Scuba Diver #43

WRECK DIVE HEAVEN

GEAR GUIDE: MASKS

LAIR OF THE DRAGON

STUART PHILPOTT SHOWCASES SOME OF THE CARIBBEAN’S BEST SHIPWRECK DIVES

THE TEST TEAM RATE AND REVIEW A RANGE OF DIVING MASKS

ADRIAN STACEY DIVES THE WILD WATERS OF THE KOMODO NATIONAL PARK

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL

Florida's tech dive hotspot

Siren call of

CAPERNWRAY DAD-AND-LAD DIVE TRIP TO LANCASHIRE

#43 | £1

11

+

Q&A: PETE MESLEY PT II

‣ UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Barefoot luxury in the heart of Indonesia

Bunaken National Marine Park I had a fantastic time at Siladen Resort. The resort itself is a quiet and idyllic oasis, the food was outstanding, but it’s the fishes that will have me coming back. The dive crew were some of the friendliest folk I have met. Always smiling, and so happy. I can’t wait to dive there again.

Dr. Richard Smith

w w w.s i l a d e n.c o m

EDITOR’S NOTE BRINGING ON THE YOUNG BLOODS

Times are changing, and to keep the magazine free, we’re asking dive stores to cover their own postage costs. If you enjoy reading the magazine, think about helping out your centre with a small donation to help cover their costs.

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

To stock Scuba Diver in your centre, email: subscriptions@scubadivermag.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Never miss another issue! Sign up and get Scuba Diver delivered straight to your door.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP

UK: £24.99 Rest of World: £42.99

Ross Arnold Tel: 0800 0 69 81 40 ext 701 Email: ross.arnold@scubadivermag.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Mark Evans, Editor-in-Chief

MAGAZINE

CONTRIBUTORS

Pete Mesley, Stuart Philpott, Adrian Stacey, Walt Stearns

Proud Dad moment for me as son Luke aced his first three drysuit dives - and got the cover shot, to boot!

Just because the water is starting to get colder, doesn’t mean it isn’t the ideal time to get our fresh young blood below the waterline. In fact, I’d say it was the perfect time, as the visibility is steadily increasing as the temperatures drop.

However, to ensure they don’t freeze to death, or not enjoy the experience, it is important to get them into the right thermal protection - and that means undersuits and drysuits.

Luke was nearing 60 dives as a Junior Advanced Open Water Diver, and had done a handful of wetsuited UK dives over the last two summers, but now it was time to get him comfy in a drysuit.

Diving in a drysuit is not hard, it is just another skill to master, but the benefits of being warm and dry cannot be underestimated.

We did a shallow dip in Porth Dafarch in Anglesey, North Wales, for his first experience, and then clocked up another two good 50-minute dives in the depths of Capernwray.

He really enjoyed his dives, but was quick to point out that, apart from another two teenagers (one who was doing her entry-level course in a wetsuit while her instructor was in a drysuit!), he was by far the youngest person in the Capers car park - by a long way. Luke is a dedicated diver, and he just can’t fathom why more young people do not want to go diving. Enterprises like our The Next Generation section, and the Young Divers International Facebook group, are all making the right noises, but it would be fantastic to see a few more fresh faces.

12-month subscription:

To subscribe, simply visit the website: www.scubadivermag.com/subscription

PUBLISHERS

Rork Media Limited Tel: 0800 069 8140 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, England, WC2H 9JQ Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers.

Copyright for material published remains with Rork Media Limited. Use of material from Scuba Diver is strictly prohibited unless permission is given. All advertisements of which the creative content is in whole or in part the work of Rork Media Limited remain the copyright of Rork Media Limited.

is a registered trademark of Rork Media.

ISSN 2514-2054

3

Virtual Exhaustion?

Aggressor® Worldwide Luxury Travel Destinations Bahamas

Dominican Republic

Maldives

Red Sea, Egypt

Belize

Egypt

Mexico

Roatán, Honduras Sri Lanka

Cayman Islands

Galapagos

Oman

Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Hawaii

Palau

Thailand

Cuba

Indonesia

Philippines

Turks & Caicos

AGGRESSOR LIVEABOARDS®

AGGRESSOR RIVER CRUISES®

AGGRESSOR SAFARI LODGES®

Aggressor liveaboards, safari lodges and river cruises are independently owned and operated.

Log Out and JUMP IN!

Aggressor Adventures are Open and Waiting for You! Take advantage of our worldwide money-saving vacation specials.

Visit aggressor.com or call 800-348-2628.

“I’m as passionate about exploring the world’s wonders as you are, so grab your passport and make a reservation today aboard our yachts, river cruises or safari lodges.

We’re open and ready for you!” —Wayne Brown, Aggressor Adventures® Chairman & CEO

+1-706-993-2531 · info@aggressor.com · www.aggressor.com

WRECK DIVE HEAVEN

GEAR GUIDE: MASKS

LAIR OF THE DRAGON

STUART PHILPOTT SHOWCASES SOME OF THE CARIBBEAN’S BEST SHIPWRECK DIVES

THE TEST TEAM RATE AND REVIEW A RANGE OF DIVING MASKS

ADRIAN STACEY DIVES THE WILD WATERS OF THE KOMODO NATIONAL PARK

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL

Florida's tech dive hotspot

Siren call of

CAPERNWRAY DAD-AND-LAD DIVE TRIP TO LANCASHIRE

#43 | £1

11

+ Cover.indd 1

Q&A: PETE MESLEY PT II

‣ UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: MARK EVANS

26/10/2020 10:10

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES...

10 News

22 The Caribbean

Freediving for Kraken rum, the Three Peaks in hardhat gear, ban on plastic straws comes into force, Michelle Rodriguez dives inside a bait ball, a rare lobster is saved from the pot, turtle eggs are tracked to trace poachers, and the Sir David Attenborough takes to the seas.

20 Medical Q&A

Dr Oliver Firth from Hyperdive answers more questions from readers.

48 Divers Alert Network

The DAN Europe team looks at Pro liability insurance.

66 Conservation Corner

Update on the latest projects from marine charity Sea-Changers.

6

Kicking off a two-part series, wreck fan Stuart Philpott trawls through his extensive archives to showcase some of the best wreck dives in the Caribbean, including the Hilma Hooker in Bonaire, the Superior Producer in Curacao, the Antilla in Aruba, and the Stavronikita and Carlisle Bay Wrecks in Barbados.

28 England

Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans heads up north to Lancashire for a lad-andDad diving day at Capernwray with his 14-year-old son Luke, who was getting to grips with his drysuit but was soon in his element inside the airplane and enjoying close encounters with the resident sturgeon.

34 Underwater Photography

Underwater photography guru Mario Vitalini considers what the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown has done in terms of giving marine life and coral reefs a much-needed ‘break’.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

CONTENTS

...CONTINUED

GEAR GUIDE

38 Q&A: Pete Mesley

56 What’s New

Part two of our Q&A, in which we talk to Pete Mesley, a hugely charismatic figure on the international diving scene, who has carved a niche for himself in the world of tech diving and expeditions, both to world-class wrecks, and destinations famed for big-animal encounters.

42 Indonesia

Australia and New Zealand Editor-at-Large Adrian Stacey extols the virtues of the adrenaline-fuelled drift dives that can be enjoyed in ther wild waters of the Komodo National Park.

50 TECHNICAL: Florida

Walt Stearns waxes lyrical about the Hole-in-the-Wall, an advanced dive bordering on the fringes of technical diving which lies off the Florida coast and offers those who make the dive the chance to enjoy stunning topography, not to mention encounter some seriously big animals, including the enormous Goliath grouper.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

New products, including the Fourth Element OceanPositive Hydroskin rashguards, Mares Ultraskin range, Dive-Logs guides to Florida and the Red Sea, Garmin’s Descent MK2i dive computer, and the SeaLife SportDiver iPhone housing.

58 Group Test

A selection of diving masks priced under £60 are rated and reviewed by the Test Team.

61 Test Extra

Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans dives the Santi Diving Flex 2.0 heated undersuit system, and Editor-atLarge (North America) Walt Stearns tests the Dive Rite XT fins.

7

www.aqaba.jo

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

KRAKEN BLACK SPICED RUM LAUNCHES

UNDERWATER

‘DIVE-THRU’ To mark the launch of its new limited-edition bottle, Unknown Deep, Kraken Black Spiced Rum has opened up its first underwater ‘dive thru’ – or should that be ‘swim through’?

The rum giants have teamed up with champion freediver Beci Ryan, who will be tasked with diving down and retrieving bottles for customers from the prized underwater stash, which dwells in the depths of the National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) at Chepstow.

To be in with a chance of owning your very own bottle brought up from the deep by Beci, rum connoisseurs should visit online hub – theleagueofdarkness.co.uk - purchase a bottle, and then hit the ‘claim’ button to be entered into the ballot.

10

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

LLOYD SCOTT COMPLETES THREE PEAKS IN HARDHAT DIVE GEAR Indomitable charity fundraiser Lloyd Scott has been back in his hardhat diving equipment – and this time he completed the Three Peaks Challenge!

In early October, Scott hit the summits of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon as he completed the daunting challenge – to climb the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales – which is testing enough without wearing nearly 60kg of old-school dive kit. This represented the final fundraiser for the 58-year-old, who was raising money and awareness to help disadvantaged and disabled young people battling loneliness. It took him eight days to complete the tortuous climbs. The former goalkeeper first shot on to the world stage back in 2002, when he completed the London Marathon route in six days wearing the hardhat dive equipment. He has been active for charities for 30 years, raising more than £5 million while taking part in more than 50 events – including cycling across Australia on a penny farthing, and walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats dressed as a T-Rex. “Most people don’t know me – which I’m quite happy with – but they do know the man in the diving suit, so I have become a fairly recognizable character doing these challenges,” said Scott.

Asked about the Three Peaks Challenge before starting out, he commented: “I’ll be wearing a helmet, big weights, a fairly waterproof suit and some nice big boots – so not your ideal hiking gear! I’m not sure what challenges I’m going to face. It’s going to be steep, it’s going to be high, but I’ve not climbed any of the peaks before, so that makes it really exciting.”

After completing the gruelling challenge, Scott said: “Now that the dust has settled and the aches and pains are easing (slightly), I am proud to have completed my challenge, and have renamed the mountains – Ben Nevis is now ‘Brutal’, Scafell Pike is ‘Spiteful’, and Snowdon is ‘Vicious’!”

He received the MBE for his services to charity back in 2005, and at the time joked it should stand for ‘mad, bonkers and eccentric’. You can still donate to the cause via: donate.giveasyoulive.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

11

COMMERCIAL DIVER TRAINING LTD

Working divers who train divers to work

The only assessment organisation approved by the Health and Safety Executive to undertake all commercial air diving qualifications in England and Wales HSE Professional Scuba, HSE Surface Supplied, HSE Offshore Top Up Careers in archaeological, media and scientific diving all start with the HSE Professional SCUBA

To find out more, why not visit us for Aptitude Day? Experience a Surface Supplied Dive, view the Facilities and meet the Training Team Please visit the website for more details 2019 Course Dates available www.commercialdivertraining.co.uk info@commercialdivertraining.co.uk 01726 817128 | 07900 844141

12

GPS LOCATORS IN FAKE TURTLE EGGS TRACK POACHERS Scientists are employing advanced technology to track poachers – by putting GPS locators in 3D-printed turtle eggs.

In a study published in Current Biology, Helen Pheasey and her colleagues explain how they carefully put more than 100 covert tracking devices – known as InvestEGGator – into turtle nests in Costa Rica in an effort to track illegal poaching routes and activities.

And it worked. Some of the InvestEGGators failed to connect to a GPS signal, others were spotted by the poachers and discarded, but five of the fake eggs were picked up by the unsuspecting poachers. Some only travelled a mile or so, but one went more than 80 miles, and in doing so revealed exactly what the team wanted – the complete trade route, from nest to eventual buyer. The evidence collated by the team showed that most of the poached eggs are sold and consumed locally – something they had suspected based on anecdotal evidence.

The InvestEGGator was created by conservation scientist Kim WilliamsGuillen, who came up with the innovative idea as part of the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge in 2015. To ‘feel’ like a real turtle egg, the fake eggs were 3D-printed from a material known as ‘Ninjaflex’.

SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH EMBARKS ON SEA TRIALS The impressive polar ship Sir David Attenborough has left its Birkenhead shipyard and embarked on a series of sea trials.

The mighty £200 million vessel – which was going to be called Boaty McBoatface after a public vote, before sensibly being named after the great TV naturalist – left Cammell Laird’s wet dock on 21 October, but only ventured a short distance, to the cruise ship dock in Liverpool.

A couple of days later, the 129-metre-long, 15,000-ton Attenborough – which has taken four years to construct – sailed across the coast of North Wales to the port of Holyhead, on Anglesey, which will be its home base for the next 12 months as it goes through a series of stringent tests. Engineers need to give all of the equipment and systems on board a thorough shakedown before it can head off to the Arctic and Antarctic to work with UK scientists.

The Sir David Attenborough is the largest commercial ship built in the country in 30 years. Cammell Laird’s David McGinley said: “The RRS Sir David Attenborough is the single biggest and most-ambitious build in the history of Cammell Laird, and it’s an incredibly proud moment to see her embark on sea trials.”

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

R E A DY TO W E LCO M E YO U

Gone too many days without a dive? Let’s fix that with an easy getaway to one of 16 unique island destinations. Our caves and blue holes, pristine reefs and forgotten shipwrecks are right where you left them. We’re waiting with tanks ready.

