Test Team and it is a keenly priced way to get on the ‘Atomic’ ladder. It looks good with the chrome second stage surround, is extremely well made, boasts a silky smooth breathe and has some neat features like the Automatic Flow Control (AFC), which does away with a manual venturi lever, and a black PVD-coated comfort swivel on the hose. www.atomicaquatics.com

BEST VALUE 2019 GROUP TEST

REGULATORS

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 999g | HOSE: rubber | VENTURI: AFC VERDICT: The Z3 performs extremely well, has eye-catching looks and is backed up by that tremendous twoyear/300 dive service interval.

SCORE

••••••••••

HOLLIS 200LX DCX Hollis are back in a big way, and the flagship 200LX DCX is well worth a look.

The 200LX features a braided hose, large venturi lever, chunky cracking resistance control, and has a big purge. It can also be converted from right-hand to lefthand if you so wish.

It has five low-pressure ports and two high-pressure ports on its DCX first stage.

All metal components are have a PVD coating for added durability.

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

As we noted with the 100LX last month, the super-comfy mouthpiece, which is soft but has harder inserts in the ‘bite’, is very reminiscent of Atomic Aquatics. The breathe on the 200LX is smooth and dry in all orientations, and the big, chunky venturi lever and cracking resistance control are both easy to use even wearing drygloves, as is the huge purge, which is effectively the entire front of the second stage. It looks good too, in an understated way with the PVD finish inserts, and I like the redand-black colour scheme. www.hollis.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.22kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Good-looking regulator with its black-and-red colour scheme. Huge purge, chunky cracking resistance knob and venturi lever, and awesome warranty.

SCORE

••••••••••

* = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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HORIZON

A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

MARES EPIC ADJ 82X Mares have given their regulator line-up a serious overhaul for 2019, and the Epic Adj 82X is a formidable unit.

The first stage is a solid piece of kit, with natural ‘dynamic flow control’ on all lowpressure ports, which are mounted on a swivel turret, and tilted so you can find that perfect routing.

The all-metal second stage has a unique pivoting purge valve, lightweight braided Superflex hose, and a neat ‘twist’ control to boost the flow rate from natural breathing to power breathing, all of which was seen on the Fusion reg. However, the Epic also has a cracking resistance control knob for further fine-tuning of the breathe.

Both the first and second stages have an eye-catching PVD coating, which not only looks great but also adds another degree of protection.

The Epic Adj 82X put in a strong showing in this Group Test, and if anything, the Test Team felt we had to dial down the air flow it was so powerful. The pivoting purge and ‘motorcycle throttle’ venturi control was again well received, and the Team also liked the cracking resistance control, which although quite small compared with others here was still operable with thick gloves on. Good-looking, great-performing regulator. www.mares.com

CHOICE 2019 GROUP TEST

REGULATORS

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.29kg | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: The unique design of the Epic Adj 82X combined with its great performance and reasonable pricing makes it a seriously good package to consider.

SCORE

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* = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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BUILT FOR UNMATCHED COMFORT AND PERFORMANCE* *EPIC LOOK IS JUST A SIDE EFFECT

A complete, exceptionally comfortable BC system weighing in at only 2.3Kg. Perfect for the traveling scuba diver. A revolutionary design and cutting edge materials, coupled with no compromises on quality has created a tough and durable BCD unrivaled in recreational diving.

XDEEP.EU

OCEANIC ZEO FDXI Oceanic are back on the market now they are part of Huish Outdoors, and the Zeo is their range-topper.

The FDXi first stage is small and compact, yet is still a pneumatically balanced and environmentally sealed diaphragm design, with four lowpressure ports and two high-pressure ports. The Zeo second stage is also pneumatically balanced and features a large venturi lever and big cracking resistance control knob to finetune the breathe. The oval face has a decentsized purge, and a swivel aids comfort in use.

The Zeo also benefits from Oceanic’s limited lifetime warranty and ‘free servicing parts for life’.

