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The liveliest letters from the DIVER mailbag...
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Should we now test air as well as nitrox mixes? I have just returned from a club trip to the northern Red Sea, where we were using a large dayboat chartered by a well-run dive company.
About half of the 26 divers on board were using nitrox mixes, including our group of eight, and half were only air-qualified.
On the fourth day, our group were all dutifully testing our nitrox and we discovered one fill in a correctly marked nitrox cylinder that mistakenly contained air.
No problem, it was instantly changed over to another nitrox-filled cylinder with a "sorry" from our dive guide.
So what of the reverse mistake of an air cylinder containing a nitrox mix? It's just as likely. Non nitrox-qualified divers naturally assume that their cylinders contain a 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen mix, but with the growing popularity of nitrox use everywhere, it seems to me that there is now a case for personal testing of air before a dive.
The air divers were descending to around 40m on the wreck of the Rosalie Moller at Abu Nuhas, and this could be a fatal dive with an accidental 36% nitrox mix.
Andrew Nebbett, Honiton, Devon
I have taught many people how to dive, and one of the biggest fears among new divers is of running out of air and/or drowning.
Many experienced divers are completely blasé on this subject - running out of air will never happen, right? Well, let's hope not.
Are we really experienced enough to handle an out-of-air situation should it happen? Before Christmas, a group of us were diving in Egypt. Being experienced divers, instructors and friends, we know one another pretty well and always strive to make our dives fun.
On one dive at 15m, one of the group thought it would be good to turn my air off. Not very professional, I know.
Why is it that you always run out of air just as you have emptied your lungs? I remember trying to breathe and finding it impossible. I knew that we were not very deep and, having just looked at my computer, that I had 100 bar left. So I couldn't understand what was going on.
They say that in a near-death experience your life flashes before you. In this case, it was the pages of my training manual.
Within seconds, my lungs were burning for air. My buddy was positioned so that I could not see his alternative air source and options were running out fast.
I remained calm and clear-headed, but my survival instincts were starting to tell me different things. Could I make it to the surface? It would be touch and go and, having started the dive at 30m, I wanted to avoid this option if I could.
Then I caught a glimpse of the offender, who was still close by with his regulator - what bliss! With a few thankful lungfuls of air and the twist of a valve, normal service was restored. We continued the dive, but my respect for air had changed!
When you drop a slice of bread and butter, it always falls buttered side down. Equally, when in water, if it is going to go wrong it will, so don't get blasé, and remember that you are always one breath away from death. It may just save your life.
Richard Wingett, Maidstone, Kent
Comment: Richard, we're intrigued - just how often do you run out of air just as you have emptied your lungs?
Question: What do you do with a beautiful island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, lapped by turquoise waters; fringed with soft, white sand; covered with lush, swaying palms; and blessed with a wonderful coral reef system just metres from its shore?
Answer: Smash it to pieces, because the island clearly isn't idyllic enough. Then, with "god-like ambition" and a "remarkable feat" of engineering, create another island - six times the size of the one you've wiped out and which only extremely rich people can afford to visit (Latest Ultimate Dive Centre, January).
My wife and I visited the original Reethi Rah in August 2001. It was a fabulous place where the staff couldn't do enough for you.
The food was delicious, the snorkelling on the house reef a delight and the diving on the surrounding reefs spectacular.
Reethi Rah was then a relatively inexpensive three-star island where less well-off people could drink in the wonder of the Maldives. What it lacked in luxury trimmings it made up for in charm - it was a real Robinson Crusoe castaway island.
There was a lot of talk among the staff about the island being closed and upgraded to a luxury five-star resort. Most people thought this would involve a bit of decorating, not the wholesale destruction of the resort.
I think what The One&Only has done to Reethi Rah (which means "Beautiful Island" in the Maldivian language Divehi) is despicable.
It has built the biggest island in the Maldives, with 6km of coastline, 12 beaches, and 130 villas. The smallest of these is more than 1400sq ft - that's about the size of your average four-bedroom house in the UK. The bigger villas are almost 3500sq ft!
Each has its own swimming pool (quite why when you have the Indian Ocean to swim in is a mystery), and there are tennis courts and other top-of-the-range sporting facilities.
How much destruction must have happened to the original island, its coral reefs and eco-systems, not to mention the long-term effects of radically changing the topography of the area? For a magazine that has so often written about the tragic loss and harm done to coral systems around the world, I find it remarkable that you choose to celebrate such a wanton act in the pursuit of tourist dollars.
Monty Halls' eulogy could have been written by the PR director who greeted him to describe how wonderful the island is (and to arrange having lunch with the models on the photo shoot).
