Scuba Diver #56 by scubadivermag

ISLAND THERAPY

REPORT ON THE DEPTHERAPY TRIP TO THE SPICE ISLAND OF GRENADA

THE BIG, BAD WOLF

MIKE CLARK EXPLAINS HOW TO FIND AND SHOOT THE ELUSIVE WOLF FISH

TECH: AZOTH O’DIVE IS THIS PIECE OF TECH A GAME-CHANGER FOR TECHNICAL DIVERS?

BEHAVIOUR

IVANA ORLOVIC TALKS ABOUT BEING IN FRONT OF, AND BEHIND, THE CAMERA WRECK HUNTERS

INDONESIA

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE ISSUE #56

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@scubadivermag.com CONTRIBUTORS Mike Clark, Ivana Orlovic, Jean-Pierre Nathrass, Richard Cullen, Jason Brown ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP Ross Arnold Tel: 0800 0 69 81 40 ext 701 Email: ross.arnold@scubadivermag.com

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Game-changing technology for divers We often hear that a new piece of dive equipment is a ‘game-changer’ - the Hollis Explorer was much-touted by the then-distributor in the UK as such and look how that turned out! - but for once, I think the hype is justified when it comes to the Azoth Systems O’Dive. Now you might have never heard of the French-based Azoth Systems, and the O’Dive could well mean nothing to you, but mark my words, this little device is set to make a huge difference in the world of diving, particularly for technical divers. So what is it? Well, the O’Dive is effectively a personal ultrasound doppler which, used in conjunction with a clever app, allows you to capture post-dive bubble measurements from your own bloodstream. Why would you want to do this? Well, all divers ‘bubble’ after every dive, regardless of how ‘good’ their dive profile is, but now imagine being able to utilise the O’Dive app to finetune the safety and efficiency of your decompression profile. As I said - ‘game-changer’. But don’t just take my word for it. Turn to page 48 to read Jason Brown’s article on the Azoth Systems O’Dive, and find out what tech dive supremo Phil Short thought of the unit during extensive testing. Elsewhere this issue, we showcase the stunning imagery by, and featuring, Ivana Orlovic; go on the hunt for the elusive wolf fish in Scotland; join the Deptherapy team on expedition in Grenada; explore Raja Ampat in the ‘off season’; and present a round-up of potential Christmas gift ideas you can wave in front of your friends and family. Mark Evans, Editor-in-Chief

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ISLAND THERAPY

REPORT ON THE DEPTHERAPY TRIP TO THE SPICE ISLAND OF GRENADA

THE BIG, BAD WOLF

MIKE CLARK EXPLAINS HOW TO FIND AND SHOOT THE ELUSIVE WOLF FISH

TECH: AZOTH O’DIVE IS THIS PIECE OF TECH A GAME-CHANGER FOR TECHNICAL DIVERS?

BEHAVIOUR

IVANA ORLOVIC TALKS ABOUT BEING IN FRONT OF, AND BEHIND, THE CAMERA WRECK HUNTERS

INDONESIA

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE ISSUE #56

Cover.indd 1

PHOTOGRAPH © JANEZ KRANJC

26/11/2021 16:05

Regular columns

Monthly features...

10 News roundup

18 Scotland

UK Ghost Gear Coalition is unveiled, new corporate sponsors for The Shark Trust, Steve Backshall takes Ocean on the road, and Bite-Back launches its 2022 calendar.

16 DAN Europe Medical Q&A

The Divers Alert Network specialists answer questions relating to quitting smoking and thrombotic strokes.

46 Divers Alert Network

Michael Menduno asks ‘when should you replace your dive computer or BCD’?

66 Wreck Hunters

In his final column, Mike Haigh looks to the future of diving archaeology.

Wolf fish are one of the most-distinctive denizens of the deep, and underwater photographer Mike Clark has been leading ‘wolf fish workshops’ to get the best out any photo opportunities.

26 Q&A with Ivana Orlovic

Underwater model Ivana Orlovic has been featured in some of the most-recognisable images of recent times, but she is also a talented photographer in her own right. We chatted to her about modelling, shooting and travelling.

32 Underwater Photography

Martyn Guess provides insight into what UW photographers who have had a long break from diving should be doing to make sure they get back up to speed quickly.

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...continued

Gear & testing

36 Indonesia

54 Christmas gift guide

42 Grenada

58 Test Extra

We explore the wonders of Raja Ampat during the ‘off season’, which as it happens, is a prime time to visit this wonderful destination.

After Deptherapy’s long-planned expedition to Egypt was cancelled due to COVID travel restrictions, the organisation needed to find a suitable ‘green’ alternative – and Grenada ticked all of the boxes, as Richard Cullen explains.

Scuba Diver Editor-in-Chief and stand-in Santa Mark Evans provides a list of some potential Christmas gift ideas to wave in front of your nearest and dearest this festive season.

The Avatar drysuit and undersuit is rated and reviewed by Scuba Diver Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans, and we give the Paralenz Vaquita action camera a trial.

48 TECH: Popping the deco bubble

Science tells us that every diver bubbles after every dive, but how do you know how bad you’re bubbling and what can you do to improve the safety of your dives? Jason Brown gets in a fizz about Azoth’s new personal doppler device.

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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

TWO BECOME ONE

2022 will see the launch of the ultimate UK diving exhibition as the GO Diving Show and The Dive Show merge into one super-event

s we emerge from the spectre of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 is set to see things get back on track in the world of diving, especially in terms of dive travel. And what better way to usher in this ‘new beginning’ than with a spectacular diving exhibition bursting at the seams with keynote speakers, interactive elements, VR experiences, hand’s-on workshops, myriad booths from manufacturers, travel agents, tour operators, resorts and liveaboards, and much, much more? The massive news for 2022 is that the ‘new kids on the block’, the GO Diving Show, and The Dive Show – set to celebrate its 30th anniversary that year – are merging to put on one super-event in early March which will offer plenty for all levels of diver, from those interested in getting started, novices, experienced divers and veteran technical explorers. This mega-event is taking place from 4-6 March 2022 at a brand-new venue, the NAEC Stoneleigh, located pretty much slap-bang in the middle of the country. This location offers purpose-built exhibition halls, is close to major transport links (the M6 and M40 motorways are close by, it is just five miles from Warwick Parkway and Coventry train stations, and only one-hour travel time from London Euston) and, perhaps best of all, has 19,000 complimentary car parking spaces. Gone are the extortionate parking charges of the NEC, and the space limitations of the parking at the Ricoh Arena. Iconic TV presenter, author and adventurer Steve Backshall returns as our keynote speaker, and will be joined on the Main Stage by fellow TV personalities Andy Torbet and Monty Halls, as well as multi-award-winning underwater photographer Alex Mustard, who will be announcing the winners of the prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year competition. The dedicated photography and technical stages will be home to a veritable who’s who of underwater photographers and tech divers over the weekend, and there will be underwater photography workshops, and exciting state-ofthe-art Virtual Reality booths putting you in the middle of a tech dive on an ancient shipwreck. These will be surrounded by stands from manufacturers, distributors, conservation organisations, dive resorts, liveaboards, charter operations,

tourist boards, dive travel specialists and much more. If you are in the market for new equipment, eyeing up possible new dive destinations, or wanting to get involved with a charity, then this is the place to be. So, whether you’re a non-diver looking to experience the underwater world for the first time in the try-dive tank, a freshly minted student looking to learn more from the workshops, or a salty seadog meeting up with the dive club for a social, the Go Diving Show is for you.

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Get your tickets now!

The 2022 GO Diving Show is even better value for money – weekend tickets for the Saturday and Sunday are priced at just £15 each, with discounts available for small and large groups, and once again, children under 14 are free of charge. We need to keep inspiring the next generation! As normal, Friday is a trade-only day, and tickets for this cost £10 and are only available for those who can provide credentials of employment with a dive-related business. www.godivingshow.com

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MARES AND SSI NEW CORPORATE PATRONS OF THE SHARK TRUST The Shark Trust is delighted to announce its latest Corporate Patrons – Mares and Scuba Schools International (SSI). Corporate Patrons are vital to the work of The Shark Trust – working together, the three organisations will promote shark conservation, engage a global audience and encourage divers to get involved. The Shark Trust is one of the leading UK-based shark conservation charities. The team works globally to safeguard the future of sharks, and their close cousins, the skates and rays, engaging with a global network of scientists, policymakers, conservation professionals, businesses and supporters to further shark conservation. The Shark Trust works with corporate sponsors to create unique opportunities so that all parties and, of course, sharks, benefit. SSI, the largest centre-based diving organization in the world, fights for the preservation and survival of the oceans and created Blue Oceans, a well-researched, holistic programme that is available to both divers and non-divers alike. The Blue Oceans programme teaches participants about issues facing our oceans and how their individual contributions can help. More information on this exciting program can be found at BlueOceans.world and on the Blue Oceans Instagram and Facebook social media channels. Richard Corner (UK Diving Brands Manager) said: “With a number of watersport brands in our group, we are hugely reliant on the health of our waterways and the marine life that inhabits it. Over recent years we’ve increased our focus significantly on environmental concerns and hope that

our future collaboration with The Shark Trust will help us provide the most-effective response in our battle to increase shark populations globally. We’re really excited by this partnership.” Franziska Guttropf from SSI added: “We are very happy to work with The Shark Trust and to support their fantastic work to protect and raise awareness of sharks around the world. We are very much looking forward to working together, because sharks are incredible, important animals that have received a completely false reputation from the mainstream media.” Paul Cox (Managing Director of The Shark Trust) said: “We’re delighted to team up with Mares and SSI. Divers are some of the most-passionate advocates for shark conservation, so this partnership will be a great vehicle for us to connect with divers internationally, share our story and engage more support for shark and ray conservation.”

