July 2008

Underwater looting alarms
There's an estimated one million shipwrecks on the sea floor, and a lot of them need to be protected from looting. A new technology that uses bubble detection is now being developed to sense intruders and trigger alarms. [Read Marine burglar alarm squawks at the sound of bubbles] -- Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by chb

Understanding diving at altitude
If you dive above an altitude of 1,000 feet, you need special dive tables because the air at altitude is thinner than at sea level. As far as nitrogen uptake goes, diving 70 feet in Lake Tahoe (altitude 6,230 feet) is like diving 87 feet at sea level. And it gets more complex yet with Nitrox. Understanding the physics behind it and what it all means is a bit involved, and so we described it in simple terms. Read Diving at Altitude Revisited. -- Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by chb

Underwater bicycling record
The Guiness Book of Records folks record the most amazing things, and underwater bicycling is one of them. A 62-year-old Italian diver named Vittoria Innocente set a new record by riding a specially adapted mountain bike on a 400-foot slope down to a depth of 65 meters (213 feet). [Read underwater cycling article at ansa.it. -- Posted Thursday, July 24, 2008 by chb

Sharkwater Movie is WELL worth watching!

I've seen hundreds of sharks during my diving career, and one of the reasons I don't like to repeat trips is because oftentimes I'm disappointed in the decline of the oceanlife. Galapagos is an example. After watching this movie, I was very upset. I LOVE that place, but I'm scared to go back and see for myself the decline in the shark population. While we were there in 1996, we witnessed an illegal fishing boat filled with shark fins. That was one boat in one location in one hour of one day. PLEASE take a few moments and check out the website: www.sharkwater.com. Please rent it if you see it in stores. Netflix has it. It's worth every dime and every second it takes to watch it. It will change how you feel about sharks and our oceans. As scuba divers, water is the one thing that bonds us all together. Let's join together and save our oceans! -- Posted Monday, July 21, 2008 by chb

The Pentax W60 waterproof 10-megapixel camera
It's not a real deep diver camera, but you can take the 10-megapixel Optio W60 into the water and down to 13 feet without a special housing. That's plenty good enough for snorkeling and even shallow diving. It's a tough but elegant camera with a fully internal 5X zoom that starts out wide and still gets you closer than 3X zoom models. The 2.5-inch display is sharp and very readable from all directions. The camera can record 1280 x 720 pixel movies. The US$329 Optio W60 can even handle freezing temperatures down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. [Read review and specs of the waterproof and dustproof Pentax Optio W60] -- Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by chb