Tony Hembrow the CEO of Rayglass and his team listen to their customers. They take on board feedback from existing customers and their suggestions are all considered when the Rayglass R & D team get around the design table. More
Last issue I looked at the advantages of a small inflatable which could be put out of sight at home in a cupboard and yet easily transported to the water in the boot of the car. This issue I thought we would take a look at what its big brothers have to offer and their advantages for divers. More
By Simon Freeman
East of Great Island and somewhat West of Farmer Rocks, bottom soundings don't show too much: a rocky bottom that undulates in regular, broad outcroppings that lie between 12 and 35m. A naive dive here doesn't reveal too much either. Typical of the Three Kings, schools of pink maomao, terakihi...
More
 Swimming through cobalt blue-white passageways with vision limited only by the power of our dive lights, the expanse of tunnel disappears ahead into a liquid infinity. The railway tunnels of Australia’s longest water-filled cave have become legend amongst cave divers both at home and overseas. We have come to see them for ourselves. Not just to look along the kilometres of submerged limestone, but to attempt a journey to the known end of the cave and just possibly…beyond. More
 Long strands of giant bull kelp swirl away from the rocks, then flick back. Beneath them, wider strands of Chatham Islands bull kelp do the same. There is no gap to jump into, but on the next surge the kelp opens and I slide into the water. It is cool at around 12˚C but not as cool as anticipated. More The South Pacific has a way about her. She slowly seduces your body by caressing your skin with her warmth, and unclutters your mind with sparkling images of golden sand and shady palms. Her seduction starts the moment you board Polynesian Airlines’ Boeing 737 outward bound for one of her treasures floating on a turquoise sea. More
Conservation/Scientific (marine life) More Articles
By Ekaterina Kurakina, Andrey Nekrasov.
Photos Andrey Nekrasov
On the horizon I see pieces of ice moving against the wind at high speed. They come closer and I discover with a surprise that they are not splinters of ice but snow white... More
 By Keith Cardwell
I packed my spare shirt and undies, camera and toothpaste and went on holiday to a place thin on dive shops and scuba stuff. As much as a scuba addict as I know I am, every now and then... More
 In other words ... optical help for divers having trouble reading their computers, gauges, and digital screens.
by Quentin Bennett, image Richard Robinson www.depth.co.nz
Even divers get middle aged, and one of the biggest nuisances from this stage of life on is the difficulty most of us suffer trying to read and see things that are close up. This includes reading our dive computer and gauges. The phenomenon of reduced ability to focus the eyes is called presbyopia, and I argue that it is a sign of maturity. More
 Any break in the skin, especially deep enough to cause bleeding, can
cause an infection. The marine environment can cause even simple wounds
to become infected from relatively uncommon types of pathogens (ie
viruses, microorganisms and other disease-causing substances) and,
depending on the region of the cut and where in the world you incurred
the injury, many wounds can become infected quickly.
More
 By Anne Neumann
Images Anne Neumann and Eric Simmons
We headed out of Okiwi up the west coast of d'Urville Island. Clear water, no wind and a grey overcast day made it a good day to be under the water. We anchored next to a large submerged rock outside Greville Harbour, and dropping to 20 metres we were surrounded by massive schools of butterfly perch. Slightly above my buddy, I looked up to watch a wall of mackerel engulf me, move on, then turn and part in a silent wave around me once more as they continued on their way to wherever. More
 By Shane Wasik
The coastline along
New Zealand's East Cape stretching from Cape Runaway to Matakaoa Point is made up of rugged rock. The area is remote with a distinct lack of people, rivers, pollution or anything else that usually spoils shore dives! The area also benefits... More
 Ross is a dear old chap, forever smiling and full of stories. He’s a big fellow tall, lean and remarkably fit for a man in his late 70s - and has been a guiding light in Nelson’s diving scene since it first began in the late 1950s. And even before that he was involved in the exciting early days of scuba and snorkelling in New Zealand. More
They say it’s a sure sign of old age when you start writing your memoirs! I catch up with Dive New Zealand occasionally, and with the plethora of new dive gear and methods available I thought it would be good to put on record where us old buggers have come from, before it’s too late. More
 Divers who are into fishing will always have a huge advantage over the average fisherman. When you spend so much time underwater looking for your food (eg crayfish) you become more aware of the area’s structure, the types of kelp cover and the amount food there. This will, to a large degree, indicate what type and numbers of fish the area will hold. More
 Having travelled a fair bit of the world I often stop and look around New Zealand’s coast and think how lucky we are to live in such a great country. Everything to do with the water is so close and achievable to all and you don’t have to have a big ‘flash Harry’ boat to enjoy it. More
By Shane Wasik
This is a dive I've looked at for years and it wasn't until we had Eric Simmons up from Nelson for a talk at our club, that I had looked at doing it again. The hard part was convincing Nikki that it was a good idea, especially driving all the way down from Tauranga... More A chain lay out along the footpath stretching to over 60 metres; plastic tags fixed to the chain indicated the length beneath a large inflated inner-tube that the chain was fixed to. The tags started off at 10m and descended in 5m increments until the last tag boldly shouted 60m! More
 I had the pleasure of chatting to Peter mid December 2009 just before he and his crew headed to Perth, Western Australia, to muster with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ships
Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, before heading into Antarctic waters to disrupt the Japanese whaling.
