Scuba Diver #34 - European Edition

GRENADA DIVE FEST

EXPLORING ITALY’S ATLANTIS

WINTER HOTSPOTS

CELEBRATING THE THIRD ANNUAL DIVE FEST IN GRENADA

DEAN MARTIN IS MESMERISED

BY THE REMAINS OF THE ROMAN CITY OF BAIA

WANT TO ESCAPE THE COLD WEATHER FOR SOME WINTER SUN? WE HAVE SOME IDEAS!

Guadalupe's

GREAT WHITES

IS THIS THE ULTIMATE BUCKET-LIST DIVE? #34 | £3.25

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WORLD EXCLUSIVE! APEKS MTX-RC

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EDITOR’S NOTE GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD’S SHARKS Sharks have been in the spotlight again this last month or so, for both good and bad reasons.

Thankfully, the positives more than outweigh the negatives.

The mainstream media jumped all over an attack off the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia, in which two Brits who were snorkelling were badly bitten by a shark. Similarly, a tale from the island of Reunion was plastered across the tabloids after a Scottish tourist went missing while snorkelling and his hand subsequently turned up in the belly of a tiger shark.

However, in the first case it appears that the men were messing about and wrestling in the water, and this frantic splashing could well have been what drew the shark in, and in the second, it is thought that the victim could well have drowned and then the shark just scavenged from his remains, as tiger sharks are known to do.

On a more-positive note, the US House of Representatives recently passed bipartisan legislation to ban the US shark-fin trade, and it now awaits final passage through the Senate. With 12 US states, 45 airlines, 21 shipping companies, seven major corporations and over 645 US businesses and organisations supporting a shark-fin trade ban - not to mention a 2016 national poll showing that eight out of ten Americans supports a ban on buying and selling of shark fins - it seems there is a groundswell of opinion in favour of ‘the men in grey suits’ being left to roam the oceans as nature intended, so let’s hope that the Senate leadership do the right thing and pass this important legislation.

Mark Evans Editor-in-Chief

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Mark Evans Tel: 0800 0 69 81 40 ext 700 Email: mark.evans@scubadivermag.com

DESIGN & PRODUCTION MANAGER Matt Griffiths Email: matt@griffital.co.uk

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ISSN 2514-2054

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GRENADA DIVE FEST

EXPLORING ITALY’S ATLANTIS

WINTER HOTSPOTS

CELEBRATING THE THIRD ANNUAL DIVE FEST IN GRENADA

DEAN MARTIN IS MESMERISED

BY THE REMAINS OF THE ROMAN CITY OF BAIA

WANT TO ESCAPE THE COLD WEATHER FOR SOME WINTER SUN? WE HAVE SOME IDEAS!

Guadalupe's

GREAT WHITES

IS THIS THE ULTIMATE BUCKET-LIST DIVE? #34 | £3.25

12

WORLD EXCLUSIVE! APEKS MTX-RC

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

PHOTOGRAPH BY: BLACK MANTA PHOTOGRAPHY

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22/11/2019 18:52

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES...

6 News

22 Mexico

66 Underwater Photography

34 Italy

70 Shoot Like A Pro

38 The Next Generation

Great news for Bite-Back, a tragic fire on the Red Sea Aggressor, a British sub found off Malta, and yet another seal stricken by plastic debris.

Martyn Guess looks at the best techniques for shooting in super-macro, which is when the subjects get extra-tiny and harder to find.

Anne and Phil Medcalf, and Mario Vitalini, showcase how to shoot models effectively.

98 OWUSS Scholarship

Kim Hildebrandt rounds out her stint of coldwater diving, this time off Vancouver Island, at the Marine Mammal Centre in San Francisco, and at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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Black Manta Photography’s Richard Stevens and Hailey Elizabeth tick off a bucket-list experience when they venture to Guadalupe Island to cage dive with great white sharks on board the Socorro Vortex liveaboard.

Dean Martin is mesmerised by the Roman remains of the city of Baia, which are known as ‘Italy’s Atlantis’, and are remarkably well-preserved to say they have been submerged for thousands of years.

As a qualified diver, Luke Evans was able to explore the main shark tank at the Blue Planet Aquarium. After previously doing the Junior Shark Experience, this was a major step up in the adrenaline stakes.

42 Grenada

The Clan Evans heads for the Caribbean island of Grenada as it celebrates its third annual Dive Fest, and is immersed in a frenetic week of wrecks, reefs, drifts and a spot of lionfish hunting.

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CONTENTS

...CONTINUED

GEAR GUIDE

50 Focus on: Timor-Leste

82 What’s New

Second in a short series looking at specific areas of Timor-Leste, which is rapidly establishing itself as the ‘next big thing’ in Southeast Asia diving.

This month, the dive hotspots around Dili.

52 Scotland

Jason Brown makes the trek back up to the Orkney Islands to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the scuttling of the German World War One fleet in the natural harbour of Scapa Flow.

58 The Philippines

Overview of this Southeast Asia diving Mecca, focusing on some of the diving hotspots, including Dumaguete, Malapascua, Oslob, Apo Island, Anilao and Bohol.

76 TECHNICAL: Greenland

Cold-water diving specialist Byron Conroy, who currently resides in Iceland, boards a trip bound for the frozen waters of Greenland to dive under icebergs.

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We take a look at new products to market, including the Fourth Element’s Hydro rashguard, Best Divers Aldebaran dive light, Hollis Prism 2 CCR, and the Girls That Scuba discount card.

84 Gear Guide

Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans heads for North Wales to get a WORLD EXCLUSIVE first test dive on the Apeks MTX-RC, as well as reviewing the Atomic Aquatics BC2 back-inflate BCD.

94 Long Term Test

The Scuba Diver Test Team rate and review a selection of products over a six-month period, including the Aqua Lung AquaFlex and Bali wetsuits, Mares Genius dive computer, Suunto D5 dive computer, the Apeks VX1 mask, and the Sealife Sea Dragon Mini 1300s.

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

TWELVE OF THE BEST

FOR BITE-BACK

T

welve legendary names from the world of underwater photography have come together to create a stunning, high-quality, 2020 fundraising calendar in support of UK charity Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation.

Each photographer has hand-picked and donated a breath-taking image to inspire greater love and understanding for the marine environment.

The line-up of contributors includes Alex Mustard – who will be on the Main Stage at the GO Diving Show in February 2020 – as well as Amanda Cotton, Amos Nachoum, Christian Vizl, Cristina Mittermeier, David Doubilet, Doug Perrine, Ellen Cuylaerts, Greg Lecouer, Jason Isley, Shawn Heinrichs and Tanya Houppermas.

Graham Buckingham, campaign director at Bite-Back, said: “These photographers are at the very top of their game and, between them, they have scooped over 100 awards for their images. So to gather these giants of underwater photography in one place is a remarkable

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achievement that not only benefits the charity, but gives supporters a year of incredible images to enjoy.”

Alongside every image, each contributing photographer has provided commentary about the oceans and the need for greater protection.

Christian Vizl, from Mexico City, said: “Today the world’s oceans are in grave danger. Overfishing, pollution, plastics, climate change and other human pressures threaten the fundamental nature of the seas. We simply can’t afford for the oceans to reach a critical tipping point.”

Already Bite-Back has made significant progress in its campaign to make Britain the first country in the western world to ban the sale of shark products, including shark-fin soup, shark meat and items containing shark such as pet food and cosmetics.

The A4 calendar is printed on recycled paper using vegetable inks by a climate-neutral printer. It can be purchased online for £12 (including free UK delivery) at www.bite-back.com/shop. It can also be shipped worldwide.

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UNIQUE WINE RAISES FUNDS FOR BITE-BACK SHARK & MARINE CONSERVATION

DS N E I R DIVING WITH F

MALDIVES

NEW: Faarufushi Maldives

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NEW: Roses, Costa Brava

Divers are renowned for enjoying a tipple or two of an adult beverage once the day’s diving is done, and now they can relax with glass in hand knowing they are aiding a worthy cause.

Shark fan and wine importer David Paddle, founder of Black Dog Wine Agency, has just launched two outstanding bottles of South African wine — Blacktail and Whitefin — to help raise money to support Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation.

The organic wines, from a WWF-certified vineyard, feature eye-catching labels that celebrate two little-known sharks found off the coast of South Africa.

Available only from www.blackdogwineagency.com, the Blacktail Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier costs £18, and the Whitefin Pinot Grigio white wine costs £12.

Half the profit from each bottle goes to Bite-Back to support its campaigns to end the sale of shark products in the UK. David Paddle said: “Protecting the marine environment and enjoying great wine are two passions in my life. The development of these delicious Blacktail and Whitefin wines has allowed me to combine these obsessions and contribute to the success of Bite-Back, a charity I’ve admired for a long time.”

On the reverse of the wine bottle the label describes the characteristics of each wine and highlights the fact that one-in-four shark species is listed as threatened, along with an acknowledgement of the partnership with Bite-Back.

The Blacktail wine delivers rich red fruit flavours, soft ripe tannins and fresh herbal aromas rounded off with spicy notes, while the Whitefin wine boasts fresh tropical aromas with pear and crisp mineral flavours.

Graham Buckingham, campaign director for Bite-Back, said: “This new partnership has to be one of our favourites and we expect the wines to be a big hit with divers and shark fans during the Christmas period and for special occasions. We’ve terrifically grateful to Black Dog Wine Agency for choosing us to benefit from this stunning and memorable wine.”

The wine can be ordered online via www.blackdogwineagency.com or by calling 01565 723154. Delivery can be organised to arrive on a date of your choice.

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

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

www.euro-divers.com

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7 12:00 22.01.19

IMMEDIATE ICCAT BAN NEEDED TO SAVE ENDANGERED MAKO SHARKS In a shared effort to highlight growing public concern for declining shortfin mako shark populations, local conservation group Save the Med and global marine conservation non-profit Project AWARE brought the voices of more than 25,000 concerned ocean enthusiasts from around the world to the attention of fisheries managers ahead of critical decisions being made at the meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which took place in November in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

“Years of inaction to protect declining mako sharks is increasingly a cause for worry among the public, in general, and the dive community, in particular.

We have been urging fisheries managers to acknowledge our concerns and heed scientific advice for makos, before it’s too late. One thing is clear to us all: postponing action is no longer an option. It’s high time to shift the focus from short-term economic interests to the long-term sustainablity of marine ecosystems,” said Brad Robertson, Save the Med Foundation Co-Founder.

The November meeting saw member governments of ICCAT considering fishing restrictions to protect Atlantic shortfin mako sharks. Since 2017, ICCAT scientists have advised that landings from the seriously overfished North Atlantic population should be banned and have warned that the unprotected South Atlantic population is at risk for following the same path.

Spanish fleets consistently land more makos than any other country. Despite repeated warnings about mako overfishing, the EU has failed to propose the scientific advice at ICCAT meetings, or even limit set an EU limit on mako catches.

Progress for mako conservation depends on the European Union reconsidering its stance and instead supporting the limits that scientists advise.

“The population assessments made by scientists are clear: North Atlantic mako sharks are facing collapse and a ban is needed to turn the tide. We need to start thinking of makos like we do other endangered species, such as sea turtles or monk seals. Makos are still present in the market and on our tables; we’re still eating them!

It must stop,” commented Gabriel Morey, Save the Med Foundation Co-Founder.

In August, the EU co-sponsored a successful proposal to list mako sharks on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). As a result, CITES Parties will soon be required to demonstrate that mako exports are sourced from legal, sustainable fisheries. The IUCN classified makos as Endangered on the IUCN Red List in March.

Project AWARE and its Shark League coalition partners have appealed to fisheries and environment authorities in all ICCAT Parties to work together to ensure scientific advice is immediately heeded, in line with government obligations under both ICCAT and CITES. More than 25,000 divers and ocean enthusiasts who added their voice to Project AWARE’s #Divers4Makos petition are backing the Shark League appeal. www.projectaware.org

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TRAGEDY AS RED SEA AGGRESSOR LIVEABOARD CATCHES FIRE IN EGYPT On 1 November, the Red Sea Aggressor I liveaboard caught fire in the middle of the night, just north of Port Ghalib in the southern Egyptian Red Sea, tragically leaving one of the guests dead, and the rest of the passengers and crew having to jump into the sea to escape the burning vessel.

The investigation into the cause of the inferno is still continuing, but on 9 November, Aggressor Adventures CEO Wayne B Brown released this statement: “As you know, misinformation is common in the initial days following unforeseen events. We are being very open and honest on what we know as facts become available, but unfortunately, factual information is emerging slowly, even to us. We do not speculate. So as we’re able to review all statements given, we begin to get a better picture of what has occurred.

“However, we know in the big picture that, unfortunately, there was a tragedy of a diver losing their life, and the rest had to evacuate with little to no possessions. The ground team in Egypt responded quickly in getting everyone into an all-inclusive resort to ensure their basic needs were being met and then assembled cash so they could get some clothing and sundries at the limited shops available in Port Ghalib.

“They also spent a day and a half working with tourist police gaining approval for us to relocate them to Cairo. Egypt does not allow tourists to relocate without prior approvals that usually occurs behind the scenes. We immediately secured hotels and transportation to the embassies in Cairo, even before they ever left Port Ghalib. The Cairo team then helped everyone with rearranging and paying for their return flights as well as some more shopping for clothes, luggage etc.

“Once on land, was everything executed perfectly, no. But rather accept it given the challenging circumstances, we are regrouping to assess how we can continue to improve our procedures and practices.

“As a company and divers ourselves, we have always been extremely safetydriven, and when any event happens anywhere in the dive industry, we use that to look internally for any changes we may need to make to try and prevent that occurrence with our own guests.

“After the recent Conception fire, we directed every destination to ensure that no charging was done unattended and that all lithium charging was done outside at the designated charging areas. We also had them review their emergency exit plans, fire escapes and smoke detectors for proper working order and that their firefighting gear was operational.

“Also, in regards to a passenger’s comments that he did not hear a smoke detector – and some research showing smoke detectors having a history of testing okay with the test button but not activating with actual smoke – we will start requiring the testing of our smoke detectors with cans of fake smoke to ensure proper operation. That is just one of the many procedures we are looking to implement across our fleet to further strengthen our guest safety and of course, customer confidence.”

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25/11/2019 14:34

BUDDY DIVE RESORT BONAIRE CELEBRATES 40TH ANNIVERSARY Next year – on 19 August 2020, to be precise - Buddy Dive Resort Bonaire will celebrate that it’s been 40 years since they opened their doors for the first time.

This will be celebrated with various festivities and specials throughout the year.

The resort opened on 19 August 1980 and it’s a sure thing that a lot has happened and changed since then. Martien and Ingrid van der Valk purchased Buddy Dive Resort and Watersports back in 2002, when the resort only had 46 apartments, a small dive operation with three boats and 20 rental cars. In October 2004, Buddy Dive Resort acquired Lions Dive Hotel Bonaire and therewith increased the rooms inventory with 32 units.

Today, the resort offers 73 apartments, more than 100 rental cars and two restaurants. The dive operation has grown and is now a PADI five-star Career Development Centre with six dive boats, a large range of diving options, courses, kids’ programmes and one of the largest technical diving facilities in the Caribbean.

In 2012, Buddy founded a foundation to protect and restore the coral reefs in Bonaire - Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire has become a well-established foundation with multiple participating dive shops on the island and has currently planted over 22,000 corals back to the reefs.

Martien van der Valk, head of the Buddy Dive family, commented: “My wife and I look back on many memorable years. Now is the time that we proudly hand over the management to the next generation, who will follow in our footsteps and will pursue our mission of Buddy Dive Resort being the go-to resort and dive operation for your dive vacation and dive education.

“We are also very proud of the number of guests that joined our Buddy Dive family over the years and became a fantastic group of repeat guests, some of whom have been returning annually for 25 years already! The group is still growing each year.”

For more information, and to find out about the special celebratory offers, visit: www.buddydive.com

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17/09/2019 10:14

A grey seal has been rescued off Horsey in Norfolk after getting its neck stuck in plastic waste, becoming the 51st such case since 2008. Scuba Diver had only just reported on the 50th such seal to have a ‘necklace’ injury.

This grey seal, a young female, has been nicknamed Flowerpot after the shape of the plastic that was stuck around her neck. She was rescued on Sunday 20 October by volunteer group Friends of Horsea Seals, who took her to the RSPCA’s East Winch hospital for treatment.

Staff at East Winch carefully removed the plastic waste using bone pliers, but centre manager Alison Charles said that her injuries will take months to heal, and that she has been dosed with anti-biotics and given daily salt baths to assist with the healing process.

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INTERNATIONAL SCUBA DIVING HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES 2020 INDUCTEES The International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame (ISDHF) and the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism (CIDOT) has announced the four new members who will be inducted into the prestigious 2020 Hall of Fame in September 2020.

Hand-picked by the ISDHF board of directors, the latest inductees include Tom Ingram (United States of America), Jill Heinerth (Canada), Jim Gatacre (Canada) and Avi Klapfer (Israel for Cocos Island), who will officially join fellow esteemed dive industry pioneers taking the plunge to help cultivate and revolutionise the sport of scuba diving in the Cayman Islands, and throughout the world.

Tom Ingram (United States of America) With more than 40 years of experience in the recreational diving industry, Tom Ingram has served as the President of the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) since 2002. His leadership of DEMA has elevated his profile globally and has become the ‘face’ of the USA’s diving industry, developing strategic alliances with international diving groups around the world. As the longest-servicing president in the history of DEMA with more than 17 years of service, Ingram’s managerial skills have brought a much-needed stability to the association.

