Years ago a New Zealand dive instructor working as an electronics technician in Port Moresby asked me to teach his wife how to dive. A wise man, I thought, destined for marital bliss. She joined one of the courses I was running at the time, did very well and became a certified Scuba Diver. On … Read more
I GUESS WE SHOULD JUST SUSPEND the international bidding process for the 2010 Darwin Games and award it by acclaim to the tiny Komodo Islands in Indonesia. Unless you are blessed with the dubious mental process of a mud turtle on a frosty fall morning, most of us can quickly intuit that dealing with a … Read more
It goes without saying that sooner or later even the best-laid dive plans go awry. And usually when you least expect it. But even when the worst occurs, a well trained diver can manage his new circumstances if he is conditioned to always have a contingency plan to implement. “Murphy’s Law” has an infinite series … Read more
Many divers have seen a chamber either in photographs or in real life, but very few have ever had occasion to be in one unless they were being treated. As a result a certain “mystique” has developed about chambers and many divers regard them as hostile and menacing environments. Briefly, we would like to acquaint … Read more
Diving used to be a fairly laid-back and non-confrontational leisure activity. In fact, in the early days most divers were generally considered to have a few screws loose but that was part of the appeal. The idea that diving was inherently a flirtation with a real or perceived danger was pretty much a “given” by … Read more
