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7 Reasons You Should SCUBA Dive

Creedence — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:07:15 +0000

There are a great many more reasons to start SCUBA diving than only 7, but 7 is a lucky number, so maybe people will take extra notice of these reasons. Sometimes you have to rely on the superstitious whims of people to get them to really understand what you’re talking about. With SCUBA, each diver has their own very personal connection to the sport, and many have motives that extend beyond simply taking a look around underwater. Here are 7 great reasons that seem to be shared by a majority of divers. If you would like to share your reasons to dive, click this link to create your own page!

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6 Reasons to Shop LeisurePro

Creedence — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 03:54:52 +0000

LeisurePro has built a strong reputation over the years as a reliable source for all things SCUBA related, as well as other products and accessories relating to water activities. Here are 6 great reasons why you can trust LeisurePro to bring you a great buying experience:

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LeisurePro Brings You 5 Reasons To Dive

Creedence — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:40:38 +0000

There is nothing quite like discovering that a co-worker or the person you share a seat with on the bus is a SCUBA diver. It has a way of opening up your view of that person; a realization that you have one thing in common that is rather unique. While the community is still relatively small in comparison to many other sports, there is a growing number of people who are starting to take interest in SCUBA diving. Whether it be for the purposes of cultivating a new hobby, filling an occupational niche, or a way to participate in projects to help sustain or regenerate marine ecosystems, people everywhere are learning to dive for their own reasons. Every person’s reasons are significant and personal to them, yet often there is a very common ground from which these reasons stem. To bring all these divers and their passion together, LeisurePro is excited to introduce its new website: 5 Reasons To Dive.

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5 Unusual But Incredible Underwater Inventions And Feats

Noreen — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 06:06:31 +0000

For Centuries man has been captivated with the depths of the Oceans and the waters that cover 70% of Earth. Every now and then you hear of some bizarre inventions or feats to not only explore the underwater world but to make it a part of our daily lives and there are those that have made their mark as incredible and even plausible concepts that may become can everyday occurrence in the future. Here’s a look at 5 such underwater inventions and feats-

1. The Underwater Car – Rinspeed’s sQuba
Thirty years after the James Bond thriller ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ hit the silver screen portraying a brand new concept of a car that doubled as a submersible boat, Swiss company Rinspeed has come up with the first real car that can actually ‘fly’ under water called the “sQuba”.

As described by the Company itself: You drive the car into the water and the car floats. That is, until you crack the door to let the water in. Immediately the “sQuba” starts on his way to the underwater world. The occupants’ breathing air comes from an integrated tank of compressed air that divers know from scuba diving. -Rinspeed.com

Submersible and stable to a depth of 10 meters (33ft), the sports car is both a beauty above water and below. Rinspeed replaced the engine of a sports car with 3 electric motors in the back of the vehicle –1 to provide propulsion on land with powerful torque to drive the rear wheels and the other 2 driving the screws for underwater motoring and designed a salt water-resistant interior. Kudos to the company for turning this dream concept car into a reality.

image source: Rinspeed.com

2. The Underwater Plane – Sir Richard Branson’s “Necker Nymph”
Billionaire Entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson not too long ago showed his extravagant yet innovative side with the unveiling of his new aero submarine christened the “Necker Nymph” which is unlike anything else in the world.

The 3-seater submersible built in the likeness of a fighter plane, uses the same principles of flight through air underwater. The Necker Nymph that runs on battery that’s so quiet it just glides through the water with very low noise emissions and low light to avoid interfering with fragile ecosystems. It has an open cockpit and passengers use scuba gear, stored in the craft which can dive to depths of up to 130ft. Designed by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, the Necker Nymph is the first underwater plane to ever be designed and an entirely new class of vehicle.

3. The Underwater Scooter- Scuba-Doo
Imagine zipping around not on but underwater on a cool scooter…. The Scuba bike from Scuba-Doo allows you to do just that and more!

At a rate of 2.5 knots and a max depth of 10m (32ft.) you can ride amongst the spectacular underwater world or remain stationary while you feed the fish. The best part about this underwater scooter is that it doesn’t require any specialized scuba training nor do you have to be a great swimmer to ride around on it. Released in 2004 for a whopping $17,000, the Scuba-Doo scooter is not exactly a scuba boy-toy for just anyone. It is however, a lucrative investment for resorts and tourist hire companies that buy the innovative high-tech toy to offer rides of about 60 – 90 minutes for prices that range from $50 to $65 on average. Who knows, maybe someday when newer concepts emerge the the underwater market and prices go down, everyone can own a cool underwater bike!

image source: www.impactlab.com

4. The Underwater Resort- Poseidon Resorts
Taking the Ocean View Room to a whole new level Poseidon is a chain of underwater five-star resorts currently under development.

