In November, Divester reported on an underwater poker tournament-slash-fundraiser in Colorado. Organized to assist a Marine reservist on his third deployment in Iraq, the High Plains Scuba Center raised $1600 for Brian Ivers and his family. This past weekend, some of the same folks got together for another round of underwater festivities. Instead of playing cards, though, about 30 certified divers ranging in age from 13 to 60 competed in the 11th Annual Scuba Olympics. This year, the event also served as a fundraiser for Tyler Carron and Nikko Landeros, two high school wrestlers whose legs were amputated after they were struck by a car. According to Scuba Olympics Coordinator and High Planes Scuba Director Mark Williamson, all the money collected from the $10 Scuba Olympics entry fee are being given to the families of the boys to help cover their medical bills.

What happens at a Scuba Olympics? In one event, divers had to swim through a series of rings without touching them. In another event, divers were required to assemble a bag of wooden parts, nuts, and bolts underwater. Among the other events staged were the Pin Pong Push, the Dart Throw, and the Golf Ball Crawl. If you're interested, David Buffalo walked away with the gold at this year's Olympics. But all the participants are going to receive Divester's coveted Hero of the Week Award!

There are a smattering of clubs across the globe that bring underwater shooters together, but there hasn't been a good one in New York. Until now. Now, there's one in Manhattan.

The New York Underwater Photo Society (NYUPS) aims to bring together underwater photographers and videographers from the tri-state area to share and learn about the world of underwater imagery. Each month, NYUPS will host workshops and speakers (think: underwater photographers, filmmakers, marine biologists, explorers, and adventurers). In 2008, NYUPS plans to host photo expeditions to some of the world's most biodiverse hot spots, and it'll even launch an international underwater photo and video competition/festival. Sounds like a busy club! You know why I'm sure it'll succeed? Because of the people involved, which include Jason Heller, Larry Cohen, Robin Dyleski, Pasquale Pascullo, and Wendy Heller.

The Society's first meeting is in April. Check the website for details concerning time and place.

Last week, eight high school students in Plainville High School's scuba diving club played a rousing game of underwater Monopoly in their pool's deep end. Evidently, this is something of a tradition, as they also played the game last year. Using noises, eye contact, and hand signals to indicate business dealings, the students used a board fashioned from plexiglass, and used metal washers in lieu of paper money. Other fun changes in the game included:

• The jail spot on the board was renamed the recompression chamber.
• Instead of real estate parcels, the board's four sides featured dive spots, ranging from less desirable (the cold waters off Connecticut), to more desirable (the warm waters of the Caribbean).
• Participants were divided into teams of two, and the players spent half an hour underwater before being relieved by their teammates.

If I were in charge of re-designing the game, I'd rename Community Chest as Treasure Chest; re-label the Go space as the Dive Boat; and call Free Parking the Hang Bar.

I think this would be a fun way to raise money for ocean conservation. People could buy into the game, and the winner could donate their winnings to the cause of their choice.

Starting this Friday (the 13th!) -- and running through Sunday -- San Antonio's Dive World Scuba will be sponsoring a weekend-long Halloween-themed, dive-friendly blowout. Held at Texas' North Park Canyon Lake, in addition to ample grilling-out, a gumbo cook-off, and "fun dives," the event also features an Underwater Haunted House, a Costume Party/Contest, an Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest, and an Underwater Pumpkin Hunt. Twenty bucks gains you entry to the entire event and a 1 in 10 chance of winning a spankin'-new reg, BC, tank, and more. If you live in the San Antonio area, and you love diving, this sounds like where you should be this weekend. If you go, please let us know what an underwater haunted house looks like, so I can design one for next year!

[Via Dive Zero]

If you're going to be in NYC on Tuesday, September 26th, you might want to swing by NYC Scuba Divers' monthly Happy Hour. On that night, at 7pm, Jason Heller of DivePhotoGuide will present "Our Diverse Oceans and Reefs," which will focus on The Galapagos and Indonesia. I know he recently returned from The Galapagos, so he knows first-hand whereof he speaks.) The People Lounge (on Allen Street) will provide drink specials and food, so not only will this be a chance for you to learn about some far-flung eco-hot-spots, you can also stuff your face. Pictures, camaraderie, and food...what more could you ask for?

