COLOMBIA SCUBA

AquaDom in Berlin - Appreciate Sea Life without SCUBA-diving

2012-01-13T08:36:00.010-05:00

The vast majority of people that have been able to appreciate marine life have done so by watching from their armchairs in front of a TV, and maybe by assisting to a some gigantic aquarium facility somewhere. That's usual. After all, it's there where many of us began to become fascinated by the submarine environment, and started to develop our interest in SCUBA-diving in the first place! Many touristic attractions even have special submarines for touristic purposes to avoid becoming wet in the first place...

Anyway, the huge aquariums are an interesting alternative for people that happen to be in places such as Europe during a winter season for example, and they are a great choice for families too. You may observe marine species and their environments that otherwise can't be seen, even if you are an advanced SCUBA-diver. Although nothing compares to put on your mask and thins to watch the fish from their own natural environment, my visit to the Sea Life Center & AquaDom in Berlin (Germany) turned out to be a great experience. Even more when I had the chance to observe tropical marine life during the German winter in Berlin, exactly on december 25 of 2011. I hope you'll enjoy my only submarine adventure of 2011, a tough year for many of us. THL

Diving in La Pirámide - San Andrés Island

2010-12-01T09:54:00.004-05:00

Another dive under conditions of strong currents, however, again I believe there were some images worthy enough to show this diving place of San Andrés Island called "La Pirámide" (The Pyramid). I haven't seen any pyramids, so as almost always, I have no idea where these strange names come from. Anyway, I will let the video speak for itself, so, until next time. Thilo

Underwater photos of my wife

2010-11-30T10:00:00.001-05:00

As always I'm very proud of my wife. This time she finished the specialty course in Digital Underwater Photography. Until now she's an Open Water Diver, so she's developing fast in this hobby. Not bad, so I edited her photographs (and a few pictures of her) in this video. Thilo

Diving in Bajo Bonito..., again...

2010-11-28T12:59:00.005-05:00

One year ago, in October of 2009, I was diving at San Andrés Island, in a place called "Bajo Bonito", which I had already shown in a video called "Diving in Bajo Bonito". This year, in November of 2010, I had the chance to dive in this place again. Although I had the hope that weather conditions were going to be better this year, they were even worse. Weather in Colombia has been catastrophic throughout the whole year. But I still managed to take a few images to edit a new video, this time in high definition. And I also wanted to publish something new on my blog, before this year ends. I've been very busy, which sometimes means to forget about your most precious hobbies, like diving and blogging. So here I am. I hope you'll like it, I worked very hard on this one..., Thilo.

Creatures of the Pacific Northwest and the legacy of Jacques Cousteau and his offspring

2010-06-27T23:54:00.006-05:00

This new video of Jean-Michel Cousteau was sent to me by his foundation called Ocean Futures Society. This time Cousteau's team is SCUBA diving in very cold waters of the Pacific Northwest, and while their primary objective is to show us many interesting marine species as the giant Pacific octopus, wolf eels, sunflower sea stars, a rat fish, pink scallops, etc, it's also interesting to observe how well they master their diving skills using their drysuits. The neutral bouancy, the almost horizontal position while diving, the filming techniques, all have the quality mark of Jacques-Yves Cousteau "The Captain" on it, the legendary father of Jean-Michel. By the way, Jacques Cousteau was born on June 11 of 1910, so this month we celebrate his birthday number 100. You may find interesting remarks about the "Legacy in Action" on the website of the Ocean Futures Society.

Giving sharks a chance

2010-06-10T01:30:00.010-05:00

In recent days I received an e-mail from the PROJECT AWARE FOUNDATION, an organization commited to the protection of coral reefs and many marine species that live in its surroundings. They asked me to sign a petition letter in behalf of eight shark species which are in danger of extinction. Since I sincerely believe that this effort should be supported by as many people as possible, here I reproduce the letter in its entirety:

Governments ignored scientific evidence and advice in favor of short-term economic interests at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), March 2010. They failed to give eight threatened shark species the trade protections they deserve.
Each year, tens of millions of sharks are killed by Earth's most dangerous predators - humans. Too many of them fall victim to the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning - the act of removing shark fins and discarding the often still alive shark overboard.
Despite set-backs, thanks to advocates like you, sharks have received recent, historical national protections in Europe, Maldives and Palau. Together, we will make a difference for these critical species.
Sign the petition, express your outrage at the recent CITES failures. Your signature, together with thousands of divers and advocates worldwide, will demand government parties to CITES heed science and protect fragile ocean ecosystems.
Thanks to your support, together we're giving sharks a fighting chance.
Sincerely,Jenny Miller Garmendia
Director, Project AWARE Foundation

If you want to sign this petition, or want to read more information about this matter or the PROJECT AWARE FOUNDATION, please follow this link: http://www.projectaware.org/givesharksachance

Killer whales rehabilitation?

2010-03-02T22:11:00.016-05:00

Just yesterday I released a post on COLOMBIA SCUBA about the tragic case of the killer whale trainer that was murdered by an orca named Tilikum, last week. I have read a few things about this matter since then, including opinions of people who claim for the captive killer whales to be released again into their natural habitat. I must confess I was of the same opinion, until I read an old article about a killer whale named Keiko on the website of dolphins-world.com.

Keiko was a very famous killer whale, but under the fictional name of Willy, the same whale of the movie called Free Willy. Well, so it happens this story was based on some true facts. The whale who's real name was Keiko, was indeed in a rehabilitation process. More amazingly, Keiko's readaptation to the natural environment was very difficult, and maybe even unsuccesfull, since the whale died of pneumonia after being released into the marine environment. According to dolphin-world.com [QUOTE]:

"Keiko's rehabilitation started in 1996, when he was transferred from Mexico to his new facility in Oregon. From 1996 to 2003, Keiko was taught the skills he would need to survive on his own, and he had even reached the point where he was in open waters, free to come and go as he liked. His rehabilitation was going very well, but unfortunately, Keiko died on December 12, 2003. The cause of death was pneumonia, combined with his advanced age. Keiko was about 26 years old. Research continues, and there is now a Keiko Foundation that is designed to help other captive Orca's return to the wilds. But research isn't limited to rehabilitation of captive Orcas. Orcas in the wilds are closely studied as well."

