Ten tasty dive-gear prizes, worth a total of £2335, are yours for the taking in Diver's Short Story Competition.
    It's time to learn whether you can express your diving-inspired thoughts in 400 or fewer well-chosen words.
    The prizes, offered by Blandford Sub-Aqua, are all made by Mares, voted by Diver readers your favourite brand of 2000.
    The writer of the story we judge the best will receive a Mares HUB integrated breathing system. There will be six Surveyor diving computers for the runners-up, and pairs of Avanti Plana Quattro fins for three further commended entries.
    Our last Short Story Competition, two years ago, generated a gratifyingly enormous response. We were delighted by the high quality of so many of the entries.
    The winning and runner-up stories were published at the time, and more of your diving tales were printed later in the pages of Diver.
    We're hoping to find as much enthusiasm - and literary skill - in 2001, and look forward to publishing the results. This time, we've decided to offer you a choice of five headings to provide inspiration. They are:

SHAMED
A THING OF BEAUTY
NIGHTMARE
UNDER INSTRUCTION
THE SUPERNATURAL

    Your story should be no more than 400 words long. It can be either fact or fiction, but mark it accordingly, alongside your chosen category (eg, The Supernatural - Fact).
    Please send only one entry per person. Typescript is preferred but longhand accepted. You can include photographs or illustrations if you wish, but they will not be taken into account in the judging, and will not be returned unless requested. Neither will entries be individually acknowledged.
    Submit your stories by post or e-mail, ensuring that your name, postal address and telephone number are provided. If sending by post, address it to Diver Short Story Competition, 55 High Street, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 8HA. Please direct e-mails to steve@divermag.co.uk headed Short Story. Closing date is Monday, 2 July.

TEN WAYS TO WIN
HUB stands for Human Underwater Breathing, and the £725 Mares HUB (above) earmarked for our Short Story winner is the first integrated diving system on the market. Designed for convenience of use, it features a double-wing BC; a regulator with front-mounted hose; and an octopus, instrument console and oral inflator each housed in its own compartment. Buoyancy is controlled through two push-buttons, with a pneumatic twin-valve system to allow the diver to release air in all positions.

    Six runners-up will enjoy using the new, compact Mares Surveyor dive computer (left), which retails at £225. Operated by twin push-buttons and powered by a standard AAA battery, it is backlit and uses a modified Haldanean algorithm. Depth/max depth, dive time, remaining no-stop time; deco-stop times, time to surface, water temperature and ascent speed are shown. At the surface the Surveyor includes a 50-dive logbook with profiles of the past 20 dives, desat time, time to fly, calendar clock, temperature, self-check and planning facilities.


    Finally, three specially commended entrants will receive Mares Plana Avanti Quattros, fins consistently praised in Diver. Mares says its four-channel design outperforms traditional fin efficiency by 20 per cent. The fins have blade stabilisers to improve kicking stability and prevent ankle-twisting, and rubberised side ribs to resist cuts and scratches. Complete with ABS-system straps, Quattros normally cost £86.50.