When a new mask comes along, you just know. You know it’s the one. But only after it’s passed a scuba-style Rosie Project of specifications of course! A girl has standards 
Check out my new video on choosing the perfect mask. From finding the perfect fit to determining quality, I hope it helps you out this Summer! Click here!
This week we had five inches of rain in a short time on the South Coast. Flash-flooding coursed down the river and by the next day, a slowly creeping swathe of brown water was heading down the coast. Vis turned to zero. Strange debris floated past. It was a divers nightmare, though the big swells made the surfers smile.
(Photo by Tori Davies, Surfers, City Beach, Wollongong, Aus.)
One of the most common questions people ask me as a diver is, ‘Aren’t you scared of sharks?’ My answer? Yes and No.
This is especially true these days, as overfishing increases the sharks search for food in shallower waters. With our coastal culture, Australia is obviously going to have an increase in attacks, but I believe there are ways to lower the rate.
For divers, the comfort is in that a sharks eyes are towards the top of their head, and a diver swims below. (This possibly accounts for more surfer fatalities.) But in this scenario, the fear is not in the shark itself, but the predator between you and the surface, topped with a pulsing heart and a quickly depleting tank. But then I thought, is there an increase in attacks for other reasons that we have just failed to see amidst the horror? And for this reason I say,
“Bring back the fluro!!”
Black is the new… well… black! Everything is black (with the exception of increasingly sexist pink fins and regs for women) and the thing about black is, it is very seal-like. So, why do we insist on imitating one of the sharks favourite meals? Yes black is slimming, sexy, guaranteed to all co-ordinate, doesn’t fade etc. So how come I find such appeal in the old 80′s clips of divers in bright pink and green (and yellow and blue) ensembles! Even earlier in fact, is vintage retro diving at its best…
… How is that not the BEST thing you have ever seen in your life??
So embrace the fluro! You may leave the 80′s nappy style crotch tab horror though, nobody wants to see those EVER again. But bright colours, fandangled suits and clashing palletes is what I want. For the simple reason that in the marine world some fluro colouring means ‘poison’ and I’ve never seen a hot pink seal. So go get your fluro on.
(Photo credit – Asian Diver Issue 1/2009.)
There is a kit that I cannot live without. In addition to a first aid kit, or an emergency kit, is a Dive Essentials Kit that I believe can make a diver’s life that little bit easier. Rattling around in an old mask container, are an array of objects which accompanies me on boat dive trips or can easily be chucked in the car. Some of the items are useful in other situations too, but I love the fact that as a good scout, I can always ‘be prepared’.
1. Fave socks – Post dive numb feet is one of my personal hatreds, and is why I have added socks to my kit. I might be a little obsessed with socks for every occasion, (movie socks, driving socks, bed socks, cold air conditioning restaurant socks etc…) or, I might just have bad circulation!
2. Mask Strap – It has been said that the humble mask is the most important piece of diving equipment. As without it, all other gear is obsolete. A backup strap could prevent a dive holiday ending situation!
3. Mouthpiece – My buddy once hired gear at a remote dive centre, and the regulator mouthpiece had a sharp edge that caused uncomfortable stress to the dive, not to mention an ulcer. Taking a personal mouthpiece to any place you will be hiring can then be simply transferred over and save a lot of annoyance.
4. Cable Ties – Used to attach you spare mouthpiece to you reg, or attach bits and pieces to your BCD as replacement straps.
5. Emergency Numbers – My dive insurance company provides a waterproof tag each year of renewal, so a spare one in the kit could come in handy, though hopefully will never get used.
6. Seasickness Tablets – Be aware of increased effects on deep dives, but I still rely on them for long boat trips out. (Worst. DM. Ever.)
7. Bandaids- There are many other useful items which belong in a first aid kit, but keeping bandaids in the dive essentials is handy for small ailments.
8. Pen – Even if you aren’t a writer, a pen is the best tool. Filling out safety forms, jotting down dive deets, or maybe getting a number (wink wink).
9. Silicon Grease – Smooth out those wetsuit zippers. Popping a zipper at cold depth is sooo bad. Camera o-rings will also benefit.
