Undercurrent Online Update
for Subscribers

For Subscriber David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi' exp: 2024-08-20', at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
February 19, 2015

In the April 2013 issue, we reported that Aqua Lung was doing its second recall of BCs with SureLock II weight pocket handles. It recalled 110,000 of them because the company received more than 200 reports of the rubber handles detaching from the pockets. (Its first recall was in fall 2012). Now there's a third recall, and Aqua Lung has expanded it to cover all SureLock II handles, because it received 50 more complaints from divers of detached weight pockets. The recall is for its BCDs sold since September 2008. Whether you have an original rubber handle or one of the revised rubber handles from the previous recall, Aqua wants to replace it with the latest generation handle. Bring it to your dive shop for an on-site replacement. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission notice lists the BCD models affected, and you can call Aqua Lung for more information at (855) 355-7170.

If you read this month's issue, then you know how our undercover writer aboard the Fiji liveaboard Nai'a had her dive trip ruined by one angry diver (one example: after bumping into her on a dive, he flipped her off and screamed "F*** you" through his regulator). To make matters worse, the Nai'a cruise director didn't do a great job handling the obnoxious fellow -- or other passengers' complaints about him. Has something similar happened to you -- was your dive trip affected because of a really bad diver? If so, how did the dive operator handle the matter? Send me your stories at BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

An Undercurrent writer gives a first-person account of a dive gone wrong in Indonesia, and a fatality that needn't have happened . . . why experienced divers should not forget about factors that can cause panic underwater . . . how you can find reasonably-priced dive destinations with less-stressful travel . . . and how you can negotiate good group travel deals on your own . . . and much more.

Florida's Attorney General filed a complaint against Ocean Hunters Dive Center in Doral and its owner, Abdiel Falcon, for issuing fraudulent scuba diving certification courses, faking being an authorized PADI instructor and dive shop, and charging 300 people between $149 and $399 for fake certification cards. A former customer wrote on the website RipoffReport that the PADI c-card he received from Ocean Hunters had 11 digits (PADI cards only have 10), meaning he never showed up in the PADI database, and Falcon's instructor number was listed under another name. He wrote, "When I contacted PADI, all I had to do was say his first name and they knew who we were talking about," Anon wrote. Falcon is facing civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, another $15,000 penalty for each violation involving senior citizens, and reimbursement for fees and costs associated with the investigation and litigation.

We received an e-mail from subscriber Jonathan Blake about his latest experiences with dive equipment insurance claims. He dealt with Senn-Dunn when his GoPro housing had flooded and decided that, after a too-long ordeal of getting reimbursed, "if I had it to do over again I wouldn't bother to insure an inexpensive camera like the GoPro." use it." Still, he is holding on to insurance for his more expensive dive gear. How is your dive equipment insurer treating you? Now that DEPP, a former dive gear insurer, closed its doors after being charged with fraud (see our story about that in the August 2013 issue), what is going on with the other dive-specific equipment insurers out there? Are you noticing anything new or notable when you have to contact them about claims and reimbursement? Send me your stories at BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

Head to Chicago for the weekend of February 27 - March 1 to see the latest dive trends, gear, workshops, films and travel destinations at the show specifically for sport divers hosted by Our World Underwater. Presenters include top underwater photographer Amos Nachoum, lionfish expert Lad Akins, a founder of REEF, top wreck diver and Shadow Divers book subject John Chatterton, and Aggressor Fleet president Wayne Hasson. Take workshops to improve your photography, video editing, wreck diving, critter spotting, and more. Get information at http://www.ourworldunderwater.com

It's Darwin Island in the Galapagos, according to a new paper published in the research journal PLOS One. One of the mysteries about whale sharks is that no one seems to know where they give birth. Researchers from the Charles Darwin Research Station say that pregnant whale sharks use Darwin Island as a pit stop on their way to give birth. By tracking pregnant whale sharks with acoustic tags for six years, they found that the highest abundance of them stayed around Darwin Island during the cool season between July and December , and they had an "intense use of Darwin's Arch, where no feeding or specific behavior has been recorded, together with periodic excursions around the island's vicinity . . . All of our results point to Darwin Island as an important stopover in a migration, possibly with reproductive purposes, rather than an aggregation site." For more details, you can read the study here.

If you are a diving stats and facts geek, and you love learning new trivia about your favorite hobby, a new way to access all that information - for free - just became available for your tablet. The Diving Almanac and Book of Records is now accessible via a downloadable PDF file, with 542 up-to-date dive records, a 600-plus-person "Who's Who" list of the world's diving community, and 6,000 years' worth of diving history. Download a copy for your computer, mobile device or tablet at http://www.divingalmanac.com

Last month, a group of divers from the Russian Geographical Society made a record-breaking dive 320 feet down into the caldera of an active volcano at Deception Island. Leader Dmitry Schiller said it was "very hard," which seems like an understatement. "To begin with, passing the Drake Passage on a 16-meter ice class sailing yacht was not the most pleasant event. Almost all the time the yacht literally went at an angle of 35 to 40 degrees, 24 hours a day. It was always snowy or rainy. The weather gave us only one eight-hour window near Deception. It was enough to carry out one dive. So without any estimations, we started working. We planned to dive to the depth of 100 meters. However, the depth was only 97 meters. We reached the bottom, but [this was] perhaps my most difficult mission for the last five years." See a two-minute YouTube video of the dive expedition.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
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