Scuba Diver Australia & New Zealand - Issue 14

Q&A: STEVE BACKSHALL

TECHNICAL: DEEP DIVING

DIVE LIKE A PRO

THE DEADLY 60 PRESENTER TALKS DIVING, SHARKS, AND STRICTLY COME DANCING

NEIL BENNETT EXPLORES THE MINDSET NEEDED TO SAFELY MASTER TECHNICAL DIVING

OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS GIVE HINTS AND ADVICE ON WAYS TO HONE YOUR CORE SKILLS

AUSSIE ROADTRIP GEAR GUIDE

DIVE LIGHTS

PART TWO SEES THE GANG HEAD TO MELBOURNE AND TASMANIA

BACK-UP TORCHES RATED AND REVIEWED

ULTIMATE

Indonesia

1,300-MILE LIVEABOARD ADVENTURE FROM KOMODO TO RAJA AMPAT

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Scholar

‣ Shoot Like A Pro ‣ UW Photography: Backgrounds

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EDITOR’S NOTE

TRAGIC NEWS FOR THE SCUBA DIVING WORLD The scuba-diving world was rocked by tragedy in June, with the loss of well-regarded British instructor Andy Phillips, who thanks to his role as PADI Platinum Course Director and technical instructor trainer at Utila Dive Centre was a regular fixture on the global dive show circuit, and during his tenure at the popular resort had trained literally thousands of divers from all over the world.

The highly experienced 46-year-old Scot died after a dive in the St Lawrence River in Canada. He was diving on a closedcircuit rebreather when he went missing on 11 June, and a huge search was launched involving multiple agencies such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the US Customs and Border Protection after his buddy - who was diving on opencircuit equipment - surfaced alone and raised the alarm.

His name was not immediately released when the first news reports hit the internet, but those of us ‘in the know’ were

EDITOR IN CHIEF

hoping for a miracle, but as yet more days passed, and the search proved fruitless, we were forced to accept that he was gone. His body was eventually recovered from the river on 22 June. As yet any cause or reason for this tragic accident has not been released.

Our thoughts are with the family of Andy at this difficult time.

It is also a sad time for marine conservation, with the news that the Japanese whaling fleet had headed out on its first ‘commercial’ foray and as we went to print had claimed its first victims, two minke whales. The only good news is that the Japanese public have seemingly lost their appetite for whale meat, but that isn’t stopping these efforts to continue this barbaric ‘tradition’.

Mark Evans, Editor-in-Chief PUBLISHERS

DESIGN

Adrian Stacey Partnership Manager (Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand) Tel: +61 403 270 519 Email: adrian@scubadivermag.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Paul Lees Southeast Asia Editorial Manager Email: paul@scubadivermag.com

Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers. Copyright for material published remains with Rork Media Limited. Use of material from Scuba Diver is strictly prohibited unless permission is given. All advertisements of which the creative content is in whole or in part the work of Rork Media Limited remain the copyright of Rork Media Limited.

Mark Evans Email: mark.evans@scubadivermag.com Matt Griffiths Email: matt@griffital.co.uk Martyn Guess, Dr Richard Smith, Neil Bennett, Adrian Stacey

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3

Q&A: STEVE BACKSHALL

TECHNICAL: DEEP DIVING

DIVE LIKE A PRO

THE DEADLY 60 PRESENTER TALKS DIVING, SHARKS, AND STRICTLY COME DANCING

NEIL BENNETT EXPLORES THE MINDSET NEEDED TO SAFELY MASTER TECHNICAL DIVING

OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS GIVE HINTS AND ADVICE ON WAYS TO HONE YOUR CORE SKILLS

ON THE COVER

AUSSIE ROADTRIP

GEAR GUIDE

DIVE LIGHTS

PART TWO SEES THE GANG HEAD TO MELBOURNE AND TASMANIA

BACK-UP TORCHES RATED AND REVIEWED

ULTIMATE Indonesia

1,300-MILE LIVEABOARD ADVENTURE FROM KOMODO TO RAJA AMPAT

+

Scholar

‣ Shoot Like A Pro ‣ UW Photography: Backgrounds

ISSUE 14 | FREE MAGAZINE! WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: MARTYN GUESS

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES...

6 News

20 Australia

GO Diving Show 2020 line up announced, Canada bans shark fins, and a diver goes missing in the Philippines.

14 Medical Q&A

Dr Oliver Firth answers reader questions about whether grommets can effect a child’s future diving career, and why do a diving medical.

16 Dive Like A Pro

This issue, our panel of experts offer useful hints and advice on how to develop and hone your core diving skills.

66 Scholar

Joanna Smart has a busy month, diving with bull sharks in Fiji, exploring Lady Elliot Island in Australia, and then hitting PNG.

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Dr Richard Smith and his four diving buddies continue their epic diving roadtrip around southeast Australia, this time sampling the delights of Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, before hopping over to the south of Tasmania in search of weedy seadragons.

32 Shoot Like A Pro

Our panel of underwater photography experts - Martyn Guess, Mario Vitalini, Paul Duxfield and Phil and Anne Medcalf - tackle the topic of getting in and out of the water with a camera, and what to do with your camera between and after diving.

30 Underwater Photography

Seasoned underwater snapper Martyn Guess is in the hotseat this month, and he focuses his attention on how underwater photographers need to be aware of the background behind their subjects, and how this can make or break a shot being outstanding or merely satisfactory.

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CONTENTS

...CONTINUED

GEAR GUIDE

36 Indonesia

54 What’s New

Adrian Stacey embarks on an epic 1,300-mile Indonesian liveaboard adventure, spending 19 days travelling and diving through legendary hotspots such as Komodo, Alor, the Banda Islands and Raja Ampat. In this first installment, he checks out the diving - and topside attractions in Komodo and Alor.

44 Q&A: Steve Backshall

Mark Evans chats to BBC star - and keynote star speaker at GO Diving Show 2020 - Steve Backshall, famous for his Deadly 60 series of programmes, as well as the more-recent Undiscovered Worlds, about diving, sharks, full-face masks - and Strictly Come Dancing.

50 TECHNICAL: Deep diving

Experienced technical diver Neil Bennett looks at the art of deep diving, and explains everything that goes into conducting a successful dive beyond recreational depths.

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New products recently released, including the Fourth Element ‘Fin Collection’, Oceanic Geo.4 dive computer, Aqua Lung Storm fins, and the Mares Magellan BCD.

56 Group Test: Primary dive lights The Scuba Diver Test Team head for the depths of North Wales to rate and review a selection of hand-held back-up dive lights.

64 Long Term Test

The Scuba Diver Test Team reviews a selection of products over a six-month period, including the Mares Epic Adj 82X regulator, Otter Watersports Atlantic drysuit, Shearwater Research Teric dive computer, Apeks XL4+ regulator, and the Bare Ultrawarmth 7mm hood.

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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

RENOWNED INSTRUCTOR TRAINER

ANDY PHILLIPS DIES ON CANADA RIVER DIVE The worldwide diving industry is in shock with the announcement that PADI Platinum Course Director and technical instructor trainer Andy Phillips died after a dive in the St Lawrence River in Canada

T

he highly experienced diver - a familiar figure on the global diving circuit in his position at Utila Dive Centre - went missing on Tuesday 11 June near Cornwall in Ontario. According to the Ontario Provincial Police, they received a call just before 9am regarding a diving incident – two divers had entered the water at Lock 21, a submerged lock system on Macdonnell Island in South Stormont Township, but only one had returned. Apparently, Andy was diving on a CCR, his buddy was on open-circuit equipment, but as yet it is not known what caused the accident.

Multiple agencies were involved in the search operation, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, South Stormont and Cornwall Fire Services, US Customs and Border Protection, and a helicopter from CFB Trenton. His body was eventually recovered on 22 June.

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OBITUARY: ANDY PHILLIPS Andy Phillips had been a figure in the pro diving scene for over 20 years. He first certified as a diver in 1990 on a holiday in Greece, but had been drawn to water since he was five. In 1997, after finishing university and working in the world of insurance for six months, he made the decision to turn professional and became a PADI Divemaster on the island of Koh Tao in Thailand.

Thankfully, his employer persuaded him he would make a good instructor, and he duly enrolled in 1998 on the PADI IDC in Utila, Honduras, and never looked back. After working on the island for a while, he then moved to Costa Rica, then on to Dahab in Egypt, where in 1999 he discovered a love for deep technical diving and exploration.

In 2000, he returned to the Caribbean and began managing Utila Dive Centre.

Two years later he became a PADI Course Director (and held the Platinum level from 2005), and then at the age of 28, one of the youngest PADI Tec Rec Instructor Trainers in the world.

Through his role at Utila Dive Centre – and his previous centres – Andy brought many new PADI Instructors and technical divers into the diving fraternity. He was a highly experienced closed-circuit rebreather diver, overwhelmingly positive whenever you saw him at diving events and shows, and an enormous inspiration to many. He discovered and named the epic dive site Neptune’s Throne at Isla Espiritu Santo in Mexico, which starts in 55m and drops to more than 100m, and fellow Course Director and close friend Luke Inman has named the top of this site Andy’s Pinnacle in his memory.

He is survived by his life partner Marie-Claude Dupras, his father and his sister.

FROM THE EDITOR It is always hard to write about diving fatalities, but especially so when the person in question is a good friend. I had known Andy Phillips from when I first started in the industry way back in 1999, and he was hugely supportive from the get-go. I always looked forward to catching up with him at dive shows around the world, and his infectious personality and massive perma-grin will stay with me forever.

I will always remember one particular DEMA in Las Vegas where late into the evening Andy, myself and now-RAID supremo Paul Vincent Toomer presided over the ‘Table of Doom’ drinking far too many sambucca shots, inebriating anyone who joined us, and putting the world to rights.

You will be sorely missed, my friend.

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Keep your eye on the dive, not your dive computer.

CRUISE SHIP COMPANY CARNIVAL FINED US$20M FOR POLLUTING OCEANS

Scan to find a dealer near you.

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The world’s largest cruise ship company, Carnival, has been hit with a US$20 million penalty for pumping pollution into the ocean, violating terms of probation from a 2016 criminal conviction – which included a US$40 million fine - for similar conduct, prompting fears they will just continue to disregard environmental laws in the future.

Carnival Corp. reached a settlement with federal prosecutors yesterday (Monday 3 June) – Senior US District Judge Patricia Seitz approved the agreement after the cruise company’s CEO Arnold Donald openly admitted the company’s responsibility for probation violations linked to the previous court case, stating ‘the company pleads guilty’ no less than six times to a packed courtroom.

He commented: “We acknowledge the shortcomings. I am here today to formulate a plan to fix them.”

The 2016 criminal conviction was for discharging oily waste from its Princess Cruise Lines ships and covering it up. As well as the hefty fine, it was put on five years’ probation, which affected all nine of its cruise brands that boast more than 100 ships.

Now the cruise ship heavyweight has admitted that in the years since, its ships have committed environmental crimes such as dumping ‘grey water’ in prohibited places such Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, and knowingly allowing plastic to be discharged along with food waste in the Bahamas. The company also admitted to falsifying compliance documents and other administrative violations, such as having clean-up teams visit its ships just before scheduled inspections.

Under the settlement, Carnival promised there will be additional audits to check for violations, a restructuring of the company’s compliance and training programmes, a better system for reporting environmental violations to state and federal agencies, and improved waste management practices. The agreement also would set 13 September and 9 October deadlines to create an improved compliance plan and make other changes, subject to fines of $1 million per day if those deadlines are not met.

If a second round of deadlines are not met, the fines could go up to $10 million a day. Other proposed changes include a reduction by Carnival in the use of single-use plastic items across its entire fleet and the creation of ‘tiger teams’ meant to make improvements in the ships’ food and beverage systems and how waste is handled at sea.

However, Knoll Lowney, an attorney acting on behalf of three people who claimed they were victims of Carnival’s environmental violations, expressed skepticism that the cruise ship giant will keep its word this time. He said: “Time and time again, Carnival has shown its contempt of environmental laws and the rule of law. Here we are again.”

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CANADA BANS SHARK-FIN – IN HONOUR OF CONSERVATIONIST ROB STEWART In a move hailed as a major victory for sharks, Canada has become the first G20 country in the world to ban the import and export of shark fins – and credits film-maker Rob Stewart as a leading light in making it happen. The ban, which passed in the Senate at the end of June as part of Bill C-68, overhauls the Fisheries Act. The horrific practice of cutting fins off domestic sharks had been outlawed since 1994, but there was nothing to stop people bringing fins into the country.

Canada was the largest importer of shark fins outside Asia - some 148,000kg of shark fins worth a staggering $3.2 million were brought into the country in 2018 alone.

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who announced the ban at an event in Toronto in front of a shark mural dedicated to the late-Rob Stewart – the award-winning

videographer whose Sharkwater series of documentaries put the threats facing sharks on the global stage - said: “We recognise the clear threat that the shark-fin trade poses to the sustainability of our oceans. The practice is simply not sustainable, and it is inhumane.”

Speaking about Stewart, he said: “His films have unquestionably inspired many to mobilise against shark finning around the world.”

Rebecca Aldworth, head of the Humane Society International/Canada, said: “This shark-fin ban is going to set the example that the rest of the world will surely follow.”

Shark fins are a delicacy in East Asia, particularly in China, which exported the vast majority of fins to Canada. The fins are often used to make shark-fin soup.

DIVER MISSING IN TUBBATAHA REEF MARINE PARK A huge search operation was conducted in the Sulu Sea after a diver went missing while diving in the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park in early June.