10. Compass – I just like to know where I am. Because getting abandoned on a deserted tropical island can happen more easily than you think… (And one day, when I am very drunk, I will tell you that story.)
11. Wetsuit Wash – As with most products in this kit, bring a miniature! Perfect for one wash when you travel and don’t want to take the whole bottle.
12. Sunscreen – Yes, tan is nice. But BCD straps rubbing on red raw shoulders is not.
13. Toothpaste – For your mask! A new mask will often fog. This is because of a build up of production film on the lens. Rubbing a gentle exfoliating paste on the inside of the mask and leaving overnight will clear the fog! And be minty fresh. I take on trips regardless of the age of my mask, just in case. Especially in the tropics.
14. Chapstick – Guys and girls. Chapstick is a unisex item that makes everybody’s life easier. Deal with it.
15. Snorkel Strap – Snorkels can be an underrated tool, and will probably only prove itself useful if you don’t have one handy, or if the strap breaks.
16. 0-Rings - Never, ever, assume that an o-ring will magically appear if your current one splits. Especially miles from shore where o-ring trees are scarce.
17. Carabineer - Not just for rock climbing! Just make sure you buy aluminium ones (or solid gold, your choice) to stop rust.
18. Absorbent Pouches – Just in case your camera housing springs a leak or develops moisture in the tropics due to condensation. These are a quick fix to stuff inside the cavity. (Tip: Keep the sachets from shoeboxes to put in your kit).
19. Lens Cloth – Gentle cloth for cleaning your camera lens or parts. Or even to dust off your mask and avoid sand scratches.
20. SNAKES! Trust me, you will be the hero of the boat if you reveal a bag of these for the ride home. All those cotton-mouthed (oh! It’s a snake pun!) buddies will be stoked on life. Everyone loves a post dive treat!
Have I forgotten anything? We’d love to hear what other essentials are in your kits. Drop us a comment!
I can’t hear. Well… not very well. Sounds distort and surround me, hit me from all sides. It’s all wrong.
I turn full circle to find out where, but I can’t see properly, no peripherals. Nothing. Though the landscape is lush with plants; colour is dulled. Red disappears.
Then there’s the animals, communicating no doubt, by each emitting their own musk. It is wasted on me. Scent is mute. No fragrance, odour, stench. Nada.
And no taste. Mouth only concerned with one thing. Breathing. Guess that’s kind of important.
Only one sense left… Will it stay? As evidence that my body is still mine? That something that makes me human still resides? But no, even touch is different in this place. The pressure, the temperature, the gloves. I cannot feel.
My body is not mine here, there is no gravity, no senses, of distance, of which way is up, of my usual vices. Of humanity.
But it is beautiful here, and there is so much more to gain. I give up my body willingly.
Bubbles, travel ever upwards, the only evidence that underwater, I might still be human.
(Pic – Diver bubble trail, Solomon Islands)
‘Ahh, I just love the smell of wetsuit in the morning!’
It was one minute past eight, and staff were still in the process of switching the diveshop sign around to ‘open’ as we strolled in the door. We were the first customers of the day.
Random though that comment seemed, it did hold a grain of truth. Wetsuits do have a particular scent. And in a world where our five human senses get culled once underwater, smell being one of the main ones, you come to recognise fragrances on land with that bit more respect.
Sea water does have a particular smell, as does stagnant water, (though ‘stench’ may be a more apt synonym there) because different plants and fish probably do have their own aroma, just as flowers and land animals do. Why should underwater be any different? Apart from that our noses aren’t designed to inhale when surrounded by any other substance except air (I know. I’ve tried. My sinuses were clear for days… ).
And I’m sure you have all noticed the flood of aromas that hits us after a dive? Shampoo lingering in a removed hood. Boat engine fumes. Fish and chips from the café next to the wharf (yes please). And wetsuit wash. They are always there. But post-dive they seem that bit stronger. And it has to be because that olfactory function is halted for the duration of the dive.
