COVER STORY Diving from Costa Rica's Mainland Hit or Miss Magic on the Bat or Catalina Islands At the base of some rocks, two 10' black tip reef sharks lay on a sand patch. I watched as a colossal 12' southern stingray swooped in, making a beeline for the sharks. It dive-bombed the duo, slapping at them, then circled for another pass. The big fellows never budged. Off in the distance, a murky shape slowly came into focus: a 15' manta at 30', so slow it reminded me of a big grazing cow. Steve, the dive instructor taking out divers from Rich Coast Diving, used his octopus to give its belly a bubble massage. Hardly sounds like a budget dive vacation, does it? Yet this junket to Costa Rica's Playa del Coco, an inviting, horseshoe-shaped bay pinched between two rocky points, was a belt-tightening trip on the cheap: a bare-bones, cold-water room at the 6-unit Cabinas de Catarino ran a measly $5.50 a day.   Kangaroos and LSD: Looking for Leafy Sea Dragons in Australia As we began our descent, we wondered if this 58° water really could be Australia? There was no hard coral to form reefs and walls, but the rocky bottom was covered with myriad colorful samples of what's advertised as the greatest species diversity of algae anywhere. Kangaroo Island also boasts some of the most prolific soft coral, sponges, and gorgonians found in temperate waters. As we dropped down in the cold, clear water, Jim Thiselton, our guide and the only dive operator on this coast of Kangaroo Island, joined us and pointed the way toward some boulders and crack-riven ledges. I began combing the growth for our quarry, the nearly mythical leafy sea dragon, or LSD. The LSD is up to a foot long, resembling a seahorse with long kelp strands growing from his front and back. Paint a ten-inch-plus striped yellow male's belly up with his mauve eggs, look at all those plume-shaped streamers billowing behind, and the name LSD will roll off your tongue as well! Get the full story.   Equipment Tip: BCs I like my integrated BC, and, generally speaking, the concept of slipping weights inside the BC's attached, Velcro-fastened pockets works just fine. While it's never been a big problem, I have lost lead from these pouches when an exceptionally high giant stride loosened the Velcro holding the BC's weight-filled pockets closed. For reader Dave Guccione, however, losing weights has become a big problem. When we talked with him, he had a few tips that may help those of you who use integrated BCs.   Travel Tip: Fiji and New Zealand Air New Zealand is offering special 1999 fares on flights to Fiji, Auckland, and Sydney for travel in the year 2000.   Doing It Deeper on the Doria The Andrea Doria, that magnificent wreck off Nantucket, Massachusetts, claimed two more sport divers in July, making a total of 12 deaths since 1981. Three divers perished last year, the deadliest season thus far. Though divers are obviously enthralled by the Doria's challenge, it's a damn dangerous dive.   Travel Tip: Curaçao Pack light if you're traveling through Curaçao on American Airlines during the months of June, July, August, or December, when flights are routinely full. If you're caught unaware during these months, you may have few options.   Why Divers Die, Part III: Lack of Physical Fitness It's my general observation that as a class, divers aren't in good physical shape. All out-of-shape divers need to do is find a dive operation -- and there are scores -- that will let them sit on the transom while a deckhand brings a tank and then simply slip into the calm water. But easy diving can create a false sense of security. Lack of conditioning shows up as a serious factor in many diving deaths. And cases from DAN and down under demonstrate that.   Eating to Prevent Bends Food supplements laced with bacteria may someday protect divers from the ravages of decompression sickness, reports New Scientist magazine. Experiments with pigs have shown that methane-producing microorganisms that live in the gut can help ward off the bends.   A Wetsuit for All Seasons The U.S. Navy is working on a unique way to keep its divers warm - a layer of foam containing bits of wax inside tiny plastic beads. These bits of wax melt and freeze as the temperature changes, so when the diver slips into the icy waters, the wax freezes, radiating latent heat back to the diver.   Testing Dive Computers: Are They All the Same? When it comes to choosing and using a dive computer, how can you tell which models are the most cautious and which the most liberal in terms of the deco advice they give? England's Diver magazine conducted a series of tests to investigate the characteristics of full-function decompression-stop diving computers. They discovered that no one computer fits the bill under all circumstances: the computer that seems most conservative using one dive profile can become one of the more liberal models when using another.   Malaria Awareness: At Risk Even In Honduras Though malaria has long been a consideration for divers traveling to Pacific destinations, those heading to Honduras and Belize usually don't think much about it. That era of complacency may be at an end. Get the full story.   Should I Take Lariam? Lariam (mefloquine) is still the recommended antimalarial for travelers to the many areas where chloroquine-resistant malaria is common - and even Lariam may be losing its punch in some of those areas. While Lariam does dramatically reduce the risk of contracting malaria, no one has much else that's good to say about it. Get the full story.   DEET Obviously, the most effective antimalarial is avoiding the female Anopheles mosquito bite that causes the disease in the first place, and the best way to dodge this dusk-to-dawn pest is still through use of repellents containing DEET. The chemical's been around since the '40s, although surprisingly, the term "repellent" is a misnomer: DEET actually works by confusing mosquitoes, not repelling them.   Self-Test for the Bends Have you ever gotten out of the water not feeling as good as you thought you should feel? Maybe you pushed the computer a little and worried that you had a bends hit. Well, there is a test that might tell you if you have had an inner ear or spinal hit. It's called "Sharpened Rombergs Test." Here's how to do it.   Local Chamber Fees: Who Collects Them? And Do They Help? Many resorts ask divers to pay $1 or $2/day or $1/tank toward the local recompression chamber. According to Darla Stewart of Quantum Processing, the company that handles billing and processes insurance for SSS Recompression's eight-chamber network, the charge is not insurance, but an "affiliation fee" that works in conjunction with dive insurance to cover diver's chamber costs.   Flotsam & Jetsam In our column of dive shorts, learn how to get your photo published in The Coral Reef Alliance's calendar for 2001, which will showcase photos taken in marine preserves to illustrate what can be done to protect reefs. Hear how a Cousteau Society film crew was kicked off the St. Lawrence River September 10 after Canadian television broadcast videotape footage of Cousteau boats charging fin whales and injuring them, and read about the winner of the 14th World Bog Snorkeling Championships in Waen Rhydd Bog in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, who shaved a second off last year's world record.

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