One of the leaders of Keiko's rehabilitation process was Jean-Michel Cousteau, the famous marine biologist and president of Ocean Futures Society. Just yesterday Cousteau made a very brief and new statement on behalf of the killer whales. According to him, Keiko's rehabilitation was an expensive effort paid for with private funding, and the results weren't very good. So in his new statement, Cousteau basically proposes to limit (or prohibit?) the further capture of this wild animals, and focus the efforts on that goal mainly, instead of thinking in the rehabilitation of the whales thar are in captivity already. Again, I agree. Thilo

Messing with nature - The case of the killer whale Tilikum

2010-03-01T21:02:00.024-05:00

Jean-Michel Cousteau, the older son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and the president of a marine conservation organization called Ocean Futures Society, made an important statement about the tragic case of the orca trainer that was murdered last week by a killer whale named Tilikum (click here to read the report of the BBC) at the famous Sea World scenario in Orlando, Florida. In the video statement released on the official YouTube channel of Ocean Futures Society (you may watch the video below), Cousteau said:

"I know that these trainers are dedicated to the care of these orcas, and inspired by their passion for them, but this tragedy causes us to think. Maybe we, as a species, have outgrown the need to keep such wild, enormous, complex, intelligent and free-ranging animals in captivity, where their behavior is not only unnatural, it can become pathological."

I agree totally with Cousteau. Besides, there must be a reason why these animals are called "killer whales", and this may be the third person killed by this particular whale alone, according to an article of the Orlando Sentinel. What is even more questionable is that according to this last article, Sea World is thinking of eventually reintegrating Tilikum to their show, despite of the three killed persons. I wonder if they still will be able of selling this show, or a father or a mother ready to bring their kids to this "spectacle". Are we humans that stupid? I hope not. Thilo

Diving in La Aguja (Santa Marta)

2010-01-08T11:47:00.018-05:00

La Aguja (means "The Needle" in english) is a diving place that belongs to the natural park named Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona, near to the city of Santa Marta. Currents are very strong in the open areas, so you have to stay near the walls of the mountains that end into the sea. And the water is very cold -approximately 21 degrees Celsius-, considering that the place is in the tropical zone and at the coast of the southern Caribbean Sea. Visibility is alright, and there are supposed to be many sharks, but I didn't see any this time.

The diving experience was more than OK. My fiancé happened to be my buddy in this dive, and she had lots of fun. More importantly, we finally had beaten the bad memories of a bad diving experience of the past, and now all she wants is to be diving with me almost anywhere, and almost anytime. Since I am an OWSI-PADI Instructor, her happiness and very good underwater skills made me not only happy, but very proud of my work teaching her.

While I assumed the role of instructor, I never forgot to lead her way into SCUBA diving, and we have many confined water sessions (in the pool) behind us. It worked. We both enjoyed diving, followed all the safety rules naturally, and had lots of fun while diving at the same time. So maybe the video that follows may not be full of interesting marine species, but it has the highest value for both of us. We only left our worries and many bubbles behind, as we were supposed to. Until next time, Thilo.

All photos and videoclips are released by me under a 3.0 Non Commercial-Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License.

Sunset in Santa Marta

2010-01-07T09:50:00.007-05:00

Well, I started 2010 with a small trip to the colombian city of Santa Marta at the continental Carribean Sea. I arrived exactly on the first of january. And every day I had the opportunity to observe spectacular sunsets that always began around 5:40 PM, so I decided to share this experience, before I start to talk again about scubadiving. I hope you enjoy it. Thilo

All photos and videoclips are released by me under a 3.0 Non Commercial-Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-12-16T18:43:00.005-05:00

Well, I believe this has been a very long year for all of us. But I also believe we won't get tired of SCUBA-diving no matter what. All the contrary, many of us are waiting to start the new year with a few dives. I also wanted to tell you that now the blog of COLOMBIA SCUBA is also available in FACEBOOK. Finally, I leave you with a video of Santa Claus taking a well deserved diving-vacation after delivering many gifts, I can only hope that many of this gifts were SCUBA gear stuff related, and SCUBA vacations as well. Anyway, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thilo

Diving in Blue Wall - San Andrés Island

2009-11-06T11:27:00.023-05:00

Blue Wall is probably the most popular diving site of San Andrés Island, and we are talking about a place that has at least two dozen remarkable diving sites. Since I've been to the island many times, maybe this was the third time I was diving there. However, the diving site was unrecognizable. The night before, an electric storm had shaken the whole area, visibility wasn't very good -compared to the previous experiences-, and I experimented the so called nitrogen narcosis.

How do I know? Good question. If you are a certified diver, you know what I'm talking about. But while diving manuals try to tell us in a very unspecific way that you may act in an unusual way, or observe bizarre behaviour in others, ranging from funny crazy things to dangerous actions underwater, the thing is, we as humans, may act in a weird way without need of getting "narcotic". A diver is nothing more than a human being after all, and acting crazy -or thinking crazy like was my case-, does not necessarily imply being under the influence of an external stimuli, or like in this case, under the influence of the so called nitrogen narcosis.

What exactly happened is that while we began to go deeper and deeper, I suddenly started to think about death. Suddenly I became obsessed with this issue for no apparent reason, I even became obsessed with the idea that I would die any minute, and panicked. What did I do? Believe it or not, I just took the classical approach. Stop, breathe in deeply (which is a step that should be included in the diving manuals), think and act. How did I act? Easy. I continued diving in a relaxed way, and climbed a little, but not inmediately, since I was diving in between open caves, so that climbing inmediately was not an option.

Who noticed besides myself? Nobody. I told my dive buddies about my experience after we were at the surface again. Acting in a cool way sometimes requires tricking your own mind. That's what I did. Maybe you can't avoid some dangers in life, but you can master them because after all, any negative thoughts that arrive to you in a "passive way", may be controlled "actively" through other thougts. And I love diving -obviously, so the beauty of this diving place -despite the weather- and more importantly the fact that I have been living in a very happy way these last years, gave me enough reasons to be courageous.