The diver – who was identified by the Philippine Coastguard as 43-year-old Bryan Nazareno – had been diving in a group with acclaimed photographer Scott ‘Gutsy’ Tuason on Amos Rock in the marine park off the M/V Palausport when he went missing. According to reports, he had been lost since 4pm on Monday 3 June, but the coastguard said it only received the report at 11am on Tuesday 4 June. The national Philippine Coastguard subsequently liaised with the PCG District Palawan to co-ordinate with the diver’s group, and conducted extensive search and rescue operations. As we went to print, he had not been found.

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GALAPAGOS ISLANDS ‘NOT AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER FOR THE AMERICANS’

Environmentalists are up in arms over news that Ecuador has made an agreement with the US government allowing their military to operate from the Galapagos Islands.

According to reports, US aircraft will be using San Cristobal Airport as they head out on flights aimed at fighting drug trafficking. There are also plans to extend the runway. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is world-renowned for its unique array of plants and wildlife, and thousands of tourists travel from all over the planet to see it firsthand.

Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa furiously tweeted (in Spanish) that the Galapagos were ‘not an aircraft carrier’ for the Americans.

However, Ecuador’s defence minister Oswaldo Jarrin said ‘there will be no permanence of anyone’ on the island, and that ‘any modifications to the airfield will be paid for by the US’.

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GALAPAGOS BIOSPHERE RESERVE TO INCREASE IN AREA In a move that makes the Galapagos Biosphere Reserve one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment has announced that UNESCO has approved an extension from 772,000 hectares to a massive 14.6 million hectares.

This decision by UNESCO (UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) will allow the country to foster mechanisms to preserve the ecosystem and biological diversity, strengthen economic and human development of the local population, and provide logistical support for related educational and environmental research projects.

The next step following this announcement is the creation of a management plan and committee for the Biosphere Reservbe, which will provide guidance to the authorities of the local communities.

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VOLIVOLI BEACH RESORT JOINS BEST BOUTIQUE COLLECTION With its rich and colourful underwater world, abundantly blessed with soft corals, it is no wonder that Jean-Michel Cousteau named Fiji the ‘Soft Coral Capital of the World’. The family-run Volivoli Beach Resort is located at the northern tip of Viti Levu in Rakiraki with direct access to the Bligh Water Passage, where the majority of the dive sites are at a depth between 20m-40m. Besides soft and hard corals, divers can expect to see large gorgonian fans, small caverns, lobster, sepia as well as schools of barracuda and jack fish. At certain times of the year, it is also possible to see hammerhead sharks and eagle rays. At the dive sites closer to the resort, macro critters including the rare ornate ghost pipefish as well as two wrecks offer diversified dives. The PADI and SSI dive centre Ra Divers, directly located in the resort, runs courses up to instructor level.

After hurricane Winston erased a large part of the resort in 2016, the Darling family decided to take this as a chance and upgrade the resort. Along with the renovation, new luxury ocean front villas were introduced, with two bedrooms, a private swimming pool and a spacious outdoor covered living area. In total, Volivoli Beach Resort offers 33 rooms and villas in five different categories.

Local Fijian customs such as Meke (traditional style of dance and singing performance), Lovo (earth-oven prepared food) and Kava (traditional ceremonial drink) are performed weekly, typically on a Thursday night at the Ra Bar in the resort.

“We are very excited to welcome more guests through our new partnership with Best Boutique Collection. While Fiji is certainly on the bucket list of many divers there, the time difference makes it difficult for us to efficiently communicate with the tour operators. On the consumer level, we need to address the prejudices that a vacation in Fiji is pretty expensive and that it is very tedious to get here,” says owner and General Manager Nick Darling. www.volivoli.com | www.best-boutique-collection.eu

THE INTERACTIVE AND IMMERSIVE GO DIVING SHOW IS BACK IN 2020 After the immense success of the inaugural GO Diving Show in February this year, the dates have been announced for 2020 – 21-23 February. Get them marked in your diary now, as GO Diving Show 2020 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, UK, promises to be the perfect kickstart to the new diving season.

The dive show will be split across three days, the Friday being trade-only, and two consumer days over the weekend.

The trade day will feature break-out rooms for seminars, member forums, etc, and there will be presentations on how to develop and improve your online presence for your dive centre/school, utilise social media more effectively, and so on.

As before, there is plenty on offer over the weekend for both existing divers and those looking to get into our exciting sport.

First-timers can take their inaugural fin-steps into the underwater world in a gigantic 100 sq m trydive pool, while without even getting wet, you can sample shark dives, seal dives, wreck dives and cave dives through the magic of Virtual Reality. After being such a hit last year, there’s even an actual cave system for you to explore!

Existing divers are also well catered for at GO Diving, with dedicated sections focusing on the disciplines of Underwater Photography and Technical Diving. Think your trim is up to scratch? Got your S-drills nailed? Navigation in the bag? Come and showcase your abilities at our interactive sessions.

Want to try something new? Sign up for a sidemount trydive, or a dive on a closed-circuit rebreather. There’s even an area for The Next Generation of divers, all those keen kids and talented teens already attracted to the underwater realm.

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New divers or veterans alike will be inspired and entertained by our bountiful line-up of speakers. Come listen to BBC stars Steve Backshall, Andy Torbet, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Monty Halls, from Beyond Bionic, Deadly 60, The One Show, Undiscovered Worlds, Operation Iceberg, Great Escapes and Wreck Detectives, discussing how they got into diving, what they love about exploring beneath the surface, and hear about some of their underwater adventures.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW – AND SAVE ££££S! Super early bird tickets are available now, priced at £10 + booking fee, so don’t miss out – head to www.godivingshow.com/dive-show-tickets

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MALDIVES An incredible underwater adventure awaits

SEA OF CHANGE FOUNDATION EXPANDS MISSION

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Founded in 2015 by leaders in the scuba diving industry, the Sea of Change Foundation is expanding its core mission while maintaining focus on creating positive change.

The Foundation will now fund terrestrial conservation in addition to marine conservation to include all of the natural world. Examples of current and pending projects funded by the Foundation that encompass the new mission include: • Innovations in reducing plastics-use at sea turtle nest monitoring sites, Mexico • Limiting negative interactions between subsistence farmers and elephants, Sri Lanka • Conservation of African manatees in Lake Ossa, Cameroon • Educating military communities and families about daily sustainable choices, USA The three conservation focus areas of the Foundation will continue as: Ocean Pollution – Public Awareness and Action, Coral Reefs – Restoration and Resilience, and Threatened Species and Habitats, with the latter to now encompass terrestrial conservation. Recognising the value of scuba divers and coastal communities to local marine conservation, the Foundation will continue its successful Reef Rescue and Rapid Response grants programme; and will also continue to support annual marine science scholarships with the Womens Divers Hall of Fame.

It is the hope of the Board of Directors of the Sea of Change Foundation that the new expanded mission will help support even more meaningful conservation with positive, measurable outcomes. “Our mission will now better align with the expanding ecotourism of Aggressor Adventures and, as always, 100 percent of donations to the Foundation will support conservation,” concluded Wayne Brown, CEO of Aggressor Adventures and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation. www.seaofchange.com

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MEDICAL Q&A Dr Oliver Firth is a diving doctor with over 22 years of diving experience. He is an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers for the UK HSE and a medical referee for the UK Diving Medical Committee, performing many hundreds of diving medicals a year. As the senior doctor at London Diving Chamber for the last 13 years, he has supervised the treatment of hundreds of cases of decompression illness. He has now set up Hyperdive (www.hyperdive.co.uk) to continue his diving medical work with 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

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Q: My husband and I are both keen divers and our daughter is showing an interest already, even though she’s only five. She’s been quite unlucky with ear infections though, and the ENT doctors are recommending she has grommets to stop her getting them so often. Obviously we are going to do what’s best for her, but will this stop her diving in the future?

A: Firstly, a few words about the humble grommet, essentially a tiny artificial tube inserted into the eardrum. Smaller than a match head, they’re used to create a deliberate perforation, so that air can get in to the middle ear, and more importantly, mucus and pus can get out. The simple reasoning is this: the pain and misery of middle ear infections is mostly due to the pressure build-up in a confined space. Put a hole in one of the walls of this confined space, and the pressure won’t build up. Hence no pain, fewer infections and a happy kid. And it works. The grommets eventually fall out by themselves after a while (a few months to a few years) and the perforation left behind heals up by itself. By that stage the child is older and bigger and hopefully has grown out of infections, so quite a neat procedure all round. Luckily, once the eardrum has healed, it’s perfectly safe to dive with, although it always seems to be slightly more fragile than an undamaged one, so they need to take extra care with their equalising.

Q: Two years ago I passed my Open Water course on holiday in Turkey.

I am now 55 years of age, rather rotund and I don’t do any regular exercise. Last year I went diving in Egypt. Before undertaking the scuba review, I filled out a medical form telling them of my hiatus hernia plus

the medical history of my father, who suffered from angina and also had a heart bypass. Taking my age into consideration as well as those facts, they took me for a medical. My blood pressure and pulse were taken, then I was asked to squat up and down for a minute while supporting myself on the doctor’s desk with my hands, and then my blood pressure and pulse were taken again. The doctor informed the dive centre that I was alright to dive, but to keep me clear of strenuous dives. I am now worried about future dive trips.

I am using a treadmill at home and am on a diet, but what I need to know is what should my blood pressure and pulse read to enable me to sail through the next medical?

A: There is a wide variability of ‘exercise testing’ carried out in dive resorts, and these days, there is a lot of discussion about what sort of exercise test is best, or in fact, whether a test is necessary at all. The main reason for doing them is simply to emphasise the fact that physical fitness is important for safe diving. It also enables some sort of comparison of fitness from year to year, acting as a motivating tool for health promotion.

I digress from your question however.

In your case, before you jet off, you would be best seeing a diving doctor in the UK, who can assess your blood pressure and cardiovascular health in a properly controlled environment.

Nebulous suggestions such as ‘keeping you clear of strenuous dives’ are sometimes difficult to apply practically.

Incidentally, if you look at diving fatality statistics, very few could have been predicted from known medical conditions; most are accidental and involve inappropriate diving beyond the diver’s experience levels.

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19/12/2018 13:33

B E G I N

Our panel of experts look at the essential core skills that divers of all levels should have in their diving arsenal.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS

C

ore skills. We hear that term a lot in diving circles, but just what does it mean? We asked our team of diving experts from all of the main training agencies for their take on this terminology, and what they consider ‘core skills’ that should be the focus of every diver, regardless of their certification level.

BSAC Chief Executive Mary Tetley said: “Core skills are not just the concern of the new diver, they should be regularly practised by all divers to ensure that they can be performed safely and effectively when needed.

“Practice builds ‘muscle memory’ when it comes to key diving skills, and the aim should be to make them almost second nature. Effort put into regularly fine-tuning core skills will pay dividends when in open water.

“Honing buoyancy skills, for example, means a diver can focus on other aspects of their diving, secure in the knowledge that their buoyancy and trim is tuned in and that they can dive safely in a range of conditions and circumstances. Strong buoyancy and trim skills greatly improves the diving experience, helps to reduce gas consumption and makes time underwater all the more comfortable and enjoyable. So time spent practising at an inland site, in the pool or at the start of a dive is certainly well spent.

“Your core diving skills can also be a life-saver, either your own or that of your buddy, and practising them regularly means you are more likely to respond instinctively in what could be a chaotic situation. Regularly going through outof-gas, controlled buoyant lift, rescue breaths and towing scenarios can help to make your reactions instinctive in an emergency situation. Panic is a major factor in the incident pit and if your response is well rehearsed, you are more likely to be able to take control of a situation.

“And it doesn’t matter what level of diving experience you are at, it is also important to revisit those basic skills that set you up as a diver. Mask clearing, reg retrieval and free flow can all be overlooked as your diving gets more diverse, but they remain the bedrock of diving skills, whatever depth you are at.”

GUE instructor trainer John Kendall said: “There are several vital skills that every diver should have. Some are easier than others to attain, though. The major skill that every diver needs to have is self-awareness, and with that self-criticism. Being able to correctly analyse your own skill level, preparedness and capability before, during and after a dive is vital.

“After this, the core skills needed are buoyancy control, breathing control and body position control. These all link together to form the fundamental platform that a diver needs to be competent, confident and comfortable in the water. I have heard far too many instructors over the years

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saying things along the lines of ‘Don’t worry too much about buoyancy, that will come with time’ – unfortunately, they are wrong. Buoyancy, just like mask clearing, is a skill that needs to be correctly taught and then practiced.

“Heavily linked into buoyancy control is what we call trim.

Trim is the body’s orientation in the water. If when you kick your feet are low, then you will push yourself upwards, and this leads to divers not correctly setting their buoyancy, which is fine when they kick, but if they have to stop, then they sink.

A test to try yourself is simply to stop moving your feet and see what happens to your depth.

“Finally, breathing control is a core part of buoyancy as well. You should be breathing in and out around the middle of your lungs. A good test is to just stop in the water. Inhale fully and see what happens, then exhale fully and see. Ideally you should move up slowly on a full inhale and sink slowly on a full exhale. If you find that you move rapidly in either direction, then you need to adjust the gas in your wing/BCD until you are back in the middle of your lungs.”

Garry Dallas, Director of Training for RAID (UK and Malta), explained: “It doesn’t matter what car you drive, how fast it will go, brake or its cornering ability. To safely get you from

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A to B requires good driving skills… Awareness… If we just remove the ‘r’ from driving, awareness works the same in diving and is the most-intrinsic core skill a diver could have, the one at the top that governs everything else.

“Awareness isn’t just the ability to judge your distance from something or someone as you might think. We can break this down into three categories: Personal, global and domino effect.

“Personal awareness focuses on your mental state of mind before, during and after the dive; gas management and observation; confirmed dive plan; reserves; equipment working; your skills, including finning and trim on the dive.

