Christmas gift guide

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.

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 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

GIFTS UNDER £25

Scuba Diver subscription

THE RESCUE

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 magazine! And 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

SUN SHINES ON INAUGURAL DIVE FESTIVAL AT NDAC ISSUE #54 TECH ICON PHIL SHORT GOES COMMERCIAL DIVING BLUE SHARKS WRECK HUNTERS DIVERS ALERT NETWORK

ISSUE #55

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 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

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

GIFTS UNDER £150

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

GIFTS UNDER £500

Apeks Luna Mini torch

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 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 The Sealife SportDiver Pro 2500 set (£650) brings together the fantastic 40m-depth-rated SportDiver iPhone camera housing with the Sea Dragon 2500 UNDER £1000 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

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

GIFTS UNDER £1000

O’Three 90Ninety drysuit 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

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