And finally, the practical aspect to diving should be never forgotten. Follow the rules you've learned -hopefully-, never dive alone, have a good physical -and mental- health, never stop learning -take special diving courses like the Advanced Diver, Rescue Diver, Specialties courses, etc-, and don't stop diving if you really like it. I have a hunch which tells me that nothing in life beats experience. And from all the above I've recommended, the last one deals with experience. It may save your life. And don't forget, after diving, only bubbles should be left behind. I hope you enjoy my film. Sincerely, Thilo.

Please note that photos and videos are mine, and are under the Creative Commons License shown on the right column of this blog.

Diving in El Trono - San Andrés Island

2009-11-02T00:20:00.003-05:00

Maybe this could be another ideal place for training or for a first SCUBA diving experience in San Andrés Island. Since it is so near to the coast line, in El Trono you may have to struggle with intermitent currents that come from the force of the waves that mold it's sandy bottom and break a quarter mile later from there.. But let's show the video what a beautiful place this is. I hope you enjoy it. Thilo

Diving in Bajo Bonito - San Andrés Island

2009-10-29T11:47:00.020-05:00

Sometimes beauty and danger may be mixed up in strange ways. Today's chronicle develops in a place named Bajo Bonito, which means something like "beautiful low place". Should you watch my video of this diving site at the end of this article, you may think this dive was all about relaxation and joy, and maybe you're right. But even while everything's looks normal, danger may be present.

However, two important things happened during this dive that diserve to be analyzed. Let's say I will make a debriefing of this SCUBA experience. First of all, at the very end of our activity we found the unexpected. A beautiful fish known as common lionfish or devil firefish (Pterois miles), whose fin spines are highly venomous and can be dangerous to humans.

But more interestingly, this fish does not belong to the Caribbean Sea, it comes from the Asian Pacific. So it has no natural enemies here, and according to marine biologists of the University of Costa Rica this species could terminate with the 80% of the normal fish population of any reef here, since the local fishes don't recognize them as enemies, and this predators may be able to eat a fish of their own same size in just a minute.

Right now this fish is becoming an ecological problem in Costa Rica, and in the whole Caribbean, San Andrés (Colombia) as well. There is still a discussion if we are talking about the common lionfish, or the red lionfish (Pterois volitans), which are very similar. However, based on the images and data of both in the Internet, I say the dorsal spines are clearly those related to the common lionfish. Anyway, never touch a lionfish, their spines and fins have a dangerous venom.

The second danger came from our lack of concentration. While the SCUBA tanks were still plenty of air, this was our second consecutive dive. As usual, the first one was at a depth of 100 feet (35 meters) or so, and this fish was found at a depth of 90 feet (28 meters). After taking a whole series of video clips, photos with and without flash: ¡I realized my diving computer had been preparing a no-decompression safety stop at 3 meters (10 feet) of 20 minutes!

So while this diving experience may look in my video as a very relaxed one, truth is I was lucky I knew already this fish was dangerous, although I have never been to the Pacific. Actually I knew because I saw it first in a James Bond movie, the one called The spy who loved me. And I was lucky that my diving computer did a few things for me that day. But what if I had been diving according to the no-decompression dive table, which is much more conservative?

I avoided being poisoned by a hazardous marine species, and avoided decompression sickness. But the least I could do, was a good debriefing. Finally, ¿how did this fish arrive here? Well, that depends. If it is a common lionfish -like I've suggested-, it came swimming thousands of miles from the Pacific Ocean, but if it is the red lionfish, then the story is that in 1992 the Hurricane Andrew destroyed a local aquarium somewhere in Florida, releasing the fish into the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Weird, isn't it? I hope you enjoy the film I made about this diving experience of mine. Thilo

Diving in El Palacio de la Cherna - San Andrés Island

2009-10-28T11:59:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I told you diving should always be fun and secure. Of course, there are many other intrinsic qualities to this spectacular outdoors activity that are desirable, and I believe one of them could be relaxation, like during this dive in El Palacio de la Cherna (eng. The palace of the wreckfish). I hope this video of mine will make my point clear. Thilo

Diving in Trilogía - San Andrés Island

2009-10-27T10:23:00.012-05:00

¿What is the main purpose of SCUBA diving? Well, this question might have many answers, but I say the answer is fun. Of course, having fun might have many interpretations as well. So I believe that the best way to answer this is with this new video of mine, but before watching the video a few comments to the question.

This place is called "Trilogía" (eng. Trilogy), and is one of those typical local SCUBA diving sites. By "typical" I mean that it is not deeper than 12 meters or 35 feet, it has many fishes and corals to watch, but at the same time you may find areas where the bottom is just sand.

So this is the kind of place SCUBA instructors choose for a first ever dive, or for inexperienced divers, or the ones who are improving their skills, for teaching, or as an option for a second consecutive dive after a first deep dive.

Notice that there is nothing bad about visiting a SCUBA site frequently, nor it has to be deep, cold, difficult to reach, or full of challenges thay require the development of special diving skills*. Well planned no-decompression diving is supposed to be fun and secure as well.

There should never exist any conflict between fun and secure, and most importantly, if you decide to challenge yourself by going beyond your actual experience and abilities -to have even more fun-, do it in a secure way. Take advanced diving lessons or specialty courses related to your area of interest.

In Colombia and in many parts of the world, people still believe that SCUBA diving is an extreme sport. Well, that depends. If you are only happy the deeper you are, or interacting with dangerous animal species like White Sharks, then probably this is an extreme sport.

But if you can enjoy the simple things of life, and have the same fun in a depth of 10 meters than in a depth of 40 meters, then probably you are the average diver, which I am myself, by the way. My philosophy as an instructor is: Avoid pushing your own limits, just have fun. Thilo

*My mask is foggy..., I know...

Diving in El Cable - San Andrés Island

2009-10-26T12:18:00.004-05:00

Well, it has been a long time since I was in San Andrés Island for the last time. Nevertheless, I have been so many times there that I can't believe that in five days the sun didn't come out just once, even for a minute. Many local people argue this could be another side effect from climate change, others claim that october has been clasically rainy time at this beautiful island of the Colombian Caribbean.