STEVE BACKSHALL TAKES THE OCEAN ON TOUR

GO Diving Show 2022 headline speaker Steve Backshall is going on the road in Easter 2022, taking the Ocean on tour! In April and May, the ever-popular TV presenter, author and adventurer is embarking on a tour around the UK with his show Ocean, which is – as you’d expect from that title – a marine-themed show, full of stunts, tricks, stage science and big screen visuals. Steve promises that it is ‘suitable for anyone who’s into the ‘Wild World’; from the just potty-trained to professors!’ To get tickets for this event, head to www.stevebackshall.com Before he takes to the stage for Ocean, Steve will be returning as the keynote speaker at the GO Diving Show. He was on stage in front of unprecedented crowds at GO Diving Show 2020, and is back in 2022. The GO Diving Show is 4-6 March 2022 (Friday is trade-only, Saturday and Sunday are open to all, and with weekend tickets just £15 – and discounts available for groups – it represents excellent value for money!). Book your tickets now at www.godivingshow.com

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BITE-BACK 2022 CALENDAR GOES ON SALE

An unprecedented rush to pre-order the 2022 Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation fundraising calendar has delighted the UK charity as it announced the 14th edition of its annual publication would be shipped worldwide from 15 November, guaranteeing Christmas delivery. The high-quality A4 calendar features hand-picked images donated by some of the world’s most-acclaimed underwater photographers to create a stunning and unique gift idea for ocean lovers. The limited-edition calendar is only available at www.bite-back.com/shop and costs £12, including free UK delivery. Explaining the calendar’s enduring appeal, Graham Buckingham, campaign director at Bite-Back, said: “There’s nothing else quite like it. It’s a worldclass celebration of the oceans and some of its most-charismatic characters, captured by a cohort of award-winning underwater photographers. The result is an unparalleled publication that delights supporters for a whole 12 months and helps raise urgent funds for our campaigns. On top of that, pound for pound, this has to be one of the greenest gifts available. It can even be recycled at the end of the year.” Contributions from globally-renowned photographers including Alex Mustard, Amanda Cotton, Christian Vizl, Doug Perrine, Ellen Cuylaerts, George Probst, Greg Lecouer, Harry Stone, Jason Isely, Laura Storm, Shawn Heinrichs and Tanya Houppermans bring the calendar to life with stunning images of sharks, mantas, turtles, sea lions, sunfish and marlin. Graham said: “Since 2008 we’ve sold nearly 20,000 calendars to supporters in 18 countries. It makes us hugely proud to know the calendar has become an institution all of its own and part of many people’s Christmas celebrations.” As always, the calendar is printed on recycled paper using vegetable-based inks by a climate neutral printer.

WALRUS SPOTTED OFF NORTHUMBERLAND

Hot on the flippered heels of Wally the walrus, who went on an extensive European tour earlier this year, another Arctic visitor has turned up off the coast of Northumberland. The juvenile female walrus was sighted on the shoreline near Seahouses. It is thought to be the same animal recently recorded on the Dutch coast. Conservation groups have urged people to keep their distance and allow the animal to rest and build up its strength before hopefully heading back north. British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) are working with Seahouses harbour and the RSPCA to manage the area and avoid disturbances to the walrus.

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BDMLR WELCOMES NEW DIRECTORS British Divers Marine Life Rescue welcomes three new directors this month. Long time National Co-ordinator Julia Cable becomes Operations Director; Welfare Development and Field Support Officer Dan Jarvis becomes Development/ Welfare Director; and Large Whale Disentanglement Team (LWDT) Coordinator and long standing senior medic Martin ‘Boonie› Boon becomes a Director and Trustee. Julia has been with BDMLR since 2009 and has become an integral part of the day to day running of the organization. Julia Cable organizes rescues, is in charge of Head Office and is always on hand to attend rescues in the south east and man the phones for out of hours shifts as well. She is, in fact, an allround superhuman and the Director status is well deserved and earned. “I am delighted Julia’s exceptional work over the years has been recognized by her promotion to Operations Director,” said BDMLR Chairman Alan Knight OBE. “I am sure she will lead from the front for many years to come.” Dan comes from a legendary line of Jarvises who hail from the Midlands originally, but settled in Cornwall. Dan joined BDMLR staff from the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, although he has been a medic for many years and is the Cornwall Area Coordinator. He oversees the way BDMLR rescues animals, trains its medics and represents us on the global animal welfare and rescue stage. “Dan is one of BDMLR’s vital organs and keeps the organization headed in the right direction,” said BDMLR Director Gavin Parsons. “His knowledge of marine animals is second to none and he is a well respected professional in the animal rescue field.” Martin ‘Boonie’ Boon, one of the recipients of the BDMLR Outstanding Contribution to Marine Mammal Rescue Award in 2021, joined BDMLR in 2008 and in that time has rescued a plethora of animals from seals to humpback whales. He has been an assistant area coordinator and coordinator for Buchan in Scotland and in 2019, following the successful rescue of an entangled humpback, he was asked to be co-ordinator of the Large Whale Disentanglement Team, a post he still holds. “Having known Boonie for more years than I care to remember, I know he is totally dedicated to the ideals of BDMLR,” said BDMLR Director Mark Stevens. “He has taken over leadership of the LWDT and, working with others, has instigated what must be one of the most rigorous training procedures anywhere.” The new roles will take effect immediately.

SHARKS AND SEAHORSES IN THE RIVER THAMES

Seahorses, sharks, eels and seals have been found to have set up residence in the River Thames, according to a new study by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The State of the Thames Report focuses on significant changes since the famous river was declared ‘biologically dead’ in 1957. Throughout the 1990s, the River Thames has seen a rise

in the birds and marine mammals calling it home. Tope, starry smooth hound and spurdog were found in the Thames, along with more than 100 species of fish. It isn’t all good news, though – a number of fish species in the tidal areas of the river have experienced a slight decline. Experts and conservation scientists say further research is needed to explain this drop in numbers.

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PADI AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PRISTINE SEAS JOIN FORCES

PADI and National Geographic Pristine Seas have partnered together with the goal to protect at least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 through the creation of new marine protected areas (MPAs). In 2020, Enric Sala, founder of Pristine Seas and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, approached PADI with the idea to join forces to protect the ocean, combining his vision and proven track record of successfully creating MPAs with the global footprint and extensive reach of the PADI community around the globe. PADI dive centres and resorts are critical stakeholders in their local economies and their leadership, together with the influence and expertise of Sala and his team at National Geographic Pristine Seas, can be a catalyst for lasting change for a return to a healthy ocean and balanced marine ecosystem. “Ocean conservation benefits everyone, especially the diving sector. We are excited to partner with PADI and all their dive centres worldwide to foster the protection of popular dive sites all around the world,” said Enric Sala. Initiating this partnership is a global Dive Industry Economic Evaluation Survey to measure the economic benefits of the dive industry on local communities, using data from PADI dive centres and resorts in 186 countries. In co-operation with researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Simon Fraser University, this analysis will be used to inform governments how the creation of MPAs can create jobs and produce important economic outputs locally. PADI will engage its Mission Hubs, the 6,600 dive centres and resorts who are the heart of the organisation’s ‘save the ocean’ mission, in a survey to provide the data necessary to complete this study. The information gathered through PADI Mission Hub participation in the survey will be an integral component of the study that will be used to influence local and national governments to establish marine protected areas and protect marine environments for divers and other stakeholders. “PADI Mission Hubs play a critical role in our Blueprint for Ocean Action and are key stakeholders in the push for increased protection measures for the underwater world,” says Drew Richardson, President and CEO of PADI Worldwide. “Each PADI operator brings unique insights, local expertise, community leadership and passion for our ocean. By coming together as a unified force, the PADI community in partnership with National Geographic Pristine Seas will provide an unprecedented global voice to influence longterm ocean protections.” Over the last 12 years, Pristine Seas has completed 32 expeditions around the world and helped inspire the creation of 24 marine reserves, protecting over 6.5 million square kilometres of ocean — an area more than twice the size of India. They work with local communities and governments to survey their environments, identify their goals and protect vital ocean areas. The Dive Industry Economic Evaluation Survey will be available to PADI Dive Centres and Resorts through the remainder of the year. To learn more about PADI’s Blueprint for Ocean Action and other ways you can join the community of PADI Torchbearers in protecting the ocean, visit: padi.com/conservation

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Ask DAN

DAN medical specialists and researchers answer your dive medicine questions

Q: I’m trying to quit smoking and I would like to know: are there any contraindications to diving when taking Champix? A: This medication acts upon the nervous system, and taking it could cause some side-effects - among the most common adverse effects are dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, and headaches. It follows that taking this medication could potentially be incompatible with safe diving. Possibly, following a trial period at atmospheric pressure, and given that none of these adverse effects present themselves, you could very gradually try experimenting with diving while on this medication, and slowly descend to greater depths. Q: I am 60 years old and had a thrombotic stroke two years ago. Surgery on my carotid artery restored circulation, but I have left-arm paralysis and diminished movement in my left leg, and I need a cane to walk. My doctor says I am unlikely to have a repeat stroke, and I currently am not taking any medications. Will I be able to dive again? A: A cerebral vascular accident, or stroke, occurs in two ways: haemorrhagic (bleeding) or thrombotic (clot). Both forms affect oxygen and blood flow to the brain. Lasting deficits are common after a stroke and may affect speech, strength and movement. For a thrombotic stroke, a thrombolytic medication such as a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) can break up the clot and should restore oxygen and blood flow. The unfortunate drawback to this drug is that it must be administered within hours after the onset of symptoms. Paralysis is not uncommon following a stroke. A doctor should evaluate your level of impairment and what effect it may have on your diving. Inability to use your arms can make it difficult to work with your gear, such as adjusting your buoyancy compensator, clearing your mask or reaching a back-up regulator. If the deficit affects your legs, it may be difficult to swim, kick, move with gear on while on a wet boat deck or rocky shore entry, or swim against a current. A physical deficit may also affect your ability to respond to an emergency, making it difficult to self-rescue or rescue a buddy. Residual spasticity can make some activities particularly difficult and exhausting. Carefully weigh your return to diving and assess the risk versus reward. Your doctor should determine and address the reason for your stroke. No studies are available that address if the areas of your brain damaged by your stroke will be more susceptible to decompression illness (DCI).

