By Divers Alert Network Dive sites are never constant. From currents to water temperature to depth, environmental variables can offer unique challenges and adventures. But before you embark on a new dive experience, make sure you have the skills you need and are well prepared for the conditions.  Currents …

By Natalie Gibb Claustrophobia. Darkness. Danger. These are some of the words I often hear associated with cave diving, but if you talk to actual cave divers, most speak about the activity in entirely different terms. They’ll talk about rooms filled with delicate stalactites, hanging from the ceiling like …

Mara Bohm, Kids Sea Camp Team Member and Dive Instructor As the travel industry returns to normal, we are encountering more guests catching COVID just before their vacation, leaving them laden with the difficult decision of what to do – go anyways? Cancel the entire vacation? Leave the infected family member …

The DAN Emergency Hotline has been a lifeline for divers around the world since it was launched in 1981. For 41 years, all divers have had access to expert medical assistance 24 hours a day, every day, at +1-919-684-9111. Earlier this year DAN launched a dedicated Spanish-language emergency hotline. …

As we dust off our dive gear and begin to travel, there’s a good chance you may come across some humpback whales. Here’s what you need to know about their behaviours…  Words and Photography By David Fleetham Humpback whales are found in all the world’s oceans and are often …

By Steve Lewis What kind of dive turns your crank? Cold water wildlife, tropical reefs, shipwrecks, caves… what’s your poison? Personally, I love cave diving more than anything else. As a kid, caves fascinated me and since then it’s simply grown to become an obsession of sorts. But when …

By Jill Heinerth I like to swim slowly when filming underwater, but sometimes my dive buddy flits around like a skittish fish. Moving quickly to gather sequences of various creatures can be exciting, but sometimes it is far better to focus on getting complete coverage of a single animal or …

Every summer, Aggressor Adventures travel agents see a surge in the number of vacationers interested in fulfilling one exhilarating travel wish—to scuba dive with sharks. The buzz is driven by an annual television programming frenzy focused on shark encounters, shark sightings, and shark evolution. Not only do divers want …

As the world consumed all the media at its sanitized finger tips, this past year one group of divers gave us access to a global roster of experts, professionally produced, free for all, and with a dash of East Coast humour… Words & Photography by Nicolas Winkler What is …

By Jean-Michel Cousteau and Holly Lohuis There are powerful meanings in the stories we share about our personal experiences in vastness of the ocean wilderness. Every scuba diver is a storyteller, sharing personal experiences of encounters with the beautiful underwater world, a place many people will never see for …

By Cristina Zenato It’s time to start thinking about the next scuba diving trip. Sharks are on the list; we have heard about the amazing locations and incredible encounters with the unique and magnificent species we have been dreaming about it for many years, and we are ready for …

The SeaLife SportDiver is not the first of its kind, but given their track record at producing user-friendly camera systems and the iPhone’s current image making capabilities, is now the time to start using your phone underwater? Words by Russell Clark We have, in the past, featured underwater iPhone …

Digital edition now available on Magzter. Features this issue: How to build a career in the diving industry – by Jill Heinerth the professional diver insurance crisis Giant Australian cuttlefish The US muck diving mecca New Shearwater computers! DIVER interview with Chris Adir Columns this issue: Shark Diving with …

Writer, Explorer, Inspirational Speaker How long have you been diving? Since April 2012 – close to 10 years! What made you want to become a diver? I was an unhappy lawyer in L.A. I lived for the weekends when new activities made me feel more alive. I signed up …

MacGillivray Freeman Films (MFF) announced that Secrets of The Sea, a co-production from Howard Hall Productions and Oceanic Research Group, is slated for release to IMAX and giant-screen theaters later this summer. The company’s latest giant screen release will be narrated by actress Joelle Carter. Joelle is best known …

Today the world’s largest island is being rediscovered – not by vikings, but by divers who travel to the Arctic in search of encounters with modern giants: whales, glaciers, and icebergs Words and Photography by Tobias Friedrich Greenland is unique. The landscape is stunning—so too, the freezing cold and silence. …

Photography by Maxwel Hohn / Words by Roseanne Keatley Life is thought to have evolved in the ancient seas, long before it was able to colonize land. Little is known about the first plants, but it is thought that they must have been closely related to some of the larger …

Words and Photography by Jill Heinerth In 1992, Editors Valerie Grey and Joe Prosser published the NSS Cave Diving Manual, which guided my education as a cave diver. Even before my first training class began, I knew I would seek out the location on the back cover of the book. …