Anyway, I did what I came for: diving. Maybe you won't believe that most tourists I met came from Argentina, Brazil and Chile, and Canada as well. The island is so small that it barely appears on the maps (30 square kilometers, 20 square miles). It is located near to Central America, although it has been part of the the Colombian Caribbean for hundreds of years. First inhabitants were british colonial slaves, so the atmosphere and culture here is more Jamaican alike, mixed with a little Colombian folclore.

Although many things didn't work as planned, I had many important lessons I will be telling these days, while I release more videos. Issues concerning dive-safety, underwater photography and videography, dive planning, etc. But for the moment I hope you enjoy this first video of mine, from a more extensive series about San Andrés I plan to publish. I hope you enjoy it. Thilo

Third planet from the sun - Today is Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T00:01:00.005-05:00

¿What can SCUBA divers do about global warming? Well, first of all, we are humans after all, so in a first instance, there is nothing peculiar about being a SCUBA diver when we are talking about climate change. However, as SCUBA divers maybe we should be more aware of the importance of protecting our environment. Protecting the reefs and corals, the marine life, just leaving behind bubbles -instead of garbage-, has a lot to do with the carbon-dioxide levels of our atmosphere.

For example, let's say there are no sharks anymore. This would enhance the imbalance of the subaquatic environment. At some point there wouldn't be enough plankton for so many fishes, reproducing themselves while they have lost their natural enemies. Less plankton means less oxygen production, less oxygen production means less biotransformation of carbon-dioxide into oxygen, more carbon dioxide means more Greenhouse Effect, and finally an increase of the global warming.

So again we can make the difference, if we act together. That is the message of the song Third planet from the sun, by Jennifer Avalon. Of course, there are much more things we can do for our planet, besides the stuff related to SCUBA diving, as all of you know, much better than I do. So let's start by raising awareness about the importance of the problem. How we contribute to the solution is something that everyone should find out by himself, or herself. I hope you enjoy this video I edited. Thilo

IMPORTANT NEWS: BLOG ACTION DAY has decidided to send a public petition to the president of the United States, Barack Obama, to ask him to take a more bold and effective action in his leaderhip to find a solution to climate change. If you want to join this initiative you may leave your name and e-mail at this LINK of BLOG ACTION DAY: http://www.blogactionday.org/en/takeaction

This 15 th of October - BLOG ACTION DAY - Climate Change

2009-10-07T17:12:00.004-05:00

This 15th of october will be the BLOG ACTION DAY - 2009 VERSION. For the people who have no idea what the hell this iniative is about, here I give you a few clues:

"Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices."

Well, this year the issue to be treated is climate change. ¿And why climate change? According to the website of BLOG ACTION DAY:

"Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees. Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis."

So I've commited myself to "take action" by writing a post about climate change, which will appear this 15th of October. I still don't know if this kind of massive media movements have any positive effect at all in changing our attitude towards many major problems of this lonely planet we call Earth. However, living in Colombia, I can tell that major natural disasters are very common here, and I feel that they have increased over time. And climate change affects everything, even admiring and enjoying nature as a SCUBA diver, although there are much more important negative consequences of climate change, like the environmental, economical and human consequences of the artificially induced warming of our planet. So I hope to read lots of good posts, and specially in the SCUBA related websites. Until next time, Thilo.

To dive or not to dive, that is the question

2009-07-18T10:39:00.008-05:00

Well, this is an article I didn’t expect to write. As a SCUBA fan and instructor I’m supposed to promote scubadiving no matter what. But believe it or not, ¡diving isn’t always the right answer! Many of us read or heard this before, specially during our first training sessions while learning to dive, like in the OPEN WATER SCUBA DIVER courses. Reasons no to dive are not difficult to find: recent alcohol consumption, illnesses (no matter if acute or chronic), lack of adequate equipment, hazardous environment, bad taste of the air in the bottle, fear, diving conditions that may require more expertise, bad or damaged SCUBA equipment or any failure in the equipment that could be potentially dangerous…

I’m sure the list could be very long. But there is an important reason not to dive that I’m very sure will sound atypical, but still there it is: you are not in the mood. Of course there could be many reasons not to be in the mood to SCUBA dive: you don’t know the diving place, or you don’t like it. For example: Maybe you love diving in the open warm sea of the Caribbean, but definitely hate the cold waters of a lake, or the extra amount of equipment you may require to dive, or the visibility conditions, or even your dive buddies. Dive buddies are essential. I have experienced it myself, being on some SCUBA charter alone, and having to dive with a new designated dive buddy, who in real life is no buddy at all, but a pain in the ass.

So yes, scubadiving is a social activity, at least for many of us, and I strongly believe it is for most of us. While one tends to value the marine life one can observe or photograph, the submarine environments or the quality of the scuba team you are diving with from a technical point of view, social skills are essential, even under water. It’s no secret that one of the most desirable situations in life for a SCUBA fan is having a couple who also enjoys scubadiving. Maybe it’s not a must, I mean, one would be less than retarded if one would give up the love of your life just because you don’t share this hobby. But it surely helps. In my case I found my other half, and she enjoys scubadiving more than me, so I’m very lucky.

However, we had a bad experience the other day. We were at the Tota lake, and she didn’t like the cold, nor the semidry suit which happened to be to small for her size, the bad visibility, and maybe we were not in the mood. We had a wonderful weekend prior to this, unforgettable. So this was supposed to be the perfect closure to this perfect weekend. But for many reasons that had to do with a very lousy planning and briefing from my part, and other reasons that I don't recall right now, it didn’t work out. We only made it twice to 10 meters deep for a couple of minutes, communication was bad, local conditions were bad, and so on. However, I’m still the love of her life, and she’s mine, and none of us has any intention of quitting scubadiving. I must even say that it was SCUBA diving which permitted us to know each other in the first place.

So, sometimes you may have a bad day, or a bad moment, like it’s usual in life. But taking the decision not to dive also requires character. The ability to say no to a dive may be very important, since somehow it also develops the criteria to take decisions for your own safety. One cannot be 100% sure of everything you do in life, and certainly diving maybe almost as challenging as loving someone. So at some point you are taking a risk. But diving ‘just because’ is not the answer. Diving has a purpose. A purpose which only everyone of us may know in its entirety. It is supposed to be fun, sometimes challenging, even mystical, but never should it be routine, like love, precisely. Until next time, Thilo.