“Global awareness is a spherical metering between the diver and everything around them, including your team mates.

A 360-degree radius in every direction at any depth of water column.

“Domino effect awareness basically looks at the knock-on effect that not being aware in the first two instances has a consequential effect in the future moments. For example, poor finning technique could reduce the visibility for the diver behind or damage something, not sticking to a dive plan could leave your team not knowing what to do and when.

Not looking after your equipment or servicing it may cause

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a premature failure on the dive. Being dehydrated could make you feel nauseous or anxious, leading to other things. Poor trim will, in essence, have a knock-on effect on your buoyancy, your breathing rate (SAC/RVM) and your ability to think clearly. Every diver feels the advantages of good trim - you relax, you can hover and you can deploy a DSMB easily and without stress.”

Mark Powell, Business Development Manager for TDI/SDI, said: “Every year there are a burst of diving incidents around the start of the season due to divers jumping in for their first dive of the year and having problems with their equipment, or being rusty on their diving skills. Unfortunately, some of these incidents are fatal. Make sure you don’t become a statistic by carrying out an ‘Annual Service’ before your first of the year.

“Many divers dive all year round. They will book sea dives throughout the year in the knowledge that some will be blown out by the weather, but in some cases they will be lucky and get a great dive with potentially good visibility due to the lower levels of plankton in the cold water. For other divers, inland sites provide an opportunity to keep their skills sharp during the winter. On the other hand, there are some divers for which there is a definite ‘diving season’. They are unlikely to dive before May and the first or second May Bank Holidays are often the first planned dives. Others leave it until June, when the sea has warmed up even more and the May bloom has dropped off to plan their first sea dives. These divers will then start cutting down their diving in late-September or October and will hang up their kit for six months until the diving season starts again.

For these divers, this six-month lay-off means that skills levels have lost their edge, equipment has been unused and the diver is not considered ‘dive fit’. It is all too easy for the first dive trip of the year to creep up on us. One minute it’s New Year and the next it’s the day before our first dive trip.

For these divers, an annual service before they restart diving is a good idea and there are a few simple steps that can be taken to ensure that the re-start of your diving activities is safe, incident-free and enjoyable.

“Most of us service our equipment every now and again (I did say most, not all) but how many of us put our diving skills through an annual MOT. If you dive regularly then your skills stay sharp, but if you last dived in September then you are probably a bit rusty. Before jumping into the sea for a real dive then try some practice dives.

Open circuit or CCR, skills need to be kept fresh and relevant

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Buddy team set off on a shore dive

“If you are a member of a club with access to a pool, then make use of it. Your local dive shop probably has pool evenings where you can go along and practice. A month or so before your first ‘real’ dive trip, you might want to think about a trip to an inland site. Most people have an inland site within an hour or two drive and these are an ideal spot to brush off the winter cobwebs.”

Emma Hewitt, PADI Regional Manager for Southern UK and Ireland and a PADI Master Instructor, said: “Being able to safely, easily and swiftly deploy a DSMB is a vital skill.

In so many parts of the world there are strong currents and boat traffic in diving areas, therefore the use of a DSMB is imperative. Honing this skill and being able to comfortably execute it at any given time will mean increased safety for all divers in the group.”

Vikki Batten, PADI’s Training Supervisor and a PADI Examiner, said: “Body position (known as trim) in the water is sometimes seen as less important than buoyancy control, but really the two are interdependent. Think about the direction you are moving and whether you are making it easier or harder for yourself. Here is an example that happens frequently with divers who have some experience: If you are slightly negatively buoyant, it’s common to end up in a slightly feet down, torso up position then when fin you will tend to ascend slightly with each fin kick. Eventually you will ascend enough to be positively buoyant so you will exhaust some of the air from your BCD and sink, repeating the cycle again and making for an exhausting dive. If you haven’t yet mastered effortless buoyancy control, then get yourself back in a pool or shallow water and make sure you practice both buoyancy control and trim where you can crash and burn without damage to yourself or the environment. n

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braving

chilly Waters

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Richard Smith and his four road-tripping fish-fanatic friends continue their adventures around Australia in Melbourne and Tasmania PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD SMITH

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Inside a large cave off southern Tasmania

Hermit crabs battling over a vacant shell

Trio of excitable pygmy leatherjackets

W A shortfin mako caught by local fishers

22

ith the spectacular Great Ocean Road behind us, we waited for our ferry to take us across the mouth of the Port Philip Bay where Melbourne City sits to the north. We could see the picturesque Mornington Peninsula in the distance and I explained the lay of the land, and our coming diving schedule, to the other four.

We had already visited Edithburgh and Rapid Bay in South Australia and were doing remarkably well in checking off our wishlist of critters - pyjama squid and leafy seadragons at the top so far. Our little crack team, comprised of dive guide Yann Alfian, off-duty liveaboard cruise director Wendy Brown and naturalist publishers Ned and Anna DeLoach, had made the most of our chemistry above and below the waves. We each played to our strengths in tracking down our quarry, so we had high hopes for our temperate water muck diving around the jetties of the Mornington Peninsula and eventually the cold Tasmanian seas. As the ferry pulled into the jetty of Sorrento inside the mirror-like Port Philip Bay, we could see a couple of the jetties that we would dive in the coming days. Nearest to the mouth of the Bay is Portsea Pier, followed by Blairgowrie and Rye. On the ocean-exposed side of the peninsula is Flinder’s Pier - that would be our first dive location. We had rented an AirBnB bungalow in a residential street in Rye, which allowed us the luxury of spreading out with all our dive and camera gear, plus we had a tank-filling station conveniently located nearby.

It was a fairly gloomy morning as we drove for half an hour across the rural part of the peninsula to Flinder’s Pier. Yann’s eyes were already at work as he spotted a koala high up in a

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The handfish are a rather ancient group, related to frogfish and are only found around Tasmania and southern Australia gumtree enroute. This jetty was a fairly relaxed start to the Mornington Peninsula portion of our trip. While some of the other jetties have a more-arduous trek to get into the water, it is very easy at Flinder’s. The jetty itself is more exposed and it’s slightly cooler in the water, but conditions were fine for us and the water in February was 20˚C. This time of year is the austral summer, and about as warm as it gets.

The highlight of Flinder’s are the weedy seadragons, which tend to be less common inside the bay. Although we would be seeing more of these stunning fish in Tasmania, the weedies of the mainland have a different colour, so worth seeing. This was another shallow dive, reaching a maximum of 4m. We saw a couple of large weedies, but Yann surprised us all by finding a tiny newly hatched juvenile. Smaller than a toothpick, the little dragon swayed back and forth in the slight surge around the dense weed. It was almost impossible to keep a track of it in all the movement.

The next day we stayed closer to home and dived Blairgowrie jetty. This site is slightly trickier to access as it is around an active yacht harbour, which limits the ability to park and drop gear very close by. The nearby car park is up a flight of stairs on the top of the cliff and then there’s a 500-metre walk to the entry point. It is certainly my favourite dive in the area. Over the years, I have seen all sorts of Well-hidden pot-bellied seahorse

Endemic draughtboard shark

Wendy with a weedy seadragon

unusual muck critters here. The pylons of the jetty are also covered in amazingly bright invertebrate growth, despite being so shallow.

After several back and forth trips to and from the bus, it was a relief to finally get in the water and we all immediately started spotting interesting animals. As well as the bountiful nudibranchs, there were many colour variations of potbellied seahorses, the world’s largest species reaching over a foot in length. Surprisingly, they are as difficult to spot as the smaller species, since their colour matches the local sponges so uncannily. Ned found a huge southern blue-ringed octopus, but I was transfixed by a courting trio of southern leatherjackets and missed it. Two gravid female leatherjackets were feeding, while an eager male showed off his dewlap and amazing colours. We were being torn in all directions.

After leaving the three of them to their private time, I came cross a stunning little sea robin, which startled both of us. It was just a couple of inches long, but with colours as bright as you can imagine. I also passed a baby ray, the size of the palm of my hand, illustrating just what a magnet this site is for juvenile fish. Even as I surfaced, I spotted a small baby seahorse clinging to a floating piece of seagrass at the surface. Research shows that due to being such poor swimmers as adults, baby seahorses cling to these kinds of debris to aid their camouflage and dispersal in the open ocean during this vulnerable time in their lives.

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Bull kelp off southern Tasmania

Small cryptic dragonet

After a few wonderful days of diving around the Mornington Peninsula, we drove to the city and flew down to Hobart in Tasmania’s south, although in the past I have taken the overnight ferry from Melbourne to Devonport, and then driven to Hobart.

I had been to the region a few years prior, so had certain areas and animals already in my sights.

Again, an AirBnB made a perfect home for the five of us for the few days we were exploring the city and around. We started our diving schedule in the suburbs of Hobart, diving in the chilly Derwent Estuary. At around 16˚C in these summer conditions, the drysuit was suddenly coming into its own. During my previous visit, I had dived in a semi-dry in 13˚C, so had been better prepared this time. One afternoon, we made a trip up a local mountain and, despite being summer, there was a heavy snow flurry!

We planned a couple of dives around the Derwent Estuary in search of a very special group of fish, the handfish. The handfish are a rather ancient group, related to frogfish and are only found around Tasmania and southern Australia.

There are 14 known species, but several are believed extinct and some are known from just a single specimen. First off, we were on the hunt for the critically endangered spotted handfish. The ‘critically endangered’ listing means that this species is facing an extremely high risk of extinction. The fish now remain only in the Derwent Estuary, having gone extinct Head detail of a Victorian weedy seadragon

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Large spider crab

in other nearby estuaries. They are struggling with introduced Japanese seastars that are severely impacting the local environment. These prey on the eggs of the handfish, which are laid on intriguing stalked sea squirts on to the seafloor.

We had great success with the spotted handfish, thanks to Wendy, who spotted three for us. We even saw one with its tiny lure cast, which was reminiscent of their frogfish cousins.

Sadly, though, we had less luck the next day while looking for the red handfish. Also indigenous to the Derwent Estuary, but even more rare, these fish are thought to only live along a 100-metre stretch of the shoreline. Another alien invader is seeing to the loss of these fish, although in this case it’s an Australian native that’s spread further south into Tasmanian waters only recently.

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AA 1,429 miies, Aussrrrii’s reee BBrrier Reef is home o he orrr’s moss iverse mmrine environmenn More hhn 1,500 species of fish

600+ species of corrr

133 species of shhrks & rrrs Exppore Tropiccc FFr Norrh Queensssnn on 3, 4 or 7 nighh ive expeeiiion. ....spiriioffreeeom.com..u

BIOGRAPHY

Richard Smith, a British underwater photographer and writer, aspires to promote an appreciation for the ocean’s inhabitants and raise awareness of marine conservation issues through his images. A marine biologist by training, Richard’s pioneering research on the biology and conservation of pygmy seahorses, led to the first PhD on these enigmatic fishes. Richard organises and leads marine life expeditions, where the aim is for participants to get more from their diving and photography by learning about the marine environment. His book, The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs will be released in September 2019. www.OceanRealmImages.com

An almost invisible velvetfish

Tasmania’s sea is experiencing some of the most-extreme climatic change in the world.

The seas here are warming at four times the global average. This is caused by the warm East Australian current that is pressing much further south than it has in the past. With this warm water comes the longspine urchin, which has a taste for algae and kelp. It is devouring Tasmania’s kelp forests at an alarming rate and has made rocky barrens of the red handfish’s habitat. The urchins are approaching from both directions, shrinking the red handfish’s last stand as they march on. In the end, it was the weather that prevented us from seeing the handfish, as there was too much swell and we couldn’t access the site. I hope that when I’m finally able to return, the stunning little fish hasn’t already been lost.

After Hobart, we drove just an hour down to the Eaglehawk Neck in southeastern Tasmania. Here we wanted to make the most of the more-adventurous diving opportunities and went out on two days of boat charters. We were primarily in search of weedy seadragons, which are much more colourful here than their mainland counterparts. I also asked about returning to the wonderful Waterfall Bay, where I had enjoyed the towering kelp forests six years prior. The dive guide informed me that, along with almost all Tasmanian kelp forests, they were already gone thanks to the urchins and warmer waters.

We were primarily in search of weedy seadragons, which are much more colourful here than their mainland counterparts

We did, however, have great success in finding the weedies and enjoyed plenty of time with them among the short and stocky bull kelp. We also had fun encounters with sealions and the locally endemic draughtboard sharks, which are a small cat shark measuring just a few feet in length.

A dark cloud came over our group upon return to the harbour. As we walked up the boat ramp, before us on a trailer was a magnificent several-metre-long shortfin mako shark. It was occasionally gasping for ‘breath’ and thrashing its tail. Fishers cheerfully posed with it, but us divers, having just experienced the amazing underwaterscapes just metres away, were completely sobered. Although globally endangered with extinction, either these Tasmanian populations are considered The stunning less threatened by local fisheries, or haven’t Tasmanian coastline been assessed. We contacted the local fisheries agencies, but as these sharks aren’t protected in these waters no crime had been committed.

Between dives we were able to enjoy the local topside scenery, which is stunning in this part of the world. It’s also one of the only places where you can find tiny live-bearing seastars.

Just 1.5cm across as adults, they pop tiny miniature seastars out of the parent, rather than spawning into the water like all others. They are a fascinating and rare find in the local rock pools. After some fun rock pooling, we finally said good-bye to the most southern reaches of our trip and flew up to New South Wales for some entirely different diving. n

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY BACKGROUNDS OR NEGATIVE SPACE IN MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY Following his last article on getting the exposure right, Martyn Guess provides some tips on how we can all improve our macro photography by paying attention to the background or negative space PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTYN GUESS

I

n any type of photography, we need to be aware of the background behind the subject – the picture of the lamp post behind your loved one’s head comes to mind! It is important that we deal with the background behind the subject, in a positive and creative way, and to take control.

