As you dive more and more, your expeditions will eventually take you overseas. While this might be a simple version of the U.S. across a border, it can often be a trial in planning and executing your vacation plan. This article will guide you through the difficulties in diving overseas.

Finding a shop / resort

The first hurdle to overcome is finding a dive shop. In some cases, this may be a resort where you also stay. With the advent of the internet, this search has become immensely easier. Usually this is accomplished by typing “destination dive shop” into your favorite search engine, where “destination” is replaced by the part of the world in which you’re traveling (e.g., “fiji dive shop”).

Even with these advances, it can be hard to mill through the options. How do you choose one shop over another? Here are a few tips:

• Priorities. Decide what’s most important to you in a dive shop. Are you looking for super-cheapo diving, or do you not mind spending a little more to get pampered? Do you need something conveniently located, or will you have a rental car? Think about what you look for when you look for a dive shop.
• Reviews. Now that you know what’s important to you, try to find reviews online. Here are a few resources: www.tripadvisor.com, www.divematrix.com, www.yelp.com, www.scubadviser.com, and www.scubaboard.com.
• Outings. Confirm that the shop you are interested in is going out on the days you want. This is especially important during off-season travel. If you have choices, do research on dive locations and decide based on the dive sites you’d like to see.

After choosing, make any necessary reservations unless you are sure you can just show up and have a seat on the boat (doubtful, although you may prefer to visit the shop in person after arriving).

Agencies

The vast majority of you out there are probably certified through one of the major scuba agencies—that’s what makes them major. Even so, there are still many certifying agencies specific to regions and countries. If you hold a card with one of these, I would suggest checking that the shop you want will recognize your cert card.

Even if you do use a major agency, it can’t hurt to do a sanity check and avoid problems the day you want to dive.

Language

If you are reading this, I assume you speak English fairly well. English is a very common base language for communication, and popular destinations know this. Hence, almost all places you find yourself in will not pose a communication problem for you.

Nevertheless, difficulties can arise. While many instructors and shop employees are English-speaking transplants, it is popular to hire cheap local labor for running boats and leading dives. Thus, it is quite possible to find yourself unable to communicate effectively at times. Fortunately, these instances are few and far between, and are hardly ever over anything life critical.

If you are so inclined, it can’t hurt to learn a few key phrases and words should you ever find yourself in such a situation. I hardly consider it a necessity, though.

Local laws

The dive shop should notify you beforehand, but check up on any local laws for your dive destination. Some places don’t allow dive knives or gloves, for instance.

Another possibility is any fees required to get in the water. For example, the water around Bonaire is considered a marine park, and a $25 USD “admission” is required to scuba dive.

Units

Depending on where you are from, you either you use the metric or imperial system of measurement, or some derivative of one of these. In diving, this means you are either used to kilograms (weight), bar (pressure), and meters (length), or pounds (weight), PSI (pressure), and feet (length).

Here at The Diving Blog, I try to give you both units, but not everyone will be so kind. Therefore, you should check what is being used at your vacation spot and plan accordingly. Here is a breakdown of conversion between the two. Familiarize yourself with it.

• Kilograms (kgs) / pounds (lbs). For your weight belt, you will need to know how much weight to use. Depending on what you are used to, you may need to convert to the other unit. One pound is roughly 0.45 kilograms, and one kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.
• Bar / PSI. It doesn’t make sense to memorize the conversion between bar and PSI, since your cylinder pressure gauge will give one or the other, and will often have red markings to indicate low air situations. However, you should probably know that a full tank is about 3,000 PSI, which is about 200 bar. A half tank is then 1,500 PSI / 100 bar.
• Meters (m) / feet (ft). Probably the easiest is converting between depths. 1 meter is a little over 3 feet. Usually people remember that 10 meters is 33 feet and go from there. For example, 30 meters is about 99 feet.

Knowing these ahead of time can avoid a stressful situation. For example, if the boat is being loaded up and you are asked how much weight you need in kilograms, you may end up saying something stupid and being short on weight. Again, not incredibly likely, but any stress in diving situations should be avoided.

Emergencies

If diving with a reputable outfit, you shouldn’t need to worry about how to handle emergencies. It can happen, however, during shore diving or a rented boat, that emergency services need to be contacted while in a foreign country.

