Scuba With Bill

Taking care of your regulator is one of the most important duties you can perform. For some, this might be a breeze. For the rest of us, who are a bit behind the technical curve, Mares has a nice write-up concerning how to care for your reg. From routine maintenance to some low-key technical maintenance (like replacing mouthpieces, or lubricating the pin that fastens the first stage to the tank), Mares’ Doctor Tech (Gianni Tomà) has laid out some handy tips for caring for your reg. I have no idea if these How-To’s are going to become a regular part of Mares’ website, but I think it’s a cool idea.

Mares’ Tips On Caring for Your Reg - Divester

Just bought a new dive mask? Make sure you get to enjoy your next dive trip from the start by ensuring your mask is properly cleaned of factory lubricants to ensure it won’t repeatedly fog up on you

How To Defog Your New Dive Mask - divehappy.com: Scuba Diving In Thailand and South East Asia

Backstage and guided tours of Disney World parks are offered mostly on weekdays, and sometimes only two or three days a week. Many of them are closed to guests under 16, and most require separate admission to the appropriate park. No photography is allowed in backstage areas. Disney doesn’t provide complete listings of times and costs on its Web site (you can find some listed by searching on “tours”), but you can get information and book them by calling 407-939-8687. General Walt Disney World information: 407-939-6244, http://www.disneyworld.com/

How to Go Behind the Scenes at Disney World’s Parks

The giant sand pit where the remains of a mammoth and saber-toothed tiger were once discovered may soon be filled with much more modern artifacts.

There are plans to throw in a bus, a couple antique fire trucks and even a space shuttle lookalike that once thrilled visitors at the now defunct Astroworld amusement park in Houston.

Why the random collection?

Developers are hoping the items and many others — including an old F-5 Navy jet already in the 50-acre pit — will help create one of the nation’s largest lakes reserved for scuba divers seeking to explore large objects.

MyWestTexas.com - Devlopers seek to create junk-filled lake for divers

Soldiers and Marines severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan will have the opportunity to learn adapted water skiing, scuba and other water sports as guests at the 2006 Adaptive Water Sports Festival, presented by Disabled Sports USA, the Wounded Warrior Project, Graybeards, and the Fire Department of New York City.

Specially trained volunteers from the FDNY, including Firefighter Tom Westman, winner of the CBS 2005 Survivor series, will be on hand to teach the “Wounded Warriors.” Despite the fact that most have single and even multiple amputations and other severe injuries, all will participate and learn.

Wounded service members learn to water ski, scuba, sail in New York

Are you a scuba geek? Or did you ever wonder Why Two High Tides a Day? or Why people breathing helium have the “Donald Duck” Effect when they talk? Then this is the site for you. Scubageek is a collection of articles on scuba science that are written with humor to get you past the math and physics.

Scuba Geek - Divester

DIVERS in the US now have easier access to the Cayman Islands’ dive sector, thanks to a collaborative effort by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Scuba Diving Magazine.

Both organisations joined forces recently in an innovative and exciting programme to bring industry news and information to divers across North America.

Cayman Net News: DOT team up with Scuba Diving Magazine

Archaeologists are to investigate a wreck reported to be that of a German warship previously said to have been salvaged and scrapped.

Records claim the V81, which was at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, was raised in 1937 after foundering off the Caithness coast 85 years ago.

However, members of Caithness Diving Club said it was still on the seabed.

Archaeologist Simon Davidson, of Nottingham University, said: “It’s a wreck that shouldn’t be there.”

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Dive bids to solve wreck mystery

Inspired by the fact that Indonesia plans to create a marine protected area covering 2.96 million acres, I thought I’d poke around a bit and see what else I could learn about the area.

Dive Indonesia

Of all the outlandish experiences on offer to travellers, little compares with the unnatural thrill you get from breathing underwater. At first, it seems so wrong. You put your head under — perhaps in a swimming pool or a shallow lagoon — and you can see other student divers around you trying to come to terms with the sheer strangeness of it all. You exhale, and a plume of bubbles appears briefly in front of you, trembling like a living thing as it leaves your body and enters the liquid world. You realise that breathing has become the most enthralling thing you’ve ever done. You are becoming a scuba diver, and it feels so right . . .

Bottoms up