A concept by L Bruce Jones, a submarine inventor who designed and sold private luxury submarines, the first of the Poseidon Resorts will feature twenty-two 550-square-foot (51 m2) guest rooms, each with 270 degree view of the ocean in Fiji. This view made possible with 4-inch (100 mm) thick acrylic windows that make up 70% of each room’s wall space. The resort will be accessed through 1 of 2 elevators. The entire underwater enclosure will be held at 1 atmosphere of pressure, so decompression sickness is not a concern. Each end of the resort will be composed of a 3,000-square-foot (280 m2), frisbee shaped, underwater pod, one of which will include an underwater restaurant and bar while the other will contain a library, conference room, wedding chapel, spa and a 1,200-square-foot (110 m2) luxury suite. The Poseidon Undersea Resort is expected to open in 2010 but at a said price of $30,000 per couple, per week it stays a distant dream for us!

5. The Underwater Post Office- Port Villa Post, Vanuatu
Port Vila in Vanuatu, has claim to the world’s first and only underwater post office, a fiberglass kiosk manned by postal workers in scuba diving gear that sells waterproof postcards.

Situated about 165 feet (50 meters) offshore, The Vanuatu Post Office can receive mail delivered in person if you’re a visiting diver or snorkeler from this unique underwater paradise. It is open 1 -2 hours per day, depending on how busy it gets. Since opening in 2003, the underwater post office has received an estimated 100,000 visitors.

image source: vanuatupost.vu

Sources: Rinspeed, Vanuatu Post, Wikipedia

A Scuba Diver’s First-Hand Story of His Encounter With Giant Squids

Noreen — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:01:30 +0000

AquaViews Reader- Peter (aka Aquaman) shares his first-hand experience of coming face to face with one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep- The Giant Squid… And remember if you’ve got an amazing story or experience of your own to share, you can e-mail us at aquaviews@gmail.com and to see it featured here.

Many years ago I saw several large squid off Green Cape south of Eden, New South Wales, Australia. I have been a diver for over 50 years, 30 years professional abalone diver from Lakes Entrance to Coffs Harbour and since 1992 to today still an active amateur diver also working with different underwater research divers and groups since 1992 for a period of 10 years. I have dived to depths of 198 ft deep and many depths between this also spent several years in the 1960’s hunting sharks and catching crayfish underwater for a living. So plenty of opportunity to observe marine species.

At the time of the sighting unusual weather conditions prevailed.

Early in the morning of said day a thick sea mist rolled in, as all that week we had experienced hot conditions and the water was quite warm. A cool breeze was blowing across the surface of the ocean. We set off from Eden in my boat, which is a 30 ft Timber Cruiser. We could clearly see all around us with the Radar and observe our position on the GPS. As we crossed the bay we observed on the radar a large echo from a 50,000-ton Japanese Wood Chip Boat entering the bay. Woodchips are exported from Eden (Australia) to Japan.

As we progressed across the bay I noticed another smaller echo heading rapidly for the chip boat, this was a shark cat abalone boat as portrayed by the classic secondary echo from the rooster tail wash or wake bar echo’s. We noticed it seemed to head straight into the chip boats echo then disappear.

A couple of days later the deck hand from the shark cat told us his boss had decided to go out diving that day in the dense fog and they nearly rammed the side of the chip boat.

On the south side of Twofold Bay near Eden is a woodchip mill that turns native forest timber into woodchips to be exported by ship to Japan for use in paper manufacturing.

We proceeded down the coast to Green Cape some 18 miles south of Eden where I anchored in the fog just a few yards offshore. Usually most Sea mist disappears by 10 am but this particular day it did not clear until 3 PM. A sea swell started to build so at about 4 in the afternoon I moved the boat offshore and anchored in about 80 ft of water.

I dived in and pulled myself down the anchor rope, visibility was clear to murky with much jelly blubber and sediment in the water. The first 40 ft was quite warm then I struck cold layer of water about 16 degrees C the unusual thing I noticed is that the current was flowing from North to South which that close to Green Cape traditionally and usually run from South to North inshore along the coast, also one would expect a current flowing from a Northerly direction would contain warmer waters instead of cold. As I swam deeper I came back into warmer water. I found a drop off from the “barren’s” reef edge onto sand and started to gather abalone.