Sustainable development: ¿Is it possible?

2009-06-17T19:06:00.006-05:00

Not a day passes by, without hearing or reading about some very bad news concerning climate change, some war, or the attrocities of poverty in the so called "third world". Sometimes it looks like that according to the mass media, our Earth, and specially the human species, is condemned to dissappear. Some of the "rational" individuals who inhabit the blue planet, even think that it's almost impossible to achieve the development of their communities, without sacrificing either peace, the environment, or both. This is specially true when one hears the opinions of a human subspecies known as "politicians".

Well, so it happens, that it is possible to achieve the so called "sustainable development" after all, even in the most unusual places. Imagine you go diving around a very busy port, full of ships, oil tankers and even industries around it, and merchandise of all kind being loaded and unloaded constantly. Imagine this port lies in one of the most dangerous and conflicting areas of the world, like the Middle East. And then imagine, that against all odds, you find places full of fishes and corals, despite all the above. ¿Is such thing possible? Oh yes, believe it or not.

I invite you to watch the following video, in case you are still skeptical. It shows the port of Aqaba, in Jordan. This is indeed a 24 hour busy port, that handles 17 million tons of all kind of stuff a year. Some laws for the protection of the marine life were implemented a time ago, and a Costeau-team searched the area to look for marine life, and they found places that are worth to dive and watch, no doubt. And symbollically, even an old war tank was sunken, and life is developing around it. So here is the proof many of us may have been looking for, that hope for our planet is not lost, and it is worth fighting for. Until next time..., Thilo.

Good memories

2009-06-09T04:24:00.024-05:00

Although taking the path to becoming a PADI OWSI (Open Water Scuba Instructor) may have been a relative easy step for many instructors I know, I can tell you for sure that it wasn’t an easy one for me. Actually the story is a little funny. First of all, I never seriously thought of becoming one. My real goal was to become a MASTER SCUBA DIVER, which is the highest non-professional rating inside the PADI organization, and that’s it. But I have a friend who happens to be a PADI COURSE DIRECTOR, and he invited me to follow the professional path. So I first became a PADI DIVEMASTER, and a year later -2005-, I enrolled into a PADI IDC (Instructor Development Course).

¡Oh man! Most of my future colleagues were either very experienced assistant instructors, or were instructors already, but from other very fine diver training organizations, like NAUI. So, while I was more or less confident in my theoretical skills, which for an examination like this one must include lots of knowledge related to physiology, diving equipment, physics, decompression theory, and the most feared of all, PADI standards (a set of rules of how to teach, that are mandatory), my practical skills were very good for a recreational diver, but definitely not for a professional diving instructor.

This meant extra work. Physical work and training, which is OK if you do it for fun, but can be very stressful when you must develop the techniques to demonstrate them to future students. Of course, it’s absolutely OK to demand such perfection. After all, being an instructor isn't for everyone, I guess. This also meant that I and my buddies had to go through the whole diving program from A to Z, and watch the DVD’s which show the techniques with the necessary detail, train our eyes and minds to avoid overlooking mistakes a student might be making while demonstrating this techniques, etc. But having such fine colleagues proofed to be of value, since I had to try to equalize them, more or less, since they were very well qualified.

This process took two weeks, and then we traveled to the Island of San Andrés, were the IE (Instructor Examination) was taking place. We traveled a 4th of march, and this same day the examination was going to begin. But first while I was still in Bogotá, a girl I met through the Internet called me to my handy, and I was precisely at the airport checking in at that moment. I tried to hear a message she left, but it was too long, and the site was too noisy. Then while trying to hear from the beginning, I accidentally erased the message, so I suppose I will never know why this girl couldn’t make it to a lousy first-time meeting we had agreed, and why she cancelled the meetting a few days before. But being honest, I'm glad it turned out that way. Then once in San Andrés the theoretical tests started almost immediately, and I realized I had prepared the wrong lesson for the teaching class session. In five minutes I prepared my new class summary, and amazingly, I did well and passed. And I passed all the rest of examinations as well. For the first time, I felt this was for real.

The next day was my birthday. I didn’t tell anyone, maybe because I didn’t want to distract myself from trying to fulfill the demonstration of various diving techniques in confined waters (swimming pool). I had to repeat two of them, but then I passed again, and very successfully, I was told. Then the whole night we had to prepare a demonstration that was going to take place in open waters the next morning. This is the most challenging practical demonstration of all. You have to control your hypothetical student, at the same time you hold an eye on other students, and communicate actively with your diving assistant (a divemaster or assistant instructor). This is very important, since it’s here where accidents may happen if your planning, organization and control of the whole situation isn’t optimal.

A buddy of mine had to demonstrate how to make knots underwater, while holding a lifting bag and making all of the above. The day before I begged him, please not to choose me between his hypothetical students, because I wasn´t very good making knots. This I did many times, so I made my point very clear. Oops, I forgot to tell you that we had to play various roles on the final session of the next and final day. Once being instructor, and the rest of the time being an hypothetical student. And we were told just before the beginning of every individual test to do some things right or wrong, intentionally, in order to obligate the future instructor to detect the mistake and correct it. This is something the instructor examiner tells you to do in secret, and you will not help your buddy if you don’t exactly as you were told to. And of couse we all followed his instructions.

But it’s you in your role of instructor who determines which hypothetical student comes first…, ¡and he chose me! Maybe he didn’t recognize me underwater, maybe he was more nervous than anyone. Fact is, I was able to make the knot after all, since I wasn’t supposed to make mistakes, but… I over inflated his lifting bag, and he almost went flying into the sky… Well, somehow he was able to control it just in time. It turns out, that the air purging valve of the lifting bag wasn’t working very well…, but finally he managed to release the excess air. However, one more demonstration followed for us: the rescue of an unconscious non-breathing diver, and finally ¡I did it! I mean, I felt an immediate satisfaction, just for holding through, because at that moment, nobody knew already if he was going to approve the IE. But for the first time in my life, I felt I gave it everything, and I was really proud of myself.

