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Share your thoughts, experiences or questions and participate in discussions over our favorite topic : SCUBA diving!

Diveboard feature updates: Dive profiles, Spots and Privacy

by Ksso on August 16, 2011

This update was way more complicated than we anticipated. On the outside, little changed. On the inside, a LOT did.

Enhanced dive profiles : We now have a "future"-proof system to manage dive profiles.Since we opened Diveboard as alpha, we've been surprised beyond expected by the variety of format you are using and the variety of information they can store. We started by a simple depth/time support, but this was definitely not enough.We have expanded upport to add more data to the dive profile infos, such as the temperature in pascal's dive below. Most importantly we now ensure that when you upload a profile to Diveboard, we'll keep the raw data "at hand" (in the database) to ensure that...

Under the ice: scuba in Switzerland

by Ksso on August 16, 2011

The DailyMail just shared those incredible pics by Photographer Franco Banfi who braved sub-zero temperatures in Sassolo Lake, Switzerland to take those incredible shots. The scenery is simply breathtaking.

Underwater art exhibition in Florida Keys

by Ksso on August 11, 2011

An underwater art exhibit has debuted on a former Air Force missile tracking ship ( the USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg) sunk in the Florida Keys.Austrian art photographer Andreas Franke is exhibiting a dozen digitally composited images 93 feet underwater on the weather deck of the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The exhibit is at the National Marine Sanctuary. Officials who spearheaded the 2009 scuttling said Sunday that Franke photographed the wreck last year and added other elements to create the artwork. One picture depicts a girl wielding a butterfly net to capture fish shown in an original underwater image of the wreck. In another, kick boxers compete adjacent to one of Vandenberg's iconic...

Alert Diver Magazine - Summer 2011

by Ksso on August 10, 2011

As usually, free for DAN subscriber !

Download your copy

In this issue:

Free Diving15 basic rules for saferfree diving

Bullettin BoardDAN launches its newonline Shop

Medical line Hyperthyroidism and DivingWhen Treated, This Disorder May Not Necessarily Keep You Out of the Water

FFESSM N2 certification: going yo-yo

by Pascal on August 04, 2011

The French FFESSM N2 (equivalent to CMAS 2 Stars or PADI AOW) diver certification is not just about going deeper. It's definitely about autonomy. It allows the certified diver to go up to 40m accompanied by a N4 diver, but it also allows him to dive in autonomy with another N2 diver up to 20m.I just passed the certification (already waited too long), and really the whole point of the whole training was about getting safely your buddy back to safety, i.e. on the surface. And I can assure you that the instructors from Easy Dive on the French Riviera really took this responsibility seriously. We had to bring up several times instructors who had "fainted" and were falling head first into the...

GoPro and Scuba

by Ksso on August 03, 2011

GoPro is a tiny camera dedicated to catching the excitement created by extreme sports in HD. It can be easily stuck to about anything and, best of all in our case, it comes with an underwater housing that can get down to 180feet / 60m! Many have adopted it (see below Joi wearing a GoPro HD Helmet HERO Cameraon his helmet). It comes with a variety of hooks and straps making it easy to stick it to your gear.

To make things even better, Snake River Prototyping has released an adapter for the GoPro Hero HD POV cam's underwater housing. BlurFix fixes the GoPro HD underwater focus issue by placing a flat 55 mm filter in front of the housing's OEM fish-eye lens. Included with the lens is a low...

Diveboard Feature update: Login page, Linux support, Profiles, albums uploads

by Ksso on August 01, 2011

It's taken a bit more than we expected (due to a nasty IE9 bug... Oh Microsoft...) but we're finally there, new features have been released! Here's a round-up :

User Profiles. Everybody's got one now so head to your logbook and customize it so it looks great !

New Login Pages are finally there. You can create an account using login/password or still keep on using facebook connect. We now have the flexibility to add even more login mechanisms should you, dear users, request them.

A new version of the plugin that now supports Linux and an incredible automagic feature, as requested by Steve. If you're logged on to Diveboard, just plugin your cable and the website will detect it and run you...

Cressi Travelight BCD

by Ksso on August 01, 2011

If you're like me and like to take your trusted and loved gear with you whenever you're going for a dive, you'll love Cressi's latest BCD dubbed "Travelight". Check out this video from Steve demoing it. As you can see, despite the small form factor when packed it's perfectly full-featured.The Cressi Sub Travelight BC retails under 430USD and weights about 6 pounds / 2.8kg.

Sci-fi Nudibranchs

by Ksso on July 26, 2011

I just got my attention drawn towards those two amazing nudibranchs... that just look like aliens from a Dragon Ball anime. (there's something of Frazer in them isn't it ? ). These Glaucus atlanticus (left) and Glaucilla marginata were washed up on Surfers Paradise Beach in Queensland Australia in 2007. The larger one is about 35 mm in length.The normal size of Glaucus atlanticus is between 5 and 8 cm in length. The maximum recorded length is 40 cm. It floats upside down on the surface tension of the ocean. G. atlanticus preys on other larger pelagic organisms: the dangerously venomous Portuguese Man o' War Physalia physalis; the by-the-wind-sailor Velella velella; the blue button Porpita...

Back from holidays - Scuba in Thailand - Ko Samui

by Ksso on July 25, 2011

I just got back from a few days in Thailand in the Ko Samui area. I had high hopes from Thailand from a scuba prospective, and did indeed see beautiful fish, but a couple details got me a bit unhappy with the whole Ko Samui diving experience. Firstly, there are no dive spots in Samui... which means that in order to go diving you have to do a 1,5-2hrs speed boat ride to Ko Tao where the real fun is (and since I tend to get sea sick and the sea wasn't really calm the ride was bumpy and not really super fun for me). The visibility at that time of the year is fairly average and I couldn't get a real clear status regarding the rest of the year, so it may not be much better. The spots aren't...