Undercurrent Online Update
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For David Denson Whiteside (with username 'dwhitesi', exp: 2024-08-20, at dwhite95815@hotmail.com )
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August 14, 2017

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Read the First Chapter of Tropical Ice

"One of the best adventure thrillers I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a million! A true page-turner. Listen, do you like Clive Cussler’s novels? Ken Smith (aka Ben Davison) is a better writer than old Clive, and he’s actually lived the life he writes about. Go! Buy! You won’t be sorry." And, it’s probably the first shark thriller ever where sharks aren’t hunting humans, but humans are hunting sharks.

Tropical Ice is available in paperback, Kindle or as an e-book from Amazon. Go here to order an autographed copy. Want to read the first chapter before you order? It will shock you. Click here.

Nuked Reef is Reviving

Bikini Atoll, midway between Hawaii and Australia, was the U.S. testing ground for 23 nuclear bombs between 1946 and 1954, including one 1,100 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. While it’s been believed that the environmental contamination is nearly irreversible, recently scientists have observed that the marine life and corals are flourishing, mainly because there has been no human intervention since. Hopefully, this won’t give the U.S. a new reason to brandish its nuclear saber.

Capsizing Dive Boat Kills Five

Four diver trainees and an instructor from Bangkok, aboard a dive boat headed into the Gulf of Thailand in heavy weather, died when the boat capsized on July 26th near Koh Ngam Yai. While Undercurrent subscribers seem well aware of sticking with major operators when training or diving, thousands of unsuspecting divers risk their lives with chancy third-world operators.

Burning Questions: What’s on Your Mind?

We’re always listening to you, our valued subscriber. If there’s a topic you think we should cover or a question you’d like us to answer in an upcoming story, please ask. What’s annoying you? What do you like or dislike about dive travel? What equipment have you bought that you now dislike? What do you think other readers need to know? Do tell. BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

Get Underwater for that Eclipse of the Sun

On Aug. 21, Mermet Springs, in Belknap, Illinois, is offering a package to 100 divers to view the eclipse from underwater and become certified as “official solar eclipse divers.” Well, the certification seems a bit silly, but why not just go diving near your home to view the eclipse from below the surface. Word is, you should still have proper eclipse glasses inside your mask.

Diving Insurance for Hurricane Season

July to November can bring hurricanes to the Atlantic and Caribbean, while November through April can be cyclone season in the South Pacific. Many divers get blown out. Now you can insure against big weather at www.insuremytrip.com. Search “hurricanes” for policies, but keep in mind you have to purchase the insurance before a storm gets named.

Shark Week Sham

Discovery Channel hyped its Shark Week by promising that their viewers would see Michael Phelps race a great white shark. What they saw was the Olympic Gold Medallist swimming alongside a computer-generated shark and then after nearly an hour into the program. Sharks swim about 25mph while Phelps manages 6mph, so there was never going to be much of a contest. Nonetheless, Discovery Channel geniuses slowed the computer-generated shark so that it only beat Phelps by a few seconds!

Have You Ever Been Narked?

Or been with someone obviously suffering from the raptures of the deep? Most leisure divers don’t go very deep, but nitrogen narcosis affects people in different ways and a different depths. Some might even say it’s why we go diving? Got any stories to tell? We‘d like to share them with other readers. Write with your town and state to: BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

Coming Up in Undercurrent

Saman Explorer in Oman . . . Little Cayman Beach Resort . . . Golf Ball Killer Jailed . . . Have You Been Narked? . . . Regulator Malfunctions . . . Tank Tracks North . . . the Aquanaut Suit . . . Analysis of an Accident . . . Time to hang Up Our Fins? . . . and much, much more.

Fearless and Unique

That’s how the diving trade has described Undercurrent, but without any advertising revenue to jeopardize, what is there to fear? It’s here to represent you, the consumer. Without you, there would be no unique newsletter. So don’t forget to file a report on your last dive trip. You can browse thousands of other first-hand reports other subscribers have filed on their land and liveaboard trips, to get information on your next destination not privy to most ordinary dive magazine readers. Your fellow subscribers count on you, just as you count on them so please, fill out our online trip report form at Undercurrent.

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
Contact Ben