Conscientious, contact-free diving means diving in control at all times. You should constantly be aware of where you are in the water column. If your buoyancy is under control you won’t unconsciously float up or sink — or if you do, you’ll immediately recognize the situation and correct it.

Good buoyancy control alone is not enough, however, to guarantee that you’ll avoid accidental contacts while underwater. You also need to develop awareness of where your entire body is in relation to surrounding objects. This is especially important when night div­ing and maneuvering in confined spaces such as wrecks.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of think­ing that where your head goes, so goes the rest of your body. We secure our hoses and accessory gear so they won’t hit anything, but often pay little atten­tion to where our fins are as they flutter along behind us.

One of the ways to prevent fin con­tact is to move slowly and gently. Envi­sion yourself as part of a delicate ballet, a troupe of dancers gracefully executing precision movements to the rhythm of the flowing waters. This metaphor works for me, anyway; you can create your own vision to help you blend har­moniously with whatever underwater environment you’re exploring.

When you are a guest in somebody else’s home (in this case whatever aquatic creatures live where you’re div­ing) you do your best to fit in and to avoid disturbing or damaging it. Moving slowly and carefully through the water column allows you time to develop continual awareness of every part of your body. For instance, you’re swimming along, approaching a bottom feature protruding from the substrate (e.g., piece of a wreck, sea fan, giant anemone). Consider in ad­vance how you will clear it and by how much. “Shall I go over or around? Am I horizontal or are my legs lower than my torso? I have 6 inches vertical clearance, is that enough for my kick to clear’?”

If you conclude that you might not entirely miss the object, you have choices. One is to change course and kick around it, if possible. This option keeps you at the same depth and lets you view the feature from the side rather than the top. Alternatively, if the feature is large you can kick upward and pass well over it, adjusting your buoyancy as necessary.

Another option, if you’re near the top of the object, is to simply inhale deeper and glide over it. This is the most re­laxed response, involving no noticeable body movement, but requiring an awareness of how your personal buoyancy is affected by your breathing pattern. Still another choice is to change your kicking style to one that will avoid con­tact. In Open Water class we’re taught to use the flutter kick as our standard means of propulsion. It works well for covering distance, but for moving slowly or in close quarters other styles are preferable.

One of my favorites when I want to swim near the bottom without disturb­ing it is the side kick. This is basically a flutter or scissors kick performed side­ways — the stroke is parallel with the bottom instead of toward it. Twist your body at the waist so you are still facing forward, but your hips are rotated 90 degrees. Since the fin strokes push the water sideways rather than down, little turbulence reaches the bottom and the chances of contacting it are minimal. A Variation on this is the bent-knee flutter used by cave divers. This does not mean bicycling. The body stays in a straight line from head to knees (i.e., don’t bend at the waist). The kick is from the knees and the down­ward stroke stops with straight legs and the body aligned, rather than con­tinuing downward.

The frog kick is another option. The knees are brought forward and out to the side with the ankles bent so the fins stick out, like a frog. Then the knees are quickly straightened and the toes are pointed, so the legs snap to­gether (watch a frog for the best demonstration). Again, the force of this kicking method is toward the back rather than up and down, so it can be used near the bottom.

The amount of propulsion from the frog kick depends on how far apart the knees are extended and how fast the legs are brought together It is a good al­ternative for gliding slowly around a site as well as for maneuvering through a tight swim-through.

The ability of light to pass through water (and our ability to see clearly) is also influenced by its turbidity. Turbidity is influenced by many factors but they can be grouped into two large classes, things suspended in the water and things dissolved in the water. Suspended things include silt, plankton, etc. while dissolved things include salt and chemicals. When a diver is swimming along near the bottom, the water movement caused by their fins often stirs up the silt and for a while the water behind them has high turbidity this often results in death when open water divers enter caves. The water is crystal clear in front of them and they do not realize until they turn around that they have been kicking up the silt and they can no longer see the way out of the cave.

If the water is still, the silt will eventually settle back down to the bottom and the water will become clear once again. The time this process takes depends upon the size of the silt particles. Grains of sand will settle in a minute or two while the ultra fine grains of rock flour produced by a glacier will take several weeks to completely settle out. During a cave diving trip under the Columbia Ice fields in 1987 the water was ‘air clear’ when we arrived at the dive site. After we had made the area safe and several hundred (or thousand) kilograms (pounds) of mud and rocks had been dropped into the water, the visibility was less than 2.5 cm (I inch)! We went back to the surface and returned to the dive site two days later. The silt was so fine (glacial flour) that even though the water was absolutely still, the visibility had only improved to 30 cm (12 inches).