Even a mild neurologic DCI incident could have severe consequences and affect the degree of function you achieved through rehabilitation. If you decide to dive, we suggest that you seek a detailed ongoing assessment and approval from your treating physician. This process should include a complete dive physical and a neurological evaluation that includes the strength and weakness of major muscle groups and the degree of cerebral injury as well as an assessment and comparison of the left side and right side of your body. This evaluation will help avoid diagnostic confusion in the event of postdive problems. The treatment for stroke and DCI is very different, so the correct diagnosis is vital to guide you to the appropriate treatment facility. Lasting mobility and movement limitations may require you to have further training with specially trained dive buddies. There are agencies that specialise in helping divers with limited mobility to enjoy the underwater world. Join DAN to get a number of benefits, including answers to all your diving-related medical questions: www.daneurope.org

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Wolf

Wolf fish are one of the mostdistinctive denizens of the deep, and underwater photographer Mike Clark has been leading ‘wolf fish workshops’ to get the best out any photo opportunities Photographs by Mike Clark

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Wolf fish can be amenable subjects

Like me, but 30 years on, I still hear a lot of disappointed divers failing to find wolfies. I still take great delight in finding wolf fish and so I have quietly been showing divers how to find them

had my first wolf fish encounter over 30 years ago. I had dived the known wolf fish site numerous times, but failed to find George (friendly wolf fish tend to get a name), the resident wolf fish. When my encounter occurred, I did not find George - he found me. I don’t mind admitting he scared the living daylights out of me when he approached me from his hidey hole in the wall. George had a head the size of a football, with jaws full of crushing teeth, and I misunderstood George’s inquisitive behaviour. George had a relationship with divers and would often come out to say ‘hello’, in the hope of scoring a free lunch. If rumours are to be believed, George was captured by an angler shortly after my encounter with him and I never saw him again. What George did instil in me was a love of wolf fish that persists to this day.

Wolf fish statistics

In all the time I have observed wolf fish, I have never encountered aggressive behaviour from one, even though they sport massive dentistry. Wolf fish breathe by actively forcing water in through their mouths and over their gills. This gives great views of the teeth and jaws, but is in no way aggressive. That said, I do keep my fingers well away from those teeth though! I find wolf fish to be inquisitive and they certainly do have different personalities. Wolf fish are gregarious fish and I think they like company. When you find one, it’s highly likely that others will be checking you out from just along the reef.

Closing in for a wolfie photo

Look around and it’s likely that little blue/grey heads will start to appear from holes as more timid wolfies get brave. Wolf fish will generally be found hiding as individuals, apart from in the mating season in autumn, when you will see pairs in the den.

Where there’s a wolf, there’s a way

Like me, but 30 years on, I still hear a lot of disappointed divers failing to find wolfies. I still take great delight in finding wolf fish and so I have quietly been showing divers how to find them. Recently I decided to up the ante and run official ‘Wolf Fish Workshops’ to advise divers and underwater

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Wolf fish out in the open

Wolf fish with its prey remnants

Wolfies are normally seen in their homes

Back from a successful ‘hunt’

photographers on how to find ‘wolfies’. To date, I have a 100 percent record. Chartering a boat out of Eyemouth, we dive in the Berwickshire Marine Reserve and concentrate on dive sites around St Abbs Head in southeast Scotland. Immediately before I ran the first workshop, I completed a few exploratory dives to see if I could find some good locations for wolfies. It was hard going and there were not many about, but that is what the challenge is all about.

Wolfie Zone

Boat charters/accommodation

For the 2021 season I was out with Derek Anderson Aquamarine Charters www.aquamarine-charters.co.uk Other good charters and accommodation in Eyemouth: Jim and Iain Easingwood of Marinequest www.marinequest.co.uk Gary Steenvoorden of DiveStay www.divestay.co.uk

First off, you need to be in the ‘Wolf fish Zone’. Back in the day, skipper Peter Gibson told me ‘18m and be there’ and this is still a good starting point, although in recent years I have been finding wolfies slightly shallower at around 15m. Is this due to climate change and warming waters? I don’t know, but what I have observed is these fish are all getting a lot smaller. There are no wolfies in the reserve who sport the proportions of George. I put this down to commercial fishing. As the stocks of traditional, popular fish like cod and haddock diminish, you will now see tiny wolf fish and anglerfish (monkfish) on your fishmonger’s slab. That always makes me sad. So when diving, don’t go looking for a head

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The first workshop of 2021 took place at the end of July. This was mainly due to me running guillemot workshops earlier in the year

Wolf fish close-up

That distinctive wolf fish face

Setting expectations

Wolfie in a crevice

the size of a football any more. You are now looking for grapefruit at best and a body length of just over one metre. About 15-25m deep is the optimal wolf fish zone and you will need to be comfortable diving down to 25m to have the best chance of a spectacular encounter on a ‘Wolf Fish Workshop.

Wolf Fish Workshops

The first workshop of 2021 took place at the end of July. This was mainly due to me running guillemot workshops earlier in the year. Wolf fish can be found right through the diving season, so it was great to search for them in the summer, whereas guillemots have a set season when they visit early in the year.

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I give a thorough briefing before we reach the dive site. Participants learn what to look for, and types of locations to look at and generally ask any questions. A lot of underwater photographers are comfortable diving solo, but buddy pairs were set up at this stage in case of separation. Everybody is champing at the bit to get in the water, but by sharing this information up front, it means that there are multiple sets of eyes searching for the signs of wolf fish and chances of successfully finding them increase. Once your head disappears underwater, there is no verbal communication and you are limited to hand signals and the limitations of vis. Thankfully, this season the vis in the reserve has been superb averaging around ten to 15 metres. This helped enormously when I had between six and 11 divers to manage.

The challenge

Keeping a group of underwater photographers together underwater is a challenge. I lead the dive and my objective was to locate wolf fish. I noted the torch beams of the dive group fall back behind me, to the limits of the vis, before

I found the first wolfie. Unbeknown to me at the time, two anglerfish had been found by the group already. I rounded up the divers and took them to introduce them to their first wolf fish experience. This resulted in whoops and underwater smiles and, for me, that’s what it is all about. As well as looking for wolf fish, one lady diver had requested I find an octopus for her, no pressure… This I failed to do but another eagle-eyed photographer on the trip had spotted one and pointed it out to me. Even though it was sitting on a rock directly in front of me, it was mimicking dead man’s fingers and it took me an age to see it. The octopus was soon shared with the lady who wished to see one and there were more excited big eyes and underwater whooping what a positive underwater buzz. Perhaps it was relief, but I really got enjoyment by sharing these encounters too. I went on to find five other wolf fish on the dive and this enabled the underwater photographers to spread out and capture their shots, some enjoying seeing their first ever wolf fish. The first dive could not have gone better. The reserve was looking spectacular, the vis was excellent and some divers on the trip had already ticked off the three mustsee species from the reserve - anglerfish, octopus and, of course, wolf fish. So, for me, it was objectives smashed. You can never rest on your laurels though, as nothing in wolf fish spotting is guaranteed. Wolf fish tend to like a bit of depth, as previously mentioned, and they are generally found in higher energy sites within the reserve. That’s why I aim to provide workshops in optimum tides to enable access and maximise time at the right sites. Get it wrong and the tide is just too strong to get to some of these locations.

Check out those teeth! Anglerfish put in an appearance

The Stig

The business end of a wolfie

This is a great experience and gives a great view of the whole fish and how the body tapers away from head to tail 24

The second dive of the day was at a site where a dive buddy of mine had introduced me to ‘The Stig’. The Stig is another friendly wolf fish who will, when in the mood, interact with divers. While nowhere near the dimensions of our historical wolfie George, the Stig does show some similar traits. Most wolf fish will retreat away from lights and if you are photographing wolf fish, you need to be careful with your focus lights. Shine light on a wolfie and its likely to retreat right back into its den. I knew this tip 30 years ago and when George made his bold approach to me, I deployed my torch expecting to halt his approach, but it had the opposite effect and just made him come closer. While the Stig may not be so bold, it certainly does not shy away from lights as much as regular wolfies do. One of the photographers on my workshop stated that the Stig was attracted to her silvercoloured focus light on her camera. The site where the Stig lives has been christened Wolfie Rock and up to seven wolf fish have been identified on a single dive here as well as octopus and anglerfish. If the Stig is in the mood, he may come out of his den and swim around you. This is a great experience and gives a great view of the whole fish and how the body tapers away from head to tail. You can also see the markings and colouration along the flanks of the fish. I’m hoping the Stig will be around for years to come and that it will be able to reach the dimensions of George. He has returned to the same area for three years now, so there is a good chance of keeping an eye on his progress. I aim to run more workshops in 2022 and hope to see you there! n

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SCUBA DIVER Q&A WITH

IVANA ORLOVIC

Underwater model Ivana Orlovic has been featured in some of the most-recognisable images of recent times, but she is also a talented photographer in her own right on the other side of the lens. We chatted to her about modelling, shooting and travelling. Photographs courtesy of Ivana Orlovic and Janez Kranjc

Q: As we normally do with these Q&As, how did you first get into diving? A: I was only eight years old when I first started with diving because my uncle was one of the owners of a scuba-diving club. I have not stopped ever since. Diving became my passion, career and the greatest adventure of my life. Q: What came first – modelling, or being a photographer? A: Somehow, both happened at the same time. However, as I grew as a model, I have become a better photographer as well. As a photographer, I have started to better sense where and how I should position myself in space, how the frame should look, where should the light come from… Q: Photographs featuring you are among the most instantly recognisable out there. You have a very distinctive style, and the shots are always impossibly clear and sharp. What is your secret to curating your ‘look’? A: Thanks for these kind words! Every model knows balance is the key for a clear photo. If the dust comes up, there is no chance of having a good photo. After so many years of diving, I have learned to be perfectly buoyant and to simply freeze myself inside a frame, especially when we are doing photos with sea creatures as the main protagonists.

