What is it about wall diving that has divers completely enthralled with the activity? The fascination for wall diving is difficult to explain, anyone who has dived a reef wall will rave about the experience and most dive operators will always feature their wall dive as one of their top dive sites and promote them excessively.

A Wall in scuba terms is essentially an underwater cliff face, more commonly a reef edge that runs vertically, usually run from shallow to deep and drops off suddenly into the depths of the ocean. Diving along this vertical reef/rock edge is known as wall diving. Most coral Islands and barrier reefs like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Belize’s Barrier Reef have stunning wall drop-offs teeming with coral and marine life.

So what’s all the fuss about diving along a reef cliff? Well for starters, wall diving is usually reserved for the more seasoned divers, as they can often be rather challenging to dive making them more exciting. A wall dive usually implies a deep dive, as walls drop off suddenly to great depths.

Secondly, diving along the face of a vertical wall requires good buoyancy control because there is no seabed to prevent the diver descending too deep. Constant monitoring and depth control is crucial to diving along a wall, as a diver can easily drop too deep without even realizing it as there is no sea bed as a visual indicator of depth.

Thirdly, reef walls usually have strong upward or downward currents running along the wall as the current from the deep hits the vertical rock face and rises, making it extremely challenging to navigate and swim which adds to the challenge and the difficulty for novice divers.

Fourthly, wall diving meets just about every type of diver preference from spectacular vistas, abundant marine life ranging from smaller reef fish near the top to larger pelagic fish such as Sharks, jacks, grouper and tuna around the depths. Corals grow at interesting angles creating a kind of three dimensional gardens as they struggle for light on the vertical overhangs.  A wall offers a wide variety in dive profiles, exciting visual/physical sensations, and tremendous opportunities for the underwater photographer, as all sorts of fascinating creatures live along a reef wall, and if you are a macro photographer, you will have no end of interesting subjects to capture. Exploring tiny nooks, crevices to larger caves and overhangs is always interesting, and simply observing the change of marine life as you descend along a wall is a real eye-opener.

The sensation of being suspended in the ocean with only one supporting wall while all the larger fish of the ocean and their predators darting below you, will give any diver a rush.

If you’re planning to dive a wall, make sure you plan your dive well, and know the strength and direction of the currents along the wall.  Plan a multi-level or profile dive to maximize your bottom time and observe the different levels of marine life as you change depths. Always remember to watch that depth gage! Wall dives are deceptively notorious for having divers drop below their limits, as currents constantly pummel divers who have no sea floor as a reference. Be mindful of the fragile coral growing along the vertical, and watch where you grab on to, as there are often several creatures hidden in the cracks and crevices along a reef wall.

Photos from flickr by: g-na, underwatertourist, Enje, Caloy and Myra

10. “Hey, you’re the first guest since “the disappearance.”

9.   “I’ll give you half off the dive today, if you know something about boat motors.”

8.   “Currents?  Oh, I wouldn’t worry about currents.  If we don’t find you, search and rescue will.”

7.   “Here put this mask on, your face is killin’ me.”

6.   “I think I got some jerky stuck in my teeth.”  (as he uses the reflection in your  mask to check)

5.   “Now this cylinder has 2000lbs of air in it.  So bend with your knees.”

4.   “I hope you’re as good as the last guy I took out.  He saved my life!  Twice…”

3.   “If I teach you one thing today, don’t ever try to punch a shark when he has his mouth open.”

2.  “Welcome to the food chain folks. You are no longer at the top of it.”

1.   “Sorry I’m late. Had a Funeral to go to. I barely knew the guy, met him on the last trip…”

*Photo Credits: photos by Nemo’s great uncle on flickr

There’s always a fascination and illusion that Scuba diving means to dive deep. The belief doing rounds is that there’s better stuff to see, but this in fact is one of the most common mistakes of many new divers, as we’ve seen in Myth Buster: More Scuba Diving Misconceptions Dispelled.