Jill Heinerth (Canada) As a pioneering underwater explorer and film-maker, Jill Heinerth’s passion lies beneath the surface. Heinerth’s photography and writing have been featured in prominent publications around the world, and she has received the KEEN Footwear-STAND Award for environmental photography. Her work in environmental film-making has been recognised with countless awards, including International ‘Deffie’ for the Best HD Documentary, Best Educational Film - Explorer’s Club Film Festival, Cine Golden Eagle’s and others. In recognition of her lifetime achievement, Heinerth was awarded the inaugural Medal for Exploration, recognising singular achievements and the pursuit of excellence by an outstanding Canadian explorer.

Jim Gatacre (Canada) Jim Gatacre is the founder of the Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA), a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation that has allowed handicapped people around the globe to enjoy the wonders of the underwater world. As the leading authority on recreational diving for handicapped people, the HSA has trained and certified over 10,000 recipients, expanding Gatacre’s vision of an international organisation that promotes enhanced self-image and social interaction through the unifying sport of scuba diving.

Avi Klapfer (Israel for Cocos Island) Avi Klapfer is an Israeli underwater photographer based in Costa Rica who has explored and protected the remote Cocos Island since 1990. Klapfer co-authored Costa Rica Blue, a comprehensive dive guide for Costa Rica with an emphasis on Cocos Island, the first book of its kind for the country and an important step in drawing attention to protecting the waters in a country under constant fishing pressure. To learn more about the 2020 ISDHF inductees, please visit the following link: www.visitcaymanislands.com/en-us/isdhf/induction-week/new-inductees

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THE CETACEAN SUPERHIGHWAY!

Timor-Leste

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

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

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25/11/2019 11:46

Fiji’s Premier Diving Experience the best diving Fiji has to offer, catering to beginners through the braggers Volivoli Beach Resort is the perfect fit for you!

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25/11/2019 14:38

IMPORTANT RED SEA UPDATE FROM BLUE O TWO

NEW YEAR...

NEW DIVING...

NEW PURPOSE! 7-10 SEPTEMBER 2020 THE AWARD-WINNING TEKCAMP EVENT HAS EVOLVED AGAIN! New sessions mean new skills for all divers - all designed to get you more from your diving in 2020. Join us at the most exciting, original diving masterclass event!

SECURE YOUR SPACE FOR JUST

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• Open to all divers - minimum certification of AOW and Nitrox

The Red Sea has been a much-loved destination by many of Blue O Two’s customers - after all, it’s where it all began for the company way back in 2003. However, the introduction of a new local sales tax of 14 percent on every transaction, and the removal of all fuel subsidies, means operating costs have increased significantly in the Red Sea. There is also now an undersupply of flights in the market to the Red Sea following the collapse of Thomas Cook. These factors combined mean that Blue O Two need to make three changes to their Red Sea operations.

Dynamic Packages Due to recent events, Blue O Two are aligning the Red Sea with their other destinations. It will now be boat-only, with flights as an optional extra.

Onboard Extras A new local sales tax means that any onboard extras paid in resort will now incur an additional charge of 14 percent, effective 1 November 2019. This tax can be avoided if you pre-book and pre-pay for your onboard extras before you depart.

M/Y Blue Fin On 10 January 2020, M/Y Blue Fin will be removed from operation in the Red Sea. Any guests with upcoming trips booked aboard this vessel should now have been contacted with suggested alternative travel arrangements where possible.

Finally, the way Blue O Two are booking flights is changing. Any flight booked will now require full payment up front, accompanied by the traveller’s name as per passport details and flight ticketing fee payable as follows: Economy Class - £50 / Premium Economy Class - £75 / Business Class - £100 / First Class - £200. www.blueotwo.com

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GAS FILLS & CCR SORB NOW INCLUDED AT NO EXTRA COST!

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QUEENSLAND SHARK ATTACK LEAVES BRITISH SNORKELLERS SERIOUSLY INJURED A shark left two British tourists with serious leg injuries – completely severing the foot of one of them – after attacking them while they were snorkelling off the Whitsunday Islands.

Alistair Raddon (below left), from Southampton, and Danny Maggs, from Plymouth, were on a day cruise in October to the popular Queensland islands, which are near the Great Barrier Reef, when the incident occurred. Twenty-eightyear-old Raddon has his foot bitten off, while 22-year-old Maggs was left with serious leg wounds.

They were recovered from the water in Hook Passage by a tour boat and taken to shore for treatment, before being flown to hospital.

While shark attacks are very rare, this is not the first time that the Whitsunday Islands have borne witness to them. The location of this incident is just six miles from where an Australian man was fatally bitten by a shark in November 2018, and there were also two other shark attacks within 24 hours in September 2018.

In this most-recent case, according to a Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman, ‘one of the patients was attacked first, and the shark is believed to have returned and attacked the second patient’. Apparently, the men told the Central Queensland Rescue helicopter crew that they had been ‘wrestling and thrashing about in the water’ when the attack happened, so this may have been what drew the shark in.

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Dr Oliver Firth is a diving doctor with over 22 years of diving experience. He is an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers for the UK HSE and a medical referee for the UK Diving Medical Committee, performing many hundreds of diving medicals a year. As the senior doctor at London Diving Chamber for the last 13 years, he has supervised the treatment of hundreds of cases of decompression illness. He has now set up Hyperdive (www.hyperdive.co.uk) to continue his diving medical work with a global audience. With his accumulated experience, he has seen most things a diver might come across, but remains eager to hear from anyone with a medical conundrum they need a solution to! divingdoctor@scubadivermag.com Q: I’ve read somewhere recently that people are saying it’s okay to drink beer between dives during a surface interval.

Being South African, I’m partial to a cold beer or ten, and I know some divers who insist on drinking beer before, during and after their dives. Are there any real dangers in this, or is it all scaremongering?

A: Well, I read somewhere that ‘alcohol can never make you do a thing better, it can only make you less ashamed of your mistakes’. This makes sense when I’ve had a few beers and then try to play pool. I know it’s the season to be jolly and all that but, sadly, there are good reasons not to overindulge when you’re diving. One of the myths is that small amounts of alcohol aren’t a problem. Even one drink does actually produce a measurable decline in performance, with diminished awareness of cues and reduced inhibitions. Another important point is that the deleterious effects of alcohol are consistently underestimated by people who drink. One study involved recording 13 divers performing pool dives at different blood alcohol concentrations and rating their injury risk. They had objective ‘sobriety’ tests and rated their own performance afterwards – at higher alcohol levels, injury risk was increased, but divers weren’t aware of their degraded performance. Other research has shown that there is a definite reduction in the ability of an individual to process information, particularly in tasks that require undivided attention, for many hours after the blood alcohol level has reached zero. This means that the risk of injury in a hung-over diver is increased significantly, particularly if high blood alcohol levels were reached during the drinking episode. Deaths have been directly attributed to excessive alcohol consumption, as it exacerbates the effects of nitrogen narcosis and can lead to drowning. In addition to these dangers, we all know that alcohol causes dehydration, through a direct diuretic effect on the kidneys. This will prolong your off-gassing times. Any and all of these factors

may of course increase your DCI risk too.

Alcohol is cleared from the blood at a predictable rate, so a beer or two in the evening is unlikely to impair diving the next day; but I’d definitely steer clear of alcohol, before or between dives, on the same day.

Q: I have a question about alcohol and pressure. Although I don’t drink and dive, I’m asking purely from a scientific point of view - if there was alcohol in my blood, would its effects be augmented by depth and pressure, in a similar way to a gas (such as nitrogen, or carbon monoxide etc)?

Obviously, alcohol is a liquid, not a gas (unless your beer has been in the sun far too long), but would the effect of having one beer and then diving to 20m have the same narcotic results as guzzling three beers at the surface? And what about alcohol with bubbles in it? What would happen under pressure if you drank and dived on champagne?

A: An interesting question, and not one that has been investigated, to my knowledge (although I’ll happily volunteer for an entirely unethical research study to look into this further). One point here is that the narcotic effect of nitrogen when diving is due to its dissolving in the blood, i.e. it exerts its ‘martini effect’ in its liquid state.

Alcohol and nitrogen are additive, so one beer at the surface would definitely feel more like three when at depth.

Luckily, the nitrogen wears off quickly after ascent (one big advantage over alcohol – perhaps we should serve nitrous oxide in pubs, although they might blow up from time to time). All the gas bubbles in a fizzy drink are contained in the gut, and although they speed up absorption of alcohol, they don’t pass into your blood themselves – they sneak out as judicious belches and tummy squeakers. No real risk of an exploding diver therefore; just one expelling large amounts of fragrant and expanding gas from both ends.

MISSING WORLD WAR TWO BRITISH SUB HMS URGE FOUND OFF MALTA A British submarine that vanished without trace during World War Two has been found lying on the seabed some 130m down two miles off the coast of Malta.

In April 1942, Malta was under siege from the Nazi, and HMS Urge set sail for Alexandria in Egypt on 27 April – but it never arrived. Now its mystery fate has been revealed – and it’s all down to family. Francis Dickinson, the grandson of HMS Urge’s captain, Lieutenant-Commander EP Tomkinson, requested the University of Malta survey team – which has been locating deep-water wartime wrecks around Malta and Gozo for several years – to search an area known to be heavily mined during the island’s two-and-a-half year siege.

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They duly obliged, and a sonar image found a submarineshaped object. An ROV was sent down to explore the site – and revealed a sub in ‘absolutely fantastic condition’, according to Professor Timmy Gambin, who has been leading the search missions for the wartime wrecks. The university said the UK Ministry of Defence has subsequently confirmed the wreck is the missing HMS Urge, which had 32 crew, 11 Royal Navy passengers and a journalist on board when it went down.

Talking to Malta’s PBS, Professor Gambin commented: “The damage to the bow shows a very violent explosion… indicating that the ship would have sunk very fast giving no chance to anybody to survive from this tragedy.”

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Richard and Hailey from Black Manta Photography had ‘great white sharks’ on their bucket list for years, and finally ticked it off on a memorable voyage on the Vortex liveaboard PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD STEVENS AND HAILEY ELIZABETH / BLACK MANTA PHOTOGRAPHY

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T

here’s such a strong temptation to start this article with that famous music score from John Williams, you know, the one that first hit the silver screen in the Summer of 1975, but that would just be far too much of a cliché… wouldn’t it?

Great white sharks - the ‘El Jefe’ of the shark world, the pinnacle of many scuba divers’ hit list of things to see, the largely unchanged prehistoric creature that has dominated our oceans since a time long forgotten, but also a creature now feared thanks to the events in the fictitious town of Amity.

The film Jaws has a lot to answer for - it’s the reason as kids we were so obsessed with sharks, but also takes the blame for a large majority of the world population being too scared to enter the water, even in waters that are impossible to support great whites. Hardly surprising that when we told our family and friends we were going to Guadalupe to cage dive with great white sharks, their first question was ‘aren’t you scared they will eat you?’ Our answer was simply planting our head firmly in the palm of our hands!

The opportunity to get in the water with great white sharks, and to stay on board the Socorro Vortex liveaboard, was just too good an opportunity to pass up! Combining a bucket-list dive destination with the crème de la crème liveaboard of the moment was not to be missed. There are some trips that get you good. A perfect combination of location, marine life, crew, guests, accommodation and weather - this had all.

Prior to travel we really had to engage the mindset of managing expectations. We had no real idea how many sharks we would see, how close they would come, what the vis would be like - and there’s always that niggle in the back of your mind that you are travelling halfway around the world for just three days in the water. Would we get the shots we wanted?

After two flights from London, via LAX, we landed in San Diego, and with only one night to explore we ventured out for dinner in an area called Little Italy. It took eight hours before we were trying to work out how we could move there!

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This exhilarating dive gives you 360-degree views of the sharks at depth, and in most instances, we had anything up to five in view at a time Surface cage offers close-up interaction

Other fish are also attracted to the bait

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Great white chasing the bait

The city is vibrant, full of culture, blazed in sunshine and surrounded by water - what’s not to love?

The following morning the guys from the Pelagic Fleet (www.pelagicfleet.com) sent the most-amazing ‘shark bus’ to pick us up, which took us over the Mexican border to the port of Ensenada, where the Socorro Vortex awaited our arrival. The journey down gave us the chance to meet the other guests who we would be sharing the next few days with, and man did we luck out!

Our group was ten strong and consisted mainly of Americans, including the reservations manager from the Pelagic Fleet on vacation, a shark-mad couple from Texas, two brothers-in-law from Arizona, and two professional photographers, one from Croatia and the other a surf dude from Venice Beach. We were also joined by ‘sharkman’ Andy Dellios, who had been to Guadalupe eight times and knew all of the recorded sharks off by heart.

The Socorro Vortex is huge – 42 metres long - and really stood out from other boats in the marina. In a previous life, the Vortex was named the Lestralaur, formerly James Sinclair, and lived its life as a Canadian Coastguard vessel, so speed was already in her DNA. Her maiden voyage as the Vortex was in April 2019, making her the new flagship for the Pelagic Fleet company, and sister ship to the already well-established Solmar V. The motto of the Vortex is ‘Where Adventure Meets Luxury’, and the mastermind behind her creation was Jorge Cervera Hauser.

He wanted to create a liveaboard experience for the discerning diver that sat in the upper echelon of dive experiences.

But how do you create that experience? Well, you ensure everything is custom made and handpicked to the highest

of standards. You design a boat that caters to only 14 divers, providing everyone on board will oodles of space, huge rooms, add a jacuzzi, and ensure the lens aficionados on board have plenty of room to work with their camera rigs. Just to clarify yes, we did say 14 divers only! The result of this gives you the feeling you’re visiting a wealthy friend on their luxury yacht, and not on a liveaboard with a bunch of strangers!

Then there’s the water on the boat - it’s all filtered. We’re not talking about specific drinking taps, oh no, every single tap/hose/shower head is fully filtered drinking water, from the shower and toilet in your cabin to the hot shower on the back of the dive deck, and the water in the camera rinse tank.

Luxury personified, or an extreme – regardless, we were very grateful for not having to leave our cabin to get a drink of water during the night! Oh, and did we mention the top deck doubles up as a heli-pad? Another nod to her past life.

The Vortex has four luxury staterooms that are entrylevel (San Benedicto, Clipperton, Clarion and Cerralvo), two junior suites (Socorro and Guadalupe) and one master suite (Roca). Roca provides you with panoramic windows and a shower as large as most bathrooms, but even the entry-level accommodation comfortably fits a huge king-size bed, and all have high-end showers inside.

On boarding the Vortex, we were met by the friendly crew and our leaders and Divemasters for the trip - Matias and Luke. After the introductions and mandatory paperwork, guests were then treated to cocktails and an abundance of Mexican snacks with a huge bowl of freshly made guacamole and chips giving a taster of the amazing food to come. The remainder of the first evening was spent on the top sun deck, chatting away to the other guests and watching the sun go down as we set off across the Pacific to our final destination 165 miles away - Isla de Guadalupe.

The first morning we arrived in Guadalupe around 6.30am to the sun rising on the horizon, casting the most-beautiful hues of oranges and pinks across the sky, and the weird bellows and grunts of the fur and elephant seals that litter the shoreline of the island - otherwise known as shark food!

Fur and elephant seals lounge on the shoreline

The sharks are simply magnificent

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Aerial shot of a great white

Freshly made cappuccinos and pancakes filled our bellies to sit alongside the butterflies as we waited for the first Great white on a sightings of the sharks. The crew got to shallow approach work lowering the cages into the water and securing them in place, and even before the bait touched the water we spotted our first great whites swimming alongside the boat. Even from own eyes is one of those milestones-logged-on-your-brain above, their size and beauty was clear and we were even more kinda moments! However, it’s the sheer girth of this fivemetre-plus-long living missile with huge teeth that just makes desperate to get in the water and see them up close. you skip a heartbeat or two...

Each of the two surface cages allow for three people at There’s a misconceived idea that these sharks are a time, so we were straight in there, kitting ourselves up as monsters, and out to eat anything and anyone they come fast as we could! This is easier than diving as you don’t wear across, yet, when in the water with these creatures, this a BCD or fins, and there is no need to travel with regulators doesn’t cross your mind at all. The only thing they are really either, making packing for the trip a doddle! interested in is the severed head of the fish floating in the Instead, you have a weighted harness and ankle weights water in front of them. The water around the cages is filled that help keep you on the bottom of the cage as you are just with mackerel and even hungry tunas, all wanting a taste of inches below the surface with a regulator called a ‘hookah’ the action as they teem back and forth, but the sharks don’t fed through the bars from the boat supplying your nitrox mix. even seem to notice them. It’s also interesting to see how It’s an exhilarating experience getting into the cage for the they try to catch the bait as they change their approach each first time - they take great care to keep you steady as you time and sometimes swim up from below so as to evade the step down, only closing the cage when you are firmly down eyes of the wranglers. That’s not to say they weren’t curious and safe. The first thing that hits you is the water temp, as it’s a little on the chilly side at around 20 degrees C, but a good thermal rash vest and a 7mm wetsuit meant you could easily manage over an hour in the water no problem.

In the cage, you are solely focused on the gap between the bars and the bait line in front of you. We needn’t have worried about how often and close the sharks would come, as from the moment we hit the water they were just there - continually swimming by, between the cages, chasing the baited lines, back and forth in a continual movement and breaking the surface for the people on the boat to enjoy.