In a world where humans are categorized by those five particulars, then underwater we must become something else. But it doesn’t matter, or bother us. Because by losing those things we gain others. Lack of gravity for instance, but that’s another story.
Interested? Read Got No Sense!
Picture the people in your life. Father, Mother, sibling, lover.
Then there’s the dive buddy.
I think that non-divers (muggles) sometimes just don’t realise how much a dive buddy is trusted with your life. Essentially, it is someone that you defy humanity with! Through sign language and body language during training, it is someone you have got to know purely in an underwater sense. You know what frightens them, and vise versa. You know how fast they breathe air underwater, and their favourite marine creature. Underwater, you wouldn’t want anybody else.
Solo trips. Some might say interesting. And although you may get paired up with a kindred spirit, you usually get paired up with one of three buddies.
1. The rookie/cowboy.
2. The mamas boy.
Or 3. The knowall.
The rookie/cowboy swims here, swims there, doesn’t wait for you and doesn’t look at you once. I could be stuck in a giant clam for God’s sake! But instead, he’s racing after a stingray. He also has the post-dive potential to be wearing white bonds trunks under his wetsuit.
Wet white bonds trunks = not forgiving (even though he thinks it’s impressive).
The mama’s boy chows down his air at the sign of a yawning fish and clutches your ankle the entire time. You wanna go up? But we just got down!
And the knowall just doesn’t care. He just goes through the motions with you. Like a bad date. Like ‘mehh.’ You point at something; he nods. You sign you’re cold; he nods. You sign shark; he nods (He says swap buddies; I nod).
So in an industry where body language is essential. I find comfort in the fact that my dive buddy just ‘gets’ me. That we can dive together only once or twice a year and just jump straight back into that easy diving, with no awkward - handshake/who’s gonna lead/you, no you/I’m scared of fish – conversation. Because he already knows my ‘I’m cold’ face, and the buckle that I sometimes can’t quite reach gearing up! I know that he hates dive reels with a passion (it’s a looong and tangled story), what the code word ‘pizza’ means, and how important his mares hat is to him.
We only know our underwater selves.
(Pic – Buddies watch the sunset at Byron Bay, Aus)
I learnt to dive in Australian Cool/Temperate waters.
These reached a glorious low of 14 degrees during Winter. I believe that experiencing diving in cold water, with so many other elements to consider and obstruct your learning process, makes for a diver who can enjoy both types of diving. I think I would have struggled with the cold more, if I had learnt say – in Fiji, and then been dipped into freezing, currenty, poor viz water and expected to know how to deal with that change.
So the ’6 Reasons Why Learning To Dive In Cold Water Will Make You A Better Diver’ Are –
1. Difficulty Levels. Tasks are more difficult to achieve in cold water and bad viz. Thick gloves, hoods and wetsuits hinder movement and make you a better diver in the long run. You learn to realise your body’s limits to temperature, and a different skill set in dealing with serious things like hypothermia; and annoying things like trying to do up a buckle underwater with numb fingers.
2. Quality Time. Meaning more time and attention from intstructors. People would generally take the ‘warm tropical dive followed by post-dive cocktails under a palm tree’ option. This means smaller classes/less students in cooler water climates.
3. Qualification. Dive charters in the tropics often only give patrons a ‘Try Dive.’ This (though fun) gives you no proper qualification, and is usually a one-off fast money spinner for the charter itself. You get your ‘Open Water Certificate’ if you endure a proper course.
4. Gear. Cool water diving involves a whole new set of gear to get used to. heat packs. Hoods and gloves. And dry-suits and semi-drys, which alter buoyancy and get you used to weight belt changes during preparation etc.
5. Warming Up! Huddling over a mug of hot chocolate post-freezing-dive, is like sensory overload! A hot choccy in the tropics just doesn’t have the same meaning. My other favourite reason is getting to wear humungous hoodies after!
6. Appreciation. Diving in the tropics for the first time, having trained for two years in cold water, was soooo eeeeesy!! I was able to appreciate where I was. And having learnt the skills in difficult conditions meant using them without being complacent to their value was awesome.
(Pic – buddies hooded up at Tasman Hauler site, Eden, Aus)