Salt water has large quantities of salt and other chemicals dissolved in it and for this reason, can never he as clear as fresh water. The best clarity to be found in the ocean would be around 60 meters (200 feet) while in some fresh water caves the water is so clear it cannot be seen, visibility is over 300 meters (1,000 feet). These ideal conditions are rarely encountered and we usually have much less visibility. For example, the Ottawa River contains water with many dissolved chemicals (from soil, trees, etc.) and visibility is seldom more than 6 meters (20 feet). The St. Lawrence River used to be similar but the infestation of billions of zebra mussels has changed this situation drastically. Zebra mussels are filter feeders and each mussel filters the silt and chemicals out of a large amount of water every day. The result is that places where 6 meters (20 feet) visibility used to be considered good now frequently have 30 meters (100 feet) visibility or snore. The problem is, now that the water is clear enough for divers to see well, the wrecks still can’t be seen because they are now covered in many layers of zebra mussels!

The next major change in our vision when we are diving is that the colors often seem drab. This is because water absorbs light. Colors are simply light of different wavelengths and water absorbs them at different rates so that after light has passed through about 5 meters (16 feet) of water, most of the reds are absorbed. After 10 msw (33 fsw), the oranges are also absorbed.

The yellows disappear next followed by the greens and blues so that by the time we are deeper than about 20 MSW (66 fsw), everything appears bloc / grey. Using artificial lights restores the colors but the light from an underwater light is not exactly the same as the light from the sun and the colors will not be quite the same as if the object was out of the water.

The amount light is focused when it passes through the cornea is due to the difference in density between air and the cornea. The cornea has a density almost the same as water and therefore the difference in density between water and the cornea is very small. When light passes from water to the cornea, very little focusing occurs and the light will not be in focus until it is behind the retina. Therefore, when we open our eyes underwater everything appears blurry!

The solution is to wear a dive mask. The dive mask creates airspace in front of the cornea, allowing the normal amount of focusing to occur when light passes from the air to the cornea, giving us the same vision as on the surface. Nov that we can see clearly, we notice that everything appears larger underwater than it does on land. What is going on?

The glass in the dive mask has almost the same optical properties as water and therefore very little focusing occurs as light passes front the water into the mask lens. However, the density of the mask lens is much greater than the density of the air in the mask. As light passes from the mask lens into the airspace in the mask, it diverges (the opposite of focusing)! This results in objects appearing larger than they would out of the water. The magnification is about 25%, so that a 40 cm long fish will appear to be 50 cm in length. Exactly the same mechanism occurs when we look down into very clear water from above the surface (light coming from the fish diverges as it passes from the water into the air) so that fish we see in the water appear 25% larger than they really are.

We have several mechanisms for helping us determine how far away an object is. One is the apparent size of the object. We know how large our dive buddy is on the surface at various distances (they appear smaller when they are farther assay). When we look at our buddy underwater, we notice how large they appear to be and use our experience on land to determine how far away they are. The problem is that underwater they appear 25% larger than they do in the air and thus we think that they are 25% closer than they actually are. If we reach out to touch them (or anything else) we may find that our arm is too short!

The bottom line is that underwater things generally appear to be 25% larger and 25% closer than they really are. Therefore, divers have a much better excuse for telling stories about how large the fish was than their above water friends!

The eye is really just a complex, living camera. The main parts of the eye are the cornea, the iris, the lens, and the retina. The cornea is clear and has no blood supply It protects the eye but its main function is to focus the light that enters the eye on the retina. A diopter is a measure of the power of a lens and the power of the cornea is equivalent to a +43 diopter lens. It is composed of five layers but for simplicity can be thought of as having a thin layer on the surface (epithelium) and a body composed of flat stromal cells. The epithelium has many nerve endings and therefore, when we get a hair or some other foreign body in the eye and scratch the cornea, it hurts a great deal!

After passing through the cornea, light crosses the anterior chamber and then goes through the opening in the iris called the pupil. The iris is a muscle and forms the colored part of the eye so that when we say someone has blue eyes or brown eyes, we are really saying that their iris is blue or brown. The iris functions the same as the aperture in a camera; it leaves a large opening when the light is dim and a small opening when the light is bright. This controls the amount of light that enters the posterior part of the eye.

When we are excited or frightened the pupil dilates, allowing more light into the eye and allowing us to see more clearly. Men consider women more beautiful if they have larger pupils (they assume the woman is excited to see them!). Women in ancient Egypt used to rub juice from the belladonna plant (contains the drug atropine) in their eyes to dilate the pupils to make themselves appear more beautiful!

