Excellent diving in the Maldives

Advantages: Warm water, clear, lots of life
Disadvantages: Some dives not that exciting

...I recently did a dive trip to the Maldives, not a destination I would have planned on as I've always thought of it as a honeymoon destination. I travelled on a liveaboard boat, doing a circuit of dive sites around North and South Male atolls and Ari Atoll. Water temperature was mostly 28-30C, with mostly visibility of 15-25m. The weather was generally very warm, and fairly humid. Some of the dives were phenomenal. The highlight was the dive at Manta Point (though it's best to point out that there isn't just one but several manta points around the Maldives, partly according to season). We had 20+ mantas swooping in just over our heads, hovering and observing us as we observed them! Our second dive there wasn't as good but still around 10 mantas checking us out over the cleaning station. There were several other drift dives that were...

cathy_m80 27.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Maldives (Dive Sites)

Mozambique - world class diving without the crowds

Advantages: Good diving, WHALE SHARKS!; not too crowded
Disadvantages: Infrastructure still developing, food overpriced

...weekly talks on mantas, whale sharks, and "other". These are pretty good as Tofo is one of the world centres for whale shark research. Talking of which - not really mentioned the whale sharks much! Whale sharks are the "gentle giants" of the sea, the biggest fish on earth, and most divers aim to see/ swim with one, but you don't have to be a diver to do this (in fact they're rarely seen on dives). As well as diving, the dive centre also offered ocean safaris, which were basically whale shark spotting trips with additional watching for other things; they have a "spotter" on a high chair to watch int he distance. I actually saw a whale shark on the way back from my first dive there, having never seen one before. We subsequently saw on average one a day, and would jump in the water with them if we could, though the encounters were limited by...

cathy_m80 24.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Mozambique (Dive Sites)

Dive In At The Deep End!

Advantages: Easy acess to hotel, coral reefs onsite, friendly staff, good prices
Disadvantages: None

...diving equipment on it can make it easier than stairs. As you enter through the main entrance, there are two rooms on your left ? this is where we did our paperwork/theory sections and watched the video section of the course work each day. They had a section behind the counter which passed into the gear set up area where you found the masks, suits and equipment hire area. They also had a cold drinking water machine which was certainly needed after all the diving as I found it made me thirsty! Courses Scuba Diver Course The first course open to people to try is the Scuba Diver Course which is 2 days of skills and an open water sea dive. When we did our Open Water, there was another woman who completed the Discover Diving and she sat in on our course to complete hers. You get a certificate to state that you have completed this course...

Jamie73 01.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Sinai Dive Club

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Advantages: Heart-wrenching, beautifully written
Disadvantages: disjointed at times

...The true story behind this novella is what drew me to reading it. Then, I did not know who Jean-Dominique Bauby was or, for that matter, what "locked- in syndrome" was. Not only does this book tell its reader a great deal about the author through the first person narration, but also via the obituary placed at the end of Bauby's emotive story. You come to learn Bauby's deepest fears, regrets, hopes and loves from this novella and everything you feel for him is cemented when you read the obituary. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is not your typical autobiography. It doesn't start with mundane and insignificant details of the author's childhood, followed by his struggle to rise to fame. In fact, it starts with his dreams, his darkest fears. As a reader, we are instantly drawn in to the hidden corners of Bauby's mind. He has no secrets...

chellbian 06.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Diving-bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

Dive into the live....

Advantages: Lagwagon at their best
Disadvantages: Slightly repetitive

...Southern California's Lagwagon formed in 1990, originally under the name Section 8 and boasts the fact that the band was the first to be signed to the now famous Fat Wreck label, debuting with Duh in 1992. Despite early changes to the line-up, currently Lagwagon stand as five; Joey (vocals); Flip (guitar); Jesse (bass); Leon (guitar); Dave (drums). Their so-cal brand of punk rock continues to be the inspiration for kids today, or at least inspired from bands who themselves were impressed with Lagwagon years ago. It is ironic that Fat Wreck chose Hollywood as the location for their next instalment of the Live in a Dive series, the 7th to be exact. More appropriately, however, may be Lagwagon as the label's choice to play that venue, a band befitting of any venue, anywhere in the world. Having seen Lagwagon live, having been...

heideroosjes 24.04.2005 (25.04.2005) · Read review
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Review of Live In A Dive - Lagwagon

Dive in to Darius

Advantages: Darius himself, lots of songs and styles
Disadvantages: Extra feature doesnt work