The background or negative space behind the subject can make the picture a good picture or a bad one (see picture of the Rosie Frogfish in image 1, where the subject is blending in with the background and the picture is a little confusing).

The common mistake is to capture the image with the camera pointing towards the reef and to light the whole scene. A distracting background like this overpowers the image and dilutes the impact of the subject. Separating the subject from the background will make it stand out and lift the image (Image 2 - see the image of the same frogfish as in image 1, but this time lit carefully with a snoot (narrow beam of light) to hide the complicated reef background).

There are many lighting techniques we can use to achieve this separation and which I have covered in an earlier article on macro lighting.

Image 1 – Rosie Frogfish with unsightly and confusing background

Image 2 – Same Rosie Frogfish Snoot lit giving the image impact

These include: Snoot lighting – where a snoot is attached to the strobe and a very narrow beam of light is emitted – more on this later.

Cross lighting – where the strobes are pointed at each other in front of the camera to cut out light hitting the background and also help to create texture as it is a fairly harsh directional light (see image 3).

Inward lighting – an extreme version of cross lighting with the strobes pointing back towards your head on longer strobe arms and out of the field of view. This is useful where the background is very close to the subject as only the edge of the beam is used – I remove the strobe diffusers to help give a sharp edge to the beam.

Back lighting – where the light source is placed behind the subject and blacks out the background (see image 4) and is

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Image 3 – Whip Coral Gobie – Cross lit

BIOGRAPHY: MARTYN GUESS

Martyn has been diving for over 30 years and taking underwater images for over 25 years. He has been very successful in National and International competitions and regularly makes presentations to Camera and Photography clubs and Diving shows as well as The British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSOUP)and other underwater photography groups. Today he shares his passion and knowledge - As well as teaching underwater photography courses he leads overseas workshop trips for Scubatravel. Check out his IG account at martynguess_photography.

very useful where the subject is right on the bottom. This technique will create memorable and sometime abstract images, and work best with closed apertures and faster speeds.

We can also take control of the colour of the background water column. Pointing upwards into the water column and using a fast speed will help to darken the background and slowing the speed right down to say 1/60th second will help you achieve a blue background (Image 5). I keep reducing or increasing the speed until I get the desired colour background. A very good method of separating the subject from the negative space behind is to use lower apertures and create a pleasing Bokeh or blurred background (see image 6). There are subtle differences between apertures, so try a few different settings on each subject until you get the effect you require by reducing the aperture a step at a time. Beware that as the aperture opens, the depth of field reduces and with a fully open aperture, the choice of focus point is critical – often Image 4 – Back lit y mess g hidin the eye of the subject Seahorse background or the rhinophore of a

Image 5 – Blue background behind Weedy Rhinopias created by using low speed

nudibranch, for example. As the aperture opens the amount of light hitting the sensor increases, so control this by reducing strobe power and /or ISO or increasing the speed.

I sometimes use artificial creative backgrounds such as sparkly Perspex (Image 7) or even metallic scouring pads.

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY Image 6 – Open aperture used to blur background and create Bokeh

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Why not come on a photo specific trip? These trips are meticulously planned to the best destinations at the best time of year where the conditions should be perfect for building a portfolio of great images. The workshops, which are for all levels of experience but mainly aimed at people with a few trips under their belts, include classroom sessions and presentations as well as in-water help and guidance, all done in a relaxed and non-competitive friendly environment. This year there are trips back to Bali in August for wide angle and macro photography opportunities. There is a Northern Red Sea Relaxed trip in November 2019 and again in July 2020, where the emphasis is on an open-deck policy with time spent on the same sites .There are also trips to Atmosphere Resort, Dauin Philippines in May 2020 and Lembeh Resort and Murex at Bangka in September 2020. Please contact the Scubatravel team or check out their website: www.scubatravel.com

the subject and not to touch or disturb the critter, such as a whip coral gobie with plenty of open water behind the whip coral. Artificial backgrounds work best with relatively open apertures. Moving the background closer or further apart will create a different look. Reflections are also a wonderful background if you find a subject close to the surface.

When shooting be aware of the background behind the subject and look for interesting and uncomplicated negative space. I often swim around the reef looking for an interesting background colour – often a sponge - and then wait for a critter to appear to set it against. Sometimes by simply changing the angle of the shot you can find a more-interesting background or lose something which will overpower the image so look carefully around the subject to get the best angle of view. Coming back to snoot lighting, this is in my opinion one of the easiest techniques to use to hide a difficult background. A dive guide can hold the snooted strobe for you and direct the beam of light onto the subject. If using Image 7 – Black a buddy, reciprocate for them. sparkly Perspex used The Retra LSD snoot is for background one of the best that I have used, and it is easy to see where the strobe light will hit the subject as the in-built spotting light in the strobe shines through the tube and this can then be accurately directed. I set the strobe power to about 3/4 and then change the exposure by adjusting the ISO leaving the aperture fairly closed

Image 8 – Snoot lit Wunderpus Octopus with low speed to show background

at say F22 and the speed at the maximum the camera will sync at – in my case on a Nikon D5, 1/320th. I start with a lowish ISO and increase as needed. Check the Histogram after every shot to make sure that highlights haven’t been blown, as the snooted light is both bright and harsh. An interesting snooting technique is to lower the speed so that the background is darkened, but not entirely black (image 8) - this will give you a slightly different image.

Generally, the snoot is pointed straight downwards for portraits of critters and will give great separation from the bottom where the subjects live. Remember, snoot light is very harsh as it is not diffused so is great for showing off texture, such as the skin of frogfish.

When you next dive with a camera think about backgrounds and try some of these techniques to help your images stand out. n

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This month, we ask our team of photo pros for hints and advice on getting in and out of the water with a camera, and what to do with your camera between and after diving PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTYN GUESS, PAUL DUXFIELD, MARIO VITALINI AND ANNE AND PHIL MEDCALF

I have always been very careful with my camera rig when getting in and MARTYN out of the water. This stemmed from GUESS my Nikonas film camera days, when on a RIB heading out to the drop-off, I happened to notice my lens had fallen off and was rolling around the deck! I had intended to roll in with the camera!

I always have the camera handed to me, whether jumping in or rolling. I have seen strobes fall off where they haven’t been tightened down, or a last -minute glitch, which the boat boy or you spot as he hands the camera to you, so why risk a flood or a bang on something by going in with the camera?

I have heavy strobes and arms on my camera rig, so I have a rope handle attached between the top joints of the arms making it easy for the rig to be carried and handed to me, and also lifted safely out of the water. The minute the rig is in the air, it becomes very heavy and the arms otherwise flop down with the strobes on the end, risking damage. The handle is also very useful when walking to and from the boat or shore.

When I get out of the water, the first thing is a quick camera dunk in the rinse tank. Never leave your camera there – firstly, its selfish and takes up room, and secondly, it could easily be bumped causing a leak or damage. I store the camera either securely on the camera table if available and it’s not too rough, or somewhere away from people on the deck in a safe position before drying it and moving it inside the camera room or cabin.

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Martyn Guess & Manado workshop will enable you to go hone and advance your key photographic skills at Murex Bangka and Lembeh resort. The workshop will spend 5 nights at Murex Bangka followed by 6 nights at Lembeh resort, both on a full board basis (2 people sharing).

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When it comes to attaching our camera to ourselves, we both use a simple but effective solution, a bodyboarding leash tied to our lighting trays and strapped around a wrist. These are strong enough that if need be we can let go of our housings and let them dangle without them coming away even with a quite negatively buoyant camera rig. They also stretch long enough for our rigs to be out of our way when we do let go of them. This is handy when dealing with an issue. For tasks like deploying DSMBs, we usually hook a strobe arm into the crook of an elbow or hold the housing between the knees.

Getting into the water we hold our cameras rather than having them passed to us once we are in. Transferring the camera from a crew member to a diver is usually where fumbles occur and cameras can be lost or damaged. Not just when passed from hand to hand, but also when divers try to clip housings on to BCDs, failing to engage clips onto D-rings properly is common reason for a lost camera and can occur at the start or finish of a dive, especially when using a D-ring that isn’t clearly in your vision.

The advantage with using the bodyboarding leashes is you can attach it before you get in and it is constantly in vision. If you need to ditch your camera, it is easily accessible and quick to unfasten and when getting back into a boat, you can hand it up still attached to your wrist and wait for it to be physically over the boat before you undo it. Remember to explain this to crew before doing this, otherwise you may get your arm pulled as they go to put your camera somewhere safe.

Entering the water, we hold cameras above shoulder level for giant strides, this gives room for the impact of you entering to be dissipated before your housing hits the water.

For backward rolls, hold the camera against your body with one hand and your mask and reg with the other.

When it comes to buoyancy, we keep our set-ups negatively buoyant and trim our weighting to allow for it.

This is a matter of personal choice, and while it works for still photography, for videography it’s better to keep your set-up neutral to improve the steadiness of shots.

When back on the boat, retrieve your camera as quickly as possible from the rinse tank if it has been put in there. If it hasn’t, give it a quick rinse but don’t leave it unattended. The rinse tank is the graveyard of cameras. Scratches to ports and lenses are regular occurrences, as are floods caused by heavy

ANNE AND PHIL MEDCALF

rigs being dropped onto other housings.

Leaving a housing in a rinse tank can also result in floods from large changes in temperature. The water in rinse tanks on sunny dive decks can get very warm and when you then jump into the water, the materials of the housing can cool rapidly and the seal can fail.

Between dives, keep your camera somewhere safe and out of sunlight, such as your dive crate on a boat if you have one.

For UK diving, a large cool bag or rubble bucket can be a good option, and be used for rinsing afterwards.

Deploy an SMB with both hands free by hooking the strobe arms over your arms

A bodyboard leash lets you drop the camera out of the way if needed

Bodyboard leashes are coiled so stay out of the way underwater but stretch when passing up to a boat

ESCORTED BY MARTYN GUESS

30th November 2019 £1295 inc flights from UK

Relaxed Red Sea

Holiday highlights... Join Martyn Guess for a week focused on getting more out of your camera!

Departing from Hurghada, you will spend 7 nights on board on a full board basis (twin share cabin).

Based in Northern Red Sea with up to 21 dives over the week but the itinerary will vary, depending on the photo opportunities. All marine park fees, 12lt tank and weights are included in your package.

..award winning dive experts +44 1483 411590 www.scubatravel.com/photography

Our underwater photography professionals have, between them, literally thousands of hours of dive time and countless hours spent travelling the world shooting underwater images and teaching workshops. If you have a question you’d like them to address, email: mark@scubadivermag.com

First time I dived with a big camera rig, I was quite nervous and reticent about PAUL making a big splash.

DUXFIELD So I’d get the camera rig handed down to me after first rolling or giant striding in. I had fears that the impact could cause some water ingress to the housing because of the extra stresses being placed upon it. Over time though, I’ve found that dilly dallying worrying about the camera rig could lose me a shot.

A case in point happened quite recently when dolphins made a fleeting appearance alongside the zodiac, and the driver took pains to put us in front of them as they passed by and all we’d see is tails, which with spinner dolphins is a real possibility. I’m not slap dash about things though, so when back rolling from a zodiac, I keep the camera rig close to my body, with the strobe arms clamped down tight, so they don’t whack me or anyone else in the face. This way means I am protecting the camera rig with my body.

If giant striding I will also lock things down securely, put plenty of air in my jacket, and hold the camera aloft - it’s possible even with a bigger rig.

This will mean that the camera is barely breaking the surface, by the time me and my BCD have broken the fall, and I’ve done this thousands of times now with no issues.

Modern housings are pretty tough things, and if like me you

Corals and Caves on

have a housing with a vacuum pump warning system, then if there were any issues with a rapid change in pressure, I trust it would have alerted me before too much trouble had been done. I don’t know this for sure, of course, because it’s never happened. It’s also worth mentioning that I don’t use a fancy leash attached to my person any more, as a simple bungee around 18-inches long with a carabiner on both ends, that I picked up from a pound store, is all I now use. I can clip it off if needs be, and loop and clip it around my wrist on the dive.

Did I mention I’ve picked up a penny-pinching mindset now I live in Yorkshire!

Hurricane 21st May 2020 £1425 inc flights from UK ESCORTED BY MARIO VITALINI

Holiday highlights... Mario Vitalini will teach you to work with natural light and wide angle photography, as well as the secrets of amazing fish portraits and using strobes. He will help you build a stunning selection of classic Red Sea images, from the decks of the stable steel hulled Hurricane. There are 18-21 dives over the workshop, as well as all park fees included, 12lt tank/weights and FREE Nitrox.

+44 1483 411590 www.scubatravel.com/photography Book your holiday with the...

In all the years I’ve been diving, I’ve MARIO seen my fair share of camera floods.

VITALINI In most cases, the cause is poor O-ring maintenance, but occasionally a housing can flood when mishandled getting in or out of the water.

When entering the water, I always try to protect my rig from impacting the surface. Therefore, when jumping from a boat back platform, the easiest way is to leave the housing on the platform, and have it handed to you by someone else - especially if using a heavy system. I immediately secure a lanyard attached to my housing directly to my BCD. When using a lightweight set-up, such a compact, I preferer to jump with it. I make sure my BCD is partially inflated to keep afloat when I hit the water and jump holding my housing rig with one hand high above my head.