Recreational Scuba divers breath compressed air and are limited by physical laws to a certain amount of time underwater at a certain depth. The standard rule of thumb however is the deeper you dive, the less time you can spend underwater. That leads us to one of the most common questions asked about diving: “How deep can you scuba dive?”.  While there’s no fixed answer to the question as you can potentially dive as deep as you like, there are consequences and risks of diving beyond certain depths with standard scuba diving equipment.

To put it in perspective, when you get your first certification to dive (Open Water Diver) the dept limit to dive is 60 feet (18 meters) whereas an Advanced Open Water diver is certified to dive to 100 feet (30 meters). Different Scuba certification agencies permit different depth after the various training levels are complete. However, PADI recommends that the absolute maximum depth for any recreational diver is 40m (130ft), while BSAC says a maximum depth of 50m (165ft) is ok with proper training.

Just because you can go a certain depth does certainly not mean it is safe to dive at to that depth. At depths between 30-60m, while not dangerous in itself, divers are likely to experience the intoxicating condition of nitrogen narcosis which can have a severe impact on a diver’s decision making, leading to stupid and sometimes dangerous actions. After a certain depth, at partial pressures greater than 1.44bar, the oxygen in a divers air supply becomes toxic, so going further or experiencing this toxicity for too long could prove fatal.

Due to increased pressure at greater depths the chances of decompression sickness are also increased. Diver’s are required to take longer decompression stops, to avoid the formation of gas bubbles in the body. By releasing the water pressure on the body slowly at the end of the dive and allowing gases trapped in the bloodstream to gradually break solution and leave the body, a diver minimizes their chances of getting ‘the bends’. Another concern when diving deep is air consumption. Under  water pressure the air in a diver’s tank too gets compressed further, providing fewer “breaths” which in turn runs out a lot quicker than if you were diving at a shallower depth. This means either carrying an additional small cylinder of air called a pony bottle or having a drop tank available is advisable.

In technical diving, 60 metres / 200 feet may be a “deep dive”. These divers use specialized pieces of scuba diving equipment or special gas mixtures other than normal atmospheric air to overcome depth issues like nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity and the tremendous pressure. It is possible to technical divers to go deeper than 200m (700ft) with closed circuit rebreathers. This sort of ultra-deep diving requires extraordinarily high levels of training, experience, fitness and surface support in the form of decompression chambers.

FUN FACT: The Holy Grail of deep SCUBA diving was the 1,000 ft (300 m) mark, first achieved by John Bennett in 2001 and has only been achieved twice since. Only eight (or possibly nine) persons are known to have ever dived below a depth of 800 feet (240 m) on self contained breathing apparatus recreationally. That is fewer than the number of people who have walked on the surface of the moon!

*Photo credits: photos by Ilse Reijs en Jan-Noud Hutten, Dude Crush, star5112,  Rafael Robayna – ecocentrik.com on flickr

Scuba diving, like anything isn’t for everyone. Here are a few simple ways to tell if it’s not for you-

1.If your fellow diver gives you the “Ok” signal and you give him “the bird.”

2. If you joke that safety stops are for wussies.

3. When your dive buddy gives you the “out of air”  signal, do you say things like, “sucks to be you”, or, “Wait here, I’ll go get you some” while swimming off?

4. Do you offer to race other divers to the surface?

5. Do you spit in your wetsuit and pee in your mask?

6. If you think being neutral in the water means not fighting with your dive buddy.

7. If you wait for the tingly feeling, as a signal to surface.

8. If you have a hard time figuring out which fin goes on which foot.

9. Did you move to Kansas to avoid shark attacks?

10. If you don’t wear fins because it’s hard to walk on the bottom…

…perhaps diving just isn’t for you.

*Photo credits: Photos by Andy Ciordia, Gagliardo_ on flickr.

Have you ever been on a dive where you look out not too far away into the distance and see a massive shoal of barracuda’s, jacks, fusiliers or other variety of fish give you that feeling of being small and insignificant in their world? Well, that’s exactly the kind of feeling some fish off the coast of North Sulawesi would have had when they saw a slightly different although extremely large shoal of a completely different species in August this year! 2861 divers went for a 31 minute dive simultaneously off the North Sulawesi capital Manado to earn themselves a new Guinness book record. A press release posted by Hobie on DiveBuddy.com quoted

“We have just smashed a world record today. It gives us pride as we can prove our country is a strong maritime nation,” Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Minister Freddy Numberi said after the mass dive.

