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Dive-book reviews: Dover Straits wrecks / SAS risk management

I was excited to see that Stefan Panis had finally produced his book about Dover Straits shipwrecks, because I had a good idea of what to expect. From articles written for Diver magazine over the years, I know him to be an excellent all-rounder.

Stefan is a Belgian technical wreck, cave and mine diver, an underwater photo-journalist and a wreck researcher too. He clearly gets great satisfaction from finding submerged treasures – as defined often in terms of vintage rather than monetary value – and the book reflects his fondness for 19th-century Channel shipwrecks. 

He had already dived many wrecks off the Belgian and Dutch coasts by the time he teamed up, some 12 years ago, with sharp-eyed UK wreck-divers Eddie Huzzey and his “Dover squad” – specialists in the rich pickings at the narrowest part of the Channel out from Kent.

Their underwater forays have been extraordinarily productive, as this book shows. It is bursting with rich content and I imagine could easily have filled twice the number of pages. 

As with his magazine articles, Stefan takes us through the often colourful histories of the vessels while revelling in the sort of diving narrative that brings wrecks to life. He illustrates all this not only with wreck photography that is well above average for UK waters but also topside shots of artefacts retrieved by the group. 

The author’s dilemma in portraying his 18 chosen Diver Straits wrecks must have been how to shoe-horn all his high-quality photos into a 200-page, 17x24cm book. Some images benefit from being big, others you can get away with small, and he is often walking a tightrope trying to get the balance right. 

I don’t know how many hundreds of shots we're given – it would take too long to count them. The size balance isn’t always ideal, but no-one could complain about being short-changed. 

Even if your eyesight is 20/20, however, you might like to have a magnifying glass to hand should you want to zoom in on some of the details, or to read comfortably the many contemporary newspaper cuttings included. These might have been intended as ornamental by the book’s designer, but that doesn’t stop you wanting to read them.

With so much imagery provided, I remember how long it would take to lay out Stefan’s magazine articles about classic Channel wrecks like the Josephine Willis. That emigrant sailing ship sank in 1876 with the loss of 70 people, and Stefan reminds us in the book that after his Diver article appeared, he was contacted by none other than the captain’s great-great-great-grandson, who was overjoyed when the divers presented him with his ancestor’s sextant.

This book has one or two rough edges that I’m sure will have been smoothed out by the next edition. They’re minor and do nothing to mar the enjoyment of these graphic wreck-diving tales. Shipwrecks Of The Dover Straits is warmly recommended, whether as a wreck-diving guide or simply as slice after slice of maritime history brought vividly to life. 

Whittles Publishing, ISBN 9781849954969
Paperback, 212pp, 17x24cm, £18.99

Scuba Diver Op Risk Management book cover

Make no mistake, this isn’t the sort of book you pick up for a casual read. It’s not a long manual, and it’s straightforward enough to read and understand, with everything rigorously spelt out step by step, as befits the subject matter. However, unless you’re a diver fully invested in gaining serious mastery of the business of risk management, you might lack the motivation to see it through to the finishing line.

It’s important that there are people who organise and supervise dives – and not necessarily only those who do it for a living – and take their dive-planning seriously.

The safety of every diver should of course be everyone’s priority on every dive, and there is also the legal self-protection of those who take responsibility for others to consider. But, as publisher Dived Up also points out, this is a book that aims to encourage increased personal responsibility among all divers.

No harm will be done to its appeal by the sub-heading, An SAS Approach to Principles, Techniques And Application. It’s his training as an Australian SAS assault swimmer that author Claudio Gino Ferreri invokes here, and he wrote his manual in accordance with the ISO 31000 international risk-management standard. 

You will need to concentrate to absorb all the planning lessons in this book, working through them with the help of the numerous diagrams, checklists, schematics, tables, examples and exercises. The hope is that, if you do so, the processes involved in minimising risk will start to become automatic. 

This book is designed to apply to dives of every type and level, from reef bimble to deep wreck expedition. It also includes a useful “Risk Management Toolkit” to help with everyday planning. 

Scuba Diver Op Risk Management cover 2

In passing, I note that an ‘incident’ is defined in this book as a risk-related event that results in no serious damage, injury or loss of life, whereas an ‘accident’ is the opposite (resulting in serious damage, injury or death).

That is very different from the definition we have always used on Divernet, where an incident is a risk-related diving event that can have any outcome, from trivial to fatal, whereas an accident implies that no blame is attached, as in “verdict of accidental death”.

Either way, the hope is that by following the advice outlined in the book, both incidents and accidents can be side-stepped.

