Profile: Angela Richards Donà – University of Hawaii, Manoa Angela was a fashion designer from New York, living and working in Italy in 2000. That year she got her open water certification and took a diving vacation in Egypt, at Sharm El Sheikh on the tip of the …

US Freediving is pleased to report that US Freediving athlete Ted Hardy, of Fort Lauderdale, FL, has won the prestigious DejaBlueV freediving competition. Ted complied the highest point total for all six competitive freediving disciplines completed within the competition. The weeklong competition allows athletes to contest for points derived …

Statistics show that almost always the cause is diver error By Dr. David Sawatzky In the last column I outlined how rebreathers work. There are many brands available and more coming on the market though the basic concepts for all of them are the same.  Rebreathers are complicated. There …

Most people have at least one phobia and some can can be dangerous for you and your buddy. Know what triggers your fearand how to stay in control in spite of it  Text by Madeline Ricchiuto When you first hit the water, either taking the Great Leap off the …

By Dr. David Sawatzky A couple of years ago I started writing a column on healthy eating.  I believed it to be relevant to diving but there was very little research to clarify that relationship.  Recently, several interesting articles have been published on this topic so it is time to …

Tonnes of fuel oil were recovered from the aging wreck but the Coast Guard says it will monitor the remote site for leakage Text by Robert Osborne Grenville Channel is the very epitome of west coast beauty. Rugged, heavily forested mountain slopes plunge precipitously into the deep, dark water …

An industry and training veteran says a poorly trained diver is a dropout statistic waiting to happen. Are you one of them? Do you agree? Text by Bret Gilliam   Diving is a sport that is complicated. Not adversely so… but just like snow skiing, hang gliding and spelunking, …

Text by Lilla Clare It started like most dive days, with clear skies, calm seas and vigorous activity hauling equipment onto the dive boat. It was a typical two-dive day charter catering to a transient group unfamiliar with the local dive site topography. What followed was a common enough …

An explorer begets the Explorer, the new Hollis Gear semi-closed unit that just may change and reinvigorate sport diving  Text by Michael Menduno   Kevin Gurr has been passionate about computing and rebreathers since his first rebreather dive in 1987. The prolific 54-year old British explorer, tech instructor and …

Dive industry pro Bret Gilliam offers the historical perspective The first research work in decompression physiology was not directed at scuba divers. Records from 1841 show that construction workers working at elevated pressures in either caissons (water-tight boxes inside which workers did construction underwater) or construction tunnels beneath rivers …

More than a decade ago a group of technical divers made a series of ‘unofficial’ deep dives on the heritage wrecks of Hamilton and Scourge in Lake Ontario. This is their story Text by Scott Stitt   It feels like we’ve been dropping forever. Descending through 150 feet (46m), …

By Dr. David Sawatzky There are many different kinds of hernias. A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or its fascia through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it.  Some hernias are very common and some quite rare. Each has a different implication for the diver …

As a follow up to Phil Nuytten’s tribute article in the current issue of DIVER, below is a reprint of dive pioneer Hans Hass’ 2007 open letter to the women of the world.   Human reproduction and the threat of self destruction Dear women all over the world! Let …

As government funding for exploration dries up, private ventures are beginning to lead the way. But we can’t all get grants from National Geographic, or ask for handouts from Paul Allen. Kickstarter.com is a ‘crowd funding’ website and a fast growing addition to the internet, labelled by Time magazine …

It’s a simple formula: burn more calories than you absorb By Dr. David Sawatzky In the last column I wrote about obesity, the advantages and disadvantages in relation to diving.  The bottom line was that obesity significantly increases the risks in a diver.  The problem is that most people …

By Dr. David Sawatzky As I write this column it is the middle of the Christmas holiday season.  No matter what your beliefs, virtually all of us celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the New, and that celebration usually involves eating excessive amounts of …

It’s rare in the recreational scuba enthusiast but deeper divers and pushing no-decompression limits can put you at risk By Dr. David Sawatzky The lesions of dysbaric osteonecrosis (DON) only occur in a few bones of the body.  They are found in the head and proximal shaft of the …

Will ‘diver’s rotting bone disease’ become more common as technical diving grows in popularity?  By Dr. David Sawatzky Dysbaric osteonecrosis (DON) was first identified in the 1940s and was found to be relatively common in the 1970s and early 1980s in some groups of divers but extremely rare in …