More
 Editor Dave Moran recently caught up with Jean-Michel Cousteau while he and his film crew were filming orca with the assistance of New Zealand’s Orca Research Trust founder, Dr Ingrid Visser. Based in Santa Barbara, USA, Jean-Michel has established Ocean Futures Society a non-profit marine conservation and education organization and the Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Adventures an ongoing television series. More
 By Dave Moran
'We have come too far not to go further. We have done too much not to do more'. These words by the late Sir James Henare* were repeated on the shores of Whangaroa Harbour, Northland, New Zealand on Saturday 5 December 2009 in a speech during the Remembrance events of the Boyd Incident.
In December 1809 a group of Maori led by Te Pahi attacked the at anchor brigantine Boyd in retaliation for the mistreatment of a Maori chief's son during the ship's voyage from Sydney. More
Largest scuba diving lesson (2,465)
Most people scuba diving simultaneously (2,486)
By Dave Moran
 Unbelievable ... 2,000+ divers all diving together at the same time and having fun doing it!
Impossible?
Not in Indonesia! Events in Indonesia tend to be big.
When the Indonesian Government put in place plans to celebrate the country's 64th Independence Day they decided to invite their international partners to Sail Bunaken 2009.
The major events were held in and around the city of Manado in North Sulawesi. More
 By Colin Gans
If you’ve thought about making rather than taking underwater photos, then wresting control of your camera’s settings is the first step towards your newfound creativity. This means not using auto mode and using one or more external strobes to allow for artificial light to be aimed more precisely... More
 It was in 1994 when Adobe introduced layers into Photoshop 3.0 - and a whole new world of artistic freedom and design possibilities has opened up. Today, 14 years later, it is difficult to imagine working in Photoshop without layers. The concept is simple, so simple indeed that it is covered in any beginner’s course. It is like having a stack of papers, each sheet with its own image. We look at the top sheet, but we can make individual layers invisible, change the order or reduce the opacity, making the layer more or less transparent. More
 by Anne Neumann
Waitangi weekend (6 February 2010) is the traditional time for the South Island Spearfishing/Photography Championships, usually heralded by outstanding weather - and this year was no different. Hosted by the Nelson Underwater Club, around 30... More
 First thing to look at, where should I go for a shore dive when I have no access to a boat?
New Zealand has miles and miles of fantastic coastline with easy access by vehicle, the trick is to find areas with good underwater visibility, minimal wave action and not too much boat traffic.
More
Technical Diving/Re-breathers More Articles
By Dave Moran
'Walking!' 'Walking? - Just like normal people walking?'' 'Yes' came back the reply from the four smiling Navy diving trainees.I received this response to my question: What is the best thing about successfully completing the initial Navy Diving training course which is arguably the toughest course within the military beside the SAS? I must admit I was a little shocked!'Why walking?' I asked.I was informed, during the course if the trainees had to go anywhere around the Navy base they had to run...
More
 By Cedric Verdier
Bailing out to Open Circuit is like falling in the snow when you learn
skiing. It's a solution when facing a problem. Not always the most
elegant solution, but always the easiest one and most of the time, the
most efficient one. But Open Circuit bail-out is actually much more
than simply going off the loop and breathing from another second stage.
There are lots of possibilities...
More
 In search of Antarctic shipwrecks
Editor Dave Moran while at the DEMA Expo in Orlando USA 2009 caught up with National Geographic deep water photographer
Dave Moran (DM): Emery what projects do you have on the horizon?
Emory Kristof (EK): We’re planning to look for two historic wrecks from the age of exploration in Antarctica. Shackleton’s ship the Endurance and a Swedish ship the Antarctic. Her story is similar to Endurance being crushed by ice. The Antarctic sunk in about 500 metres (1640 ft) in 1903 and Endurance in 3050 metres (10,000 feet) in 1915. More
 By Dave Moran
The trace line on the magnetometer's screen disappeared off the bottom of the screen but the readout numbers kept dropping, -77 -73 -62 all the way to -4 then they started to climb, +13 +25 +35, the trace line reappeared and started to climb all the way up till..... More
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