Light has to be ‘bent’ just the right amount so that it is focused on the retina for us to see clearly. Light from objects that are far away has to be ‘bent’ less than light from near objects. The purpose of the lens is to change the refractive power of the eye to accommodate for objects at different distances. As the ciliary muscles contract, they release the tension on the suspension ligament of the lens and the natural elasticity of the lens capsule causes it to assume a more rounded

shape. In a normal eye light from distant objects is focused on the retina with the biliary muscles relaxed. To focus the light from near objects, the colliery muscles contract and the lens becomes rounder, increasing the focusing power of the eye.

When light hits the retina, a series of chemical changes occur which generate an electrical signal that is transmitted to the brain and through a very complex process translated into the images we see. Now that we have a basic understanding of hose the eye works, what happens when we try and see underwater?

J4, or Scratchers Sub is by far the most popular mostly due to its depth at 27 meters, but also because it is such a great dive. It’s broken at the torpedo room, with the bow twisted away to port. Like all the others, the bow plating has collapsed, leaving the tubes exposed. It can have an awesome amount of fish on the inside, and I have film of the entire interior filled with bull’s-eyes and pike. Blue devils may be found around the bow section, and there used to be a resident conger eel in the control room.

Because of available bottom time, this is the best sub to study. Most divers have a quick look at the bow section, and then enter the wreck through the break. Light streams in through the deck holes aft.

Making the control room under the conning the darkest part. From there you can make out the two engine bases side by side in the forward engine room, and then the single engine base in the aft engine room. The prop shaft flange is clearly visible at the base of a large bulkhead with a number of hatch ways to the next compartment. Further penetration aft is constricted through crew quarters and steering room to the aft most hatch and should only be attempted by experienced wreck divers with a narrow profile setup.

The hull of the J4 is mostly weed and algae covered, with a healthy growth on top of the conning. There’s always perch and sweep around the conning and plenty of leather jackets around the wreck, but please don’t feed them as they are starting to nip! The wreck sits upright in heavy reef in a roughly north south orientation, which can make it pump with the groundswell certain clays, so it’s advised to wait a while at the entrances to feel for surge before entering.

As well as the famous subs, there are three coastal traders scuttled near Point Lonsdale. The most popular is the SS Coogee, sitting with a 40 degree list to starboard in 33 meters. Built in 1887 at 762 tons, she was scuttled in 1928 near the subs. She’s now mostly collapsed, leaving the bow section, boilers and stern standing above the sea floor. The stern is one of our prettiest reefs, artificial or not! The upper deck has collapsed, exposing the steering quadrant and framework; all smothered in yellow zoanthids and decorated smith sponges. It’s swarming with fish; mostly perch, but also lots of sweep, leatherjackets, svrasse, and queen snapper. Pike cruise just off the wreck and the cave between the rudder and hull is packed with bull’s-eyes and sandpaper fish.

Old wives mingle with bull’s-eyes around the boilers, and usually a blue devil is found in the fireboxes. It’s a short swim over flattened wreckage to the boss; also well encrusted with sponges. Perch play in the deck railings and bull’s-eyes fill the interior. Don’t forget to look under the plating or around the inside of the deck hatches for crayfish feelers, or cuttlefish. The Coogee is a great wreck, or reef dive!

Although very similar in layout to the Coogee, the wreck of the Rotoinahaiza is significantly bigger at 1777 tons, and significantly deeper at 40 meters. Built in 1879, she was also scuttled in 1928, but a bit further west than the subs. Again she’s mostly collapsed, leaving only the stern, boilers, and bow proud of the seabed, though there are more mid-ships to see than the Coogee. Being deeper, she’s not as rich in growth, but not far behind with fish life.

Also scuttled in 1928, the 728 ton excursion steamer SS Courier has become our prettiest shipwreck. Broken into three main sections on a white sandy bottom at 43 metres due south of Point Lonsdale, the Courier has become an oasis for marine life in a sandy desert. Being in line with the in and out flow of Port Phillip Bay, she’s been bathed in nutrients and is richly covered in sponges, ascidians, hydroids, and bryozoans. At times she can be obliterated by schooling fish, and there’s always healthy schools of perch swarming around the stern. Bearded cod dominate around the boilers, and are much paler than those seen elsewhere. This is a place to see the unusual animals, and usually with a spectacular backdrop.

Due to the depth it isn’t usual to see all this wreck in one dive. The bow section lies on its starboard side and is totally encrusted. It allows limited penetration and a flossier will find ceramic tiles in place under the silt. Most decking timber has gone, but only in the last 10 years. Close by are the heavily encrusted boilers with wreckage to either side. Mosaic leatherjackets, cutlets, and bearded cod live here, but big schools of fish like warehouse can also be encountered. The trail of wreckage aft of the boilers leads to the stern, most of which is metal framework covered in white, pink and apricot jewel anemone. The rest is smothered in sponges of all sorts. Some ceramic tiles can also be found Isere.

