A Diving Adventure Magazine Hawaii’s Kona Coast - on board the Kona Aggressor II Diving Russia’s White Sea Aquatica NEX-5 Gran Canaria This publication is Cardiovascular Disease in Diving underwritten in part by: Faroe Islands Slaughter Getting focused on Diving Fitness Wide-angle Composition 101 Issue 19 - 2011 Pg 1 www.UnderwaterJournal.com Issue 18 - 2010 CONTENTS Explore, Discover, Challenge Pg 3 Editor’s Page Pg 49 Health & Fitness The 2010 Shark Conservation Act. Cardiovascular Disease in Divers. Editor - Walt Stearns Pg 20 Still the number one killer in the email: [email protected] Pg 7 First Look Western world, a surprisingly high Aquatica AN-5. A first look at number of divers are at risk. this housing for the newer crop of Associate Publisher - Karen Stearns mirrorless SLR cameras. Pg 54 DAN Corner Associate Editor - Steve Lewis Pg 11 Gear Locker Better fitness means better diving. Copy Editor - Brian Bienkowski With cardiovascular disease and Veri-fit Snorkel Keeper. This can be Art Direction - Joshua Miller obesity looming on the horizon, it used for more jobs that just keeping Cheri Craft just makes good sense to improve your snorkel attached to your mask. Webmasters - Margaret Chatham your fitness level. DAN provides some Tony Isse Pg 12 Gran Canaria great pointers to help us do just that. Advertising - Ralph Viscusi Pg 45 One diver’s travels to the distant side Pg 59 U/W Photography of the Atlantic in the Canary Islands. email: [email protected] Exploring the basics of wide-angle Pg 20 Live-aboard Diving composition. Scott Gietler gives a few Kona Aggressor II. Find out what the good tips to improve your game. Contributors Big Island of Hawaii is all about, and Douglas Ebersole, M.D. the cool dives that are in store. Pg 63 Parting Shot Maureen Halsema - DAN Kid’s Play. An unusual image of a Pg 37 Travel/Adventure Scott Gietler pair of Harlequin shrimp. Michael Salvarezza Diving the Arctic Ocean. Go for one Nick Taylor of the ultimate ice diving experiences Look for UWJ-issue20 Christopher Weaver below Russia’s White Sea. March 15th! Editorial Disclaimer Pg 45 Eco Perspective The articles, positions and statements contained in this Known as the grindadráp in the publication are not necessarily those of SDI™, TDI™ Faroese language, the hunt for long or ERDI™ its BOD, officers or employees. Opinions, finned pilot whales, is commonly conclusions, and other information in this publication are solely those of the Editor / Writer and are neither referred to simply as “the Grind.” given nor endorsed by the agencies mentioned. Total The Underwater Journal is published by Learn about this way of life in the editorial freedom and expression is solely retained and Ocean Arts, Inc. A ll content in this publication Faroe Islands. the responsibility of the Editors / Writers. is protected, copyright © 2010. No use may be made of material contained herein without written consent from Ocean Arts, Inc. Cover photo by Walt Stearns: Nikon D300 in Subal housing, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye zoom shot with available light at 17mm, f11, Inquiries: [email protected] Pg 37 1/125sec @ ISO 250. Pg 2 www.UnderwaterJournal.com Issue 18 - 2010 Travel/Adventure Beneath the White Sea: Diving Russia’s Arctic e gathered in the frigid pre-dawn hours, our gear and luggage piled Win front of the snowmobiles and our noses freezing in the -22ºF (-30ºC) temperatures. It was time to be saying good bye to our Russian hosts after a week of diving the frozen White Sea but we were tempted to linger just a little bit longer. It was during these last few moments, as we stood under a curtain of stars on a deep, dark winter’s night in Russia that we reflected back on the events of the past week. We had come to this remote spot a week earlier filled with both excitement and anxiety over the prospects of exploring the icy waters of the White Sea. Nestled alongside the Kola Peninsula, and straddling the Arctic Circle, the White Sea, technically part of the Barents Sea, is the only inland sea to completely freeze in the winter. Story by Michael Salvarezza and Christopher P. Weaver Pg 37 www.UnderwaterJournal.com Issue 18 - 2010 Nothing says you’re going ice diving Of course, finding yourself in water so cold it is virtually “slush up” to your better than an exciting run through the chin also sums it up pretty well. This is so much fun! Finish National Forest by dog sled! Our base of operations for complete our journey with an temperatures routinely dipping visibility is generally good, the this ice-diving expedition was the over land transit into Russia. as low as -22ºF (-30ºC), and water can be extremely dark. Arctic Circle