One thing that really surprised us was the size - I mean, Socorro Vortex yes we know how big they can grow to in length, and we’ve all seen them on TV, but seeing one for the first time with your

These sharks truly are striking and surprisingly, when face on, give the impression they are smiling at you as their mouths curve upwards

of us in the cage - the sharks look you dead in the eye as they swim past, paying close attention to your movements and how you might interfere with their game of cat and mouse.

There is an endless list of positives to mention about cage diving with sharks on the Socorro Vortex, one being that because the surface cages are literally under the surface, there is no requirement for a scuba qualification, making the opportunity open to everyone. However, if you want a different perspective then the submersible cage is an absolute must for you. The submersible cage The view from inside is lowered to a depth of 10m, is larger than the cage is awesome the surface cages, but only houses two divers and a guide, who is kitted in a full-face mask for constant communication with the team on the surface.

It just so happened that we had a government official onboard Weirdly, you notice the gaps in the bars are that much bigger, our trip from the Mexican Conservation Team. Rodrigo Pérez and again, your regulator is surface-fed.

Weil is an analyst ensuring practices in Guadalupe are as they This exhilarating dive gives you 360-degree views of the should be, and to monitor the sharks for research. In the three sharks at depth, and in most instances, we had anything up days we were at Guadalupe, Rodrigo identified 11 of the 34 to five in view at a time. We also found that the larger sharks different great white sharks we saw. Yes, 34 sharks in three were the ones hanging around down here, although the water days - guess we needn’t have worried if we were going to see was definitely a little chillier! However, for this, you do need any or not! to hold a minimum of an Open Water qualification.

The service, accommodation, quality of the boat, the food, the set up of the cage diving - everything was just simply As much as we would love to fill this article with just sharks, first-class and delivered to the highest of standards. The huge we have to touch on the ‘Panga’ boat ride. The Pelagic Fleet TV on the wall in the lounge isn’t just for show - there’s a full are the only operator in Guadalupe with the license to operate multimedia library of hundreds of films and documentaries, boat trips to the shore of Guadalupe Island to see the fur and as well as dozens of books and shark-related reading material. elephant seals up close, and this was undoubtedly one of the You’re constantly being asked if there is anything they can get highlights of our trip! To see them lazing around on the rocks you, and there is always a crew member on duty 24 hours a day. while the tiny pups jumped around playing is a memory we will never forget. We’d rebook on the Vortex just to this alone!

If you are like us and always wanted to go to Guadalupe for the great white sharks but are put off by the potential long As you would expect with any luxury holiday, the food travel for what might only be three days in a cage, then let us onboard the Vortex is outstanding! Lunchtime is by far and tell you, it’s totally worth it and will hands down be one of the away the best meal of the day and is when chef Savine really greatest things you’ve ever done in your life! Go to Guadalupe, comes into his own - our first day consisted of paninis, squash see what’s going on - you will be utterly amazed in every soup, mac & cheese, cookies and chocolates. Yes folks, that’s sense! Between the two of us, we spent close to 30 hours in just one meal! The second day consisted of the biggest burger the cages over the three days, and hand on heart have it down we had ever seen, with equally huge potato wedges served as the most-exhilarating experience ever! Would we go back on the side, and then the third day we were treated to a to Guadalupe now that we have done the ‘shark thing’? Yes, ramen noodle soup and poke bowls… I mean come on, what in a heartbeat, but it would have to be on the unbelievable liveaboard covers three cuisines in as many days? As well as Socorro Vortex! n breakfast and dinner, the team make afternoon snacks to keep you going, as well as fruit-infused water out on the dive deck with as many nuts/crisps as you Bait wrangler in action want. When the diving is done for the day, they then make you the most-amazing cocktails with the best mojitos and margaritas you will ever find!

Sunlight plays on the side of this shark

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I TA LY ’ S

ATLANTIS A DIVE INTO HISTORY

Dean Martin was intrigued by tales of a submerged Roman city in the waters off Italy, and his subsequent exploration of this archaeological wonder more than met the hype PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEAN MARTIN

W

hile on a trip to Naples, I had heard about a place where you could literally dive back into history. In its heyday, the classical Roman city of Baia was the hedonistic Las Vegas of the time, but now its remains are partying beneath the waves – and as divers, we are honoured to be able to visit these amazingly preserved historical relics.

Baia was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples and now in the area of Bacoli. It was a fashionable resort for centuries, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when it was reckoned to be superior to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Capri by the superrich of the day, who built luxurious villas here from 100 BC to 500 AD. It was located over natural volcanic vents, and thus was renowned for its healing medicinal hot springs, which occurred all around the city and were quite easy to build spas over. It was also notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumours of corruption and scandal.

Unfortunately, the good times were not to last, and the city was sacked by Saracens in the 8th century. By 1500, the remains of the formerly luxurious town were abandoned. After the city remains were emptied, the water level slowly rose due to the same volcanic vents that were once a draw to the area, and most of the ancient ruins were drowned under the shallow waters of the bay.

Recent underwater archaeology has revealed many of the fine buildings, statues and roads in varying states of disrepair, and now they are protected in the submerged archaeological park which is open to divers and snorkellers.

I arrived at Subaia Dive Centre and was greeted by Penelope and Ornella, who spoke fantastic English. We had a mixture of divers from various countries - USA, Canada and another couple from the UK – and she proceeded to explain all about the luxury villas of Baia, how they had come to end up sunk into the sea, and which areas we’d be diving on this excursion.

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MAGNIFICANT MOSAICS

The day consisted of two shallow dives on the Roman remains, neither of them more than 5m deep. With it being so shallow – and thus suitable for anyone from novice to advanced - you can easily use the same cylinder for both dives, so no kit-swapping in between needed.

Our dive guide explained what was going to happen on the first dive – to see some mosaic floors - after we left the Zodiac and got into the water. We were to follow him down to the seabed and form a semi-circle in front of him.

Both mosaics are made with black and white stones and are covered by a layer of sand that protects them from algae and marine organisms. Moving gently, he would then start to clear the sediment to expose the mosaic floors and statues.

It was truly amazing to actually see these mosaic works of art appear in front of our eyes, and to be able to admire the different hexagonal shapes with geometrical features on one floor, and two men fighting on the other. Both are astoundingly well preserved, especially considering that they are over 2,000 years old but almost look like they were created yesterday.

We were all allowed to take it in turns to capture images before the exquisite floors were covered back up for protection. Once the sand had been carefully put back in place, you couldn’t even tell what amazing historical relics lay beneath. We then proceeded back to the boat to await our next encounter, and the boat was full of excited chatter from the divers. I don’t think anyone on the boat could believe what we had just witnessed.

THE NYMPHAEUM OF EMPEROR CLAUDIUS

We moved to a new mooring not too far away, close to Epitaffio Point, and started to kit up again. This time we were going to be diving on the Nymphaeum of Emperor Claudius, basically a huge villa where he and his friends came to sate their decadent desires.

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A headless statue protrudes from the seabed

The hidden floor is in amazingly good condition

Uncovering the mosaic

Both are astoundingly well preserved, especially considering that they are over 2,000 years old but almost look like they were created yesterday

Encrusted statue

The floor is hidden beneath the seabed

The mosaic floor in all its glory

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The mosaic is slowly revealed

The Roman remains are well preserved

Dropping into the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean, we followed our guide to the Nymphaeum and were literally blown away by the sheer scale of it. It is absolutely gigantic, and must have been truly awe-inspiring in its heyday.

All that is left now are remnants of the walls and foundations, but you can still make out the rectangular shape of the main room, with a semi-circular apsis at the bottom and four niches on the long sides. This monstrous slab of marble flooring had two semi-circles worn into it, and the dive guide had asked us before to look for this and try to work out what had caused it. Seeing it firsthand, it became obvious that this was the grand entrance, and the semi-circles were caused by wear-and-tear from massive doors opening and closing.

There are a vast array of statues in and around the villa, some upright, some laying prone on the seabed, with others jauntily poking up out of the sand. Some represent part of the family of the Emperor - his mother Antonia Minore, with a child between her arms representing maternity, and his daughter Octavia Claudia. The other statues highlight the luxurious purpose of the room - two of them represent Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and wild animals; while a scene from Homer’s epic Odyssey is represented by the statues of Ulysses and Baios offering wine to the cyclops Polyphemus as they plan to escape from his cave. These stone ‘heroes’ were the first two statues discovered in Baia, but the statue of the cruel one-eyed giant they were scheming against is still missing.

After visiting the Nymphaeum, the dive continued along the extraordinary Herculanea road to an ancient Roman baths.

Once upon a time this mighty road led to Portus Julius, one of Rome’s most-important harbours. It was commissioned into existence in 37 BC by the acclaimed military leader and engineer Agrippa, and the remains of docks, cisterns and repair workshops can still be seen.

There are a vast array of statues in and around the villa, some upright, some laying prone on the seabed, with others jauntily poking up out of the sand 32

The statues are covered in marine growth

CONCLUSION

I am always intrigued by unusual dive sites, and the underwater archaeological park of Baia certainly ticks all the boxes. As divers, we are among a relative few who are able to explore beneath the surface of the sea and see the marine life and underwater topography that awaits us, but at Baia, our submerged exploits allow us a window into the past, back to a time when Rome ruled the world, and this amazing city was one of the first seaside getaways. The relics are in fantastic condition given how long they have been underwater, especially the carefully hidden and protected mosaic floors, and I feel honoured to have paid Baia a visit – it is truly an amazing dive site and one that will remain with me forever. n

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WINTER

DIVING As the cold weather closes in, the Scuba Diver editorial team has compiled a list of warm-water escapes where you can get your scuba fix without breaking out the thermals PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS AND STUART PHILPOTT

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inter in the UK can be pretty bleak. When it’s dreary outside - that 6-degrees-C-anddrizzly sort of dreary - it’s easy for the mind to wander, for images of sunnier climes to flood the brain. But sometimes daydreams just don’t cut it; sometimes you’ve just got to escape. With winter very much in full flow, many of you may have already found yourselves staring off into the middle distance at work, in traffic jams on the way home, or as you wash up dinner’s dishes five hours after the sun bowed its head. It could be time to just do it, escape the grey and find a piece of the good stuff. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of what we think are some of the best winter diving destinations.

Wreck diving in Malta Colourful Caribbean reef

MALTA

As far as winter diving destinations for UK divers are concerned, Malta is about as established as they come. Just a few hours away by plane, the Mediterranean isle offers yearround diving of excellent quality. Yes, you’ll need a semi-dry or drysuit as the water temperatures do drop off a little, but with average air temperatures sticking in the mid- to high-teens, you’ll still be able to top up that vitamin D when topside.

The variety of sites is vast, from the famous Inland Sea on Gozo to the multitude of wrecks off the island of Malta itself.

It is these wrecks that provide the main draw for most divers, with the extensive range of depths providing something for all levels of diver, from Open Water newbies to seasoned technical divers. Among the most famous are the Um El Faroud, a 10,000-tonne freighter, the old passenger liner Le Polynesian and the HMS Stubborn, a 66-metre-long S-class submarine.

With a host of established and reputable dive centres to choose from, as well as excellent hotels, restaurants and bars, all that action under the waterline is well complemented on land.

Deep inside the Zenobia

CYPRUS

Much like Malta, Cyprus is a nearby winter diving destination that offers decent underwater action and a splash of sunshine at an affordable price. Another popular spot among European (and particularly British) divers, there are plenty of reputable dive centres to choose from. A range of good hotels makes it easy for visitors to piece together a last-minute trip with ease, and because of the closeness of the destination, this can be anything upwards of a long weekend.

Cyprus’s location in the Med means the visibility tends to be good and the topography is interesting and varied, even if the marine life is less prolific compared with other options.

The pinnacle of Cyprus diving is the wreck of the Zenobia, a site that regularly appears in various ‘top wreck dives’ lists. The ferry, which sank in 1980, now sits in 42m and is an absolute must for visiting divers.

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Corals in a Canary Island cavern

CANARY ISLANDS

Located in the North Atlantic off the coast of Morocco, this collection of Spanish islands offer European divers some very accessible winter diving. The autonomous archipelago consists of a number of islands already popular with holidaymakers, the most famous being Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. The diving on each of the islands is excellent, with both shore diving and boat diving available from a variety of centres. Much like Mediterranean diving, the Canary Islands are more about excellent visibility and stunning topography than marine life, though there are still plenty of creatures to be found, including nudibranchs, moray eels and grouper to name but a few.

The islands’ standing as existing holiday spots means there is plenty of choice with regards to accommodation and places to spend your evenings. Add to that a range of affordable airlines and you’ve got yourself a very tempting winter vacation that won’t break the bank.

EGYPT

Egypt has long been regarded as the diving destination for European divers, and now Sharm is back on the map via direct flights, there has never been a better time to visit. It is affordable, less than six hours away by aeroplane and offers genuinely world-class diving. Regardless of the type of diving you’re into - wreck or reef, macro or massive, deep or just a dip - there is something for everyone.

The Red Sea boasts some of the most-famous dive sites in the world, including the sheer walls of the Ras Mohammed peninsula (known for its vast congregations of fish life at certain times of the year) and the wreck of the Thistlegorm, a wellpreserved World War Two wreck where divers can journey into holds filled with trucks, motorbikes and piles of soldiers’ boots.

Shore-diving, dayboat diving and liveaboards are all available, with the latter allowing divers to access sites such as the incredible Brothers islands, particularly popular among those hoping to encounter sharks (though you’ll also witness some of the healthiest reefs around, as well as a couple of wrecks!). Tiny critters, shoaling fish and huge pelagics - Egypt really does have it all. And you can go any time of the year even the winter!

Giant moray in the Maldives

SOUTH AFRICA

Sharks. Think of diving in South Africa and sharks immediately spring to mind. Great whites are the undoubted main draw alongside Australia and Guadalupe, South Africa is one of the best places in the world to share the water with these apex predators. But it’s not just about great whites. A wide range of shark species can be found off of South Africa’s coastline, with the prehistoric seven gill shark perhaps the next most exciting. For shark encounters mixed with beautiful rocky reef, Aliwal Shoal is worth your attentions.

With some fabulous cities to choose from, including Durban and Cape Town, as well as plenty of rural options, divers are spoiled for choice for topside activities. A cable car up Table Mountain in Cape Town, body boarding in Durban, wine-tasting at one of the many vineyards… take your pick.

There’s always the option of a safari too, and if you’ve already seen one of the ocean’s most-prolific predators, why not experience some of the finest land has to offer too?

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Lionfish in Egypt

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Sharks in the Bahamas

Shipwreck in the Cayman Islands

Regardless of where you choose, you’re almost guaranteed healthy reefs, good visibility, professional dive centres (and staff) and some of the best topside downtime anywhere in the world. Sunset rum on the beach anyone?

MALDIVES

CARIBBEAN

The Caribbean is a paradise location, whether you’re a diver or a beachgoer - this makes it an ideal winter escape for divers with non-diving partners who’re happy to kickback with an afternoon cocktail while their other half hits the water.

Of course, the Caribbean is a vast swathe of islands, and each one offers its own type of diving and its own style of life topside. If you’re into your wrecks, Grenada’s the island for you - home to the Bianca C, known as the ‘Titanic of the Caribbean’, as well as a multitude of other wrecks, the island is often referred to as the ‘Wreck Diving Capital of the Caribbean’. If vast walls are more your sort of thing, why not check out the Cayman Islands, with numerous drop-offsw into the deep blue abyss, or the Bahamas, where shark fly-pasts on sheer walls are a regular occurrence.

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Is there anywhere on the planet that conjures up a more picture-perfect image in the mind’s eye? Gorgeous white-sand islands with turquoise waters gently lapping at the shores, overhanging palm trees swaying in a refreshing breeze pretty nice, right? People from all over the world head to this low-lying archipelago for their holidays whether they’re divers or not. Life topside is stunning enough to keep anyone happy for a week or two. Add some world-class diving to the mix and you’ve got yourself a pretty special vacation indeed. Most island resorts offer diving, with the range of sites varying from nearby sites accessible by small motorboats to spots a little further afield that can only be accessed by dayboat. Excellent house reefs are also a feature of Maldivian diving, with guests generally allowed to dive as much as they like.

INDONESIA

Yes, we know Indonesia is vast, but it’s home to a few of the best diving spots on the planet and therefore well worth inclusion as a single winter diving destination. If you’re into your macro, head for the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi; if you’re after some manta magic and current-filled fun, it’s all about Komodo (where you’ll also get to see dragons, of course); and if you want some excellent diving with fancy hotels and western comforts, Bali’s your bag. Then, there’s Raja Ampat. If you’re after a once-in-a-lifetime experience filled with manta rays, sharks, macro critters, reefs teeming with fish life, caves, uninhabited islands, and liveaboard living where you’ll go literally days without seeing another boat, then Raja Ampat is the destination for you. n

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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SHARK KIND

Luke Evans had previously completed the Junior Shark Encounter at Blue Planet Aquarium, but it turned up the adrenaline stakes when, now a qualified diver and aged 13, he was able to venture into the Caribbean Reef tank and come face-to-face with the resident sharks PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS

B

lue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire is one of the most-renowned in the UK, with an active breeding programme and a deeply educational focus to all of its exhibits, presentations and talks. It boasts the largest collection of sharks in Europe – including sand tigers, zebra sharks, blacktip sharks, guitar sharks and nurse sharks - which can be viewed through the 71-metre underwater Aquatunnel and through the impressive Aquatheatre window.

