A diver SMB is a fundamental part of scuba gear. It is one of the most important pieces as its main purpose is to provide you safety. In short, it helps you get spotted at the surface and picked up by the dive boat. When deployed, surface marker buoys indicate that there are divers below, alerting boats to stay clear, leaving you enough space to surface safely. Alternatively, when it comes to drift diving, the boat will be able to identify your heading and make its way to you at the end of the dive. For those of you who are new to drift diving it is where you dive…

Fishing for your next diving  trip? What are you looking for? Pelagic sharks? Wrecks? Beautiful, pristine reefs with colourful corals and reef fish? A remote place? Drift dives? Walls? How about all of that? At a single dive site? Well, even on a single dive? Welcome to the Brother Islands, Red Sea, Egypt! The Brother Islands (or El Achawein) are considered one of the best dive spots in the world. The two small offshore islands in the Red Sea are located around 60-70km from the coast at Al Qusair. „Big Brother“ is around 400m long. „Little Brother“, which is about 1km away, is less than half this size. They were…

Shark photography is an art in itself. It is not only about composition and light or being at the right place in the right time. The most important thing about shark photography is understanding the behaviour of the different species. And if you have the luxury, knowing individual sharks will help you improve your photography skills immensely.   Seeing a shark for the first time A flash of grey catches the corner of my eye and I look up out of the water. A small, white tipped fin silently glides along the surface. When I pop my head underwater for another look, I see that I am sharing the water…

SS Thistlegorm is considered one of the best wrecks in the world.  It was a British merchant navy ship that is now located at Sha’ab Ali Red Sea, Egypt. The ship is famous for its wartime cargo and was fitted with light weaponry. It consists of a 4.7inch light anti-aircraft gun and an anti-aircraft machine gun. Exploring and diving the SS Thistlegorm is like diving through a history museum. That is why 1000s of divers make the special trip every year to Egypt to dive this wreck. Photo by Marcel Rudolph-Gajda   SS Thislegorm history & facts SS (Steam Ship) Thistlegorm was launched in Sunderland in 1940 by Joseph Thompson…

Manta Point Nusa Penida, near Bali is undoubtedly one of the best places in Indonesia, if not the world, to scuba dive and snorkel with the majestic manta rays. Having grown up with a strongly instilled feeling of fear around the ocean, never wading past knee-deep at any point in my life before I turned 18, I wouldn’t have believed it if you told me that my early to mid 20’s would be spent travelling the globe in search of PURPOSEFUL underwater encounters with phenomenal creatures of the sea. Photo by Abdul Latif But here I was, 25 and finding myself for the third time in 3 years giant-striding off…

There isn’t a single diver who hasn’t struggled with how to take photos underwater! I am sure you have been on a dive where most of the pictures you took came out completely blue. And then one day, playing with your underwater camera, you finally take a decent picture with great contrasts of red, yellow, purple and many other warm colors against a vibrant deep blue. Mistake or not? Surely, it cannot be…. This is how my journey started as an underwater photographer, when I finally got my perfectly lit underwater photograph. I was using only an underwater compact camera with an internal flash and couldn’t understand how to make those…

Maybe you’ve recently joined the scuba diver’s world or you are a seasoned diver wondering how to take your diving experience further! Joining a liveaboard will take you to places you’ve never imagined. But, what is liveaboard diving actually? Well, imagine taking the experience of staying at a dive resort and transferring that to a boat, on which you will sail around the glistening ocean for the duration of your holiday.   Resort vs Liveaboard diving You might wonder what the benefits are of staying on a liveaboard versus a dive resort. Well, the difference is liveaboards have the ability to take you to far more dive sites, including those…

The ocean is a photographer’s playground. From the rich marine life and captivating movement of the waves, to the deep blue hues and corals — you’ll never run out of things to shoot. However, underwater photography is a completely different style that requires its own equipment and technique. And before you take your camera with you on your next dive, you should ensure that you’re completely comfortable in the water. The better a diver you are, the better underwater photographer you can be as well. Ready to get started? Here are some tips to get the best underwater photographs!   Control your buoyancy To take clear photos, you need to…

The sardine run in South Africa is one of the most phenomenal annual events you can experience! During the months of June and July the largest animal aggregations on our planet takes place. It happens when thousands of ocean predators and birds chase billions of sardines. Images from the sardine run take up most of the introduction in the first edition of BBC’s Blue Planet. This just shows how exceptional and significant this event is. All photos and videos in this post are by Helene-Julie Zofia Paamand   Everyone is chasing the same thing The month of July in South Africa equals winter. When you sit in your wetsuit on…

The Bali dive sites are some of the most exquisite in the world. This Indonesian island has it all – wrecks, drift diving, rare macro critters, pelagic, volcanic sandy bottom excellent for muck diving, coral reefs and wall diving. You will find stunning biodiversity here. No wonder the dive spots are on the bucket lists of many scuba divers. Photo by Gonzalo Apesteguía   Thanks to tourism, Bali is the most popular island of Indonesia. Many tourists come and go on a honeymoon, on a backpacking trip, on a yoga trip, and often on a scuba diving trip. The island of the gods has a lot to offer! Photo by Claudine Daigneault…