After about 10 minutes or so I was in the process of starting to swim out from the edge of the reef across the sand to deeper water to search for more reef. Upon looking towards the surface it was then that I saw the squid. I literally froze with fear. I could see about four or five of them in about 60 ft deep, which would put them in the cooler layer of water flowing in a southerly direction. The largest was about 35 to 40 ft long including a couple of longer thinner tentacles protruding out of the main group of thicker tentacles. The smaller of these squid were about 14 or 15 foot long. Further into the gloom to the south I could dimly see another half dozen dim shapes just drifting along with the current.

Normally Giant squid are usually down thousands of feet in the pitch black. They can just hang motionless as their body contains pockets of ammonia that help them stabilize buoyancy.

They can also luminesce their eye flashing blue and red. This attracts in prey, which they quickly seize with their massive tentacles. I suppose what had happened with the unusual counter clockwise current it had swept them up from their underwater domain from canyons thousands of feet deep.

I do not know how long I observed them but in the end I slowly pulled myself along the diving hose back to the boat.

By this time it was starting to get dark so we lifted the anchor, put the boat on autopilot and headed home to Eden, The sky went quite dark and it started to rain, then I noticed on the radar about six miles out to sea two very intense echo’s on the radar screen. I would estimate them about 60 ft in diameter and about quarter of a mile apart. Suddenly the came together and formed a cigar shaped echo across the radar screen.

As the radar swept around the cigar shaped echo jumped across the screen towards us. Because of the strange weather conditions that day I imagined the two intense echoes might have been two Waterspouts and that they had collapsed into a mini tidal wave that was bearing down on us quite rapidly. I made a fast decision and told my deck hand to secure the forward anchor hatch and throw anything loose down into the fore part of my boat, along with the blankets, pillows and bedding. I thought we would head full speed towards the onrushing wave and just before it struck both of us would dive into the fore part of my boat, and maybe survive the impact.

As the echo neared my vessel I peered out into the gloom and heard a loud rushing noise. I sighted what I thought was a long wall of white water rushing towards us, it simply turned out to be an intense wall of rain chopping up the water. I did not have time to turn into it and as it struck the boat like a solid fist the whole vessel heeled over.

Then we were in the midst of the storm there was water everywhere, Lightning was striking the water around the boat and all the electrical equipment on the boat went haywire. The motor kept running being diesel powered but the compass spun around and all other equipment failed. The chap who was with me called out ‘look at the rails’ and I noticed the stainless handrails were emitting a blue glow and I looked up at the steel radar tower and metal flying bridge and they were also emitting the same blue glow.

Within a couple of minutes we came out of the storm and the sea calmed down to a long rolling swell and the skies cleared and the stars were visible. We looked to the south of us and saw the storm like a mini cloud at sea level with angry orange flashes within it.

The next day a low pressure trough came into the state bringing large rough seas and some flooding occurred for about four or five day’s.

Another such Giant Squid Encouter I’ve heard of:

A Brisbane based company WBM that I assisted with marine research Monitoring the marine environment around the construction of the Eden Naval Wharf, that have a branch in the US told me of two divers diving during the night, below them water, hundreds of fathoms of deep water.

One diver down at about 90 ft and the other another 30 ft below him in over 120 ft. Both were collecting marine specimens with use of torches and catcher equipment.

Suddenly the diver in 90 ft looked down as his diving buddy’s torchlight suddenly started to wave violently around and along with his mate disappears into the depths.

Later as his diving buddy rapidly surfaced and told him he had been grabbed by a large squid and quickly taken down to over 350 ft then released unhurt, and luckily for him had made it back to the surface.

- Peter (Aquaman)

Meet The One in 2 Million Blue Lobster

Noreen — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:00:36 +0000

If you happen to spot a blue lobster that looks something like it came out of the hit cartoon ‘The Smurfs’, consider yourself lucky! This rare mutation in lobsters occurs with just one in 2 million lobsters.

Scientists believe that the reason behind the cobalt blue crustacean is a genetic defect that causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of protein. The combination of the protein and astaxanthin, an antioxidant in the food they eat, results in their shells favoring a blue pigment rather than the normal brownish color. Unfortunately though, blue lobsters get eaten by predators fairly quickly, because of their unique color, making them all the more rare to find. They would be better off with a bulls eye painted on them.

Some aquariums like the New England & Atlantis aquariums and SeaWorld at San Diego are said to a have resident blue lobsters that draw a lot of attention.

What’s even rarer than the said Blue Lobsters that have an occurrence of only 1 in 30 million are yellow lobsters and Albino lobsters estimated at one in 100 million!