Bahamas.com/Diving

BAN ON SINGLE-USE PLASTIC COMES INTO FORCE

BOOK WITH CONFIDENCE FOR 2021

SAVE 10% LOW DEPOSITS • FLEXIBLE BOOKINGS • 100% FINANCIAL GUARANTEE!

The ban on single-use plastic straws, drinks stirrers and cotton buds has finally come into force in England – six months after it was due to start.

The ban, which was originally due to start in April, means it is now illegal for businesses to sell or supply the items. The news has been welcomed by environmentalists, but many said the ban didn’t go far enough and needs to include more single-use products.

It is estimated that people in England use 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds each year.

Environment Secretary George Eustice explained that the government was committed to tacking environmental problems caused by single-use plastics, but environmental campaigners said that the three prohibited items represent only a ‘fraction’ of the plastic debris threatening the environment.

Sion Elis Williams from Friends of the Earth said more needed to be done to force a shift away from all single-use materials in favor of reusable alternatives, while Tatiana Lujan from ClientEarth said that straws, cotton buds and stirrers were ‘some of the most-pointless plastics out there’, but that they were ‘a tiny fraction of single-use plastics’, and we should be following the lead of countries such as Ireland and France, which have set ambitious targets on reusable packaging and deposits return schemes.

The Welsh government is apparently considering a similar ban on plastics.

MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ DIVES GIANT BAIT BALL

Discover Worldwide Destinations Indonesia. Maldives. Socorro.

Sri Lanka. Palau + so many more

> 01473 852002 > info@diversetravel.co.uk > www.diversetravel.co.uk

DT19_Third-58x262mm.indd 2

14

26/08/2020 18:22

Hollywood superstar and environmental advocate Michelle Rodriguez is taking the lead role in a new Quibi series which will see her diving inside a giant bait ball.

Tentatively titled Ten Ton Chum and produced by MAK Pictures, the series will see Quibi – the innovative mobilefirst media technology platform – engineer the largest controlled feeding frenzy ever caught on camera, by deploying a tenton – or 20,000lb – bait ball of chum into open waters.

The bait ball will be constructed around a protective shark cage, allowing Rodriguez and other divers to literally be immersed in the midst of the sharks and other apex predators that are drawn to the mammoth feed.

It is expected that a vast array of species will be attracted to feed on the bait ball, and the dive team will observe how they interact on the surface, at 30m, and even after dark. Equipped with deep-water cameras, the bait ball will then detach from the protective cage and plunge thousands of metres to the seabed – and who knows what will come out of the darkness.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Underwater... feels like home

comfortable rooms info@lotusbungalows.com www.lotusbungalows.com

stunning view facebook.com/LotusBungalows +62 363 41104

relaxing spa Candidasa Main Road, Karangasem Bali, Indonesia

IEN R F DIVING WITH

DS

MALDIVES INDONESIA THAILAND EGYPT SPAIN OMAN MAURITIUS JAPAN CROATIA

LET’S GO DIVING! Discover the beauty of the underwater world!

BOOKING AND INFORMATION:

www.euro-divers.com

16

DIVERSE TRAVEL ADDS CROATIA TO ITS PORTFOLIO UK-based dive holiday experts Diverse Travel have added Croatia to their programme for 2021.

Croatia is one of the gems of southeast Europe and celebrates 30 years of independence in 2021. Stunning natural scenery combines with an incredible history and, with 3,600 miles of beautiful coastline to explore, this is the perfect destination for water lovers of all kinds.

Croatia’s coastline comprises over 700 islands, almost 400 islets and over 75 reefs, making the Croatian archipelago the largest in the Adriatic Sea. Diving in Croatia has existed since the 1950s and earlier, but it has only come to the attention of travelling divers in recent years. The diving is typically Mediterranean with an interesting underwater topography of hidden caves and coral-adorned walls with overhangs and swim-throughs to explore. Many endemic species can be found among the rocks and reef patches.

All kinds of corals including sponges, yellow, and extremely rare, red gorgonians, can be found here among the rich flora and fauna of the perfectly clean Adriatic. Grouper, catfish, lobster, moray eels and octopus are commonly seen on dives, while macro lovers will find plenty to discover in the numerous tiny cracks and crevices. Nudibranchs of all hues are a particular speciality underwater here, as well as beautiful yellow seahorses.

Croatia is great value for money and packages for a one-week dive holiday start from just £575pp (based on May 2021) including flights with easyJet from London Gatwick or Luton to Split, 23kg baggage, return transfers, seven night’s accommodation in a one-bedroom, self-catering apartment and ten boat dives with air, tanks and weights. www.diversetravel.co.uk

ULTRA-RARE ORANGE LOBSTER SAVED FROM THE POT An ultra-rare orange Canadian lobster has been saved from being someone’s dinner after a fishmonger donated it to a local aquarium.

The ‘one-in-30-million’ lobster, which is an apricot-hue rather than the normal dark-brown colour, was discovered by fishmonger Steve Atkinson when he inspected a September delivery to his Fleetwood shop.

He got straight on the phone to SeaLife Blackpool after finding the orange lobster, which as you can imagine, stood out like a sore thumb in the box of arthropods. SeaLife curator Steve Blacker said: “Its striking and extremely unusual orange colour is actually only found in one-in-30-million – it really is something very special.”

Now that the lobster has finished its 21-day quarantine period, it will go into one of the main tanks at SeaLife Blackpool on permanent display to the public.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

WILD AND TEMPERATE SEAS SHOWCASES FAVOURITE UK DIVES Palau’s premier scuba diving and eco-adventure company

Scuba diving • PADI dive courses • Liveaboard Kayaking • Snorkeling Tours • Land Tours

From highlands to islands, wrecks to reefs and caves, new-style guide Wild and Temperate Seas whets the appetite for UK diving.

There are over 50 dive sites in 15 picturesque locations, from England’s most-southerly tip to the remote, northerly islands of Scotland. Dorset Dives author Will Appleyard and his team of experienced collaborators share their picks as they showcase our beautiful coastal settings.

Many of the dive sites featured in this new guide already appear regularly in avid UK divers’ logbooks.

Others are visited by only those with local knowledge, and some rarely see divers at all.

All are special in some way to those who have contributed and evidence for those to whom the UK underwater is still a mystery that once you tame these wild and temperate seas, there really are some magnificent experiences to be had.

As a wise man once said ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong thermal protection’ (paraphrased). So, demist your mask and embrace the emerald, don your drysuit and conquer the cold… this book shows what incredible quality is waiting to be found if you just scratch the surface of UK diving.

• An introduction to some of the UK’s finest dives.

• Covers over 50 accessible sites at 15 beautiful locations across the nation.

• Includes wrecks and reefs, boat and shore dives.

• With stunning images by award-winning underwater photographers.

• The perfect gift for anyone new to or considering diving in the UK.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

reservations@samstours.com Tel: +(680) 488-1062

www.samstours.com

18

This is a collaborative and personal guide from some of the most-accomplished writers and photographers in UK diving. Will Appleyard communicates his passion for adventure through his photography and writing. The author of Discover UK Diving and Dorset Dives, he is regularly commissioned for magazines, adventurebased platforms, adventure outfitting and travel brands.

For this refreshing new guide, he assembled a team of accomplished contributors — Kirsty Andrews, Dan Bolt, Jake Davies, Alex Gibson, Elaine Whiteford, and Scuba Diver regulars Jason Brown and Stuart Philpott — to share some of their favourite UK dive locations.

Wild and Temperate Seas will be released on 25 November – just in time for Christmas! – priced at £17.95. It is available for pre-order now from divedup.com, Amazon, online and from retailers.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

It’s what’s underneath that counts

fourthelement.com

HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL UNDERWEAR FOR THE MOST EXTREME CONDITIONS ON THE PLANET.

Dr Oliver Firth is a diving doctor with over 22 years of diving experience. He is an Approved Medical Examiner of Divers for the UK HSE and a medical referee for the UK Diving Medical Committee, performing many hundreds of diving medicals a year. As the senior doctor at London Diving Chamber for the last 13 years, he has supervised the treatment of hundreds of cases of decompression illness. He has now set up Hyperdive (www.hyperdive.co.uk) to continue his diving medical work with a global audience. With his accumulated experience, he has seen most things a diver might come across, but remains eager to hear from anyone with a medical conundrum they need a solution to! divingdoctor@scubadivermag.com Q: I would like to learn to dive recreationally. Part of the reason for this is that I was diagnosed with a low grade glioma (brain tumour) last year having had a seizure while asleep. I have since had the tumour removed and have not had any more seizures.

I have checked with my consultant to see if I can dive and he doesn’t see any reason why not? I sent a mail to the diving club at the resort I will be staying in and they said I need to get confirmation from a diving doctor.

So I’m asking whether you would be happy to give me the all-clear to dive?

Will I need a physical assessment?

A: Glia are the support cells in the brain and spinal cord, the ‘glue of the nervous system’, which provide nutrition and insulation for nerves, and remove dead ones after a big night out. A glioma is a tumour of these cells, which can be very slow-growing, or quite aggressive.

Symptoms of a glioma depend on where the tumour is: in the brain they cause headaches, seizures and vomiting; in the optic nerves, visual loss; in the spinal cord, pain, weakness, or numbness in the extremities. Treatment is often a combination of surgery, radioand chemotherapy.

So to the question: fit to dive? The brain is enclosed in a decent hard case, so pressure will not normally affect the structures inside. Surgical approaches to tumour removal can have diving implications though. Boring through the skull will render that area more susceptible to external pressure and possibly infection. The eye-watering nasal approach to some pituitary gliomas can impair sinus function and increase future barotrauma risk.

Sometimes the treatments can result in loss of neurological function, so you would need to be assessed in person

20

for this. If your single seizure was due to the glioma which has now been dealt with, then you are at no further risk of another. Provided you are not taking anticonvulsants and all else is well, I suspect you’ll be found fit to dive.

Q: I am a 26 year old female with anorexia nervosa. Been diving since I was 14. Just got an ECG test back that said my heart rate was slower than normal (in the 50s). Does this put me at increased risk for diving? I am going away for the next two weeks and was hoping to dive - is it safe?

A: Anorexia nervosa is not a new illness.

‘Fasting girls’, a Victorian term for non-eating pre-adolescents, have been around since the Middle Ages, and were often claimed to have miraculous or magical powers, usually by exploitative museums. Sadly, whenever these claims were tested, the girls in question starved. Today the condition is a formal psychiatric diagnosis, an eating disorder that causes low body weight, body image distortion and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. In general terms, the problems that this would cause for diving are several. Reduced strength and exercise tolerance are common, meaning kit-carrying and hard finning may produce early fatigue. Psychological issues might jeopardise safety, with panic and phobic behaviours a prominent feature. Any medication might have issues also.

As far as your specific heart rate query goes, a slow pulse can be a sign of a very fit heart. If the ECG is otherwise normal then the rate itself would not put you at any increased risk of diving problems. Nevertheless, I would suggest you are cleared by a diving doc.

The fact that you have been diving for 12 years should be in your favour.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

DESIGNED AND MANUFACTURED IN THE UK SINCE 1981

SUPER SOCORRO

Don Silcock is left awe-struck by the marine life encounters in the rich waters off the Socorro Islands in Mexico.

IN TALKS WITH AGGRESSOR

We chat candidly to Aggressor Adventures CEO Wayne B Brown, who discusses diving, UW photography and travelling.

MAGNIFICENT MALDIVES

Byron Conroy heads for the diving paradise of the Maldives, or more-specifically, the stunning Dhigali resort.

CARIBBEAN WRECK HEAVEN

Stuart Philpott continues his trawl through his back-catalogue of his favourite shipwreck dives throughout the Caribbean.

COOL CANADA

Jill Heinerth waxes lyrical about the underwater delights that lie in store for adventurous divers off Newfoundland.

GEAR GUIDE: MASKS

The Test Team has been busy rating and reviewing masks priced over £60 from all the major manufacturers.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

All ROHO dry suits for men, women and children are available for MADE TO MEASURE AT NO EXTRA COST. The ROHO team are also available to help you bespoke your suit with size, colour and accessories to make your suit truly original and unique.

AFTER ALL THERE ARE NO TWO DIVERS THE SAME, SO WHY NOT HAVE A DRY SUIT THAT REALLY FITS YOU!

Contact our team on 01924 444888 dive@roho.co.uk

ROHO 1/2 new.indd 1

22/09/2020 07:10

21

Stuart Philpott has dived around many Caribbean islands, and he has trawled through his archives to bring this round-up of some of the best shipwrecks in and around the region PHOTOGRAPHS BY STUART PHILPOTT

22

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

23

T

he Caribbean Sea has claimed many ships over the years, some purposely sunk as artificial reef projects, while others have faced a more-tragic demise, victims of harsh weather, war, illicit activities or plain and simple human error. I have outlined the best wrecks dives on eight different Caribbean islands, with a few pictures thrown in for good measure. Bear in mind that some of these pictures were taken several years ago, so due to the corrosive nature of the sea, there may be a few changes in appearance.

Curacao’s Tugboat wreck

BONAIRE

My journey begins in the Dutch Caribbean, and in particular the island of Bonaire, which is probably the most-popular diving island in the ABCs. Completely geared up for shore diving, there are 63 sites located all around the island (mostly southwest coast), all clearly marked with yellow stones. Steps, railings and concrete platforms make entries and exits hassle free. Divers usually rent a truck and just park up and dive. Local guides are not necessary. Dive boats are also available for offshore sites such as Klein Bonaire, where seahorses reside.