Dive Lodge, located An 8-hour white knuckle ride with snowfall an almost constant Many of these dives can almost be near the seaside village of Nilma across the border and through factor, divers must be prepared considered night dives due to the and just north of the Arctic the Russian wilderness brought for extreme conditions. The entire lack of ambient light penetrating Circle. To get here, we chose us to the lodge, ready to dive. White Sea is frozen with almost 3 the ice ceiling. Fully functioning to fly to Finland, arriving in the Diving the White Sea in winter feet of ice and the ice is covered cold water gear and good training alpine town of Kuusamo. After requires preparation, equipment, with six inches or more of snow. are essential. spending one day dog-sledding fortitude and, most important, Once below the ice, divers will The diving protocol employed in a National Forest in Finland’s adequate training in ice diving find water temperatures hovering here provides everything fabled Lapland, it was time to techniques. With surface near 28ºF (-2ºC). Although necessary to protect divers from Pg 38 www.UnderwaterJournal.com Issue 18 - 2010 the elements. Divers and gear are first transported from the lodge to the dive sites via snowmobile. The dive sites vary and can be as close as a 10-minute run or as far as a 45-minute trek across the ice covered sea. Once on site, specially constructed small wooden huts are used as shelters for donning on doffing equipment. Each hut is equipped with a wood burning heating system so divers can gain much needed warmth before, between and after dives. Indeed, the temperatures inside the huts are almost too hot and divers will often be seen propping the doors open to let in some cool air! The huts are on skis and can be moved from location to location. They are generally placed within a few feet of the dive site, usually a triangular cut made into the ice and referred to locally as a “Maina”. Once suited up, divers shuffle to the entrance and begin the icy plunge into the magical world beneath the frozen sea. Our first dives in the White Sea took us to a site known as “Anemone Rock”. Here, in 45 FSW (14m), a huge boulder lies on the bottom, perhaps 20ft (6m) in height. This rocky outcrop rises up from the slope of Bolshoy Krestovy (Big Cross) Island. Some say it is as big as a three- Divers find clear, but dark water beneath the ice. story building and shaped like a dragon’s tooth. The seabed is Pg 39 www.UnderwaterJournal.com Issue 18 - 2010 Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication Dive Computers & Rebreather Electronics for Technical Divers Arctic Sculpin very silty, so care must be taken bottom. Wedged inside cracks in Subsequent dives took us to • Powerful so as not to stir up the bottom. the rock are Wolf Fish, expertly dive sites alongside some of the Otherwise you will raise a positioned to avoid the range islands in the White Sea. • Simple tremendous cloud of sediment! of our cameras! Looking more Small Cross Island is a small • Reliable Anemone Rock is so named closely alongside the rock, we rocky outcropping with a tumbling, because of the profusion of life did find small bottom dwelling rocky slope, which we eagerly that literally covers this massive fish such as the Arctic Sculpin. explored, photographing the kelp structure. Frilled Anemones, Measuring close to 4 inches (laminaria) covered rocks and the colorful tunicates, beguiling (10cm) in length, these wary dramatic ice ceiling above. Diving nudibranchs and a wide variety denizens seemed unfazed by beneath the ice affords the diver of other small invertebrate life our attempts to photograph an out-of-this-world experience as abound on this oasis of life in an them…perhaps they were too the surface ice takes on a greenish www.shearwaterresearch.com otherwise nondescript sloping cold to move! tint from the surrounding water. email: [email protected] call: 604-669-9958 Pg 40 www.UnderwaterJournal.com Issue 18 - 2010 Dive equipment, not to mention photo equipment must be carefully prepared to avoid malfunction and freeze-ups. Towards the end of our week’s freeze instantly in the air and our (.6m), tunnel of slush and ice, it The most interesting thing expedition, the temperatures equipment became encased in took all of our self-control not to about ice diving here is the ice plummeted from a rather ice in a matter of minutes. The breathe off the regulators until itself. Because of the strong tidal comfortable 20ºF (-7ºC), to a entrance to the dive site would fully submerged lest we risk currents, the high and low water bone-chilling -22ºF (-30ºC). become a slushy mix of ice and causing a free flow.