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The liveliest letters from the DIVER mailbag...
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You've really gone and done it now! There I was, merrily flicking through the article on Iconic Kit (December), when I came across the Seemed A Good Idea At The Time section. Thanks for pointing out that as a pony-using, strobe-wearing, safety-flag-carrying type I'm not actually carrying redundancy but am in fact a fashion disaster waiting to happen.
You know, some of us are quite happy to explore those parts of the underwater world that lie no deeper than 30m. As such I have neither the urge, inclination nor bank balance to follow the twin-set route. So I carry a pony.
Also, several students and novices mention to me that they have found the strobe quite comforting when diving in low-viz conditions for the first time. And in light of stories of divers being separated from their boats in recent years, surely an extra blinky-blinky device on the surface isn't such a crime.
You know, a lot of novices look to magazines like yours for guidance when it comes to kit and configuration. Rejecting redundancy options out of hand as fashionable fads because they don't fit the more hard-core/tekkie diver way seems a bit rash to me.
But then, what do I know? I own a safety flag.
Stuart Harris, Bristol
Louise Trewavas has her own kit preferences and we'd hate you to get a complex about yours, Stuart. Anyway, you now also own a Nova-Light diving lamp - iconic or what? Yours was not the only letter we received about Iconic Kit...
Thank you for the fine coverage of Force Fin in the December issue. We sincerely appreciate the acknowledgment. I do have one question, however: what is meant by a "different technique"?
When diving Force Fins, we recommend a diver use a simple flutter kick, a kick that anyone who knows how to swim can easily do.
Love your magazine,
Bob Evans, President & Chief Designer, Force Fin, Santa Barbara, USA
I disagree with Louise Trewavas's assessment of the OMS banded wing. I have dived Dive Rite, Halcyon, you name it, but for the past 12 years have used OMS, and there is nothing to match the quality, performance and, yes, even the style.
I was not attracted by the style at first but did a test dive and then put the wing through its paces in such demanding places as Scapa Flow, Ginny Springs, Austrian deep lakes and the like. The materials are robust and the fact that I still dive the gear I first bought is a testament to its quality.
The bungee cords serve a real purpose in helping to deflate the wing fast, reducing drag. This is very important in preserving precious energy. The bungees also deflate the wing evenly and stop the contained air shifting around, as occurs with body movement in a non-banded BC.
You can also adjust the wing by adding or removing bungees, to compensate for stage bottles, for example. This is a very useful attribute, not a gimmick.
Because of its success, many other companies have copied everything from the design to the colour. Only the logo and the quality have not been copied.The space agency NASA uses this wing in its weightless training facility in Houston, which in itself speaks volumes.
Geoff Mellard, Vienna, Austria
Having seen divers with flags and poles bungeed to cylinders, and after needing to use my SMB in the Maldives last year (failing miserably to get it seen above fairly high waves), a flag sounded like a good addition to the standard dive kit.
After fruitless searches, I decided that it would be easy enough to make one. At a camping store I found carbon fibre poles in various lengths, normally used as replacement poles for tents.
These come with an internal bungee snap-cord, are lightweight, very strong and fold down into foot-long sections.
I have made up a 4m pole, with a flag attached - yellow of course - that fits neatly alongside my cylinder and can be flown and shown inside of 10 seconds. Total cost was £12. Fly the flag or show your sausage? The flag wins every time for me.
Jay Jones-Cooper, London
I am a 14-year old boy and have been diving for two years. I have gained the PADI Junior Advanced Open Water and Junior Boat Diver Speciality certifications.
I recently contacted PADI to verify that on my 15th birthday it would send me cards upgraded from Junior to full certification.
The Training & Quality Management Advisor replied: "On your 15th birthday your rating will automatically change to that of full PADI Boat Diver and PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. This will be evident to anyone examining your certifications as your date of birth, which is printed on the card, will show that you are no longer under the age of 15. You will not receive a new card, however, as the date of birth on your card demonstrates this fact."
I got no reduction in my course fee because I was a Junior Diver, so why should I now have to pay an extra 25 euros when I turn 15 to get "Junior" removed from my certification cards?
PADI would find it acceptable to have me still showing a Junior Advanced Open Water certification card at the age of 70 - I do not!
PADI is not encouraging young divers to progress with their diving qualifications, if it is penalising them 25 euros per qualification to have the correct cards issued at the age of 15.
I certainly will not be completing any further formal training until my 15th birthday!
Robert Hill, Sidcup, Kent
Neil Fishburne, PADI International's Group Manager, Training, Quality Management & Memberships, comments: The performance requirements Robert will have had to have met to attain his Junior AOWD certification are the same as those for the "adult" certification.