I don’t want to go into tiny details of my personal life, but this has been the most fun, challenging and weird one-time examination I ever had, and ¡I actually enjoyed it! In normal circumstances, challenges are not something I look after, i just face them, if I have to. Maybe I’m still traumatized from my school or my university times... But this challenge was about sharing with new friends, it was a sort of light version of a very fast made brotherhood, where you actually could count on your colleagues. This is how real life is supposed to be... The instructor examiner had a little dark humor, however, and made a tragic face to my buddy of the lifting bag after we had returned to the shore. Immediately my buddy grinned at me, with a little anger I might add…, like if he were saying: "¡It was your fault!" And then our fellow instructor examiner began to laugh, and congratulated us both.

So to me, scubadiving isn’t just about putting on your ultimate brand diving gear, or learning or teaching this or that, or practicing a sport you obviously like. It’s also a growing collection of good memories, which I intend to expand, hopefully, for a lifetime. In the graduation day photo above, look for the most happy one, that's me. Well, this is the end of this story. But after reading this long chronicle, if you did, it’s worth you look at the following video with magnificent underwater images of San Andrés Island. It was taken by a Canadian diver -according to his profile in YouTube-, who obviously is a very good underwater videographer. And the music he put onto his video, includes parts from the 9th Symphony of Antonín Dvořák, my favorite among the classics, and then a little samba. As you may infer, it brings a bunch of very good memories to me. Until next time…, Thilo.

Diving between the rocks

2009-05-26T11:34:00.016-05:00

If there is a big truth in SCUBA diving -as in life-, it is that we all have been beginners. So I don't mean to sound vain while I'm telling you that one of the greatest pleasures in life is diving with well trained and experienced buddies. You can rely on them, and they can rely on you. In other words, you may enjoy diving the most, since you're not worried all the time what they are doing and how they are doing it. That doesn't mean you won't follow all the standard guidelines about being a good diving buddy, naturally.

Of course, being a SCUBA Instructor is about teaching as well, and certainly one can enjoy doing that too. But enjoying your dive itself becomes a secondary goal while one is the direct responsible for a student's well-being during training sessions, or maybe with unexperienced divers. You can't enjoy the same. I was lucky enough to be diving this weekend with my friend Ricardo Sánchez -among other fine divers-, who is a PADI Course Director -the highest professional ranking inside this diving agency-, and who also is the proud owner of a 5-Star PADI Instructor Development Center.

A few days ago, I presented a small chronicle called Diving in Laguna de Tota, a beautiful place in the Colombian Andean Mountains, with an altitude of 9850 feet over the sea level, ideal for altitude and dry suit diving. I promised to myself to deliver much better images, specially underwater takes. Well, it's done. You may see beautiful images of rocks with different shapes and sizes, a few little crabs, and the general relaxing atmosphere of this spectacular diving place. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did. But there's nothing like living it yourself. Until next time..., Thilo.

The background music is a from a song called "Water" by SaReGaMa, and was used under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike License. This same license applies to this video.

The SCUBA scooter of Jacques Cousteau

2009-05-18T22:27:00.033-05:00

Almost anyone knows who Jacques-Yves Cousteau was, specially if one enjoys stories about the marine life, or if you are a SCUBA diver. But besides being an oceanographer, story teller and adventurous explorer of the Earth, he's the coinventor of the modern free demand regulator. The other coinventor was Emile Gagnan. This is the invention which would supply us divers automatically with fresh air on free demand. This happened in 1942, and a year later, Cousteau and Gagnan began selling the Aqua-Lung regulator, and actually that is how the famous Aqualung Company became a very well known SCUBA equipment trademark in the diving industry.

Talking about all the contributions of Cousteau to the ecology, or to the diving industry, would take a lifetime. However, I found a very nice video, which actually contains scenes from a classic Cousteau short film of the fifties or sixties. You'll see the first underwater scooter ever (Diver Propulsion Vehicle), another of his technical contributions to SCUBA diving. Also amazing are the first SCUBA tanks, which actually were three medium sized steel tanks put together. But in my opinion, the most amazing things are the sharp images and picture quality of this film in the first place. Today we take for granted having underwater digital cameras, diving suits, modern and hydrodynamic thins, fine fitting masks, and even video cameras. And the list goes on, of course...

But let me remind you: ¡At that time no video existed! This is a well made film, and I can only imagine how difficult it was at that time to take pictures underwater, and make such an amazing film *. And the scooter: ¡My god! It looks like some sort of torpedo. Actually, after seeing this movie I'm convinced that Cousteau used torpedo designs to invent the scooter. And of course: ¡It looks so funny! There are many interesting details in this film, besides the ones I already mentioned: ¡You may also observe that the divers are not wearing any kind of BCD (Buoyancy Control Device)! I can only be grateful with the Cousteau Society for putting this on their official Youtube channel and sharing it with the world. It´s Cousteu´s legacy, afterall.

But the most memorable legacy of Cousteau is his offspring, no doubt. A few days ago I posted an article illustrated with an amazing short movie portraying the Humpback Whales, titled "Humpback Ballet". In case you haven't watched it yet, I encourage you to do so. It was filmed by his son, Jean-Michel Cousteau, who actually is the leader of the Ocean Futures Society, based in the USA. There is a famous sentence in Colombia which says: "You can't love what you don't know". Well, thanks to this guys in big part it is that we've learned to love SCUBA diving, and more importantly, to respect and protect the environment. I can only hope you enjoy this short film as much as I did. Until next time..., Thilo.

* The only thing I didn't like was rhe molesting of the poor turtle.

Invitation to a massacre

2009-05-12T15:47:00.045-05:00

It's hard not to fear sharks, specially when so many people around the world are biased against these magnificent creatures of nature due to so many Hollywood horror movies portraying them as agressors against human kind. Actually only four out of more than 360 shark species are dangerous to people. Truth is, there have been a few unprovoked attacks against human beings from this animals, certainly. But it's very important to differentiate between provoked and unprovoked attacks.