The Zeo certainly stands out from the crowd, thanks both to its unique ovalshaped second stage and its bold white finish (a black version is also available). It is lightweight, so ideal for travelling divers, but equally coped well with this cold-water test, making it a good all-rounder. The large venturi lever and cracking resistance control knob were easy to use with gloved hands, and the purge was effective. A great little reg - and don’t forget that superb limited lifetime warranty. www.oceanicworldwide.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 820g | HOSE: braided | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: The Zeo FDXi is a super little regulator, light enough for travel but great in cold water too. Decent-sized controls, comfy mouthpiece and a great warranty.

SCORE

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SCUBAPRO MK25 EVO/A700 The A700 - which I christened the ‘King of Bling’ when it was first launched, as that all-metal chromed second stage is certainly an eye-catcher - is still a strong regulator for Scubapro. While being quite compact, the design enables the use of a large diaphragm, increasing breathing sensitivity, and being air-balanced it provides a smooth inhalation effort.

For this test it was paired with the proven MK25 EVO flow-through piston first stage, which is fully insulated from the environment by the XTIS (Extended Thermal Insulating System) and has numerous innovative design features to aid cold-water performance. It has two high-pressure ports and five low-pressure ports.

The MK25 EVO and the A700 make a solid pairing. The tried-and-tested MK25, now in its improved EVO guise, is compact, durable and efficient, and its works well with the equally compact and robust A700 second stage. Despite being all metal, its small size means it doesn’t feel too heavy in your mouth, and the venturi lever and cracking resistance control knob can be easily operated when wearing gloves, as can the reasonably sized purge button. It gave a smooth breathe in all orientations, and the small exhaust directed the bubbles away from your face. www.scubapro.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.28kg | HOSE: rubber | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: The MK25 EVO/A700 is a well-made, durable and eye-catching regulator, which has an efficient purge, venturi lever and cracking resistance control.

SCORE

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* = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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ZEAGLE F8 Zeagle have worked with Atomic Aquatics to produce a solidly constructed regulator.

The F8 has an environmentally sealed balanced diaphragm first stage made from durable brass, and featuring a precisionmachined neoflon seat.

The second stage has a tough nylon case and has a seat-saving orifice, zirconiumplated inlet tube and heat sink for superior corrosion resistance, and a new inhalation diaphragm. The redesigned front cover and cracking resistance control use co-molded components that provide high levels of grip.

Zeagle have long been producing topquality BCDs and wings, and now they are well-established in the world of regulators after teaming up with the knowledgeable team at Atomic Aquatics. The first stage of the F8 is a compact but well-made unit, but we have to say that the second stage doesn’t actually look as eye-catching as its cheaper sibling, the Onyx II (which achieved the Choice award last month). No doubting the performance of the F8, though - the breathe was nice and smooth in all positions, the cracking resistance control is large and easy to use, as is the venturi lever, and the mouthpiece is comfortable. www.zeagle.com

VERDICT

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

When it to the Bast Value Award, it was a close-fought battle between the Aqua Lung Legend Supreme and the Atomic Aquatics Z3. Both regulators performed admirably and coped well with all of the stresses we put them through, but the Z3 just nudged ahead thanks to its good looks, great performance and outstanding warranty and service interval.

The Choice Award was another battle royale, with several regulators in the running. The Oceanic, Hollis and Scubapro units all put in a sterling performance, but in the end two regulators stood out from the crowd - the Apeks MTX-R and the Mares Adj 82X. Both effortlessly delivered air whatever we put them through, and both impressed the Test Team in different ways. After much debate, we ended up unable to split the two, and decided they both merited splitting the Choice Award between them.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 1.05kg | HOSE: rubber | VENTURI: yes VERDICT: Overall a decent regulator, with a smooth breathe, comfortable mouthpiece and efficient, easy-to-operate controls.

SCORE

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Long Term Test FINNSUB 20D AND COMFORT HARNESS Mark Evans: The review of the Finnsub 20D and Comfort harness had been on hold for a few months, as the company was busy redesigning the current model, and wanted to send the brand-new look through, but now it is here, so we have reinstated the backplate-and-wing set-up as the first New Arrival of 2019.