For many years, it has been running dives in its main Caribbean Reef tank alongside its resident shark population, not to mention grouper, tarpon, golden trevally, jacks, southern stingrays and all manner of other reef life, including moray eels, allowing people to get up close and personal in a controlled manner with these magnificent creatures.

Adults can do a Shark Encounter, which is effectively a PADI Discover Scuba session, in the Caribbean Reef tank, or qualified divers could venture into this impressive main exhibit for a dive with a difference. Youngsters can do a Bubblemaker in the separate junior area (it is part of the main tank, but divided by a clear wall, keeping the larger animals away from this section, but it is still well-populated with smaller blacktip sharks, stingrays, parrotfish, triggerfish, pufferfish and moray eels, etc).

My son Luke had done the Bubblemaker in this junior area the moment he turned eight years old, and back then, kneeling on the submerged ‘dock’ at 2m and marvelling at all of the fish swimming around him was amazing. Now he was a qualified diver, most recently racking up his PADI Junior Advanced Open Water Diver certification in April in Egypt, and having also dived in Malta and Grenada, when I mentioned I needed him to do the Junior Shark Experience again for a photo-shoot, he was a bit disgruntled and said it would be ‘a bit tame’.

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RECOGNISING AND CELEBRATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCUBA DIVERS The Next Generation section is aimed squarely at keen kids and talented teens, those youngsters who have embraced the underwater realm and are driving new blood into the diving fraternity. Tune in each month for Case Studies, reports, kit reviews and articles from our diving youth.

Got a story to share about a young diver? - Email: mark@scubadivermag.com to be included in a future edition of The Next Generation!

What he didn’t know was that I had found out that as a qualified diver, as long as I accompanied him, he was allowed to complete the dive in the main Caribbean Reef tank. Rather than tell him up front, it was far more amusing to leave him in the dark until Dive Officer Joe Cross told him that he was going in with the ‘big boys’. I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! However, all credit to him, while he was unbelievably excited about the forthcoming dive, he listened intently to all the instructions from the dive team and did exactly as he was told both topside and once in the water.

The shark dive involves wearing full scuba kit, apart from fins, and ‘walking’ around the various routes in the Caribbean Reef tank through the elaborate artificial reef, while the sharks and other residents swim all around you. Two divers accompanied Luke, one leading and the other bringing up the rear, and throughout the half-hour dive, they periodically stopped at certain areas and knelt down to watch the animals as they swam serenely past.

I was busy taking photographs of Luke and the team, and so was equipped with fins so I could move around more easily.

Dive team member Donovan Lewis was my wingman, and while I have dived with sharks both in aquariums and in the wild many times, and am used to having my head on a swivel to ensure I am not going to get in their way or box them in, etc, it was great having Donovan keeping an eye out for any of the sand tigers, in particular, cruising up on me unawares.

GET THEM SHARKS FOR CHRISTMAS!

The Blue Planet Aquarium is running some festive promotions this Christmas – get the Junior Shark Encounter for £130 (normally £150) and the Shark Encounter for £220 (normally £250). www.blueplanetaquarium.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

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Luke did extremely well on the shark dive, and he was buzzing when he surfaced and was sat back on the side of the tank. He explained: “I was amazing and surprised – and a bit nervous – when I found out I was diving in the Caribbean Reef tank, especially when I was stood on the side with Joe and one of the larger sand tigers swam past just below the surface. Then I realised how big they were, and that I was going in there with them!

“I was really excited when I saw the first shark underwater – I was making noises through my regulator! They are just so big, yet more so slowly and purposefully.”

He added: “I kept waving at the children and adults who were walking through the viewing tunnel and through the main window. It was like being on a stage, all of these people looking at me!”

The dive took place in the middle of the day during halfterm in October, and the aquarium was jam-packed with families. My wife Penney was in the Aquatunnel watching, and apparently all you could hear was some of the other children saying ‘there’s a little diver in there!’ and ‘that’s a kid!’. Hopefully, seeing Luke on his dive will have inspired lots of other youngsters to want to complete the Junior Shark Experience and get their first taste of scuba in an environment that is about as close to a warm-water tropical dive site as you are going to get right here in the UK.

CONCLUSION

DID YOU KNOW?

The Blue Planet Aquarium Aquatheatre window is actually made of acrylic and is 23cm thick to hold back the four million litres of water of the Caribbean Reef – and it cost more than £100,000!

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Aquarium dives sometimes get a bad rap, and I am not one for promoting something that is purely there for titillation and at the detriment of the animals, but Blue Planet Aquarium has an educational angle to all of their exhibits, and the animals are impeccably well cared for. Having seen behind the scenes many times, it is a real labour of love for all of the team members. n

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DIVEFEST T

2019 2019

here seems to be DiveFests popping up all over the place, but Grenada is ahead of much of the pack and recently held its third annual celebration of all things diving.

After a low-key start, last year turned things up a notch, and this third incarnation saw an even-more-jam-packed schedule, which again split the action across Grenada and sister island Carriacou, and featured reef and wreck diving days, lionfish hunting expeditions, beach clean-ups and Dives Against Debris, taster sessions for complete beginners, and lively opening and closing parties.

I attended the event for the first time last year, and being a devoted fan of Grenada anyway, was pleased to see a week dedicated to promoting the underwater delights of this lush, green Caribbean island. I was delighted to be invited back for round three, but in order to showcase a different side of the country – in this instance, how welcoming the people are and how family-friendly and safe the island is – I roped in Clan Evans (wife Penney and son Luke) to accompany me.

As with the previous year, the action started over on sleepy little Carriacou, a tiny island which really offers a laid-back slice of Caribbean heaven, on the Sunday. We flew into Grenada from London on the Saturday, and after an all-too-brief overnight stay in the Mount Cinnamon resort, we boarded the inter-island ferry to Carriacou on the Sunday morning. After a relaxed afternoon which saw the assembled ‘VIPs’ – various media representatives from the UK and the USA, including ourselves, Greg Holt from Scuba Radio, Jerry Beaty from Dive Training, and ‘Scuba Cowboy’ Pup Morse, plus a bevy of ‘mermaids’ – enjoy some brief downtime, it was time for the opening party at Off the Hook beach bar. As he did in 2018, Pup – an American singer-songwriter (and avid scuba nut) – performed an entertaining set of his light-hearted, easy-listening ‘Trop-Rock’ tunes.

These made the perfect accompaniment to a few ice-cold Stag and Carib beers and a tasty chicken and fish barbecue, and the assembled throng, which included local dive centre owners and staff, celebrated the official start of the DiveFest.

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The annual DiveFest on Grenada and Carriacou is now in its third year, and Mark Evans made a return visit – but with his family in tow PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS

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Marine growth on a statue in the sculpture park

In the chain locker of the Bianca C

Then-12-year-old Luke – he turned 13 a couple of weeks after our return to the UK – had a whale of a time exploring the beach in the dark, iPhone lighting the way, on the hunt for land crabs to ‘rescue’.

The Monday morning saw our group of merry divers make the short walk from our hotel, Laurena’s, to the HQ of Britishowned Deefer Diving. Their boat was due back from a refit that morning, but while we awaited its arrival, instead of just lounging around the centre, we kitted up and went for a dive under the jetty a short distance down the beach. As this was dive number one, it was the perfect opportunity to check weights, and get into ‘dive mode’. We didn’t get any deeper than 4m-5m, but the marine life under this man-made structure was unbelievable – every support was liberally smothered in coral and sponge growth, and huge schools of baitfish swarmed everywhere, enveloping the divers in a silvery cloud. Scorpionfish, cleaner shrimp, moray eels and lobster were in abundance, and it made the ideal introduction to

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Caribbean diving for Junior Advanced Open Water Diver Luke.

It was ‘reef diving day’, and so our planned boat dive was out at the acclaimed Sisters Rocks, but on arrival it was deemed the current was too strong. A quick discussion and we moved to Sharky’s Reef Part One, where we saw nurse sharks, Spanish mackerel, cowfish, scorpionfish, arrow crabs, barracuda, plus all the usual Caribbean reef life, all swimming and crawling in and around some incredibly healthy corals and sponges.

Our second dive was called Whirlpool, and as well as exploring a small tug boat, complete with a true ‘ship’s wheel’-style helm, we encountered the biggest spiny lobster I have ever seen – much to the delight of Luke, who loves crustaceans. Again, as with the previous dive, the reef was very pristine, and some of the sponges were attaining huge size.

Tuesday morning we moved over to Lumbadive for the ‘Dive Against Debris’ day. The current had somewhat abated, so we were able to dive at the Sisters. It was certainly an exciting dive for Luke, and as we conducted a drift dive around the pinnacle we saw nurse sharks, huge lobster (though not quite as big as the previous day), grey angelfish, parrotfish, wrasse, lionfish, scorpionfish and moray eels, all backed by an incredible display of soft corals and sponges. Luke was on a ten-litre tank today instead of his usual 12, and as he neared his reserve at 45 minutes, he headed up to the boat with the instructor and we stayed down a while longer. On surfacing, a smug-looking Luke asked if we’d seen a turtle, as he’d been buzzed by one as they did their safety stop!

Dive two was another drift, this time at Lime Kiln, and we floated past various coral bommies and reefs interspersed with sand channels, spotting sheltering nurse sharks, moray eels, angelfish, parrotfish, wrasse, and much more. We ended the dive near a wrecked fishing boat that protruded through

Luke was having his first-ever go with a spear, and for his initial attempt went for one of the largest lionfish I have ever seen!

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On the hunt for lionfish

to the surface, and soon filled a mesh bag with man-made litter and rubbish. All too soon it was time to board the ferry and wave goodbye to Carriacou. We returned to Grenada and were transferred to our next accommodation, in our case the low-key but welcoming SeaBreeze Hotel.

Wednesday morning we were off to Aquanauts Grenada, and this was the only time during the week where we parted company from Luke. He went diving with a group of Open Water Divers on Whibble Reef, while Penney and I joined Aquanaut Grenada’s Peter Seupel to explore the gigantic ocean liner Bianca C – the flagship of the island’s sunken fleet, which went down way back in 1961, and now lies in a depth of over 50m. I have dived this massive 180-metrelong vessel several times over the past 20 years, and while the time on the seabed has taken its toll – it is steadily collapsing, and the starboard side has crumbled down to the bottom – it is still a fascinating dive. British divers used to looking at wrecks through a coating of silt will probably feel more at home on the Bianca C than those more-familiar with other Caribbean shipwrecks, as it is creating its own dust-cloud as it slowly falls apart, but a keen eye can see windlasts, bollards, lifeboat derricks, not to mention the swimming pool. It was interesting for Penney to dive the Bianca C again, as the last time she’d dived it was back in 1999, when it was in a far-more ship-shape condition.

Dive two were all jumped in for a drift at Shark Reef, but it should have been renamed Lionfish Reef due to the amount we saw tucked in behind the barrel sponges littering the seabed. However, we’d get our revenge on these invasive invaders at this site on the Friday…

Wednesday afternoon we all headed out with Eco Dive for a visit to the Veronica L, and the nearby Boss Reef. This small freighter has been down for several years and is festooned with marine growth and fish life. Lying in just 15m, it is the One of the GARRP structures

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Luke and the giant spiny lobster

perfect depth for all levels of diver, and has several interesting elements, including the remains of a small deck crane.

On the Thursday morning, we headed over to Dive Grenada.

Phil Sayer took us out for a shore dive to explore his GARRP (Grand Anse Reef Regeneration) project, which is something extremely close to his heart. He wanted to leave a lasting legacy on Grenada, and came up with the idea of creating an array of artificial reefs in the shallows at the end of Grand Anse Beach. He wanted something that could be made easily, and put into place with the minimum of fuss. The end result were ‘pyramids’ made from concrete breeze blocks.

Despite being told by numerous marine biologists that no life would colonise them, he has proved them wrong, and now the structures are awash with encrusting corals and algae, sponges, soft corals and all manner of marine life, including scorpionfish, moray eels and snapper. He has a grand plan to make quite an expansive artificial reef once the project comes to an end, so watch this space.

Compass on the Tyrrel Bay

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The bow of the Tyrrel Bay

In the afternoon, we moved dive centres to Native Spirit, and paid a visit to Molinere Reef. This is a topographically interesting reef, which is shaped by gullies, crevices and sand channels, and also a small wall, but the main attraction here is the Underwater Sculpture Park, the first of its kind on the planet, which sees several large-scale installations in just a few metres of water. Created by Jason deCaires Taylor, Troy Lewis, Rene Froehlich and Lene Kilde, the amazingly lifelike statues have started to assume bizarre alien-like appearances as encrusting corals and sponges have taken hold.

Then – and huge thanks to Christine at Eco Dive for coming to the rescue – we did a quick dive on the Tyrrel Bay. I wanted to dive this wreck, a former US Coastguard patrol boat, as I had dived it the year before when it had been down just a week, and so I was keen to see how the marine life had taken hold on it in just 12 months.

With the Friday being Lionfish Eradication Day – and our last diving day - I was a little worried we wouldn’t get to dive it, so a quick call to Christine saw us dropped off from the Native Spirit dive boat straight on to Eco Dive’s catamaran, and whipped out to the wreck site for a cheeky third dive. I have to Offroad buggy tour around Grenada

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The coral-encrusted rudder on the Veronica L

say, the crew did look a little worried lobbing Luke, Penney and myself into the water on our own, but they dropped us with pinpoint accuracy right on top of the wreck. I took an SMB to mark our position, and once we were on the Tyrrel Bay I tied it off on to the mast and we went off to explore.

The Tyrrel Bay sinking was the result of a two-year public/ private sector project, and when it was cleaned and prepared, thankfully many interesting features were left in-situ, including a safe, telephone, compasses, control panels and levers, and even a few toilets. I am pleased to say that all of these are still in place, albeit now with a healthy coating of marine growth, and fish and crustacean life has moved in – there is a large shoal of glassy sweeper in the bridge and upper superstructure, and a horde of tiny shrimp in the galley.

Luke had an absolute blast poking around in the engine room, crew’s quarters, and bridge.

As mentioned before, Friday was the final day of diving, and the theme was one that many of our party had been looking forward to – ‘Lionfish Eradication’. These invasive species are wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, but in Grenada and Carriacou there have been determined efforts by the dive shops to try and keep the reefs and wrecks as ‘lionfish-free’ as possible. Luke, Penney and I were diving with Eveline Verdier at ScubaTech and targeted the previously visited Shark Reef. After a frustrating start – we drifted for a good 30 minutes before we spotted our first lionfish – we suddenly ended up in the midst of lionfish central, and

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Inside the Tyrrel Bay

The small tugboat at Whirlpool

Luke had an absolute blast poking around in the engine room, crew’s quarters, and bridge Not bad for the smallest person there! Ironically, the tiniest lionfish of the competition – at just 6cm - was caught by the tallest person, towering dive instructor Hansel. successfully speared a decent haul. Luke was having his firstCONCLUSION ever go with a spear, and for his initial attempt went for one The third annual DiveFest successfully built on the foundation of the largest lionfish I have ever seen! He did a great strike, of the previous two events, and I am sure that the 2020 but the fish started swimming off down the reef, dragging event will grow even more from this year’s packed six days.

Luke behind it. I assisted with a second spear to finish it off The scheduled themed days – Reef Diving, Wreck Diving, quickly, and then myself and Eveline had all on trying to jam Environmental and Lionfish Eradication – meant that those it into our zookeeper (purpose-made containers for speared taking part experienced four very different aspects of diving lionfish). All of our catch joined others harvested by the rest on the islands. Pup Morse did an excellent job of opening and of the dive shops and were delivered to the staff at Coconuts closing the event, and his catchy, scuba-related tunes and Beach Bar and Restaurant on Grand Anse, ready to be eaten lyrics provided an extremely pleasant backdrop. I am sure by that night at the closing party. the time October rolls around next year, there will be even more events/activities lined up. Put the date in your diary That evening saw dive centre owners, staff, DiveFest divers, – 3-9 October 2020 – and get planning your trip to Grenada. locals and members of the Grenada Scuba Diving Association and the Grenada Tourism Authority gather together at Coconuts The islands are a diving paradise anyway, with some of the healthiest and most-pristine coral reefs in the Caribbean (I to tuck into tasty lionfish fillets served with ginger or garlic, first visited back in November 1999 and they look just the and then have a few drinks while listening to an entertaining same now as they did then), not to mention a veritable fleet two-hour set from the ‘Scuba Cowboy’ to celebrate the of sunken shipwrecks now numbering 15, and mixing this in successful completion of the third annual DiveFest. with the fun of the DiveFest is the perfect concoction for a Prizes were handed out for the winners of the photography superb dive trip. n competition that was conducted during the week, and had been judged by myself, Ria Murray from the GTA, and Lexan Medford-Fletcher from Budget Marine Grand Anse Bay on the Friday afternoon. Congratulations to winners and runners-up Kelly Udelsman, Camille Kaufman, Dawn Seddon, Debbie Blake, Diane Martino, and Keone Drew – portfolios from the winners will be appearing over the next few months. We also found out who came tops in the highly competitive lionfish hunting stakes, with Eco Dive taking the glory for ‘most fish caught’, though Luke did a sterling job for ScubaTech, with his monster taking the title of ‘biggest lionfish’ of the competition at a whopping 36cm long.

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DILI

T

his month, we focus on Dili, also known as ‘City of Peace’, which is the capital, largest city, chief port and commercial centre of Timor-Leste. It is famed for its muck diving, delivering macro critters in spades, as well as colourful reef fish, epic night dives and the occasional pelagic visitor.