When diving from a RIB, I hold the housing tightly against your chest as you roll back. This is the best way when making a negative entry. If I have time to sort myself on the surface, I always prefer to have the housing handed to me by the zodiac driver. After my safety stop, when I’m ready to surface, I fold the strobe arms in and protect my dome port with a neoprene or hard cover. On the surface, I hand up the camera first, only then unclipping it from my BCD. Once on the boat, I dunk it in a rinse tank but never leave it, as other divers may throw in torches or other pieces of equipment that can damage your kit. If there are no rinsing

facilities, I always make sure the housing stays wet or damp so the salty water does not dry and form crystals that can then damage the O-rings.

Onboard I make sure my housing is secure on a flat surface, such as the floor of the saloon, especially when the boat is moving. I often use the strobe arms to make the rig more stable. n

ESCORTED BY MARIO VITALINI

11th Sept 2020 £1795 inc flights from UK

Photo Finish

Malapascua

Holiday highlights... Join photo pro Mario Vitalini on this Philippines workshop to hone your images of the biggest sharks to the smallest critters. The workshop includes 20 nitrox boat dives plus daily presentations covering all aspects of underwater photography. Your holiday package includes 7 nights in a deluxe room on an full board basis – optional room grades available. Airport transfers are included.

..award winning dive experts +44 1483 411590 www.scubatravel.com/photography

The reef gets much shallower here and the currents pick up - after hurtling through at a rate of knots we were finally spat out into a stunning coral garden where we were joined by several feeding mantas

Indonesian

EXPEDITION Komodo to Raja Ampat PART ONE

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Raja Ampat, Komodo, Alor, Banda Islands.

No, this is not a bucket list of destinations I would like to dive over the next few years. It is, however, just some of the amazing places I visited during an epic 19 days on board a traditional phinisi-style Indonesian liveaboard PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIAN STACEY

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The reefs are spectacular and colourful

Dramatic topside scenery Scorpionfish

O

ur epic 1,300-mile journey began in Komodo and finished in Raja Ampat. Along the way was an erupting volcano, an island seething with sea snakes, dragons, hammerhead sharks, manta rays, huge pods of dolphins, dramatic wall dives, spectacular reefs, beautiful deserted beaches and historical colonial towns.

The expedition is broken down into three legs; the first is from Komodo to Alor. The second section takes the boat across the Banda Sea from Alor to the beautiful Banda Islands. The final stage of the voyage took us from the Banda Islands to the legendary Raja Ampat. For the majority of the expedition, we were the only boat in the area, some of the sites had been visited on previous trips or by other liveaboards, while others had possibly never been dived before. It promised to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Cuttlefish cruises below huge fish shoals

Manta ray encounters were common

Komodo dragon

The rest of the dives in Komodo were equally spectacular.

Manta Point lived up to its name, with a procession of mantas cruising along the rubble-strewn reef, feeding in the plankton-rich water, hovering over sporadic coral bommies to get cleaned or forming acrobatic mating trains. Castle Rock, a large undersea mount, was covered in a seemingly endless school of yellow-masked surgeonfish. Schooling batfish, fusiliers and yellow-lined snapper added some variety.

Huge giant trevallies, schools of blue-finned trevallies and numerous whitetip reef sharks provided the adrenaline. The Cauldron, another of the area’s signature dive sites, is both unique and beautiful. The strong currents that rage through a narrow channel between two islands have carved out a huge bowl, hence the name. Leading up to this bowl is a gentle sandy slope scattered with glassfish-covered bommies.

Once in the Cauldron a brisk current pulled us across its length, past whitetip reef sharks and schooling snapper, to an area affectionately known as ‘the shotgun’. The reef gets much shallower here and the currents pick up - after hurtling through at a rate of knots we were finally spat out into a stunning coral garden where we were joined by several feeding mantas. Finally, no visit to the area would be complete without going to see the famous Komodo dragons, the largest lizard in the world and endemic to the area.

FIRST LEG: KOMODO TO ALOR

With so many places to visit and such vast distances to cover, we could only afford to spend two full days in the Komodo National Park. This is nowhere near long enough to fully appreciate this magnificent mecca of diving, so it was important to make the most of our time here. Komodo is renowned for its strong currents and a dive site called Batu Bolong is an excellent place to witness their ferocious force, especially when dived just after a full moon as we did. The sea took on the complexion of a raging river as our dingy battled to get to the drop point through the churning, boiling, onslaught of water. Beneath us, even the giant trevallies were experiencing some difficulties. This tiny rock pokes mere metres above sea level, its barren features giving no hint of the stunning coral gardens teeming with life that lay beneath the surface. As the falling tide hit the north side of the rock, it fanned out creating a lea side on the south - this is where we would be diving. Schools of sergeant majors inhabit the shallows and a blizzard of anthias sometimes made it hard to see the pristine hard coral gardens that cover every inch of the site. A huge school of fusiliers had also sought refuge out of the punishing current; they in turn had attracted the attention of whitetip and grey reef sharks. Giant trevallies and rainbow runners added to the melee.

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Massive sponges One of the dryland stints

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Laying on the sun deck of the boat with a cold beer in hand and watching a volcano explode every 20 minutes was a mesmerising experience that I will never forget After an exhilarating start to the voyage, the fourth day was considerably more relaxed. We spent our time cruising along the north coast of Flores; with only two dives planned, we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.

Unlike the savanna-like landscape of Komodo, northern Flores is covered in forest and lined with beautiful sandy beaches punctuated by the occasional small village. In the true spirit of exploration, two random places along the lush coastline were chosen for the dives; while not quite as spectacular as Komodo, the dives were very pleasant. Later that afternoon we made an impromptu visit to a small village. The hospitality was overwhelming, but this might have had something to do with the fact that this was where the ship’s cook Yunis was born, and where his parents still lived.

Our next destination was Maumere, the largest town in Flores and an important port for the area. This is not really a pretty tourist town, but there are several picturesque resorts along the coast a short distance away. There is some great muck diving along the coast, but we opted for the nearby islands of Pulau Besar and Pulau Babi for our dives. Sheer walls covered in seafans and immense sponges fringe these two islands. One section of reef at Pulau Babi was particularly beautiful. A hole in the top of the reef created an overhang that hid a variety of seafans and soft corals, home to pygmy seahorses and frogfish. With beautiful topside scenery, a visit from a huge pod of dolphins and stunning reefs, which remain mostly unexplored, we could have easily spent a few days here.

After a great day around Maumere, we sailed overnight to the tiny island of Serbete. Here we had an early morning dive

The reefs form a riot of colour

along yet another impressive wall studded with immense, elaborate sponges. Then it was time for one of, if not the, highlights of the expedition. Miles away from anywhere, sat in the middle of the sea of Flores, is Pulau Komba, a still veryactive volcano. After several hours travelling across glass-flat water, a small speck appeared on the horizon. As we drew closer a huge plume of smoke rose from the island’s summit.

Twenty minutes later the volcano erupted again, as it does every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. One side of the island is covered in thick forest, the other side, where the vent of the volcano is situated, is almost completely barren.

Frogfish

Pulau Komba volcano

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Up close it is quite a sight, first came a huge cracking sound, then the mountain would belch out a huge pillar of smoke, large rocks would cascade down a rubble slope, sizzling and steaming as they plunged into the water below. It is not every day that you get to witness the awesome power of a volcano erupting; it is even rarer still to actually dive at its base. With health and safety in mind we made our drop point well away from where the rocks impacted the water. The dive was stunning, huge seafans and brightly coloured soft corals clung to ridges of black rock. The topography would then change to vast plains of dark volcanic sand populated with sea pens. Then it would then morph back to the coral-covered ridges and gullies that also hid a surprising amount of marine life, including some quitespectacular nudibranchs and various crustaceans.

Once back on the boat, it was suggested we take a closer look at the volcano. It is perhaps not a good idea to play chicken with a volcano, but like a bunch of naughty school kids we did it anyway! We took the dinghies as close as we dare then as the as the smoke billowed into the sky and the rocks bounced down the side of the mountain, we would quickly drive away. It felt like we were only metres from been hit, but in reality we were a good distance from danger.

The day so far had been terrific, but the best was yet to come. At night Pulau Komba is transformed from amazing to absolutely spectacular. The pitch black skies formed the perfect backdrop for a show that would put any New Year’s Eve firework display to shame. By day we witnessed large rocks bouncing down the mountain, by night we could see these bright orange, molten hot rocks explode into the sky sending showers of sparks everywhere as they hit land.

Laying on the sun deck of the boat with a cold beer in hand and watching a volcano explode every 20 minutes was a mesmerising experience that I will never forget. I could have

Even the shallows are full of life

Batfish

Sunset over Pulau Komba

Diver dwarfed by sponge and coral growth

stayed there all night, but with a 12-hour journey to Alor ahead of us, the captain finally decided it was time to leave, ignoring our pleas to stay for just one more explosion. In his defence, we had been saying ‘just one more’ for the past two hours…

On the seventh day of the expedition, we arrived in Alor for the first of our scheduled restock/dry days. We had travelled almost 400 miles, completed 14 dives and had some amazing experiences. The diving in Komodo was spectacular, the scenery of north Flores was beautiful, as was the diving in Maumere, and Pulau Komba was simple astounding.

The next leg of the journey would take us island hopping across the Banda Sea, where there were plenty more amazing experiences in store for us, including an island teeming with sea snakes, submerged reefs and migrating whales. n

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See Steve Backshall at the interactive dive show GO Diving at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, UK on 22–23 February 2020! Early bird tickets available now from: www.godivingshow.com

STEVE BACKSHALL 44

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Q: When did you first start diving, and what captured your imagination about the underwater world in the first place?

A: My love for the underwater world started way before I started diving. I used to be obsessed with snorkelling on family holidays (according to my folks and photos, from about five I would be in the sea all day long with my mask on!) It wasn’t until 1990 when I got my first certs, while travelling around Asia. I adore everything about being underwater; the weightlessness, the freedom, and most of all the wildlife.

Q: You often employ the use of a full-face mask when presenting to camera underwater. How long did it take you to get used to using this piece of equipment?

A: I worked up to it. We started with old-fashioned Kirby Morgan-style masks, but now I do all my diving on a mask with no oral nasal. This means you can see my whole face while I’m talking, but you have to be super-careful about CO2 build up if you’re talking lots or swimming hard. I’ve now done hundreds of dives using it, including exploratory cave diving, which is crazy committing. It’s the most-liberating thing ever when I get to use half mask or freedive!

We put more facts, more conservation, more gore, and more science in Deadly than I would ever dare do on primetime Steve Backshall is a TV presenter and author best known for his children’s TV series Deadly 60 and its subsequent spin-offs, and his latest primetime series, Undiscovered Worlds. Scuba Diver caught up with the globe-trotting adventurer – who is the headline act at GO Diving Show 2020 - to talk diving, climbing, kayaking, the perils of dealing with animals, and Strictly Come Dancing!

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN HARTLEY, EMMA COLE, SIMON ENDERBY, BRITISH MARINE AND COURTESY OF STEVE BACKSHALL

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Q: From viewing the awesome photographs on your Twitter feed, you have been doing some amazing cave/ cavern diving for Undiscovered Worlds. Is this your first experience of venturing into an overhead environment underwater, and what was it like?

A: I’ve been certified for overhead environments for more than a decade, and have done under ice, penetrating wreck and a good amount of cave, but this was the biggest cave-diving project I’ve ever been involved in. I was in Yucatan for six weeks; the first week was pretty much just spent re-learning how to swim, using micro movements with my fins to glide through the caves without kicking up silt.

Q: Fellow TV presenter and friend Andy Torbet has embraced the world of technical diving, using a closedcircuit rebreather to head off into the depths to visit shipwrecks like the Britannic, or explore flooded mines in Finland. Are you tempted by the lure of technical diving and rebreathers?

A: Rebreathers have no benefit for me working in television.

With rebreather you need an oral nasal, which obscures the face, and makes speaking muffled. I’d probably need to be subtitled on screen, and it removes any connection you have with the audience. Some of my camera ops work on rebreather - it is great once you’re down, and the lack of bubbles can be great for filming wildlife, but the pre-dive checks are paralysing if you have a chance encounter and need to hop overboard quickly!

Q: Like Andy, you are a true action man, and over the years as well as diving we have seen you climbing and kayaking while in front of the cameras. What is it about these adrenaline sports that attracts you to them?

A: Increasingly the paddle, rope, ice axe and dive cylinder have become tools for me; a gateway into another world. Over the last year I’ve led ten expeditions into places human beings have never been before, and it’s been the greatest privilege of my working life. Having a working knowledge of the skills necessary has been the big thing that’s enabled me to take the first steps in forests, caves and cliffs where humans have never been before. That’s pretty special!

Q: You are a proud ambassador for The Scouts, and through your televised adventures have probably inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of children (and big kids!) to explore the great outdoors, be that topside or underwater. Why do you think it is so important to connect with the natural world?

A: Great (and essential) question. We are at a crux point in history. A huge amount of our young people are hungry for change, valuing our planet and their future place in it more than ever before. This growing youth activism is the hope for the future of Planet Earth. Scouting is the largest and most-important movement that gets young people outside, into adventure, embracing the natural world. I am beyond proud at our messages of inclusivity, diversity, and building skills for life. The next big step has to be making Scouting available and attractive to young people who might never otherwise get those opportunities. Diving and Scouting is a natural mix, and I’m right behind projects to forge those connections.

Q: You filmed several documentaries for the National Geographic Channel before joining The Really Wild Show for a few years, but it was the BAFTA-winning Deadly 60 series that really put you on the map.

What are your fondest memories of filming for this immensely popular programme, and its follow-ons Deadly Pole to Pole, Deadly 360, Deadly On A Mission and Backshall’s Deadly Adventures?