Ivana is at home on both sides of the camera lens Ivana modelling with an octopus

Ivana and Janez are famed for their innovative use of props

Iconic image inside the Thistlegorm

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Q: What do you prefer – being the model, or being the photographer? A: Someone would think that being a model is easy, you just stay in one place and be photographed. Unfortunately, it is much more complicated. Often you dive in a strong current, cold water or low visibility… Nevertheless, we always have the same goal, to produce a good work from every dive. That is why we need a lot of patience and effort. Having all of that considered, I sometimes prefer to take a camera and use it to shoot models or underwater surroundings myself. Q: You have worked with several big-name brands in the past, and currently shoot for Mares. What is the biggest challenge when you are shooting images for manufacturers? A: As Mares Brand Ambassadors, Janez Kranjc and I must use our photography to send a message about a certain product and at the same time, avoid making it too intrusive, but creative and original. That is the hardest part. The world is flooded with magnificent underwater photos and much more beautiful models than me. Ivana with another prop for a photo shoot

Ivana will dive in warm and cold waters Ivana and a friendly turtle

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Ivana is a regular visitor to Aqaba, home of the Military Museum

Images featuring Ivana are very distinctive Ivana posing with a honeycomb moray eel

Ivana is a talented photographer in her own right

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On a night dive with a whaleshark

Ivana is not phased by a spot of cold-water diving

Nice split level shot beneath a liveaboard

Q: You spend a lot of time on the road visiting exotic locations. What are some of your favourite destinations, and why? A: Raja Ampat - best experience as a photographer because of the blackwater night dive; Cuba – diving with crocodiles; and South Africa, where I had a chance to dive with great white sharks. However, apart from those beautiful sites around the world I also love diving in my country, in a crystalclear River Drina, or a lake in front of our diving centre in Belgrade. Although sometimes the visibility is low, this lake is full of lovely inhabitants which I enjoy making part of my photos. Little freshwater jellyfish, turtles, pike… I simply enjoy diving so every time I get underwater, a smile suddenly appears on my face. Q: What is your most-memorable diving experience? A: The moment when the Caribbean reef shark decided to have a taste of my foot while I was a model in a dress, without a mask. Q: On the flipside, what is your worst diving memory? A: Every job takes its risks. I have many diving hours behind me, so a few uncomfortable situations had to happen. One of those was when in Spain, during the training day at the European Underwater Photography Championships, I was taken in an unknown direction by a current. Fortunately, I managed to grab a rock and hold on to it, keeping my camera safe simultaneously. After some time, a boat appeared and picked me up. Q: What does the future hold for Ivana Orlovic? A: I sincerely hope to dive for a lot more because I am fascinated by the lack of knowledge we possess about underwater inhabitants. I enjoy exploring and learning. If I had one more life, I would certainly be a marine biologist. n

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GETTING BACK UNDERWATER POST-COVID Martyn Guess provides some insight into what underwater photographers who have had a long break from diving, due to restrictions during the pandemic, should be doing to make sure they get back up to speed quickly with their equipment, techniques and skills Photographs by Martyn Guess

lot of my warm water diving friends and students have gleefully hit social media in the last few weeks to announce that, at last, they will be going on a much-longed-for diving trip. For many, this is after an enforced break of over two years if the last time they dived was in the summer of 2019. My last warm water dive was in late-November 2019 with a group of students in the Red Sea - a brilliant trip with fond memories of a whaleshark and a pod of bottlenose dolphins on our check-out dive! This is such a long time, enough time to (temporarily I hope) forget some of the photography skills that regular diving with a camera provides. In addition to the skills there is the added dimension for photographers, of underwater camera equipment that has spent a long time probably just standing on a shelf or in a bag. I thought it would therefore be a good idea to write my article this month on these issues and hope what I recommend will help people to get back up to speed quickly. Firstly, on the equipment - I am lucky to have continued diving in UK waters when we have been permitted to do so. I have used my camera regularly underwater but many of my friends and the people who come on my workshops have not done as much UK diving, or none at all. I suggest the first thing on the list should be to get everything out and give it all a good inspection and clean if necessary. Check O-rings and insert new batteries and put everything together. Take the equipment for a service if you feel that something needs checking over. It is amazing that what would normally have been second nature might not be any more. Doing this well before any trip will allow time to get problems with equipment resolved in plenty of time and pay dividends when you get to your resort or liveaboard. Make sure everything is working as it should be. I suggest you also make sure your vacuum is working if you have one and that strobes fire. I recommend putting the rig maybe without

Image 1. Exercise with Black Background – High speed and small aperture

the camera into a bath full of water to check for leaks. I read this week about a very well-known photographer (who will remain anonymous) that got to the longed-for diving destination recently to find there was a niggling housing leak – which in a remote area can be difficult to fix! The same goes for your diving equipment of course. It is easy to forget after a long lay-off, the different camera controls and how to achieve the desired settings. What was second nature a while ago may not be any longer. Depending on your camera I would suggest re-orientating yourself with the camera and make sure that you can easily find the ISO settings, different focus settings, speed, and aperture controls, etc. This way you will avoid getting into the water and having to struggle with how to adjust something critical for you to get a well-exposed shot. Maybe set yourself some exercises with the camera and settings. Put the camera in the housing with a macro lens

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Image 2. Exercise with wide aperture, high speed, Lower ISO and strobe power

Image 3. Use the camera’s Histogram

and get a single strobe working. Set up the camera and lighting for firstly black background shots (Image 1). Set the speed at around 1/200th sec or higher if the camera/flash sync speed will allow, set a small aperture say F22 and the strobe on say half power. Find a smallish subject and see if you can get a black or very dark background. Play around with the camera to subject distance and change settings including ISO and or strobe power if necessary. Maybe find a subject which is a very light colour and play around with strobe power and the camera settings to avoid burning out the subject. Once you can take shots of a range of different subjects and get a good black background, start again with an aperture which will give you a very shallow depth of field, say F5.6. This is an exercise that is almost the opposite of the black backgrounds. You will have more light entering the lens because of the more-open aperture and will likely have to lower ISO and strobe power and maybe increase the camera speed to compensate. See if you can get some good bokeh backgrounds by playing with the aperture and camera to subject distance (Image 2). Try and remember to use the cameras histogram to review the exposure of your images (Image 3). Take the same shot over and over with the speed gradually

Biography – Martyn Guess

Martyn has been diving for over 30 years and taking underwater images for nearly as long. He is a wellknown and successful underwater photographer with many successes in National and International competitions and regularly makes presentations to Camera and Photography clubs and Dive 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 one to one underwater photography courses he leads overseas workshop trips for Scuba Travel and his articles regularly appear in Scuba Diver Magazine.

Image 4. Remember to shoot upwards for a more natural and pleasing image

decreasing each time to see the effect on the histogram as the graph moves further to the right each time. Try and perfect your exposures by reference to the histogram graph. Changing settings and keeping a good exposure is a great exercise to practice. Playing with your camera in this way is worthwhile, even for an expert. Think of it as an athlete warming up before their event. Yes, we might all know how to do it but going through the different settings will help you get back into the groove. Start to think about camera angle ie, shooting up to a subject which will appear far more natural than shooting down (Image 4) again something we should all know about but easy to forget. Start to imagine eye contact with your subject and moving the focus points to achieve the best eye focus (Easy to practice with a little toy fish on land). While not so easy on land alter the angle of the strobe or strobes if you can hold up the camera rig with two (if not rest it on your kitchen table). Check out the difference

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Image 5. High detail macro shot with small aperture but compensate exposure for less light by adjusting ISO and speed

Image 6. Blue water background with slower speed compensated with higher ISO and smaller aperture for depth of field

Image 7. Big aperture for Bokeh image. Exposure compensated with higher speed and low ISO

that the angle of the lighting has from straight on direction to cross lighting where the strobes point to each other and then on to inward lighting where the strobes start to point back to your head. See if you can achieve a black background by the angle of the strobe lighting. This will start to get you back into thinking more about your lighting and remembering the different techniques. If you are unsure about the correct camera settings check out the exposure triangle. Easy to find on the internet. It will remind you that there are three elements that control exposure excluding your strobe power. Aperture (F stops), Shutter speed and ISO (Your cameras sensitivity to light). Take control of these three elements of exposure by using the manual setting on your camera. Without this you cannot choose the combination of aperture, speed and ISO that will give you the best or your chosen exposure. Whether this is a sharp macro shot (Image 5) using a small aperture or a wide-angle shot of a reef scene with a blue background using a lower speed (Image 6), or a slightly out of focus bokeh shot using a larger aperture (7). In underwater photography we want to bring colours to life and the reason we use strobes is to do just that. It is important though that the strobe power is used to just paint light where we want it and that the scene or subject is exposed correctly in the first instance. This will give you a balanced light image which is very natural looking. Practice the combination of exposure and strobe light with a wideangle lens (you won’t need the dome port on land and, of course, the rig is easier and lighter to handle without). Getting back into this on land will greatly assist your technique in the water and help you get the perfect shots that we all want! Lastly get out some underwater photography books or look at the bigger photography competition results like Underwater Photographer of the Year and get your creative juices flowing. Check out the images you particularly like and imagine how you could take them. Think about how that photographer got his shot and the sort of settings he used. I am an avid note taker and I totally recommend jotting down ideas of shots that you want to create before you go away so that when you get to where you are going you are full of ideas about things to try and achieve. All the above will I hope, help you get back into the photography mindset that you will hopefully have had before the pandemic. If you didn’t have it, I hope that some of my basic reminders will help you on your way. Be patient when you first start diving again – you are unlikely to go out on your first few dives with a camera and take an awardwinning image. Take things slowly and it won’t be long before you are back up to speed. n

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hile Raja Ampat offers incredible diving experiences year-round, most divers prefer to visit the area between December and April for the famous manta ray encounters. With the large number of divers and liveaboards that flock to the area during this time, it can become very crowded on famous dive sites, with many dive operations sticking to these sites to give guests the best opportunity to see the mantas. While it is true that this is an incredible experience, and should be on everyone’s bucket list, many are missing out on what Raja Ampat has to offer during the so called ‘off-season’. Visiting Raja Ampat during the off-season opens several extraordinary diving opportunities, that may be considered as ‘off the beaten track’. Seasonal changes in wind direction mean that some little-known dive sites offer better visibility and incredible marine encounters. Paired with the many sightseeing highlights, and activities that the area has to offer, the off-season is the perfect time for those who want to experience the ‘Last Paradise” in a more relaxed, personal way.

Alyui Bay

The tranquil Alyui Bay lies in the north of Waisai, with incredible beaches and scenery hiding some of the leastdived areas in the whole of Raja Ampat. One of the best in the area is White Wall, a gently sloping reef that gets its name from the soft coral sponge growth that covers large parts of this dive site. Usually dived in a medium current, this dive site offers the opportunity to appreciate the sponge growth while schools of fusiliers pass you by. While in the area, give the Atlas Pearl Farm in the bay a visit. Visitors are treated to a guided tour to see how the pearls are grown, and then have the opportunity to purchase a pearl of their own.

Wai Island

Located near Batanta Island, to the south of Waisai, you find the small island known as Wai. This picturesque island offers visitors an incredible beach experience, with white sand beaches and crystal-clear water. However, the best reason to visit the island is to see what lies beneath the water’s surface. The island is surrounded by an intricate reef system, with a rich ecosystem providing many stunning dive sites that are home to a huge variety of marine life, from large schooling fish to pygmy seahorses.

While Raja Ampat comprises of some 1,500 islands, they are home to just 50,000 people. As you can imagine, this means plenty of open space, endless empty beaches and pristine nature topside and underwater.