The number of participants in Manado set a new world record of “most people scuba diving simultaneously”, breaking the previous mark of 979 set in Maldives in 2006.

North Sulawesi Governor Sinjo Sarundayang, Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad, deputy Navy chief Vice Adm. Moekhlas Sidik and 51 foreigners were among the participants of the record breaking dive, which was held as part of the Sail Bunaken festival.

This couldn’t have been an easy feet and just considering the logistics of arranging such a dive would be a nightmare for even the most seasoned dive operators. A feat of this sort would involve 2,861 sets of masks, air tanks, , regulators, wetsuits and no less than 5722 fins! That is one large dive group to say the least.

If only we had some underwater images of what 2861 divers in the water looked like I’m sure it’s an image the fish of that region won’t forget. For each one of those divers, it would have been something fresh for the long book which most other divers couldn’t claim to have seen on their dives.

Photos by: The Daily Telegraph Australia & iTelegraph uk

Going through withdrawal symptoms waiting until your next diving trip? Can’t wait to submerge into the underwater realm? Well we have compiled a list of Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood that will help you get through that “dry” spell. Here is Part 2 of our list of Scuba Diving movies; if you missed our first part then you can click here.

Cave (2005)

The Cave is an Action Horror Adventure about bloodthirsty creatures that attack a pack of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network. Fans of creature movies and cave diving might like this one, but otherwise there is no real ground breaking plot. Overall an average film that  has some good action sequences and plenty of cave diving in it.

The Abyss (1989)

This James Cameron 1989 classic is a must watch if you haven’t done so already. Starring Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio  the plot is about a crew of an underwater oil rig divers are enlisted to assist in the rescue of an American nuclear submarine at the height of the Cold War, and they discover a strange and mysterious force living in the deep ocean and their rescue mission becomes an adventure with the unknown. The movie is captivating through-out and the first half of the movie is primarily about the descent into the abyss with special deep diving suits which is both gripping and fun to watch.

The Big Blue (1988)

Starring Jean Reno and Rosanna Arquette, the big blue is one of those movies that you will surprisingly enjoy more for its gorgeous underwater sequences, its exotic ocean-side settings in Greece and Sicily, than for the actual story, which is a romantic quest between two childhood friends Jean and Rosanna who both love the ocean and free diving. Jean constantly pushes the depth limits of free diving with mysterious dolphin like qualities which lead to a very interesting conclusion. The Big Blue is overall a great diving movie for those wanting to get through the off-season.

<

Men of Honor (2000)

Men of Honor with its all star cast of Cuba Gooding Jr., Robert De Niro and Charlize Theron is simply a classic must watch diving movie.  Set in the early days of bell suit diving (with hookah air line systems), the story is about Carl Brashear, the first African American, also the first amputee, US Navy Diver and the man who trained him. Definitely an inspirational movie, which also gives a great insight into how much diving, has changed since. If you haven’t watched this DVD yet, then grab a copy from your local video store, and you won’t regret it.

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Starring Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel  L . Jackson and LL Cool J, Deep Blue Sea is about a group of research scientists in an isolated facility working on a cure for Alzheimer’s find a way to genetically enlarge shark brains. However the shark subjects get super smart and break out into the open sea. The film is full of unexpected twists but still fails to be frightening. Overall Deep Blue Sea is a fun movie, some thrills and fast paced enough to keep you occupied for a couple of hours.

Continued from: Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood Part 1

Going through withdrawal symptoms waiting until your next Scuba diving trip? Can’t wait to submerge into the underwater realm? Well we have compiled a list of Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood that will help you get through that “dry” spell. So rush to that video store now and load up these Scuba DVD’s in your player!

