The DIVER interview: With Michael Menduno – Journalist, Reporter, and Producer   How long have you been diving?  I was first certified in 1976 in Monterey, California. What made you want to become a diver? I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau and Lloyd Bridge’s Sea Hunt so it was always …

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, …

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, …

By Michael Menduno   RAID’s co-owner is on a mission to make diving sexy again. He’s passionate, experienced, and brings a fresh point of view. Don’t underestimate Paul Toomer… By creating a new market for diving, PADI co-founder & former CEO John Cronin—reportedly the first person to rack up …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 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 …

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 …

Site of the country’s largest marine park, Cenderawasih Bay boasts endemic species and biodiversity that make it unique in the world ocean and worthy of your dive site bucket list Text and Photography by Michael AW Rising above an indigo sea, the fog-shrouded Arfak Mountains evoke the image of …

Text by Sierra Cardenas History was made in July of 1964, when four U.S. Navy divers successfully lived and worked for 11 days in an underwater habitat called SeaLab I that was submerged in 192 feet (58.5m) of seawater off Bermuda. This man-in-the-sea experiment helped prove the viability of …

Sidemount diving may have been around for while now, but in the last couple of years it seems to have risen in popularity and become a very fashionable way of diving, and not just for cave divers, but open water divers too. The new SEAC KS01 Buoyancy jacket is a …

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 …

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 …

Second in series of reports on Rebreather Forum 3 by Michael Menduno. Dr. Andrew Fock, head of hyperbaric medicine at The Albert Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, himself an accomplished rebreather diver, took the RF3 stage Saturday morning with an important and sobering presentation on the risks of rebreather diving, …

Kim Mikusch Smith from Canadian KISS Rebreathers talks about safety, accessibility and why you should be interested in rebreather diving. For full article on Rebreathers and the Future of Diving, see DIVER Vol37 Issue 3 or click here. For more information on KISS Rebreathers click here.      

Rebreathers are rapidly growing in popularity, below is a list of international manufacturers. If you know one we don’t, send a web link to mail@divermag.com Ambient Pressure CCR 2000 Divematics Draeger ExtendAir HB Technology Innerspace Systems Corp Kiss Rebreathers rEvo rebreathers Silent Diving Steam Machines Titan Dive Gear VR …

Sixth in series of reports on Rebreather Forum 3 by Michael Menduno. The diving media and interested Rebreather Forum participants were treated to a preview of the lovechild spawned by Poseidon and Dr. Bill Stone, CEO of Stone Aerospace. Called the Poseidon TECH (DIVER Volume 37 Number 4), the …

Fifth in series of reports on Rebreather Forum 3 by Michael Menduno. Similar to 02 sensing problems discussed in a previous RF3 report posted here, divers must contend with issues concerning PCO2, which has been dubbed the “dark matter of rebreather diving.” High PCO2s (0.03 bar and above) can …

Fourth in series of reports on Rebreather Forum 3 by Michael Menduno. In addition to training and creating a culture that reinforces safe rebreather diving practices, experts agree that a number of safety issues might be resolved through better engineering of the equipment itself. Indeed, this is the thinking …

Third in series of reports on Rebreather Forum 3 by Michael Menduno. Veteran explorers and educators Jill Heinerth and Terrence Tysell chaired an open discussion on training at the Rebreather Forum, encouraging participants to present views on a host of training related topics. In keeping with the RF3 theme, …

First in a series of reports on Rebreather Forum 3 by Michael Menduno. Rebreather Forum 3 staged in Orlando, Florida, saw the convergence of a rebreather diving ‘who’s who’ to discuss and debate this life support system that is hailed as the future of diving by some and anything …

This Exosuit is production model 001 and the first in a series of three designs from Nuytco Research of North Vancouver, B.C. From the first ergonomic mock-ups and tests to its unveiling last month, the Exosuit has been in development for a decade. It’s the latest generation atmospheric diving …

  Most divers won’t descend below 130 feet (40m) though diving deeper is very appealing to many of us, myself included. It opens up new territory: deeper wrecks, caves, walls, blue holes, and for others it’s a way to conduct research or make a living. But for some it’s …

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. …

DIVER magazine scours the internet so you don’t have to. Simply browse our selection of todays top stories and click for further reading… This round up of “Little known facts about the ocean” has some great statistics. Read article. Source: Marinebio Post Valentines Day blues? Maybe this picture of …

Diving Medicine By Dr. David Sawatzky All of us enjoy diving or we would not be doing it. Often we feel better when we are diving. A subset of divers seem to really enjoy diving deep on air. Is diving addictive? Narcosis is a fascinating topic and supports the …

Jarrod Jablonski talks with Michael Menduno   Credit Where Credit Is Due In my interview with explorer Jarrod Jablonski in DIVER Vol. 37 Number 1, I incorrectly stated that Jablonski and his team from Global Underwater Explorers were the first to video the USS Atlanta in 430 feet (130m) …

Found! They think. Swedish tech divers believe they’ve discovered the wreck of the legendary and elusive Mars, flagship of their country’s navy, almost five centuries ago. Archaeologically, the find would be of global importance. Text by Richard Lundgren – Photography by Ingemar Lundgren   The Year of Our Lord, …

Reserves are going down, which may mean prices go up? And how might that affect the future of mixed gas technical diving? The answer is up in the air. Text by Jeremy Heywood and Lee Newman   The future of mixed gas technical diving may be uncertain due to …