DAN, the Divers Alert Network, while based in the U.S., has services worldwide.

Many countries, especially popular dive destinations, have services dedicated to scuba emergencies. If this is the case, you will want to be aware and contact these services before regular emergency services. The savings in time could be critical.

As a last option, contact information for regular emergency services is needed where diving emergency or DAN services are not available. In any case, you will need to know where to find a telephone and how local telephone numbers work. This is easy, but shouldn’t be neglected.

Conclusion

Diving overseas is an exciting opportunity to see entirely new sites and critters, as well as expand your horizons. As with all things, a small bit of preparation goes a long way to increasing overall enjoyment. You may find the preparation time builds anticipation (in a good way) towards the upcoming trip. Have fun, and send me a postcard!

Photo by Irargerich

I love goofy looking fish, and today’s fish identification definitely fits that description!

Physical description

We’ve seen triggerfish before when we covered the black triggerfish. The clown triggerfish has the same basic body shape. This means an oval shaped body that is very flat. Ventral fins on the body and rear dorsal fins “wave’ to allow slow movement through the water, giving triggerfish what is probably their most recognizable characteristic.

What distinguishes clown triggerfish is their coloring. The bottom half of the fish is covered in large white spots over a dark background. The top of the fish is medium sized black spots over yellow color. The fish also has a few white stripes, in particular below the eyes and along the dorsal, ventral, and caudal fins.

If all that color isn’t enough for you, clown triggerfish have distinctive yellow lips, large like their triggerfish brethren. These lips mask strong jaws used for crushing sea urchins and the like.

Geography and habitat

Sorry Caribbean divers, but the clown triggerfish is found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters. Even in this region, the fish is relatively rare.

Nevertheless, look for it at all depths around coral reefs.

Due to their colorful appearance, clown triggerfish are highly sought by the aquarium trade, despite being difficult to maintain.

Further reading

Wikipedia
Fresh Marine
Animal World

Photo by mjwinoz

Juvenile photo by cliff1066

I’ve slowed down the pace of articles here at The Diving Blog. Besides giving myself some breathing room to grow the site, it allows me to take the time to write more in-depth articles, like Monday’s post on bell diving.

Look for 3 articles a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Of course, there’s nothing stopping me from the occasional surprise post when inspiration strikes! For now, here are a few articles to enjoy elsewhere on the web.

Don’t know a knoll from a gully? Aquaviews gives a run down of dive site terrain terms.

DiverWire reports that DAN is expanding their data offerings to include complementary subscriptions to their magazine, Alert Diver, to academic libraries. Additionally, they are expanding access to an online interactive database. DAN has tons of great data that I hope to explore in the future, and these offerings only cement their standing as the go-to source for data on diving accidents and the like.

Blue Ocean Institute is now offering FishPhone, a free iPhone app for sustainable seafood options. I have not tried this app, but a pocket source for this type of information is never a bad thing.

Hope everyone’s end-of-summer (winter for you southern hemisphere folks) is going well!

Children in a swimming pool experiment with trapping air in a bucket by quickly submerging it upside-down. While seemingly insignificant, this simple observation forms the basis of a diving bell. While we may think of swimming pools as somewhat modern, the idea of a diving bell dates back as far as Aristotle in the 4th century BC.

Apparatus

Not only is the idea of a diving bell simple, but the actual device is quite rudimentary, even in modern implementations. Any watertight container (except for the opening) can function as one. By submerging it underwater and keeping it vertical, a pocket of air becomes trapped inside by the water pressure.

This container usually takes the shape of a bell, hence the name diving bell. A bell is particularly effective for trapping air during submersion, although such a shape is certainly not required.

Of course, as the container grows larger, submersion becomes more challenging. As you know from your understanding of buoyancy, the larger an object is, the heavier it has to be to become negatively buoyant and sink. If you don’t believe me, try to pull a large plastic tub underwater while it is upside down.

Large containers can hold large amounts of air without drastic increases in weight. Air is essentially weightless, and thus makes the diving bell incredibly buoyant. The solution is to make a diving ball out of heavy, dense material, and to even add weights to the rim to aid in sinking.

