The first tragedy in the movie occurs when the fatigued cave diver Jude, panics when her rebreather hose snaps and she’s caught in situation with no bail out/ back up tank.  Frank her dive buddy and expert cave explorer, resorts to buddy breathing with her but with a full face scuba mask it’s not an easy task. She panics even more, refusing to share their only one air supply, wherein it becomes a tough choice of letting her drown, in order to save himself.

As divers you’re told not to panic and this is imbibed into each diver as they undergo every stage of their diving certification courses, open water, advanced open water, rescue, master etc. . It is even reinforced each time, a scuba mask gets flooded, one runs low on air, the current is too strong for a dive, or you lose sight of the dive master etc. A conscious  effort to not panic when things go wrong, stop think and act is crucial for all scuba divers.

It only takes a minute to go from cool as a cucumber to scared, disoriented and out-of-control. And if there’s one thing that could be pegged as the main cause of death in diving accidents…the answer is PANIC. Studies have shown that in most cases, scuba incidents are avoidable if the diver would just use their common sense and basic dive training. But, it is entry into a state of panic that usually spells disaster for the diver. Panic can kill in many ways. Rapid, shallow breathing  with scuba gear can cause hypoxia and a buildup of carbon dioxide. This could result in making the diver act irrationally, breathe faster, expel the regulator or want to bolt to the surface with little or no concern for decompression sickness whatsoever.

Usually triggered, when a divers loses sight of familiar objects, becomes disoriented or experiences a form of sensory deprivation. panic responses can cause a diver to pass out, or even have a heart attack if  they have a weak heart. Panicking  impedes your ability to solve problems and get to safety. In most diving incidents whether it’s  getting tangled in a line, running out of air or even equipment malfunctions, if you can keep your wits, remain calm, you can find a way out of almost any situation.

So how do you fight panic underwater? While it’s hard to fight off once you’re in a situation, a lot of knowledge, practice and preparation can soothe even the most anxious scuba diver.  Here’s a look at a few points to help achieve some grace under pressure-

• Practice practice practice. Your most basic scuba skills are the probably the most important skills to remember in an emergency. Practice them till they are second nature to you.
• Plan your dive and stick to your plan
• Prepare for emergencies. Panic sets in when something out of the blue gets thrown at you. You can better prepare yourself by having a contingent plan and emergency procedure ready for any situation you may encounter on that dive. make sure your dive buddy is on the same page as you, and if the said happens you’ll both automatically be confident about knowing how to deal with it.
• Stop-Breathe-Think-Act. Make that your moto to remember if anything unexpected happens. Live by it, and dive by it.
• Listen to your instincts. If you have doubts about a dive for whatever the reason, your breathing didn’t feel right, the currents were too strong, you were getting tired….you can always end it. A simple “It did not feel right to me,” is more than sufficient reason to abort a dive. Don’t let anyone talk you into doing dives you may have doubts about.

The best way to ward off panic as a diver is to be prepared, practice all your skills and dive within your comfort zone. And remember panic in an underwater scenario is you worst enemy…Stop-Breathe-Think-Act!

*Image credits: photo by JLambus on flickr

Panic Can Be Your Worst Enemy Underwater was written by Noreen for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World

* Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t watched the movie already this post may reveal a few things you probably didn’t want to know!*

The Real Story Behind The Movie Sanctum was written by Noreen for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World

Universal Pictures’ description of the movie is as follows:

“The 3-D action-thriller Sanctum follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea. Master diver Frank McGuire (played by Richard Roxburgh of Moulin Rouge!) has explored the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves for months. But when his exit is cut off in a flash flood, Frank’s team-including 17-year-old son Josh and financier Carl Hurley are forced to radically alter plans. With dwindling supplies, the crew must navigate an underwater labyrinth to make it out. Soon, they are confronted with the unavoidable question: Can they survive, or will they be trapped forever?”

The movie, directed by Alister Grierson, was shot entirely on location off the Gold Coast in Queensland and in caves in South Australia, as well as at the Village Roadshow Studios.  Sanctum employs stunning 3D photography techniques developed to lens the critically acclaimed Avatar and the action-thriller will take audiences on a breathless journey across plunging cliffs and into the farthest reaches of our subterranean world.

The Cast of Sanctum include Richard Roxburgh (of Stealth, Moulin Rouge, Mi-2 fame), Australian actor Rhys Wakefield (Josh) and Alice Parkinson (Victoria) known for her role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and finally Ioan Gruffud (Carl) who we’ve seen in the fantastic four series as Dr.Reed Richards.

The movie was conceived loosely off a real life experience when in 1988, producer and renowned caver Andrew Wight led an expedition to explore and dive into a remote cave system hidden beneath the Nullarbor Plain in Australia. During the course of his trip, a freak storm caused the cave entrance to collapse, leaving 15 people trapped deep underground. A rescue mission was mounted and, incredibly, everyone survived the harrowing ordeal.  The experience led Wight to develop Sanctum with his longtime colleague James Cameron, a film inspired by these life changing events.

Preparation for the movie was reported to have been very intense with all of the cast and crew having to learn to scuba dive, use rebreathers, dive in the water tank at night in the pitch dark and do all sorts of other crazy things. In addition to the rock climbing and hours of scuba diving required of most of the cast, Gruffudd (who plays Carl in the movie) also had to learn base jumping for a particular scene.