*Photo Credits: photos by Tomer Arazy, tamedblossom, wiccked, rjzii on flickr. Steven G. Johnson on wikimedia Commons. Albino Lobster from BaconBabble.com

Avatar 2 To Take Us Underwater Into Pandora’s Ocean

Noreen — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:30:12 +0000

James Cameron’s subtle underwater influences in the blockbuster Avatar didn’t go unnoticed by us the first time around, and his love for scuba diving and the sea certainly won’t be missed by the millions of Avatar fans in the much awaited sequel. The Oscar-nominated director announced recently that a large part of Avatar 2 will take place in the teeming oceans of Pandora to create a brand new canvas for the environment of film.

Cameron was stated telling the LA Times Hero Complex blog- “Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rainforest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well” (see full interview)

With Cameron’s enthusiasm for the deep waters and his previous work including ‘The Abyss’, ‘Titanic’ and ‘Volcanoes of the Deep Sea’, it will definitely to be very interesting to see his vision of Pandora’s underwater and it’s inhabitants. If this an ocean adventure with the Na’vi is any thing like the first Avatar which was the highest-grossing film of all time, we’re in for a treat when it does come out.

The makers are attempting to complete the sequel in half the time and half the cost of the last movie, however Cameron think this will be an unlikely goal to accomplish due to the challenging nature of the shooting and the expectations to create the same magic they did the last time. In the meantime, you can now grab your very own copy of the original “Avatar” DVD or Blue-ray as Fox released it yesterday which was also ‘Earth Day’. And if that’s not enough for you, the film will make a comeback to theaters in August with an extra 6 minutes of added footage!

*Photo Source: EW.com/WENN.com

Richard Branson’s New Boy Toy- An ‘Underwater Plane’

Noreen — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:45:38 +0000

Sir Richard Branson billionaire Entrepreneur, recently showed yet again his extravagant side with the unveiling of his new aero submarine christened the “Necker Nymph” which is unlike anything else in the world. Branson, who already owns a mobile phone company, a record label, an airline, a Caribbean island,space travel and a handful of luxury restaurants just added one more frontier to his portfolio- The Sea!

The 3-seater submersible built in the likeness of a fighter plane, uses the same principles of flight through air underwater. The Necker Nymph that runs on battery that’s so quiet it just glides through the water with very low noise emissions and low light to avoid interfering with fragile ecosystems. It has an open cockpit and passengers use scuba gear, stored in the craft which can dive to depths of up to 130ft. The unique submersible cost around 415,000 British pounds and the billionaire has lofty aspirations to eventually create a plane that explore depths of 35,000 feet. Designed by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, the Necker Nymph is the first underwater plane to ever be designed and an entirely new class of vehicle.

As of now it’s a great Boy-Toy to glide around reefs and explore dive sites without having to do any work at all and Branson hopes to uncover some shipwrecks as it can cover more ground than just scuba diving. Sir Richard recently allowed cameras to shoot as he went for his first ride on the Nymph, describing the experience as ‘brilliant’ through microphones fitted on his scuba gear. To catch his ‘virgin’ flight underwater in his shiny new and very awesome underwater plane take a look at this clip from Oprah, where he gave presenter Nate Berkus a tour of his Island, yacht and aero submarine- click here.

For guests who spend $88,000 to rent Branson’s high-end yacht for one week, the Necker Nymph can be hired out for an equally princely sum of $25,000 per week.

Endless Ocean – A Scuba Diving Simulation Game for the Wii

Nevin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:43:18 +0000

Are you looking for a good console game that combines your love for gaming as well as your love for Scuba Diving? Well look no further than Endless Ocean, the unique Scuba Diving simulation for the Nintendo Wii which is sure to have any Scuba Diving enthusiast intrigued at the least.

Endless Ocean is not a new release for the Nintendo Wii, and in fact was released in early 2008 by Arika and received high accolades for its ability to offer unique and unorthodox game play experiences on the Wii Console.

The setting for the game takes place off the coast of the fictitious island of Manoa Lai where you play the role of a diver on a liveaboard and possess the ability to explore the waters of Manoa Lai from shallow reefs, underwater caves, wrecks and underwater cities to the deep blue hole which is a 500 foot abyss. The game doesn’t offer any set objectives to accomplish other than exploration the stunning simulated waters of Manoa Lai and identify various marine life while simply enjoying your dive. The lack of game direction and the laid-back nature of the game tend to frustrate several gamers, however we still feel it is a Scuba Diving game designed for true fans of scuba diving.

