Children and Diving

Q3/Q4 2020

Opinions vary among dive medicine experts about how to mitigate the complex issues around children and diving, such as age requirements, training levels and limitations. Children are still developing both physically and mentally, which affects the decision about whether a young diver is fully capable or requires some modification. Concerns about decompression sickness, out-of-air emergencies and gas toxicities that occur at greater depths affect depth-limitation guidelines, which vary among the training agencies.

Step Exercises with Cardio

By Jessica Adams, Ph.D.

Q3/Q4 2020

Considered a form of preventative medicine by the American College of Sports Medicine, exercise has a wide range of positive physical, mental and cognitive benefits. This program should help keep you fit and healthy for your next dive. Use the modifications and challenges to suit your individual needs and fitness level. This timed program is designed to keep your heart rate elevated throughout the routine to strengthen your heart, lungs and muscles.

Ocean Views 2020: Glory Days

Q3/Q4 2020

As this year’s Ocean Views photo contest celebrates the 10th anniversary of the collaboration between Alert Diver and the Nature’s Best Photography magazines for the 2020 Nature’s Best Photography International Awards, the collection of entries is replete with speedballs of significance. The quality of the photography is the best we’ve judged yet and coincidentally the most eclectic in subject and location. Viewed in aggregate, the 31,000 images and videos submitted by 2,000 entrants from 67 countries cover a range of destinations including polar, Caribbean, Indo-Pacific and even freshwater habitats.

Oil and Particulates

By Francois Burman, Pr.Eng., M.Sc.

Q3/Q4 2020

Research has described the effects on human health of elevated partial pressures of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) while diving, but only occupational health and safety studies have covered solids such as oil mist and particulate matter suspended in air and only in terms of breathing at the surface. The difference between the U.S. and European standards for CO and CO2 limits is small, but it is much larger for oil content. Regardless of regulatory limits, we should ensure we are safe while enjoying our recreational dives.

Solomons Sojourn

By Tanya G. Burnett

Q3/Q4 2020

I may not understand all the details of every wreck I saw during this trip, but I feel a greater respect for the enormity of what occurred on this small tropical foothold during World War II. I also now appreciate more than ever what nature can do to reclaim the scars of human conflict. When the last bit of historical steel rusts away, the reef that consumes it will still be here to greet visitors and divers in the Solomon Islands.

Blessed Bonaire

By Stephen Frink

Q3/Q4 2020

Blessed by geographic synergy with the sea and the coral reef, Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands. It has developed in harmony with nature, thanks to its residents’ passion about preservation. While Klein Bonaire is a boat dive destination, the Bonaire National Marine Park features 86 dive sites marked with their names emblazoned on yellow-painted stones, all with easy access from the shore. For the past 25 years Bonaire has been named as the best shore-diving destination in the Caribbean for good reason.

A Shot to Remember

By Todd Aki

Q3/Q4 2020

The beauty of a dive resort’s house reef is that you can shoot a subject, return to your room, review the shot on your laptop, figure out how to improve it and reshoot it during the next dive. Diving a house reef in Sulawesi, Indonesia, before and after each day’s boat dives allowed me an abundance of time with the same creatures, and I was finally able to get what I was after — a shot that I will forever cherish.

Program Spotlight: Prepared Diver Course Makes Divers Safer

Q3/Q4 2020

Continuation of dive training and education beyond the open-water course is beneficial, and to make it easier DAN offers the Prepared Diver course to everyone at no cost. This video-based course is for all divers regardless of training level. By building on practices you’ve already learned, Prepared Diver can help you become a better, safer diver. Most important, this course focuses on mitigation and avoidance of the most common triggers of dive accidents and incidents.

DAN Dispatch: A New Dive Medical Screening System

Q3/Q4 2020

In 2017 the Diver Medical Screen Committee (DMSC) initiated an evidence-based review of the existing diver medical screening system. Following field testing and significant input from UHMS, DAN and other experts, DMSC has published the updated diver screening system. Endorsed by DAN, UHMS, the World Recreational Scuba Training Council, training agencies and others, the new Recreational Diving Medical Screening System allows everyone who can safely scuba dive to do so while also encouraging those with possible health risks to be medically evaluated for their fitness to dive.