Several times dolphins have visited us on the deco line; a pod of eight common dolphins once played with us for 40 minutes, allowing Mary to get out of the water to change film, and then rejoin the fun!

The newest addition to our scuttled fleet wills him the 139 meter 4100 tone guided missile frigate, LIMAS Canberra. Scheduled to be scuttled in 2008 in 35 meters, near to the Rotomahana, divers will be able to start their dives at the mast array, making their way down to the gun deck to explore the upper superstructure, or make deep dives past the main deck to the sand. Penetrations will be possible for suitably experienced and equipped divers through the many diver access holes cut into the vessel.

The most popular dive will be to descend down the funnel to the engine room, inspect the huge gas turbine engine and exposed gearbox, then head off into the adjoining auxiliary equipment rooms. From there they can make their way through the mess, officers quarters, and up to the bridge, before ascending the mast to finish their safety stops on the mooring under their dive boat.

Of course there trill be many other parts of the ship to explore on subsequent dives, or just check out the schools of pike, perch, sweep, warehouse, bull’s-eyes, leather jackets, mowing, kingfish, and occasionally snapper which will visit and live on the wreck.

A tattered skull and crossbones fluttered high on the stern mast of the double-mast prahu KLM Shakti as it cut through tranquil waters off the western tip off Papua. This is the secret islands of Raja Ampat, an area steeped in a shadowy past and present. It’s a life of intrigue and adventure out here, the glorious bay we entered was framed by looming cliffs and primeval jungle.

In terms of diving and snorkeling exploration, remoteness, and biological diversity, there are few places remaining worldwide that compare to eastern Indonesia. Many scientists, photographers, and divers consider this area as the holy grail of the Indo-Pacific region, yet it’s still largely unexplored both above and below the surface. In fact, the most precise descriptions of these islands come from the writings of Alfred Russell Wallace who blundered through the region in 1860 searching for rare specimens of the bird of paradise!

The sea surrounding Raja Ampat, translated as ‘the Four Kings,’ (Waigeo, Batanta, Sulawati, and Mysool Islands) is literally the world’s epicenter of marine life. The massive species number is primarily due to the islands’ location. Marine fauna originating from Micronesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and western Indonesia, have congregated over millions of years in Raja Ampat due to plate tectonics, the warm, equatorial waters, stable climate, and variety of habitats. More fish and invertebrate species are expected amongst the reefs of these four islands than anywhere else on Earth. The two highest fish counts ever recorded on single dives, 283 and 281 species, were within Raja Ampat’s waters. Simply put, the reefs are overwhelming.

Raja Ampat covers a gigantic area, nearly 10 million acres, and has an endless supply of dramatic dive sites. Undoubtedly, a good quantity of un-described species exist among these waters as well. It is literally a last frontier for those seeking the planet’s untainted marine communities, home to pygmy seahorses, tassled wobbegongs, stealthy mantas, and mellow turtles. The desire to stay one step ahead and venture even further to where few footsteps have fallen and where even fewer divers have blown bubbles is an innate yearning, and Raja Ampat had all of the means to satisfy this desire.

The sea surrounding Raja Ampat is not only amenable to high diversity but is also a healthy ecosystem. Along the larger volcanic islands, vast tracts of mangroves supporting a wide array of epiphytic, parasitic, and climbing plants. Early each morning the bird calls from the forest canopy were outrageously loud, giving a prehistoric aura to the area. The intricate mangrove root systems revealed sponges, crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms, and fishes in a variety of life stages. The thick mangroves serve as a gigantic filter, protecting nearby reefs from runoff during the monsoon season and as a nursery for hundreds of species of small reef fish which shelter and feed there. Though I enjoyed exploring these mucky habitats at high tide, searching for weird critters, it was hard to concentrate knowing that Indo-Pacific crocodiles, the world’s largest and toothiest living reptile, also dwelled in the mangroves and adjacent sea-grass beds.

The raison d’étre in Raja Ampat, the vibrant coral reefs. It’s tricky to adequately illustrate any one dive site in such a lush and vibrant marine environment like Raja Ampat, but a few have recurred in my dreams and begged to be put down in words.

Backrolling into tropical 30 meter is always a rush, but it’s even more so to be instantly surrounded by dense schools of size-able fish. In blue water at Sardine Reef, chevron barracuda, slender unicorn fish, bigeye trevally, and longfin bannerfish formed concentrated shoals. But the substantial patch reef, with its hundreds of species of vibrant reef fishes and thousands of invertebrates, couldn’t be ignored. From a brown-spotted cat-shark, giant trevally, dogtooth tuna, Spanish mackerel, and giant bumphead parrotfish, to petite nudibranchs, spider crabs, mantis shrimp, toadfish and jawfish, it was sensory overload.

