Report on scuba-diving El Hierro, the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands. Until the 15th century people thought this place was the end of the world so the meridian even went through it.

Nowadays it’s an amazing and peaceful island untouched by the claws of mass-tourism. A perfect place for diving and an incredible place to view topside nature. It holds rainforests, pine forests, endless lava fields, rocky cliffs and some nice and small harbours. A perfect place to be honest, no wonder it’s a Unesco Biosphere Reserve!

Click here for PDF.

Publication: Duikmagazine
© 2010 Fotograferen net

For a change a small photo series on just one particular dive: the famous Blue Hole. No, not the one in Dahab (Egypt) which is literally a killerdive (dozens of people have died there while trying to outsmart common sense while scuba-diving) but a actually much nicer one located on the island Korčula. Located roughly three hours by ferry from Split this very nice island hosts some of the best diving of the region. With over twenty dive-sites to choose from we just barely scratched the surface with our three days of diving but one site really stood out: the hole…

It’s actually not just the hole itself with it’s cathedral-like lighting but also the massive and highly untouched soft gorgonians that are to be found around the hole at 35+ meters of depth. Massive pink giants that are most photographers favorites!

Well, just enjoy the photo’s and make sure to get in contact with Croatia Divers when doing some bubble-blowing over there!

By the way, the Dahab Blue Hole is amazing in this incredible William Trubridge freediving video. And thanks Eric for the modelling!

Click here full the full set of scuba wallpapers or click one of these (widescreen) images below. Just remember, they are also available in a normal (non-widescreen) XL hi-res size!

Some guys have all the luck I guess, quite often I feel like I’m one of them but last week there was no doubt about it whatsoever. After doing a small press-release for the Telegraaf (the largest Dutch newspaper) on heli-diving in Curaçao, which is exclusively organized by a good friend of mine he suddenly asked me if I’d like to do it myself tomorrow?
After less than a nanosecond, a huge smile on my face and a big “Are you kidding me?” things were taken care of and a day later we were setting our gear up on a small industrial platform near the huge oil-harbor of Willemstad. With me were Belgium adventurer Marc Sluszny, underwater photographer Peter Verhoog and Walther Bruckschen, a German Journalist, the lucky bunch so to speak!

As a heli-dive is not completely without danger we had to do a full-gear practice inside the hangar which had a very good airco. Just imagine practicing this sort of thing with full wetsuit and heavy scuba gear in the soaring 35 degree weather of this tropical paradise! Most importantly is the jumping out of the heli: if this isn’t done in perfect sync the heli can easily tilt and that’s something you don’t want 2 meters above the surface of a sea!
The trick is a third person inside the heli that holds both divers hands while they climb outside and hang backward fully. Literally your faith is in this guys hands as he controls the moment to drop, it’s simply out of your hands.

George from Blue Skies Helicopters.

The Amazing view over Willemstad from the chopper.

And what a drop it is! After an intensely beautiful flight under the impressive Julianabrug, along Willemstad and all its bright colors, the low pass over the Pontjesbrug with many people waving and taking photographs (the helicopter is open so they see you in full scuba-gear) it’s time for a sharp right turn over the stunning blue seawater and the approach to the wreck site. Niels Jorissen, the owner of DivecharterCuracao and the organizer of these heli-dives, is already waiting with his 25 feet Tornado RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) so all we have to do is climb out and wait for the right hovering height of the helicopter.

Now that’s a heli-drop!!!

So there we are, hanging outside, arm and legs stretched out fully, one hand over mask and breathing equipment, waiting for the plunge…. Then suddenly we’re falling, we pretty high so we have time to soak it up! above us the heli shoots upwards as it suddenly lost about 200 kilo’s in weight. Then the splash comes, water all around us and the tail of the chopper quickly vanishes from our viewpoint. We’re done, floating about while the heli goes for the next bunch of drop-outs! What an insane feeling and what a way to go diving, knowing one of the nicest wrecks of the Caribbean(the Superior Producer) is waiting for us below…. we ARE truly lucky!

The front deck of the Superior Producer.

Belgium adventurer Marc Sluszny enters the hold of the ship.

German travel writer/photogrpaher collegue Walther Bruckschen.

Underwater photographer collegue Peter Verhoog.

With many, many thanks to:
Niels from DiveCharterCuracao who organizes these heli-drops, unique in the world.
George from Blue Skies for making his heli available to us.
Chilo from Chilo.tv for editing the movieclip.

Full gallery on the heli-dive here.
More images from the Dive Festival Curaçao 2009 here.

This months Duikmagazine opens with a 10-page article on my favorite diving destination, the Barkley Sound [open in Google Earth] in Vancouver Island. The place where you can finde the Dutch/Canadian operator Rendezvous Diving, one of the best places ever!

- In loving memory of John -

Abu Dabab – “the dining room” from Joel Machado on Vimeo.

You can see me swim by a few times and trying to get aquinted with a Remorra… at 04:21 I’m actually taking this picture (watch the flash). But have a look at the video because it’s simply beautiful!

Again, a full PDF is downloadable here.
Many thanks go out to:
www.discoverportghalib.com
www.suninternational.com
www.emperordivers.com
www.isropa.nl
www.tourismafrica.nl

Download the full PDF here.

Try imagining an area as large as a couple of football fields of underwater seagrass and an underwater visibility of about 20 meters and you’ll understand it’s not easy to find a specific living animal, even it has the size of about two humans.

The “thing” I am talking about is “Dennis”, the famous seacow (or Dugong, it’s one of the three members of the Manatee family) of the Abu Dabbab bay near Port Ghalib in the Marsa Alam region of Egypt.

Seeing these pictures you’ve probably guessed we found it but it took us two full-hour dives to actually spot it. Sure, we did come across plenty of huge and approacheable Turtles and a couple of large Stingrays but imagine being a the last stage of your dive (it’s that limited air supply) and spotting an enormous dustcloud underwater, the number one Dugong signature… but no Dennis to match it.
Turned out it was right above us and while we were getting highly frustrated not seeing it, he was just getting a breath of fresh air. Our paths finally crossed when we decided to go up and finish the dive while he was going down to continue vacuuming the seafloor.

We squeezed a few last minutes at our ample air supply… enjoy the shots!

Images taken with a Canon Eos 20D, 15mm f2.8 fisheye and an UK-Germany housing.