DILI ROCK WEST

This is a beautiful sloping reef with hard and soft corals smothering the seabed until around 15m, when it becomes more sandy, and you start to encounter huge barrel sponges, seafans and whip croals. Expect to find scorpionfish, nudibranchs, shrimps and crabs hiding in the shallows, as well as the occasional turtle, blue-ring octopus or even a bumphead parrotfish.

loads of shrimps, nudibranchs, seahorses, pipehorses, eels and much more. It gets even more intense macro action as an exciting night dive.

DILI PINNACLE

This boat dive just five minutes from Dili makes for an exciting, adrenaline-fuelled dive for experienced divers. As you explore around the pinnacle, which starts in around 12m-14m and drops to over 40m, you can see turtles, whitetip reef sharks, jacks and schooling barracuda, but remember to scour the wall too, as you can find all manner of nudibranchs and other little critters. On a lucky day you might even see dolphins, eagle rays or a sailfish.

PERTAMINA PIER

The main feature of this dive site is a stunning coral bommie between 16m-25m which is surrounded by schools of snapper, hunting trevallies, several batfish, and massive lionfish. Scour the shallows for cuttlefish and octopus, and if you are lucky, a frogfish.

Divers love a good pier dive, and here in Dili you can explore underneath the jetty of an Indonesian fuel company. Each support strut is smothered in sponges and seafans, and you can encounter schools of sweetlips and batfish, barracuda, snapper and some giant scorpionfish. With a maximum depth of just 12m-13m, you can enjoy long, relaxed dives looking for critters.

TASI TOLU

FRONT SIDE OF CRISTO REI

DILI ROCK EAST

This is a classic muck dive located close to Dili. It is excellent for smaller critters such as seahorses, pygmy pipefish, shrimps, octopus, leaf scorpionfish and so on. It is also known as a feeding ground for dugongs, so while you might be concentrating on searching for the small stuff, keep an eye out underwater or on the surface for a dugong sighting. It is also a prime night dive spot, when you can find bobtail squid and coconut octopus.

This sloping reef is home to a wide selection of hard and soft corals, which are prolific until around 12m-13m, when you then go on to a sandy slope that has some huge whip corals. Expect plenty of colourful reef fish, as well as nudibranchs, shrimps and crabs. Occasionally you might see whitetip reef sharks, devil rays or even a turtle.

BACK SIDE OF CRISTO REI RODA REEF

This is an artificial reef made out of old tyres and concrete, which sits on a sandy seabed. It is easy to gain entry and exit at any time, and it makes a fantastic muck dive for those who love the little stuff! Expect

Like the ‘front side’, the ‘back side’ is also a sloping reef, and again it is populated with all manner of the usual reef fish, plus nudibranchs, ribbon eels and crustaceans, but do keep an eye on the blue for the occasional pelagic visitors, including hammerhead sharks or eagle rays. n

I’d noticed this myself only a day or so before when diving the SMS Karlsruhe – the previously intact stern section was almost unrecognisable from my last dive on her back in 2015!

“P

aragraph Eleven, confirm”. Those seemingly innocuous words marked the beginning of an extraordinary chapter in naval history that to this day continues to fascinate divers and historians alike. At 10.30 am on 21 June 1919, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter issued the coded order that would lead to the mass scuttling of 52 ships of the German High Seas Fleet interned at Scapa Flow in Orkney.

History had never before witnessed such a cataclysmic event. As the Royal Navy looked on helplessly, one of the world’s most-potent and terrifying naval fleets committed what amounted to suicide on a grand scale by simultaneously opening seacocks and smashing pipes. With the British Grand Fleet away on exercises, those British sailors that remained behind tried in vain to prevent the scuttling, leading to the deaths of nine unarmed German sailors in the chaos that ensued.

The story of the scuttling and the subsequent salvage of the German fleet continues to resonate, particularly on the islands of Orkney. The seven ships that remain beneath the waters of Scapa Flow are so much more than just rusting relics of times gone by – they’re lasting monuments to a far-deeper human story. As we look back on the events of 21 June 1919, we remember all those affected, particularly the nine German sailors who so tragically lost their lives on that day.

We also remember those who lost their lives during the period of internment and the days that followed the scuttling, including Kuno Eversberg – the last German sailor to die at Scapa Flow.

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confirm…

It’s been 100 years since the German High Seas Fleet sank beneath the surface of Scapa Flow. Jason Brown was there to witness the commemorations PHOTOGRAPHS BY JASON BROWN

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KMS brick on the SMS Dresden

MARKING THE CENTENARY

For Scapa Flow skipper Emily Wade, marking the centenary of the scuttling has dominated her life for several years leading up to the 100 year anniversary. With Emily as the driving force, Scapa 100 began to take shape in 2016 to plan for the centenary, to promote Scapa Flow and Orkney, and to promote and support related historically important events. In Emily’s own words, Scapa 100 was just one of several important dates that deserved recognition - “A great team of people have worked very hard to mark the major events of WWI in Orkney from the Battle of Jutland, the loss of HMS Hampshire and HMS Vanguard to the centenary of the Armistice. Scapa 100 was the last event and deserved our best efforts”.

The two weeks covering the Scapa 100 commemorations were expected to be busy, with many of the resident dive boats that work Scapa Flow taking bookings for the Scapa 100 weeks three years in advance. With another ten dive boats heading north to the Orkneys for the period of the commemorations, it was clear that Scapa was going to experience a large influx of divers visiting the area.

“Stromness had a real buzz about it for the centenary – we ran a huge programme of events, most of which were free of charge. It was fantastic to see so many people, both divers and non-divers engage with the initiative and immerse themselves in all things Scapa Flow,” added Emily.

DIVE, EAT, SLEEP…

For my Scapa 100 adventure, I was lucky to secure a spot on one of the best boats to operate in the area – MV Valkyrie.

Skippered by Helen Hadley, MV Valkyrie is a 22-metre-long exfishing boat converted to a full-service diving liveaboard. With accommodation for up to 1 divers in six twin-bunked cabins on the lower deck and all the mod-cons you could wish for, she’s a great choice for divers wanting to experience the fantastic diving and Helen’s acclaimed hospitality. The food onboard is legendary – if you haven’t put on weight by the end of your week onboard, something is seriously wrong!

Like most visiting divers, my Scapa 100 experience followed a familiar pattern. After a hearty breakfast, we’d head out into the flow for a morning dive on one of the seven World

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9.9” gun on the SMS Karlsruhe

The Valkyrie on pick up

Inside the SMS Coln

This invariably means that more of their superstructure is on show and, of course, the stuff we all want to see – lots and lots of big guns!

Stern of the SMS Karlsruhe

War One German wrecks, starting with the shallower cruisers before moving up to the deeper battleships as the week progressed.

The diving in Scapa Flow is suitable for most, so even single-tank divers can experience all seven wrecks with ease. For those prepared for a little decompression, the wrecks can be even more rewarding.

After a hearty lunch onboard Valkyrie and a generous surface snooze, we jumped back in for a second dive on one of the shallower cruisers. For me, the cruisers offer some of the best diving in Scapa Flow. Not only do you get the benefit of more bottom time, but they tend to be orientated on their side rather than completely ‘turned turtle’ like the battleships.

This invariably means that more of their superstructure is on show and, of course, the stuff we all want to see – lots and lots of big guns!

THE SCAPA 100 HUB

Returning to Stromness each evening, the Scapa 100 Hub located upstairs in the Royal Hotel was the place to be.

Acting as the official ‘event HQ’ for the two weeks of the commemorations, many divers from visiting boats in the area congregated here to chat about their dives over a drink and

get clued-up on the many commemorative activities taking place during their stay. There was certainly plenty to choose from – a diverse selection of talks, theatre and musical performances, museum visits, historical displays and even eye-popping virtual reality dives!

For those interested in the historical perspective, a series of talks delivered in the nearby Stromness Town Hall were not to be missed. On one evening, author David Meara recounted the story of a group of Stromness schoolchildren who were taken on a tour of Scapa Flow onboard the tug The Flying Kestrel to see the anchored German fleet. Among the excited group of children was David’s own mother Winnie Thorpe who, along with her classmates, watched with child-like awe as the dramatic events of 21 June unfolded around them. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and archive material, including personal letters and contemporary photographs, David’s talk provided a very personal insight into the events of that day.

Following the historical theme, Professor Dr Michael Epkenhans from the Bundeswehr Centre for Military History and Social Science gave a fascinating talk on the historical context of the scuttling. Particularly captivating was a discussion of the true motives behind the scuttling. Had von Reuter acted of his own volition, or had he received secret orders from Berlin? Were the British secretly relieved that the German fleet had been disposed of? While the truth may never be known, Epkenhans’ talk gave us all plenty to ruminate on.

For those interested in the history of the salvage operations, Scapa 100 founder Emily Wade gave an in-depth and often humorous talk covering both initial efforts to raise the wrecks during the 1920s and 1930s, and later operations which continued right up until the late-1970s. Emily recounted with great fondness her many discussions with Dougall Campbell, who had been instrumental in much of the later

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Helen and Hazel on the Valkyrie

Capstan on the SMS Coln

salvage work. Campbell, who sadly passed away last year, was a larger-than-life character whose Boys Own antics created much laughter tempered by an equal amount of respect from the audience.

Scapa 100 team members Professor Chris Rowland and Kari Hyttinen gave a jaw-dropping glimpse of the wrecks as they are today using state-of-the-art 3D models created using multibeam and photogrammetry technology. Of particular interest to divers in the audience was a discussion of the dramatic states of collapse that many of the wrecks had suffered in recent years. I’d noticed this myself only a day or so before when diving the SMS Karlsruhe – the previously intact stern section was almost unrecognisable from my last dive on her back in 2015!

THE LONGEST DAY

As the sun rose across Scapa Flow on the longest day of the year, Scapa 100 reached the peak of commemorations with a schedule of events marking the day on which von Reuter’s fleet ‘wiped away the stain of surrender’ in one final, desperate act of defiance.

Exploring the F2 and the At 11am on Friday 21 June, a flotilla of Barge diving hard boats, club RIBs and commercial tender vessels assembled above the wreck of the light cruiser SMS Dresden II. With the eyes of the world’s media looking on, the boats quietly held position above the wreck as a service of reflection broadcast across the VHF marine radio from the nearby Northern Lighthouse Board tender Pharos. With dignitaries, descendants of the Germain sailors and representatives from both the British Royal Navy and German Navy

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assembled on her deck, the grandson of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter rang the bell from the SMS Von der Tann – one of several battlecruisers scuttled at Scapa Flow and raised from the seabed during subsequent salvage operations.

As the service came to a close, a team of divers from both the British Royal Navy and the German Navy descended down onto the wreck to place wreaths on her hull. In a touching spirit of reconciliation and in recognition of the strong ties that now exist between these two modern-day NATO allies, the two navy divers shook hands underwater against the backdrop of a large flag of modern-day Germany fluttering gently in the light current.

With the floating commemorations at an end, attention switched to the nearby island of Hoy for a service of remembrance for the 15 German sailors at the Commonwealth War Graves Royal Navy Cemetery at Lyness. With many family members present including a number of Admiral von Reuter’s own descendants, the service was led by German Military Pastor Christoph Sommer, the Venerable Martyn Gough, Chaplain of the Fleet and Archdeacon for the Royal Navy, and the Rev. David Dawson, Chaplain to the local Sea Cadet Corps, the Royal British Legion Kirkwall Branch and Royal Naval Association Orkney Branch.

During the ceremony, wreaths were laid by Rear Admiral Stephen Haisch of the German Navy, and Captain Chris Smith, Royal Navy Regional Commander for Scotland and Northern Ireland along with local dignitaries including the Lord Lieutenant of Orkney, Bill Spence. n

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The Philippines is now firmly on the map as a top diving destination, with a diverse range of locations, and here we showcase just a few of the hotspots PHOTOGRAPHS BY BETH WATSON, ROB WILSON, SYLVIA JENKINS, BUCEO ANILAO, MAGIC OCEANS AND THRESHER SHARK DIVERS

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Philippines Overview

T

he Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is located in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from the other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorised broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. There are diving opportunities throughout the Philippines, from quiet spots like Cabilao and Anilao to tourist hotspots like Boracay, Puerto Galera and Alona Beach, not to mention the world-class sites off Dumaguete, Moalboal, Malapascua, Donsol, Coron Bay and Subic Bay, and we take a look at a few over the coming pages.

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Crinoids decorate a seafan as they seek to feed in the nutrient-rich waters

Anda, Bohol

Anda is a quaint little town located in the southeast of the lush tropical island Bohol, away from the mass tourism. It has a local population of 17,000 people and has ten miles of diving pleasure to offer.

This picturesque town represents all the best things you will see in the Philippines and is aptly called the ‘Gem of Bohol’. You will find pristine tropical beaches, a serene countryside, pool caves, prehistorical sites and much more.

On top of that, Anda offers a great biodiversity both on land and underwater. For the most part, Anda is still largely undiscovered by tourists, making it the ultimate place to experience the best of the Coral Triangle. This is the perfect getaway for divers to find untouched, colourful and extremely healthy reefs and coral gardens.

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Diving around this peaceful location is incredibly extensive and versatile, with more then 25 dive sites to explore, offering a great combination between sandy slopes, mangroves, small caves, reefs and walls full of marine life. On top of that, there are several islands nearby, such as Lamanok and Camiguin, that provide great diving opportunities. Several land-based resorts in Anda can organise daytrips to these islands.

The marine life here varies from XXS to XXL. The black hairy frogfish, blue-ringed octopus, tiny tiger shrimp and a lot of different nudibranchs can easily be found in the waters of Anda, making it a true critter paradise.

On top of that, huge turtles and big schools of jack fish can be seen, as well as a frequently passing whaleshark and even an occasional manta.

It’s the perfect getaway for every type of diver and underwater photographer, from beginner to professional.

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Anilao

Anilao is the Philippines’ answer to the Lembeh Strait, where multitudes of fascinating muck diving critters await the sharpest of eyes. It has been dubbed by many as the ‘nudibranch capital of the world’, with close to 600 nudibranch species already identified, and more being discovered all the time.

There are more than 50 dive sites, and these range from macro and muck dives to coral reefs and even wrecks, and depending on site are suitable for everyone from beginners up to veteran experienced divers.

There is an enormous biodiversity of marine life around Anilao. As well as the aforementioned nudibranchs, you can also find seahorse, frogfish, octopus, cuttlefish, squid, mandarinfish, harlequin shrimp, Lembeh sea dragon, blueringed octopus, rhinopias, and much more.

However, while muck and macro diving might be the main highlight of this area of the Philippines, you can also sample the increasingly popular blackwater diving, which can turn up all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures in the dark.

Macro critters abound, like tiny crabs, lobster and miniature shrimp

Resorts like Buceo Anilao can have enviable positions right on the beach

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M alapascua

The sleepy island of Malapascua in the Philippines is fast making a name for itself in diving circles and is already on many an avid diver’s bucket list. Initially made famous by its daily sightings of thresher sharks, Malapascua’s diving offers a lot more than sharks. But let’s start with the main event.

Malapascua is the only place in the world that the beautiful and rarely seen thresher shark can be seen on a daily basis. In a wonderful twist on the usual story, shark sightings have actually become much more prolific in recent years and you can see ten or more on a single dive, often with very close encounters.

The thresher dive leaves early morning, around 5am, as this is when the sharks come up from the blue to Monad Shoal, an underwater mound about 20 minutes from Malapascua.

They are attracted to its ‘cleaning stations’, which are like a carwash for fish - small fish called cleaner wrasse will pick the dead skin and parasites off the bodies of bigger fish.

The best way to dive Monad Shoal is with one of the operators that has their own mooring line and dives a separate place from other shops. That way you will have a swimming dive rather than a ‘sitting’ dive, with greater chances of multiple shark encounters, and you will see other plentiful marine life along the way.

Once you’re back from your early dive, it’s time for breakfast and there is still a whole day ahead of you! And being situated in the middle of the Coral Triangle, the global centre of marine biodiversity, there is plenty more to see! The diversity of marine life is incredible and the diving has something for everyone – big fish and macro life, wrecks and walls, coral gardens and muck diving, novice diving and advanced dive sites. Even seasoned dive pros who have been diving there for years still find new marine life after thousands of dives around the island.

Common creatures found in Malapascua’s waters include large rays, banded sea snakes, cuttlefish, a huge number and variety of nudibranchs,

Amorous mandarinfish put on a display at dusk

unusual shrimp and crabs, seahorses and pipefish, and frogfish.

The dive sites spread out in all directions from Malapascua and their varying depths and different environments make each dive site unique. Gato Island has an amazing variety of life but is known especially for its whitetip sharks and the elusive pygmy seahorse. It has interesting rock formations and an underwater tunnel that goes right under the island.

Malapascua is a great place for beginners. There are many novice-level dive sites that make it easy to progress and build up confidence before trying out the shark dive. More advanced divers will find there is something for them as well with the shark dives, the wrecks and the walls. There are also chances for technical diving, on the various shark dives and the wrecks including the World War Two Pioneer shipwreck at 55m.