The tiny islet of Kerupiar, another spectacular spot, sat amidst the myriad of islands and swirling currents, supporting a little bit of everything imaginable. Dropping in on an incredible assortment of hard corals, the reef quickly morphed into a magnificent wall dripping with soft corals, gorgonians, and barrel sponges. Jacks, batfish, fusiliers and anthias obstructed views of not only the wall’s inhabitants but also several hawksbill turtles and blacktip sharks. Drifting with the strong current gave me little time to admire it all, but a field of colossal boulders soon appeared so I hunkered down in the lee with a large school of ribbon sweetlips. Two tawny sharks had squeezed under the rocks just underneath me but my attention was shortly called elsewhere. Upon ascending past a slope of seawhips and garden eels, an immaculate plantation of table and leather corals flourished as far as the eye could see a tiny piece of paradise. David soon pointed out a tiny manta, no more than 1.5 meters wing to wing, that swooped in out of nowhere.

Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy previously counted more coral species on the reef of Batu Born than are known from any other place of similar size on Earth. Needless to say, descending onto this gently sloping reef brought seemingly endless fauna. Hundreds of vivid reef fish zipped in and out of this three-dimensional coral city going about their daily business. Out in the blue Spanish mackerel, great barracuda, and dogtooth tuna, prowled amongst redtooth triggerfish and fusiliers.

Like large predatory carpets, funky tassled wobbegongs were found lounging on several large table corals. Yet again, towards the end of the dive, floating amongst an absurdly beautiful zone of corals and gorgonians. It mesmerized even the most seasoned `been there, done that’ diver amongst us. Beginning on a wall smothered in sponges, corals, crinoids, or tunicates, we drifted leisurely around some bends, noting a few reef sharks below and an occasional green or hawksbill turtle munching on a sponge. Approximately two-thirds of the way through the dive we ascended into one of the most intricate and aesthetic coral gardens in the Pacific Ocean. Ranging from 20 to 5 feet deep, it was difficult to believe that the beauty there wasn’t a mirage. While I meditated on the splendor of the shallows, thousands of silver sides encased me in a whirlwind of silver and blue.

The entire trip went by in a blink of the eye and it was time to head for Sorong, Papua’s main port. As we sailed out of the stunning limestone islands of Wayag, or `God’s Country’, lusting for more undiscovered paradises. The possibility of Raja Ampat becoming a World Heritage site, which has been proposed by several NGOs. As with other areas within Southeast Asia, the use of dynamite and cyanide is not unheard of, though we didn’t see any signs of their use. The lack of larger predators does indicate the shark finners long arms have reached even these remote spots. But Raja Ampat is one of the few areas on Earth that’s retained an impressive proportion of intact forests and reefs, making its overall health well worth protecting.

Water quality in Bass Strait is generally good, with visibility varying from five to 20 meters, but averaging around 10 meters. The best sea conditions are usually around June with predominant northerlies and water temperature around 14 degrees. February through March sees water temperatures around 18 to 20 degrees and periods of favorable winds. If there’s a lot of rain from August to October, vis will be constantly less than 10 meters until late December, but low rainfall can result in October to December having the best vis!

All these sites are within 20 minutes by quality charter boats from both sides of the bay out of Queenscliff and Portsea, and as a bonus you get to cross the boiling waters of the notorious Rip at the Heads. There’s plenty of other world class dives in this region, including some of the world’s most colourful reefs. Diving the reefs and wrecks around Port Phillip Heads will seriously lift your benchmark for great dive locations. For surface intervals and non divers, the Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas boast a range of quality restaurants, vineyards, and world-famous sandbelt golf courses.

There are also plenty of fun and adventure activities available for all age groups. Melbourne Airport is less than two hours from the action, and Avalon Airport is just over half an hour away. So do yourself a favor, slip on your pirate hat and come dive for scuttled treasure…Captain!

The best known of these wrecks are the four WW1 J Class submarines. After serving in the Atlantic for Britain in WWI, the remaining six J Class Subs were gifted to Australia in 1919, but were in such poor condition that two had to be towed to Sydney’s Garden Island Naval Base for refitting. After much expense, the J Class subs were based in Geelong, until 1922 when it was decided to scrap them. They were taken to Flinders Naval base in Westernport to be stripped and between 1926 and 1930, J I, J2, J4, and J5 were towed into Bass Strait and scuttled. J3 was towed to Swan Island, and beached in shallow water so her diesel engines and generators could provide power for the Swan Island Naval Base. J7 was sunk as a breakwater at Sandringham, and is now a feature of the marina at the Sandringham Yacht Club.