Bonaire has two main wrecks on offer, one for recreational divers and another lesser-known site for techies. The 72-metre-long Hilma Hooker lies at a max depth of 29m. Her intriguing story made international headlines. She lost all engine power and was towed to the main town pier. During a routine search 25,000lbs of marijuana was found hidden behind a false bulkhead. Legal proceedings took months to organise. For some strange reason, the ship’s owner didn’t come forward to answer questions! Whether it was due to damage caused by the search, or just poor maintenance, she was far from seaworthy. Pumps were working at full capacity just to keep her afloat. Port authorities consulted with local dive operators and towed her out to a suitable anchorage point. On 12 September 1984, the Hilma Hooker disappeared beneath the waves forever.

She now lies on her starboard side, with the cargo holds and bridge area easily accessible. Winches and masts are adorned with huge purple, white and red tube sponges.

Although penetration is possible, it is not recommended. The freighter wasn’t sunk as an artificial reef project, so doors, pipe work and other obstructions can easily snag divers. Best photo opportunities are around by the huge propeller, which is swathed in orange cup corals.

The Windjammer, aka Marie Bahn (1,315 tons) lies at a max depth of around 60m. Divers usually wade into the shallows, clip on their stages and drop down the wall. The wreck lies parallel to the reef on its starboard side. Both forward and aft cargo holds are easily accessible. Most of the wooden decking was destroyed in the fire that claimed her. A slender iron framework is all that remains. Molten asphalt has created an unusual lava flow pattern on the surrounding seabed. Eerie wire corals coat most of the outer hull. The crow’s nest on one of the remaining masts is a nice feature to explore, and it’s also worth venturing out to the bowsprit.

CURACAO

Curacao is the largest of the ABC islands and has the biggest population. It’s approximately a 20-minute flight from Bonaire.

There are 35 sandy beaches to choose from and most of the 70 dive sites are shore dives.

The Superior Producer is Curacao’s best wreck dive. The cargo ship sits upright and reasonably intact at a maximum depth of 35m. Wheelhouse and foredeck are at 24m. A single mooring buoy is attached to the remains of her coral-encrusted foremast. It’s better to dive the wreck in the mornings, as by mid-afternoon there is a strong current.

Divers swept off the wreck will quickly drift into the harbour entrance, which is not a good idea. Silt flushed out from the harbour can affect visibility. Water colour and turbidity can change from hues of blue at 30m to a green tinge at 10m.

Most of the wreck is easily penetrable. Barracuda patrol the two cargo holds. Sergeant majors, snapper and soldierfish congregate around the stairwells and doorways. Vibrant orange cup corals literally coat the whole wheelhouse.

Tugboat is located on the southeast side of Caracas Bay near the Aquarium. This shore dive is an absolute must for snorkellers and divers. Sunk in 1976, the 12-metre-long vessel lies upright at a max depth of 5m. Shards of sunlight The prop on the Hilma Hooker

Her massive cargo holds were stacked full of torpedoes, mines, mechanical spares and other vital munitions 24

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

The impressive Antilla

Convair aircraft

There are a few airplane wrecks as well

ARUBA

filter down from the surface, making the site perfect for photography. Big round brain corals sporadically grow over the decking. Parrotfish, angelfish and damsels are prolific. A steep wall, three minutes fin to the southeast, compliments the wreck site perfectly. This drops to around 30m and is full of hard and soft corals. Most divers start their dive on the wall and then off-gas at the scenic wreck.

Another tech site is called Two Tugs, which as the title suggests, is two small tugs lying side by side. From the shore entry point, divers descend down a sandy gully to the dropoff where the wrecks lie below. The first tug was sunk as a diver attraction, but instead of settling at the planned depth of 10m, it slid down the reef wall. Commercial divers followed the tug’s trail down to a narrow plateau at 55m. They were surprised to find a second, unknown tug sitting right next to it. Both tugs are around 20 metres long, sitting upright on the sandy bottom. Only a small gap of two to three metres separates the wrecks.

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Aruba is a lively island offering a huge selection of bars, restaurants and casinos. It’s also a regular stop over for cruise ships. Most of the 30 or so dive sites are boat dives.

There are around 12 wrecks scattered along the west side of the island, with some in the north while others are further south.

The most-popular wreck is the 120-metre-long, 4,400ton Antilla, a World War Two U-boat tender built by Finkenwarder, at the Hamburg shipyards, in 1939. Her massive cargo holds were stacked full of torpedoes, mines, mechanical spares and other vital munitions. Aruba was deemed ‘neutral’ territory, so the Antilla was safely at anchor, but circumstances quickly changed and when Holland entered the war, military forces stormed the ship.

Captain Schmidt was given just 24 hours to surrender. There was no way of avoiding capture as Allied warships were waiting offshore. On 10 May 1940, he gave orders to scuttle the freighter. Antilla’s steam turbines were flooded with water, causing a massive explosion that ripped the ship apart. Captain Schmidt and 46 crew members escaped in lifeboats, only to be detained as POWs at Flamingo Divi on neighbouring Bonaire for the remainder of the war.

She now lies on her port side at a max depth of 18m.

Part of her bridge still breaks the surface. Pelicans are often seen sunbathing on the salt-encrusted ironwork.

Some 60 years of marine colonization has created an amazing artificial reef system. Orange tube sponges, tunicates and soft corals adorn the hull. Thousands of silversides take refuge inside the wreckage. This, in turn, attracts the predators. Jacks and barracuda are often seen sweeping among the shoals. Angelfish, trumpetfish, grunts, parrotfish and coral grouper are just a few of the many species encountered. Her cathedral-size cargo holds

25

are well worth exploring. There are also some good areas for deep penetration, including the rudder room. A predominantly sandy seabed means visibility can reduce to around ten metres (visibility is far better inside the wreck). The Antilla is also a popular site for snorkellers.

The 108-metre-long SS Pedernales (3,945 tons) was the victim of a U-boat attack. A well-aimed torpedo struck her amidships. Although her back was broken by the explosion she miraculously remained afloat. Captain Herbert McCall and 18 of his crew managed to escape in the only remaining lifeboat. Tragically, eight men lost their lives. By morning the raging fire had burnt itself out. Two tugs managed to ground the drifting ship near Oranjestad. Engineers assessed the damage and deemed she was still salvageable. It took two solid weeks to cut out the mangled 38-metre section. A new compact version of the Pedernales was eventually put back into service. Later, she was used in the Normandy landings.

The discarded mid-section was towed 3km out to sea and sunk. Quite fittingly, it lies close to the Antilla, a supply ship used by marauding U-boats. There are three main areas of wreckage to investigate. Although most is low lying, one section still breaks the surface. This is usually frequented by large shoals of French grunts. Macro photographers will have a field day as the whole site is teeming with marine life and lying at a maximum depth of 7-8m, there is plenty of time for exploration. Frogfish are the main celebrities.

There are also a number of plane wrecks, including a drugsmuggling Convair 400 sitting at 20m and the remains of a Lockheed Lodestar and a twin-engine Beechcraft at 12m.

The 76-metre-long cement freighter, Jane Sea, is probably the best of the southern wrecks. She lies at a max depth of 29m with the bow around 15m. A routine customs inspection uncovered a huge quantity of cocaine stashed in her cargo holds. She was impounded and then handed over to dive operators in 1988. The stern quarters and galley are ideal for penetration. It’s well worth bringing along a torch to light up the darker confines. The massive crane, used to lift cargo in and out of her vast holds, still sits on the foredeck and is covered in soft corals.

BARBADOS

Barbados, located in the eastern Caribbean, has a laid-back tropical atmosphere, every night is party night. Laced with a rum punch or two, it can be extremely infectious! The St Lawrence Gap has so many bars and restaurants packed along a 1.3km stretch of road. Oistins fish fry is a ‘must do’ on either Friday or Saturday night. The local fishermen bring ashore their catch of the day and this goes from the weighing scales straight to the restaurants next door for grilling, frying or sushi.

All 25 dive sites are boat dives; this includes ten wrecks mostly located on the protected west side of the island.

The 110-metre-long SS Stavronikita is probably the best wreck dive. Russian named and Greek owned, the ship’s demise began way before her sinking as an artificial reef project in 1978. A fire started in the engine room, killing at least six of the crew. This was followed by a huge explosion that destroyed all means of communication. The ship drifted for two weeks, eventually ending up in Barbadian waters. She was towed into harbour and left there for more than a year due to wrangles over insurance before being sunk as a diver attraction. The wreck now sits upright on the seabed just a

26

Carlisle Bay wreck Barbados dive boat

few hundred metres from shore. The ship should have sunk in shallower water, but the anchors dragged just before the charges went off. The bow looms up as divers make their way down the mooring line. The entire foredeck is a forest of giant purple gorgonian sea fans. There are two prominent masts, cargo holds, bridge and accommodation block to explore.

Carlisle Bay has to be the ‘Alton Towers’ of wreck sites. It really is a playground for divers. There are six wrecks in all, varying from 3m to 15m in depth. The names of the wrecks are Barge, Cornwallis, Berwyn, Bajan Queen, C-Trek and Eilon.

They are all sitting close together, so it’s possible to swim from one to the other. The sandy bottom can sometimes get stirred up, but at the shallow depth, there is loads of ambient light and plenty of time for exploration on a single 12-litre cylinder. There can’t be many places in the world where you can explore six wrecks in one dive!

There is another wreck located in the north. The Pamir is a 50-metre-long freighter sitting upright at a max depth of 20m.

Her V-shaped bow silhouetted against the anchor makes a really nice composition. There is also a mini-sub lying about 30 metres from the portside just to add extra interest. n

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Bonaire

Grenada

Curaçao

Saba

Aruba

St. Martin

Cayman Islands

Antigua

St. Lucia

Guadeloupe

We are the Caribbean specialist

INNOVATIONS FOR TECH, READY FOR REC

We are the preferred tour operator offering exclusive rates for many resorts on these islands. Contact us for a tailor-made holiday quotation.

www.caribbeanfuntravel.co.uk ✆ 01604 882929 ✉ info@caribbeanfuntravel.co.uk 2019_BonaireFT 1/4.indd 1

10/02/2020 21:30

Your diving memories deserve

the best home www.divelogs.com

Recreational, Instructor, and Technical Dive Logs Custom Dive Logs Log Book Stamps Gear ScubaTags Compact Lightweight Binders Custom Dive Slates Dive Maps Fish Identification Certification Card Holders

Diving Medicals Nottingham

Untitled-4 1

24/06/2020 15:30

X-MISSION EVOLUTION Designed in partnership with a team of cave divers, the X-Mission Evolution was built using our most advanced technical materials and construction methods to meet the most demanding requirements.

• Sport Diver medicals £60 • HGV/PSV/taxi medicals £60 • Occupational health medicals • HSE commercial diving medicals £130 • Oil and Gas UK offshore medicals £120

Discounts for students and large groups

For appointments call 07802 850084 or email: mclamp@doctors.org.uk DrClamp_88x62mm.indd 1

23/06/2020 08:51

BARESPORTS.COM

Siren call of T

he distinct wing tip of Capernwray’s signature dive attraction, the 30-metre-wingspan Hawker Siddeley 748 aircraft, appeared out of the blue-green water, and I glanced across at Luke. He was nice and horizontal in the water, looking very calm and collected, but as I caught his attention, I saw his eyes go wide as the fuselage emerged in front of us.

He quickly regained his composure, gave me a casual ‘okay’ signal and then tucked his hands back together in a relaxed position under him. This was only his secondever dive in a drysuit and he looked like he had been doing it for years. I felt a warm glow of parental pride at how well my 14-year-old son was diving in the depths of one of my long-time haunts.

CAPERNWRAY CALLING

After last year’s action-packed year – Junior Advanced Open Water Diver in Egypt at Easter, 10 days of diving in Malta in August, a few wetsuited dives in Anglesey, North Wales during the summer holidays, and then a week at the Grenada DiveFest event in October – 2020 turned into a massive disappointment on the diving front for Luke. I was all set to introduce him to drysuit diving at

the beginning of the season, envisaging lots of dives in North Wales and beyond through the rest of the year. The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to that. Months of lockdown through some of the best early season conditions in many a year only compounded the misery!

Fast forward to October, and what better way to celebrate turning 14 than by going off for a few dives with Dad! We had got Luke an Aqua Lung Fusion Sport drysuit late last year, and so for his first experience with it, I opted to take him into the shallow, sheltered bay of Porth Dafarch on Anglesey. I have dived here many times, and knew that there would be plenty of marine life to keep him occupied.

Bundled up with various undergarments under his drysuit, and with a new hood and gloves from Fourth Element, it was a much different feeling than his 2019 dives in Egypt, Malta and Grenada. However, he was not phased, and after weight checks in the shallows and some skills and drills to get to grips with the

Mark Evans and his son Luke head north to Lancashire for a dad-and-lad trip to Capernwray inland dive site PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK EVANS

28

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

It was quite busy on the slipway with divers heading out, or returning from their dives, but Luke remained focused, and within a few minutes we were descending towards the airplane – cue my aforementioned flush of parental pride

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

29

mannerisms of a drysuit, we ventured off on an exploratory dive along the kelp and seaweed-covered reef. Shoals of pollock were everywhere, along with wrasse of all shapes and sizes, some aggressive velvet swimming crabs and a large spider crab lumbering along the sandy bottom.

