The 2009 edition of the Diving Almanac & Book of Records (www.divingalmanac.com), edited by Jeffrey Gallant, is now published and available.  Considered as ‘perhaps the best single reference book ever published for divers’ and ‘the definitive general reference book on diving’ by the diving media, this is the only almanac on the diving world packed with hard-to-find information from around the globe.  With 15 chapters covering subjects from military diving, to freediving, oceanography and equipment, the 750 page third edition also contains nearly 500 diving records and 600 Who’s Who of the Diving World.  It’s an engaging read for anyone, diver or not, keen to know more about man-in-the-sea. 

New features for the 2009 Edition include the Dive Business Directory – The ‘Yellow Pages’ of Diving.  (A thorough listing of dive resorts, liveaboards, charters and dive centres around the World, listed by Country).  Dr Alex Mustard has rewritten the Photo/Video Chapter whilst cave explorer/instructor Martin Robson has penned a new chapter on Cave Diving.  There’s also a 100 page Year in Review (September 2007 to December 2008).  This chapter details significant diving events around the World as they occur month by month.  It’s a thoroughly engaging dive news summary wide ranging in its scope of deep-sea and freshwater matter.   

If you’re looking for a unique published resource about the Diving World, the 2009 Diving Almanac & Book of Records has so many facts and data for everything diving, and is recommended for anyone with an interest in diving, even someone just a bit curious about it.  And for trivia junkies, this book is a gold mine.

To order your copy of this one-of-a-kind publication for only US$42 simply log onto www.divingalmanac.com to benefit from free postage and pack.

Dive in Luxury in the Sea of Cortez with the Academy of Scuba and Ned Deloach

Phoenix, AZ – Thursday, May 28, 2009 – The Academy of Scuba today announced that it has reserved the week of July 11th, 2009 for its clients aboard the luxury dive liveaboard – the Rocio del Mar.  The Academy of Scuba and its guests will be venturing off to the Midriff Islands and other remote Sea of Cortez Dive Destinations seldom seen by divers. 

The Rocio del Mar is based out of Puerto Penasco Mexico, also known to divers and beachgoers in the Southwestern U.S., as Rocky Point. The Rocio del Mar is 110 feet of all steel construction, powered by twin turbo diesels, housing ten guest staterooms, equipped with the latest marine electronics to get you to the best dive sites quickly and safely. Sites are being ‘hand-selected’ by the Academy of Scuba Staff and expert dive guides on the Rocio del Mar to ensure our clients experience the broadest diversity of sea life the Sea of Cortez has to offer.

The Academy of Scuba will be welcoming, as its resident experts and special guests, Ned and Anna Deloach. Ned and Anna are seasoned marine life experts. During the trip, they will be leading our guests on dives, conducting video and photo clinics, and facilitating workshops on marine life behavior and identification.  The Deloaches are coming to the Sea of Cortez and you have the chance to learn with the very best in the field of fish identification and marine life behavior.  Ned Deloach is a published author, editor, and a photographer. Some of the published credits of Ned Deloach include Coastal Fish Identification California to Alaska 2nd Ed., Reef Fish Identification: Baja to Panama, Reef Fish Identification – Tropical Pacific, and Reef Fish Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas.

Diving with Deloach’s will be the memory of a lifetime.  These seasoned veterans will help you understand the underwater realm like you never imagined, commented John Flanders, president of the Academy of Scuba.  We are truly honored to have such distinguished marine life experts leading the way on this incredible adventure.

For more information and to book you reservation on the July 11, 2009 Sea of Cortez 7 Day Dive Adventure, please visit http://www.academyofscuba.com. For more information on the Rocio del Mar, please visit http://www.rociodelmarliveaboard.com.

Space is limited to 16 passengers.  Travel Insurance is highly recommended.

About The Academy of Scuba™

The Academy of Scuba is an SDI/TDI Dive Training Facility, a DAN Training Center/Business Member and a SeaSigns Instructor Development Center. The Academy of Scuba is an industry innovator for developing, implementing and reinforcing advanced level Scuba diver training programs. The Academy of Scuba focuses on training with an emphasis to create “great divers”.  The sole purpose of the Academy of Scuba is to not just put people in the water, but to keep people in the water. The Academy of Scuba assists divers in increasing enjoyment, adventure and safety through better education and more frequent dive experience.

We have all heard the terms “Skin Diving” and “Scuba Diving”, and know that they are something to do with underwater diving. More specifically “skin-diving” a ‘highly competitive sport’ is “free diving” using no equipment to breath. The divers use a single breath of air to descend to depths of over 100m competing with other diver to reach the greatest possible depth. With extensive training and yoga a professional skin divers body reacts like that of ‘whales and dolphins’ during a skin dive. The heart rate slows down and the oxygen from that one lung full of air is concentrated in the heart and in the brain. A skin diver is in danger of becoming unconscious as he nears the surface after a skin dive due to the very low concentration of oxygen in the brain as he reaches shallow water. This is called “shallow water blackout”.

Scuba diving on the other hand is a non-competitive sport now practiced all over the world by not only the young athletic, but by couples and families too. Divers descend underwater using breathing equipment call “scuba gear”. The word scuba means “Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus”. That is the diver is self contained and not attached by a hose to an air supply on the surface. He is free to move around weightless underwater, (like a fish) breathing air from a cylinder on his back. The air in the cylinder is compressed to 200 – 220 atmospheres, in other words a lot of air into a small space.

Depending on the depth and time of the dive, and the individual divers breathing rate, and the size of the cylinder the diver can spend up to one hour underwater. The relationship of depth and time for scuba divers is most important. This is due the absorption of Nitrogen into the blood stream and tissue cause by breathing compressed air under pressure. The deeper the dive the more pressure is exerted on the air that we breath causing the nitrogen part to be absorbed in the form of a liquid into the blood stream and tissue. This nitrogen reforms into a gas as the diver ascends to the surface after a dive. If there is too much nitrogen absorbed during the dive, it cannot all be reformed into a gas and breathed out while ascending, leaving some in the body in the form of a gas (a bubble). This nitrogen gas bubble can become lodged in a joint, heart, brain, or spine etc., causing decompression sickness (The Bends). The deeper the dive the less time we can spend underwater. It is a depth time relationship and dive tables or dive computers are used to calculate the amount of time a diver may spend on each dive. (Learn more by doing a PADI Open water Diver Course)

Scuba divers are able to enjoy and explore all the wonders that the world’s oceans have to offer. People of all ages, shapes and sizes enjoy this non-competitive sport. It is a way of life for many people. Good training by a certified instructor, being in good health and water-fit are the only requirement.

So get yourself prepared to discover a whole new world and a new way of life. Scuba Diving in Mauritius is the answer