After more than 40 years lost on the seabed, the four J’s were discovered off Point Lansdale, creating huge excitement within the diving fraternity. These warships of stealth had become vibrant artificial reefs in depths between 27 and 40 meters. All were virtually intact except for breaks at the bow of the J4 and stern of the J2. Since then, time and tempest have taken a toll, and all the hulls are now broken.

J2, or the Deep Broken Sub, is in 39 meters close to the main shipping channels at the Heads. She sits upright with a 30 degree list to starboard, has formed a gully in the rocky reef, is broken aft of the engine room, and well covered in growths. The break is particularly colorful as the immediate interior is smothered in zoanthids and sponges. Large schools of bull’s-eyes patrol the break, along with leather jackets, and boar fish. The top of the hull is covered in stumpy algae and sponges and home to wrasse, small leather jackets plus schools of short finned pike. The conning tower, now without its outer sheeting, is covered in zoanthids, a great backdrop for the schools of butterfly perch.

Like all the subs 110W, the bow has collapsed, leaving the torpedo tubes exposed. Penetration of the subs has been somewhat facilitated by the removal of the engines and most of the machinery and pipes, but J2 has mounds of silt inside which can be even more dangerous. For the properly equipped and experienced, interior access can be gained at the break or through one of the larger holes in the aft deck. Much of the engine rooms are buried in silt, but some fittings can be found in the control room, and remnants of brackets possibly used for bunks or torpedo storage are visible in the crew quarters. The torpedo tube hatches are still in place. The stern section can also be penetrated, but again has mounds of sand inside.

To highlight the dangers of diving J2, a plinth to the starboard side of the conning tower has been placed in memory of a diver who lost her way inside the sub in 1997.

J5 was also known as the Yellow Submarine, but not because of the Beatles. Her entire bow and conning tower were covered in yellow zoanthids, a stunning sight. Sadly a severe storm in 2005 tore a lot of the plating off the bow and with it the zoanthids. The conning tower is still spectacular, and yellow. A feature of this wreck is the swim under the stern; the rudder is obvious, as are the three propeller shaft bearings and outboard supports. Large brackets on the sides of the hull were actually propeller guards to prevent the props getting too close to wharves. The 2005 storm also broke the J5 just aft of the conning tower, though the sections are still roughly in line. Large schools of pike are regularly seen flowing over and around this wreck, and there’s an obligatory school of perch on the conning.

Penetration of this wreck is always a serious matter as it’s in 38 meters and there are limited escape routes. It’s cleaner inside than the J2, but it’s still can sit it out.

J 1 was also known as the Winged Sub as it had an awning around the conning tower, which was removed by a violent storm in 1995. It was also intact until the 2005 storm broke it aft of the conning tower, almost identically to the J5. Lying upright in 36 meters on a rock bottom, it’s lightly covered in weed and sponge. Prior to 95, its bow was clear enough from the bottom to swim under, but now it is wedged hard into the reef. It has the usual fish inhabitants, but never as prolific as the other subs. There was a memorial plaque to a diver lost on this wreck in 1986, attached to one of the awning uprights. It was recovered a few years after the ‘95 storm, and plans are to return it on a plinth as another reminder of the need to treat this as a serious dive. Again, this wreck is fairly clean inside, but with enough fine silt to completely brown nut the interior with a few careless fin kicks.

Entry is via deck holes in the aft section and heading forward, shattered bulkheads, the remains of the radio room, crews’ quarters and torpedo room, and the torpedo tubes with hatches still in Place can be found. The interiors of these subs are quite large mid-ships, but get narrower towards each end and are quite constrictive at the stern.

Only after attending to proper weight­ing and trim can you expect to achieve consistent control over your buoyancy. Given a typical profile of descending to a certain depth and remaining at or near- that depth for the majority of the dive, the ideal is to establish neutral buoyancy by adding air to the BC, if necessary, and then not touching the inflator again until you are ready to surface.

Minor variations in depth are accom­plished by using the lungs to alter buoy­ancy — breathing slightly more deeply to swim over an object and exhaling more deeply to sink hack down. Larger changes in direction and body position are handled primarily by the fins. After awhile this technique becomes second nature, however, specific exercises can help develop this skill most effectively.

A simple exercise used for testing your weighting, the fin pivot, is also valuable to increase awareness of the ef­fects breathing has on buoyancy. To work best, the fin pivot should be per­formed in a pool or confined water that is not subject to water movement.

Lie facedown on the bottom with no air in your BC. Add air with short spurts of your power inflator until your upper body just begins to rise but your fins remain on the bottom. From this neutral buoyancy position inhale and exhale more deeply than normal. Notice how far your body pivots up and down.

Pay particular attention to the de­layed reaction between breathing and body movement. When applied, this knowledge can make all the difference between bumping into an underwater feature and gently gliding over it.