By Michel Gilbert & Danielle Alary Seemingly ifinite memory card capacity, large buffers, impressive firing rates: all things that may turn you into a lazy photographer. Is there a curse hidden in our favourite tools, or does gear make us better photographers? We recently watched an interview with famed …

On a spring afternoon a call comes in to the police station citing an armed robbery has been committed at a local bank. The suspected criminals have fled the scene and EMS is in route. The last reported sighting of the suspects being seen was in a truck heading …

By Margo Peyton Two week diving vacations are the best way to heal from a long year of work—or a long, tiring year stuck at home during a pandemic. I have made a business out of dive vacations with Kids Sea Camp—we are experts in taking time off! Along …

By Divers Alert Network While bubble-related injuries get a lot of attention, they represent only a fraction of the trouble divers can face. Similarly, important safety concerns include slips and falls as well as injuries resulting from poor technique or insufficiently maintained equipment. The impact of any given safety …

By Natalie Gibb Fourteen years ago, the cave diving scene in Mexico looked a lot different than it does today: large, gruff men lounged on the tailgates of their pickup trucks, balancing backmount double tanks against the walls of their truck beds while they regaled each other with tales …

By Jill Heinerth When the sun drops below the horizon, vacationers often grab a cocktail and start sharing dive stories at the beach bar. Yet, if you only dive in the full light of day, you might be missing some extraordinary experiences. Night, dusk, and dawn dives bring fresh …

Words by Jean-Michel Cousteau and Holly Lohuis It has been almost a year now since I have had the opportunity to explore beneath the surface of the sea; and like many of you, I have stayed where it has been the safest, in the comforts of my home in …

As we reminisce about our love for dive travel, we got hooked on the many memories forged in one of the world’s most popular destinations. So why are the Cayman Islands a favourite for so many? Words by Drew McArthur Imagine turning up for your first ever scuba lesson only …

Aleš Procháska – Rebreather Designer / CTO & Co-Founder of Divesoft How long have you been diving? It’s been over 20 years. I took my first diving course in 1998. What moment made you become a diver? When I was a child, I read The Silent World by Jacques …

Words by Cristina Zenato As a firm believer that “one size does not fit all”, I’ll start my first column in DIVER by highlighting some of the considerations a diver should take before embarking on a shark diving trip. I’ll start with picking the operator.  As divers, we are …

From documentary maker to documentary subject, Mike deGruy’s wife and filmmaking partner continues her husband’s legacy with her new film Dive Deep: The Life and Times of Mike deGruy Words By Mimi deGruy Anyone who’s ever tried to make a film about the ocean knows it can be hard, …

Words by Steve Lewis I can’t recall what the original meeting was about. Probably something to do with training schedules or core standards or perhaps what flavour wings we’d order later that evening at ‘beer night’, but I do recall the head of the agency running up the stairs, swinging …

Words and Photography By Jill Heinerth Nine-tenths of a mile (1.4km) inside a submerged lava tube in the depths of the Monte Corona Volcano, cave diving explorer Sheck Exley faced what should have been certain death. It was 1983 when he and his dive partner Ken Fulghum hoped to …

Words and Photography by Jill Heinerth With travel opportunities shut down by COVID-19, we are all trying to find ways to stay excited about diving. As much as I long for a warm, tropical dive hovering over a Caribbean reef, I have to admit that I have recently found …

Words By Margo Peyton Every child moves at his/her own pace. While these tips can help you teach children to dive, individuality is much more important than when teaching adults diving. Photo courtesy: Kids Sea CampI’m sure you had a teacher you can easily think of, who you loved and …

Words By Heather Creech As with just about every other aspect of our lives, COVID-19 has had an impact on marine public education and citizen science projects.   At the time of writing, large institutions like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Ocean Wise (the Vancouver Aquarium) remain closed, while …

By Divers Alert Network Jellyfish are often associated with tropical climates—their gelatinous bodies are commonly seen drifting through warm waters—and they’re known for stinging unsuspecting divers, swimmers, and beachcombers. Cold water divers might be forgiven, then, for thinking that jellyfish stings are a problem they don’t really have to …

Words by Steve Lewis What a strange year 1994 was; not as famous as 1984 perhaps, and certainly not even close to the strangeness of 2020, but memorable in its own sweet way.  The movie Forrest Gump was released in 1994 and—at the other end of the interest spectrum—it was …