Malapascua’s specialty thresher sharks

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Whalesharks feeding

Dumaguete

Situated just 20 minutes south of the provincial capital of Dumaguete City, Dauin is a mecca for macro diving. There are so many reasons to dive this part of the Philippines, so let’s just look at a few…

The majority of dive sites span nine miles from Bacong to Zamboanguita, and it’s no surprise that Dauin is right in the centre of these two villages. The area sits at the base of Mount Talinis, which is responsible for the dark black volcanic sand along the coast. Like Lembeh, the black sand attracts a wide variety of small, colourful and unusual critters.

The coastline is best known as paradise for frogfish (warty, hairy, painted, giant, etc), ghost pipefish (ornate, robust, roughsnout, delicate, etc) and smaller octopus (wonderpus, mimic, blue ring, coconut and even the mototi).

Dauin doesn’t fail to impress when it comes to weird, wonderful and unusual critters to photograph – depending on the time of year, here’s a quick snapshot of what you can expect to see: Skeleton shrimp, harlequin shrimp, tiger shrimp, Shaun the Sheep nudibranch (Costasiella Kuroshimae) plus countless more colourful and captivating nudis, flamboyant cuttlefish, anemonefish (pink, clown, tomato and more), bobtail squid, lionfish, mandarinfish, Ambon scorpionfish, and grouper.

Macro critters abound, like tiny lobster, shrimps and crabs

CORON BAY

In 1944, in the midst of World War Two, Coron Bay - to the southwest of Busuanga Island in Northern Palawan – saw a huge military operation in which the US forces despatched 12 Japanese supply vessels to the seabed.

Now wrecks like the Okikawa Maru, SS Morazan, the Kogyo Maru and the Irako await keen wreck divers, and as well as containing interesting military artefacts, they are also smothered in marine growth and support plenty of fish life. This is a world-class dive site for the wreck enthusiast. It has history, and some incredible diving within the range of recreational divers. Busuanga and Coron Bay is definitely a diving destination worth putting on your bucket list.

Apo Island

For those who like to shoot a variety of subjects and sizes, just a short boat trip will get you to Apo Island, where you can dive gorgeous rolling coral gardens (massive table corals, brain coral, cabbage coral, etc). Apo has an abundance of green and hawksbill turtles, banded sea snakes, as well as schools of jack fish and all the trimmings you’d expect to see on a healthy coral landscape.

Most resorts in the area treat Apo Island as a day trip, so as well as your dives and snorkelling, you get to enjoy lunch on the boat while taking in the spectacular views of white sandy beaches and limestone cliffs of the island. n

Relax in comfortable, welcoming resorts

Oslob

If snorkelling or diving with the gentle giants of the oceans, whalesharks, is on your list, a day drip to Oslob will have you getting as close as possible, with lots of wide-angle photo opportunities.

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

SUPER MACRO

Following his last article on shooting shoals, Martyn Guess provides some insight into and tips on super macro photography PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTYN GUESS

M

acro photography is defined as close-up photography of subjects that shows them at lifesize or greater. Subjects underwater typically can range from, for example, an octopus to, say, a seahorse. Supermacro photography is where the subjects are typically very small and where they are shown at greater than 2:1, or twice lifesize.

This type of macro photography opens up a whole new range of tiny subjects such as, for example, a pygmy seahorse (Image 1) to tiny frogfish (Image 2 and 3) or hairy shrimp, or nudibranchs like Shaun the Sheep (Image 4). It also enables slightly larger subjects to be shown filling the frame – for example, harlequin shrimp or emperor shrimp (Image 5). Super macro has become increasingly popular as more really tiny creatures have been discovered, and also as modern camera’s capabilities to take decent images of these minute subjects with improved autofocus systems has moved forward.

Image 1 – Pygmy seahorse showing very narrow Depth of Field with super macro

Image 3 – The same frogfish as image 2 with magnification from Nauticam SMC2

Image 2 – Super macro subjects can be really tiny – note the guide’s finger!

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To take super macro images you need to add some accessories to your arsenal of photography tools. Typically, wet magnifiers or diopters which screw onto the housing port and can be taken off and put on underwater – these offer the most flexibility during a dive. Unfortunately, these can be quite expensive but in my view are worth the investment. I use wet lenses manufactured by Nauticam such as the SMC 1 and more-powerful SMC 2 with a Nikon 105 or Canon 100mm Macro lens on a full-frame camera. Nauticam also produce the excellent CMC 1 and CMC 2 which work extremely well with cropped sensor cameras and mirrorless cameras and where the go-to lens is around 50-60mm for Cropped sensor and 45 or 60mm with Mirrorless. These latter wet lenses also work well with compact camera systems. Other manufactures include Saga, Subsea and Inon. What essentially these pieces of glass do is enable the photographer to get closer to the subject and thus fill up more of the frame. The more expensive the wet lens, the better the optics tend to be. Cheaper alternatives tend to provide images which are softer towards the edges and can exhibit issues with chromatic aberration.

Cheaper alternatives to wet lenses are dry diopters, which you have to fit to the camera lens or extension tubes (get the versions with auto-focus capability). These give the same magnification as wet lenses and provide very good image quality, but the major downside is you are fixed with the magnification they provide for the whole dive. Great if you are repeat diving on the same site and know the subjects you are going to shoot, but a real hinderance sometimes otherwise, as you will undoubtedly find you are too tight for bigger subjects.

You will also need extension rings for your port, which adds to the cost if you don’t have them already.

The other option is to fit a teleconverter between the camera and the lens. The Camera/Lens Manufacture produced teleconverters tend to work the best but other manufacturers such as Kenko also produce excellent and cheaper teleconverters. It is important in each case that you check which lenses they will work with. I use those produced

by Nikon and work with my Nikon 105mm Macro lens and also my Sigma 150mm Macro lens and find these produce excellent results. Again, the downside is you are fixed for the dive, but they can also be used in conjunction with wet lenses for extra magnification. Perfect if you know you are diving to photograph tiny subjects. The main point of difference between teleconverters and wet lenses or dry diopters is that the TC gives the lens in front of it more power without having to get closer, so are great for shyer subjects or where you can’t get physically really close.

One of the main considerations in super macro photography is that the depth of field can be absolutely minute – literally wafer thin. This has to be taken into account and your technique of taking macro pictures has to be absolutely spot on. This is where ‘practice makes perfect’ comes into its own!

I often advise students to set the camera up for macro with say a higher shutter speed to help with camera shake, and to freeze the action. Also, so that the camera can gain focus

Image 4 – Shaun the Sheep nudibranch – just a few mm long! SMC2 1/320th F25 ISO 100 Image 5 – Emperor shrimp hitching a ride on a nudibranch SMC1 1/320th F22 ISO 200

slightly quicker before the shutter is depressed, back button or thumb focus which a lot of the newer cameras can provide. I also use a good focus light to help the auto focus and so that your eyes can focus more easily on the subject and establish where you want the lens to focus - such as eyes or rhinopores.

Having a shallow depth of field however does have many benefits, including a beautiful bokeh or blurred background, which is perfect for setting off the subject in the foreground.

Also useful to disguise a complicated or distracting background.

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.

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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY Image 6 – Whip coral goby taken with SMC1 Magnifier and showing very narrow depth of field behind and in front of the subject

My recommendation to photographers seeking to try super macro is to first use a slightly less powerful wet lens or diopter. The CMC1 or Subsea +5, for example. I remember putting on a +10 wet lens when I first started with this technique and couldn’t see anything through the lens at all!

This was down to the fact that I simply wasn’t close enough!

Eventually you get used to roughly how close you need to be. It might seem very difficult at first but with practice it becomes second nature and when you start getting great results, you won’t want to go back. Just make sure that you don’t get so close to the subject that you bump into it!

When you or your guide find a suitable subject, first assess how easy it will be to get into a position to take a shot. One of the first things I teach in underwater macro photography is critter selection. Sometimes it is simply best to just move on and find something in a better position. It is important that you are comfortable and able to get into a steady position with something like a rock nearby place to hold onto. A current or surge is going to make life very difficult, so best avoided until you get competent with focusing. Be aware of the surrounding habitat, and don’t simply plonk yourself on the bottom where damage potentially can be done. Good buoyancy is essential.

When you look through the viewfinder or into the LCD, you will probably see nothing initially, as the subject will be completely out of focus. A subject with a good contrast with its surroundings is easier to start with as the autofocus will

work slightly easier. Sometimes as you move in closer the lens autofocus will hunt. When this happens, I sometimes focus on something close by with roughly the same camera to subject distance and then without refocusing simply rock in and out with the subject in the frame until it comes into focus. You can then refocus with the camera autofocus.

When you initially look at the subject decide the part that you want really sharp. It might be a feature such as an eye.

Move the focus point manually over the point you want sharp.

As I mentioned above the Depth of Field (DOF) with magnifiers or teleconverters attached becomes very shallow. The DOF will thus create blurred areas behind and in front of the feature you want sharp and if this blur is used creatively the image will stand out (Image 6).

Certain types of subjects are more difficult when shooting face on. Long-nosed fish or shrimps with legs and claws out in front are an example. You have to decide what is more important and in almost all cases the eyes have to be pin sharp so that the subject engages with the viewer. With these types of subjects, you just have to accept that say the mouth or the claws will be soft. If an image of the subject won’t work with such features slightly out of focus, the best thing to do is to take the picture sideways on.

Typically, aperture settings should be around the F22 mark and higher in order to counter the shallow DOF created with Magnifiers, etc. I like to have my ISO fairly low to ensure that any digital noise is reduced to the minimum and as much detail as possible is squeezed out of the camera. I tend to use ISO 100/200 but often go lower still. The converse of this of course is that it is relatively easy to amplify the bokeh effect by using lower apertures and get really dreamy images. There are many subjects which create dreamy images work very well when you open up the aperture (image7).

On your next trip try and borrow a wet lens and try super macro for yourself. You won’t be disappointed! n

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Image 7 – Beautiful Bokeh can be created by opening up the aperture and using magnifiers.

F11 1/320th ISO 50 with SMC1

YOUR DIVE DATA’S NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD.

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This picture is for illustration purposes only. Actual product may vary due to product enhancement of the dive mask paired with the Galileo HUD hands-free dive computer.

In the second of a two-parter, Anne, Phil and Mario discuss working with models, and explain how to make maximum impact from having a diver in your photographs.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIO VITALINI AND ANNE AND PHIL MEDCALF

Using other divers as models in underwater photography is a really useful way of giving your wide-angle shots some perspective and giving a human aspect to the world beneath the waves. Many people don’t dive, but seeing a diver in a photo means they can imagine being there themselves.

It is also a great way of showing how big some of the wrecks we dive are - when photographed with a diminutive diver next to them for scale, it can make the underwater world even more impressive.

By the nature of our business, we need to take a lot of photos with divers included and using models is not without its pitfalls! You can be lucky and get an excellent shot of a diver by chance, but some preparation and planning before the dive will make for much more successful outcomes.

Agree hand signals with your model before you get in the water - you can have a look at our Alphamarine Photography YouTube channel for a demonstration of the ones we use. It is essential that your model knows what position you want them to adopt even if they are some distance away from you. Trying to convey this underwater with no preparation beforehand can be frustrating and time consuming.

ANNE AND PHIL MEDCALF

Photographs of people always look better if you can see their faces well, which is difficult when kitted out with full dive gear, so having a better view of facial features really helps

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If you are taking close up pictures of divers, then there are other things to consider about their appearance. Unruly hair isn’t very noticeable when a diver is silhouetted in the distance but when you want a shot of someone using a camera underwater, it’s good to get them looking their best. If your model is wearing a hood, bald or with close-cropped hair there isn’t an issue, but if your model has hair long enough to float like Anne then finding something to keep it under control is helpful. We have used a range of hair-managing solutions over the years for warmer waters, including bandannas and neoprene skull caps, which in Anne’s experience tend to slip off during a dive. The most successful seems to be stretchy wide yoga hairbands sold by sports clothing companies, which are also quite cheap to buy.

Masks with black skirts are very popular with photographers, although neither of us use them personally.

They do tend to have a less-pleasant look photographically than clear ones. Twin lens masks have a tendency to make people look cross-eyed and they can put one eye into shadow, so it’s definitely worth encouraging the person who models for you to get a single lens mask which is easier to get good eye contact through, and also much easier to light properly with a strobe. Photographs of people always look better if you can see their faces well, which is difficult when kitted out with full dive gear, so having a better view of facial features really helps. Also make sure your model is looking friendly, get them to smile even with a regulator in their mouth as it translates to the look in their eyes.

When doing quite close-up pictures of people’s faces, the mask should be clean too, nobody wants to see mould growing round the edges of the lenses and dirty spots! For ladies modelling, or perhaps the men too, wearing mascara can also help to make the eyes more noticeable, but do make sure it is a good waterproof one. Smudged make up isn’t very flattering, but it is worth trying different techniques and equipment so that the viewer sees the person behind the dive gear to connect with.

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11th Sept 2020 £1295 excluding flights

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.

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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

As underwater photographers, we are always on the look for exciting new MARIO subjects and often overlook our fellow VITALINI divers as an important element in a picture. A diver in a photo can help to give a sense of scale, and adds a human touch, usually making the image more interesting.

You can take two approaches to using models underwater.

The first one is opportunistic. Simply look for the right diver in the right position. No preparation or pre-planning needed. It can yield some good results, especially when you are placing a diver in the background as a compositional element to balance an image. However, it is not very efficient when the diver is an important part of your picture. And you should always ask fellow divers for permission before taking their pic.

The second approach involves more preparation.

First of all, you need to find someone willing to pose for your pictures. An experienced diver will give you better results, as his or her position will be much more relaxed. It is fairly obvious to state that communication underwater is fairly compromised, so it is essential to agree on a set of signals that allow you to guide the model into the right position.

Once you have found the right location, take a test shot and show it to the model indicating where you

in the A diver swimming bject of su in ma the blue is rface su e Th this picture. lement and lights comp the image

On these two images, the line of sights of the model guides the eyes of the viewer to a focal point in the image

want him/her to be positioned. The model can also use their reflection on your dome-port to get in the right place.

Where you position the diver can make a big difference in the general look of the picture, you can use the model to balance a shot or to add a focal point. Ensure there is good separation between the diver and the environment such a reef wall, cave or a wreck.

If you are planning to create a silhouette, make sure the diver is not swimming directly into the camera otherwise they become a shapeless blob. Instead they should be on an angle, preferably with the head slightly higher than the feet.

Corals and Caves on

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Pay special attention to the arms and legs avoiding flapping limbs at all cost, they make for very messy images. Arms straight in front do not look good in pictures. Asking the model to hold a light with two hands at chest level and to keep the legs straight or just slightly bent to gives the arms a much more relaxed feeling.

When your model is relatively close the face becomes a very dominant feature. For this reason, you need to pay special attention to the eyes. With most subjects it is important to achieve a strong eye contact. But when photographing divers, this rule should be immediately discarded unless you want to go for a comedy approach. When a diver looks into the camera the image gets an unsettling feeling. The best thing is to have a subject and direct the diver to look at it. The line of sight will guide the viewer to the subject.

If you have the possibility to select what kit is your model going to wear, choose classic fins with a traditional shape.

There are many models with unusual shapes. These can be very good pieces of kit, but they do not look great in photos.

Selecting a good mask is also important. Some models make people look a bit boss-eyed and dark or black skirts will make evenly lighting the face of the diver very difficult.

Using divers in your images can make for great shot. It does not matter if you have a regular dive buddy but spend some time before the dive to discuss with your model what to do when the next photo opportunity comes along. n

When using a model as a silhouette the position of the legs is essential

When positioning a model make sure is not clipped like in the second image where the divers head has been cut by the wreck

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

WWW.DANEUROPE.ORG

DISTRACTED

WHILE DIVING

Peter Buzzacott looks at a case where a female diver ran into difficulties after getting distracted while diving THE DIVER

The diver was a 48-year-old woman who was open-water certified 20 years ago, but had not dived since then. She had recently taken a second open-water diving course.

She was 1.70 metres tall, weighed 104kg and had a body mass index (BMI) of 36. She had recently lost 20kg and was still in the process of weight reduction, though she was not dieting during this seven-day liveaboard trip in Australia.

THE INCIDENT

On the second day of diving, the diver reported ‘getting carried away while taking pictures’. She stopped looking at her gauges and realised at 30m that she had only 70 bar of breathing gas left. Her dive buddy was motioning for her to ascend, so she began to purposefully do so. She reported feeling worried and determined that she should not shoot to the surface, so began a steady ascent.

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At 14m, she looked around and initially was unable to locate her dive buddy. She watched her air supply dwindle. Finally, she reached 6m with about 20 bar of air left. She opted to make a safety stop, and watched her gauge intently the whole time. As soon as she finished, she motioned for her buddy to ascend the mooring line. She ascended in a slow, controlled manner, but stated that her mind was racing and that she felt relief as her depth gauge approached zero.

On the surface, the diver inflated her BCD, looked at her gauge and saw that her tank was completely empty. She recalled - it was a 30m dive, and I was very embarrassed. My dive buddy was holding it back, but I could tell he was upset with me. I never told him how close I came to running out of air, but I apologised profusely, telling him I would never do that again. I spoke with another diver, a former instructor, and told him what had happened. He told me he had made the same mistake once — got carried away with what he was

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© LORENZO MITTIGA

doing and forgot to watch his gauges. I was thinking ‘Wow, and you’re a dive instructor!’ I was shocked at how easily you can lose sight of your depth. I mentally vowed to stay with my buddy on future dives and to watch my gauges.