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in the off-season

Jean-Pierre Nathrass heads to Raja Ampat to experience what the area has to offer in the ‘off-season’ Photographs by Meridian Adventure Dive WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

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Raja Ampat reefs are pristine

Fam Islands

Located in the west of Raja Ampat you can find the famous Piaynemo viewpoint in the Fam Island group. This is a ‘must see’ stop on any trip to Raja Ampat, but why not pair it with some incredible dive sites. While most divers will be familiar with Melissa’s Garden, the area is home to many other incredible dives, starting off with Keruo Channel and Keruo Wall. Both these sites are home to barracuda and other schooling fish, while the reefs are covered in incredibly colourful hard and soft coral. Slightly to the north you will find the sloping reefs of Galaxy and Barracuda. As the names suggest, both these dive sites offer divers the opportunity to see masses of fish move through the area in stronger currents. While both are best dived under these stronger current conditions, the surface is appropriate for non-divers, or the less experienced, to snorkel at the foot of the Piaynemo viewpoint.

Equator Islands and Kawe

Expect crystalclear waters

Located in the west of Raja Ampat you can find the famous Piaynemo viewpoint Manta ray

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When visiting in the off season, why not take a day trip to the Equator Islands and Kawe. Besides having the bragging rights that you have crossed the Equator in a boat, you also have the opportunity to swim on the Equator, an experience not many can say they have had. While in the area, take the opportunity to dive some of the most-remote and impressive diving sites in the northern Raja Ampat region. Eagle Rock may not look like much from the surface, but this pinnacle hides one of the most-diverse diving sites you can imagine. The pinnacle serves as a cleaning station for mantas during the manta season and, on occasion, they can even be found here in the off season. The impressive black corals and masses of fish, including snapper, fusiliers, Napoleon wrasse and barracuda, make this dive site an incredible experience year-round. Another hidden gem of the area can be found at Chango. Most will give this tiny pinnacle, with a few lonely trees and bushes, no heed but at Chango you will find an incredible labyrinth of boulders, swim-throughs, and crevasses, all while you are surrounded by masses upon masses of fish, from jacks to batfish.

39 39

The reefs swarm with fish species

In the mangroves

There are more than 10 languages spoken around the islands and this doesn’t even include the multitude of dialects from island to island.

The impressive black corals and masses of fish, including snapper, fusiliers, Napoleon wrasse and barracuda, make this dive site an incredible experience year-round Yeben Shallows

Found to the west of Waisai, Yeben Island is home to beautiful white sand beaches and lush tropical growth, the perfect place to spend a beach day. The shallow reef that surrounds Yeben Island, and connects the smaller islands in the area, is ideal for snorkelling, while the unique layout of these sloping reefs create an incredible dive site. From walls and gentle slopes that are covered in colourful and lush corals, to sandy patches, where you can find thousands of garden eels cautiously sticking out their heads and swaying in the currents. Yeben Shallows is a dive site that never disappoints, and with so many routes and sections to dive it is easy to spend a day of diving exploring the area.

Wofoh

The Wofoh Islands offer incredible vistas of towering cliffs and tropical growth. At the southernmost point of these islands, you can find Edi’s Black Forest. This wall is home to gently swaying soft coral, most notably black coral that gives the site its name. While swimming along the wall, take the time to look at the macro marine life in the coral, with a keen eye it is possible to spot the elusive ornate ghost pipefish or even pygmy seahorses. The site then gently slopes up, to the perfect safety stop depth, over a field of soft coral bommies alive with colour and marine life. It is often possible to find wobbegong sharks swimming around in the area or hiding under a coral outcropping.

AN ICON IN 30 YEARS!

It may be hard to believe, but Raja Ampat has only been known to foreigners for 30 years. Dutch diver Max Ammer was the first to spread the word about the area in 1990 after he spent a period here searching for sunken World War Two shipwrecks and airplanes, and realised very quickly that the bio-diversity all around him was like nothing else on the planet. He soon invited Australian fishery expert Gerry Allen to survey the area, and the rest, as they say, is history. Did someone say ‘island paradise’?

Soft corals, sponges and crinoids dominate

The island is also host to Red Patch Wall, a site found on the opposite side of the island but, when diving, it feels and looks like a different world. While the wall is stained red, giving the site its name, it is covered in sponges and soft coral, with vibrant colours and rich marine life. The dive ends on a gentle slope, with masses of hard coral outcroppings that are alive with marine life, a true underwater garden. Both dive sites are best dived when the sun is out, to really see how the colours come into their own.

The Passage

While the Passage is a well-known dive site, that appears on many itinerates and ‘must dive’ lists, it is a dive site that is best dived in the off season. The Passage is found in a natural saltwater river, formed between the islands of Gam and Waigeo. Surrounded by towering cliffs on either side, this passage has some of the most breath-taking scenery in the entire Raja Ampat. Shallow reefs, caves and caverns line the cliffs at water level, making the area is perfect for a snorkel safari. Below the surface, the passage offers a unique diving experience for the adventurous. While you can dive the site with no current, the true adventure arrives with the current. While drifting down the river, you will be treated to scenes of incredible sea fans, and other soft coral mangrove forest roots, while the topography of the cliffs extend below the surface, providing incredible views that make you feel like you are cruising through an extension of the beauty you saw above. When dived in light currents the area allows you to explore the many caverns, swim-throughs, and caves in the passage, while admiring the large numbers of nudibranchs, shrimps and other marine critters found in the sandy patches. While this is only a short list of dives, and adventures, that are great for the off season in Raja Ampat, the area offers many more opportunities. From paddle boarding and kayaking safaris to cultural homestays, where the local communities are always eager provide the best stays, to visits to the famous Blue River or guided bird watching tours. Raja Ampat has something to offer all visitors to the area, with the added benefit of avoiding the crowds. n Anemonefish

Dive boats are fast and comfortable

eptherapy’s long-planned, two-week marine biology course at Roots Red Sea was, yet again, cancelled due to COVID. Deptherapy approached Regal Dive to urgently find a COVID ‘green’ location in October that offered good diving. The two-year marine biology programme is funded by the Armed Forces’ Covenant Fund Trust (AFCFT), who agreed to change the objectives of our grant to allow an expedition to occur this year. The Board and beneficiaries of Deptherapy are extremely grateful to the AFCFT and our strategic partners, the Invictus Games’ Foundation, for allowing us to change our plans at the last minute. Grenada was identified as the ideal location and a frenzy of activity took place to ensure the expedition happened. Sadly, a couple of days before departure, Tom Oates, who was to lead a two-day reef survey at the end of our stay on the island, contracted COVID and was unable to travel. Presently, under Grenada’s COVID rules, you have to have a PCR ‘fit to fly’ test within 72 hours of your outbound flight and apply for a Pure Blue ‘COVID’ passport, plus an ‘on arrival’ PCR test, followed by quarantine until the result comes through. Our on-arrival test results were back within 24 hours.

BA arranged for a dedicated check-in at Gatwick and we were given priority boarding. This is essential as many of those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder do not like being in crowds and, for wheelchair users, getting them on the plane first is essential. We were staying at The Pure Blue Bay Boutique Resort and they arranged for us to be ‘fast tracked’ through the airport, which was much appreciated. A day of quarantine was spent by a pool that had been specifically set aside for us. Aquanauts Divers is located within the resort and therefore there are no long journeys to the dive centre, just a chilled stroll after breakfast. Grenada has suffered badly from a lack of tourism due to COVID and our arrival was a major event. Grenada is well known for the warmth of its welcome. Our experience of this ‘Spice Island’ was one of happiness and joy. There were strong currents running during much of our stay, which meant that we unfortunately could not get out to the wreck of the ocean-going liner, the iconic Bianca C. Aquanauts was taken over by the Geer family in 2021 and is very much a family affair, with dad Tom, daughter Tiffany and son Tyler on the boat with us most days. Tom and Tyler are Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA) trained. There is a real buzz on the boat especially when captained by Bruce, who is a character you will never forget. Bruce seems to have 360-degree vision when SMBs and divers are popping up everywhere. Aquanauts’ boats are ideal for getting divers like Corey into and out of the water. Due to two beneficiaries having to drop out of the expedition, we selected the two ‘best divers’ as identified by instructors from the August RAID Open Water 20 course. These two beneficiaries were incredulous at their rapid promotion to what they both described as the ‘expedition of a lifetime’. One of them, Gary Daye, said: “I was expecting to wake up and find it was all a dream, open water in August, to Grenada in October, just unreal. I did three dives to 35m; I took part in a two-day reef survey. That is the stuff of dreams. I have my own mental health issues to deal with but having the opportunity to dive with Corey, who at 21 has been living with paraplegia for three years, revelling in his diving, made me focus on the positives.”

The team encountered current on several dives

Grenada is well known for the warmth of its welcome. Our experience of this ‘Spice Island’ was one of happiness and joy Bring on the diving

Day one we dived the wreck of the Veronica L, and our second dive was a drift along a reef called Dr Groom’s. We were running RAID Advanced 35, RAID Deep and RAID Nitrox courses, so there was lots of work for the students establishing SAC rates. In the evening a reception was organised for us by True Blue/Aquanauts and a pleasant evening was had by all. Day 2, our first dive was on the wreck of the Tyrrell Bay, a US Coastguard vessel that was sunk as a diver attraction and artificial reef. There was a strong current but each course carried out their work with instructor Sharon, supported by Deptherapy beneficiary Tom Swarbrick supervising Keiron in completing the remaining parts of his RAID Advanced Wreck Course that he undertook in Malta. The second dive of the day was on the Purple Rain reef, lots of aquatic life, including lionfish, which is an invasive species in the Caribbean Sea. Exploring the holds of a After lunch, the team ran some workshops for shipwreck the beneficiaries, these included one focusing on basic equipment maintenance, additional quizzes for the Nitrox course, followed by an interactive session on the T Formula, Surface Air Consumption (SAC) rates and dive planning. It also looked at PPO2. Day 3 saw three dives, firstly the Shakem, a cargo ship that sank because its cargo of cement bags shifted during a storm. A strong current saw us ascend the mooring line at the end of the dive looking like sheets in the wind. The second was on the Quarter Wreck, a wreck which had been cut in four, a great drift with lots of soft and hard coral. The Lighthouse Reef was the highlight of the day, lots of big stingray and nurse sharks. Away from the reef there was a very