According to the Reef Quest Centre for Shark Research, a provoked shark attack is defined this way:

"A provoked shark attack may be defined as any physical contact with a human by a shark that was apparently precipitated by the former cornering, pursuing, striking, grabbing, spearing, hooking, shooting, or otherwise molesting the latter. Since any wild animal will defend itself if stricken, provoked shark attacks reflect poorly on the decision-making abilities of the human 'victim' and reveal little useful information about the motivation of an attacking shark. To deliberately provoke any shark – no matter how small or harmless it may seem – is at best unnecessary and at worst highly dangerous. To deliberately provoke a large, free-swimming White Shark can only be described as colossally stupid."

However, I won't deny that there have been a few unfortunate incidents, where the victim did not provoke the shark. We have the case of surfers having been confused for big fatty fishes, and this is because to some of the sharks the surf table looks like a fish from underneath, or they actually want to play with them. Sometimes the poor local hygiene conditions of many beaches end up in organic garbage thrown into the water of the beaches. So the smell may attract hungry sharks to a few dirty beaches, and the ability of the shark to differentiate the human from the sorrounding waste in the polluted water may be affected.

But I can tell you for shure that much more people die while they violate elementary rules like when they hold the breath during an ascend in their SCUBA-diving, or because they slip over the wet floor of their bathroom, or riding their motorcycles, or by driving and drinking alcohol at the same time, or by overeating, or having bad sex... According to the International Shark Attack File, a total of 676 unprovoked shark attacks have ocurred, from which 137 were fatal. Oh yes..., I forgot to mention the time period this numbers correspond to: ¡we are talking of the years 1580 to 2008!

244 of this big total were attacks by white sharks, 88 by tiger sharks, 82 were bull sharks, and the rest were well divided among the other species. I wonder how many people have died by attacks of domestic animal species. I'm quite shure the numbers are much bigger. Anyway, let's say there always is a risk in human activity. No matter if you like cycling, soccer, mountain-climbing, playing fresbee with your dog, or just staying at home to avoid the dangers of your environment. Because home accidents also happen quite a lot. ¿Would you therefore burn down your house, or kill your dog?

Well, there is crazy people everywhere. While I'm writing this, I heard that a bunch of "adventurers" are organizing a shark fishing tournament to take place this June 6 - 7, 2009 in Ft. Myers, Florida. You may find the complete chronicle of this sad story in a blog called The Best Shark Dive in the World!, which is an excellent blog dedicated to promote the protection of this endangered marine species. And the invitation to stimulate participation in this tournament couldn't sound more ridiculous: "Are you man enough?" - Shark Challenge *.

But the thing gets worse. What many people don't know, is that sharks are vital to the balance of nature in the seas. They actually protect the reefs. Killing them equals destroying the environment of Planet Earth. And their population is fastly going down, since many shark provokers still believe that killing nature is the best of sports. In case you want to know more about why sharks are vital to the equilibrium of the oceans, you may read this wonderful article titled: "Four things EVERYONE needs to know about sharks", in the blog Southern Fried Science.

Finally, there is a very good reason why using SCUBA gloves is strictly forbidden in many dive areas around the world. People tend to feel secure to touch animals, corals and even sharks. I myself have witnessed many times when SCUBA divers touch a nurse shark not having gloves, so imagine how it would be with gloves on. Sometimes divers try to induce others to do the same, which is a very bad example, specially when it comes from a SCUBA Instructor who's supposed to be a leader. Many of them argue that these sharks are harmless. Well, I don't think so. Actually, I myself don't like perfectly strangers making an unjustified physical contact with me. Well, maybe that's because I'm a pisces, imagine if I were a shark... :-) Thilo.

* GOOD NEWS (June 3 of 2009): Due to the pacific protests against shark killings, the tournament's rules were modified, so it was agreed to measure the sharks without killing them -once captured-, and then release them again into the waters.

A little fun: How to avoid shark attacks...

Diving in Laguna de Tota (Andes Mountains)

2009-05-10T02:20:00.024-05:00

¡Finally! My first SCUBA video, all made by myself. Well, except for the background music*. Since I'm a colombian SCUBA diver, which means that I live in the so called "tropical zone", one would expect to see some exotic coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea, or some silky sharks in the Pacific Ocean. Well, I hope to be shooting there soon. However, one of Colombia's best kept secrets -and Southamerica- is that it's plenty of diving sites in the Andes Mountains.

And in this case, we are talking about a lake at an altitude of 3005 meters over the sea level (9850 feet). The name of this place is Laguna de Tota. In case you don't know, 3000 meters (10000 feet) is the absolute reccomended limit for scubadiving in the altitude. ¿Why? Well, to start with, at this altitude the air is 33% thinner, in other words, while the atmospheric pressure at the sea level is 760 mm Hg, or 1 bar, at this altitude it may be something like 530 mm Hg, or 0.7 bar.

By the way, any diving that takes place at altitudes of more than 300 meters (1000 feet) over the sea level is considered altitude diving. But maybe if you're not familiar with scubadiving in the altitude, you might say: -¿Who cares? After all, I'm breathing from the bottle, which is plenty of air, and therefore plenty of oxygen.... Well, if you say so, you might be right. However, the most important potential dangers of scubadiving in the altitude are not always under the water. In this case, when you reemerge to the surface, the likelihood of developing the famous nitrogen microbubbles that may produce decompression sickness will be much greater.

It's very easy to understand. The differential pressure between the atmospheric air and the pressure inside the water is substantially bigger. On the other hand, if your body is not fully adpated to the altitude you're diving in, you may suffer from hypoxia when you return to the surface, and your respiratory system may try to compensate the defict through hyperventilation. And then we have another two important factors to consider: Since you are diving at such an altitude, the water won't have 24 degrees Celsius of temperature like in the Caribbean Sea, for example. At this place it has a temperature of 13 to 14 degrees Celsius.

That means you will be diving with a wet suit of at least 7 mm, maybe more. Or you will dive with a dry suit. That also means you will increase your positive buoyancy a lot, so you have to use much more lead to compensate. ¿Are you following me? Hypoxia, potential hypothermia, potential stress due to overexertion since you have more weight, and finally a much greater chance of developing decompression sickness. And I didn't list many other factors.

