Words and Photography by Jill Heinerth   Rebreathers offer an entirely new way to enjoy the underwater world. Whether it is the technology that attracts you or the potential to swim free without making bubbles, the decision to enter the domain of rebreather diving is a significant one. You …

  By Dr. David Sawatzky Rebreathers are becoming ever more common in the diving community, and in diving fatality records.  I wanted to write a column on rebreather fatalities but immediately realized that it would make no sense to most divers unless they had a good, basic understanding of …

By Steve Lewis So, you’re looking at taking the big step into rebreathers, are you? Let’s chat. It’s okay, your secrets are safe with me. I’ll admit it, I have owned a few rebreathers myself. At last count, there have been twelve. But no worries, I am getting better, …

Text by Russell Clark Panasonic and Aquatica bring professional underwater video tools to the masses with the GH5, GH5S and AGH5 housing. Get ready to be more creative!   Every few years a camera comes along that helps to evolve photography and video. The GoPro, the Sony RX100, the …

Text and Illustrations By Jill Heinerth I have never figured out why so few North American technical divers wear helmets. Perhaps helmets never reached the Pantheon of hip here? Divers in other parts of the world would never consider exposing their scalps to the ceiling of a cave or wreck …

Text by Ray Stevens As the deep-sea oil and gas industries continue to thrive, demand for a solid marine infrastructure is expected to continue as well. This means that specially trained underwater welders will be needed to complete the building of underwater structures. For some, a career in underwater welding …

Text by Jill Heinerth Ask a rebreather diver what drives their rebreather and they will undoubtedly tell you, the oxygen sensors. These annually disposable devices are critical to creating a safe breathing loop and yet when not functioning properly can reduce a $10,000 investment in life support to a …

DIVER magazine would like to announce an amendment to our current Gear Guide issue. Our pricing of the Shearwater NERD (page 24 of Volume 41, Issue 1) should be CAD$2,500, and not $950 as printed. This is an editorial mistake by us, we put it down to a mixture of pre-Christmas excitement, narcosis, …

With over 72{c383baab7bef8067e8c9786a45d8006c492489841a98fe37723e304bb1ddd030} of the world’s surface taken up by ocean, there is a huge amount of ocean still to be discovered. Only 5{c383baab7bef8067e8c9786a45d8006c492489841a98fe37723e304bb1ddd030} of the world’s Oceans have been explored and even though it is such a small amount, given how much surface area these oceans cover, we …

Nanuk 935 $259.99 – with foam For all the scuba gear you own and need to transport and store, there is Nanuk. A Canadian company in biz for more than 20 years, they offer a wide range of cases to protect everything from your expensive regulators to your iPhone, and your video …

The Niagara Divers’ Association will present its 21st Annual Shipwrecks Symposium on Saturday, May 2, 2015. This one-day symposium on shipwrecks will feature multimedia presentations with internationally renowned speakers from both the United States and Canada. $44 CDN / US up to January 26, 2015; $49 CDN / US …

Parks Canada have just uploaded a high-definition video on the first-ever tour of the shipwreck of HMS Erebus provided by our archaeologists. Read about the next part of their expedition here.  

Divers are set to revisit the sunken Franklin ship HMS Erebus in the arctic over the next week or so in an ambitious joint operation that will pair up Parks Canada Underwater Archaeology Service and Royal Canadian Navy Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic and Pacific) divers in the first under …

Without any doubt, the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia’s most popular and exciting, non-diving event is our annual SHIPWRECKS conference. While you will need to leave your regulators and scuba tanks at home for this event,  there will be no shortage of diving stories, and divers to meet, …

Shearwater Research, responsible for the rather excellent technical computers Petrel and Petrel 2, have released a new and improved desktop application cunningly called Shearwater Desktop. Available for both Mac and Windows users, the new software offers an improved user experience, making it easier to implement firmware updates. Firmware is a vital part …

Artifacts recovered from a shipwreck off Singapore are currently on display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. See the next issue of DIVER for the feature by writer Stephen Weir.          

California based Light & Motion has been at the forefront of underwater imaging for several years and their Kickstarter announcement has captured the attention of a lot of underwater photographers and videographers! The Sidekick Kickstarter campaign aims to raise $50,000 so Light & Motion can begin full production of their excellent new GoPro light called Sidekick. …

QuikPod From $49.99 A great camera accessory, whether you’re shooting with a dSLR, compact, phone or GoPro, there’s a QuikPod for you. Customize with sturdy tripod legs, a floating lanyard, bluetooth remote shutter, smartphone adapter and more. Good build quality, long lasting and very handy – we have one on every …

US gear manufacturer Hollis, have announced a partnership with Canada’s Sea the World Adventure Travel, with their first expedition to Truk Lagoon now taking bookings for 2016.  Divers will get the chance to join Hollis Ambassador, Bill Coltart, aboard the luxurious S/Y Truk Siren for a ten day wreck diving expedition. Divers …