We never got any deeper than 6m, the vis was around two to three metres, and there was a bit of surge in the shallows, but on surfacing after some 45 minutes, Luke had a big smile on his face and declared that drysuit diving ‘was not that hard’.

Successful first drysuit dive in the bag, the following weekend I arranged to head north into Lancashire to the popular inland dive site of Capernwray. Luke had been wanting to dive Capers for years, after seeing various articles in the magazine over the years showcasing its sunken attractions, and so I was desperate for it to live up to expectations for him.

Getting kitted up in the car park, Luke was not at all phased by the fact that apart from the odd other teenager among the myriad divers bustling about, most other people there were at least 20-25 years older than him, if not more.

As we slowly walked down to the slipway entry point, we went over the dive plan. In, weight check, then a nice relaxed dive to the airplane – for the classic ‘diver-in-thefuselage’ shot – over to the container to see the oil rig and

Cessna airplane, then back along the wall, coming up into the shallows to see Sandy the She Devil, the horses Shergar and Lord Lucan, and, hopefully, the resident sturgeon, which I had found congregating in the beginner’s area on my last visit.

It was quite busy on the slipway with divers heading out, or returning from their dives, but Luke remained focused, and within a few minutes we were descending towards the airplane – cue my aforementioned flush of parental pride. Luke has always been very natural underwater when diving, and one comment we often hear is ‘I thought he had done far more dives than that’. So while I didn’t think he would have any issues, it was nice to see him take to drysuit diving so smoothly. I started on my path into diving with a drysuit from very early on, and so it was good to get another cold-water diver into the family – wife and Mum Penney will don cold-water garb under extreme sufferance, but is a firm warm-water devotee.

Point a camera at Luke underwater, and he instantly knows how to pose. I tried not to have him in ‘model-mode’ too much, as I wanted him to enjoy the dives themselves, but he was often waving at me and indicating for me to take a shot here, or there. I have trained him well.

We’d seen a few big trout when we first entered the water, but just as we started up the wall towards the shallows

Luke was not at all phased by the fact that apart from the odd other teenager among the myriad divers bustling about, most other people there were at least 20-25 years older than him, if not more

Luke with the common sturgeon

Luke after dive three

The classic ‘diver-in-plane’ shot

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Luke checks out a ‘robot’

Luke enjoyed the HS748 plane

We’d seen a few big trout when we first entered the water, but just as we started up the wall towards the shallows we encountered our first sturgeon

Capers on a typical weekend

Dad and lad dive trip

CAPERNWRAY DIVING CENTRE

Capers is one of the most-popular inland dive sites in the UK, and boasts more in-water sunken attractions than many of its rivals, including the HS748 airplane, Podsnap minesweeper, and Wessex helicopter. Facilities include a well-stocked shop, air-fill station, cylinder testing business, café, toilets, and more. New attractions are always being sourced and sunk for divers. www.dive-site.co.uk 31

we encountered our first sturgeon. These bizarre-looking fish are attaining quite epic sizes, and they are not afraid of divers. This particular specimen was foraging in the silt, and was creating clouds of detritus in the water – no one has obviously given them a peak performance buoyancy course!

Barely had we left this individual than a real monster showed up. Looking almost prehistoric, the huge fish was totally oblivious to the presence of Luke right next to it, and the delight in his eyes as we left the sturgeon to feed was easy to see. I get a buzz out of seeing the sturgeon to this day, but when it is nearly the same size as you, you can imagine the impact!

Up in the shallows, Luke had fun playing with the ‘machine gun’ sculpture placed by a local dive club, and further encounters with smaller sturgeon, lots of trout and some chunky koi carp, rounded out a solid 50-minute dive time.

Did Capers live up to expectations? The wide grin on his face when we exited the water from dive number one showed I didn’t have anything to worry about!

We trudged back up to the car, dropped off all of our kit in the back and then went to get a much-deserved hot chocolate and slice of cake to refuel before dive two. Luke was up for a bit of an explore for dive two, so we aimed to head for the HS748, then on to the oil rig and Cessna, before trying to find the Podsnap, a Dickens-class harbour minesweeper. Now, a few weeks ago, I took the guys from The Dive Line Podcast on a tour of Capers, and was quite pleased that I – eventually – managed to locate the minesweeper, but this time I was on fire and we hit the vessel within seemingly a few finstrokes of the Cessna. I vaguely remembered the direction of the diving bell, and so we set off at a leisurely place to see if we could find it. I don’t know who was more surprised when it emerged from the gloom just a few minutes later! Making it an epic three-in-a-row, we went from the bell in search of the Wessex helicopter and, sure enough, we located it in short order.

Could I repeat the feat? I doubt it, but I basked in the glory of my – lucky – navigational skills on that dive, I can tell you!

Leaving the Wessex and venturing back towards the exit point, we again found a few of the bigger sturgeon, before repeating our previous run through the gauntlet of shallowwater attractions and other buddy pairs of divers.

We hit the surface near the slipway bang on 50 minutes again, and Luke announced that he would like to return to see some of the other sunken goodies that we didn’t chalk off the list this time around. This will hopefully include the new attraction of Treebeard, who was lurking in the car park ready to be transported to his final resting place.

Luke with another ‘robot’

32

Hot chocolate and cake after dive one

Siberian sturgeon

Enjoying a final drink and snack before packing up for home, I asked Luke for his thoughts on what had been a typical dive day at a UK inland dive site. He said that he had really enjoyed it – the HS748 was a particular highlight, along with the monster sturgeon – but that he couldn’t understand why there were not more young people diving. His exact comment was ‘diving is so cool, why aren’t there more kids here’. Here at Scuba Diver, we have long been campaigning to get more youngsters into diving, through The Next Generation section, and I think Luke is now set on a mission to get more people around his age range to explore the underwater realm.

Three successful drysuit dives in the bag over consecutive weekends, and Luke is all set to head out again. So where do we go? Regional lockdowns allowing, exploratory trips to different inland sites are on the cards, plus I’d love to get him in the water with the seals at the Farne Islands.

Watch this space! n

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Follow us on social media...

otterwatersports

THE NEW STANDARD IN

EXPLORATION DRYSUITS DISCOVER THE NEW OTTER ATLANTIC DRYSUIT... the choice of diving explorers worldwide. Whether you’re pushing the boundaries of exploration or just diving for fun, choose the drysuit that is a cut above the rest...

MARKET-LEADING FEATURES... l NEW Seamless underarm pattern

for even greater flexibility l NEW turbo boots with ankle strap l Telescopic body with crotch strap

and front entry zip l CHOICE OF RipStop, Armour Skin

or ultra-tough Kevlar material

l Large bellowed Velcro side pockets l Strong internal braces l OPTIONAL Made to measure available l OPTIONAL SITech ring system l OPTIONAL Otter balanced pee valve l OPTIONAL KUBI glove ring system

l CHOICE OF Apeks or SITech valves

0% FINANCE ASK US ABOUT OUR

SPREAD THE COST! Only available to UK residents over 18, subject to status.

Terms and conditions apply. We may pay brokers some consideration if they introduce business to us.

WWW.DRYSUITS.CO.UK l SALES@DRYSUITS.CO.UK

CALL OTTER DRYSUITS TODAY ON 01274 379480

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

GOOD THINGS

COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT Underwater photography guru Mario Vitalini considers what the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown has done in terms of giving marine life and coral reefs a much-needed ‘break’ PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIO VITALINI

S

itting at my desk, looking out the window at an early autumn sunset, I find myself daydreaming about warm-water dives with my camera. Some destinations, some dive sites – they have the right ingredients that make taking pictures not just more enjoyable, but also easier. A healthy environment with good corals, abundant (and when you are really lucky, cooperative) marine life and not many other divers… these are the hallmarks of a super photo dive.

And as 2020 draws to autumn, I have been wondering how will the last few months under lockdown have affected my favourite photo destinations? How will the reefs look the next time I’ll be able to visit them? The current pandemic has impacted almost every aspect of our lives, but dare we hope that 2020 will have been a good year for coral reefs?

I look to the Red Sea for an early indication. I first visited Egypt in the early 1990s as a newly certified advanced diver. I can’t really recall much of that trip, but the incredible fish life and spectacularly lush corals left a lasting impression on me.

In early 2000s, I went back to work as an instructor and for about five years I had the opportunity to dive almost all of the Egyptian Red Sea, from the northern wrecks and reefs to the offshore walls of the south. By the time I left in 2007, there was a general sense that the impact of this tourism was being felt on the reef ecosystems. The Arab Spring paused most diving for several months, and by the time I went back in 2012 I saw first-hand how quickly the underwater world can recover if given the opportunity. I was treated to flourishing, healthy reefs and bags of fish life. Sites such as Jackson and Yolanda reef were bursting with thick colourful soft corals and the hard corals at The Barge were showing a lot of signs of new growth. Anthias, fusiliers and red-toothed triggerfish were swimming around all the sites in big numbers.

Best of Bunaken

A classic Red Sea reef can always brighten up your day Whalesharks have been seen in numbers in the Red Sea

ESCORTED BY MARTYN GUESS

29th Jan 2021 £2675 excluding flights

Holiday highlights... Join photo pro Martyn Guess on a workshop in the the heart of the coral triangle, the Bunaken Marine National Park with Siladen dive resort. The workshop package includes 8 nights garden view villa on an full board basis – optional room upgrades available. 21 nitrox boat air boat dives. Local taxes are prepaid. Return airport transfers in Manado are included. Ask for a quote to add international flights.

+44 (0)1483 411590 www.scubatravel.com/photography

Book your holiday with the...

Caribbean island nations have started to open for the winter season with their distinctive wideangle opportunities

In March 2020, almost the entire world went into lockdown.

Many dive destinations have been virtually dived since.

Otherwise busy sites have been almost deserted. Coral reefs will have had a break from all the pollutants found in suntan lotions, worn by snorkellers and divers. Most touristic and commercial boat traffic stopped altogether. This global ‘pause’ hopefully gave stressed ecosystems an opportunity to bounce back.

Today, although several popular destinations are still closed to divers, a handful have made tentative steps to reopen. It’s early days but the signs are very encouraging. The Red Sea, the Maldives, some Caribbean islands and offshore Pacific hotspots have been welcoming limited numbers of tourists since mid-summer. In each country, dive operators have had to go through a rigorous process of government certifications to be allowed to resume. Combined with pre-travel testing, extensive cleaning protocols, PPE and social distancing, dive operations are doing everything possible to welcome divers in a secure and safe environment. And after months on dry land, the dive guides are more enthusiastic than ever.

The photos and videos I have seen so far show suggest that lockdown has been especially beneficial for pelagics. In Egypt, an unusually high number of whalesharks have been spotted around the northern sites this summer, and divers report being the only ones at normally busy sites such as the Thistlegorm. In the Maldives, the manta rays appear relaxed and coming to the cleaning stations in large groups.

Ali Matha, another site that attracts many dive boats, has been packed with the resident nurse sharks and very few divers. There were concerns that the lack of diving boats has created a space for fishing vessels to move in, but the reports from areas like the Galapagos or Cocos show huge schools of hammerheads. This could be the perfect time to pack your

Dolphins, dolphins everywhere

ESCORTED BY MARIO VITALINI

5th Sept 2021 now £1195 excluding flights

BIOGRAPHY: MARIO VITALINI

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

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

Photo Finish

Malapascua

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

..award winning dive experts +44 (0)1483 411590 www.scubatravel.com/photography

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY Relaxed manta rays have been especially numerous around the cleaning stations

wide-angle kit and head to your favourite big fish dive spot.

But while the reefs are bursting with life, many resorts and liveaboards are working at reduced capacity, and most offer the possibility for you to have your own cabin. When you carry loads of photographic equipment, the extra space is welcome on board – all the more so as a diver in 2020. And underwater, you should able to avoid other divers, photobombing your shots with pesky bubbles in the background.

We all have to get used to a new way of travelling, which includes the need for testing and potentially to quarantine when coming home. I understand this way of travel won’t work for everyone and these concerns will, without a doubt, dissuade many from taking long journeys. But for those that can make the journey, get your wide-angle lenses and dome ports out, pack your kit and you should find vibrant reef scenes, few other divers and impressive pelagic encounters.

As photographers, we are always being told patience is a virtue, and boy, this has certainly been true in 2020. But it looks like it’s been worth the wait. n

Being able to dive popular sites such as the Thistlegorm without other divers around is a treat photographers will savour

Book your holiday with the award winning dive experts at Scuba Travel!

+44 (0)1483 411590

www.scubatravel.com/photography

3.0 16MP Resolution Flood Proof 4K Ultra HD Video RAW Image Capture

Micro 3.0 Pro 3000 Set

LCD

TM

WiFi Share 3 Dive Modes 100ยบ Wide Angle Lens Hi Res Display

Micro 3.0 Pro Duo 5000 Set

www.sealife-cameras.com

SeaLifeCameras

SeaLifeCameras

Q&A: PETE MESLEY Concluding our chat with Pete Mesley, a hugely charismatic figure who has carved a niche for himself in the world of technical diving and expeditions PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF PETE MESLEY

I have ventured into cave photography fairly recently and that comes with its own set of challenges. But what has been the biggest challenge is having such great visibility. When the water is gin clear and no ambient light, this is the perfect canvas for creativity

38

WWW.MIFLEXHOSES.CO.UK | WWW.MIFLEXHOSESHOP.CO.UK

Sponsored by

MAXSHOW LIMITED

OFFICIAL DISTRIBUTOR OF QUALITY BRANDS

®

Q: You are a celebrated underwater photographer, as well as a technical instructor. When did you first start shooting underwater, and what are some of the challenges when photographing monster shipwrecks that are sometimes deep, dark and gloomy?