A: Deadly was my baby; from the locations, to the animals, to the crews, to the very style of filming. To see it go from an idea to a proposal to the most-successful kids wildlife series around the world (going to 157 countries and seen by an estimated half a billion people!) will always be my proudest achievement. Well, other than my little boy, of course! I think going nose to nose with a leopard seal under a jade-green Antarctic iceberg is the memory I treasure the most, though it’s pretty tough to choose!

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A huge amount of our young people are hungry for change, valuing our planet and their future place in it more than ever before

Q: Having come into contact with all manner of lethal creatures over the years, particularly on the Deadly series, did you have any dicey moments when it all went horribly wrong?

A: Our definition of ‘Deadly’ is the dictionary one – the animals we film are not dangerous to us as human beings, but deadly in their world, to other animals. We mostly feature things like dragonflies, kestrels, whalesharks and conger eels. If we ever do cover sharks, snakes, spiders and scorpions, I am always at great pains to break down the myths and fears people may have of them. In all the years of Deadly, the only animals we have talked about in terms of their danger to us are parasites; particularly the mosquito.

Q: You were on Strictly Come Dancing. How did that experience compare with facing up to sharks, big cats, snakes and other potentially deadly animals?

A: My normal life is exactly what you see on screen. Last year, I had 120 nights under canvas; most of it in tropical rainforests in a hammock, covered in leech bites and itching with chiggers. I spent the summer of 2014 climbing Mount Asgard up in the Arctic Circle… then a week after I landed was up to my armpits in flashbulbs, sequins and spray tans. It was weird, bizarre, utterly bonkers, and made me realise how glad I am that my life is led outside of the public eye, but I have made dear friends like Jake, Judy, Thom, Pixie, Sunetra and the others, who would otherwise never have been a part of my life.

Q: You became a household name with Deadly 60, but recently you have been doing more mainstream TV, including BBC One’s Wild Alaska Live, BBC2’s Undiscovered Worlds, and Channel 5’s Hedgehog A&E. You always come across as hugely enthusiastic regardless of the programme in question, but how do behave differently when you are filming for ‘adults’ rather than a younger audience?

A: I pitch each programme to the demographic of the channel and timeslot, but I think people would be surprised at how kid’s shows are different… We put more facts, more conservation, more gore, and more science in Deadly than I would ever dare do on primetime. Kids are used to learning; they do it every day. Adults feel preached to if you put in lots of factual content. On Deadly series three, we had a media graduate writing his doctorate come in and visit us because he’d worked out that Deadly had the highest factual hit-rate of any natural history programme on TV. It’s so liberating – and I think so, so important to keep making programmes aimed at kids, who just haven’t made up their minds how they feel about the world yet.

Q: Finally, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek one - there were howls of anguish in playgrounds across the UK when the news broke about your marriage in 2016.

You have always been a firm favourite with the ‘mums’ – and I have witnessed first-hand how vociferous they can be when you are on stage – but surely that can’t phase someone who has handled or been in close proximity to some of the most-dangerous animals on the planet?

A: I think it’s something that most kid’s presenters get! Having just had our first baby, Hels and I haven’t watched television in months, but when Logan gets older, Mr Tumble will be my best friend; and that’s how families treat me. It’s the mostbeautiful sensation to be in public, and meet people who treat you like an honorary part of their family! n

Expedition with Steve Backshall starts Sunday 21 July on Dave, and his Expedition book is available on 18 July, published by BBC Book

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BUNDY. QUEENSLAND’S

HOTTEST NEW DIVE DESTINATION Deborah Dickson-Smith from Diveplanit gives the lowdown on Bundaberg, and why it should be on your ‘to-visit’ list

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HARRIET SPARK

reputation as one of the most-unique and exciting ways to experience the Reef. This area is the gateway to two exquisite cays, Lady Elliot and Lady Musgrave Island, and is a stone’s throw from pristine Heron Island.

The recent addition of a new shipwreck off the coast of Bundaberg, the Ex-HMAS Tobruk wreck, provides another reason to pay a visit to this part of Queensland. An hour’s drive south and you hit Hervey Bay, where you can swim with whales between May and September, and another hour south you’ll find Rainbow Beach, the jump-off point for one of Australia’s most-exciting dives - Wolf Rock. n

U

ntil recently, Bundaberg’s most famous export was rum, Bundy rum – the rum with the inexplicable polar bear mascot. But this year, people are visiting the Bundaberg region for a completely different reason - it’s now the gateway to the Southern Great Barrier Reef.

Mention the Great Barrier Reef, and most people will immediately think of Cairns. However, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, stretches for thousands of kilometres, and there’s no shortage of dive base destinations. Nestled between Bundaberg and Rockhampton lies the Southern Great Barrier Reef, the official start of this delicate ecosystem.

The Southern Great Barrier Reef is quickly earning a

Here are 5 reasons to make Bundy your base for a Great Barrier Reef Experience: Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort – Possibly the most-awarded eco-resort in Australia, Lady Elliot Island has recently had the pleasure of hosting HRH Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough. The resort owner and island custodian, Peter Gash, is a passionate eco-warrior and the island is a base for ongoing research into manta rays. Over 700 individual resident mantas have been identified here as part of Project Manta, some of which you are bound to see while diving.

Lady Musgrave Island – Lady Musgrave Island has been a ‘Green Zone’ – the highest protection category on the Great Barrier Reef – for 30 years. There is no accommodation on the island and until recently it’s not been easy to get to, so you can imagine just how pristine the coral is here. Visit on a day trip with the Lady Musgrave Experience, or stay overnight on their new Reef Sleep experience, on a yacht that’s permanently anchored in Lady Musgrave’s stunning lagoon, and do a night dive with mantas.

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The ex-HMAS Tobruk wreck – Australia’s newest wreck, scuttled just over a year ago, has already attracted an amazing amount of marine life, with a resident turtle (Brookie) and huge schools of barracuda, batfish, jacks and snapper. It’s an easy wreck to explore with wide openings and a top depth of 12m, so accessible for open water divers.

Hervey Bay whale swims – Nothing quite prepares you for that first glimpse of a whale underwater. On Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Sunreef Mooloolaba was a pioneer, launching expeditions in 2014. A small number of Hervey Bay operators followed suit later the same year as part of a three-year trial that has now become permanent.

Wolf Rock – Wolf Rock is best known for its grey nurse sharks, but the sheer diversity of marine life is what makes Wolf Rock a world-class dive spot. The rock formation is also spectacular, which makes the dive even more interesting. There are several different species of sharks and rays consistently seen on the site.

For information on dive/stay holiday packages in the Bundaberg Region: diveplanit.com

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JEREMY CUFF ENJOYS ENCOUNTERS WITH WHALESHARKS AND MUCH MORE

critter-spotting After a week of fantastic and in Lembeh, Byron Conroy on the Lena Kavender head off turer for Adven luxurious Solitude in taking trip an epic liveaboard Misool and Raja Ampat PHOTOGRAPHS BY BYRON

FREEDIVING ADVICE:

TIPS FROM THE PROS ON HOW TO MAKE EQUALISATIO N ISSUES A THING OF THE PAST

CONROY

SOLITUDE ER VENTUR A MDisool –Raja Ampat

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DIVING DRY:

THE LOWDOWN ON DRYSUIT BUOYANCY, WEIGHTING AND MAINTENANCE

oh Lanta on the east coast of Thailand is becoming an increasingly popular occasional whaleshark . Once one of these majestic place for divers to visit creatures because it provides a has been spotted the relaxing alternative to word soon spreads around the the diving bustling streets of Phuket, community on Koh Lanta.

The next day a small but perhaps the main flotilla of advantage of diving from dive boats consisting Koh Lanta is the spectacular of all shapes and sizes will make the dive sites of Hin Daeng and long journey out to these Hin Muang. Other than rocks. In something akin liveaboards and the occasional boat to Wacky Races on water, the goal from Koh Phi Phi, the is to get there and in Koh Lanta the water first centres have these dive dive to have some quality sites to themselves. They time alone with these are located before huge animals in the Andaman Sea around the hordes arrive. Obviously 60km south of Koh Lanta. the speed boats have As with all diving from the advantage, but in the island, there is a choice rough conditions they of either can be forced to a speed boat or a big turn back. It is also worth boat. The big boats can bearing in mind that take up to four hours to reach the site these sites are more suited to experienced but offer a more-comfo divers and most dive rtable journey, breakfast on the way centres will not take novice divers. there, lunch on the way back and even the opportunity for a snooze Even if you are not lucky enough after an early 7am start. to encounter a manta The speed boats, however, or whaleshark, there ray have the advantage of is plenty to see. Hin Muang being able to reach these sites in about is usually dived first. The top of one hour 30 minutes. this long, slender ridge-like They set off later, get there earlier reef lies about 10m under the and are back home before surface and is covered the big boats. with anemones.

The direct translation Numerous peaks descend of Hin Daeng from Thai like giant stepping stones to English Red Rock, while Hin Muang is down to 22m. Its coral-covere means Purple Rock. The d walls then plunge over names are derived from the 60m to the ocean floor. red and purple broccoli corals that adorn their respective walls and peaks. Arguably providing the best diving Thailand has to offer, and certainly the deepest, these two sites offer a stunning array of soft corals and marine life.

They are one of the few places in the area where manta rays can be found and even the

DIFFERENT WAYS TO EXPLORE THE GBR

being literally We spent the whole dive ous shoals of surrounded by enorm er, jacks, trevallys, fusiliers, yellow snapp batfish and sweetlips, barracudas, several large grouper 35 WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Red Rock,

PURPLE ROCK Adrian Stacey reckons that Hin Daeng and Hin Muang deserve the title of ‘best dive experienced divers, thanks sites in Thailand’ for to a superlative blend of stunning topography, colourful corals, myriad varieties of reef life and the chance of big pelagic visitors PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIAN

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STACEY

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HIGH-END REGULATORS RATED AND REVIEWED

Spearfishing

Q&A: RAID's Paul Toomer

Thailand

Tonga ISSUE 3 | JUL/AUG 18 | FREE

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DON’T MISS ANOTHER ISSUE! Each month is jam-packed with lavishly illustrated trip reports from the Asia-Pacific region, comprehensive gear tests, hints and advice from acknowledged experts, interesting columns, up-to-the-minute news, and more!

A 12-month subscription is AUD$75.00 for Australia and AUD$99.99 for New Zealand.

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BEYOND TECHNICAL

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E

verybody loves an adventure and each individual, no matter what sport you are involved in, dreams of taking that adventure to a certain limit beyond their comfort zone to feel that buzz, the adrenaline rush, a sense of overwhelming achievement. Just how far you take that adventure is up to the individual, but you don’t learn to swim just to dip your toes in the water! No matter the realm you seek to explore, there is a road of learning and experience you must travel before you can reach your destination.

For me, it has always been the need to explore, to find those lost shipwrecks and dive deep where few have dared to venture. Strangely enough, they go together quite well.

The best wrecks are usually found in deep water, intact and protected from the unforgiving elements of the sea.

You can get the same buzz drifting over a canyon that drops away hundreds of metres below you as if you were standing at the top of a mountain, or making that enormous decent to 100m depth as the adrenalin kicks in just as you begin your freefall from the safety of an airplane.

But what is probably missed by most people is the journey you need to take to prepare yourself for this moment.

There are many divers in the world, a large percentage of which never really dive beyond 20m, a number which the sports diving world consider ‘deep diving’. Take the next level of training and you can increase the depth to 40m. Not bad, we are just now entering the zone where most shipwrecks worthwhile diving lay to rest.

In the technical diving world, we have just reached the point of what we regard as ‘deep diving’ begins. Here everything starts to change - equipment evolves to provide redundancy, suitable to the task in mind and of quality; we have to plan the dive in detail, know every minute where we should be, what we should be doing; plan our gases, amount needed to complete the dive, what gases we need to breathe at each depth; how long we can stay at each depth, where we have to stop our ascents and what to do if something goes badly wrong.

In decompression diving, problems have to be solved in the water, with an artificial ceiling there is no popping up to the surface to sort it out – that spells disaster, or even worse a possible fatality. Just like that freefalling parachutist, if it goes wrong, solve it now or don’t solve it at all. Either way, it’s up to you. So, the journey is long, there is no short cut if you want to join in exploring the Earth’s last true frontier. Were you aware we know more about the moon than the ocean depths? Incredible when you consider 7/10ths of the planet is covered by water.

To begin, you need to get through the early levels of the sports diver training (open water and advanced) and then move onto the technical courses. You have to learn about the gases we breathe and understand how they affect you underwater. The impact nitrogen has on us (which is 78 percent of the air we normally breathe). Did you know we cannot breathe 21% oxygen (air) past a depth of 66m as it

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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

Deep diving A STATE OF MIND

Experienced technical diver Neil Bennett looks at the art of deep diving, and explains everything that goes into conducting a successful dive beyond recreational depths PHOTOGRAPHS BY NEIL BENNETT

Deeper shipwrecks are generally in better condition

Twinsets and stage cylinders

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view all products online

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As time and depth increase, the more narcosis will become a bigger factor, your senses begin to dull and the narcotic influence takes effect becomes poisonous (oxygen toxicity) to us, so we replace with helium to reduce the oxygen and nitrogen content, a product known as trimix, allowing us to reach the depths of well over 100m and beyond. These are covered by a set of courses known as nitrox, Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures, Extended Range and Advanced Trimix. Five courses - that will keep you busy!

Each course introduces new skills, more knowledge, more equipment and a lot, lot more diving. Experience counts for a lot. Did I mention it was a long journey? But each step of the way is fun, building on the foundations of the previous course, ultimately giving you the self-belief for the adventure you are about to embark on.