Some of the Newer Movies (in no particular order):

Fools Gold (2008)

Starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, Fools Gold is a romantic movie combined with a fast paced underwater treasure hunting action adventure built in. Tons of dive scenes and pristine blue water to make you want to go diving immediately after watching. The movie however is very average and we would recommend this movie only for a lazy afternoon viewing simply because of the stunning visuals and locations both underwater and above.

Into the Blue (2005)

The Plot of this movie is about a group of divers that find themselves in deep trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. Starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba, the movie was shot primarily in the Bahamas and features ample underwater scenes. Overall the movie is once again just average, and if it weren’t for Jessica Alba in a bikini and generous diving scenes, we wouldn’t recommend this movie.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

This adventure comedy starring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Kate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe is a must watch. The Plot line is about a wild expedition undertaken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) after his partner is killed a mythic Jaguar shark, sets off to hunt it down.   The movie is colorful, quirky and bizarre, but nevertheless entertaining with tons of diving scenes.

Open Water (2003)

Based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left, Open Water is a must watch for any Scuba diver. Financed, directed and produced by avid scuba divers, this movie portrays the perils of getting stranded in the middle of the ocean very realistically. This movie really puts you in the place of the characters and makes you wonder what you would do in their situation.

Continued in: Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood Part 2

For years, Hollywood has adopted the sport of Scuba Diving and glamorized it into huge films like the Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey starer ‘Fools Gold‘, the Cuba Gooding Jr. hit ‘Men of Honor‘, James Cameron’s 1989 classic ‘The Abyss‘ and so many more. (See more: Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood). It’s no wonder that many actors and actresses Scuba dive having under gone training to act in such films, but many of these famous names from Hollywood and other fields have been roped in by the fascination of the underwater world like many of us and have taken up the sport with a passion.

Here’s a look at some famous celebrities who just love Scuba Diving-

The three time Oscar Winning Director James Cameron, of the worldwide box office hit “Titanic”, clearly shows his love for Scuba diving and the ocean through his work. With over 3,000 hours logged underwater, Cameron has been an avid diver since 1969 where he grew up near Niagara Falls and recalls begging his father at age 16 for scuba diving lessons. The combination of his two greatest passions- Scuba diving and filmmaking have won him accolades as well as  earned him more than just bread & butter, with movies like The Abyss, Titanic, Into the Blue, Terminator or Aliens.

“I learned to scuba dive in a pool. It wasn’t until I moved to California that I ever even scuba dived in the ocean. But I just loved it. I loved this idea that there was this alien atmosphere right here on planet earth. I knew that I was never going to be an astronaut and visit another star system or land on another planet, but I knew I could explore an alien world right here.”
- James Cameron

Hollywood hottie and a regular on the People’s magazine 50 Most Beautiful People list, Jessica Alba is a Scuba diver at heart. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk and this PADI-certified scuba diver’s skills were made to good use a number of times in her work, from the popular TV series Flipper to the movie Into the Blue. Jessica makes Scuba diving look sexy.

“When I was thirteen I learned to dive for a TV show I did called “The New Adventures of Flipper” I grew up in CA where the water is so cold that diving isn’t something you do if you’re a regular teenage girl. But I loved it immediately, I was fearless.”
- Jessica Alba

For Sandra Bullock Scuba diving wasn’t just for the love of the ocean, it was to overcome one of her biggest fears, being under water. Having conquered the fear with Scuba lessons, Sandra found that she just loved the peacefulness underwater and was hooked. As for Katie Homles, let’s just say she followed suit when she took up diving as an activity which she can experience together with husband Tom Cruise who loves Scuba diving. Tom’s ex the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz also loves her scuba diving when she’s on vacation and not to mention her good friend the Mexican beauty Salma Hayek has been Scuba diving since she was 12. Then there is Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich who is an avid scuba diver, to the extent that he has been known to read Scuba diving magazines during solo breaks between songs while on tour with Metallica.

Retired Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, Castaway star Tom Hanks, super models Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford, former Spice girl  Geri Halliwell, actors Gene Hackman, Kevin Costner, actresses Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson all have the Celebrity Scuba Diver badge in common. And by the looks of it hotel heiress, Paris Hilton may join the ranks as she was spotted taking Scuba lessons with her boyfriend in Maui last summer.