Diving in Endless Ocean is a relatively simple process, you point which direction you wish to fin to using your wii-mote and click, and your diver will move to the selected area. You can also interact with several of the fish and marine life you across, from petting the fish to feeding them.

The visuals in Endless Ocean are simply stunning and perhaps what drives the game. As a Scuba Diving enthusiast, you’d be pleased to discover the wonderful variety of marine creatures you come across from Napoleon Wrasse and Dolphins to enormous Blue Whales that simply glide on past. The game really helps you with marine life identification, as there is an in-game fish ID log that helps you identify new fish you come across and also provides you with a description of that fishes behavior, habitat and identification help. Additionally Endless Ocean features a cooperative online mode where, you team up with a buddy to explore the sea.

Despite the unique concept and game play, Endless Ocean still has several inconsistencies with reality that are bound to annoy the true Scuba Diver such as not worrying about running out of air, decompressing, monitoring surface time between dives, petting fish to ID them, diving solo without a buddy and being able to dive to ridiculous depths. However once you get past these annoyances, Endless Ocean offers a great way to sharpen those Fish ID skills, and while away a lazy week-end when you can’t go out and experience the real thing.

We rate Endless Ocean a 4 out of 5 as we love the fact that game developers are finally looking into creating great Scuba Simulations.

From Trash To Treasure- Artificial Reefs Uncovered

Noreen — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:55:41 +0000

At first glance, what appears to look like the military trying to save costs in disposing of old garbage is actually an attempt to promote and save our marine ecology . How you may ask? Well, we’ve seen old ship wrecks and other large metal structures, when submerged in the deep dark depths below, provide a safe heaven for hundreds of marine life, slowly but steadily promoting the growth of coral. With these shipwrecks redeeming marine ecological value, people are looking at other ways some that may seem quite strange or unusual to consciously create what is known as Artificial Reefs.

Here’s a look at some unusual Artificial Reefs that may or may not have worked, nonetheless make for some good scuba diving-

The Subway Car Reefs: The Redbird Reef, Delaware & The Atlantic City Reef, Atlantic City
While it comes as no big surprise to see shipwrecks underwater, not one or two but 700 odd sunken New York City subway cars is a sight to be seen. And to see them first hand all you have to do is travel to The Redbird Reef, off the coast of Slaughter Beach, Delaware.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, responsible for this programme (which was doubted at first) was successfully able to repopulate this area with fish and other marine species, thanks to the crafty use of these wagons. In fact, a 400-fold increase in the amount of plankton and small baitfish is drawing in the larger fish at such a rate that it’s a struggle to find more old subway cars to sink. The Redbird reef site began in 1996 and got its name from the “Redbird” paint-schemed subway cars donated by New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2001. Delaware now has 14 permitted artificial reef sites which consist of concrete structures, decommissioned military vehicles, sunken vessels, among the old subway cars.

The Atlantic City Reef, one of the oldest artificial reefs in existence today, made up of several man-made objects ranging from large ships to army tanks that have been sunk strategically around the waters too features subway cars because of the success of the 2001 program. In November 2008, more than 40 subway cars were placed in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 10 miles southeast of Ocean City, Maryland to serve as artificial reefs, which are critical in supporting a diversity of species along the Maryland coast. (Read more in: Dive in a New York Brightliner Subway Car in Atlantic City)

The Tire Reef: The Osborne Reef, Florida

This artificial reef made up of a wreckage of an old 60 foot barge, tires and concrete erojacks or dolos has been plagued by a series of ups and downs and has been both praised and criticized by environmentalists since the 70’s. The Boward Artificial Reef Inc which had successfully created artificial reefs in several countries with the support of the US Army Corps of Engineers, deposited over two million tires bound by steel clips over 36 acres of the ocean floor at a depth of 65 feet underwater. The project was a disaster as very little marine life migrated to the artificial reef, and those that did, didn’t stay long. (Read More in: Dive The Osborne Artificial Reef Florida)

The Concrete Sculpture Reef: Cancun National Park, Mexico

The Mexican Government recently commissioned the creation of an underwater museum featuring sculptures created by renowned British underwater sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor, using a PH Neutral concrete to design them. The intent behind the 400 sculptures of figurines that the museum will feature is to encourage algae and coral to freely grow on the concrete which will cause these sculptures to change appearance over time and form an artificial ecosystem where tiny fish and marine creatures can thrive. (Read more in: The World’s Largest Underwater Museum is Underway)

*Photo Credits: photos by U.S. Army Environmental Command, tiswango on flickr and obviousmag.org