X-Ray Mag #10
Main features in this issue include:
Double Standards
For the last 30 years or so, dive training agencies have been certifying recreational divers as competent to plan and carry out non-decompression and no-stop dives to a max depth of 40msw.
Around 70% of certified divers worldwide have been certified by the single largest training agency. A high percentage of these 70% go from being non divers to become “advanced scuba divers” in less than a week, and with under 10 open water dives under their belt.
Hawaii
Like most divers who live in the northern parts of the world, I enjoy the occasional getaway to warmer climates, especially during November. To satisfy my tropical needs, I selected Maui, Molokai and Lanai of the Hawaiian Island Archipelago for my escape. Within six hours of leaving the Seattle area, Continental Airlines had me on the garden isle of Maui.
Polynesian settlement of Hawaii occurred over 1000 years ago after crossing 4000 miles (6437km) of open ocean from the South Pacific. Captain Cook arrived in 1778 and was later killed on a return journey.
Made to Measure -- Dive System of Italy
Beautifully located on the coast of the Ligurian Sea, and just opposite Elba Island, we find the Italian port of Follonica, with its busy side streets, many small seafood restaurants and religious processions on holidays. Not much, if anything, gives away that this port town is also the hot spot for technical diving in Italy. Follonica is the home of Dive System, one of the new rising stars in dive manufacturing.
Dive System is owned and managed by founders Paolo Zazzeri and Gioia Ancillotti. Both have been attracted by the sea since childhood, so becoming active divers and instructors as adults was hardly a surprising career move.
Norway
Land of Fjords & Seas of Plenty. This feature takes your around the country, from the North Cape, via the Lofoten islands, on a wreck safari out of Trondheim and finally to the southern port city of Kristiansand. Diving from the cool arctic to the temperate seas in the south. Norway has more than a few surprises beneath the surface, as well as on land.
Ordinskaya Cave
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.
Using HMI Lights
HMI technology is not new. Evolved in the late 1960s, a lamp developer Osram began producing HMI bulbs for the film industry