A: I started taking pictures a few years after I started diving. The main pastime in the UK (at that time) was hunting for souvenirs. Anything brass would come up the line! I was never any good at this and also realised from an early point in time, that most of the artefacts recovered off the wrecks ended up rotting away in someone’s garage (or hidden among the long grass between the garage and boundary fence of people’s homes). So I took to documenting these artefacts instead. My very first camera was a Nikonos IV. It wasn’t till I moved to New Zealand in 1994 where I took my photography more seriously. But it was mainly to show people the incredible sights I was witnessing and to entice them to come diving with me. Over the years I just kept on working at it and trying, like most photographers, to get better by learning more what not to do!

What inspired me to start getting into more specialised imagery, was a picture taken of an engine room on the mighty Mikhail Lermontov. This image captured my imagination.

The camera was mounted on one of the railings and a diver swam into the black abyss systematically firing off the strobe, lighting up all parts of the engine casing. All the while the camera shutter was wide open on ‘bulb’. This image was way ahead of its time and this inspired me to start learning how to capture such creations. We were well into the digital age of camera systems now and there were a growing group of very talented photographers emerging. In my mind’s eye I wanted to capture an image that would be impossible for a diver to see. The sheer expanse of an engine room, large chamber in a cave, or panoramic vista of a bow of a ship. I wanted to light up these areas to show their beauty.

Most of the time, I was diving in limited visibility, dark and silty environments. Having high powered BigBlue video lights set up over multiple areas, painting the darkness with light was (and is) a lot of fun.

It also helps considerably reduce the reflection of particulate in the water which gets more than a few divers saying ‘It was never that clear when I dived that spot’!

Over the years I have had to develop my gear to keep up with the imagery and now have probably the world’s longest selfie stick! I have a few carbon-fibre tripods which are just window-washing extendable poles with three mono pods attached to the base for stabilisation. My largest one is ten metres long, but the one I use the most is the five metre one. Carrying this around tight areas in wrecks and caves is always a challenge. Couple that with four to six lights and camera, one would not really call me ergonomic! All this for a picture – right?

WWW.MIFLEXHOSES.CO.UK | WWW.MIFLEXHOSESHOP.CO.UK

39

The actual process of taking these types of pictures, for me, is really quite relaxing. While some are zooming around trying to see all parts of the wreck or cave, I am just trying to capture one part of it in a manner that, I think, is cool and artistic.

Most of the time it would take 20-40 minutes to secure the tripod and frame the image in the right spot. All the while being very careful not to stir up the visibility. One careless fin stroke would mean the end of the picture. So, one of the biggest challenges is depth and time. It is not uncommon to spend most of the dive in one place setting up a shot racking up hours of deco before having fired off a single shot.

This image is taken of an 82-metre wooden steamer, Florida, built in 1889, which sank in 56m of water in Lake Huron, Great Lakes, USA. This particular shot took me about 26 minutes to find the frame I wanted, set up the tripod and lights. Then another 20 minutes swimming around the wreck painting areas with light while taking multiple shots to try and get it right! The shot was a 20-second exposure. So, all up about two-and-a-half hours in 4 degrees C water. Sound like fun? Welcome to my world!

This particular image, I took in 2014, is looking down from the skylights into the engine room of the Nippo Maru. This image took me five years to take. Once I had the frame in my mind I would go in, and very carefully set up the camera mounting on the tripod. As soon as I would get everything ready, at that precise moment, what would seem to be the entire boatload of divers would enter the engine room through every opening, hatch and doorway, swim around for 90 seconds, and kick up every molecule of silt in that area.

Orange clouds of silt would mushroom towards me, billowing out of every hatch. So, I would let out a sigh, remove the camera clamped to the side and try again in the next few days! So this is why this shot means to much to me as it took that long to take.

I have ventured into cave photography fairly recently and that comes with its own set of challenges. But what has been the biggest challenge is having such great visibility. When the water is gin clear and no ambient light, this is the perfect canvas for creativity. I went to visit some friends at Under the Jungle dive shop in Tulum, Mexico. What a place. This shot was probably my most-challenging image to date, but also the most fun. This site is called Nohoch Nah Chich, or ‘Heaven’s Gate’. This picture is physically impossible to take in one image. It is a multitude of images stitched together to form one. So basically three portrait images, each lit up over multiple 30-second exposures, and finally coming into one

Heaven’s Gate composite image

shot. The diver in the shot is over 50 metres away. That shows how clear the water is. So this entire shot took a little over three hours to do. Water depth was only about 6-8m and we were in about 1,500 metres inside the cave. What a fun day it was for sure.

Q: You have been based in New Zealand since 1994. You are a firm fan of diving in your local waters – what are some of the highlights underwater that visiting divers should not miss?

A: Diving in Middle Earth is probably some of the mostundiscovered diving on the planet. Its temperate waters pack a really mean punch of colour, life and energy round the coast. We have such a wide variety of environments in NZ, it’s breathtaking. The Poor Knights Islands, without a shadow of a doubt, is dollar for dollar, some of the best diving around. Thousands of schooling fish, bronze whaler sharks, colourful walls of hydroids, sponges and zoanthids. Stingrays, orca, dolphin. We really live in a special place. Then heading down to Fiordland and we really do enter another dimension.

Punching through tannic fresh water layering the first 5m at the surface. Punching through to emerald green, crystal-clear water. Stark contrasting life abounds there. Massive eightfoot black coral trees sit in absurdly shallow water with snake stars twisting and twining round the white fluffy polyps. Sea spiders weirdly walking over smooth kelp leaves. Thousands upon thousands of crayfish vie for real estate in every nook

Engine room of the Nippo E

40

WWW.MIFLEXHOSES.CO.UK | WWW.MIFLEXHOSESHOP.CO.UK

and cranny. Sea pens sitting up filter feeding in the currents.

So when people ask me how my year has been? Apart from having to cancel over 15 trips to places all round the world during these very, very difficult times. It’s been pretty tough but, having this on our back doorstep, I really can’t complain.

Q: You are in demand for leading and being heavily involved in expeditions. What are some of the mostmemorable expeds you have been on?

A: I am a firm believer in having the right people in a team makes all the difference in the world. Also doing the hard logistical and preparation work well in advance, proper communication and execution of tasks makes the experience fun and enjoyable on the day. I have been lucky enough to be part of many groups of divers on expeditions over the years on various trips. Learning each time from people way more experienced that I am about how to properly plan operations.

A major part of my business these days is all about this risk management and logistical support for remote location diving.

I just love the challenge of it. Probably one of the recent trips to the Solomons in August 2018 stands out the most. Here we had a group of 14 very experienced deep divers from all over the world. The prime objective of the trip was to dive USS Atlanta. A 165-metre-long, 8,000-ton light cruiser which was sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942.

She lies heavily to port almost turtle with the bow sitting in 140m and props in 110m. Originally found in 1992 and first dived in 1998, this was the largest expedition to date on the wreck. We put 12 divers on the wreck for two days of beautiful conditions. With bottom times on average of 30 minutes each diver, the wreck was surveyed, photographed and videoed extensively. On that team I had Andrew Simpson and Tom Crisp as surface support and safety divers, both veterans of deep expeditions, and Andrew Fock as medical support – one of the world’s leading hyperbaric physicians based in Melbourne, Australia. The entire two weeks was spent doing sub-80m dives. It was fun times indeed.

Q: As we always do with our Q&As, what is your funniest diving moment?

A: Without a shadow of a doubt, the funniest moment has to be convincing my dive buddy to kiss the skipper’s butt!

Anyone in the UK circles who is a member of the ‘Bell Owners’ club knows what I am talking about. When you bring up a ship’s bell from the ocean floor and it’s on the boat when you surface, there is something you need to do. That is to kiss the boat captain’s butt. The story goes that when you lift the bell and it reaches the surface, if the skipper messes up picking up the bag with the bell attached, it will be lost forever. So when it comes up and it’s safely on the boat, he gets a pair of lips puckered up on a butt cheek. I have no idea where this weird custom originated from, we all just knew it. So when we located, dived and actually found the ship’s bell of the Port

WWW.MIFLEXHOSES.CO.UK | WWW.MIFLEXHOSESHOP.CO.UK

Exploring the USS Atlanta

Kembla in 2006 for the first time, it was an amazing day. The funny thing was it didn’t take too much convincing to get my dive buddy to conduct the deed! (being ex-Navy might have had something to do with it!) As a result of the recovery, we could positively identify the wreck.

Q: On the flipside, what is your worst diving moment?

A: The 2009 Britannic expedition on a National Geographic shoot diving with undoubtedly some of the most-talented divers in the world. The team was led by Carl Spencer and the rest of the team comprised of Richie Kohler, Richie Stevenson, Evan Kovacs, Casey McKinlay, Jared Jablonski, Leigh Bishop, Danny Hague and Eduardo Pavia. The worst moment of my life and diving career was the death of long-time friend Carl Spencer while on the expedition. It happened while on our dive on Britannic - over a series of ill-fated problems, Carl switched to bailout, which resulted in him having a seizure underwater at his 40m decompression stop. Carl had to be taken to the surface by a safety diver as we could not replace his bailout regulator back into his mouth. Carl never recovered from the dive. We all terribly miss him and not a day goes by without thinking about my friend.

Q: Although COVID-19 has thrown plans through the ringer somewhat, what does the future hold in store for Pete Mesley, Lust4Rust and Shock & Awe Big Animal Diving?

A: 2020 has been a shocker, but enjoyed more family time, and diving in my own backyard of New Zealand. What’s for the future? Well, I am planning for 2021, 2022 and 2023 already so once the world gets to some normality, we will be kicking back into it with force. Looking forward to seeing all my friends again from all over the world. And if I never hear the word ‘Zoom live chat’ again, I will be very happy. There is just no substitute for face-to-face interaction. Looking forward to it. n

41

T

he outboard motor on our speed boat wined in protest as a furious current tried its best to thwart us from reaching our destination.

The texture of the water was another clear indication that this dive was going to be far from sedate. Resembling a fastrunning river rather than an ocean, in some parts the sea seemed to boil and performed an agitated little dance, in other areas whirlpools drifted along the fast-moving surface. In contrast, different sections of the sea were as flat as glass and, for a split second, we were afforded a brief glimpse of the utter mayhem below.

Our experienced driver dropped us a little way in front of the reef, to give us some hope of reaching our target. We aimed to get down to 20-25m as fast as possible and to find a good place to secure a reef hook before the current swept us off the dive site.

With this feat completed, it was now time to watch the show.

Immense schools of fusiliers and yellow-masked surgeonfish had congregated where the current first hit the reef, known as ‘the split’. They, in turn, attracted the unwanted attention of a whole host of predators. Huge gangs of the thuggish-looking giant trevallies casually mingled with the fusiliers, grey

42

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

The currents of

Adrian Stacey waxes lyrical about the adrenalinefuelled drift dives that can be enjoyed in the wild waters of the Komodo National Park PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIAN STACEY

Up currents, down currents, washing machines, currents that do not go in the direction they are supposed to, and currents that just come out of nowhere, can all be encountered in the national park

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

43

reef sharks hung out in the blue on the edges of the schools, while whitetip reef sharks glided effortlessly over the reef.

Then in the blink of an eye, this sedate scene of co-existence changed into a spectacular, frenzied free-for-all. The giant trevallies exploded into action, tearing through the ranks of the agile fusiliers; they in turn created a loud boom as they all simultaneously changed direction in a frantic attempt to evade their attackers. The sharks, jacks and other predatory fish took this as their cue to join in and for a few seconds, mayhem ensued.

After viewing this spectacle for as long as no-deco limits and air consumption would allow, and still trying to regulate my breathing after a frantic descent, I unhooked myself and drifted towards the rear of the reef. At a particularly pretty coral bommie, a far-from-pretty scene was taking place. A breakaway group of giant and bluefin trevallies had enlisted the help of several whitetip reef sharks, and even a giant moray, to flush out a cowering bannerfish that had sought refuge in the corals. Once out in the open, the poor creature was set upon. In an explosion of scales, it disappeared under the onslaught of the waiting gang. This was Castle Rock in the Komodo National Park at its adrenaline-pumping best.

The Komodo National Park is a diving wonderland. This is where the Pacific and Indian Oceans collide. It is where marine life thrives, and it is where strong currents tear relentlessly through a maze of reefs and small islands.

This UNESCO World Heritage Site covers an area of over 1,817 square km and was initially set up in 1980 to protect the Komodo dragon, which is endemic to the region. Now the place is just as famous for its diving - and with good reason.

The reefs are in excellent condition, marine life is abundant from critters to pelagic, and the sheer variety of dive sites is staggering.

Vibrant colours on the reef

44

After hurtling through at a rate of knots, the divers are spat out into a stunning coral garden, often joined by feeding mantas and grazing turtles To understand why this national park is so bountiful in terms of marine life and coral growth, it is important to understand what role the currents play - and why they are so powerful in this particular region of the world.