In 2003, Louise Trewavas traveled to Dahab, Egypt with her dive gear, headed to the Blue Hole, and plunged to 300 feet. There, with iron in hand, Trewavas broke the world record for extreme ironing underwater. Last month, rival diver John Rudolph beat her record when he descended to more than 423 feet and ironed, um, extremely. Rudolph's elation was short-lived, however. Two weeks ago, Trewavas returned to the Blue Hole and reclaimed her world record at a depth of 450 feet. Wearing her rebreather and sporting a shiny new iron, Trewavas ironed what appears to be a Wonder Woman t-shirt (wanna see the video?)

So why would anyone participate in this seemingly ridiculous activity? After all, isn't there enough to worry about when diving to 400+ feet that trying to do some ironing just adds to the confusion? According to Trewavas, "Extreme ironing is for people who do extreme sports but don't take themselves too seriously...Diving is about having fun, it's not about being a complete nutter." Right.

To understand fully what extreme ironing is all about, I think you have to understand irony: "An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning." Clearly, ironing is not normally considered extreme. However, when you mix one of the world's most mundane activities with one of the world's most dangerous activities, you get Extreme Ironing. I think it sounds like a fun one-off. I'd like to participate in an extreme ironing event some day. What about you? A cool idea or a waste of time?

We told you that recent oil spills in Lebanon threaten more than 50 miles of Lebanese beaches and 6 miles of Syrian coastline. Moreover, the spills threaten tuna, sharks, and green turtles that nest in the area. Determined to help, some UAE divers with experience in clean-up operations -- including post-tsunami Thailand -- and equipped with lift bags supplied by the Dubai Police have decided to do something about the mess.

As soon as they receive the "all clear" sign, Ibrahim Al-Zu'bi and some of the 650 members of the Emirates Diving Association will head to Lebanon to attack the environmental damage. According to Al-Zu'bi, "Members are...willing to camp on the beaches if necessary. We'll do the cleaning ourselves, it's what we've been doing for the last 11 years." With expertise in protecting coral reefs, the EDA will be educating the public, cleaning up debris, examining the reefs, performing basic fish counts, and doing anything else they need to do to save the area's environment. What a great way to help marine life and promote diving at the same time!

Although they initially mistook it for a sunken fishing trawler, four divers off the coast of Scotland recently discovered a WWI submarine. Lying in 200 feet of water in the North Sea, the divers were pleased and surprised to learn that it was almost entirely intact. Experts believe it is a British sub known as the H11, which was lost in 1920 while under tow, although some naval records indicate it was scrapped that year. Resting on her port side in some seaweed, the sub was actually made by Americans and released to the British after the Americans joined the war.

The divers who found the sub -- members of the South Queensferry Sub Aqua Club -- are waiting for confirmation from the Royal Navy that the sub was unmanned before they carry out further investigations of the vessel. Locals -- who frequently get their fishing nets caught in the area -- estimate there are another 20 wrecks nearby. Could they also be WWI-era wrecks? It's certainly possible.

[Via Newsvine]

Previously, we reported on the Scuba Scouts, high school-aged kids who study, monitor, and work to preserve the ocean. Rebecca Shultz isn't a Scuba Scout -- she's a Girl Scout -- but she's certainly be doing her fair share of work! For the last year and a half, in fact, Schultz has been busy casting concrete molds to serve as artificial reefs in the Miami area. So far, she's created 30 molds, each of which weigh between 200 and 1500 pounds. (I guess Shultz casts one new reef ball about every 3 weeks.)

With the help of her marine biology teacher, Schultz applied for and received a $4,500 grant from the Reef Ball Foundation and another $2,500 grant from the Girl Scouts to complete the project. This weekend, she and some friends snorkeled near one of the reef balls, which was submerged on March 25. According to Schultz's partner, Veronica Lafranchise, the sites already have "some yellowtail, parrot fish and angel fish near the reef." As a result of her hard work, Schultz earned a "Gold Award," the Girl Scouts' highest award. She's also been named Divester's Hero of the Week.