Santum’s stunt director claimed that the principal performers had to complete a scuba-diving open-water course and were placed straight onto the rebreathers. A team of experienced cave divers spent weeks working with the actors to help build their confidence and improve their buoyancy. After they mastered their basic safety drills and buoyancy techniques, they were introduced to ancillary equipment—such as the helmet, full-face mask, lights, stage cylinders, reels…and even diver propulsion vehicles (DPV’s) .

Sanctum is set to release in IMAX and 3D theatres on February the 4^th, and we’re sure that this film will be a must watch especially for Scuba divers.

Sanctum: The Only Way out is Down was written by Nevin for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World

The film opens with the hatching of turtle eggs on a beach in Florida, and the perilous journey that the hatch-lings must take from the beach to the sea, as predators from the land (crabs) and the air (sea birds) pick them off one by one.  This segment was filmed remarkably like a WWII  allied beachhead invasion in reverse, with the hundreds of loggerhead hatchlings making their way away from the beach into the safety of the seas, as only a handful of them make it.

Once our nameless female protagonist loggerhead hatchling reaches the seas, the film manages to follow the one hatchling through an epic journey across the seas, into the Gulf Stream, the deadly Saragossa Seas, the frigid waters of Nova Scotia, across the Atlantic to the incredible paradise of the Azores, West Africa and circling back across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. As the film progresses our Loggerhead grows into a full adult turtle having covered thousands of Miles across open seas, only to return to the Florida Beach it was born on to lay its eggs as one in 10,000 loggerheads that make it to the age of 21.

What truly is remarkable about this film is that it isn’t just about the Loggerhead, but contains several amazingly captured sequences of its companions on its journey, such as the humpback Whales, the Blue Shark, jellyfish, Sperm Whale and Dolphin; as well as the equally stunning sequences of the natural events and adventures the turtle comes across during its journey, such as Coral Spawning, the night time feeding of creatures from the depth, long line fisherman, and trans Atlantic ship traffic. All this leaves you wondering how the film-makers ever managed to capture and track these creatures to film them.

Only recently released on DVD, we strongly recommend watching this title not only for die hard underwater documentary fans, or families but for anyone wanting to witness a good adventure. Aquaviews rates this movie a solid 4/5.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this film has not seen widespread DVD distribution and is difficult to find. We’ve found a Blu ray version available on Amazon.com in both German and English.

Turtle: The Incredible Journey was written by Nevin for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World

Coral Reef Adventure

Coral Reef Adventure released in 2003 in IMAX format, was directed by Greg MacGillivray and narrated by Liam Neeson. The story of this documentary film is about a husband and wife team who investigate the death of a village’s reef in Fiji, and bring out the message of how fragile our coral reef ecosystems truly are.  When watched in IMAX theatres the footage and scenes were simply remarkable, and transports the viewer to this tropical reef and in the ‘fins’ of the diver. The DVD release in 2004 also manages to capture the same intensity of the IMAX experience, especially if you watch the full HD or Blue Ray versions of this film. Once again a must see for any Scuba diver, especially during the offseason, as this documentary is sure to make you long for your next Dive holiday. Despite some criticism from those claiming that the film is too ‘preachy’ about the environmental cause and Global Warming, this is still a must watch.  During the filming of Coral Reef Adventure, it was reported that 5 new species of fish were discovered.

The Blue Planet

Originally out in 2001, produced by Alastair Fothergill and the BBC, narrated by Richard Attenborough, “The Blue Planet” an 8 episode documentary series is simply an extraordinary journey into exploration of the world’s oceans, with plenty of cinematographically groundbreaking never-before-seen footage of our oceans inhabitants. The Blue Planet is also the winner of two Emmy Awards and is simply a must see for anyone and not just Scuba divers.

As a SCUBA diver, one can appreciate the incredible strain the cameramen must have endured to capture the underwater footage and some of the most beautiful sequences ever captured on film. And it has been said that the Blue Planet team discovered 10 new species of marine creatures in the process of shooting this film, which alone speaks volumes of the documentary.

The Living Seas

The Living Seas released in 1995 is another spectacular Greg MacGillivray (See Coral Reef Adventure) directed documentary  which is a 40 minute survey of the world’s oceans traveling to Palau, Hawaii, California, Oregon, Alaska, Nova Scotia and the Red Sea showing the interdependence of all life in the ocean. Also originally released in IMAX format, the Living seas, which is narrated by Meryl Streep and with an audio soundtrack by Sting, is a visual fiesta bound to captivate any audience and leave them “oohing” and “Aahing” at every scene. Viewers of the DVD version should definitely enjoy ‘the making of’ footage that gives an excellent view of what goes into the filming of such a production.

Into the Deep

Released in 1994, Into the Deep is a fascinating documentary which unlike others of its kinds, focuses on just one area of the ocean, the Channel Islands off the coast of California. This region is renowned for its giant kelp forests and all its inhabitants, Garibaldi, Sea Urchins, Sea Lions lobsters and the unique sunfish. The documentary directed by Howard Hall uses sophisticated time-lapse photography and is a visual treat. Into the deep was originally released to the large screen in 3D and was so lifelike that it had the moviegoers reaching out to touch the kelp as it swayed on screen. For any diver that has never been diving in the Monterrey Bay area, this movie will make you want to go there, and for those of you that have, will want to go back.

Shop for Scuba and Underwater DVD’s at LeisurePro.com

4 Underwater Documentaries That Make You Want To Go Diving was written by Nevin for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World

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.

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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

Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood Part 2 was written by Nevin for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World

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

Scuba Diving Movies from Hollywood Part 1 was written by Nevin for Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog - Bringing You The Other 70% Of Our World