Really like the sea? Then spend the rest of eternity there.

Neptune Memorial Reef will take your cremated remains and mix them with concrete, then place the resulting molded shape into an artificial reef structure. A commemorative plaque is placed later.

You’re not quite fish food, but you get to hang out with your favorite creatures. It sure beats the cemetery!

Have you entered the contest yet? If not, email me your submissions! I thought it only fair to tell you about one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen while diving. Here goes:

Sea Lion Cove

It had been a long day. After two dives near Los Coronados islands, off the coast of California, we were having boat trouble. Meanwhile, the passengers were getting restless and ready to just call it quits, forgetting our third dive. Read the rest of this entry »

Tec divers spend a long time decompressing at various depths. Usually much longer than the actual dive length. Most of that time is spent in fairly shallow depths, just hanging on the anchor line.

I had an idea a while back to put an eBook reader like the kindle or nook into a ziplock bag and tie it to the line at 20 feet. Then, when you’re spending 30+ minutes hanging out, pass the time with a nice book.

Now, DryCase is selling a watertight bag for your eBook reader or tablet that could serve a similar purpose. My idea would only work with an eReader, or something with physical buttons. This case works with products like iPad, with full touchscreen capabilities¹. I’m doubting you’ll get a good WiFi connection, though.

I guess the question is just if you’re willing to take a $600 electronic underwater and tie it to a line in the middle of the ocean. I’d be curious if there are any tec divers out there. What do you do to keep yourself occupied?

1. The seller doesn’t say the bag is approved for underwater use, or how deep you can take it.

Contest

Entered in the contest yet? Share your dive stories and get some free stuff!

Happy Wednesday, folks! The weather here has turned from snow to slushy ice rain. Pretty soon I might be able to go diving here after all! Need your link fix? I got your medicine right here…

Ever wonder how aquarium curators / researchers get into it? The New York Times has a profile of a shark researcher at the New York Aquarium. He used to be in an 80’s hair metal band!

Bonaire won the prize for best overall diving from Scuba Diving magazine. I’ll wait while you recover from the shock. (This is the 9th consecutive year Bonaire has claimed that prize)

Thailand is closing dive sites to allow the coral a chance to recover from bleaching. This obviously hurts dive business, but many question what good prohibiting diving will even do? It seems like yet another case where policy doesn’t line up with the science of the situation.

Read about one of the guys who recovered the bell from the Andrea Doria. As part of the crew that retrieved it, he gets to keep it for about 6 months, then it goes to the next guy. If you want to read more about the Andrea Doria, read my review of Deep Descent and see if it interests you.

Have you sent your submission in yet for the contest? If not, go to this page and read all about the chance to win some prizes! Entry is easy, just tell me about some cool stuff you’ve seen while diving!

As divers, we see a lot of amazing things. Even the commonplace underwater is stuff ordinary people never even imagine. Over time, these stories become lost if never retold. We must capture the moment and chronicle these memories!

I’m asking you, dear reader, to send in your stories. In particular, I want to know, what is the coolest thing you’ve ever seen while scuba diving? It can be a creature, an object, or an event. I don’t care. Just send them to me, or email me directly at david AT thedivingblog.com by February 8th. You can even leave it in a comment here, if you like.

I will take the top stories and post them here on the blog for everyone to read. But wait, there’s more…

The top four entries will each receive a prize! The prizes are:

• SANCTUM poster
• SANCTUM baseball cap
• SANCTUM t-shirt
• SANCTUM mini-penlight

The best story will receive his or her pick of these four prizes, followed by the second, and so on. SANCTUM is a new action-thriller coming out on February 4, about a group of cave divers mapping an uncharted cave system in Australia. It’s based on explorer Andrew Wight’s own experience with cave diving, with executive producer James Cameron (TITANIC, AVATAR, do I really need to list them?). See the full synopsis below.

To receive the giveaway, you must be in the U.S. To encourage entries from those elsewhere, I will replace the aforementioned prizes with a hand-drawn penguin, illustrated by me. There are none of these in existence, so it is fair to call this item priceless.

So start remembering! Entries don’t have to be long. Bonus points if you have a picture.

SANCTUM Synopsis:
The 3D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, 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 (Richard Roxburgh) 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 (Rhys Wakefield) and financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)-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?
Shot on location off the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Sanctum employs 3-D photography techniques Cameron developed to lens Avatar. Designed to operate in extreme environments, the technology used to shoot the action-thriller will bring audiences on a breathless journey across plunging cliffs and into the furthest reaches of our subterranean world.

SANCTUM Trailer

If you have a really good adventure story, go to the movie’s Facebook page and enter in their Extreme Adventure contest. Winners receive cash and a new digital camera!

I don’t know much about drysuit diving. In fact, I’d rather avoid it altogether. As such, I’m not too familiar with the different manufacturers.

Last year, I wrote about DUI’s demo rally. Their rally tour gave (potential) customers a chance to try out different drysuits for a minimal fee (ten bucks). It even included lunch!

Looks like the idea is catching on. Whites Manufacturing is going on a Fusion Demo Day Tour. They’re hitting a variety of spots in the U.S., even with a stop in Vancouver. If you’re at all interested in drysuit diving, or especially if you’re in the market for one, I’d highly recommend registering. Pre-registration is $10 USD, including lunch and a T-shirt.

The entire organization and process seems to be very similar to the DUI demo tour, so read my summary of that day to get the general idea.

A scuba excursion operator was bit on the arm during a recent “shark interaction” dive. Now I’m not going to say he deserved it. That’s unkind, and it’s not true. You all know how I feel about shark feeding. If not, click the link and read. I’ll wait.

The funny thing about this story, no funny is not the right word, the ironic thing about this story is that Read the rest of this entry »

With all this beautiful snowy weather we’re getting here in the northeast U.S., it makes me wish I was just about anywhere else! That means you should doubly appreciate me sifting through the web finding these scuba-related links for you.

Is there a trend towards lighter weight diving gear to save on baggage costs? I don’t know about that, but at least one company seems to be getting on board.

A D.C.-based dive shop is offering carbon-neutral dive travel. It seems to me you could just as easily purchase the “offset” credits yourself, but the best of luck to them!

AOL News has some tips for cheap spring break travel. Some are decent, if not obvious. At my universities, though, school organized trips were quite more expensive that what I could wrangle on my own.

New England scuba divers found the remains of a 200 year old ship. It amazes me how many unfound wrecks are out there, in waters reachable by scuba. Looks like your chances of finding them go up if you’re willing to dive in Connecticut in January!