Good Diving

Gozo

Gozo is Malta's next door neighbour, so the weather's hot. Pleasant diving in very clear waters from boats and small coves. Caves and chimneys to explore, and in places very abundant underwater life.

Florida

Diving here is very organised and slick. Warm waters (of course) and very colourful fish by coral reefs. Saw our first shark, a nurse shark. Fondest memory, though, is of "Nuggits" the skippers dog, who whimpered all the time divers were entering the water, then was finally allowed to swim when all divers had got clear of the boat.

Cyprus

Relaxed and pleasant diving based at Paphos. Best was the shallow reefs with plenty of fish. Deeper dive to a wreck yielded no grouper (shame!) but an introduction to a scorpion fish.

Farne Is (NW England)

Swimming with Seals was the whole point of this trip, and it yielded the best diving yet for me. I had to be content with watching, but other divers managed to get close enough to receive freindly nibbles on their fins.

Goa

Relaxed diving over (very) shallow reefs. Plenty of fish life, but not really a major dive destination.

Ko Tao (Thailand)

Excellent diving in and around limestone pinnacles, including my first sighting of a grouper. Excellent snorkelling too, but the many tourist boats which provide this service don't make any attempt to brief snorkellers about coral, which suffers damage as a result. However the masses of colurful and tame fish within easy reach of the beach make snorkelling hard to resist.

Sipadan (Malaysia)

What can I say? The diving mecca, and I've been there. Enormous variety of aquatic life, large and small. Turtles, Leopard sharks, White tip sharks, tiny shrimps, Lion fish. And the large shoals have to be seen to be believed. A slowly spiralling tower of Barracuda, also Jacks and Trevallys, and a battalion of bump-head parrotfish (1 metre long, black, like underwater pigs) steaming up out of the deep in a long stream. And the environment couldn't be better, all the dives being at most a 5 minute boat ride from the resort (Borneo Divers). Three dives a day is the norm, take a dive computer to make the most of it and dive some more.

Red Sea

I got there finally, Xmas '98. Great. Corals, big fish, little fish. Best memory is the last dive, where I got to swim practically inside a shoal of Barracuda. I'd go again, but for me it can't match Sipadan.

Bad Diving

Bad Buddies

For the sake of non-divers, I should explain that recreational diving revolves around the "buddy system". The potential dangers of the alien, underwater environment (e.g. running out of air at depth) are minimised by always diving as a pair, so that you know who your "buddy" is, even if diving as part of a larger group. You and your buddy are always looking out for eachother. Unfortunately a minority of divers pay little attention to this system; my worst experience was a "buddy" who didn't even look in my direction during the whole dive. Not nice. Accidents can and do happen that way.

Offshore UK

Call me a wimp, but for me diving in UK coastal waters is no fun (pleasant encounters with seals notwithstanding). For technical reasons, cold water diving means carrying extra weight on your weight belt, and what with that and the cold weather and high seas it all adds up to a lot of hard work for little reward.

Shark Cage

Okay, so shark cages were invented for research purposes (I presume) so divers have some protection while researching shark behaviour. But who would get into one for fun in order to have a close encounter with a great white ? Not me for sure, but some people do it.

The Diving Dog

What I want to know is ... who taught the dog to equalize his ears, and not to hold his breath while using scuba gear ? If you want to know more about Shadow or this photo then I'm afraid I can't help very much. I originally credited the photograpers name and the U.S. publication the photo appeared in, as given to me. It now appears that both these attributions are wrong. The only suggestion I can make is try google

"Rejoice, photo editors everywhere, another unessential animal photo has strayed into print. These are the facts: A man named Dwane Folsom rescues a 9-month-old black mongrel, half golden retriever and half Lab, from a pound in Boynton Beach, Florida. He names the dog Shadow. Folsom, an accomplished scuba diver who often explores the waters off Grand Cayman Island, likes to share his adventures with his pets. So he experiments with diving outfits suitable for a dog. His final design consists of a lead-weighted jacket and a helmet that allows Shadow to use air from Folsoms tank. Thus fitted, Shadow and master dive happily ever after (usually at about 13 feet). Next: A picture of a trotting Stingray."