Michelle Bery asked:


Clearly, being many feet under water for an extended period of time is not something humans were designed to do. But the art of scuba diving has opened up the possibilities - allowing us to journey where we were previously unable to explore. Of course, the reason that scuba diving is successful on this front is because of the scuba diving equipment that renders us physically able to stay underwater.

Scuba diving can be an amazing experience and one - for obvious reasons - that many find themselves addicted to after just the first time. But diving safely depends not only on the skill of the diver, but on the dependability and proper use of extensive scuba diving equipment.

The first layer of scuba diving equipment is that which covers the diver. The wetsuit, made of a thin layer of synthetic rubber and lined with nylon, forms a protective barrier between the diver and the water. The diver’s skin is kept completely dry and the material of the wetsuit actually traps body heat against the skin guarding against hypothermia. It is important, for this reason, that the wetsuit be as snug as possible against the diver’s body. In addition to the wetsuit, the scuba diver also wears flippers as part of their scuba diving equipment that allows them to maneuver effortlessly through the water.

Of course, the scuba diving equipment that most people associate with scuba is the oxygen tank. The oxygen tank is the most essential piece of scuba diving equipment as it allows the diver to stay underwater for extended periods of time. The oxygen tank is carried on the back of the diver; its size depends on the length and time of the dive. Most tanks also include equipment that allows the divers to closely monitor the amount of oxygen they have left so that they can resurface safely.

The facemask - another piece of scuba diving equipment - is placed over the mouth, nose, and eyes of the diver. Oxygen is pumped into the mask allowing the diver to breathe. The mask also enables the diver to see underwater without obstruction.

Scuba instruction of any kind will include comprehensive lessons on the safe and effective use of scuba diving equipment. It is imperative that scuba divers - beginners and veterans alike - use their scuba diving equipment respectfully and in complete accordance with operating instructions. Using these safety measures will ensure that you have an enjoyable - and memorable - scuba experience.

pendo86 asked:

Me and my friend Jon went Scuba Diving on our trip to Laganas, Greece. Here’s a rip of the DVD from our dive.

Gregory Smyth asked:


The Maldives is a group of twenty six atolls, and the country is comprised of over 1100 islets - and when you understand this, it makes the fact that on luxury vacation in the Maldives you enjoy the privacy of your own entire island, a lot more credible! The hundreds of islands of the Maldives range from about 2.5km to just 150m across, and you can stay in luxury on your own desert island in any number of places. Understandably, tourism accounts for around 28% of the Maldives’ GDP, and there is a larger concentration of luxury hotels on these islands than just about anywhere else in the world. This is why we have compiled our guide to the cream of the crop.

When looking at staying in the Maldives, it is important to note that the facilities at the hotel you choose to stay at are the only ones you have access to for the duration of your trip - unless you choose a resort that also offers boat hire, in which case you can transport yourself around the islands. This makes it incredibly important to make sure that the luxury resort in the Maldives can take care of all of the equipment for your stay. Will you want to go scuba diving? Do you want to fish, and will you need to rent gear for that? What else do you want to do? And how well planned are you when you pack your suitcases?!

If you are looking to get away from the world, the Maldives is one of the best and most luxurious and beautiful places to do it. You will want to make sure that your hotel caters to few people - generally the upper end of the price scale when it comes to luxury accommodation in the Maldives means that the resort is smaller.

One of the closest luxury hotels in the Maldives to Male International Airport is the Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru. You reach the resort by speedboat, which you will find to be intimate and eco-friendly. At this resort you can scuba dive, wind surf, sail a catamaran, canoe, play beach volleyball, and also go big game fishing. The accommodation at this Maldives luxury resort is in bungalows. Thee are 48 of these, and they feature an open terrace per villa, a private landscaped garden and private sundeck. The recessed sitting area and four poster bed make you feel in the lap of luxury for every minute.

Holiday Island is another excellent Maldives luxury resort, located on Dhiffushi island in the southern Alif Atoll. This is a more secluded island than Vabbinfaru, up to 2 1/2hrs from Male by speedboat, although you can reach it in 30 minutes by seaplane. The accommodation at Holiday Island features antique furniture and paintings by local artists, helping to support the local economy in areas other than tourism. There are 142 beautiful seaside rooms with luxurious amenities. There is also a wealth of activities here, including diving, wind surfing, catamarans, parasailing, wakeboarding, ringo riding, submarine diving, aerobics and tennis, just to name a few.

Shangri-La’s Vililingi Resort in the Maldives, due for completion in the end of 2008, is set on a three kilometer long island with almost two kilometers of white sandy beaches. The accommodation will range from tropical treehouse villas to private ocean retreats, and there are three natural lagoons on the island as well as the ocean to make use of. The luxury accommodation will be appointed in five distinct styles, and will have ipod charging docks and units, among other luxuries.