First, let’s take a look at the geography. To the north of the national park is the Suva Sea, which is fed by the Pacific Ocean. To the south is the Sea of Flores, which is fed by the Indian Ocean. To the east is the island of Flores, that stretches for almost 1,200km, and to the west is the island of Sumbawa, which is several hundred kilometres wide. This creates a bottleneck, and as the tides rise and fall, a tremendous amount of water is pushed through a relatively small gap over a relatively shallow seabed.

Between these two larger islands are numerous smaller islands which include Komodo and Rinca, and which make the currents even more unpredictable. Running through the middle of the park is the Lintah Strait. This is the gateway between the two mighty oceans and a major reason for the success of the area. Lintah in the local dialect means ‘leech’. The stretch

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Manta ray flypast

Komodo boasts pristine reefs

Cuttlefish

Massive table corals

of water was given the name because its currents would leech the power from boats that tried to fight against it.

What these currents mean is that a considerable amount of nutrients, including plankton and larvae, are being carried through the park from deep water basins in the adjoining seas. These are what the marine life thrives upon.

Up currents, down currents, washing machines, currents that do not go in the direction they are supposed to, and currents that just come out of nowhere, can all be encountered in the national park. I worked in this magical region over several seasons. I was made a fool of more than once by the erratic nature of the currents.

Although Komodo is a great destination for adrenaline seekers, I should clarify that these currents are not always at their terrifying best. They tend to be at their strongest around the time of a new or full moon. For some inexplicable reason, this would usually coincide with a boat full of prominently inexperienced divers. While if the currents were mild to nonexistent, we could almost guarantee that the majority of our

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Schools of sergeant majors inhabit the shallows, and a blizzard of anthias sometimes made it hard to see the pristine hard coral gardens that cover every inch of the site guests would be experienced, thrill-seeking, current junkies.

It should also be noted some sites are sheltered from the currents and can be dived at a leisurely pace. Even around a full or new moon, there are periods of slack tide, which means that there is no current at all.

For me, the allure of the park was the variety of dive sites and the wealth of marine life. These were at their best when there was a reasonable current. So, for the adrenaline seekers, here are some more of the park’s best and most-notorious current-fuelled dives.

Perhaps one of the most-unique sites of the region is the Cauldron. The strong currents that rage through a narrow channel between two islands, Gili Lawa Laut and Gili Lawa Darat, have carved out a vast bowl, hence the name.

45

Vast shoal of surgeonfish

Leading up to this bowl is a gentle sandy slope scattered with glassfish-covered bommies. Once in the Cauldron, swift currents funnel the falling tide past whitetip reef sharks and schooling snapper towards an area affectionately known as ‘the shotgun’. The reef gets much shallower and narrower here, creating powerful, turbulent currents.

After hurtling through at a rate of knots, the divers are spat out into a stunning coral garden, often joined by feeding mantas and grazing turtles.

Tatawa Besar is a drift dive along a colourful, sloping reef of burnt orange soft corals. Vast fields of staghorn corals and numerous bommies where batfish and sweetlips can often be found congregating, this is one of the dive sites where the current makes no sense as it only ever seems to run in the same direction, whether the tide is rising or falling.

Another of Komodo’s famous drift dives is Makassar Reef, not the prettiest of reefs. It is perhaps best described as a rubble-strewn highway with the occasional coral bommie.

Blacktip and whitetip reef sharks can be seen zipping over this luna landscape, but the main reason for visiting this site is the chance to see manta rays. Strong currents can tear along the reef, and the mantas seem to love it, feeding in the plankton-rich water, hovering over sporadic coral bommies to get cleaned or forming acrobatic mating trains.

Batu Bolong is an excellent place to witness the brutal force of the currents - on one particular dive, just after a new moon, even the giant trevallies were experiencing some

difficulties. This tiny rock pokes mere metres above sea level, its barren features giving no hint of the stunning coral gardens, teeming with life that lay beneath the surface.

As the falling tide hit the north side of the rock, it fanned out creating a lea side on the south, while at each end of the reef aggressive-looking down currents signalled the boundaries of our dive site. Schools of sergeant majors inhabit the shallows, and a blizzard of anthias sometimes made it hard to see the pristine hard coral gardens that cover every inch of the site. A huge school of fusiliers had also sought refuge out of the punishing current; they, in turn, had attracted the attention of whitetip and grey reefs sharks. Giant trevallies and rainbow runners added to the melee. These are just some of the better-known dive sites, others like Police Point, Mauan, Bonzai, Tatawa Kecil and World’s End, to name but a few also offer a thrilling experience if dived at the right time.

So, my advice to anyone wanting to dive in this fantastic diving paradise would be - make sure you choose a good dive centre with experienced guides, get a few dives under your belt first, and plan the timing of your visit to suit your level of experience. This is not only for your safety and to maximise your enjoyment, but to also preserve this fragile and beautiful ecosystem from unnecessary damage. n

Topside is just as dramatic

The reefs are teeming with life

46

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

DISCOVER

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

ICELAND Multi day dive expeditions all over Iceland including Silfra fissure

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

PROTECT YOUR ASS(ETS)

In the first of a two-part feature, Michael Menduno discusses putting DAN Europe’s ‘Pro’ Liability Insurance to work for you

W

ith diving season now underway in most areas, despite a slow start due to the pandemic, it’s an excellent time for diving professionals, as well as diving clubs, centres, stores, schools and associations, to review, and if needed, renew their professional liability insurance. After all, if you’re an instructor, Divemaster or dive guide, and certainly a club or centre, you need liability coverage to protect yourself. In most cases, it’s a requirement of the job, particularly in today’s litigious society.

Once largely a problem confined to the US, today the global trend is towards increased legal action seeking compensation when a diving accident occurs, and that is no joke. According to DAN Europe’s legal team, legal costs for an accidental death can run up to €50,000, while costs for a diving injury can range from €15-20,000, and potential liability can run into millions, all of which can put your diving livelihood at risk.

Fortunately, in addition to its comprehensive diving accident and medical travel insurance, DAN Europe offers professional liability coverage specifically designed for diving professionals, through its wholly-owned insurance subsidiary, International Diving Assurance (IDA Insurance Ltd.). This coverage can be purchased individually, or alternatively by your dive club, centre or association, which in turn extends coverage to its instructors and Divemasters. DAN Europe’s IDA also provides custom-tailored packages for a number of training agencies and national diving federations, such as PADI EMEA or the Finnish Diver’s Federation, Sukeltajaliitto RY. Please check with your agency or federation for applicability and details.

Much like its diving accident coverage, DAN’s Pro insurance offers a number of options and add-ons benefits to provide

48

you with the protection suited to your needs and the needs of your diving business. It also helps protect your clients in the event of an incident. The important thing is to understand the various options to get the coverage that’s right for you.

A BYTE OF HISTORY

Originally called International Diving Assistance (IDA), DAN Europe established the first worldwide diving accident insurance in 1982 through a third-party provider. The goal was to supplement its 24/7 diving emergency hotline, which provided medical assistance to travelling divers in need.

Recognising the needs of its professional members, DAN Europe also began offering liability insurance at the same time. Though a few general insurers offered professional diving liability insurance in the early 1980s, it was limited in coverage, and very expensive, as diving was considered an extremely dangerous activity.

Then in 2007, DAN Europe decided to establish its own insurance company, IDA Insurance Ltd, so it could make its own decisions regarding coverage and claims, and in doing so, better serve both divers and diving professional members.

Today, instructors and working dive professionals have the choice of either subscribing to a DAN Pro policy directly, which provides coverage for their own diving and non-diving medical emergencies as well as liability with clients and students.

Alternatively, they can have their liability covered under their dive centre, club or association’s liability policy. Note however, in that case, the instructor or Divemaster, needs to provide for their own diving accident insurance.

FINDING THE RIGHT POLICY FOR YOU

Similar to its diving accident coverage, DAN Europe’s Pro insurance has three levels of coverage; Pro Bronze, Pro Silver, and Pro Gold.

In each case, the policy includes coverage for professional liability, including legal defense of up to €4,000,000, plus legal expenses associated with

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Much like its diving accident coverage, DAN’s Pro insurance offers a number of options and add-ons benefits to provide you with the protection suited to your needs the accident, and emergency interpreter costs.

Importantly, unlike some professional insurance on the market that excludes forms of technical diving, DAN’s policies apply to all forms of sport diving, that is recreational, cave and technical diving as well as freediving, independent of depth limits. However, like its diving accident insurance, dives beyond 130m require pre-dive authorization.

Though the professional liability coverage is the same for all policies, the amount of coverage for legal and associated emergency expenses vary with the plan. Pro Bronze coverage provides a maximum of €10,000 for legal expenses and €500 for interpreter costs; Pro Silver provides up to €50,000 of coverage for legal expenses and up to €1,000 for an interpreter; while Pro Gold offers €100,000 and €1,500 respectively.

In addition to liability, DAN Europe’s Pro insurance includes one of its diving accident and medical travel insurance plans, hence the names Pro Bronze, Silver and Gold, to cover the insured professional in case of a personal accident. The good news? The accident coverage under Pro policies tend to be more complete than their sport insurance counterparts.

For example, while Bronze Sport covers the initial acute phase of a recreational diving injury up to €50,000 (technical diving accidents are excluded), it does not cover subsequent post-dive treatments or rehabilitation back home, nor does it offer a death benefit. In comparison, Pro Bronze covers up to €15,000 for follow-up treatment, a €6,000 death benefit, and does not exclude technical dives. Similarly, Pro Silver adds an additional €1,000 coverage totaling €2,500 in case of damage to the professional or rescuer’s dive equipment, and additional coverage for out-of-country outpatient care. Pro Gold coverage is similarly enhanced. n

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

49

Referred to by most locals as simply ‘The Hole’, the site is a cave within a deep-water ledge running north and south with depth range 36m on top to 44m at its deepest point

E

very destination has its ‘signature dive’. In most cases it’s a particular wreck, reef or animal attraction that is touted as a must-do. But sometimes, a site can gain notoriety for its lack of visitors. It might be in a location that is difficult to reach, requires advanced diving skills, or presents a logistics challenge for the dive operator.

This is the case with a dive off Jupiter, Florida, known as the Hole-in-the-Wall. Referred to by most locals as simply ‘The Hole’, the site is a cave within a deep-water ledge running north and south with depth range 36m on top to 44m at its deepest point. The cave itself features a 12-metre-wide by three-metre-high opening on the ledge formation’s eastern face that cuts back in some 10-12 metres before making a hard-right turn to an exit nearly the same size where the ledge makes a slight dog leg to the west before continuing north.

In addition to the depth, which happens to be just over the edge of the 40m limit most training agencies deemed for recreational divers, there is the matter of dealing with current.

On most days, the western edge of the Gulf Stream sweeps across the site, bringing a north-flowing current of one to two knots. As a result, The Hole can only be done as a drift, with divers being dropping in as much as 140 metres up current, and hopefully timing their descent to arrive on the bottom just up current of The Hole.

50

This scenario can present a challenge for both diver and dive operator. The boat crew must anticipate the current’s often variable speed to give divers sufficient time to descend, but not place them too far up current causing them to come up short of the cave at such depths, or too close, risking overshooting the cave during the descent. And on some days, the currents are so strong that the only sensible course is to abort the dive before even attempting to reach the ledge.

Bottom line, it’s not a dive for novices.

But what truly gives the Hole-in-the-Wall its mystique is not the conditions, but its reputation for attracting the bigger players of the reef. After its discovery in the early 1970s, spearfishermen would return from a trip to ‘The Hole’ with huge cubera snapper 40-80lb, large grey and Goliath grouper (before they became protected) together with tales of evading all kinds of large sharks.

The Hole was a favourite with a group of local hunters who called themselves the Guerrilla Divers. In an era when men were men, and risk was an accepted form of macho male expression, these guys were the ‘alpha males’ of the Palm Beach dive scene. They dived long and hard – and considered newfangled buoyancy compensators to be crutches for the weak. The saying was ‘anyone who needs a BCD deserves to drown’.

One of the best known of the ‘guerilla divers’ was Frank Hammett, owner of Frank’s Dive Shop. From the late-1950s

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

51

SUBSCRIBE 5 ISSUES FOR £5 DIVE THE AZORES

GEAR GUIDE: REGULATORS TOP-OF-THE-LINE REGULATORS ARE RATED AND REVIEWED BY THE SCUBA DIVER TEST TEAM

TECHNICAL: MALTA

SCUBA.DIGITAL

DON SILCOCK HEADS BYRON CONROY EXPLORES A LOWDOWN ON WHAT YOU OFF IN SEARCH OF BIGSUPERLATIVE SELECTION OF WRECKS CAN EXPECT FROM THE ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS BEYOND RECREATIONAL DEPTHS NEW ONLINE DIVE SHOW ICAL: INDONESIA GEAR GUIDE: REGULATORS UK’S UK’S TOP 5 WRECK DIVES TECHN TOP 5 WRECK DIVES EPIC THE OF PART TWO TOP-OF-THE-LINE TT SELECTS STUART PHILPO HIS FAVOURITE SHIPWRECKS OFF THE SOUTH COAST

REGULATORS QUEST TO FIND NEW ARE RATED AND REVIEW ED BY CAVES IN SULAWESI THE SCUBA DIVER TEST TEAM

STUART PHILPOTT SELECTS HIS FAVOURITE SHIPWRECKS OFF THE SOUTH COAST

TECHNICAL: INDONESIA PART TWO OF THE EPIC QUEST TO FIND NEW CAVES IN SULAWESI

y r a it il M M y r il a it ary UM M ilit E S U M M U M S U E E U S M U M M EXPLORING AQABA’S UNIQUE EXPLORING AQABA’S UNIQUE AR TIFICI TEM WHISTLESTOP TOUR OF SOME OF SYS ALTHE REEF SYSTEM ARTIFICIAL REEF MOST-POPULAR WRECK DIVE SITES ALONG THE SOUTH COAST #41 | £1 9

+

CHARTERS Q&A: ORKNEY AND SHETLAND

+

Q&A: PETE MESLEY

+

‣ UW PHOTOGRAPHY ‣ CONSERVATION

9

#42 | £1

Q&A: ORK ESNEY AND SHETLAND CHARTERS ‣ THE 10 IPPIN ‣ THE PHIL PHILIPPIN ES WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

#41 | £1

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM/PROMO-5FOR5 Subscriptions renews at £24.99 unless cancelled online before hand

Goliath grouper

Heading out to the dive site

And on some days, the currents are so strong that the only sensible course is to abort the dive before even attempting to reach the ledge. Bottom line, it’s not a dive for novices

Wrasse basslet Huge shoals of fish at Hole-inthe-Wall

through the 1970s, when the public still considered sharks to be evil eating machines, Frank was known as the ‘shark killer’, and the Hole-in-the-Wall was his personal playground. If Frank ran into a shark, it was often quickly dispatched, becoming another casualty of, as Frank put it, ‘accidental death due to inappropriate behaviour’.

