Andrey Bizyukin

Lake Baikal: Technical Diving in the Deepest Lake on Earth

June 25, 2018 - 13:40
The story is found: 
on page 30

Lake Baikal is the deepest lake on the planet, with a volume of around 23,615 cubic kilometers of fresh drinking water. Each year, Lake Baikal is visited by many tourists, including recreational divers, underwater photographers and scientists who dive in the coastal waters of the lake. But when it comes to deep-water technical diving in Lake Baikal, few have heard of it, probably because these divers tend to be taciturn in nature.

In Irkutsk, the nearest city to Lake Baikal, there are four dive centers and about 200 active divers. Having carefully studied the information about them, I learned that Dive Center Sval is one of the oldest in the city.

Locations

Diving Northern Primorye: Russia's Far East

January 19, 2017 - 14:30
The story is found: 
on page 14

With sanctions in recent years placed on Russia by Western governments, divers, once used to traveling abroad to exotic dive destinations, turned to their own country for inspiration. In doing this, Andrey Bizyukin discovered a diving paradise practically in his own backyard.

What can a diver in Russia do in the era of Western sanctions? I thought about heading east, when rapturous tales told by divers in the ‘70s and ‘80s sprung to mind. Back then, divers who had traveled there told me about the amazing, wonderful underwater world of the Pacific Coast of Russia.

Locations

The Philippines: Southern Cebu

January 10, 2015 - 12:14
The story is found: 
on page 33

Cebu Island is one of over seven thousand islands located in the Philippines. It may be best known as the place where the early 16th century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan met his unfortunate end. There is a 20-meter tall monument at Punta Engaño on Cebu erected in honor of the native chieftan, Lapu Lapu, who in the 1521 Battle of Mactan, proved victorious over Spanish forces led by Magellan.

Our party of divers departing from Moscow got discount tickets and authorization for additional luggage for dive gear, plus an extra 10kg per person, after just showing our driver’s licenses to Cathay Pacific Airlines.

Destination reports

Murter Island, Croatia

March 02, 2013 - 20:22
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 30

For quite a time, I had been wanting to go back to Croatia to see first hand what this young nation with ancient roots had to offer, both below and above the surface.

The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea, Mare Nostrum—our sea—which signals some degree of proximity and relative ease of access, at least if you live in Europe.

Locations

New medical technologies for apnea diving

December 16, 2012 - 16:18
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 67

What is the hypoxia? It is a deficit of oxygen in the lungs, blood and tissues. Each of us feels hypoxia from time to time, even if we do not realize it.”

The dream of the “Blue Abyss” is embodied in the depth records of some of the most famous divers—Jacques Mayol, Francisco Ferreira and Umberto Pelizzari—who have destroyed so many myths and even scientific theories about the limited capacity of humans as overland beings.
 

Israel: Journey Beyond the Three Seas

July 19, 2012 - 19:46
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 32

On my first flight to Israel, I stretched out in a comfortable chair on EL AL Airlines, enjoyed a kosher meal and reread notes by the famous Russian traveller and pioneer explorer, Afanasiy Nikitin (circa 1466-1472). Only on the approach to Tel Aviv did I suddenly realize how small a country Israel was, and that it bordered three seas.

With my dive buddy, Yakov Samovarov, I would dive the missile wreck, Satil. I asked Yakov to tell me about the day’s dive. “Six or seven years ago, I did my first dive on Satil,” said Yakov. “It was formally known as the Israeli Navy missile boat with the proud name of Sufa (Storm).”

Competitions
Destination reports

Kamchatka — Russia’s Mysterious East

October 13, 2011 - 23:36
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 67

“Is there diving in Kamchatka?” my buddy asked me while inspecting a map of Russia on Google. It was such an unexpected question, it put me in a stupor. As a Russian dive professional, I certainly should know about all the dive sites and dive centers around the country, but I was stumped with this question about Kamchatka.

Each more or less erudite traveler I questioned told to me that Kamchatka is the land of volcanoes. Of the more than 600 volcanoes on the planet, 160 of them are located on the peninsula of Kamchatka, and 30 of them are active.

Destination reports

Nova Scotia

October 13, 2011 - 23:34
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 63

I can not stop feeling, that I am at the White Sea in the northern part of Russia. Mirror of blue water, islands and islets, bays and small bays. Clear water, birches along the shores. The difference becomes clear when you step out to the road. Good asphalt, bright yellow marking lines. What else strikes my eyes – everywhere ashore there are placed, as if by a landscape designer, dry tree sculptures, decorated with algae.

Where did you dive this summer? If a person is satisfied with the brief answer, “In Canada,” that means the person probably missed all his or her grade school geography lessons. Canada is a country of real contrasts. It is bath a densely inhabited strip of land along the US border with huge metropolitan centers such as Montreal and Toronto, where there are sky-scrapers and big businesses, as well as a vast country of wilderness territories in the north stretching out along the coastline.

Discover the underwater charms of New Foundland

October 13, 2011 - 23:34
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 21

Many millions of years ago, a piece of a land broke away from the ancient continent, Gondwanaland, from the place we now know as Morocco, and traveled a long journey westward until it collided with the North American continent a bit to the south of Greenland. The first Europeans who visited this new world in 986 A.D. were the Icelandic Vikings under the command of Thorfinn Karlsefni, but the newcomers did not settle the area for a long time.

Newfoundland is the biggest of the Atlantic Canadian provinces, the mother land for hundreds of thousands of caribou, millions of birds, the famous breed of black diving dogs and moose, which can be found walking on motorways.

Locations

Ordinskaya Cave

October 13, 2011 - 23:32
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 52

Cave diving is very fascinating, but it is also a most dangerous passion to have. The advances in underwater cave exploration have always been determined by the state of the available equipment.

Decades have now passed since this pioneering event. Inventors of diving equipment have steadily created more perfect and trouble-free underwater devices, but cave diving in Russia is still an activity for a devoted few.
 

Cave Diving

Pages

Copyright © 2020  AquaScope Media ApS. All rights reserved.