Dive legend Tec Clark has built a memorable career and legacy around training excellent divers. He describes his underwater experiences as “absolutely worshipful” and “otherworldly.” It’s the place where he feels closer to God than anywhere else on Earth. Helping others safely and professionally experience this same life-changing magic is his focus. Clark summed up the philosophy behind all his advice to new dive professionals: “Great training is the key to great diving. Don’t cut corners. Offer excellent training. Go beyond the standard.”
Many divers love to travel. As more destinations open to travelers, divers are eager to get back in the water at their favorite site or a new location. Read these tips for traveling with scuba equipment and planning ahead to determine what vaccinations and medical documentation your destination requires.
After taking time away from diving, whether for a few months or even longer, divers should assess several essential factors to help them safely get back in the water. DAN’s new Return to Diving initiative is a comprehensive, practical guide developed by dive medicine physicians, scientists and researchers to provide the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. The guide contains six sections, each with detailed step-by-step instructions and tips. Topics include issues stemming from inactivity, your health status, fitness to dive, equipment, dive skills and travel plans.
The newly reorganized DAN Safety Services department combines the prevention focus of our risk mitigation efforts with the incident-response aspect of our first aid courses and safety products. Everyone in the dive industry — students, divers, and dive professionals and operators — can access DAN’s wealth of educational, training and safety product options to help keep themselves and their fellow divers safe.
A DAN member shares lessons learned while lost at sea for many hours after being carried far from the dive site by currents. It’s important to stay calm and bring your own safety gear such as a surface marker buoy. Before leaving on a trip, establish good physical fitness and always let someone know where you are and when to expect you. Understand the risks, be proactive about your safety, and don’t ignore red flags about the dive operator.
Photogrammetry is the process of collecting a series of still images or videos of an object, such as a shipwreck, and then loading those images into software that can triangulate the photographed points to create a 3D model. Plenty of real-world applications can use this technology, including architecture, engineering, forensics, archaeology, mapping and video games. Becky Kagan Schott enjoys seeing wrecks come to life in a way that a single photo could never accomplish.
Octopuses hole up in small dens, are quite excellent at camouflage and are most active at night, so not all divers have seen one on a dive. But biologist Matthew Birk, who studies octopuses, felt that never having seen one in the wild was a blemish on his career and sought to remedy the situation on a trip to Santa Catalina Island off Southern California.
Annie Crawley and her dive team of kids and teens are among the divers who frequent the Edmonds Underwater Park marine protected area just north of Seattle, Washington, in the Puget Sound area of the Salish Sea. With drysuits on and cameras in hand, the young ocean explorers document the underwater world with Crawley as their mentor and guide. Their mission: be a voice for the ocean.
Known for their striking colors, patterns and forms, nudibranchs are found in seas all over the world. Sculptor Gar Waterman’s fascination with these sea slugs extends beyond his aesthetic appreciation for their unique, organic form. Because most nudibranchs have a life span of less than a year and adapt rapidly to changes in their environment, they help scientists understand the impact of global warming on ocean health. With each nudibranch that he has cut, chiseled and polished from stone, Waterman hopes to communicate their quirky beauty and scientific role.
More than 100 interns over 20 years have participated in DAN’s internship programs, working with established mentors in research, risk mitigation or medicine to gain knowledge and valuable professional experience while contributing to DAN operations. This year five interns traveled to Durham, North Carolina, to participate in the program.