He writes "...the sort of people who travel the world seeking out the last word in something tend to be drawn by the big things, and to notice the small things." My fear is that they couldn't give a damn about the small things.
Martin Greig, Rippingale, Lincs
Monty Halls replies: I did indeed enjoy my time at Reethi Rah, although unfortunately I didn't have the perspective of having visited the island before the establishment of the new resort. I commented in the article on the enthusiasm and drive of the dive operation - particularly the ambitions of the centre's manager, who was putting in place various plans for environmental survey work on the local reefs. I also mentioned that there was "some evidence of broken coral and silting" although of course, as a visiting dive journalist, it is possible that I was taken only to selected sites where the damage was minimal.
As for the rest of the Reethi Rah experience, I was reporting from the perspective of a guest, and am happy to stand by the article.
I also feel that Reethi Rah has made a considerable contribution in terms of the income and employment it has brought to the Maldives in the wake of the tsunami.
I read in January's News pages that some 16,400 of us who like to get wet graced the Dive 2005 show at the NEC to peruse, haggle, and purchase that new bit of essential kit or well-earned diving holiday, or even just listen to one of the many icons of the diving world educate the interested.
It seems a shame then that the Shark Trust managed to collect only a Scrooge-like 1000 signatures on its petition from those who attended the show. We should be ashamed at this lack of support. Is the diving community, like most of the rest of mankind, paying only lip-service to the idea of conservation?
We refer to ourselves as rufty-tufty, hairy-arsed divers in the UK, and perhaps we're a bit illiterate, but surely over many years of signing dive logs we have learned to write our own names?
I hate to imagine what the response would have been from the non-diving community.
Steve Mundy, Southbourne, Dorset
I am appalled by the drop in training standards described by Norma Paynton (Let Down By UK instructor, Off-Gassing, January). I have been a loyal PADI diver for nearly two years, and had never heard a word against it, but this has seriously shaken my faith.
I cannot believe that after this terrible training the instructor described instructors abroad as "not up to PADI standards"! I suggest that Norma complain about the instructor (or club) responsible to PADI. I may be only a 13-year-old Junior Open Water Diver, but I believe I could provide a better standard of training!
In future, I suggest Norma researches a club's reputation before diving with it.
Thomas Artingstall, Stalybridge
My son and I recently qualified with an excellent PADI instructor. Reading your magazine and website (both excellent) along with other websites to decide on our next steps, I was dismayed to read not only about the poor-quality PADI training Norma Paynton received, but also about poor guides in the Caribbean and other places, and deaths and near-deaths from a range of causes.
Is there such as thing as whistle-blowing in the diving community? A couple of weeks after my instructor sent my details off to PADI, I received a detailed questionnaire by email enquiring about every aspect of the training I had received.
I am sure PADI would be horrified to hear of poor standards and I think it is in the interests of everyone to blow the whistle if they discover someone delivering such instruction in its name.
Linda Marsh, Silkstone Common, Barnsley
On holiday in Gran Canaria last year I took the PADI Discover Scuba Diving program and was hooked. I then booked another dive for the following day, and the PADI Open Water Diver course for this April.
When I returned home, I started buying my gear and looking for places to go and practise my snorkelling skills and get used to donning and wearing the gear in readiness for the course I had booked. Registered with PADI, I was eager to share divers' experiences and find places I could visit.
I was surprised to find that, on our diverse island of rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs, quarries, ponds and miles of coastline, the majority of the logged experiences for England came down to four sites.
Does nobody dive or snorkel anywhere else? If they do, don't they want to share it with others? I constantly hear that divers are an enthusiastic and friendly lot, but I feel this only applies to those of us who have just discovered diving or have been diving for only the past two or three years. Once you get your certificate and complete 40-50 dives, perhaps the enthusiasm becomes a bit diluted.
Come on, log your experiences and share sites that are both interesting and safe to visit, because enthusiastic novices like me would welcome your guidance.
Dave Hill, Oldham, Lancs
My wife and I love to snorkel, and I have been diving for more than eight years. We often visit aquariums when we go away, as we both love to see the fish.
Wandering the streets of Paphos while on a New Year break in Cyprus, we came across the local aquarium, which boasted more than 72 "spacious and environmentally friendly tanks," and residents including crocodiles and sharks.
We were appalled. As we wandered round, we saw information that was factually incorrect, dead fish in at least four tanks and two moray eels in tanks I felt were far too small for them, with one unable to turn without going upwards.
My mood continued to darken. Then we came across the shark habitat, a cylindrical tank with
a central core that meant that the three blacktips it contained could only swim in circles around the outside of the tank.
