Digidive is a new logbook app that aims to be simple and customisable. I put it to the test on a recent dive trip to Scotland. The post Review: Digidive Logbook App appeared first on Diving Life ..read more

PADI has launched a challenge to its dive centres: to get as many divers as possible to the Master Scuba Diver level. This requires divers to be qualified as a Rescue Diver, logged 50 dives and completed 5 PADI speciality courses. In truth, the Master Scuba Diving rating or as PADI likes to describes it […] The post Which PADI Speciality Courses are Worth it? appeared first on Diving Life ..read more

There’s something wonderful about travelling in darkness and waiting for the sun to rise in a new location. The reveal. What’s it going to be like? Were the resort pictures accurate? Fortunately, Egypt is reliable. The first morning I woke to the familiar deep inky blue of the Red Sea with its dusty landscape border. Like many British divers, Egypt feels like my diving home away from home.  The Oasis Dive Resort is about 30km north of Marsa Alam itself or 250km south of Hurghada. The resort is hewn from local stone and stands defiantly in its desert setting. There’s no elegant planting, o ..read more

So where are the 10 Best Places to Scuba Dive in the World? It’s a question that comes up a lot and is almost hard to answer. What do you like? Tastes vary in scuba diving just as they do in life. Practically it’s also a pretty small group of people well travelled enough to make any sort of qualified judgment. So rather than give you what I think I’ve taken a different approach to try and get an answer.  Method I’ve collated as many lists of the ‘best dive destinations in the world’ from across different publications and the internet as I could find. I then scored them based on their rank ..read more

Suunto have finally come out swinging. The Finnish manufacturer has just announced its latest watch style dive computer – the Ocean. This stylish computer is packed full of diving features and it finally includes all the non-diving capabilities you would expect to see in a modern smart watch. Suunto has been relatively quiet in diving market recently with no notable releases in the last couple of years. All the while appearing to lose market share, particularly to Garmin, Scubapro and Shearwater. The latter now seems to be by far the most popular new models of computers I see on dive boats, a ..read more

Battered and bruised HMS Exeter was making best speed toward the Sunda Strait and the relative safety of the Indian Ocean. Two days earlier on 27th February 1942 she had been part of an Allied naval force soundly defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of the Java Sea. The Allies had been attempting to disrupt the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, now modern day Indonesia, but were decisively outgunned and Exeter herself significantly damaged.  HMS Exeter, an 8,500 ton York class heavy cruiser, had already survived one famous naval engagement of the war. She played a key role in ..read more

About Marsa Alam is a town approximately 250km south of Hurghada on the Egyptian mainland. Less developed than much of the Red Sea coast it offers a quieter approach to diving.  Diving Marsa Alam’s speciality is shore diving. The ability to walk off the beach and instantly be immersed in vibrant coral reefs simplifies a day’s diving and helps to keep it affordable. It’s an ideal place for beginners to either learn to dive or hone their skills. The shore dives around Marsa Alam offer clear, sheltered and current free waters, ideal for training. It really is low drag diving. There are some ..read more

There’s something wonderful about travelling in darkness and waiting for the sun to rise in a new location. The reveal. What’s it going to be like? Were the resort pictures accurate? Fortunately, Egypt is reliable. The first morning I woke to the familiar deep inky blue of the Red Sea with its dusty landscape border. Like many British divers, Egypt feels like my diving home away from home.  The Oasis Dive Resort is about 30km north of Marsa Alam itself or 250km south of Hurghada. The resort is hewn from local stone and stands defiantly in its desert setting. There’s no elegant planting, o ..read more

(Picture: BBC) I purposely avoided Why Sharks Attack when it first aired on the BBC in July. I’d guessed the documentary was going to be a sensationalist look at the recent headline-grabbing shark attacks in the Red Sea. Think threatening music cut with menacing shots of Great Whites. Fortunately, like many things, I was wrong. The show turned out to be a thoughtful investigation into shark behaviour, their habitats and biology. The main focus is on the Red Sea but it also covers notable attacks in Florida and Australia. Egypt in particular has suffered 3 fatal sharks attacks in the last 2 yea ..read more

Loading the boats at Bracklesham I’d never seen a need to join a BSAC club. I was always able to do the amount of diving I wanted. I travelled a lot, ticking off destinations, with the odd weekend in UK: Swanage or inland sites for some photography. The occasional press trip with a diving magazine certainly helped keep the tempo up. It allowed me to get a good number of dives in every year, but with the pandemic (and then children) the amount of travel and therefore diving I could do dwindled.   So just over a year ago and with 22 years of diving under my belt I walked into my local BSAC ..read more