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strong current and SMBs were popping up everywhere. In the evening we ran a 50-question diving and general knowledge quiz, the winner being Nick Lindsay, who won a Chilly’s bottle. Day 4 began with us visiting the wreck of the cargo ship, Anina, but very strong currents - which would be a major factor all day - prevented us diving the wreck, so we headed to Spice Island and Dr Groom’s reefs in the morning. After lunch, it was a short boat journey to Shark Reef. What we experienced was a drift dive that many described as stronger and longer than the dive known as the Kuredu Express in the Maldives. Turtles and sharks were briefly glimpsed in this high-speed drift. The team were very impressed with how Advanced 35 students Nick Lindsay and Gary Daye coped with the dive and held their safety stop while deploying a DSMB in challenging conditions. Quality training pays dividends. Day 4 we split the team, with the ‘deep’ team completing two 30m plus dives and the remainder reef diving. The first dive saw the ‘deep’ team dive to the Rum Runner wreck at about 35m while the other team dived the Windmill Valleys. The second dive saw both groups on the Black Forest reef, but with the deep team carrying out another 30m-plus dive. On our return we changed into our Deptherapy T-shirts for a meeting with Petra Roach, the CEO of the Grenada Tourist Authority, and Emil Edwards, who is the Sales Manager for the UK. Day 5 was a non-diving day and we were honoured by a visit from the Grenadian Minister of Tourism, Dr Clarice Modeste Curwen. The Grenadian Government are really supportive of our work and she presented us with a book about Grenada. The Minister also asked if we would be prepared to work with local communities to show that even with the most-challenging disabilities, you can achieve. In the evening we had a Zoom link with Tom Oates in the UK - he gave a presentation about the target fish for our two-day reef survey and how we would achieve our objectives. Tiffany from Aquanauts was with us. Jason Court then worked out the teams and allocated specific tasks to be completed. After a recorded interview with Now Grenada, we started our reef survey that would last our final two days. The sea was fairly choppy but we made our way out to the Marine Park with its memorable sculptures, then to Flamingo Bay to conduct the Reef Survey. There was lots of aquatic life activity on the reef and after laying a transept line, data recording began. This included video recording conducted by Corey using a GoPro. As Corey has paraplegia, he has to use his arms to propel him through the water. He required both hands to use his GoPro. This meant Deptherapy’s ability to adapt and overcome came to the fore. Tom Swarbrick, one of our ambassadors, propelled Corey through the water, thus allowing him to video the reef and manually record data. The report on the health of the reef will be written by Tom Oates and presented to the Grenada Tourist Authority and the Royal Geographical Society, with a foreword from our Vice President Paul Rose. All too soon, our ten-day expedition was over and it was time to return home, leaving our amazing new friends at the True Blue Bay Boutique Resort and Aquanauts Grenada behind. Until we meet again… n

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The famous sculpture park

Kieron Bradbury completed his Advanced Wreck course

Proudly flying the country flags Returning from a dive

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

WHEN SHOULD YOU REPLACE YOUR DIVE COMPUTER OR BCD? Scuba diving is a highly gear-dependent activity, but like divers themselves, dive gear ages. It can even become obsolete, as gear is replaced by newer models with improved features and safety. Michael Menduno looks at when should you consider replacing expensive items like your dive computer or BCD

So the big question is ‘when should you replace your dive computer or BCD’? The answer is ‘it depends’.

Computer love

Divers don’t buy new dive computers every year, so it is not uncommon to see older computers while on dive trips. But just because those models were the best options 15 years ago doesn’t mean they’re ideal to use now. New technology has improved computer processing power, battery life, sensor sensitivity and display screens. Older dive computers are often not able to fully implement newer decompression algorithms; modern computers are more powerful and, in many cases, are better able to compute a more-faithful rendition of the underlying algorithm. Modern sensors can detect even slight changes in pressure and register changes in water temperature in a tenth of the time it takes those in older dive computers. This improvement provides more accurate estimates of water temperature, depth and ascent rate, although the dive computer’s physical design can affect these measurements — and measuring depth to the nearest inch of seawater may not have any practical impact on safety. Many manufacturers will factory test dive computers for accuracy, so DAN Europe recommends that divers contact

the manufacturer of any dive computer that is ten years old or older, or that has made 1,000 or more dives, and ask if it should be tested for accuracy. Years of diving can take their toll on computers in terms of wear and tear, exposure to sun and salt water, being dropped and other neglect. As our dive computers steadily age, so do we. Many newer dive computers have sharper screens that are brighter, have larger numbers and are more intuitive to use than older models - hint, hint - worthwhile reasons to add a new dive computer to our wish list.

B-C-D, easy as 1-2-3

A comfortable and good-fitting BCD can give us years of reliable service. Do a few scuff marks or a broken clasp or two signal the end of its usefulness? Not necessarily. Does a BCD have an expiration date? We rely on our BCD to ensure we have both a comfortable and a safe dive; a BCD failure could have very dire consequences when we most need to control our buoyancy, so we need to monitor the BCD’s condition as well as its age. In general, we might provide a cursory inspection of our BCD before and perhaps after use, but rarely do we consider getting them serviced. Before using your BCD, especially when using it for the first time in many months, inspect the condition of the inflator hose, check the materials for degradation, fully inflate and inspect the seams for leaks and dump valves for function, and look for any significant scuffing or tearing. The inflator and dump valves need to be serviced periodically, especially as the BCD ages. Annual inspections are a good standard of practice, especially for BCDs in use for five years or more.

DAN Membership

Before taking the plunge make sure your DAN membership is still active. If it isn’t, join DAN or renew your membership at: www.daneurope.org Your DAN membership ensures the services of the biggest international network for assisting divers anywhere, during any emergency.

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Modern sensors can detect even slight changes in pressure and register changes in water temperature in a tenth of the time it takes those in older dive computers About the author

AlertDiver.eu contributing editor Michael Menduno is an award-winning journalist and technologist who has written about diving and diving technology for decades. He coined the term ‘technical diving’. His work has appeared in magazines such as Alert Diver, DeeperBlue.com, DIVER, Quest, Scientific American, Sport Diver, Undercurrent, Undersea Journal, WIRED and X-Ray. He founded and served as editor-in-chief for aquaCORPS Journal (1990-1996), which helped usher tech diving into the mainstream of sports diving. He also produced the first Tek, EuroTek and AsiaTek conferences. In addition, Michael serves as the editorin-chief of InDepth, the Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) online magazine.

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While BCDs don’t have an explicit shelf life, it is important to carefully and regularly monitor their condition, particularly their working parts. If the hose is sound with no signs of cracking, there are no leaks, buoyancy control is good and you service the inflator and dump valves annually after the first five years of use, then you should still have a reliable BCD. A good service technician will alert you of any embrittlement of the plastic parts, O-rings, cracks in the hoses or excessive wear and tear. Keep an eye out for leaks and cracks, especially if your BCD is more than ten years old. If fashion or function doesn’t prompt you to retire your old BCD, just be sure you stay alert for any warning signs that its functionality, and consequently your safety, may be compromised. Dive computers and BCDs are expensive, which can make it very tempting to keep using the ones we own year after year. But don’t be complacent. Use your own good judgment and that of your service technician to determine when it’s time to replace your old BCD or dive computer. n

beyond technical

www.narkedat90.com

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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

Popping the W

e all love bubbles. Whether they’re in our drinks, our baths or - dare I say it - our bubbly chocolate, bubbles are cool. Where they’re not so cool, though, is in our blood stream post-dive. Regardless of how safe you think your dive profile is, bubbles are an inescapable residual effect of scuba diving. Studies conducted by DAN in the 1990s concluded that all divers ‘bubble’ after every dive, regardless of how efficient you believe your dive profile is – what varies are the amount of bubbles in your blood stream. A controlled ascent that gives the body time to safely off-gas inerts will significantly reduce the probability of you ending up in a recompression chamber, but there are no guarantees. Modern dive computers are very smart devices, but they operate on a generic model - they’re not tuned to your own unique physiology. Many factors affect how efficiently your body off-gases – fitness, BMI, age, hydration levels and so on – but your computer won’t account for any of these. Even those divers that cut their own deco schedules rarely adjust profiles to mitigate for variations in their own physiology. Imagine if you could fine tune your dive computer to reflect your physiology. France-based Azoth Systems believe they may have the answer – the O’Dive personal ultrasound doppler. Combined with a sophisticated app that runs on both iPhone and Android devices, this clever little puck-sized sensor allows you to capture post-dive bubble measurements from your own blood stream in a nonintrusive way. You don’t need a PhD to analyse the results either – Azoth’s own servers do all the heavy number crunching and return the results to your smart phone in an easy-to-digest form. Correct positioning of the O’Dive sensor does take some practice, but the app thankfully provides plenty of guidance. Unlike precordial dopplers used by research scientists, O’Dive is a subclavian sensor – that is, it measures bubbles via the subclavian veins that lie just below the collar bone. Using this type of sensor does have its benefits – the raised collar bone makes positioning the sensor relatively

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The Azoth app

For any diver – or team of divers - involved in more adventurous diving, O’Dive could be the mostsignificant new diving product to see the light in recent years easy and measuring here gives a cleaner signal, with the sensor not having to deal with the noise generated by the heart’s own valves. To get a bubble reading that the system can analyse, you need to take two sets of readings – the first are taken from both the left and right subclavian veins 30 minutes after surfacing from your dive. 60 minutes later, you’re then prompted to take a second set of readings. For best results, you also need to upload the dive profile data from your computer – the app can communicate directly with both Shearwater computers and CCR controllers, plus Suunto EON Steel computers with Buhlmann via Bluetooth. The app packages up the bubble readings and dive profile data and then transmits it to Azoth’s servers. Azoth uses the profile data from your computer to compare your bubble readings against diving databases generated by COMEX, DCIEM and the French, British, Canadian and US Navies. What is transmitted back to your smart phone is a simple-to-understand bar graph that represents the safety of your dive using three values – a ‘QI’ (Quality Index), which scores the safety of your dive between 0 and 100, ‘Sc’ (Severity Component), which scores the relative risk of DCS between 0 and 100, and finally, a ‘Bc’ (Bubble Component), which scores the amount of bubbles detected between 0 and

The O’Dive in action

40. In an ideal world, you want a very high QI and very low Sc and Bc components. Assuming that the results you received back from Azoth raised an eyebrow, O’Dive gives you the tools to improve the safety and efficiency of your decompression profile. Built into the O’Dive app is a sophisticated ‘simulator’ that lets you view the effect of tweaking specific factors of your dive – the gases you breathed, the gradient factor used, or the setpoint of your CCR controller at depth, and so on. By adjusting the onscreen sliders, the effect of these changes will be displayed in real time with the reduction in both the severity and bubble values and the ‘Quality Index’ of the