Worth a special mention in the Celebrity list of Scuba Divers is Golf Pro- Tiger Woods who is seriously diving the World over since he took up the sport a few years back. A NAUI divemaster member, Tiger is also a specialized cave diver. When asked about his love of Scuba diving He simple states, “The fish don’t know who I am.”

“The waters are incredible! I have been diving in many places and Belize is definitely top notch. The Blue Hole is spectacular. The water was so clear everywhere we went.” “I have never done anything like that in my life. It was awesome!”
-Tiger Woods (on Diving the Blue Hole and Shark-Ray Alley in Belize)

Many people are unsure about Scuba Diving and claim with certainty that they would never try it. Ask them why? and one of the most common replies is ‘Are you kidding? I’ve seen the movie Jaws!’. So is this fear of sharks and Scuba diving justified?

(*Photo by SF Brit on flickr)

Well, we’d be lying if we said that the chances of seeing and encountering a shark was low or even non existent. Let’s face it, you dive in open waters and as the biggest predators in the ocean, there are over 400 different species of sharks. However, hundreds of thousands of divers encounter them on dives across the world and that’s not counting the daredevil kind who specifically go shark diving wanting to cross it off their ‘list of things to do before I die’ and they don’t become shark bait.

Contrary to popular belief, Jaws and the endless shark attack programs shown on TV, there have been very few shark attacks on Scuba divers.  Let’s just say your chances of getting hit by lightning, dying of a wasp, bee or snake bite are a lot more than becoming a shark’s supper. In the United States the annual risk of death from lightning is 30 times greater than that from shark attack. (*Photo by manoellemos on flickr)

If you think about it logically, Sharks just like most animals are weary of foreign objects (read as humans in the ocean!). Look at it from a shark’s point of view- if you came across a noisy bubble blowing, large strange shaped  creature carrying Scuba gear and equipment on their backs that often flashes bright lights (with dive flashlights or underwater cameras) and not to mention in groups or at least more than one, would you stick around to figure whether they would harm you? If you’re still thinking, the answer is No.

Worldwide there have been probably 70-100 shark attacks annually resulting in about 5-15 deaths as compared to the millions of dives conducted each each. Of these the Scuba diving related shark attack percentage is very low. The majority of this unfortunate incidents occurred to surfers, swimmers, skin divers, kayakers while swimming or surfing in near shore waters. In most instances, these probably are cases of mistaken identity that occur under conditions of poor water visibility and not an intentional to feed on the human. The victim seldom sees its attacker and the shark does not return after inflicting a single bite or slash wound as it soon realizes that it isn’t it’s usual prey.

As bad as a Shark taking a nip at you may sound and with no intention of downplaying the severity of the situation, the shark attack trauma is less common than such beach-related injuries as spinal damage, dehydration, jellyfish and stingray stings and sunburn.

A few stats on your odds of being attacked according to the Florida Museum of Natural History based on data from 68 ocean lifeguard agencies within jurisdiction is
Drowning and other beach-related fatalities - 1 in 2 million
Drowning fatalities -  1 in 3.5 million
Shark attacks -  1 in 11.5 million
Shark attack fatalities - 0 in 264.1 million
(*Photo by c.lathe on flickr)

At first many divers find the thought of sharks quite disturbing mostly cause they tend to have a certain presence that you can’t quite trust. But if you do get the pleasure (yes, it is exhilarating to be in the presence of such a creature) of seeing one, you will find that they tend to be more afraid of you than you of them with the exception of a few types (namely- the Great White Shark, Tiger Sharks and Bull Sharks). Sharks are definitely not the evil monsters that you see on TV. They truly are very misunderstood.

If this is still the only unnerving fear you have of Scuba diving, the best and only way of overcoming it is facing it head on. Only by experience will you get over your fears and it won’t take you long to wish you spot a harmless shark on a dive.

For those divers who still get the jitters when they hear the word Shark, look out for our Tips on How to React in the presence of a Shark. (*Photo by StormyDog on flickr)