Independent Scuba » Thoughts and News

Windfarm and underwater caves

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 10:21:54 +0000

Malta is a tiny country with a major problem when it comes to electricity generation. As one step towards a more sustainable approach the government has planned to build a wind farm off Mellieha on a reef called Sikka l-Bajda – The White Reef. This reef is very nice for diving and this wind farm would surely affect it negatively. Interestingly enough, an article in the times of Malta mention that large underwater caves have been found on the reef. I am certain that we have not heard the last about this controversial project and you can read more here.

World War 1 Submarine discovered

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:36:52 +0000

Deep Sea Productions, a very experienced Swedish team has found the British submarine E18 has been discovered close to an Estoninan island. The sub as been missing since 1916 when it disappeared during a routine assignemt. I have no information about depth or more details about its location but I am certain that it would be a fascinating dive. Some more information can be found here.

E18 found in the Baltic

Regularly irregular

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:43:18 +0000

As some of yo may have noticed the updates are not as regular as they have been. This is due to some changes in my professional life which makes it hard to have enough time to keep up writing. I will keep adding updates on a slightly irregular basis to please be patient!

Underwater mysteries

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:03:36 +0000

For anyone who like me watched Indiana Jones in their young years it is hard not to be fascinated with stories of people finding ancient structure underwater such as the ones in Younaguni in Okinawa. There are tons of web sites about this and they are often more or less fantastic. I came across Morien Institute which has a pretty descent news flow about underwater discoveries. Remember to scroll down since there is a bit of the usual Atlantis talk on the top of the page.

Expedition Bismarck

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 08:10:19 +0000

I have briefly mentioned the Bismarck in my write up about HMS Maori and she is certainly something out of the ordinary. As I was browsing through Youtube I came across James Camerons excellent account of her sinking. You can watch all ten parts here – extremely interesting!

New aircraft wrecks found off Malta

admin — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:57:59 +0000

A couple of new aircraft wrecks have been found off Malta by minesweepers. Times of Malta reports that the wrecks are a Firefly, one Beaufighter and a Skyraider. I have unfortunately no information about the depth of these wrecks but a Beaufighter in good condition would certainly be an interesting dive. More information and some footage can be found here.

Black listed dive centres in Egypt

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:30:58 +0000

Egypt has forcibly closed 23 dive centres which supposedly do not meed the quality requirements set up by the Chamber of Diving and Watersports. This is a part of a license enforcing programme. While this sounds good in theory I am not so convinced that process works well. Egypt is a thoroughly corrupt country and there are some very well run centres on the list as far as I can judge. Let us see what else that will come out of this process. I am generally speaking positive to quality controls but I have seen how poorly this can work in places like Malta so I am slightly sceptical about actions like these. The good thing here is that the controls seem to be based on ISO standards – let us hope that things are done correctly!

Sea Pioneers – Dahab
Sertaki – Dahab
Oxygene – Dahab
Dahab Tec Divers – Dahab
Red Sea Ringers – Dahab
Sea View Divers – Dahab
Centre at Rokita Hotel – Dahab
Callyez Aqua Tec – Dahab
SSX Hammer Head – Sharm El Sheikh
Divers Planet – Sharm El Sheikh
Dive For fun – Sharm El Sheikh
Sea & C – Sharm El Sheikh
Blue Lagoon* – Sharm El Sheikh
Magic Dive Club – Sharm El Sheikh
Brother Dive College – Sharm El Sheikh
Red Sea Ringers – Sharm El Sheikh
Aqua Nabq – Sharm El Sheikh
Halala Balala – Sharm El Sheikh
Easy Divers – Sharm El Sheikh
Divers Bay – Sharm El Sheikh
Centre at Aida Hotel (NOT Scuba Divers Red Sea) – Sharm El Sheikh
Absolut Divers – Sharm El Sheikh
Taba Divers – Taba

Reverse profiling

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:59:39 +0000

Reverse profiling has been a hot topic over the years and it will probably stay like that until we fully understand decompression and the mechanisms that control whether we get bent or not. The traditional view is that you should start with the deepest dive first and then continue with shallower dives. So far so good.

DAN recommended 1999 that you can dive your dives in any order you prefer basing this on the fact that there were no research available to prove the opposite and it seems that the incidence of DCI had not increased when divers had ignored the classic approach. This has since been followed by lots of diver but PADI has decided to keep their traditional approach – a very wise decision I think.

In 2005 an article was published about reverse profiling which really puts things in a different perspective.

Multi-level dives

- Two groups of 11 guinea pigs each got to do each forward and reverse multi level dive profiles
- In the group which did the forward profile (normal approach) no DCI was detected
- 55% of the animals in the reverse group developed serious DCI and died

This is quite clear evidence that there is a significant difference in forward and reverse diving profiles. One should keep in mind though that humans are quite different to guinea pigs and that these profiles must be very extreme. Doing the same tests for humans would probably give quite different results but the trend would most likely be the same.

Repetitive dives

Repetitive dives are a little bit more realistic – I don’t actually think that many divers would do reverse multi level dives as suggested above.

- Two groups were then used to test repetitive diving
- None of the guinea pigs in the forward profile group were injured vs 33% in the reverse diving profile group

Conclusion

It is clear to me that we don’t fully understand exactly what is going on during decompression. Although many divers have done reverse profiles without getting bent does not mean that they are safe – the investigation above clearly indicates the opposite. In addition to this - almost all research on tables etc is done based on forward profiling. With all this in mind I would strongly recommend anyone to follow the traditional approach and avoid reverse profiles.

You can read the full article at Rubicon Foundation.

New constant weight world record

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:29:05 +0000

Sara Campbell has set a new world record in constant weight. Constant weight is a discipline in which the free diver swims down with just mask and fins – no extra use of weights or dumping of such is allowed. She managed to reach 96 metres and the dive lasted 3 minutes and 34 seconds! Extremely impressive. Makes you wonder why you bother to do training in technical diving…

Dynamite Disaster

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:17:53 +0000

A diver has been accidentally killed by dynamite fishermen in Vietnam. The four fishermen told Phun Nu district police that they detonated an underwater explosive after seeing the diver’s bubbles at the surface and thinking that it was a large fish. They realised their horrific error when they entered the water supposedly to recover any fish but instead found the diver, who was already dead. The fishermen tried to leave the scene, but Phun Nu coastguards, who had heard the explosion, came over to arrest them, as dynamite fishing is illegal in Vietnam.

The full scale of the tragedy then became clear. It is reported that the fishermen are to be charged over the death, and with illegally destroying marine resources.