ANALYSIS

This diver was lucky that she realised how low her tank pressure was when she did. Much longer at that depth and she would likely have run out of air before she made it back to the surface. At DAN, we receive fatality reports every year about divers who weren’t so lucky. Running out of air doesn’t automatically lead to death, but when coupled with panic and a rapid ascent, which may be more common among inexperienced divers, the consequences can be grave.

An Australian study followed 1,000 recreational scuba dives and determined that, compared with divers who surfaced with plenty of air remaining, divers who surfaced low on air were more than 20 times more likely to be surprised by how little air they had left. In other words, like the diver involved in this incident, they were simply not paying attention to their gauges.

Recently I took up underwater photography again after a long break. In the past few years I’d been diving plenty but without a camera. The first thing I rediscovered was how utterly distracting a camera can be when you find something you want to photograph. It is very easy to forget to keep an eye on your depth or air, and this is one reason why DAN resolutely suggests recreational divers dive with a buddy. In this incident, a buddy signalled the diver before she ran out of air and accompanied her to the surface, able to render assistance if needed.

This diver had a close call, learned a valuable lesson and lived to dive another day. Staying calm during her ascent, staying near her buddy and inflating her BCD at the surface

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On the surface, the diver inflated her BCD, looked at her gauge and saw that her tank was completely empty. She recalled it was a 30m dive, and I was very embarrassed were all essential elements in her incident being harmless.

Another aspect of this case is particularly relevant to modern divers. In the earlier days of underwater photography, when divers used rolls of 24- or 36-shot film, waterproof cameras were quite an investment, and it was far more common then for divers to be very experienced before buying their first camera. Today, however, as this diver showed, even newly certified divers pick up the now-relatively inexpensive hobby of underwater photography — before they have developed keen situational awareness through many dives.

This relative inexperience and the distraction a camera offers make for an unsafe combination underwater.

Therefore, newer divers who want to take their cameras underwater are advised to discuss the dive plan with their buddies before entering the water and to carefully consider the added risk of distraction. n

DAN MEMBERSHIP

Before leaving for your next dive adventure, make sure your DAN membership is still active. If it isn’t, join DAN, or renew your membership at: www.daneurope.org

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BEYOND TECHNICAL

www.narkedat90.com To be next to an iceberg that’s bigger than a multi-storey apartment block was quite thrilling – plus we knew it could tip over at any time and create a big tidal wave!

ICEBERG

AHEAD!

Cold-water-diving expert Byron Conroy left his adopted home of Iceland to explore the freezing waters of Greenland and its ‘population’ of monstrous icebergs PHOTOGRAPHS BY BYRON CONROY 76

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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

I

The Plancius

have lived in Iceland for many years, so coldheads into the ice field water diving is very comfortable for me. I regularly dive in water as low as 1 degree C and also dive under the ice in the winter here in Iceland. However, when an offer for a trip to Greenland with Blue Green Expeditions came up, I couldn’t say no to taking cold-water diving one step further.

Greenland is the world’s largest island, and with a population of just 56,000 making the population density 0.028 people per square kilometre - compared to 259 per square kilometres for England - you know that it’s going to be quite remote. Some 75 percent of the island is also covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica.

During the winter, much of the sea around Greenland is covered in pack ice. Our trip took us to Scoresby Sund, on the east side of Greenland, during September when the pack ice has melted, leaving behind an incredible fjord filled with huge icebergs that have calved from the glacier. We departed from Akureyri in North Iceland and began the 24-hour journey onboard our home for the week, Plancius. It was built as an oceanic research vessel and now runs trips to the Polar regions. The boat has 53 cabins and Colourful can accommodate 108 guests, and it also anemones features some wonderful home comforts such as a fine-dining restaurant and a bar.

In order to join a diving trip to Greenland, a good amount of serious cold-water diving experience is the boat for the overnight trip to Scoresby. required. A minimum of 50 logged drysuit dives is needed, Dinner on board was served and everyone began talking and I would highly recommend that as many of these are about the excitement of diving in Greenland. The diving here conducted in less than 10 degrees C as possible. Also, all is mainly unexplored, and there are no dive site names or your own personal equipment is needed, including drysuit, itineraries - this is true exploration in the Arctic. undergarments and two independent first stages that are During the first night on-board as we crossed the Denmark environmentally sealed. All dive tanks here have two valves Strait to get to Greenland, we were able to see the Northern on them due to the risk of first stage freezing and freeflowing Lights from the viewing deck - an incredible sight for all of regulators. We boarded at 3pm local time and settled into the participants and an amazing start to the trip. To be able

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Drinking gin and tonics with ice cubes thousands of years old, it was amazing to reflect on the real exploration we had conducted on our visit to Greenland

Divers under an iceberg

to stand under the glowing lights and know we were heading for unexplored diving and pristine seas created a real buzz among the travellers.

The following day we awoke to rough seas and experienced the power of the northern seas, with big swells all around us for most of the day as we continued north. In the late afternoon we entered the fjord and began to see the first small icebergs on the edge off the fjord, and as the sunlight retreated, we were again treated to another incredible Northern Lights show. The diving began the following day.

The ‘bergs are We were blessed to be greeting by perfect seas impressive above and mirror reflections the next morning, and as water too I made my way to the sundecks, I saw the first glimpses of the inner fjord. There was not a breath of wind, and the icebergs were as large as multistorey buildings, perfectly reflected in the mirrorlike surface of the fjord.

It is hard to describe the majesty of cruising slowly through the ice field, the icebergs are so serene and calm, yet hold thousands of years of history within them. The icebergs are simply beautiful. Also, knowing that usually around two thirds of the ’berg is actually underwater with only one thread breaking the surface got us all excited for the diving.

We sat down for the morning dive briefing with the dive leader onboard, Henrik Enckell. Henrik has been diving for over 25 years in the world’s mostWe decided upon a shore/wall dive for the first dive. We difficult conditions in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and is also a loaded all the gear into the zodiacs and then headed down to technical and rebreather instructor. He has a very calming voice meet them as they used a crane to lift them from the top of and is a strong leader, which gave us great confidence heading in the ship. After rolling into the sea and being sharply woken by to dive unexplored waters. extremely cold water hitting our faces, we began the dive.

The water here is around 1 degree C and yet it was Henrik discussed with us the safety risks with extreme teeming with unexpected life. There were many colourful sea cold-water diving, freeflowing regulators, shutdown drills, anemones, nudibranchs, jellyfish and sea stars - a perfect drysuit flooding, hypothermia, etc, and set the tone for the group to realise this was serious cold-water diving. macro divers heaven.

For the afternoon we conducted a wall dive. On the wall we Diver next to a could see the basalt columns that we had seen above land smaller iceberg also underwater, and were able to really study the geology of Greenland from the unexplored dive sites. The wall was covered with beautiful anemones and all sorts of macro subjects, such as shrimps and sea slugs surrounding them.

After a few nice easy dives on day one, we settled in for the day two dive briefings with Henrik. Now it was time for what we all came for - diving under icebergs!

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DISCOVER

Magmadive Expeditions, Iceland magmadiveinfo@gmail.com www.magmadive.is

Untitled-1 1

ICELAND Multi day dive expeditions all over Iceland including Silfra fissure

05/10/2019 19:51

COMPUTERS • O2 CELLS • GAS ANALYSERS CABLES & CONNECTORS • REBREATHER PARTS PATHFINDER STROBES • SENSORS TOOLS • SOLENOIDS The icebergs have a dimpled effect, like a golf ball

Icebergs look quite ethereal underwater

Henrik guided us through the safety procedures, and also explained that the icebergs are made from fresh water and the sea is salt water, so as you approach the iceberg being weighted for salt, you then get around one metre from the iceberg and enter the area in which the ’berg is melting. This area is now fresh water, so as you approach if you don’t adjust your buoyancy, you will begin to sink underneath the iceberg!

There are also sometimes caves within the icebergs which we were forbidden to enter. We also discussed the very real possibility of an iceberg flipping over during the dive.

We began the dive by rolling off the zodiac and breaking through the pancake ice on the surface. This is a thin layer of glass-like ice that floats all over the surface when the sea is flat calm. As we descended to the iceberg, we were greeted by good visibility at around 15m. The iceberg was incredible to see underwater - the surface reminded me of a golf ball being dimpled. To swim away from the ’berg and see it all was amazing. The texture and the shape, and also the fact that this was melting and in just a few weeks, this iceberg and dive site that was thousands of years old would no longer exist. We would be both the first people ever to see this underwater, and also the last.

Later in the day we crossed the fjord and ended up in Jytte Haun for a real expedition dive to a place where nobody had been recorded diving before. The dive site was a wall with a slight current, and enabled us to do our first drift dive in the Arctic. We drifted along the healthy wall and were amazed by the abundance of life in this inhospitable place. There were lump suckers, anemones, jellyfish and many other fish and nudibranch species I had not seen before, even after years of diving the North Atlantic in Iceland.

We also managed to take a zodiac trip around the fjord.

This enabled us to get up close and personal to the iceberg and take some amazing photographs. To be next to an iceberg that’s bigger than a multi-storey apartment block was quite

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thrilling – plus we knew it could tip over at any time and create a big tidal wave! As the evening drew to a close, we settled into a BBQ onboard the top deck of the ship. The atmosphere was alive with people discussing exploration and their first experience of diving underneath icebergs.

For day three of the diving, we headed towards Rode Island where there was an iceberg graveyard. We were joined by some snorkellers and we went to explore an iceberg. This ice was different to the other ’berg we had dived, being completely see-through. With great visibility and a seethrough iceberg, it was possible to see divers through the ’berg on the other side - and also to see the rocks and sand that had been frozen in time with the ice.

In the afternoon after diving another ’berg with great visibility, we all boarded an iceberg for photographs, and stood on top of an iceberg floating in the fjord.

Our final days diving would just be one dive in the morning.

After such a great day with the icebergs previously, we decided to conduct another wall dive with amazing macro photography options, capturing species that we had never seen before.

That evening we began the cruise back to Iceland. The seas were more forgiving for the ride back and we were able to enjoy the home comforts of the boat. The guests were able to order drinks with ice cubes chipped away from a small iceberg that had been fished out of the sea. Drinking G&Ts with ice cubes thousands of years old, it was amazing to reflect on the real exploration we had conducted on our visit to Greenland.

Greenland diving is not for everyone. The seas can be harsh, the temperatures extreme and the conditions tough, but the rewards of stunning topside scenery and the chance to be able to explore new dive sites and see icebergs that only you will ever see is quite appealing to the more-serious cold-water diver. n

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TRAVEL PARTNER

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE

TEAM!

WE’RE HEADING TO AQABA IN JORDAN AND WE’RE INVITING YOU TO JOIN US FOR THE BIGGEST CELEBRATION OF DIVING IN 2021!

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VISIT WWW.GODIVINGSHOW.COM/DIVEFEST TO REGISTER YOUR INTEREST IN ATTENDING TBC in January 2021. The event will last for a seven-day period, with an extension possible for travelers WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM looking to visit Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea.

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What’s New

FOURTH ELEMENT HYDRO-T RASH GUARDS (SRP: £38.50-£41.50)

Fourth Element have always been at the forefront when it comes to utilising recycled waste in their products, and the Hydro-T rash guards use 27 percent recycled polyester which is derived from plastic bottles – in fact, approximately four recycled plastic bottles go into each Hydro-T! Designed for use in or out of the water, these loose-fit rash guards give you room to breathe, while the lightweight fabric 82

wicks away moisture. They have a UV Protection UPF of 50+, and are ultra-quick drying. Comes in Ice Blue in long and short sleeve variants, and then Baltic Blue for long sleeve, and Azure Blue for short sleeve. The short sleeve have small logos front and back, the long sleeve has a huge Fourth Element logo emblazoned across the back. www.fourthelement.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

BEST DIVERS ALDEBARAN 3500 LUMEN TORCH SET (SRP: £300) This anodised aluminium torch, which comes complete in a hard case containing the torch itself, lantern-style handle, batteries and charging station, is depthrated to 150m and pumps out an impressive 3,500 lumens.

It has a 14 degree beam, from four XML2 U2 LEDs and one VG65 (red correction) LED, and at 100 percent power has a burn time of 120 minutes.

What’s the ‘red correction’ about? Well, according to Best Divers, white LEDs are very efficient, and the light has very good properties and good penetration, but it gives very poor reproduction of red colours – that is where the Aldebaran comes in, with the red LED lighting them back up again. www.bestdivers.co.uk

HOLLIS PRISM 2 (SRP: from £8,499) The Prism 2 is a fully closed circuit rebreather, ideal for exploring open ocean, cave, or wrecks, and it can be electronically or manually controlled, which means you choose how you want the loop PPO2 maintained.

Available with back-mounted counterlungs or over-theshoulder-mounted counterlungs with a rear-mounted radial scrubber providing easy breathing with low-resistive effort and low hydrostatic loading. The Prism 2 has also been tested by ANSTI at 100m and has the lowest WOB of any mixed gas CCR on the market at 0.94 J/L. The standard kit includes an electronic handset, independent heads-up display, and a backplate/wing assembly that provides a complete kit ready to dive out of the box. The Prism 2 can be purchased with or without tanks/valves. www.rebreathersuk.com/store WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

GIRLS THAT SCUBA MEMBERSHIP CARD (SRP: £54.99) Girls That Scuba have spent the last year working on something huge behind the scenes and have launched the very first scuba-diving discount platform that offers money off hundreds of dive centres, liveaboards and brands worldwide – exclusively for GTS members. With over 140 dive centres across the globe each offering ten per cent off your diving bill, 250 liveaboards offering five percent off trips, and tons of brands discounting everything from wetsuits to jewellery offering up to 20 percent, there’s no reason to pay full price again!

The Girls That Scuba Membership card is available to members for a one-off fee and entitles the holder access to a private online platform - forever - where the user can find discount codes unavailable anywhere else that can be used an unlimited amount of times. Members will also be the first to hear about GTS trips and have the opportunity to book before they are released to the general public - another great benefit when their latest group trips have been sold out in just over 24 hours.

Membership costs a one-off £54.99, which if you’re saving five percent off a US$2,500 liveaboard means you’ve immediately made your money back. Girls That Scuba have done the math and reckon that an average diver could save up to US$600 a year if doing their purchasing, holiday booking and dive wear buying through the platform. www.girlsthatscuba.store/pages/membership

FANTASEA HOUSINGS (SRP: £499.95)

Fantasea have been producing well priced but durable camera housings for years, and now they have released a flurry of new products.

The FG7x II was specially created for the Canon Powershot G7 X Mark II digital camera, and the FG7x III was designed for the Canon G7 Mark III digital camera. Both are made from polycarbonate and depth-rated to 60m, and the FG7x III can be fitted with an optional vacuum safety system which contains both a pre-dive vacuum check and an on-dive leak detector (you can get it fitted with the system for £599.95).

Then there is the FRX100 housing (£499), which is designed for the Sony Cybershot RX100 III, RX100 IV, RX100 V and RX100 VA. Again, it is depth-rated to 60m, and it can be fitted with the optional vacuum safety system. www.nautilusdiving.co.uk 83

Test Extra

APEKS MTX-RC STAGE 3 SET | SRP: £815

Mark Evans: Apeks have built a solid global reputation for their high-performing and robust regulator systems over the years, from their TX range, through the ATX, to the current XTX, their lightweight travel-friendly XL4 and XL4+, and their range-topper, the MTX-R. The MTX-R, which stands out thanks to its whiteand-satin-finish colour scheme, was based on the MTX, a regulator that was developed in accordance with the United States Navy Experimental Dive Unit. Its heritage was immediately apparent – okay, the name gave it away (M in MTX stands for military, and the R for recreational version), but just look at that beautiful first and second stage. With its laser-etched, military-style lettering, which contrasted well with the vivid white plastic/elastomer and satin-finish brass, it was stunning, yet strangely purposeful.

As you’d expect, coming from a military regulator, it was one super-tough, rugged, high-performance, go-anywhere regulator. It was purpose-built to meet all aspects of the NEDU (Navy Experimental Dive Unit) military requirements for diving in very cold water.

It did this in several ways. The forged first stage had a unique over-balanced diaphragm design – as the diver descends, the over-balancing feature allows the medium pressure gas in the hose to increase at a faster rate than ambient. This results in superior performance at depth.

So far, so good, but what made the MTX-R stand out further was the innovative world-first over-moulded first-stage endcap and sealed diaphragm, which helped prevent ice build-up that could cause first stage freeflow in extreme circumstances. This also had the handy ability to protect the first stage from impact damage – well, you know what divers can be like!

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The first stage body, which had a ribbed diaphragm clamp for improved heat exchange in cold-water conditions, was equipped with five medium pressure ports (the fifth was covered with a protective bumper when it is not in use) on a rotating turret, and two high-pressure ports angled for optimal hose routing.

The second stage featured a patented heat exchanger which surrounded the valve mechanism, dissipating the cold caused by gas expansion while drawing in the warmth of the ambient water. Large elastomer bumpers on the sides and on the top protected the second stage from impacts and

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scratches in the most-vulnerable places. The exhaust tee was user-interchangeable, from a wide version to a narrow, smaller shape. A flexible nylon braided hose which has a better cold-water performance than a traditional rubber hose linked the first and second stages.

The MTX-R breathed fantastically well, but Apeks were swift to realise that not everybody needed a regulator that was tuned to perfection to deal with extremely cold water use - and thus the MTX-RC was born. Effectively, the MTXRC is an MTX-R (without the military-style laser-etching on the front) but with the addition of a venturi lever and a cracking resistance control, which allows the user to finetune the performance to the conditions they are diving in, or for their own personal preference.