The only direct restriction on the diver is that he or she dives only when accompanied by a certified diver of legal age. As the diver's date of birth is printed on the card, it is very easy for any dive operation to identify that the diver is no longer a "Junior".
We do have a standard replacement card fee for those wishing to change cards, as in this instance, or to update photos etc. My recommendation is for Robert to continue his education as a diver and complete the PADI Rescue Diver programme. I am sure he will find it very rewarding and, if he is then 15, he will receive the "adult" certification.
I was given a bunch of magazines from a British yacht that anchored here in Mindelo, Cape Verde. One was the August 2005 issue of divEr and I read with interest Steve Weinman's First In about jet-bikes and lack of respect for the A-flag.
As a sailor and a lover of quiet anchorages, I do not have much love for jet-skiers or drivers of fast powerboats. As you point out, most of them probably wouldn't recognise an A-flag if it was shoved up their exhaust.
However, I have stopped counting the number of times I have seen a dive-boat safely tied up in a marina or whizzing past me at 30-plus knots with the A-flag proudly flying.
I have never come into conflict with any dive boat and have on occasion gratefully received the help of divers. I generally treat a vessel flying the A-flag as if it has divers down, even when it probably doesn't. Others may take a different view, and if divers treat the A-flag as an "I love diving" bumper-sticker, they cannot expect other water-users to respect it.
I have to admit, my head hung in shame, that I once rescued a jet-skier in Wicklow Harbour, Ireland. I could not very well have refused to rescue the man, but I'll never know what possessed me to rescue his holed and sinking craft. It would have made a nice wreck for you lot to explore...
Owen Morgan, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde
In December's Off-Gassing, Martin Read wrote a rather pedantic letter to give us a definition of a quantum leap. To reply in kind, a quantum leap has no definition in physics - the phenomenon he describes is a quantum jump.
A quantum leap is acceptable as a definition for a huge leap forward, and most would agree that Patrick Musimu's achievement does represent a quantum leap in No Limits diving.
Dr Mark Cationics, Toronto, Canada
Last season for us in Cornwall was excellent. The diving was good, the tides fell kindly and the weather was fair. We took our little boat on our annual pilgrimage to the Isles of Scilly, but in all the years I have been diving on the islands, last summer's experience surpassed all others.
The day was warm and sunny but there was a stiff breeze as we headed to the Eastern Rocks to dive with the seals. On arrival the sea conditions were a bit iffy, so we decided to anchor up at the back of St Martins.
A lone seal was surfacing in the shallows in the bay, festooned with dreadlocks of seaweed, and I decided to go for a snorkel with him.
The seal immediately swam up from the seabed to investigate. He played with me constantly, eying me from a distance, swooping past with one graceful pulse of his fins, tumbling and twisting around me before retreating to the weed to prepare for another approach.
He nuzzled up and down my legs, feeling with his whiskers. I have the tooth marks in my fins to prove it, but not a trace on my bare legs. At one point he approached from behind, lay on his back to capture me between his fins and tossed me out of the water! This interaction continued for a full 45 minutes, to the entertainment of those on the boat.
The seal showed no interest in the two or three other people who joined me in the water. My partner was quite peeved that he was unable to capture the action on underwater video, but it is very difficult to photograph a seal that is nibbling your own fins!
I have dived many times with seals on the Eastern and Western Rocks in about 20m of water but nothing could compare with this experience. I am nearly an OAP and fortunate that I'm still fit to dive, though I restrict myself as to depth.
This encounter took place in 2m of water with virtually no equipment and very little effort. I'll enjoy diving as long as I can but I'm now aware of a wonderful alternative.
Margaret Kerr, Penryn, Cornwall
I was shocked by Greg Puchert's utter lack of respect for the local population of Zanzibar, in complaining about the whale shark being killed (Distressing Sight, Off-Gassing, Novem-ber). He should look at who owns the dive centre with which he dived, and how little diving actually benefits the fishermen.
In Egypt foreigners own all the dive centres, and some have made millions. The fishermen have stayed as poor as they always were, but are hated by the dive-centre owners who want to kill off their only source of income.
Eco-tourism helps the environment so long as the circle is complete, which includes benefiting the local community. All this reader did was to get the fishermen a fine.
Who is he to decide what they can and can't take from the sea? If he owns a large car, he will damage the environment more in his lifetime than those fishermen's whole village will in theirs.
I don't agree with shark-finning, but I have been involved in many projects that better fishermen's lives so that they become less dependant on this trade. We have saved countless turtles and sharks in this way, but complaining about natives just goes to show how little some people have to contribute!