So now I am ready, I am sitting on the side of the boat. The time for idle chat has gone and I am running the dive plan through my mind. Refreshing the depth times and tasks to be performed, making sure my dive slate is clear on my forearm to see. Systems check - back-mounted twinset for my bottom breathing gas are open and working. My travel gas is on and ready, mounted under my left arm. My two decompression gases of different oxygen mixes are clearly labelled and ready under my right arm - that’s five cylinders in total! Main computer set correctly and working, back-up computer set and working, main umbilical torch working, back-up light working, main surface maker buoy and line stowed correctly, back-up buoy and reel stowed correctly, spare mask stowed, main knife reachable, back-up knife stowed correctly. Drysuit airline working, back-up BCD inflator hose stowed correctly and I haven’t even checked the camera system yet! Camera on, both strobes on, ready for somebody to pass to me in the water.

Are we in the water yet?

Venturing inside a deep wreck

Splash, now we are ready to go. Not quite! Another round of checks at 5m with your buddy to make sure nothing is missing or air is leaking. I check him and he checks me. Now we are good to go.

For me, recording what I am seeing is a big part of why I dive, almost duty bound to pass on the experience to others, but the preparation itself is difficult to convey. The mental process you need to go through in planning. Nobody sets my gear up, only me. Like packing your own parachute - if I mess up it’s my fault; if you screw up I’ll come back and haunt you!

As we start to drop through the water column you can feel your heart beat increase in anticipation of the dive, excited by the drop-off into the abyss. We are descending 100m so the plan time just to freefall is approximately three minutes.

At 50m we are changing from our travel gas and onto our bottom gas. As time and depth increase, the more narcosis will become a bigger factor, your senses begin to dull and the narcotic influence takes effect. Your senses kick into auto mode and you start to run the routine you have trained on so many times before; check the time – where should I be – what

Deep wreck penetration

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COMPUTERS • O2 CELLS • GAS ANALYSERS CABLES & CONNECTORS • REBREATHER PARTS PATHFINDER STROBES • SENSORS TOOLS • SOLENOIDS Tech diving opens up whole new worlds

gas should I be breathing – are we on plan?

All good, touch down, we have reached our target and now I must do the job I have come to do. I have a pre-planned list of images to try and take, but the difficulty is you don’t know what the subject, the shipwreck, will be like until you are there. Too dark, murky and just boring broken chunks of metal, so you have to get the perspective you need and direct your buddy into the film set in a vain hope the audience can see and understand what you are showing them.

But we have a problem; my buddy is suffering from narcosis too! So the pantomime of two divers dancing around the shipwreck unfolds as they both attempt to communicate what is required.

Our 20 minutes bottom time is soon over, no one last photo opportunity, time is time and once the plan says up, that’s it!

And so begins the long, slow process of surfacing. Preforming Donating the long hose

So, the journey is long, there is no short cut if you want to join in exploring the Earth’s last true frontier ultimate buoyancy control and checking your ascent speed.

Halting at each planned micro-bubble and decompression stop. Each getting longer than the previous one. At 50m, switch back to the travel gas, at 20m, change to the first deco gas, then finally at 3m onto the 100 percent oxygen mix.

Breathe any one of these at the wrong depth for too long then it could be all over in an instance. The plan now needs to be followed without deviation. Times, depths and correct gas use are critical for safety!

The camera has long been stowed away and now is replaced with the surface marker buoy, as it is inflated and sent off to the surface. Each movement towards the surface requires the line to be reeled in to remove the danger of entanglement and at the same time, still controlling your buoyancy, making sure you’re on the right gas, monitoring your depth and time if you are on the 100 percent oxygen, no deeper than 6m otherwise game over!

Exploring a deep wreck

The 3m stop lasts forever, at these bottom depths don’t be surprised if you have to float there for well over one to two hours; all for a 20-minute bottom time.

Finally, you reach the surface and the sense of achievement is massive. You’ve been forced to be in silence for several hours and now you just want to talk! Everyone wants their story out, all the things they saw during the dive and what tribulations they had on their adventure. You are left with this smile on your face knowing that you have been somewhere and seen something few other people have witnessed on this planet and probably in time too. You know you are indeed a privileged person, having got there by your own ability and fortitude, all built on a platform of sound training. n If you would like to know more about technical diving, visit the website: www.nzdiving.co.nz

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What’s New

FOURTH ELEMENT OCEANPOSITIVE ‘FIN COLLECTION’

OCEANIC GEO.4

The new Geo 4.0 lets divers stay connected to their dive data in style.

Bluetooth technology connects Geo 4.0 to all smartphones through the DiverLog+ App, so divers can adjust and customise all their settings on the go pre- and post-dive.

And with five new stylish and sporty colour straps, divers can personalise their Geo 4.0 to match any piece of dive gear. Colour straps are available in Black, White, Blue, Yellow and Sea Blue. The Geo 4.0 also features Oceanic’s patented Dual Algorithm, can handle up to three nitrox mixes to 100 percent, has four operating modes – watch, norm, gauge and freedive - and a brand-new XL display area with wider font and up to 33 percent larger digits.

www.oceanicworldwide.com

AQUA LUNG STORM

The new Fourth Element OceanPositive collection of swimwear and rashguards is out now.

Made from recycled nylon, the Fin Collection takes inspiration from the shark, offering a sleek, streamlined range which suits many body shapes and sizes with intricate but bold, abstract prints and strong colours, super-sized to represent our beloved sharks in all their magnificent glory.

This once bountiful animal is one of the oceans’ apex predators.

There are over 500 species of shark, which have evolved have evolved in a diverse range of aquatic habitats. Their incredible skins allow them to move quickly through the water with ease and efficiency and their predatory nature is essential to the natural order of the ocean. Despite all of this, sharks are gravely endangered with over 200 species on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list.

Caught for their fins or, too often, in Ghost Fishing nets, sharks need our protection. Fourth Element OceanPositive swimwear is made from Econyl® recycled nylon made from Ghost Fishing net, brought out of the sea, and other post-consumer waste. Packaged without single-use plastic, this is part of Fourth Element’s Mission 2020 pledge.

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The Aqua Lung Storm is a great all-round fin that is ideal for travel. It is produced using monprene, a single material construction which gives both durability and strength while maintaining exceptionally light weight – exactly what a travelling diver requires.

The innovative foot pocket design has the advantage of a full foot fin for comfort, with the versatility of an open-heel fin for sizing. The silicone bungee strap has a heel pad for easy on and off. Grips on the underside reduce slippage on a boat deck. It is available in a wide range of four sizes, covering junior to adult.

NB: The coloured blade inserts and bungee protectors correspond to the fin size and are not interchangeable.

www.aqualung.com

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ISLANDER KAYAKS PARADISE AND PARADISE II MARINE RECYCLED

As divers, we are well aware of the issue of plastics in our oceans, and of the efforts to not only clean up this pollution, but also recycle and reuse the material – as with Fourth Element’s OceanPositive swimwear, and Costa del Mar’s Untangled range of sunglasses. Now, Islander Kayaks have partnered with Odyssey Innovation to use plastic collected from beach cleans and marine salvage to mould robust siton-top kayaks. Odyssey Innovation founder Rob Thompson set up the organisation to tackle the three recurring obstacles encountered while conducting ocean clean-up activities – how to access coves, estuaries and other areas not frequented by regular beach-goers, how to dispose of the plastic generated through clean-ups, and how to fund the running costs of such operations. To resolve these issues, he came up with a plan to combine elements of all three problems and, by using the circular economy, turn them into the solution – and that’s when the Paradise Marine Recycled kayaks were ‘born’.

The Paradise Marine Recycled has a 290cm-long, 18kg hull, which has an ergonomic moulded-in footbrace, self-bailing scupper holes, a drain bung, strong carry handles and various D-ring attachment points. The Deluxe padded and adjustable backrest seat comes as standard, and the useful storage spaces, including a stern tankwell with strap retainers and a five-inch screw hatch with pull-out bag, mean you can collect any rubbish you find along the way.

The 390cm-long, 28kg Paradise II Marine Recycled can comfortably seat two adults, an adult and two smaller paddlers, or be paddled solo. Two Deluxe padded and adjustable backrest seats come as standard. It has all the same additional features as the Paradise.

APEKS VX1

Apeks claim that the VX1 is the ‘ultimate in diving comfort’. It is a lightweight, frameless single-lens mask with a premium silicone skirt with advanced geometry designed to minimise facial pressure points during long-duration dives. Quick-release buckles with stainless steel rollers allow easy adjustment for the best fit, even while wearing drygloves, It is available in surgical-grade all-black silicone, or a white silicone skirt with a black in-fill around the lenses. It has two lens options – Pure Clear, which provides maximum optical clarity with no distortion, and the UV Cut, which provides eye protection from harmful HEV light, which is present even on cloudy days.

The VX1 is supplied with a comfortable silicone mask strap, and an additional neoprene strap, all in a reusable zipped protective case.

www.apeksdiving.com

MARES MAGELLAN

www.islanderkayaks.com

DIVEPRO D40F The DivePro D40F is a powerful 4,000 lumen video light with a full power runtime of 50 minutes from its CREE XHP70B bulb.

It has a push-button switch, is powered by a lithium-ion battery (with over-discharging, polarity reversing and low-voltage protection), and is depth-rated to 100m. It comes with a charger and wrist strap.

www.divepro.com

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

It is completely foldable as it has no rigid backpack, features four aluminium D-rings, and it has a roll-up self-draining pocket for smaller accessories. Optional non-dumpable trim weights that fit on the tank band are available.

www.mares.com

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

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Gear Guide

THIS ISSUE: BACK-UP DIVE LIGHTS

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.

BACK-UP DIVE LIGHTS

This issue, we look at back-up dive lights. A decent torch is a must for any diver, whether you are a hardcore UK diver, an occasional holiday diver, or anywhere in-between. Dive lights are not just for ‘night dives’, thay can be invaluable in a cave, cavern or shipwreck, and can also put some of the colour back into an underwater scene on an overcast or dull day. They are also useful as a signalling device between buddy teams.

Our criteria for the test was a torch that is ideal for use as a back-up dive light, that is, your secondary source of illumination on a UK dive, or as a primary source of light on a night dive in the tropics, when weight and size are more of an issue. It could be battery powered or rechargeable.

We looked at the build quality, ease of use (how to turn on/ off while wearing thick gloves, etc), type of beam (spot or wide/flood), burn time, accessories and size.

The continued development of LED lighting technology has seen dive lights come on leaps and bounds, and it is astounding the power developed by some compact units these days - in the past, you have been carrying a muchbigger torch around for a similar sort of output.

ON TEST THIS MONTH: • ANCHOR SERIES 1K • BIGBLUE AL450NM • DIVEPRO D5-3 • EXPOSURE MARINE 1-16 • FINNSUB BANG WIDE • MARES XR BACK-UP LIGHT 56

Location: Tested at Vivian Dive Centre, Llanberis www.viviandivecentre.com Water temp: 9 degrees C Surface temp: 18 degrees C WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

ANCHOR DIVE LIGHTS SERIES 1K SPOT AND WIDE Anchor Dive Lights are an Ireland-based company that is earning high acclaim in the world of underwater lighting. The Series 1K is one of their staple products, and there are two versions - the Spot and the Wide. Both are made from aviationgrade anodised aluminium - with a nifty, distinctive blue head - depth-rated to 100m, and come with battery and charger. They have three power settings, and burn times of around 70-80 minutes on full, two and a half hours at 50 percent, and five hours at 25 percent. It is simple to cycle through the different power settings by pressing the on/off button, which also features illumination to let you know the charge level of the battery.

The Spot, with its CREE XM-L T6 LED, produces a tightly focused, bright ten degree beam which still has some peripheral light that illuminates around the main beam.

The Wide, with its CREE XM-L U2 LED, puts out a 72 degree wide beam, which literally illuminates a huge area with a bright, even flood light.

The Spot and the Wide are powerful enough to be used as a primary, and are so small - and well-priced - that you could buy both and be able to switch between a spot light and a wide beam as conditions dictate. You also have a built-in redundancy then too! Either of these would also be great for a tropical night dive, but knock it down to 50 percent power. www.anchordivelights.com

CHOICE 2019 GROUP TEST

TORCHES

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 156g RECHARGEABLE: Yes VERDICT: Compact back-up lights that produce a hell of a beam for their size. Easy to use, durably built - all-round quality package.

SCORE

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BIGBLUE AL450 NM The BigBlue AL450NM is a compact torch that pumps out a decent amount of power - 450 lumens, in this instance, with a burntime of four hours.

It is made from anodised aluminium, and the CREE LED produces a nice, tight eight-degree spot beam, which actually penetrated gloomy water with ease.

It is depth-rated to 100m, and it is operated by pressing a push button on the hilt, which is easy to use even with thick neoprene gloves on or even drygloves.

It is powered by three AAA batteries, which are supplied in the pack. It also comes with a safety wrist lanyard.

In use, we found this little torch to be nice and bright, and exceptionally easy to switch on and off. It makes a fine back-up light in temperate waters, slicing through green water full of floating detritus, but equally that bright spot means it is ideal as a primary dive light for the travelling diver, and this would work well on a night dive or even for mild wreck penetration.

There is also a handy optional pouch to store the torch in. It has a velcro-closing flap, and the torch itself attaches to a retractor in the bottom of the pouch so you never have to worry about losing it. www.bigbluedivelights.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 185g RECHARGEABLE: No VERDICT: The BigBlue AL450NM is a great little torch, with a bright beam, good build quality, decent burn time and a neat one/off operation.

SCORE

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

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DIVEPRO D5-3 The DivePro D5-3 is made from aircraftgrade anodised aluminium and boasts a single CREE XP-L LED pushing out an impressive 1,380 lumens into a bright spot, with a light peripheral halo around it.