Bell diving

Dropping a large metal container underwater serves little purpose, so naturally the idea is to put people inside it. This can be for any number of reasons, but is usually for exploration (watching things underwater) or commercial endeavors (recovering sunken items, intensive work, etc.). Putting people in a diving bell introduces two problems:

1. Depth. To do anything useful, the bell will usually have to go fairly deep. However, with every 10 meters of depth, pressure increases and decreases the volume of air. What this means is that by the time the bell has reached a suitable depth, the volume of breathable air has shrunk considerably, leaving most of the bell filled with water.
2. Respiration. People need to breath. In comes air, out comes carbon dioxide. Put a person in a fixed volume of air, and it won’t take long for carbon dioxide levels to reach a dangerous level. The diving bell needs fresh air.

The solution to both of these problems is the same: while the bell is submerged, continuously supply it with fresh air. This is commonly achieved by various hoses leading to the surface. Air is pumped from the surface to the bell at depth, keeping it full of fresh, breathable air, with excess easily escaping out of the bottom.

History

Diving bells have a long recorded history. In addition to Aristotle, Alexander the Great is said to have utilized them during the siege of Tyre, in 332 BC.

Fast-forwarding quite a bit, there are recorded uses of a diving bell, or a device conceptually identical, by Francis Bacon in 1597, Greek divers in 1538, and by various inventors in 1551 and 1616.

In 1687, Sir Williams Phipps used one to recovered treasure from a sunken Spanish ship off the coast of San Domingo. In 1640, a diving bell was used for a similar purpose in Charlton.

Before long, led by the likes of Denis Papin and Edmund Halley, users became quite adept at keeping the air in diving bell’s replenished, allowing long periods of uninterrupted diving.

Modern diving bells

By the 1800s, diving bells were used quite extensively in various recoveries and civil engineering tasks, from the construction of bridges to the repair of the Thames Tunnel in 1827.

One small variation is opt for smaller bells that essentially fit over the head only, rather than large constructions with room enough for several people. The trickiest part of these underwater “helmets” is keeping the air inside, since any significant tilt of the head will flood the device with water.

Even today, many destinations offer bell diving experiences. with modern versions that overcome many of the limitations that plagued early iterations.

Diving bells and decompression sickness

While submerged in a diving bell, the operator is breathing air at ambient pressure, and is therefore subject to the usual risks of decompression sickness. In fact, it was the early use of diving bells and their DCS-causing brothers, like the caisson, that eventually led to the discovered of “the bends” by bridge builders in the late 1800s.

With all the practical uses for bell diving, a cure for this curious disease became a priority, leading to the initial research by John Haldane, which forms the basis of decompression theory still in use today.

Bell diving is not so common for the recreational diver. Nevertheless, it is interesting to learn about its history, both from an engineering perspective as well as a precursor to modern scuba.

The state marine fish of California, the Garibaldi damselfish (full name) is a common sighting off eastern Pacific waters.

Physical description

Garibaldis have the usual damselfish look: steep sloped head, heart shaped caudal fin, and the flowing dorsal and anal fins. However, the most identifying characteristic is their distinctive orange color. In fact, this bright red-orange color provides the fish with its name. It is named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary famous for his red shirt.

Juvenile garibaldis are not as bright in color, and often have shiny blue spots which disappear with age.

Garibaldis grow up to 30 cm (12 inches) in length. Between their length and unmistakeable color, they should be easy to spot and identify.

Geography and habitat

As mentioned, garibaldi damselfish call the coastal waters off the western U.S. home. They are particularly common in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the islands of both these cities.

Garibaldi are fiercely protective of their home, particularly when eggs are present. They have even been known to nip at humans who approach too close to a deposit of eggs.

They are found at depths up to 100 feet in rocky areas, which they prefer to call home.

Legislature

Since it’s the state marine fish and all, California has taken measures to protect garibaldi damselfish. This link summarizes the legislation, but in short, you’re not allowed to kill or take garibaldi without a special permit.

Further reading

Wikipedia
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Photo by Stan Shebs

Juvenile photo by Randy Morse

I think for anything important in your life it’s crucial to have goals. Goals make sure you have thought things through and know exactly what you want to get out of life.