Phil Short prepping the O’Dive

Computers • O2 Cells • Gas Analysers Cables & Connectors • Rebreather Parts PathFinder Strobes • Sensors Tools • Solenoids Regular readers will already know Phil Short – he’s arguably one of the world’s leading deep trimix wreck and cave divers and has featured in the magazine on many occasions

dive displayed as a percentage. An estimated ‘safety multiplier’ is also displayed, which represents the increase in safety compared to the original profile. Armed with the insight you’ve gained from tweaking your profile with the simulator, the theory is that you incorporate these changes into your profile and take them diving. But how well does it work in reality? Regular readers will already know Phil recording Phil Short – he’s arguably one of the his data post-dive world’s leading deep trimix wreck and cave divers and has featured in the magazine on many occasions. With years of experience diving at expedition level in some of the world’s most-inhospitable regions, Phil is just the sort of indestructible ‘lab rat’ you need to thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of something like the O’Dive. Phil has used the device on a number of recent projects, including high workload dives on a World War Two B-17 bomber aircraft laying at a depth of 70m in Croatia and – most recently – exploration at depths of up to 130m in the Langbans Mine in Sweden. We asked Phil for his take on how the O’Dive had performed on these projects. “The O’Dive was used to great effect daily during the B-17 repatriation project in Croatia by the entire six-man team. We were physically working at depth

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Wrecks can include airplanes

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Just how much do you ‘bubble’ after a tech dive?

and to lower work of breathing, we used high helium content CCR diluent mixtures to reduce gas density. The work involved placing and operating a hydraulic water dredge to syphon away sediment inside the fuselage of the aircraft. This workload produced reasonably high bubble scores and many of our O’Dive results were processed and analysed by a technician due to this. From these results we altered our Gradient Factors in line with modern thinking pioneered by leading scientists like Professor Simon Mitchell. “I started with modifications that rested on wellestablished methods, mainly extending the last stop before surfacing, adding an additional stop half-way between the last required stop and the surface and conducting a very slow ascent from the conclusion of the last required stop and the surface. I then started to make very small changes in the first stop depth - for example, one stop difference or 3m. The bubble count reduced, the severity component dropped and yes, I felt less tired and had more energy post-dive. “I’ve managed to get a few dives ‘out of range’ and several dives where an email from Azoth advised me that the automated results based on Azoth’s enormous databases were being personally analysed by support technical staff. Which, to be honest, is reassuring. “What I learnt was that my profiles needed reshaping rather than lengthening or shortening and that it would be prudent to always extend my last stop with the addition of a safety stop once my prescribed deco had cleared.”

But what benefit would the average diver gain from using O’Dive? Again, we put this to Phil. “I’ve logged over 6,000 dives in 30 years as a diver and to date, had no incidence of decompression illness. I would like to maintain that track record by monitoring and evolving my dive profiles with all available advice and methods long into my diving future. Right now, the O’Dive is a significant advance in personal dive planning that will help me meet that goal.” Praise indeed, but perhaps the most exciting aspect of O’Dive is something far less tangible. O’Dive gives us an enticing insight into the potential

The O’Dive could make tech dives to wrecks like this much safer

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Computers • O2 Cells • Gas Analysers Cables & Connectors • Rebreather Parts PathFinder Strobes • Sensors Tools • Solenoids Every tech diver wants to minimise their risks

The O’Dive could revolutionise techdive thinking

Phil is just the sort of indestructible ‘lab rat’ you need to thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of something like the O’Dive of this technology and what it could mean for diving moving forward. As the technology reduces in size still further, could we see a future where divers wear sensors during a dive that communicate real-time physiological data to their dive computers? Imagine a future where your computer is generating a dive profile specific to your body. Dehydrated?

Tech diver exploring inside a mine

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Feeling the cold? Your computer could compensate for these factors. Now that is truly exciting and could represent a seismic shift in diver safety. The future is ‘wearables’ and you heard it here first, folks. Ok, so we’re not there yet by a long shot, but O’Dive still offers a glimpse of that tantalising future in a compact and easy-to-use package that could deliver genuine improvements in diver safety. While it may appear expensive, bear in mind that every O’Dive supports multiple user accounts so a dive club could buy just one and share it among all their club members. The first two users – the owner and their buddy, for example – get unlimited bubble analyses while additional users get 30 free analyses shared between them. Additional users then have the option of paying just £3 per analysis. For the cost of a coffee, that’s pretty good value. For any diver – or team of divers - involved in more adventurous diving, O’Dive could be the most-significant new diving product to see the light in recent years. It’s easy to use and manages to present immensely complicated data in a form that most divers can understand and interpret relatively easily. For those who feel they may need a little guidance, several training agencies now offer O’Dive courses. Whatever your level of diving, O’Dive provides the additional insight you and your dive buddies need to increase personal safety and feel far better post-dive. For anyone that’s felt like they’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson after a dive, that’s got to be a good thing. n

It’s Christmas! Yes, the temperatures are plummeting and the newspapers are full of tales of impending snow-mageddon, so that must mean it’s the festive time of year! So now is the perfect time to draw up that ‘must-have’ wish list and hope you are not on Santa’s ‘naughty list’… We have compiled a few ideas below across a range of price points to suit every budget.

GIFTS UNDER £25

Bite-Back 2022 calendar

Bite-Back’s high-quality A4 calendar features hand-picked images donated by some of the world’s mostacclaimed underwater photographers, creating a stunning and unique gift idea for ocean lovers. Contributions from globally-renowned photographers including Alex Mustard, Amanda Cotton, Christian Vizl, Doug Perrine, Ellen Cuylaerts, George Probst, Greg Lecouer, Harry Stone, Jason Isely, Laura Storm, Shawn Heinrichs and Tanya Houppermans bring the calendar to life with stunning images of sharks, mantas, turtles, sea lions, sunfish and marlin. The limited-edition calendar is only available at Bite-Back online and costs £12, including free UK delivery. www.bite-back.com/shop THE RESCUE

Scuba Diver subscription

Scubapro magnetic octopus holder

There is nothing worse than a dangly octopus, so when you need to be sure your octopus regulator remains secure and stays where it is supposed to, you can turn to the Scubapro magnetic holder (£24). This handy device is built with a super-strong magnet that will hold any reg ready for use. The hose can be secured with screws, and the hold itself attachs to the BCD or wing with a sturdy carabiner. www.scubapro.eu

JILL HEINERTH ON THE NEW NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY

2AM ETERNAL

COLIN GARRETT SETS HIS ALARM FOR AN EARLY MORNING DIVE

SILENT PHOTOGRAPHY HOW CLOSED-CIRCUIT REBREATHERS GO WELL WITH UW SHOOTING

BACK IN THE RED LAWSON WOOD CELEBRATES RED SEA ANEMONEFISH

Q&A: ANDY FORSTER

WE CHAT ABOUT THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE AMBITIOUS DIVE PROJECT CORNWALL

TECH: MINE DIVING

KURT STORMS HEADS INTO THE CARRIERE MINE IN BELGIUM

What better present to give that diver in your live (or to treat yourself) than a subscription to this very SUN SHINES ON INAUGURAL DIVE magazine! And FESTIVAL AT NDAC TECH ICON PHIL SHORT GOES COMMERCIAL DIVING it is a gift that keeps on giving, as you get 12 issues throughout the year! At just £25, it is excellent value for money – and you get your precious magazine delivered straight to your door each and every month! www.scubadivermag.com/shop MINE DIVING

WRECK HUNTERS

DIVERS ALERT NETWORK BLUE SHARKS

ISSUE #54

WRECK HUNTERS

DIVERS ALERT NETWORK

ISSUE #55

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Miflex hoses

Add a bit of colour into your dive kit as we move into the grey and gloomy winter with a set of Miflex hoses for your primary and octopus regulators, low-pressure inflator hose for your BCD, and your low-pressure hose for your drysuit. They even do high-pressure versions too! The lowpressure inflator and regulator hoses comes in a wide variety of colours, including black, yellow, orange, carbon-black, blue, purple, pink, green, white, red and even glow-in-the-dark yellow (perfect for your octo!). The low-pressure and regulator hoses all come in a selection of lengths. For the techies out there, there is the XT-Tech series of regulator hoses, which have a polyether-based PU thermoplastic inliner with an inner polyester and Kevlar braiding and an outer smooth layer of thermoplastic. These offer the same characteristics of traditional rubber hoses with the bonus of being lighter in weight. You can also get inflator hoses in the XT-Tech material. For your pressure gauge, there is the Carbon HD hose, which is again available in a range of lengths. www.miflexhoseshop.co.uk

GIFTS UNDER £150

Santi Diving Bearskin Expedition Set

Santi has added to its range of apres-dive products with the launch of the Bearskin Expedition Set – just the thing to keep you warm and toasty through the winter. The set comprises the Polar jacket (SRP: £70), the Polar Vest (SRP: £55) and the Polar trousers (SRP: £60). The Polar jacket is made of warm, thick fleece and has a full-length front zipper. There are three pockets with zips, and the jacket is reinforced with Kevlar fabric on the forearms and shoulders. The Polar vest is made from the same fleece material as the jacket, and incorporates three pockets with zips as well. The Polar trousers are made of the same fleece material as the jacket and vest, and have two zipped side pockets, as well as detachable leg openings on the calves, making it easier to pull on heavy technical boots. The knees and buttock areas are protected by a super-strong Kevlar material. www.santidiving.com

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Fourth Element Winter 2021 range Winter 2021 sees style supremos Fourth Element usher in their new range of knitwear – perfect timing for the colder months when temperatures plummet but you still want to get out and about. It is great to see the brand moving back into cool clothing which is not distinctly ‘apres-dive’ – the Waterman and Submariner sweaters hark back to the classic Riga jumper from a few years back. The knitwear range comprises the aforementioned Submariner jumper (available in grey and navy, and mens and womens fit) and Waterman sweater, the women’s Oakum jumper, Mariner beanies in stone and navy to go with the existing red version, and toasty-warm boot socks and everyday socks in red and navy. Prices range from £19.95 for the everyday socks through to £129.95 for the Submariner jumpers. www.fourthelement.com