Designed to work with single or twin tanks (up to a max of two 12-litre cylinders), it is made from Cordura INFORMATION Arrival date: January 2019 TPU-coated for the inner Suggested retail price: * material and Cordura 2000 Number of dives: 0 for the outer.

Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins www.finnsub.com

AQUA LUNG ROGUE Mark Evans: I have been diving the Rogue extensively over the past few months both in cold water and warmer climates, and it performs in all conditions. It is comfortable, holds you well in the water, and has some neat features, like the drop-down pockets, the built-in Octo pocket, and the knife grommets. I like the toggles for the pull dumps, which are shaped so that INFORMATION Arrival date: August 2018 they naturally fit well into Suggested retail price: * your hand, but are not too Number of dives: 42 big and cumbersome.

Time in water: 41 hrs 50 mins www.aqualung.com

SHEARWATER RESEARCH TERIC Mark Evans: I finally managed to get my hands on an elusive Shearwater Research Teric! It was the new arrival a few months ago, but we had to drop it out of the Long Term Test stable as the demand for this innovative wristwatch-style dive computer far outstripped the company’s production capabilities, but now they have got a handle on the popularity of this device and it is taking the market by storm. I picked up mine from Eurotek and immediately popped it on my wrist, where it garnered all sorts of admiring glances. This is down to the ridiculously bright display in ‘watch’ mode - never mind the diving side of things, this makes one very appealing watch! I especially like the fact that it has three means of displaying the time - a ‘normal’ digital display, a digitised set of traditional ‘hands’, and my personal favourite, a moving ball with the time in, that has a smaller ball travelling around the outside INFORMATION Arrival date: December 2018 of the face showing the seconds. You can then also opt in any of these modes to show the Suggested retail price: * remaining battery life and also the date, as well as variations on the basic display. Extremely Number of dives: 0 clever and it really allows you to personalise the Teric in day-to-day use.

Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins www.shearwater.com 64

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ZEAGLE SCOPE MONO

Mark Evans: The Zeagle Scope Mono has clocked up a few more dives, and I am still enjoying using this mask. I have mentioned the elasticated strap previously as being easy to use and comfortable on the back of your head, but round the front, it is a similar story. The silcione skirt on the Scope Mono is very soft, yet still reasonably firm, so if fits nicely on to your face with no distortion, INFORMATION Arrival date: September 2018 but seals well and avoids Suggested retail price: * annoying seepage on a Number of dives: 14 dive.

Time in water: 13 hrs 20 mins www.zeagle.com

BARE ULTRAWARMTH 7MM HOOD Mark Evans: The water temperatures have started to get decidedly chilly in the UK in recent weeks - it was low single-figures when I headed down South for an exploratory dip in the new St Andrew’s Lake in Kent - and so I have been happy to be testing the 7mm BARE Ultrawarmth hood.

The ‘magic’ is in this lining inside, which is where the Celliant technology - which absorbs your body heat and reflects it back to you - resides. I have to say, it certainly feels warmer than a standard neoprene hood, and is immensely comfortable, tightly fitting around my face and not allowing any cold blasts of exterior water inside while on a dive. The valve on the top also does a reasonable INFORMATION Arrival date: November 2018 job of venting any trapped Suggested retail price: * air and preventing the Number of dives: 6 dreaded ‘cone head’ look.

Time in water: 5 hrs 35 mins www.baresports.com

HALCYON INFINITY Mark Evans: I am a huge fan of back-inflate BCDs, be that purpose-built BCDs with a rear-bladder, or a more-technical backplate-andwing set-up.

I just like the uncluttered feel with nothing ‘up front’. The Infinity definitely ticks that box, and once it is on, you just have the straps and the compact integrated weight pockets to the front and side of you, all the business side of things is on your back.

One thing I have noticed is how comfortable it is, and that is down the well-padded back pad, which just feels INFORMATION Arrival date: October 2018 so good against your back Suggested retail price: * muscles. It looks pretty Number of dives: 7 cool, too.