Sometime last year, scuba became more than a hobby to me. As such, I’ve been defining goals that describe what I want to get out of this experience. This blog is one such goal, a way for me to share what I learn with others on the internet, and as the sub-title says, a place for divers to spend their time above the water.

One other goal of mine is to become a certified scuba instructor. If you’ve followed the blog for long, you’d know that after finishing my Divemaster certification earlier this year, I am well on my way.

I’m currently on track to become a full-fledged PADI instructor sometime in spring of next year. Why the delay? Time and money, mostly. I have begun my Assistant Instructor certification, although that will allow me to do little more than what I can do with a Divemaster certification.

Why would one want to become an instructor?

• Career. Certainly a possibility to teach scuba for a living. The pay isn’t great, but you get to dive regularly and share your passion with others. This one does not describe me, though.
• Friends & family. As an instructor, you are free to certify your friends and family. Want to go on a scuba trip but don’t have any certified buddy’s to go with? Make your own buddy. As I mentioned, instructor certification is expensive and time-consuming, so this reason alone probably isn’t sufficient, but is more of a perk.
• Knowledge. Going the pro path teaches you more about diving than you thought you’d ever know. You still don’t know everything, but as an instructor you will have fairly in-depth knowledge of most things scuba. I definitely enjoy this part of things, especially learning teaching theory and how people learn.
• That type of person. Some people are just that way. When you get into something, you want to go all the way. Whether you call them Type A or something else, being like this is a strong motivator.
• Comfort. The level of experience you quickly achieve moving through the professional ranks comes along with a level of comfort in the water. This level comes much quicker than just through regular diving. The dissemination of dive skills lets you master each one, increasing your overall comfort in the water. As with certifying your buddies, this one probably isn’t a prime reason to become an instructor, but rather is a side bonus.

These are just a few reasons to become an instructor. I’ll keep you up-to-date on my progress and anything of interest that happens all the way. In the future, I’ll also write about some other scuba goals that I have or am in the process of making.

What do you think about instructor certification? Is it for you? If you already are an instructor, what made you want to do it?

To leave a comment, go to the bottom of the post page. If you are on the homepage, click on the title of this post to go to the post page.

Photo by Martin Burns

People magazine has an article about James Cameron celebrating his birthday by diving to the bottom of the world’s deepest lake. He’ll go in a submersible, of course, like the one used to investigate the Titanic. The lake is Lake Baikal, in Russia.

The New York Times blog reports that you can use scuba to watch a Vegas show. The show is “La Reve” at Wynn Las Vegas. The show involves intricate waterworks and synchronized swimmers, so the package includes watching a “normal” show, then watching another show from underwater, to see how the magic happens. Prices are $2,000 USD for one and $3,000 USD for two. While it could be interesting, for that much money I’d rather spend two weeks in the Caribbean.

Natalie at About.com gives a list of things to do with old scuba cylinders.

Matt Weiss at DivePhotoGuide discusses the pros and cons of fiber optics vs. wired sync cords for connecting strobes to underwater cameras.

The Toronto Sun recently reported that actor Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible, Pulp Fiction) has done some underwater work for a recent film, Piranha 3D. During one trip the actor spotted a “prehistoric” looking creature that he couldn’t identify.¹ This freaked him out so much that he “hasn’t done any scuba diving since.”

That’s a little bit silly, but he relates some truth:

I really feel that there are things in the ocean that we have no idea about. I think there’s so much we don’t know and the unknown in the ocean; every 10 years or so we find some fossil that’s been there before mankind.

I find it funny that we can have the same exactly feelings about something, yet reach opposite conclusions. What keeps him out of the water is what draws me to it. If you’ve gleaned anything from The Diving Blog’s fish identification series, it’s that I enjoy learning new species of sea critters, as I imagine many divers do.

Mr. Rhames has my sympathy. He is disturbed significantly by one of the very reasons why I dive.

Is the draw of the unknown one of the reasons you keep getting in the water? Let us know in the comments.

1 – From his description, “a combination of a catfish and something with a large oblongish-type head”, what do you think he saw? Maybe a humphead wrasse?