NO DREAM TOO EXTREME
STEVE WEINMAN, EDITOR

WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. In this very column just over a year ago, while considering the uncompetitive nature of diving as a sport, I poured mild scorn on the idea of underwater cycle-racing.
The idea had been floated as a crowd-puller by a PR company, and I confidently dismissed it as a crazy notion in terms of spectator sports.
Clearly the company was unimpressed by my expert advice, because I have just received a communication that reads: "The SeaGuernsey Regatta culminates in Guernsey's very own extreme sport, 'Cycle Soumarine'. The sub-aquatic spectacle where contenders cycle across the seabed proved a huge hit last year."
Guinness World Records apparently confirmed that Guernsey's 2005 event was "the world's largest ever underwater cycling race". Perhaps not too hard to achieve, but only now do I learn that underwater cycling is a "lesser-known sport of kings". Lord Louis Mountbatten, though not a king, was apparently the first member of the Royal Family to try it. The proof is on a film shot off Malta in the 1950s.
OK, so don't come to me for advice on wacky sports - ask the Royal Family next time. And if you have a bike that's already a bit rusty, pack your saddlebags with dive gear and roll up in the Channel Islands the first week of September (I guess I owe the race a plug - www.visitguernsey.com).
I might have been off the mark on sub-aquatic pedal-pushing, but I'm confident that this "extreme"-themed August issue of divEr will hit the spot. Brendan O'Brien considers the personal nature of extreme diving experiences, arguing that you don't have to be a Mark Ellyatt, Olivier Isler or Carlos Coste - just set your own definitions of "extreme". After all, for most of us, our first dive is an extreme experience.
Talking of Carlos Coste, we accompany the world record-breaking freediver as he treks up a mountain in the Andes to attempt an unofficial depth record at altitude. Extreme by any definition.
And John Bantin dives a wreck at 50-60m. Extreme dive? No, it's the wreck that's extreme - the world's biggest artificial reef is a 900ft-long aircraft-carrier off Florida. Mind you, we hear that the US Navy has another half-dozen it plans to sink - it must be the cheapest way to dispose of them these days, and goes down particularly well in the States with sea-anglers.
We have some notable contributors this month: best-selling author and marine biologist Trevor Norton stays with extremes by examining the limits of human ability under water, while Lynne Reid Banks, who has sold millions of books and was Britain's first female TV news reporter, spells out what it means to be a diver at the age of 77.
Another noted writer, Tim Ecott, is just back from the beleaguered "diver's paradise" of Sipadan, annoyed and gunning for the Malaysian government. Extreme? We're just getting started...