According to the old timers, sand tiger sharks used to frequent the hole before Frank changed the natural order by inserting himself as the new apex predator. The coast’s resident population of giant Goliath grouper proved to be even easier targets. By the time I started diving this area in the late-1970s (with Frank in the beginning), the Goliaths were all gone, and it seemed they would never return.

The Guerrilla Divers like Frank are history now, having hung up their fins in retirement to be replaced by a different breed of diver, most with a greater appreciation for the sites Mother Nature gives them.

As for the Goliath grouper that once frequented the Hole.

Well, something remarkable one summer day in August of 2002 - the Goliaths returned. Twelve years from the date they were place under Federal protection in 1990, the Hole was once again a spawning aggregation site for immense grouper. To the local diving population, this was a spectacle most had never seen before, having been out of existence for nearly 30 years.

53

WHO GOES THERE?

These days trips to the Hole-in-the-Wall are treated as a technical dive open to advanced nitrox and rebreather divers alike as the dive will entail a decompression profile.

Due to its location near the southern end of Jupiter, access to the site is provided by both dive operators out of Riviera Beach Marina (down in West Palm Beach area) and up north in Jupiter, which offers a shorter run. Should conditions look too unfavourable, most of these charters will switch a Plan B, dropping divers either the Jupiter Wreck Trek, featuring the Zion Train and Esso Bonaire wrecks, or the Princes Ann wreck of West Palm, which sits in 34m of water.

Sunset over the coastline The dive site is a short run from the inlet

54

Goliath grouper gather in the ‘hole’

The discovery was unprecedented as it was the first largescale observable aggregation in recent years to take place over a natural bottom instead of a wreck. Researchers identified 42 large fish at the aggregation. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Florida State University’s Institute for Fishery Resource Ecology Department placed tags in 24 adult fish ranging from 120-350lb, and identified three others that were tagged 20 miles up the coast near Stuart the previous year.

In the years since, animal activity at life at the Hole seems to have continued to increase. In addition to the Goliath grouper, which begin to show up in August and linger through October, the sharks have also made a healthy comeback. Venture out with some of the dive operators that run specialised charters to see the gals (most are females) in the grey suits will get a healthy dose of just about everything from large bull sharks (which are year round), silky, dusky and sand bar, to even tiger and great hammerhead. Even great whites have been sighted by fishermen and spearfishermen on occasion, but as yet not shown interest in the baiting practices of the shark charters.

For divers who have the skills needed to perform drift dives, and to function safely at the lower end of the recreational dive envelope, the Hole-in-the-Wall is a site that shouldn’t be missed. n

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

What’s New

SEALIFE SPORTDIVER HOUSING SRP: US$299.95

Apple’s iPhone is one of the most-successful product ranges on the planet – and now SeaLife is introducing a compact, lightweight underwater housing for many of them.

The new SeaLife SportDiver housing will allow divers to take photos and video with their iPhone down to 40m – and it can encase iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, Xr, Xs, Xs Max, 11, 11 Pro Max, and SE (2nd Gen) models.

The heavy-duty housing is constructed of polycarbonate, stainless steel, aluminium and optical grade glass, but it weighs in at less than 641g, so is ideal for travelling.

The SportDiver is easy to hold and use and offers a large shutter lever and rear control buttons for easy operation, even with dive gloves. Snorkellers and divers can get more creative with their photos or video shot by using advanced camera settings – Adjust Zoom, Exposure (EV), Auto/Manual Focus, White Balance, Tint, Lens selection, RAW+JPEG mode, Live Photo and Background Blur (on available iPhone models). www.sealife-cameras.com

DIVE-LOGS DIVE GUIDES | SRP: £6.95-£11.95 Dive-Logs Limited, who produced a wide range of diving logbooks and assorted accessories and inserts, has teamed up with wreck expert Peter Collings to produce some dive guides.

In July, they completed the first set – a guide to the Northern Red Sea Wrecks – and they have just completed a set for the Florida Keys Wreck Trail.

The guides comprise an introduction to the area, and then concise details of each shipwreck, with a location map, the history of the vessel, how it came to be sunk, and Peter’s personal dive notes and sketch of the wreck, with room for the user to add their own notes.

Both sets of guides are available in Dive-Logs three standard log refill sizes, but there is also a special edition that is totally waterproof and can be taken underwater in their wet notes system. www.divelogs.com

56

FOURTH ELEMENT OCEANPOSITIVE HYDROSKIN | SRP: £39.95-£42.50

The latest range of Hydroskin rashguards from Fourth Element are made in the same smooth, high-performance fabrics you know and love, but with recycled polyester from ocean-bound plastic bottles; decreasing the use of virgin materials.

Part of their OceanPositive Collection, these Hydroskin rashguards are designed to wear under a wetsuit or semidrysuit, or as a UV shield for all watersport activities.

The fit of these rashguards has been improved with flattering panels, kept streamlined with flatlocked seams and are presented in a palette of classic and ocean-inspired colours with water-based prints on chest and back in complementary, contrast tones. The ultra-smooth fabric made with a combination of recycled polyester and stretchy elastane reduces friction between the skin and a wetsuit and helps to stop chafing of tight/ill-fitting suits.

These rashguards are the perfect garment to put on instead of applying extra sunscreen which is likely to wash off, which recent studies show has been contributing to the pollution of coral.

OCEANPOSITIVE We consume nearly one million plastic bottles a minute globally. This waste is not always necessary and not all of it is handled responsibly. Recycling is one solution to the problem, creating new products from old, but it is just a part of tackling the problem. Rejecting single-use plastic packaging and recycling whenever and wherever possible is a step in the right direction. With small changes in our behaviour, we can make a big difference.

Made with recycled post-consumer plastic waste, each Hydroskin prevents approximately seven plastic bottles from ending up in landfill or worse still, the ocean. The prints are produced with water-based inks, limiting the amount of chemicals used in production. Packaged in compostable bags made from cassava starch. www.fourthelement.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

GARMIN DESCENT MK2/MK2I DIVE COMPUTERS | SRP: £1,199-£1,399 Garmin has launched the Descent Mk2 and Descent Mk2i dive computers, its nextgeneration suite of dive products packed with features for both underwater and on the surface.

In addition to a larger display, leakproof inductive button technology, customizable indive data fields and more, the Descent Mk2 and Descent Mk2i feature Garmin’s most-soughtafter everyday smartwatch features, making it one of the most sophisticated and connected watch-style dive computers on the market today.

The Descent Mk2i dive computer can simultaneously monitor tank pressure from up to five paired Descent T1 transmitters (each sold separately) via the SubWave sonar data network, so that divers can view tank pressure, air time remaining, gas consumption rate and monitor other divers or additional tanks within a ten-metre range.

The Descent Mk2 Series support multiple dive modes for single and multiple gas dives (including nitrox, trimix and 100 percent O2), gauge, apnea, apnea hunt and closed circuit rebreather. This data is all viewed on a crisp 1.4-inch sunlight-readable colour display, which is 36 percent larger than the Descent Mk1.

On land, the Descent Mk2 and Mk2i double as a premium multisport GPS smartwatch with multi-GNSS support and wrist-based heart rate monitoring plus multiple sports

profiles including golf, with full-colour mapping for over 41,000 courses worldwide. Other smartwatch features include notifications for calls, texts and calendar alerts and more, right on the wrist - Garmin Pay for contactless payments, music storage with compatible service support, and a Pulse Oximeter for blood oxygen monitoring. www.garmin.com/dive

MARES ULTRASKIN RANGE | SRP: £36-£189 The Mares Ultraskin range is made from an innovative, three-layer material combining a fleece layer against the skin for the best thermal protection, a breathable and windproof internal membrane, and an external nylon layer for the perfect fit, durability and elasticity.

The characteristics of this high-tech material make it easy to don, providing great freedom of movement and resistance to wear.

In a range of styles, the Ultraskin line includes both male and female models, featuring a steamer, long-sleeved top, short-sleeved top, sleeveless top with hood, sleeveless top without hood, shorts and long pants.

The versatile Ultraskin undersuits are the ideal choice for use with wet or drysuits as well as during other watersports activities.

The range also includes hood, gloves and socks. www.mares.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

57

THIS ISSUE: MASKS UNDER £50 Each month, the SCUBA DIVER test team assembles to rate and review a selection of dive equipment from a range of manufacturers. Products are split into price categories and are then evaluated for performance, comfort, ease of use, build quality, looks and value for money. The Test Team comprises Editor in Chief Mark Evans and a squad of volunteers, whose dive experience ranges from a couple of hundred dives to well over 6,000.

ON TEST THIS MONTH: • MARES JUNO/JUPITER • OCEANIC SHADOW • SCUBAPRO ZOOM EVO

Location: Tested at Moreton Hall

www.moretonhall.org

Date tested: 19/10/20 | Water temp: 30 degrees C

MASKS UNDER £50 Masks are a vital piece of your diving gear arsenal, as without one, you are not going to be seeing much underwater! A well-fitting mask will make all the difference to how relaxed you are underwater, as dealing with constant leaks, etc, is just frustrating and can take your mind off far more important issues.

However, masks are a very personal piece of diving equipment, and finding one which suits your face is the goal of all divers.

These three relatively budget-priced masks were looked at for fit, comfort, ease of clearing, range of vision, and price.

58

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

MARES JUNO / JUPITER | SRP: £36 The Juno is a frameless single-lens mask, which has soft but firm silicone skirt, clever plastic mounts for the swivelling strap buckles which hinge, so it can fold flat - if, for example, you wanted to tuck it in your drysuit pocket as a spare mask.

The release buttons on the swivelling buckle have a nice, tactile feel, and are easy to locate and operate even with thick gloves on. The strap itself is well shaped, and ‘cups’ around the back of your head well. The Jupiter is essentially the exact same design of mask, just with a larger skirt, for bigger faces. Both the Juno and Jupiter are exceptionally comfortable, with the skirt being soft enough to mould to the contours of your face, but stiff enough to maintain the shape of the mask. It is a delicate balancing act, and Mares have nailed it. They are low profile, offer a decent allround field of vision, and are easy to clear when flooded.

The Juno is available in blue and white, lime green and black, pink and clear, red and white, white and clear (great for underwater models!), white and black, white and blue, and red and black.

The Jupiter is available in black and white, blue and black, red and white, and white and black. www.mares.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT TYPE: Frameless | STRAP: Silicone | VERDICT: The design of the Juno and Jupiter is pleasing to the eye, and they both come in a wide range of colours.

They are comfy, easy to clear and well priced.

SCORE

••••••••••

OCEANIC SHADOW | SRP: £49.95 The Oceanic Shadow has been around for many years, and it has proved a firm favourite with the Test Team over this time. The Shadow is a frameless, single-lens mask, and the 100 percent liquid silicone is very comfortable, effortlessly moulding to your face. The plastic buckles are attached directly to the silicone skirt, which means that the Shadow can fold flat, if you wanted to use it as a back-up mask, stored in a BCD or drysuit pocket.

The actual buckle itself works fine, but is quite a dated design.

However, it doesn’t matter, as it comes with an eye-catching and efficient neoprene strap, so once you have got the mask fitted properly the first time, you will likely never touch the buckle again anyway. The ‘stretch’ in the neoprene can handle the move from bare head in the tropics to hooded head in colder conditions.

The Shadow boasts a wide field of vision, and is easy to clear when flooded because of its low profile. This Shadow came in colourful Sea Blue, but there are myriad other colours available, including classic black, pink, white, yellow and clear, which is ideal for use with a model if you are an underwater photographer. These are also available as the Shadow Mini, to fit smaller faces. www.oceanicworldwide.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

TECH SPECS & VERDICT TYPE: Frameless | STRAP: Silicone | VERDICT: The Shadow has been in the Oceanic line-up for a long time - for good reason. It is comfortable. wellequipped with a neoprene strap, and looks great.

SCORE

••••••••••

59

SCUBAPRO ZOOM EVO | SRP: £46.50 The Scubapro Zoom is another mask that has been around for a while, and this is the Evo version.

