General

Sky Divers

Five kilometres off-shore from Long Reef, on Sydney’s northern beaches, a handful of wrecks scuttled in 50-plus metres attract large numbers of recreational divers.  For two technical divers attempting one of the deeper wrecks, a carefully planned dive turned to… Read More ›

Keeping Dry

Hailed as a prophetic masterpiece of science-fiction when it was first published in 1869, Jules Verne’s, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, overlooked the earlier achievements of Augustus Siebe and his diving helmet and standard flexible dress. A diving breakthrough… Read More ›

The Shark Island Mine

In 1975 the entry level diving course that we taught was of four weeks duration and included two evening theory sessions per week with the Saturdays and Sundays given over to practical diving instruction. A standard part of the course… Read More ›

Trapped

“It’s easy for a diver to be a coward and difficult to be brave because he usually works alone, unseen, uncriticised and unpraised … most of the foes are within himself and the victories unobserved.” On this day in 1972,… Read More ›

Viewing the ‘Eclipse’

Back in 1964, the ‘cold war’ – with its politically complex uncertainties – was in full swing; the sun was setting rapidly on what remained of the former British Empire’s outposts; Dr Timothy Leary preached the use of psychedelic drugs… Read More ›

Fighting The Cold War

Many divers are familiar with the abrupt temperature change that occurs at the thermocline, a natural boundary that’s often seen as a thin, shimmering layer marking the interface between warmer surface waters and the deeper and colder waters below. Because… Read More ›