Aqualung i330R dive computer

Aqualung say that the i330R is ‘the ideal choice for advanced divers who love exploring the world and need to rely on their dive computers anywhere they are’. One thing is for certain, £269 for a full-colour, multi-mix, rechargeable computer is a cracking deal. The i330R is very compact for a wrist-mounted computer, but it has a bright colour screen that is easy to read in low vis, in bright sunlight and at night. It is powered by a rechargeable battery that gives about 30 hours runtime, and it quickly and easily charged via a USB cable and magnetic clip. It has four modes – air, nitrox, freedive and gauge – and can handle up to three nitrox mixes from 21-100 percent. www.aqualung.com/uk

Malta and Gozo

Why not spend some of that Christmas cash on a spot of close-to-home winter sun? Malta and Gozo are only a three-hour flight from the UK, and its clear waters offer a sublime blend of ship, plane and submarine wrecks, both historical and artificial, as well as caves, overhangs and swim-throughs. Diverse Scuba has got some fantastic deals for this Mediterranean diving hotspot, which has plenty to offer topside for non-divers or on those nondiving days, with many ancient sites to visit. www.diversescuba.com

The Egyptian Red Sea

We are spoilt rotten right here in the UK being just a five-hour flight away from the wonders of the Red Sea. Egypt offers superb diving conditions all year round, so this is the ideal time to spend some of your festive pennies on a trip to the Middle East. Scuba Travel have got some awesome deals available for both land-based and liveaboard diving adventures in Egypt, taking in some of the most-famous dive sites, including Ras Mohammed, Abu Nuhas (home of the Giannis D, Carnatic and Kimon M), the Thistlegorm, the Brothers, Daedalous and Elphinstone. www.scubatravel.com

GIFTS UNDER £500

Apeks Luna Mini torch

Everyone needs a bit of light in their lives, and the Apeks Luna Mini torch fits the bill perfectly. The anodized marine grade aluminium body feels nice in your hand, but isn’t too heavy, perfect for its role as a back-up torch. This would easily slot in a BCD pocket, or the pocket on your tech shorts. However, despite its compact size, it pumps out an impressive 1,000 lumens on full power via its single XPL2 LED, while still giving a burn time of one-and-a-half hours, which means it could easily act as a primary dive torch in warmer waters for poking around in caverns and shipwrecks, or on night dives. The Luna Mini (£250) has three power settings – medium gives you a three-hour runtime and low six hours - and you cycle through them via the push-button control on the bottom of the torch. There is also an SOS strobe setting. It can be recharged in four hours via this charging cable, which handily is a USB connector, so you can use any phone charger plug with it. There is no chance of flooding the Luna Mini as it is a fully sealed unit – you simply charge it up by plugging the cable on to the bottom. The Luna Mini is supplied in a zippered protective case, complete with a lanyard, and as you can see, comes in a range of four eye-catching colours. www.apeksdiving.com/uk

Sealife SportDiver Pro 2500 set

GIFTS UNDER £1000

The Sealife SportDiver Pro 2500 set (£650) brings together the fantastic 40m-depth-rated SportDiver iPhone camera housing with the Sea Dragon 2500 video/photo light in one great package. The SportDiver housing works with all iPhones from 7 upwards and is simple to use, featuring a dual alarm system that warns you if you have a leak, which combined with the waterproof nature of many recent iPhone models, makes it a safe bet to use with your phone! It also has a dedicated red filter for colour correction under the water. The set also includes the 2500 Lumen Sea Dragon Photo-Video Light for perfect underwater images and video, and is comes with a grip and tray for smooth, steady imaging. In the box you will get a vacuum pressure pump, set of AAA batteries, moisture muncher, silicone grease lube, underwater correction filter, O-ring removal tool, lanyard with a BCD clip, spare set of O-rings and rubber grip tabs. www.sealife-cameras.com

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XDEEP Zen wing system

GIFTS UNDER £1000

Why not treat yourself to a new BCD this Christmas? The XDEEP Zen wing system certainly ticks all the boxes when it comes to robust build quality, iconic looks and superb performance. The first thing which catches your eye about the Zen is the location of the power inflator hose. Instead of being mounted over the left shoulder as is the norm, this one comes out from the top centre of the bladder, making it ultra-streamlined to reduce resistance as you glide through the water. The double-shell Cordura wing is extremely durable and abrasion resistant. The ergonomic backplate is like a piece of modern art. You could hang that on your wall as a discussion piece. The workmanship is simply second to none. There are a number of options you can add to the system, including integrated weight pockets, and you can even personalise your rig by adding colour to the bladder. www.nautilus.uk

Aggressor Adventures around the world

Why not have the ultimate Christmas present in the form of a liveaboard to some exotic location on our watery planet? Aggressor Adventures have built up an enviable line-up of luxurious vessels around the globe – choose from the Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Cocos Island, Dominican Republic, Galapagos, Guadalupe Island, Komodo, Hawaii, the Maldives, Oman, Palau, the Philippines, Raja Ampat, Egypt, Roatan, Socorro, Thailand and the Turks and Caicos Islands. You can also embark on a traditional cruise down the River Nile, or stay at a safari lodge in Sri Lanka! www.aggressor.com

O’Three 90Ninety drysuit

South Coast-based O’Three are renowned globally for their range of robust and durable neoprene drysuits, but now they have branched out into the world of trilaminate. The 90Ninety (£1,795) came about from the realisation that many diving holidays are effectively mini expeditions to all corners of the globe. Thus, the team at O’Three set out to develop a suit that would be the ideal travel companion wherever your diving adventures took you, from 90,0000 N to 90.0000 S (hence the name). Crucially, the 90Ninety tips the scales at just over 4kg with 4mm neoprene Pivot Boot, or 3.7kg with soft boots, making it the perfect travelling companion. However, this lightweight does not mean O’Three have skimped at any stage. The 90Ninety is made from high-stretch, rip-stop trilaminate, in a front-entry full-telescopic torso design and with a YKK AquaSeal zip. It features SiTech ‘Quick’ fast-replace neck ring and KUBI Dry Glove System, which are both silicone, latex and neoprene compatible, so you will never miss another dive due to a broken seal. The suit is equipped with Apeks low-profile auto dump and swivel inlet, with a carbon hose, and a pocket on the right thigh that has a built-in slate pocket, D-rings and bungee to keep things secure. www.othree.co.uk

GIFTS UNDER £5000

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Each issue, the Scuba Diver test team bring you the latest product and equipment releases from the dive industry. Cannot wait for the next edition? Keep up-to-date with all the latest gear news and reviews by heading over to the Scuba Diver YouTube channel! www.youtube.com/ScubaDiverMagazine

AVATAR DRYSUIT | SRP: £1,350 Mark Evans: Avatar might be a new brand name for many people, but the heritage of this suit is plain to see just by even a cursory glance. This suit comes from the same stable as the iconic line up of Santi Drysuits, so its lineage is not in any doubt. However, Avatar is its own brand and own suit, and for anyone in the market for a keenly priced membrane drysuit, which is light enough for travel but durable enough for local cold-water diving, then it is well worth checking out. COVID 19 played havoc with our testing schedule, and this – combined with delays on being able to get test products into the country – means that it has taken several months to finally get our hands on an Avatar and take it diving. So let’s get the core elements out of the way first. The Avatar is constructed using advanced ergonomics which eliminates four-way seams in the crotch and under-arm areas, giving unparalleled range of movement against its closely priced rivals. The Avatar I had on test fit rather snugly over the Avatar undersuit (SRP: £210), but I still had the full range of movement both topside and underwater and not once did I feel overly restricted. It is a telescopic torso design, with a crotch strap and cross-torso front-entry plastic zipper, and inside, it has internal braces to properly support the suit. The Avatar has a subtle but effective colour scheme, with the blue-grey of the main suit contrasting nicely with the black Oxford nylon reinforcements on the knees and elbows/forearms, and on the crotch pad, which also provide extra abrasion resistance. The four-layer membrane material of the suit has a weight of 200g/m2, which means the entire suit weighs in around 3kg, making this ideal for taking to the Med, for instance, or the Red Sea in the winter months. The suit has latex neck and wrist seals, and there is a neoprene neck warmer collar to help retain heat in colder conditions, as well as give you something to tuck your hood into. Down at the business end, the Avatar has 3mm neoprene boots, with a rubber sole that extends up the heel and over the toes. There are also Velcro straps around the ankles to help prevent excessive air migration into the feet. I found these boots extremely comfortable, and they fit well with a thick undersuit sock on your feet, so I was never cold. I did find the sole thinner than some other membrane and trilaminate suits I have dived recently, though, and could feel some of the sharper terrain through them. There are spacious cargo pockets on both thighs, complete with bungie loops inside to secure accessories. The large Velcro-closing flap can easily be opened thanks to the design featuring a solid bar across the bottom – you can locate and grasp it even wearing thick neoprene gloves or drygloves. They are plenty big enough for a spool and DSMB, a torch, spare mask, etc.

The Avatar comes complete with swivelling Apeks inflator valve and a high-profile Apeks exhaust valve. These are branded up as Avatar, and work well, as you’d expect from a tried-and-tested design such as Apeks. The Avatar is supplied with a compact drysuit bag, and a neoprene hood. The Avatar undersuit is made from Sherpa fleece, which is constructed from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles. It has a weight of 450g/m2 and the company say it is perfect for use in temperatures from 6-18 degrees C. It has a grey mélange knitted jersey outer, and the internal Sherpa fleece is very soft and comfortable – in fact, it looks and feels very much like lamb’s wool. The undersuit has two side pockets, is equipped with a double-ended splash-proof zipper, and can be machine washed with no issues. While it has a simple, functional look to it, the Avatar undersuit is also purposeful, with P-valve outputs inside the pockets, and an output for a heating cable.

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Conclusion

I was impressed with the Avatar drysuit. If I was buying one, I’d go a size bigger to give me a little more space inside for a thicker undersuit/more layering for when conditions really see the mercury plummet, but in single-digit temperatures in this suit with just the Avatar undersuit on, I was nice and warm for over an hour. It is lightweight for a membrane drysuit, so ideal for the travelling diver, but it is robust enough to handle a fair bit of UK diving. I wouldn’t suggest using the Avatar for hardcore cave diving or wreck diving, but for general recreational UK diving, it would more than suffice. I liked the subtle colour scheme, and everything on the suit worked well, from the valves to the pockets. I would just like to see slightly thicker soles on the boots to ward off particularly sharp rocks when on rougher terrain. www.avatarsuits.com

Scuba Diver #56

Articles inside

Test Extra

Christmas gift guide

Grenada

Indonesia

TECH: Popping the deco bubble

Scotland

Divers Alert Network

Underwater Photography

Q&A with Ivana Orlovic

DAN Europe Medical Q&A