Aside from understanding, the role of breathing in mastering buoyancy skills, another crucial aspect is to reduce body movements to a minimum. With proper weighting and trim it is possible to maintain a horizontal body position without using the hands or kicking. Practice minimal body movement by hovering. Try to remain at a constant depth for several minutes without mov­ing. At a given depth, fold your arms across your chest, cross your ankles and gradually add air to your BC until you become neutral. Your depth should vary only slightly with each breath: be prepared to compensate by breathing shallower or deeper if you begin to float up or sink.

Practice hovering horizontally and vertically. The ultimate test of your hov­ering ability is the “Buddha” position — legs crossed in a sitting position, hands grasping the tips of the fins. If you can sustain this hover without turn­ing over forward or backward, you’ll know that not only do you have good buoyancy skills, but also your weighting and trim are well-adjusted.

A final test of buoyancy skills is to suc­cessfully maneuver a buoyancy practice course. These consist of a series of geo­metric shapes, such as a diamond and a circle, made of PVC pipe. Typically they are anchored above the bottom at various depths. The objective is to swim through each shape without touching the frame. Perfecting buoyancy control is largely a matter of repetitive practice. But you can he certain of using- the proper techniques and practicing in a safe environment by enrolling in a buoyancy specialty class.

An Australian owned, operated & built dive resort located on one of the Pacific’s most beautiful & peaceful islands. If you’re looking for lots of crowded dive boats, then stay away from Kosrae, chances are that you & your dive buddies will be the only ones out there, at least until the rest of the world discovers this hidden gem. Imagine yourself diving a steep vertical wall with hundreds of Pacific barracudas encircling you, feel your eyes widen in amazement at the huge and remarkably colorful coral reef systems, or watch the resident spinner dolphins as they jump and twirl for your entertainment. Leisurely drift dives with visibility from 25 to 60 meters are typical on Kosrae, with our purpose- built dive boat waiting to bring you aboard at the end of the dive.

You’ll enjoy the comfort of a full shade canopy and a powerful engine to transport you to the best dive sites. Our intimate 16- room grounds are located in tropical gardens, staffed by friendly faces ready to attend to your every comfort. Rest easy in our air- conditioned rooms, all with two double beds, cable TV, mini bar, and tea/coffee-making facilities. Venture out from your room into our full restaurant and bar, and take a dip in the swimming pool. At Nautilus, we aim to please: and your pleasure is our uncompromising goal. The restaurant offers cool, air-conditioned comfort, or outside dining by the pool. Western and local foods – think breadfruit chips and incredibly fresh sashimi.

The most important factor in avoiding unnecessary contact with your underwater surroundings is awareness of and control over your body’s positioning and movement. To accomplish this, it’s im­portant to have excellent buoyancy con­trol. But before you can develop good buoyancy skills you need to understand the variables that affect your ability to achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy and how they apply to diving situations. We know that the correct amount of weight is the least that you can wear and still descend without struggling, maintain neutral buoyancy at depth with minimal air in your buoyancy compen­sator (BC) and comfortably complete a safety stop without floating upward. The appropriate amount of weight for a dive depends on a number of factors. Before each dive carefully review your equipment. Have you changed anything since your last dive? A new BC retains air in the padding and therefore may require an extra pound or two. Are you using the same type of air cylinder? Steel tanks weigh more than aluminum and therefore require less ad­ditional weight.

The water you dive in also affects weighting. Salt water is about 2.5 per­cent heavier than fresh water (64 vs. 62.4 pounds per cubic foot). Therefore you are more buoyant in salt water and require more weight — theoretically 2.5 percent more.

Water temperature is also significant because it affects the amount of expo­sure protection worn. Every additional bit of air space that divers add to or sub­tract from their body — such as a thick wet suit, a hood or a dry suit — changes the amount of lead weight required. Planned depth may affect weighting as well. Experienced divers often choose to carry less weight on deep dives to avoid having to put a lot of air in their BCs to achieve neutral buoyancy at depth. Conversely, on shallow dives, slightly more weight might be appropri­ate, especially where surge is present. While fine-tuning your weighting system may amount to changes of only a pound or two (1 kg) in total weight, it also involves adjusting your trim. In recreational scuba, we usually prefer a horizontal orientation when moving through the water, creating a stream­lined profile. This lessens drag, decreas­ing exertion and conserving air.

With all their lead at or near the waist, some divers tend to swim at a di­agonal orientation, either head lower, legs higher or vice versa. Trim can be improved by moving a small amount of weight down (e.g., ankle weights) or up (e.g., tank strap weights). The same holds true for divers with a tendency to roll to one side. Adjust trim by distrib­uting lead as needed to offset the roll (i.e., more on the opposite side). Some newer BC models have nonditchable weight pockets that allow you to stow a small amount of weight along the upper back portion of the BC. However, it’s important that the majority of your weight be configured no it’s easy to ditch in an emergency.

