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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 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 …

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 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 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 …

Words by Natalie Gibb Are you cave diving as much as you would like? Unless you are fortunate enough to live in a location with local cave diving, it’s safe to say that the answer this year is a resounding “No!” Even in less apocalyptic times, cave divers can …

By Natalie Gibb I read an uniformed and rather prejudiced opinion on Facebook the other day. Actually, I read quite a few such opinions, but this one had to do with the use of drysuits by cavern diving and cave diving guides in Mexico. “If you use a drysuit in …

He’s photographed more wrecks than we can count. After several articles for DIVER, we gave the renowned UK photographer the challenge of finding his favourite five. Words and Photography By Steve Jones I’ve visited my fair share of wrecks over the years, so shortlisting five that have left the …

An exciting week fin lovers! Fourth Element’s new Rec Fins have hit the market. The recycled dive fin is made from post consumer plastic waste. With a fully recycled plastic blade, the Rec Fins deliver great diving performance with a much lower impact on the environment. The classic 4 channel …

Exotech Company has kicked off the Kickstarter campaign for their new product – Folding Fins. Inspired by nature, Folding Fins, will allow you to take them in your luggage and across the world with a little more ease. Finding  regular fins to be unhandy and hard to fit into …

  An apocalyptic nightmare is threatening dive sites in Tulum. The project, known as the ‘Tren Maya’ in Spanish, is an ill-conceived, poorly planned project to create a train corridor along the paradisiacal Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It has already grossly disrupted tourism and resulted in the …

Words by Ken Merryman Strictly speaking, the term photogrammetry is the science of making measurements from photographs.  It means one can determine the true size of an object in a photo from the size of the object on the camera sensor knowing the camera lens and distance from the camera.  …

By Natalie Gibb A well-made map of an underwater cave is a beautiful thing. A cartographer must achieve a balance between the level of detail and the ‘big picture’ overview to create a usable map for cave divers. I am not an underwater cartographer, but I know a few, and …

A love letter to Newfoundland, the Truk Lagoon of Great White North, a destination that will fast become your new second home Words by Russell Clark “Sit yer-self down lads, I just cooked some of me home made moose sausages.” The first words from local legend Rick Stanley are …

Demystifying Dive Computers Words and Photography by Jill Heinerth In my previous article I looked into incident reports that fell outside of the data gathered by organizations such as DAN. In this article, I’m going to dive into the physiology of decompression, gradient factors, and conservatism strategies. When you …

“Old things become new with the passage of time” – Greek Proverb Words by Maria Fotiadi, Erikos Kranidiotis, Stelios Stamatakis The mines of Lavrion: a vast complex of tunnels, covering more than 46 square miles (120km2), that has produced unimaginable quantities of silver, lead and copper throughout the centuries.  Mining …

By Natalie Gibb I cave dive every day. Flooded caves are one of the most difficult dive environments on the planet, and my job requires monitoring a variety of factors all at once: navigation, control, my buddy, and host of factors such as dive time, depth, time to surface, no-deco …

By Steve Lewis There are few simple questions more difficult to answer than “How much is a rebreather?” More so if the person asking advice is a rebreather newbie about to buy their first unit. On the face of it, all that’s required is a straight dollar amount. Let’s …

Words and Photography by Jan Morton and Chris Straub  Gorgeous tropical reef dives are fine and dandy, but sometimes you just want to sink your teeth into a wreck… In 2014, through a combination of wanderlust and happenstance, Jan Morton found himself on Siquijor Island and fell in love with this …

By Steve Lewis I can’t recall which Charles Dickens character I am misquoting—I believe it is Ebenezer Scrooge from the novella A Christmas Carol — but the gist is this: “Income one pound; expenses 19 shillings and 11 pence; outcome bliss. Income one pound; expenses one pound and one penny; outcome misery.” Which …

Words by Kevin Brown Our exploration of the abandoned cold water mine started first with a plunge into the archives. While the Outaouais region Quebec owes its development largely to heavy mining, our industrial heritage has not had much historical value placed on it, and very little documentation exists …

By Natalie Gibb Not all caves are claustrophobic or extremely technical. If you have seen beautiful images of underwater caves and think they look amazing, but are unsure about the riskiness of the sport, this article is for you.  Although diving in flooded caves is exciting, the correct mindset …

By Natalie Gibb from Under The Jungle Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would like cave diving. Cave diving just sounds scary, and with no frame of reference, I couldn’t visualize swimming through a flooded cave. I had nightmare visions of being trapped in …

By Steve Lewis Nobody likes to screw up. None of us start marching along a pathway to a personal goal with the intention of losing our way and falling short—failing. Failing has the potential to ruin your day, or, at the other end of the spectrum of possible consequences, …

Garmin have announced the Descent Mk2S, its smallest watch-style dive computer – ideal for women and those with smaller wrists – designed for everyday wear and maximum functionality. Packed with innovative dive technology and Garmin’s most sought-after built-in activity sports profiles and wellness features, the Descent Mk2S is a tool …

Founded in 2015, NOVE has been making waves in the timepiece industry due to their comprehensive design that joins function and fashion. Representing the new sense of innovation in the field of watch design, their mission of creating beautiful, unique wristwatches pays homage to the rich history of craftsmanship …

Divers share a collective passion for the underwater world and a mutual fascination with the wondrous creatures of the sea. Perhaps it’s swimming with dolphins off the sunny coast of California they dream of, or diving side by side with whale sharks in the warm waters of Western Australia. …

Coral Guardian, a major force in coral reef conservation around the world, now offers a unique Christmas gift through it’s Adopt a Coral program, Coral Guardian. So spoil your loved ones, or yourself, while contributing to the protection of the ocean. Click here to adopt!  Each coral adopted comes …

NOVE recently announced their first automatic Swiss-made wristwatch via Indiegogo. The new Trident R150, or simply the Trident Automatic, is a sleek redesign of their Trident line of watches, a popular choice among divers due to its water-resistant capabilities up to 200 meters under water. Inspired by Poseidon and …

New mapping technology and a small manned submersible allow a team of scientists to 3D map a moment in history Text by Joseph Frey On July 15, 1942 Kapitänleutnant Hans-Dieter Heinicke, commander of German submarine U-576, would make a decision that would seal his fate and that of his …

Off the shores of Florida’s Key Largo, buried beneath almost two centuries of coral reef formations, lay remnants of the dark side of 1820s piracy and the illegal transport of slaves from Africa to Cuba Text By Joseph Frey Early on a hot July morning we head out into …