  By Dr. David Sawatzky In DIVER September 2002 I talked about blood thinners and diving, a discussion about deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and the requirement for people diagnosed with a DVT to be on a blood thinner for several months afterwards.  To be clear, ‘blood thinners’ do not …

By Dr. David Sawatzky Condition most common in divers 60 years and older Recently I’ve been exchanging emails with a diving friend who experienced sudden, severe, nausea, vomiting and vertigo after a dive in Mexico.  DAN diagnosed inner ear barotrauma and the local Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist …

  By Jill Heinerth Once a technique exclusive to elite cave explorers, sidemount diving today is trending in the ranks of recreational divers. Versatile and comfortable, the rig merges a specially designed wing with a harness and thanks to companies such as Hollis, Dive Rite and Golem Gear, they’re …

  By Stan Waterman I grow old… I grow old… I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing …

  Some divers handle it better than others, but underwater we all deal with it for better or worse Text by Bret Gilliam The following continues a discussion on diving and stress that appears in the current issue of DIVER Magazine, Volume 37 Number 8, now available on newsstands. …

DIVER salutes Ron Taylor, diver, pioneer underwater filmmaker and champion of our ocean world Read tributes below and add yours to the comments The world diving community has lost a charter member with the death September 9 of Australian underwater filmmaker Ron Taylor, at age 78. In partnership with …

DIVER Magazine contributor Jill Heinerth is an authority on sidemount diving and she’s also a professional filmmaker, so an instructive video on this technique of rigging gas cylinders a different way, was a certainty. Heinerth and fellow sidemounter Jeff Loflin recently released their 64-minute introductory DVD on sidemount diving …

Text by Jeremy Heywood Correction: When this story appeared in DIVER Volume 37 Number 4, Dr. Mica Endsley was inadvertently referred to as he, not she. We apologize for this error. Experts agree: situation awareness is critically important to diver safety. But because it’s regarded as an advanced skill …

Project Pink Tank is on a mission to get to the bottom of it. Text by Lisa Sonne More than 400 scuba enthusiasts, including open water, advanced, technical, and instructor level divers, are participating in “Project Pink Tank,” a multi-phase investigation into the relationships between scuba diving and the …

Text by Bret C. Gilliam The following discussion picks up from the current issue of DIVER Magazine – Volume 37 Number 4 – now on newsstands. Against the background of an historical perspective and today’s ardent debate on this subject author Bret Gilliam advocates the dissemination of more accurate …

The latest deployment of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) has begun with the international crew of aquanauts entering the habitat, Aquarius, yesterday for a twelve day mission. Aquarius, the world’s only undersea laboratory, is located in about 63 feet (20 metres) of water, three and a half miles …

The world’s largest dive training agency thinks they are, and they’ve developed courses for the rec and tec diver alike. Here, the agency’s Vice President of Rebreather Technologies, Mark Caney, weighs in on PADI’s new direction, the rise of a new ‘Type-R’ recreational rebreather, and the voice of opposition. …

The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), the world’s largest scuba training agency, has expanded its course offerings in recent months to include recreational rebreather instruction. What follows is the continuation of an interview with Mark Caney, PADI’s Vice President of Rebreather Technologies, published in the current issue of …

The underwater world and the diving community have suffered a loss with the deaths of Mike deGruy and Andrew Wight, killed in a helicopter crash February 3 near Sydney, Australia. Both men were divers of long experience and professionals in the media world, bringing the beauty and excitement of …

Diving Medicine By Dr. David Sawatzky A seizure is a sudden surge in electrical activity of the brain that alters how an individual feels or acts for a short period of time.  In a classic ‘grand mal’ seizure a person looses consciousness, all of their muscles contract for up …

Diving Medicine By Dr. David Sawatzky In the last column we looked at epilepsy and seizures.  However, epilepsy and seizures are a relatively rare cause of loss of consciousness.  The most common cause of loss of consciousness is fainting (syncope) and it results in one of every 30 visits …

Diving Medicine By Dr. David Sawatzky In this column we will look at the breath-hold diver who suddenly looses consciousness in relatively shallow water.  These individuals often die from drowning.  This phenomenon has been called ‘shallow water blackout’ but the term should be avoided – it’s confusing.  Initially shallow …

Diving Medicine By Dr. David Sawatzky Frequently, I receive reader questions. The following (edited) enquiries raise several issues of interest. Does Nitrox Have a Taste? Should Nitrox taste any different from regular air? I’ve noticed a difference. Air is odourless and tasteless in contrast to Nitrox, which I found …