Discover Bali with Tulamben Wreck Divers – we are a modern newly-built Dive Centre & Resort, situated in the heart of Tulamben village, a picturesque three hours drive from Kuta. Our Resort accommodation is the best in Bali and consists of a variety of stylish rooms from penthouse to deluxe, set around a sparkling tropical pool serviced with western standards and friendly professional service. Our Dive Centre is a stone’s throw away from one of the world’s most celebrated wreck dive, the USAT Liberty, amongst many other fantastic dive sites — more being discovered every day. We have every type of diving to suit the entire range of certification.

Want a gorgeous reef dive? We have it! Want a deep wreck discovery? We have it! Want a shallow, colorful wreck with a stunning array of marine life? We have it! Wall dives, reefs and wrecks; Tulamben has everything close to hand. A perfect place to Learn to Dive or combine your diving with Advanced, specialty or Dive master training. We have top diving equipment, fully serviced ready to use. For Day Trips and Cultural Tours other than diving; Tulamben Wreck Divers can organize anything from White Water Rafting to Kings Palace & Water Gardens. Bali has so much to offer, let us help you discover it!

PRO DIVE CAIRNS SIMPLY 7140 NM’ Since 1983 Pro Dive Cairns has developed and maintained an international reputation as the premier dive company in Cairns. Our commitment to providing our customers with the highest standards in quality, safety, professionalism and value in both dive education and live aboard dive trips to the outer Great Barrier Reef has made us the most highly awarded dive operator in the region. For the certified dive we have 3 day/2night dive trips departing 6 times each week, all year round. These trips visit a variety of our 16 exclusive outer reef dive sites on every trip and allow the diver up to 11 dives per trip.

Our 3 multi-million dollar purpose built live aboard dive boats carry a maximum of 32 passengers in air conditioned, twin or double cabin comfort. In conjunction with our 3 day trips we have a range of PADI higher education and specialty courses available. Advanced and specialty courses are available on every trip, Rescue and Dive master programs start weekly. Instructor courses commence 8 times each year and are taught by our staff Course Director. We also have great ‘Learn to Dive courses for your non certified friends. All dive and snorkeling equipment including dive computers, a guided orientation and night dive, twin or double cabin accommodation, meals, and transfers to/from accommodation are included. For those doing courses we also include the relevant PADI course manual and passport photos required for certification. Pro Dive Cairns really is ’simply the best’ when it comes to diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

The newest Atomic Aquatics spiting ‘Smoke on the Water‘ has an exciting new look, combining opaque and semi-transparent materials. A new high energy polymer material is used to increase power. They’re also fitted with the innovative Atomic Aquatics Spring Strap. Unlike other spring straps that have a constant coil of the same diameter, these have a variable pitch and section geometry (they change shape) in specific regions of the strap so they are more rigid and long-lasting. A large finger hole and large heel area provide easy adjustment and comfort ability.

Ocean Diving & Photographic invites you to join us aboard our spacious 8.4 m, (225 hp) purpose built dive boat “Ocean Dive” (not one of those cramped little rubber ducks) for superb offshore diving adventures. Go to the entire well known and not so well known offshore reefs and wrecks in the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads area. (Experienced & Inexperienced) certified divers catered for. Ocean Dive is large and fast, a maximum of 20 mins to any dive site.

We have sit down tank racks, canopy for shade and side curtains to protect you from the wind during the surface interval while tea & coffee are being served, between our two dives. We have the latest electronic navigation equipment to pinpoint our dive sites. Our operation is purely dive charters with no dive shop or ’shop front’ involved (hire gear available.) Ocean Diving & Photographic is most fortunate to have the expertise and experience of Chris Mair (Master Mariner) who is one of the most experienced dive charter skippers on the coast.

The Tugs, Empire Gladstone Wrecks, The Cave & Reefs. Dive the Safest and most accessible wrecks on the south coast of NSW. Suitable for open water to advanced divers and great for underwater photographers! Other sites include the wharf at Merimbula — easiest shore dive around giant, cuttlefish, morwongs, rays, groper, moray eels, and beautiful soft corals.

Dive Short Pt Bommie, the Pestles, Nth Head, The Pinnacle, Big Kangarutha and more! After your dive relax in the newly refurbished, fully self-contained units at the Divers Lodge. We have accommodation for up to 24 people and each unit has its own lock-up room, wash off area, color TV, microwaves, lounge, dining, bathroom, kitchen etc. Package deals for groups, clubs and dive schools, special mid-week rates available. Dive courses done regularly.