Michael Menduno

For the Love of Diving: Interview with Marissa Eckert

December 08, 2019 - 14:42
The story is found: 
on page 67

Thirty-four-year-old Marissa Eckert is a passionate full-time cave and technical diving instructor who co-owns Hidden Worlds Diving in Fort White, Florida, USA, with her partner, James Draker. When she is not teaching, Eckert enjoys traveling all over the world, exploring new places, hiking through the jungle and doing challenging new dives that help her grow and learn as a diver.

"Well, I would definitely say that diving is my life. I feel excited and happy to get up every day and go to work. I love what I do. I actually do not really feel that it is work . . . I feel fortunate that I get to do something that I love so much."
— Marissa Eckert

Profiles & Interviews

Ponza Rebreather Meeting 2019: Dive, Learn, Eat

June 15, 2019 - 16:36
The story is found: 
on page 68

Michael Menduno details the highlights of the various presentations given during the sixth biannual international Rebreather Meeting, which took place 1-5 May 2019 on Ponza Island in Italy.

1 May 2019 — Nearly three dozen rebreather aficionados made the biannual trek to Ponza, Italy—a picturesque island in the Tyrrhenian Sea about a three-hour journey from Rome—for the sixth International Rebreather Meeting organized by Andrea Donato, owner of Ponza Diving Center, and his partner, D

Conferences and events
Locations
Ponza

Revisiting Deep Air Diving

February 26, 2019 - 13:01
The story is found: 
on page 71

Today, the practice of “deep air” diving, and to a large extent, air diving itself has been related to the annals of sport diving history. Nitrox has become near ubiquitous as the diving gas of choice for shallow-water diving, and the trend, as pioneered by Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) is for divers to switch to helium mixes for dives beyond about 100ft/30m.

The situation was very different in the early 1990s, when mixed-gas diving was just beginning to gain traction following Dr Bill Stone’s successful 1987 Wakulla Springs Project—the first large-scale, mixed-gas expedition conducted by the who’s who of US deep cave diving.

Technical Diving

Project Baseline: Facilitating Needed Underwater Science

October 09, 2017 - 13:08
The story is found: 
on page 86

Project Baseline’s team conducted over 100 video transects of coral reef and benthic habitats of the Great Astrolabe Reef in Fiji, one of the largest barrier reefs in the world, to compile baseline reports in order to effectively monitor the health of the reef.

Having completed two high-profile collaborative research projects in 2016—one with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) documenting the U-576 WWII German submarine at a depth of 721ft (220m) off North Carolina along the US East Coast, and the other working with the Nekton Ox

Biology
Ecosystems

Let's Talk About Underwater Communications Systems

September 01, 2017 - 18:31
The story is found: 
on page 58

In 1977, a year after I got certified, Soundwave Systems launched the “Wetphone,” a voice-activated underwater communications device that promised to revolutionize sports diving, making it a “silent world” no more. I added it to my wish list along with a Watergill At-Pac, the forerunner of modern-day wings, and an SAS drysuit. Soundwave filed for bankruptcy a few years later.

Today—nearly 40 years later—communication systems have become standard kit for commercial, military, law enforcement, public safety, aquarium and scientific divers and videographers, but they remain a niche product for recreational and technical divers.

Technical gear

Pushing the Altitude: The Quest to Document the SS Tahoe

June 27, 2017 - 11:53
The story is found: 
on page 69

June 2017 — Fifty-six-year-old explorer Martin McClellan is determined to revisit the SS Tahoe to conduct an extensive photogrammetric survey of the wreck. The 169ft (52m)-long 19th century steamship, which was scuttled in 1940, rests intact on a steep underwater slope at a maximum depth of 470ffw (144mfw) beneath Glenbrook Bay in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA.

McClellan was the first to dive the Tahoe with Brian Morris under the banner of his organization New Millennium Dive Expeditions (NMDE) in 2002, and has conducted 10 open-circuit dives on the wreck over the last 15 years.

Deep Wrecks
Steamships and cargo

Set Theory

April 29, 2015 - 12:31
The story is found: 
on page 78

Though double (twinset) tanks and stage bottles are generally a requirement for most technical diving operations, diving sets vary significantly depending on the specific application and diving environment. Here’s a look at some of the more common methods of set rigging as practiced today in the “doubles community.”

—The following article is reprinted from the pioneering American journal for technical diving, aquaCORPS, V4, MIX, January-February 1992.

aquaCORPS Magazine

Becky Kagan Schott

January 06, 2015 - 14:10
The story is found: 
on page 21

Talent plus personality. That’s how clients and colleagues explain 35-year-old Becky Kagan Schott’s rapid ascent in the male-dominated, niche-filled world of underwater cinematography. “There are only a handful of people you can call if you need someone to dive to 350 feet, shoot and be creative,” explains Evan Kovacs, director of underwater photography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab.

Colleague, British underwater cameraman Rich Stevenson said that her skilled and energetic “let’s do this” attitude is the icing on the cake.

Profiles & Interviews
People

Richard Lundgren: The Man From Mars

February 17, 2014 - 18:02
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 36

You could say that Richard Lundgren’s destiny was cast when his parents took the precocious, then eight-year-old Swedish schoolboy to visit the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

True to his word, and remarkably, more than 30 years later Lundgren and his team from Ocean Discovery, Lundgren’s not-for-profit organization, discovered the shipwreck in May 2011, 447 years to the month from its sinking.

Profiles & Interviews
Medieval vessels

Gary Gentile —Deep Wreck Diver

February 17, 2014 - 17:39
0 comments
The story is found: 
on page 42

Gary Gentile not only helped pioneer deep wreck diving, but also documented its art and craft, in addition to his finds so that others may follow in his footsteps.

His latest book, NOAA’s Ark: the Rise of the Fourth Reich, which was released in May 2013, details the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations efforts to expand and restrict access to divers and sportsman to the U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries.

aquaCORPS Magazine
Profiles & Interviews

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