The quite-traditional style of the Zoom Evo has been around for a long time, but it works well. The twin-lens are mounted into a frame on a low-profile skirt, and it has a reasonable all-round field of vision.

The buckles have a large lever to release the strap, which is easy to find with a gloved thumb, but if you want to swap out the silicone strap for a Scubapro Comfort Strap, it is simply a case of pressing a couple of buttons and it is off. You can get other optional accessories like a HUD dive computer mount adapter, and colour kits to match BCDs, fins and clothing.

In use, the Zoom Evo is comfortable, and easy to clear. Because of the framed design, it will not fold flat.

The Zoom Evo is ideal for those who might need prescription lenses, as the originals can be easily replaced with everything from -1.0 to -8.0 (in .5 diopter increments) by yourself, without any tools, in less than a minute. It comes in a range of colours, from military-style all-black and silver and black, to eye-catching spray-painted blue/silver, black/yellow, red/black, pink/black, turquoise/black, blue/silver, and black/purple, on a black skirt. www.scubapro.com

TECH SPECS & VERDICT TYPE: Frame | STRAP: Silicone | VERDICT: The Zoom has been around for a long time, and the Evo version is comfortable, looks good - in a traditional style - and has user-changeable prescription lenses.

SCORE

••••••••••

VERDICT Masks are a very personal item, and often you will find divers who are using a mask that they have had 15-20 years because it is just so comfortable and familiar.

The Scubapro Zoom Evo is more of a traditional-style of mask, with its framed twin-lenses, but it stands out from the crowd thanks to its wide range of bright and colourful frame options, with the spray-painted fade finish being very eye-catching. It is also the ideal choice for those divers who need glasses, or who find their eyesight deteriorating over time, as they can swap out the original lenses for presciption lenses themselves without any tools. A neat idea.

The Oceanic Shadow has been around for years, but it is a great frameless mask. It is exceptionally comfortable, offers a wide range of vision, comes with a nice neoprene strap, and is available in a range of colour schemes.

The Mares Juno and Jupiter are a similarly frameless design, with a neat folding buckle system.

Again, very comfortable, good field of vision, and a huge selection of colour schemes. You won’t go far wrong with any of these masks.

60

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

SANTI DIVING FLEX 2.0 HEATED UNDERSUIT | SRP: £470 Mark Evans: Santi Diving are past masters when it comes to exposure protection, and as well as being renowned for their drysuits (see last month’s issue for my review of the E.Lite+ trilaminate), they are highly regarded for their heating systems.

Being based in Poland, and having technical diving supremo Tomasz Stachura as their founder, Santi Diving know a thing or two when it comes to staying warm when the water gets cold. Now, at one time, heated undersuits were seen as being a part of the arsenal for tech divers spending multiple hours hanging around on decompression stops, but increasingly recreational divers who spend time diving in colder temperatures are seeing the value of having a heated undersuit.

I was diving in the new Flex 2.0 heated undersuit, which utilises the same inner heating technology as the BZ400 model, but is much lighter and more flexible. It is made of 180g Climashield Contur fabric, with additional doublethickness insulation around the chest area. I found it exceptionally comfortable, and I was able to twist and contort myself into all sorts of positions both wearing the undersuit alone, and once it was under the E.Lite+.

The heating wire is covered with ultra-soft silicone that is resistant to breaking, and the power cable neatly slots into a pocket on the front. If you are using the Santi heated gloves with the Flex 2.0, it even has built-in wires that just connect straight into the gloves. Very neat and effective.

The Flex 2.0 heated undersuit – along with the BZ400, the heated vest, and the heated gloves – make up the complete Santi Diving heating system. All of them are designed to work with either the thermoconnector (which mounts under a standard drysuit inflator), or the thermovalve (which was fitted to this test suit, which neatly incorporates the battery connector with a drysuit inflator in one unit), which links the heated element with an external battery. Santi prefer this set-up, as it removes any dangers associated with internal batteries.

I mounted the battery on a separate camband, and tucked it against my cylinder on the right-hand side, and could reach back to turn it on and off throughout the dive, as I found I was simply getting too warm if I left it on the entire dive! There is only one heat setting, unlike some brands that offer multiple settings, but I found I could regulate my body heat to the perfect comfortable level by turning it on and off during the dive. With a 24Ah battery, you can expect a heating time of two-and-a-half to three hours, and the suit gets up to a maximum temperature of 45 degrees C – believe me, that is certainly toasty warm!

Santi advise you to wear the undersuit on top of a thin thermal or wool base layer, and I just popped it on over

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

61

SANTI DIVING FLEX 2.0 HEATED UNDERSUIT | SRP: £470

a basic thermal base layer that I wear mountain biking in winter. The reasoning behind this is that the heat is then directed straight to the diver’s body, plus they figure it is safer than being directly onto bare skin. As well as the heating side of things, the Flex 2.0 has plenty of the nifty features we’ve come to expect from standard Santi undersuits, such as a P-valve opening, elastic gussets under the armpits, two side pockets, and elastic waist belt, two-way zipper, and non-soaking net cuffs with rubber loops for your thumbs, and foot straps on the legs, which aid with donning the suit.

The Flex 2.0 heated undersuit comes in a special bag, and is available for ladies in a made-to-measure version.

As mentioned earlier, the Flex 2.0 can be paired up with the Santi heated gloves (£167), and I had a pair of these too, so was experiencing the complete package. The gloves themselves are very warm and comfortable before you plug them into the battery, which from a 24Ah unit provide just shy of ten hours of warmth! Like the suit, these get up to a temperature of 45 degrees C, and it certainly keeps all your digits warm under drygloves (I was using the Smart

62

gloves with the E.Lite+). If you are just using the drygloves without a heated undersuit, you can run the wires from the inside of the thermovalve/thermoconnector down either arm of your drysuit and into the gloves, but as we said with the Flex 2.0 , it has the glove wires built-in. I can also confirm they will keep your hands warm even in the event of a flooded dryglove – totally user-error, I hadn’t got one of the gloves clipped solidly into place, but it was a real-world way of finding out just how warm these gloves are when completely wet.

So, heated undersuits and gloves. It is difficult to stress just how much more pleasant these things make a dive in cold water. Yes, there is a bit more faff as you need to carry the external battery, and yes, they are not exactly a cheap bit of kit, but if you are a tech diver, or a recreational diver who spends extended periods diving in colder conditions, they are well worth checking out for a future investment. Me? I’m already working out where I can strap the battery onto my mountain bike frame so I can have warm hands through winter riding! www.santidiving.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

MTX-RC REGULATOR CONTROL IN THE EXTREME

apeksdiving.com

DIVE RITE XT FINS | SRP: £174.95 Walt Stearns: Given Dive Rite’s origins as a manufacturer of cave diving equipment, their outlook on what they will produce and why has always been rather pragmatic.

In other words, best to not mess with a tried-and-true formula that works well.

Up in North Florida’s cave country (Dive Rite’s backyard), divers are always on the lookout for the types of equipment – from BCDs to fins – that can best handle the arduous day-to-day use of diving in subterranean cave systems. When traversing passages with high flow or stiff currents, the most desirable fins are those that offer a balance of power-to-work ratio, providing efficient finning for long periods of time.

To accomplish this, the most-proven design is the paddle shape as they still remain the most suited for extensive finning with a sculling motion done with a frog kick. At the same time, the criteria for a high-performance fin calls for the blade itself to be stiff, without sacrificing the appropriate amount of snap during the down stroke when a modified flutter or power kick is required. It is on all those merits Dive Rite positions their one and only fin in their product line, the XT. Given a set of these fins to try out, my mind flashed back to the later 1990s to another dive gear label called Apollo Sports, who had one set of fins in particular called the Apollo Prestige that came in one colour, white with a wide black segment that ran down the centre (from end to end) like a racing stripe. When Apollo decided to ditch all their full blade fins in favour of those with the split fin design, Dive Rite acquired the Prestige model from Apollo for their own product line. While this affirms this particular fin has been around for quite some time, the question might be what’s different about them now.

To begin with, unlike the original Prestige, which were made of a polymer plastic, Dive Rite’s XT is fabricated with Monprene Thermoplastic Elastomer Compounds (TPEs),

64

the material favoured by many technical diving equipment manufacturers for its blended rigidity and flexibility.

Differentiating the XT from its competitors is a slightly softer 61mm wide Monoprene centre strip extending from the top of the foot pocket to the tip of the blade, which is added in during the injected molding process. So yes, the trademark 2.4-inch wide black racing stripe down the centre is still in place, but instead of white, the rest of the fin comes in red, Royal blue and black. Having this softer material down the centre of the blade allows the water to channel towards the middle and back away from the blade for added thrust during the down stroke. This is particularly important when using a modified flutter kick.

One thing that is relatively new about the XT Fin (updated in early 2020), is that it now features a POM swivel where the spring steel heel strap meets the fin’s foot pocket, allowing for easier donning and adjustment. The POM Swivel features two position points for moving the buckle’s locking screws so that the diver can adjust the fit of their straps a little more to their liking.

I imagine you are now asking ‘What is the Dive Rite XT fin going to do for me?’ Looking at the chatter about these fins on forums as well as other reviews, the XTs seem to land in two camps; those who love ’em and those who leave ’em. The majority of these viewpoints centre on the stiffness of the blades while finning.

Playing around with various fin strokes to see where they best serve in terms of efficiency and application, my first impression was ‘man, these babies are stiff!’

Even after allowing my legs to get acclimated to the XT’s characteristic stiffness, my own take away was that the XTs were a really decent fin for frog kicking, nearly as efficient when employing modified flutter, but somewhat unremarkable for mobility when it came to a flutter kick.

Overall, the XTs are a robust, well-made paddle type fin with a comfortable foot pocket that will serve most divers in the cave and wreck diving persuasion well. I particularly liked the hinge effect of the POM swivel for taking the fins on and off in the water.

Dive Rite’s XT Fins are available in size S through XL. www.sea-sea.com

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

There are many moments like this in the future.

EUROPEAN MADE

www.xdeep.eu

Busy year for Sea-Changers PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIW, THE SEAHORSE TRUST, AND ON THE KILLER WHALE TRAIL

D

espite COVID-19, 2020 has been a busy year for Sea-Changers. The volunteer-run marine conservation charity raises funds through unique partnerships with a wide range of businesses, from Hebridean Island Cruises and Mike’s Dive Store to Seachange Wine.

This funding is then distributed through small grants to marine conservation projects right around the UK. Even with the enforced business slow down, Sea-Changers has been able to forge some fantastic new partnerships and support a number of innovative conservation activities.

January 2020 saw the launch of the pilot Bunzl ‘Coastal Fountain Fund’, which resulted in five organisations across the UK being awarded funds to install water bottle refill fountains on local beaches. The fund aims to tackle the increasing problem of plastic bottles being discarded as marine litter, negatively impacting marine species and their environment.

Despite some Covid-related delays, all fountains will be installed and ready to go by Spring 2021.

Sea-Changers’ grants programme was also able to support some exciting projects in the Spring grant round, with education and awareness remaining a crucial theme of SeaChangers’ grants.

Projects funded included: • Dunbar Harbour Trust, who are running a citizen science project involving local children in the collection of plankton and plastic samples from the local harbour, which will be examined, photographed and form part of an educational art exhibition in Dunbar Harbour.

• Lancashire Wildlife Trust, who are working with a local author to create a story trail in Blackpool to raise awareness of the hidden wildlife in the area.

• Sea Watch Foundation, who are establishing a ‘Great British Finned Friends’ campaign, including videos, newsletter and educational materials to raise awareness of the rich and varied cetacean life around UK shores.

• The Seahorse Trust, who are developing an online ‘Seahorse Biology, Ecology and Conservation’ Course to raise awareness of these amazing and elusive species.

• On The Killer Whale Trail, who carried out 14 beach cleans in remote areas of Shetland, counting and weighing every bit of litter, plastic, nurdle and debris along the way. They managed to clear a total of 1,122.26kg of rubbish.

Sea-Changers also funded CLIMAVORE. Based on the Isle of Skye, their funding will enable the CLIMAVORE Polyculture Research, which is a collaborative project working with fisherfolk, seaweed, oyster, scallop and mussel farmers, restaurants, and school children to establish the UK’s first Closed-Loop Intertidal Polyculture farm, or CLIP. More grants will be awarded later this year when the winners of the Autumn grants programme are announced.

Plans are also already in the pipeline for a new funding stream in 2021. Sea-Changers has formed a partnership with Marine Rescue Technologies (MRT), the global leader in the manufacture and distribution of man overboard solutions, to set up a new Sea-Changers Innovation Fund. The fund will specifically seek to encourage the development of innovative projects and solutions which tackle and mitigate marine conservation challenges, such as pollution, climate change and unsustainable fishing practices.

The new fund will be open to applications in early 2021, with details about the application process to be made available on the Sea-Changers website next year. n www.sea-changers.org.uk

WWW.SCUBADIVERMAG.COM

Exclusive sleep and dive packages to 300+ destinations.

Biggest Selection

Trusted Brand

Exclusive Packages

Best Price Guarantee

24/7 Expert Advice

Free Dive Insurance

Book your next dive vacation on travel.padi.com

GARRETT DIVEMASTER

HYDROS X JACKET

“EASY TO GET ON, HUGS YOUR BODY AND STAYS IN PLACE”

DEEP DOWN YOU WANT THE BEST

OAHU, HAWAII