If you are travelling to the Maldives, it pays to do a little research, as it isn’t possible to walk to the next hotel over if you aren’t satisfied! Go for the Maldives luxury spas for an unforgettable experience.

Chris Chew asked:


Despite a series of terrorist bomb attacks in 2002 and 2005 killing hundreds of tourists and locals hitting the tourism industry hard for short periods, the tropical Indonesian island of Bali is still attracting many vacationing tourists.

Tourists are attracted by the island’s rustic charms, mystical culture and tradition, spectacular tropical sceneries and beautiful white sandy beaches. Many of these tourists are also scuba divers and are in Bali for scuba diving. After all, Bali was voted by several scuba diving magazines as one of the top ten dive location in the world.

Bali have many scuba diving locations where awesome underwater landscape and marine creatures abound. Let’s take a tour of some of Bali’s diving destinations.

Sanur and Nusa Dua - These 2 dive spots are located just 5 minutes away from the shore and therefore are very accessible. Beginners and novice divers will enjoy diving here because of the very gentle current. Visibility depending on seasons is low to moderate. Although hard corals are scarce, the many species of colorful fishes made up for the shortfall. Soft corals and sponges can also be found thriving on the reefs.

Nusa Penida and Lembongan Islands - Drop off reef diving is the main attraction on these islands. It is a 45 minute speedboat ride to the islands. Water visibility is rated as good because the islands are further away from the coast and therefore less polluted. The current here is very strong and experienced divers can enjoy drift diving. Sometimes the current may get too strong and dives may be abandoned.

There is a very good variety of hard corals, colorful sea gorgonian fans and many huge pelagic fishes to see. Highlights of diving here are sightings of huge schools of sweet lips fish, huge hawksbill turtles, sharks and giant manta rays.

Amed and Jemeluk Beach - These dive spots are one and half hour from Denpasar, a popular tourist town. Only experienced divers can dive here because of the strong current. The dives here can be very spectacular because of the long coastal reef, reef slopes and wall diving. Water visibility is moderate to good. This diving location is reputed to be the home of the best hard coral community in Bali.

The Padang Bay - This dive scuba diving location in Bali have a flat bottom seabed and is made up mixed reef and sandy bottom. Because of its close proximity to the shore, the water visibility is rated at best to be moderate. The attractions here are frequent sightings of large triggerfish and blue-spotted stingrays.

Tulamben Wreck Dive - For those who enjoy shipwreck diving, then this is the dive site in Bali that you must not missed. Water visibility here is fair to good and the current is generally gentle. Night dive on this wreck is described by many divers as spectacular.

The wreck was the USS Liberty, sunk in World War 2 by Japanese submarine torpedoes 1942. Since the wreck is so near the beach, scuba divers can simply swim to the wreck from the beach.

These are merely some of the many scuba diving destinations in Bali. For more excellent diving sites, you can check out with the many scuba diving operators when you are in Bali.

sail2c asked:

Clem (aka Rick)has opened St Barth’s first underwater (almost) camera repair shop in Gustavia Harbor

Nahshon Roberts asked:


Afraid of drowning in a swimming pool? You shouldn’t be. The Poseidon, an underwater surveillance system, can detect problems and immediately activate beepers to alert lifeguards. The image and location of the drowning person is instantly captured on the CCTV cameras, and a life is saved.

Rewind and fast forward

Once upon a time, people drowning in pools mostly, well, drowned. It was always too late before they were discovered, often already floating lifeless or unconscious. A drowning person probably just slipped without a noise, without the dramatic hand-waving that they do in the movies. Real life drowning is not theatrical and often goes unnoticed because the person just goes under without warning.

The terror of losing a loved one to drowning is something we want to avoid, so you stand watch over your children while lifeguards scan the pool or beach with their binoculars for unusual movements. But still, lapses can happen in the blink of an eye.

Accidental drowning is the 7th leading cause of death for all age groups, the second leading cause of death for children in the 1-14 years age bracket. Drowning can happen at the beach, your home pool, a bathtub or bucket filled with water, or even in soup.

When surveillance is a security, not an intrusion

The welcome arrival of underwater surveillance has changed how we look at surveillance systems. In this case, we understand that when it comes to matters of life and death in very familiar places, like the public and home pool, we dare not object.

True, there is a lot of debate surrounding surveillance security. But debacles aside, the invention of electronic surveillance, including CCTV, has thwarted dangerous intentions. Now the grandfather of all surveillance is here.