Whilst at DEMA this year, we had the pleasure of bumping into Chelsea Welch. Her exciting new Kickstarter campaign is for a women’s dive watch that’s been designed by women divers. Las Vegas based The Abingdon Co. is a boutique watch company for women.  They’ve produced and sold luxurious adventure watches …

A couple of hours northwest of Stockholm, Sweden offers up a dive site extraordinary for its location and blend of natural and manmade features. Known as the Tuna-Hästberg mine, it’s a vast web of water-filled passages tens of kilometres long, radiating in all directions far beneath the earth’s surface. …

New Zealand’s Mikhail Lermontov reveals a tragic tale of duels, death and poetic injustice, but it’s a helluva sunken ship to explore Text by Kevin Davidson and H.E. Sawyer Photography by Kevin Davidson This tale comes from Soviet Russia, so naturally it’s a tragedy. And a tragedy born out …

Underwater archaeological preserves reveal history of this sunny, seafaring state Text by Franklin H. Price For a landmass almost completely surrounded by the sea, it’s no big surprise that maritime history figures prominently in its story. It’s certainly true of Florida, southernmost of the continental United States and with …

SeaLife Micro HD 16GB $399.95 Micro HD+ 32GB WiFi $499.95 The newest addition to the SeaLife range of user-friendly cameras is the ultra compact Micro HD. Unlike most cameras this is a sealed unit – no openings, no O-rings, no memory card ports and, therefore, no risk of flooding. SeaLife’s trusted ‘piano key’ design makes …

Lowepro DryZone 200 US$283.86 ‘A drysuit for your gear’ claims the world’s first waterproof soft-sided camera backpack. TIZIP zipper system, rubber covered sealed seams, adjustable dividers, mesh pockets and a lifetime warranty. www.lowepro.com Ikelite RX100 III housing $550 Sony’s RX100 III is a first rate compact camera that produces …

The Franklin ship discovered in early September by the 2014 search team in the Canadian arctic has been identified as HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 two-ship expedition and the vessel directly under his command.  HMS Terror, remains to be found. The confirmation was made by …

First Published in DIVER Volume 38 Issue 5 By Phil Nuytten The problem: A swillion, or so, years ago, we humans were designed (or evolved, or left here by aliens – please substitute your desired flavour) to function best under a fairly rigid set of specifications. These specs include …

Advances in gear design & technology over 60 years may not make diving more fun, but it is much easier. And, a picture’s worth a lot of words, we think! Text by Phil Nuytten  Bouyancy Compensators Bouée Fenzy / Aqua Lung Axiom i3 The French Navy’s Bouée Fenzy, left, was …

In Orda of priority it’s No.1 Text by Bogdana Vashchenko / Photography by Victor Lyagushkin  – The Orda cave revolutionized cave diving in Russia. In every respect it’s a ‘dream’ compared to other sumps in the Russian Federation, and it also claims some bragging rights on the world stage. Extending more …

Dive Rite O2ptima Rebreather $8,500 This fully closed circuit, constant P02, electronically-driven rebreather features built-in decompression ability. Dive Rite’s O2ptima is great for overhead environments where immediate surfacing is not always possible, and it will appeal to open water and wreck divers too.  Features include 5-litre total loop volume counter …

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen has just begun his seven day, sub aquatic  adventure at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The 38 year old from London, Ontario will be leading a crew to explore the ocean floor as part of a simulation to help prepare for future space missions. NEEMO (NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations) …

In a mission through time Nuytco’s robotic Exosuit is set to dive on an ancient shipwreck in the Greek isles for an uncommon artifact called the ‘Antikythera mechanism’. Used for predicting astronomical events, the advanced mechanical calculator was developed in antiquity and is often characterized as the world’s oldest …

Recalls pioneering Conshelf experiments At press time the saturation diving component of Fabien Cousteau’s Mission 31 had just  completed. The son of DIVER columnist Jean-Michel Cousteau, and grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Fabien spearheaded the initiative, underscoring the human-ocean connection through the lens of exploration and discovery. Along with two …

Clearance divers of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic), with a little help from their nimble little ROVs, revisit the remains of HMS Breadalbane during the military’s annual arctic readiness exercise – Operation Nunalivut 2014 A dive into the past serves the future. That’s how clearance divers from …

Atomic Aquatics BladeFins $179 Feel the need for speed? Then these new fins designed specifically for a flutter kick will give you a powerful swimming style that will allow you to move through the water fast, even in strong currents. Designed with sweeping curves and a unique two frame structure …

Nauticam FIX Neo Prices vary A new line of lights that have an LCD display, removable battery, 100 degree beam angle, interchangeable heads, remote control and sealed recharging. Wowsers. What more could you want? www.fixneo.com Backscatter Macromate Mini $88.95 This well-priced, flip on and off, lens for your GoPro 3 …