...As you may be able to tell, I am a mad Darius fan. I know many people only remember him as the cheesy, Britney impersonating runner-up from Pop Idol. But if you look and listen closely you'll soon see he's the boy next door, Charming, handsome and with a good voice. Vowing he would return and with a No.1 single and a triple platinum selling album by the time he was 35 years old, he achieved both easily with the release of 'Dive In'. Released 2nd Dec 2002 Label: Mercury Genre: Pop Highest UK chart position 6 Awards: Silver 13th Dec 2002 Gold 13th Dec 2002 Platinum 13th Dec 2002 Total UK sales: 382,828 1. Colourblind ( 3:37) From the first striking chord of the guitar, you know that this is a feel-good summery song. Basically an acoustic song, that sounds great with Darius' deep, gravely voice. With its fresh...

welshgal17 02.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of Dive In - Darius

  IF NOT THE ROLLS ROYCE, THE LEXUS OF WATCHES

Advantages: Very good time-keeper. Classic Good Looks. Not Expensive for Technology Offered.
Disadvantages: In Five and a Half Years I Have Found None!

...across the fastener at the back. Also unlike my previous watch, this one has an almost silent tick, press it hard to your ear and you may just here it. On the other hand the oscillating weight which charges the mechanism can clearly be heard "oscillating", sometimes as you move your wrist, occasionally when you are walking quite normally. It is a difficult sound to describe, but makes for quite a talking piece on occasion when people remark on it - especially children who are unused to a watch making such a soft rattling sound. This particular watch is classed as "Water Resistant", according to the instruction book only capable of resisting "accidental contact with water". Seiko do produce Kinetic watches which are resistant to 10, 15 and 20 bar, none of which are sufficiently water proof for diving. As my old watch was not working...

RICHADA 14.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Seiko Gents Kinetic Watch

A watch for the 21st century

Advantages: Technical features, no batteries, accurate, good looking, Japanese
Disadvantages: None at present

...I once took my battery operated watch to a well known high street jeweller to have the battery replaced, I was told it would only take 5 minutes & cost £4.99, it actually took 30 minutes & cost me £9.99 as they had problems with the battery. When I took it home the small stop watch function wouldn't work & the built in alarm didn't work either. I took it back & explained it was OK before they touched it, but they refused to accept liability so I was left with a watch that never worked properly again. On another occasion another jeweller presented with a different watch stated that the movement was faulty & would cost approx £75.00 to replace, I left the shop & purchased a battery for 99p from Maplin, fitted it myself (this one had a small slot on the back to access the battery) & has worked perfectly since. To say I have lost faith...

ScottishWestie 22.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Citizen Eco-Drive Watch

Blue water, sun - and brilliant diving!

Advantages: Fairly warm, easy to get around, plenty of wrecks
Disadvantages: Lots of deep sites - make sure you're qualified!

...I recently came back from my first diving trip to Malta. It's been heavily promoted in recent years as a rival to the Red Sea for British divers, and they've sunk a number of wreck deliberately as artificial reefs. It's only a 3 hour flight away from here, and as an already popular destination makes for a pretty easy trip. The water temperature ranges from about 25C in summer to 14C in winter, with good visibility at most times. Due to the size of the islands you're not particularly tied to any particular sites. The main choice initially is whether to stay on Malta or Gozo (there's also the option of staying on Comino, the smallest island - though it only has one hotel). I actually got round that by staying a few days on each of the 2 bigger islands. While Malta has a large number of resorts with plenty of restaurants and clubs, Gozo...

cathy_m80 06.11.2008 (07.11.2008) · Read review
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Review of Malta (Dive Sites)

Charming little watch

Advantages: charges constantly when its in the light
Disadvantages: i work at night and usually dont see the light

.... My only real problem is the watch doesn't have a water resistance rating on it that I can find, the instruction leaflet says there should be a letter on the watch which corresponds to a table printed but I cant find it, which is bugging me slightly as I'm a bar person and if I wear it to work I dont want to waterlog it when I'm washing my hands and arms (anyone else end up with sticky wrists and forearms when working behind a bar?), also I am heavily involved with a diving school and I run the risk of a dunking even when I am not dressed for it. I intend to wear the watch on special occasions rather than as an everyday item of jewellery, as my old watches are all still working just fine but I suspect as they die off this will be worn more and more often. The watch has an rrp of about £169 although I'm sure there will be sales on over...

scuba_angel 28.12.2005 (13.05.2007) · Read review
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Review of Citizen Eco-Drive Watch