This CCTV surveillance is not your regular home and office electronic spies. These are underwater devices designed to detect movement and problems in public and private swimming pools. The Poseidon is a network of cameras that sweeps its unblinking eyes above and below the surface of the swimming pool.

The Poseidon has already saved a life, that of 18-year-old Jean Francois LeRoy of Ancenis, France. Without warning, LeRoy, who was underwater practicing apnea swimming, drowned without warning. The unblinking eyes found him in milliseconds and alerted the lifeguards with incessant beeps. Thus, he was saved in time before brain damage set in.

The Poseidon CCTV is the perfect tool for lifeguards. With this in place, lifeguards increase their chances of saving lives and averting the irreversible damage that may be caused by drowning incidents.

Swimming and safety measures

Still, we can’t be so sure at all times. Here are some safety tips for at home and public pools:

1. The home pool should be high-fenced so children cannot clamber over it.

2. Cover the pool with netting.

3. Do not leave buckets filled or even half-filled with water. Very young children can drown within seconds in buckets.

4. Do not rely on your children’s swim wings, they might slip off unnoticed.

5. Do not also depend on your child’s swimming lessons to save himself. The child will panic and forget all lessons.

6. Never swim alone.

As a further precaution, when swimming in public pools, inquire if there is a CCTV system in and above the swimming pool, just to be sure. You’ll be confident knowing these are around because these cameras never blink.

manateepunch asked:

Meet the world’s only scuba diving cat

The Ukraine Train asked:


I am heading on my honeymoon next month, and I am looking to pick up a disposable, underwater camera. It would be a bonus if it took decent above water photos as well…

Mike Norman asked:


Hurghada is a leading Egyptian seashore resort on the Red Sea. It is spread over about 40 km of shoreline. Year round sunshine, desert sands and crystal clear waters make Hurghada resort a favorite with national as well as international tourists from around the world. The city is reached from Hurghada International Airport.

For aquatic sports like sailing, diving, windsurfing, deep-sea fishing and snorkeling Hurghada has is an international center. The offshore underwater reefs gardens are some of the finest in the world. For many varieties of rare fish and coral reefs the warm waters here are ideal habitat.. Ample aquatic sport facilities for scuba divers, sailboarders, snorklers and yachtsmen are available at Makadi Bay, etc.

Central location of Hurghada resort provides ease access to dive sites throughout the Red Sea region. From Hurghada you can gain access many uninhabited offshore reefs and islands also.
Makadi Bay, a dreamy beachside resort, just 35 km south of Hurghada has many beach resorts providing a location for scuba diving and snorkeling. Most hotels in Hurghada are located in a 20 km long strip parallel to the beach; they range from 5 star or 4 star luxury accommodations to traditional and simple Egyptian guesthouses. There are many good hotels in Makadi Bay, Soma Bay, etc.

Le Meridien Makadi Bay Resort is situated on a stretch of sandy beach in Makadi Bay. It is only 30 minutes from Hurghada. This five star resort hotel faces Red Sea and is nestled between desert dunes and breathtaking mountain ranges. It has more than 800 well appointed rooms and its 6,000 square meter swimming pool is the largest in the Middle East. Le Meridien Resort is like a small town by itself. Le Meridien is an ideal place to relax and laze the day away or indulge in a little adventurous pursuit. The hotel has one-half km of private white sand beach. The bay provides a superb location for scuba- diving, snorkeling, wind surfing, water skiing, sailing, etc. Le Meridien offers a selection of leisure activities such as indoor and outdoor swimming, tennis, billiard, table tennis, etc. Other facilities such as shopping arcade, laundry service, childcare, and activities of health club, gym, sauna & steam bath are on the premises for health conscious guests.

While at Hurghada you cannot afford to miss a visit to Egypt’s Venice. About 25 km north of Hurghada the town of El Gouna is situated. It is a privately owned and artificially created beautiful luxury hotel town. It is quiet and clean. It has 14 hotels and 2 marinas and there are hundreds of private villas and apartments. Most astonishing thing about El Gouna is that it consists of several islands connected by bridges over channels and. It is often called Egypt’s Venice.

Even though Hurghada resort is a famous international center for aquatic sports such as sailing, diving, windsurfing, deep-sea fishing and snorkeling, it is also a party town. Here life begins at its many clubs at night. Many hotels have their own discotheques. Ministry of Sound also has opened a nightclub in 2007.

Juice asked:


I live in South Florida and I’ve Snorkeled a few times before and it’s a lot of fun. I’m thinking about going into SCUBA diving, but I hear it’s very expensive (certification, buying the gear, chartering boats, etc). Is it worth it?