Aquariums can be excellent learning environments, but they shouldn't be to the detriment of the health of the residents. Don't visit the Paphos Aquarium,
Roy Stevenson, Middlesex
This isn't a moan but please consider, we are all buying dive equipment from the buy-it-cheap, pile-it-high Internet superstores. Let's face it, no one likes to pay over the odds and I am as much an Ebay and Amazonaholic as the next person.
But we need our local dive stores. They service our equipment, give us advice and fill our cylinders - yes, they may charge higher prices but we need them. Once they're gone, sending cylinders for refills is going to be quite costly, don't you think?
It's also not fair hanging around in the dive store getting all their expertise, drinking their coffee and clogging up their premises only to log on to "reduced-regs.org" or whatever and buy from them.
I have ordered scuba-related items from the net on many occasions but have never yet received a bargain. There is always something not quite right. Maybe that's just hard luck - who knows?
Online, you can't touch the item, look at it in 3D or see that it's actually covered in scratches and not worth saving £30 from the net store.
Mark Newman, Maidstone
Having read Cancun Revelations by John Liddiard (January 2004), I was looking forward to my holiday in Mexico. Warm, clear waters and plenty of fish life on shallow reefs sounded ideal for me, having done only 12 dives before.
The sea looked rough, but they assured me at the dive centre that this was common, and that they went diving when it was much rougher.
Kitting up on the Makko as it battered through the waves was an experience. We were told we would be doing a 1.5km drift dive. I made a mess of my backward roll and ended up under the boat, banging my head on the hull and one of the engines, but was OK to continue.
We did quite a bit of hard finning for what was supposed to be a drift dive. At the end of the dive we surfaced in the wrong bay; our dive boat was around the point in the next one. The instructor assured us that it would come for us soon.
After swimming against the waves and wind for 20 minutes and refusing offers of rescue from two other boats, he reluctantly accepted a ride from a dive-boat, to reunite us with the Makko. Feeling tired, I reluctantly decided to miss the second dive.
As the instructor went in with the other two divers, he informed the captain that the propeller had snagged on a mooring line. The captain dug out a mask and snorkel for the crewman and ordered him into the water.
After 10 minutes, he returned and gave the mask and snorkel to the captain, who went in to sort it out. The boat was being held stern to the swell, and a small amount of water was coming in over the stern.
The crewman seemed unconcerned, and at first I assumed we must have flotation tanks, but then he emptied out the contents of a large coolbox and started frantically bailing with it!
I could find nothing to hand with which to help, but just then the Captain bobbed up and shouted: "Get in the water! Get in the water!"
Grabbing my fins, as I thought they would make swimming easier, I jumped in and swam away. Looking back, I saw the boat gracefully turn as the stern went down.
The bow bobbed up and down a couple of times until all the trapped air had escaped, and down she went!
We were a long way out to sea, with no other boats in sight. Being a natural sinker, having no BC or lifejacket and already tired out, things did not look too rosy. But at least my dive bag floated to the surface, so I rescued it.
Soon afterwards, the captain and crewman spotted another dive-boat and whistled and shouted for help.
What a relief! This very helpful chap went around fishing out all the bits and pieces floating on the surface, including the hat of one of the divers, with his keys and T-shirt stuffed inside it.
After picking up his divers, we went to pick up our own divers. They didn't seem too surprised to be picked up by a different boat again - until they spotted me.
When I explained what had happened, they thought it was a great laugh, which helped ease the shock for me.
Back at the dive centre, the manager asked if we had had "an exciting time".
"Two rescues in one morning was too exciting!" I replied. My first reaction was to give up diving, but my wife encouraged me to give it another go. So I decided to try cavern diving in Chac Mool Cenote - at least there wouldn't be a dive boat to sink there!
It was out of this world and fully restored my love of diving. I went out on another boat to dive on the reefs off Cancun and thoroughly enjoyed that too. But I always keep my BC or a lifejacket handy when I'm on a boat now!
James Hill, Chepstow, Monmouth
With reference to Mike Follows (Let Jaws Climax Be A Warning, Off-Gassing, January), I'm sorry but the end of the Jaws film is a bit of Hollywood special effects.
Sky TV's Mythbusters programme recreated the final explosive ending by shooting the bottom of an aluminium cylinder with the same type of gun used in the film.
Alas, the cylinder just released the high-pressure gas and whizzed round the room.
Sorry, Mike. A cylinder is likely to explode only if it is put under pressure, ie when being filled, hence the reason for pressure testing every few years. The real ending would probably just have seen Jaws moving backwards
a bit quickly!
David Rose, Stourbridge
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