[Via Dive News]

Club Narked is an alcohol and drug-free club with a top-secret location, due to open in the next 18 months. Claiming to intoxicate clubbers naturally "via Nitrogen Narcosis," the £5 million club will be nestled inside a converted bank vault. Once inside, clubbers will breathe compressed air in the pressurized vault, which will create "the safe high known as being 'narked'." Explaining that "complex reasoning decreases 33% and manual dexterity decreases 7.3%" when someone is narked, the owners maintain that this is a safe way to get trashed, because "once the pressure is returned to normal, the intoxication wears off," meaning it's safe to drive home. Or go get a drink at a real club. What do you think?

Personally, I don't like the idea of being locked inside a bank vault with a bunch of sweaty, trashed people. However, if you think it sounds cool, you can request Opening Night tickets on Narked's website.

[Thanks, Simon!]

About two weeks ago, we told you that the WKPP pushed the Wakulla Cave system, found a new tunnel (imaginatively named "Q"), and achieved a world record. Ultimately, the divers spent 7 hours at 260 feet and endured a 14-hour decompression. If you're the kind of diver who's interested in the details of the push, they've posted a "trip report" online.

For those Divester readers who aren't that interested in the technical details behind WKPP's endeavor, at least take the time to scroll through their image bank. Featuring both topside and underwater images, some of the pictures show divers wearing 6 full-sized tanks, 1 pony tank, and hauling 3 scooters a lot of gear.

[Via Scuba Geek]

The easiest way to explain what this book is about is to read it's complete title: The Helldiver's Rodeo: A Deadly, Extreme, Scuba-Diving, Spear Fishing Adventure Amid the Offshore Oil-Platforms in the Murky Waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Whew, that's a mouthful. Written by Cuban-born Humberto Fontova, who emigrated to the US when he was a young boy, the book is an in-depth look at Helldivers -- highly-competitive men who helped shape rig-diving and spear fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. With its over-the-top stories and limitless machismo, think of Hunter S. Thompson crossed with that really annoying guy on the dive boat.

Filled with adventure, danger, and huge fish, the story is quick, easy, and entertaining. However, in my opinion, Fontova's lumbering writing style and endless braggadocio watered down what could have been a great book.

Helldivers began as fishermen who excitedly jumped into the water when the first scuba units came on the market in New Orleans, and quickly turned fish-catching into a competition (a.k.a., a Rodeo). The Helldivers were amazed at the abundance and size of the marine life that was attracted to the oil platforms in the Gulf: amberjack, jewfish, grouper, and sharks as big as a man and wrestled from underneath the platforms by scuba diving fishermen using heavily-modded spearguns. The Helldivers aren't the only ones who were surprised by the size of their quarries: I was flabbergasted by some of the photos inside the book.

So how was the book, itself? As someone who has no experience spearfishing, I found it hard to get as excited as Fontova about his hunting. Nevertheless, I was interested in learning about how the sport evolved; Jacques Cousteau's involvement with it; what a "Cajun wetsuit" is (jeans and a flannel shirt); and about the dangers Helldivers face. Unfortunately, one of the dangers includes drinking heavily before diving to depths of greater than 200 feet, so I found myself nearly empathy-free when reading about men who got hurt.

However, I was fascinated by stories like Gerry Bourgeois', who wrestled a 450-pound jewfish up from 170 feet with one hand stuck in the fish's gills, and the other stuck in the fish's mouth. Suffice it to say, the story ends happily -- for Bourgeois, at least -- but you have to read the book to learn how he got his hands stuck inside the fish, and how he got them out.

On the flip side, I was totally disinterested in reading about the Bacchanalian bashes on Breton Island, annual parties the Helldivers throw where they fish, spearfish, dive, eat, drink, reminisce, and brag. <Snore.> In some ways, this book is more of a gift to Fontova's friends ("Hey, remember when we did that?"), than an adventure story.

I'm guessing Fontova would insist that my level of naivete surrounding his sport is what led to my relative disinterest in his book. I'm guessing he's partly right. However, IMHO, the best parts of the book were the spear fishing stories. What I disliked was Fontova's rambling writing style (this book could've eaaily been 50 pages) and reading about men who left their brains onshore before they got in their boats, drank excessively, and tried to out-do each other. Nevertheless, this was a fun, easy story -- certainly, an excellent beach read -- and I learned a lot about rig diving and spearfihsing.

Final grade: B-.

For other (more positive) reviews of the book, check out Amazon and Scubaboard. Also, to get a sense of Fontova's style, check out his piece called Squirrel Opener, or run a search on his name. He's a prolific writer.