Anyone who wants to take their dive-planning beyond “using common sense” should find this book a considerable asset – it’s common sense formalised.

Dived Up Publications, ISBN 9781909455498
Paperback, 192pp, 23 x16cm, £20, also available as an eBook 

Maldivian Fish app

Maldivian Fish Guide (app), by Andrey Ryanskiy

We dutifully note the arrival of each new Ryanskiy guide, the stripped-down, pocket-sized collection of marine-life ID books, but the Sharm-based publisher’s latest publication is described as its first mobile app. Maldivian Fish Guide includes more than 750 species of fish. 

I would take issue with its claim of “detailed descriptions” of those fish because Andrey Ryanskiy has always believed in minimising wordage to allow maximum space for his photos, but he certainly puts in the hard yards to provide good-quality and relatable images.

In a crowded section of the market this could be a useful complement to the publisher’s Coral Reefs Maldives ID book. Priced at £9.99, it is downloadable on iOS and Android platforms.

More book reviews on Divernet: Nov 23, Aug 23, Apr 23Feb 23Dec 22Aug 22Apr 22

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#askmark How do you handle follow on dives when your last one has been very stressful due to a shortage of air?
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00:00 Introduction
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The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional SCUBA Training. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace training from a qualified Dive Instructor.
00:00 Introduction
01:19 Scuba.com
02:13 Unboxing
03:51 Specs
09:40 Review

YouTube Video UEw2X2VCMS1KYWdWbXFQSGV1YW84WVRHb2pFNkl3WlRSZS43RjgyNkZCNjkwMkZDMzcz

OrcaTorch D630 V2.0 Umbilical Torch Review #Unboxing #Review

This week on the podcast, Professional Dive guides in the Phillipines are in hot water after a tip off that some are accepting payment for engraving names in coral, leading to authorities to quadruple the reward money for any information on the culprits. LL cool J has recently told the Guardian that the anamatronic shark in Deep Blue Sea almost drowned him. And a former Navy diver has decided to become the first to swim the English channel, on his back.



https://divernet.com/scuba-news/conservation/dive-pro-accused-of-carving-corals-for-cash/
https://www.scubadivermag.com/ex-navy-diver-set-to-swim-channel-backwards/ 
https://www.scubadivermag.com/fake-shark-parked-ll-cool-j-under-water/ 
https://www.ladbible.com/news/world-news/jamaica-shark-attack-decapitated-jahmari-reid-latest-457708-20240830 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg794yvkm5eo


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We partner with https://www.scuba.com and https://www.mikesdivestore.com for all your gear essentials. Consider using the affiliate link above to support the channel.

The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional SCUBA Training. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace training from a qualified Dive Instructor.

This week on the podcast, Professional Dive guides in the Phillipines are in hot water after a tip off that some are accepting payment for engraving names in coral, leading to authorities to quadruple the reward money for any information on the culprits. LL cool J has recently told the Guardian that the anamatronic shark in Deep Blue Sea almost drowned him. And a former Navy diver has decided to become the first to swim the English channel, on his back.



https://divernet.com/scuba-news/conservation/dive-pro-accused-of-carving-corals-for-cash/
https://www.scubadivermag.com/ex-navy-diver-set-to-swim-channel-backwards/
https://www.scubadivermag.com/fake-shark-parked-ll-cool-j-under-water/
https://www.ladbible.com/news/world-news/jamaica-shark-attack-decapitated-jahmari-reid-latest-457708-20240830
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg794yvkm5eo


Become a fan: https://www.scubadivermag.com/join
Gear Purchases: https://www.scubadivermag.com/affiliate/dive-gear
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OUR WEBSITES

Website: https://www.scubadivermag.com ➡️ Scuba Diving, Underwater Photography, Hints & Advice, Scuba Gear Reviews
Website: https://www.divernet.com ➡️ Scuba News, Underwater Photography, Hints & Advice, Travel Reports
Website: https://www.godivingshow.com ➡️ The Only Dive Show in the United Kingdom
Website: https://www.rorkmedia.com ➡️ For advertising within our brands
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/scubadivermag
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INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/scubadivermagazine

We partner with https://www.scuba.com and https://www.mikesdivestore.com for all your gear essentials. Consider using the affiliate link above to support the channel.

The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional SCUBA Training. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace training from a qualified Dive Instructor.

YouTube Video UEw2X2VCMS1KYWdWbXFQSGV1YW84WVRHb2pFNkl3WlRSZS5FRUEzOUYxQTE4OEIyMTI3

Guides Were Paid to Graffiti Coral #scuba #news #podcast

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