Underwater Photography. First Lesson…Buoyancy
Ok young masters, let’s begin. Whether you are considering underwater photography or are an accomplished amateur…the first lesson for being the best photographer you can be is Buoyancy! Everyone thinks they have great buoyancy, but it can always be better. Now when we add a camera, small or large, your body posture and total focus during a dive changes. Having a camera is not license to touch anything! It seems to me that photographers think they are immune to being good reef stewards and are allowed to put down their hands, fingers, or lay their fins on the reef. You are NOT… EVER! Have you ever placed a hand or finger down on the reef? If yes…then you should strive to learn and practice the necessary skills to prevent that from happening again. Ok, so how do we achieve the skills and techniques to master buoyancy, add a camera, re-master [...]
The Official Shark Diving Jedi
As the official Shark Diving Jedi I want to welcome everyone to the most exciting section of Scuba Jedi! Whether you actively seek out encounters with the ocean’s top predators or if you just bump into the occasional reef shark you are a Shark Diver and in my opinion that makes you a very lucky person. If you have yet to see your first shark then stay tuned. Over the coming months I will be writing about some of the sharkiest places on the planet. Places that you will want to visit. Places where you’re guaranteed to see more than your fair share of sharks. But, before I launch into stories about adrenalin drenching encounters with sharks there are a couple of things that I want to make crystal clear… Firstly, sharks are not monsters. If you’re hoping to read about ferocious, man-eating, blood thirsty beasties you should head over [...]
Categories: Shark Diving, Types of Diving Tags: shark dive, shark divers, shark diving, sharks
Night Diving Sucks – Am I for real?
Oh my god, did I just write that? I mean… how do I dare? Did I forget that diving is fun. That diving takes me places, that diving helps me meet people, do things? (sound “PADI” familiar?) Well, do I seriously think that Night diving sucks? Oh yeah! I think it sucks…I mean, I really don’t like night diving. I think it is overrated, I think you get colder than normal.. and I simply find that each night dive I do, I end loosing gear, and complaining about how cold it is… and how rough the conditions are at my local dive site. So overall… I don’t like it and I stand up today saying: I’m a Scuba diving instructor and Night diving sucks. But that’s the point of this article – it is OK not to like some sorts of diving. Ladies and Gentleman, diving girls and diving boys [...]
Categories: Night Diving, Types of Diving Tags: Night Diver, Night Diving, Types of Diving
Scuba Diving in a Wheelchair – Breaking the Barriers Underwater
Out of the wheelchair and into the blue. I can go backwards, forwards, up, down, and side to side. It’s just like being an astronaut in space. What freedom. Try scuba diving. Scuba diving in recent years has become the focus as a good sport for disabled people to have a go at. In the United States it has been taken on as a project for wounded United States Forces veterans as rehab through the Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba scheme. This is a recreational activity being banded as a genuine source of rehabilitation for those considered ‘disabled’. What would be the bonuses of this? Despite its ‘extreme James Bond’ image, scuba diving does provide a number of bonuses for those who want to give it a try. To get under the water and into a weightless environment can offer un-paralleled freedoms for all. This is before we even consider what [...]
Categories: Handicapped diving Tags: Handicapped diving, scuba diving in wheelchair, wheelchair diving
Why not Drysuit Diving…
Why Dry Suit? Why Not!! I have spent many happy dives in a 3mm Shorty and never thought I would ever Dive in a cold country, But I started to realize what a waste it was not to dive in my own country and miss all those weeks waiting to go to sunny Climates. So December 2007 the 13th to be exact I did my PADI Dry suit Specialty and dived in a lake in a dry suit, water temperature 4 degrees Fahrenheit, the visibility was stunning and the crispness of the water could be felt on your face, chilly hands but hey I was diving and a new world of diving opened up to me. So what makes me an expert? What I can tell you is that I have done many dry suit dives for pleasure and as a Rescue diver on training courses. The first thing I [...]
Categories: Drysuit diving Tags: dive drysuit, Drysuit diving, scuba drysuit
Introduction to DIR Education
The talk of DIR diving over the last few years has led to a masquerade of conflicting ideas. A distorted view of equipment identification and community exclusivity has given rise to many misinterpretations of a simple and effective philosophical base for improving a diver’s safety and enjoyment underwater. DIR diving allows a unified team of divers to communicate and execute a dive in a precise and logical rhythm, free from distraction, disorientation or confusion. DIR education differs from that of conventional diver training, in that DIR is rooted in a holistic system that is consistent with the students’ progression. This includes the essential building blocks of education, as well as equipment, experience and community. The idea is to “Start with the end in mind.” Too many in the scuba industry deplete the necessary ingredients of quality education that DIR finds fundamental. A quick and cheap class, the bare minimum of [...]
Categories: DIR, Scuba diving courses Tags: DIR, DIR diving, diving DIR, Scuba diving Course
Meet Handicapped diving Jedi: Mark Slingo
Mark is a PADI Course Director in Phuket, Thailand. After learning to dive in Australia Mark got the diving bug so following completion of his university studies worked his way up to PADI Instructor, diving in many countries including Kenya, Spain, Malaysia, Croatia and Thailand. After this Mark worked in a 5* Career Development Center in Thailand towards the rating of PADI Course Director which he earned in 2008 at the age of 25 becoming one of the youngest Course Directors in the world. He followed this with a stint as a Course Director in the Red Sea.In the past few years Mark has worked with hundreds of students on IDC’s to help them in their goal of becoming PADI Instructors. Mark also has set another landmark. On land at least Mark is confined to a wheelchair following an accident (Non-diving related) 3 years ago when Mark was working in [...]
Categories: Handicapped diving Tags: Mark Slingo, Scuba Diving Mark Slingo, Scuba Jedi