As well as the aforementioned venturi lever and cracking resistance control, the MTX-RC is instantly recognisable from its stablemate thanks to its subtle-buteffective grey-and-satin-finish colour scheme.

In use, the MTX-RC provides a sublime breathe. With

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Test Extra

APEKS MTX-RC STAGE 3 SET | SRP: £815

the cracking resistance dialled fully open and the venturi set to ‘dive’, inhalation is effortless and silky smooth, regardless of orientation, but in situations where you need to temper this performance – in extreme cold water, for instance, or if you were using a powerful scooter, you can increase the cracking resistance, which in its highest setting is more akin to the original MTX-R. From the fit in your mouth, with the excellent ComfoBite mouthpiece, it is much the same as any other Apeks reg (which is no bad thing), and the large purge is easy to locate and operate.

The routing from the first stage is well thought out, and the primary reg benefits from having a swivel at either end, for greater freedom of movement and comfort.

In short, just like its sibling MTX-R, it looks fantastic, performs like a champion, and doesn’t hammer the bank account too much – what more could you want from a toplevel regulator?

The MTX-RC is available with DIN and Yoke, and is nitrox compatible up to 40 percent out of the box. The ‘Stage 3’ set – Apeks uses this term to describe a regulator system that includes the primary regulator (first and second stage) and an octopus – includes a neat regulator bag. If, like me, you don’t tend to use a regulator bag to store/carry

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your regulator, you will be pleased to hear that the Apeks bag has been designed so that it is capable of holding a laptop, so you can use it as a more day-to-day accessory.

The Velcro pad on the front flap can be personalised, and while it comes with Apeks and MTX-RC badges, any Velcrofastening patch will attach on here.

The MTX-RC can also be purchased in a complete setup for a single-cylinder, long-hose configuration, which comprises the first stage, second stages, long hose, bolt snaps, SPG, etc. This comes in at £998. www.apeksdiving.com/uk

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DIVE COMPUTER

by Aqua Lung Ocean Ambassador Alicia Ward @SeeThroughSea

Connected by Colour

• •

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

aqualung.com | @aqualungdivers | #aqualung75

Test Extra

ATOMIC AQUATICS BC2 | SRP: £1,095

Mark Evans: Atomic Aquatics has long been held as the epitome of high quality and durability in the world of diving, and their aim to create the best possible products has carried across from their initial regulator range through fins, computers, masks and now BCDs. The BC1 jacketstyle BCD was acclaimed in many diving circles, and was built to their usual trying standards.

The BC1 has now been joined by the BC2, which is a back-inflation evolution of the Atomic BC series, and it incorporates the same futuristic, incredibly tough, corrosion-resistant materials as the jacket-style BC1.

A result of Atomic’s so-called ‘design studio’ approach, they describe the BC2 as ‘a radical design departure from conventional backinflation BCDs’. Further, Atomic claim the BC2 to be ‘the toughest back-inflation BCD in the world’. Don’t imagine a lightweight travel BCD just because it is a backinflate design – the BC2 is quite weighty, as you’d expect given the build quality and materials used, but the harness and bladder combo mean you are uncluttered up front, which I much prefer over an enveloping jacket-style.

When you first look at the BC2, you might think Atomic’s first description is a bit misleading, as to be fair, it does resemble several other back-inflate BCDs currently available, right down to integrated weight pockets, pull dumps and so on. However, it is when you look a little closer that you see the craftsmanship and thought that has gone into seemingly every element of the BCD that you can understand where they are coming from.

Let’s talk about that unusual finish first. The doublelaminated, polyurethane-coated fabric has an attractive, matte-coated finish, and is designed to ‘shed’ water like a waterproof jacket, so that it is virtually dry seconds after surfacing. I have to say, it really does work well, and it was a little odd to be packing away a BCD which was cold – it was winter-time in a UK quarry! – but was not wet just 30 minutes after exiting the water. As well as looking eye-catching and shedding water, Atomic states that the material is also nearly impenetrable, and resists abrasion, tears and punctures, as well as being resistant to chemicals, mould and mildew. Without attacking it with

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a knife or dragging it behind my car, I couldn’t really put this to the test, but judging from the look and feel of the material, I can well believe it is up to the task.

The BC2 also has a quilted backpad and adjustable lumbar pad, which makes it feel extremely comfortable when you have got it on. It feels nice and supportive when you are walking around on the surface, and once in the water, there is little to no cylinder roll, and you can quite happily twist and contort into any position to want. The hydrodynamic shape of the bladder means that when you are in that horizontal trim position, you glide through the water with minimal effort.

It is equipped with Atomic’s EZ-Lok integrated weight system, which is great – the weight pouches (capable of holding 5kg each) slide smoothly into the pockets, and there is a reassuring ‘snap’ as they lock into place.

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Image by Franco Banfi

Test Extra

ATOMIC AQUATICS BC2 | SRP: £1,095

They will not release accidently, but when you do need to remove the pouches, a simple tug on the large handle is all you need. The BC2 is further equipped with non-dumpable trim pockets, but instead of being on the camband, or fastened on to the backplate, here they are seamlessly designed into the wing itself – you just open the zippers and slot in a weight (up to 2.5kg per side).

The BC2 also has Atomic’s ratcheting Cam-Lok tank band.

After being used to standard cambands for so long, it took me a minute or two to figure it out, but once you get it through your head that it is similar in design to the bindings on ski boots or snowboards, it is an absolute joy to use –

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and once it is secure, your cylinder is not going anywhere.

The drive for quality continues down to the smallest detail.

The D-rings, which are a thing of beauty in their own right, are made from 316 stainless-steel and have a titanium PVD coating to make them ultra-corrosion resistant.

And the exhaust pull dumps are made from low-friction stainless-steel – it is called ‘dry glide’ by Atomic – and have patent pending anti-floating pull knobs with lengthened tails, which while being relatively small compared with some of the competition, are easy to locate and operate thanks to the innovative design, even when wearing thick neoprene gloves.

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Test Extra

ATOMIC AQUATICS BC2 | SRP: £1,095

Even the zippers used on the BC2 have been designed to be ‘sand-resistant’! There is a neat extra pocket on the right-hand side (removeable if not wanted) mounted above the integrated weight pocket, which is perfect for a back-up torch, or even a small DSMB and spool. It also has grommets on the side for mounting a dive knife. The two zippered ‘pockets’ on either side of the integrated weight pockets are quite rudimentary and are better described as ‘slots’ – when you zip them open, it reveals a couple of D-rings per side for attaching accessories. Whatever shape or size you are, Atomic have got you covered, as the BC2 comes in sizes ranging from small to extra-large.

Finally, that price. Some people might have a coronary considering that amount of money for a BCD, but you have to look at the superior build quality and the design elements, plus it has a two-year warranty on the BCD itself, and a lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship in the Ai power inflator. Atomic is the selfstyled ‘supercar’ brand of the diving industry, and just as a Dacia will get you from A to B the same as a Porsche or Ferrari, you will always get people who buy the premium brand for that exclusivity, performance and quality feel. www.atomicaquatics.com

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TO THE FUTURE. BC2 is a radical new design from

Atomic Aquatics for divers who want the toughest back inflation bc in the world.

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Long Term Test SCUBAPRO G2

Mark Evans: I was always a massive fan of the Galileo series of computers, loving the clear display and how it told you on screen the function of the three buttons. It was so simple and easy to use. When the colour-screen revolution started, I said all Scubapro needed to do was make the Galileo with a colour screen - and that is essentially what the G2 INFORMATION Arrival date: December 2019 is. I can’t wait to get diving Suggested retail price: £759 it and see how it stacks up Number of dives: 0 against my old Sol. Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins www.scubapro.com

SUUNTO D5 Mark Evans: The Suunto D5 is very simple to use, with a three-button system for navigating the menus, and we proved this by getting Luke to use it on his dives in Grenada. Luke was already familiar with the operating system, as he dives an EON Core, and he was soon happily jumping through the menus. The D5 made a perfect back-up unit to INFORMATION Arrival date: April 2019 the Core, but of course it Suggested retail price: £545 is also a great primary Number of dives: 79 unit too.

Time in water: 78 hrs 25 mins www.suunto.com 94

ROHO X-FLEX SOLO Mark Evans: Roho are well known for making hard-wearing, durable but good-looking suits, and the X-Flex Solo continues this trend. I like the no-frills colour scheme of the test model, and am pleased that the Solo features a front-entry telescopic torso. After being a rear-zip entry man for years, I have become a INFORMATION Arrival date: July 2019 true convert to this style of Suggested retail price: £829 suit, so it instantly felt very Number of dives: 0 familiar.

Time in water: 0 hrs 0 mins www.roho.co.uk

MARES GENIUS

Mark Evans: We have been getting the Genius wet now in various locations, and I have to say we have been impressed. The monster-sized screen is so bright and easy to read, even in really lousy conditions, and the colourcoding of the different data and areas of the screen makes it simple to use. The large buttons are easy to operate INFORMATION Arrival date: August 2019 even with thick neoprene Suggested retail price: £711 gloves on when your hands Number of dives: 19 are freezing cold.

Time in water: 18hrs 50 mins www.mares.com WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

AQUA LUNG BALI

Mark Evans: The photographs of Penney in Grenada really stood out thanks to the coral polyp imagery on the arms of the Bali wetsuit, and the subtle colours would compliment any BCD, mask and fin combo, but it was especially effective with her white-skirted mask and blue headband, though it didn’t clash with the pink on her Aqua Lung Lotus BCD. She was also enamoured with how easy INFORMATION Arrival date: October 2019 it was to get on and off, Suggested retail price: £112 as sometimes she has a Number of dives: 19 battle with wetsuits.

Time in water: 18 hrs 45 mins www.aqualung.com/uk

AQUA LUNG AQUAFLEX

APEKS VX1

Mark Evans: The VX1 has been on duty in various locations, most recently for a spot of regulator testing in North Wales. I got Clare Dutton, who was assisting on the dive, to give the VX1 a crack, and she found it extremely comfortable as well. I love the Stormtrooper look of the VX1, and am rapidly finding myself becoming accustomed to a white-skirted mask, whereas in the past I was devotee of the ‘dark side’. I have yet to try it with the other strap that comes with it in the box, with a neoprene INFORMATION Arrival date: September 2019 insert on webbing, but I’ll Suggested retail price: £69 give that go before next Number of dives: 46 month’s reviews.

Time in water: 43 hrs 35 mins www.apeksdiving.com/uk

SEALIFE SEA DRAGON MINI 1300S

Mark Evans: Our dual test AquaFlex wetsuits have been getting plenty of use. Penney even took hers for a dip in the sea off Anglesey and found that it kept her warm enough for at least a relatively short dive. The thing which has impressed both Penney and Ross the most, as well as the warmth factor, is how easy the AquaFlex is to get on and off. Some 5mm suits can be a bit of a chore, INFORMATION Arrival date: April 2019 but the AquaFlex just Suggested retail price: £260 slides on with no issues, Number of dives: 124 and comes off just as quick.

Time in water: 120 hrs 15 mins www.aqualung.com/uk WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Mark Evans: So the Sealife Sea Dragon Mini 1300S has come to the end of its run in the Long Term Test stable, and it has proved itself to be a capable little unit. It has been used in the UK and abroad in Malta and Grenada, and it is great for both poking around under ledges or full penetrations of shipwrecks and caverns. It is also perfect for tropical night dives.

It is small enough for a INFORMATION Arrival date: April 2019 BCD pocket, but with a Suggested retail price: £130 cracking burntime and Number of dives: 37 performance.

Time in water: 35 hrs 25 mins www.sealife-cameras.com 95

ANTHONY’S KEY RESORT STUART PHILPOTT VISITS THE AMERICAN DIVING FAVOURITE OF ROATAN

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

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THE SCUBA DIVER CREW GOES CAMPING ‘N’INDONESIA ADVENTURE DIVING IN DORSET 1,300-MILE LIVEABOARD VOYAGE FROM KOMODO TO RAJA AMPAT

TECHNICAL: DEEP DIVING NEIL BENNETT EXPLORES THE MINDSET NEEDED TO SAFEL Y MASTER TECHNICAL DIVING

DIVE LIKE A PRO: BCDS HANDY HINTS ON HOW TO PROLONG THE LIFE OF THE HUMBLE BCD

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INSPIRATIONAL GEMMA SMITH TALKS AB OU DIVES, BEING A STRONG T EPIC TECHNICAL ROLE MODEL, AND FIGHTING BACK TO FITNE SS AFTER A SERIOUS ACCIDENT

Something for EVERYONE EAT FOR WHY MALTA AND GOZO ARE GR ELS LEV D AN ES DIVERS OF ALL AG OF CERTIFICATION

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ADRIAN STACEY FINISHES HIS 1,300-MILE LIVEABOARD ADVENTURE IN RAJA AMPAT

INDONESIA ADVENTUR E

THE SCUBA DIVER CREW GOES CAMPING ‘N’ DIVING IN DORSET

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

TECHNICAL: DEEP DIVING NEIL BENNETT EXPLORES THE MINDSET NEEDED TO SAFELY MASTER TECHNICAL DIVING

DIVE LIKE A PRO: BCDS HANDY HINTS ON HOW TO PROLONG THE LIFE OF THE HUMBLE BCD

ALEX MUSTARD

SHOOT TO WIN

THE MAESTRO OFFERS SAGE ADVICE ON CREATING COMPETITION-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHS

ALL AT SEA

Entry and exit techniques when boat diving

Stunning SHORT FILM showcases cave diving – and GIRL POWER!

INSPIRATIONAL GEMMA SMITH TALKS ABOUT EPIC TECHN ICAL DIVES, BEING A STRON G ROLE FIGHTING BACK TO FITNESMODEL, AND S A SERIOUS ACCIDENTAFTER

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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

THE PACIFIC COAST OF CANADA AND THE USA PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIM HILDEBRANDT AND BARTEK RADZIEJ

A

fter I had participated in the 2019 Diving in Science Symposium of the American and Canadian Academies of Underwater Sciences in Vancouver in Mid-October, I travelled to Vancouver Island once more to see Russel Clark from seaproof.tv again. This time, I sought advice from Russel in video editing, to prepare for my mid-year video documentation, which I presented at the DEMA Show 2019 in Orlando in November. I really enjoyed going through the underwater and topside footage which I captured over the last six months, and loved building a story out of it!

To complete my travels along the west coast of North America, I next flew down to San Francisco. Beautifully hidden in the picturesque landscape of the Marin Headlands north of the Golden Gate Bridge lies the Marine Mammal Centre, the world´s largest Marine Mammal Hospital – an institution that I, of course, couldn´t have missed, as a veterinary student!

I was able to shadow and assist the TMMC´s veterinarians in their busy work – in the high season, there are up to 290 patients in the centre! And even though it was the low season when I visited, there were a lot of interesting things to see - radiographs, ultrasound, gastroscopy, blood samples and processing, and many other diagnostic methods to help all kinds of marine mammal species, in this season especially California sea lions and Northern fur seals - but we also had a reptile patient at the centre: an Olive Ridley turtle, which had been rescued cold-stunned from the waters along the Central Californian coast, which are too cold and too far north for their usual range.

The Marine Mammal Centre also offers an excellent educational programme for not only visitors for the day, but they also work together with schools, who teach a threemonth-long ocean-themed curriculum to their students, which was developed by the Education Department of TMMC. The young students get the opportunity to visit the marine mammal patients at TMMC in the beginning and the end of this programme, and it was great to see the children being inspired and keen to learn after these personal experiences!

Subsequently, I drove down south to the Long Marine Lab of the University of California – Santa Cruz. Here, I got to assist the PhD student Arina Favilla of the Costa Lab in her project studying the Thermoregulation and Diving Physiology of the Northern Elephant Seal as an example for a deep-

Kim Hildebrandt

diving marine mammal species. I got to help with the pick-up of one juvenile elephant seal from the colony at Ano Nuevo State Park, who we chose for our translocation study. We equipped the seal with satellite tags recording the location, diving depth and exhilaration of movement, and we also installed heat flux sensors and biologgers measuring the exchange of heat between the animal and the water.

The seal was then released in Monterey, and within a few days it returned to Ano Nuevo, where we could recover the instruments and download the measured data. It was a very valuable experience to follow the entire process of this field experiment! Afterwards, I continued down south to Monterey, where I sought advice in underwater videography techniques from the experts at Backscatter, and they even took me on my first ever dive in a kelp forest and with sea lions! What an incredible experience!

I also got the opportunity to dive with the volunteer dive team in the kelp forest exhibit of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

They even let me hand-feed their wolf eels, leopard sharks and other fish species! And the next day, I was able to learn from the aquarium´s vet, Dr Murray, while an examination of the same leopard sharks from the exhibit that I had dove in the day before. Very exciting to see how anaesthesia, ultrasound, endoscopy of the gills and blood draws are performed on an elasmobranch species! Lastly, I spoke to the sea otter rehabilitation specialists of the Aquarium, and was very impressed with their very successful rehabilitation programme, which is based on the pairing of a pup, which needed rescue due to maternal separation, with a surrogate sea otter mother from the Aquarium´s exhibit otters. n

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This Christmas we’re offering something a little different.

Visit your local Suunto authorised dealer and purchase either an EON Core Christmas pack or a D5 Christmas pack and receive a gift from us.

Christmas packs consist of an EON Core or D5, POD and a Suunto pouch. Offer valid until 31st December 2019. ww.suunto.com

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