The D5-3 is turned on and off with a twist of the head, which is easy to do even wearing gloves. However, by turning it on and off within two seconds, you can cycle through high, medium and low power settings, and a strobe and an SOS mode, which is pretty neat. You get a burntime of one-and-a-half hours on full power, and eight hours on low power.

The small nature of the D5-3, along with its relatively low weight (for a metal torch) and good burntime means it is a good option as a primary torch for use abroad, as it won’t eat up too much luggage allowance, and as it comes with a battery and charger, you don’t have to haul packs of batteries with you.

It is depth-rated to 100m, so will even suit most techies wanting a compact but bright redundant torch.

Finally, let’s touch on that stunning price point. This price for a metal-bodied rechargeable torch of this quality is fantastic value for money. www.divepro.com

BEST VALUE 2019 GROUP TEST

TORCHES

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 135g RECHARGEABLE: Yes VERDICT: Extremely compact dive torch, with a bright beam. Easy twist on/off, great burntime and an astonishing price. Great for a powerful UK back-up or tropical primary.

SCORE

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

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DUAL FAMILY

Performance and Reliability, Competitive Price

DUAL ADJ 52X

DUAL 15X

2n Stage

2n Stage

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Vortex Assisted Design (VAD) ensures a natural

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Ultra light and ultra resistant

breathing at any depth

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VAD

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Adjustable cracking effort

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Superflex hose for improved comfort

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Pneumatically Assisted Design (PAD)

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Also available as an octopus

1st Stage

1st Stage

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Diaphragm Design

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Diaphragm Design

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Auto Sealing Technology (AST) system

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Simple, rugged and compact

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Dynamic Flow Control (DFC) improves airflow particu-

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4 pre oriented LP ports, one of which offers DFC

larly at depth •

Natural Convection Channel technology (NCC), allows for better thermal exchange, increasing resistance to freezing

EXPOSURE MARINE ACTION 1-16 Exposure Marine turned the dive light market on its head a few years back with their innovative torches, which were incredibly bright and compact. However, the method of turning them on/off and cycling through power settings left some divers bemused. The new versions have all of the positives of the previous incarnation, and none of the negatives.

The anodised aluminium, rechargeable Action 1-16 has a single White XPL2 LED, which delivers 1,000 lumens on full power - in a bright wide beam that is amazing for its size - for a runtime of one and a half hours. Medium power gives you three hours, and low power six hours.

Gone is the old method of turning it on and off, instead you now have a moretraditional and user-friendly push button on the bottom. A bright LED on the back near the button shows when the battery is getting close to low at that power setting.

The clever bods at Exposure Marine couldn’t help themselves, though, and so the torch also has a ‘tap’ function, where you can cycle through the power levels simply by tapping the light itself.

The 1-16 is a very small unit, but would be a great back-up, or a tropical primary. www.exposurelights.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 115g RECHARGEABLE Yes VERDICT: Geat to see Exposure Marine back in the mix, with a compact but powerful, and user-friendly, back-up l;ight, which would also make a good tropical primary.

SCORE

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

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AWARE WEEK

JOIN THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT

14-22 September

Take Action for the Ocean with PADI® and Project AWARE® this AWARE Week.

Contact your local PADI dive center to find out more or visit: PROJECTAWARE.ORG

FINNSUB BANG WIDE Finnish-brand Finnsub offer a wide range of dive lights, but the Bang Wide is one of its newer units. The head has a single CREE LED that puts out a ten degree beam, which at full power of 1,100 lumens is incredibly bright and cuts through British waters.

This full-power mode has a burn time of two hours, but knock it down to 30 percent power of 366 lumens, you get a stonking ten hours, and this is still reasonably bright.

To cycle through the power settings is where the ‘Bang’ name comes from.

An accelerometer within the housing is activated by tapping the light to turn it on/off, and to switch between the 30 percent and 100 percent modes. It takes a while to get the tapping rhythm right - you need to do three taps with a time span of 0.3-0.8 seconds between each stroke - but once you get the hang of it, it is relatively straightforward. It would make an over-the-top back-up unit, or a damn fine primary in tropical waters, or even the UK! It is depth-rated to 100m, and features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery - the supplied charger just magnetically attaches to the rear of the light. It also comes with a soft Goodman handle. www.finnsub.com

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TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 250g RECHARGEABLE: Yes VERDICT: As with all Finnsub lights, it is well-made, incredibly bright, but you just need to get used to the tapping method of operation.

SCORE

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MARES XR BACK-UP LIGHT Mares have produced a strong line-up of torches with the EOS RZ range, and they are complemented nicely by the XR backup light.

Made from anodised aluminium, the XR back-up light offers up 850 lumens, with a burn time of nearly two and a half hours, which the XML2 U2 LED puts out in a bright eight degree beam, with a solid spot and an even peripheral halo.

It is powered by a 18650 battery, which can be recharged in four to five hours.

It is depth-rated to 100m, so enough for most divers, and is switched on and off by twisting the head, which is easy to do even while wearing thick 5mm gloves or drygloves as it has a neat rubber ‘grip ring’ embedded into the aluminium.

It is ideal as a back-up light to the EOS torch reviewed last month - or any other primary unit - but with its compact size, great burn time and solid light production, it is ideal to accompany you abroad as your primary dive light in more tropical climates. It comes with the battery and charger, and a safety wrist lanyard.. At this price for a rechargeable back-up torch, that is more than capable of being used abroad as your main light, it is awesome value for money. www.mares.com

BEST VALUE 2019 GROUP TEST

TORCHES

TECH SPECS & VERDICT WEIGHT: 134g RECHARGEABLE: Yes VERDICT: Compact but bright back-up light, with a great burntime, bright beam, excellent price point. Great back-up or a fine tropical primary.

SCORE

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VERDICT

Dive lights are an essential piece of a diver’s kit arsenal, and all the torches here performed admirably, which made dishing out the awards incredibly hard.

For the Best Value, the DivePro D5-3 and the Mares XR back-up light went head to head. The DivePro pumps out an impressive amount of lumens, has a good burntime, and is easy to use. The Mares similarly has a great performance, has some neat features, and gives a decent burntime. Both represent great value for the performance and build quality, and we literally could not decide between the two of them, they were that neck-and-neck, so we gave the award to both.

The Choice award was similarly tough. The Exposure Marine, Anchor Dive Lights and Finnsub were all contenders. They all put in a superb performance, and we liked the Exposure Marine’s compact size, the Anchor Dive Lights’ build quality and performance, and the Finnsub’s unique ‘tap’ switch, but the Anchor Dive Lights 1K Series merged a combination of being well made, well priced, and with a great performance (in both Wide and Spot variants). * = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

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Long Term Test APEKS TECH SHORTS Mark Evans: I love diving in a stripped-back backplate-andwing, or backinflate BCD, as I prefer the unencumbered feel. However, I hate having spools and reels, torches, etc, clipped on to D-rings - I feel like a Christmas tree.

But there are no pockets on the BCD. That is where the Tech Shorts come in - slip them on over a wetsuit and hey presto, two large drysuit-style pockets for all your accessories. www.apeksdiving.com

MARES EPIC ADJ 82X

INFORMATION Arrival date: March 2019 Suggested retail price: * Number of dives: 0 Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins

FINNSUB 20D AND COMFORT HARNESS

Mark Evans: The outer layer of the Finnsub 20D wing is made from robust Cordura 2000, which is described as ‘almost indestructible’ - and I can well believe it. The inner layer is TPU-coated Nylon 420, which is also very durable, but if the worst happened and you had INFORMATION Arrival date: January 2019 an issue, you can easily Suggested retail price: * access the interior via the Number of dives: 13 chunky YKK zipper.

Time in water: 11 hrs 25 mins www.finnsub.com 64

Mark Evans: Mares regs traditionally work so well out of the box that there were no ‘divercontrols’ offered in the past, until a nifty venturi ‘throttle’ - how can you tell the designer is a motorcyclist? appeared a few years back. Now that same control is on the Epic Adj, but it also has a cracking resistance control knob too, so those who like to tweak their regs are well covered. www.mares.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: February 2019 Suggested retail price: * Number of dives: 8 Time in water: 7 hrs 20 mins

SHEARWATER RESEARCH TERIC Mark Evans: The Teric accompanied me to Sudan for a liveaboard trip, and it performed faultlessly all week. I had my Perdix AI on one wrist and the Teric on the other, and it was amazing how bright the Teric is compared to its big brother.

As well as the clarity of the display, I also like the logbook on the Teric, which clearly shows all your dive data, especially the graph of your dive profile. www.shearwater.com

INFORMATION Arrival date: December 2018 Suggested retail price: * Number of dives: 21 Time in water: 20 hrs 25 mins WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

OTTER WATERSPORTS ATLANTIC

Mark Evans: I have roped regular Scuba Diver contributor Jason Brown into being a ‘guest tester’ for the Otter Watersports Atlantic as he has just recently taken delivery of one. One of the big USPs of the Atlantic is the new pattern, which eliminates underarm seams, and thus is designed to give more flexibility, which is essential for cave divers and technical divers. As Jason ably INFORMATION Arrival date: February 2019 demonstrates, reaching Suggested retail price: * twinset valves is a doddle Number of dives: 5 in the Atlantic.

Time in water: 4 hrs 50 mins www.drysuits.co.uk

BARE ULTRAWARMTH 7MM HOOD

Mark Evans: With the Group Test on regulators being conducted in waters dropping down to 4 degrees C in the depths of Vivian Quarry, I was extremely grateful that I still had the Ultrawarmth hood in our Long Term Test INFORMATION Arrival date: November 2018 family! Even after lengthy Suggested retail price: * periods underwater, my Number of dives: 26 head was nice and warm.

Time in water: 24 hrs 45 mins www.baresports.com

APEKS XL4+

Mark Evans: The Apeks XL4+ got a good workout in the Red Sea waters off Sudan. The temperature was around 25-26 degrees C, so much warmer than the colder waters it has been used to, but it was a dream to breathe through, even when plunging down to 35-40m in search of sharks, or breathing hard when punching through surging currents to get to the action hotspots. And I INFORMATION Arrival date: February 2019 appreciated its light weight Suggested retail price: * to keep down the baggage Number of dives: 24 allowance costs.

Time in water: 22 hrs 35 mins www.apeksdiving.com

HALCYON INFINITY Mark Evans: The Halcyon Infinity has reached the end of its time in the Long Term Test stable. I have long been a fan of backplate-andwing BCDs, and I like the uncluttered feel around your torso, and the morestreamlined profile they give you when you are in a nice trim position in the water.

The Infinity is, as you would expect from Halcyon, robustly constructed and it feels like it would withstand the rigours of hardcore UK diving with ease.

Even after 25 dives it looks like new. I also like some of the additional features, like the integrated weight pockets INFORMATION Arrival date: October 2018 and the well-padded Suggested retail price: * shoulder straps. All-round Number of dives: 25 a nice wing.

Time in water: 24 hrs 15 mins www.halcyon.net * = 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

BULL SHARKS, BARRIER REEFS AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOANNA SMART

I

began my journey as the 2019 Australasian Rolex Scholar of the Our-World Underwater Scholarship Society in Fiji. With scuba gear thanks to Tusa and Waterproof, an underwater camera thanks to Reef Photo and Video, underwater video lights thanks to Light and Motion Dive and some great sunnies from Mako Eyewear, I headed to Pacific Harbour, a threehour drive from Fiji’s main airport in Nadi.

The purpose for my visit to Fiji was to explore shark research. Beqa Adventure Divers (BAD) have been running shark dive experiences for scuba divers for over 16 years. This dive gives guests a front row seat to the largest aggregation of bull sharks in the world. Through their shark dive, BAD aim to educate guests about the threats and pressures sharks are facing in the modern world.

BAD have implemented the Shark Reef Marine Reserve surrounding the shark dive site, the first marine reserve dedicated to researching and preserving the local shark population. Research efforts now involve collaboration with universities all over the world. BAD also implement the My Fiji Shark Programme. Through this shark adoption programme, you can adopt a shark, complete with a name and description of its personality. The proceeds of the adoption programme are used to support existing shark conservation measures, fund research and create new shark conservation and inshore fisheries management programmes. My experiences at BAD were fantastic and I would recommend a trip to visit them.

From Fiji I headed to Lady Elliot Island on the southern Great Barrier Reef with internationally renowned underwater photographers David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes. David and Jennifer were at the island on assignment for National Geographic Magazine and invited me along to gain some much-needed skills in underwater photography and videography. While on the island, I assisted David and Jennifer in documenting the pristine coral reefs surrounding Lady Elliot and had many great encounters with marine life, including turtles, manta rays, sharks and giant trevally. It was a privilege to see two great photographers at work, and have the opportunity to learn from them.

After Lady Elliot, I headed north to Papua New Guinea where

Joanna Smart

I headed out on the MV Oceania, a new liveaboard that provides diving around Kimbe Bay, the Witu Islands and Fathers Reef, to put my newly developed photography skills to use. The experience was incredible and the wild waters of PNG provided fish in numbers I had rarely seen before. Schools of jacks, barracuda, fusiliers and batfish were a common occurrence along with a colourful array of sponges and soft corals. After my trip on Oceania I joined the team at Mahonia Na Dari to participate in their reef education programme. Mahonia, based on the beautiful grounds of Walindi Plantation Resort, work with local schools and community to promote reef awareness and conservation. I was able to visit both the local Primary and High Schools and see the programme in action. Seeing younger generations become passionate about marine conservation gave me great hope for the future of our oceans. n

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XR BACKMOUNT SETS

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An experience without equal

“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

www.wakatobi.com