Ahmed Adly, Hurghada
"Where do we go from here?" This lyric from Radiohead's The Bends describes how I felt recently after a relatively minor incident.
My wife and I were gifted a holiday in Corfu.
I had not done warmwater diving before - I was trained to PADI Advanced Open Water with drysuit and nitrox specialities in Scotland, have done 40 dives and consider myself a safe diver.
I organised six dives at the local dive centre. The first two at Paleokastritsa were excellent and I returned two days later. Water temperature was 26°C, visibility 35m. We dived a good profile to a maximum 31.5m, with lots to see. The second dive was also a perfect profile, to 23m.
After this dive, my buddy handed his BC up to the dive instructors in the RIB but, as he climbed aboard, he dropped his mask. Still kitted-up, I saw it settle on the seabed. Estimating it to be about 3m down, I thought I'd pop down to get it.
It took a couple of seconds to get down and a couple more to ascend. When my Suunto Vyper went nuts, I knew I had come up a little fast.
According to the computer, the mask had actually been in 6m. I chalked my stupidity up to experience, went out that evening and got a bit drunk with my wife and family. I felt fine.
Next morning, however, I had a hangover but also pins and needles in both feet and my left hand. Decompression illness? My wife suggested that it may have been due to sleeping in an awkward position in my drunken state, and I decided to give it 24 hours before seeking advice.
Next day I felt the same and called the Hyper-baric Medicine Unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, which advised me to get to the nearest chamber.
The dive school told me to go to Corfu Town Hospital, from where I could be airlifted to the Naval Hospital in Athens. My father-in-law drove me to the hospital, 40 minutes away.
A young doctor took blood samples, blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, two chest X-rays and listened to my chest. He said he believed I was OK as I had been able to walk into the hospital, and that I would not be airlifted but kept in overnight on oxygen. He said he didn't know a lot about DCI but would swot up on it!
In the morning the symptoms seemed a bit better. I was thankful when the doctor said I would no longer need oxygen, as my lungs felt as though they had ran a marathon. I would be kept in for another night and, if OK in the morning, I could fly home as scheduled on Monday.
I checked myself out and called Aberdeen again. The doctor advised me to get to Athens overland and said that if my symptoms were subsiding I should wait a week before flying home.
In a last-ditch effort to get to Athens, and though not a member, I contacted DAN Europe in Italy. I was given a direct number for the Athens hyperbaric unit, where the doctor said there was no need for decompression but that, as a precaution, I should wait a week before flying.
I know you experienced divers are thinking "what an idiot", but useful lessons are that depth can be very misleading in 30m-plus visibility; that you should still consider safety even after the dive is over; and that you should watch out when snorkelling after a day's diving. Swimming down and back up rapidly can be dangerous.
And get diving insurance: a single call could have solved all my problems.
Scott, Edinburgh
I read with interest the question in Medical Q&A Asthma - It's A Matter Of Colour. I too use a Fluticasone and Salmeterol preventer, as well as a Salbutamol reliever, and my asthma is now considered under control.
I am a PADI AOW diver with more than 60 dives. My doctor gave me a full medical before I started diving, including peak-flow measurements, with positive results.
Asthma attacks are triggered by a reaction either to allergens, irritants (strong odours, sprays or chemicals), exercise or smoke. The only two triggers a diver is likely to encounter are exercise and chemicals in the air supply.
In most cases, being fit and choosing dive sites sensibly will help prevent exercise being a trigger. If using a reputable dive centre there should be no harmful chemicals in your tank.
Pre-dive checks of the air supply will determine whether you are allergic or not to any chemicals, if present. Following these guidelines, I have never suffered any breathing difficulties during or after a dive.
All asthma sufferers know their own limitations, and preventing someone from participating in this wonderful sport because of asthma that is under control seems rather harsh.
James Stamp, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincs
I recently returned from a trip to the Red Sea and thought you may be saddened to learn that divers are still not heeding our warnings about interaction with wild life. This picture is of a diver who thought it would be fun to use a living DPV.
This guy pulled this poor turtle about using its flippers, and on several occasions spun it around. The poor creature was left very distressed and gasping for air. It was eventually released and made for the surface to breathe.
The quality of the picture is poor as I was not set up for the shot, but it shows the act nicely.
Mac Jessup
May I compliment you on your marvellous magazine, interesting articles and unbiased kit testing. I am a warmwater tourist diver (wimp, if you prefer) and had been looking for a lightweight, reasonably priced BC.
With the aid of your 2005/06 Gear Guide, I found just what I wanted, a Scubapro Glide 1000 - light enough to keep my luggage free from excess weight charges and costing less than £200. Keep up the good work.
Ray Cooper, Rickmansworth, Herts
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