Time in water: 6 hrs 50 mins www.halcyon.net

MOMENTUM DEEP 6 Mark Evans: The Momentum Deep 6 has reached the end of its stint in Long Term Test, and I will be sad to see it go off back to Nautilus. I have dutifully been diving with it on to give it a proper test, but as I mentioned in a previous review, I tend to dive with just my dive computer on, but it is nice to be able to wear something on my wrist apres-dive which says ‘I am a diver’ without being too over the top, is extremely INFORMATION Arrival date: June 2018 comfortable, and looks very Suggested retail price: * cool to boot! A real winner Number of dives: 24 for the price!

Time in water: 22 hrs 30 mins www.momentumwatch.com * = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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SCHOLARSHIP DIARY

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

FACE-TO-FACE WITH GREAT WHITE SHARKS PHOTOGRAPHS BY OLIVIA JOHNSON

O

ver the New Year I set off on my most-personal and testing journey of my Scholarship year.

I headed to Port Lincoln in South Australia, where I would spend two weeks working with the crew onboard Rodney Fox Great White Shark Expeditions and learn more about this top apex predator. For me, this was a difficult experience to choose to do, as tragically I lost my father to a great white shark nearly four years ago while we were diving together.

For me, getting back into the water and scuba diving again took some courage, but this experience was a whole other level for me. But, as a scientist, processing factual information for me made a lot of sense – I used researching sharks as a coping mechanism, but I also became extremely fascinated by their behaviours, as well as becoming aware of how the stigma and portrayal by the media of these animals to the public.

I was extremely fortunate to be joined by Rodney Fox’s son, Andrew Fox, who owns and runs this incredible company, and gives people the opportunity to experience diving with great white sharks first-hand. We headed out to the beautiful Neptune Islands, approximately four hours from Port Lincoln. I’m not going to lie - the first dive was very eerie. It was twilight, and as we made our way to the seafloor in the bottom cage, you could feel the presence of not just one, but multiple sharks. We were surrounded by five enormous great white sharks and to be honest, it was hard to know where to look! They truly are an incredible animal that stand in a league of their own.

Over the two weeks I spent onboard the Princess II, I learned how an ecotour company such as this operates around protected sites and animals, with a range of guests with different diving experiences and reasons for choosing to come and experience this. The unique and brilliant part about Rodney Fox is that they are the only tour company in the world that offer divers the opportunity to dive with great whites in a bottom-cage.

Witnessing sharks swimming past the cage in their natural habitat, through the kelp and seagrass beds, is not something you

can experience in many places globally. For the non-divers, the surface cage also provides an incredible opportunity to witness enormous sharks cruising past.

Rodney Fox expeditions also conduct critical research and conservation of the sharks around the Neptune Islands through the Fox Shark Research Foundation, which was established in 2001. Scientists are frequently onboard, every shark is recorded on a dive, as well as other biological and behavioural information on the sharks. The database has over 1,000 individuals and Fox Shark Research Foundation works closely with CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) to analyse biopsy samples and tag individual animals. This was a difficult but immensely rewarding experience for me, and I cannot thank Andrew Fox and the Rodney Fox crew enough for hosting me onboard and for being so accommodating given my personal circumstances.

Another unique and brilliant part of these expeditions is the opportunity to dive or snorkel with Australian sea lions on Hopkins Island. This species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, so it really is such a privilege to be in the water with them. These guys really are the puppies of the sea, spinning and dancing around you, and are extremely curious. Swimming with the sea lions is such a brilliant way to finish a very special expedition. I cannot recommend this experience more to anyone considering diving with great white sharks, particularly as someone who has had my own personal loss with these animals - this truly is a unique and incredibly special experience that cannot be compared to anything else.

Next I am off to Antarctica with the Australian Antarctic Division, where I will be one of 28 scientists on the mostcomprehensive scientific study of Antarctic blue whales and Antarctic krill in history. n

Olivia Johnson

ARE YOU MORE ANGEL OR MORE RED DEVIL?

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“The reef systems here are some of the most pristine I have seen anywhere in my dive travels around the globe, and Wakatobi resort and liveaboard are second to none. The

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

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

diversity of species here is brilliant if you love photography.� ~ Simon Bowen

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