So, ¿should I tell you better not to dive at places such these? ¡Absolutely not! It's a lifetime experience. You just have to remember that there are special rules, equipment, and factors that concern human physiology. The best way to make new adventure dives like these is taking a specialty diving course in altitude diving, supposing you are a certified SCUBA diver already. Of course, you may also take the dry suit diving course. However, the water temperature of this lake specifically is slightly over the recommended limit for using a dry suit.

That means, depending on the conditions of your area, like altitude, temperature and availability of SCUBA diving schools and special equipment, you may do first the one or the other. ¡If you live in the North Pole with Santa Claus I would advice you to take the dry suit course first! But finally that's something I recommend to discuss with your SCUBA Instructor. You will learn to use special diving tables for recretional diving inbetween no decompression limits, special techniques concerning the rate of ascend and descend, navigation, and so on. And should you visit Colombia, maybe we'll meet each other in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Well, I don't know the earth so much..., yet. Until next time... Thilo.

*The wonderful music featured on this video belongs to Alexander Blu, the album's name is Blu May, and the song's name is "Emptiness". It is under an attribution, non-comercial and share alike Creative Commons license. The video footage, edition and photos are all mine. They can be used under the same license I just mentioned.

Silky Sharks in Malpelo Island

2009-05-05T21:54:00.019-05:00

Another place in Colombia I don't know yet, but that I definitely will go to is Malpelo Island. The island itself is very small, with an area of 3,5 square kilometers, it looks like a huge rock arising lonely from the ocean. It has a height of 300 meters, and is 378 km away from Colombia's continental shore.

The natural underwater park however, has an area of more than 9000 square kilometers, with many more smaller offshore rocks, and underneath its waters you may find many shark species. I've heard the stories of hundreds hammerhead sharks seen at once, and the same is true for silky sharks.

Many diving expeditions don't arrive there from Colombia, but from Central America, and specially Costa Rica. The diving charters starting from Costa Rica navigate first to Isla del Coco [which means Coconut Island in spanish], and then enter colombian territorial waters to continue their journey to Malpelo Island. This one is an expensive trip however, compared to the more modest yachts that travel directly from Colombia.

The experts in marine fauna always look for a dive site called "El bajo del Monstruo" [which means something like "the deep groove of the monster" in spanish]. This place is said to be one of few where the Smalltooth Sand Tiger has been seen alive. And it's true, I recently saw a video taken by a woman who is a marine biologist.

By the way, I heard you have to dive far beyond the standard 40 meters [130 feet] of depth -which is the absolute depth limit in recreational SCUBA diving- to reach the bottom of this site, or to watch this subspecies of the silky sharks, since they use to remain in deeper places. So either the divers who have seen this shark had special training in deep technical diving, or the sharks went shallower for some reason, or someone broke a few important rules of diving safety...

It's very likely that this special charters that come from Costa Rica are equipped with small decompression chambers, another reason why I believe this trips are not for normal budgets like mine. The cost of a trip of this kind usually is around 5000 dollars or more, although it lasts between 12 to 14 days, and also includes the visit to Isla del Coco.In fact the vast majority of the tourists come from the USA and Europe, but not from Costa Rica itself.

The trip from Colombia on the other hand can cost something between 1000 and 1500 dollars, but it lasts only 1 week. It includes unlimited diving, food and the long travel, since you have to stay aboard the ship two days to arrive to the island in the first place, and then again another two days for the return. So actually you will be diving like crazy for three days.

But from what I've heard it's a lifetime experience. You don't have to take my word for it, afterall I haven't been there already..., but you may read or hear "expert opinions" from people around the whole world. I myself plan to go there, but I think it will be around february of the next year or so, since it seems that the ideal seasons to visit this place are in the first quarter of the year. I have no idea why.

Meanwhile I have found a spectacular video in YouTube from a french SCUBA diver who arrived to Malpelo Island from Costa Rica, and who made very good shots of many silky sharks surrounding him and his buddies in just one place. Well, I liked the background music as well. So, until next time..., Thilo.

NOTE: The shark of the photo is a Smalltooth Sand Tiger Shark (Odontaspis ferox) silky shark.
The picture belongs to the NOAA: http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

The Humpback Whale

2009-05-04T20:38:00.023-05:00

It's difficult to believe that this beautiful animals are still being hunted by a few nations like Japan, while the whales remain in the Antartic Ocean. And it's hard not to feel a little sympathy towards some extreme activists, like the ones from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, always navigating in their famous ship, the Steve Irwin, under the command of Paul Watson. This characters appear in the Discovery Channel series called Whale Wars, trying to save among many species of whales, one named the Humpback Whale, which are known in Colombia as "ballenas jorobadas" [direct translation] or are also called "yubartas" [plural] in spanish.

Every year during august the yubartas swim from the South Pole along the Pacific Ocean to our coasts in Colombia, very near to Gorgona, a small island with an area of 21 square kilometers. It's a very popular place among SCUBA divers, not only because of its underwater world, but the terrestrial species as well. I hope to go there in august to watch and photograph many hammerhead sharks, and make many deep and night dives. And if I'm lucky, I will be able to observe a Humpback Whale.

It seems that this place is ideal for the whales to give birth and reproduce. The yubartas also seek the vecinities of this island to feed themselves, since they only eat during summer and then use their grease reserves during the winter. To travel to this island one has to fly from one of the major colombian cities to a small town called Guapi, in the municipality of Buenaventura, and from there one takes a fast boat to the island. The distance from the continental shore is approximately 35 km. Once a maximum security prison facility, this island was declared a national natural park in 1985.

It has been said that the yubartas are very individualistic, so it would be very uncommon to watch them dive in big herds, or interacting with other species. They are also very famous for their singing. In the year 2006 Jean-Michel Cousteau, the oldest son of the great french oceanograph and marine biologist Jacques Cousteau, filmed a beautiful and amazing video of the humpbacks he called "Humpback Ballet". After watching it, it's difficult not to care about this giants of the ocean, and wanting to join them in their dance... Thilo.

¡Welcome to COLOMBIA SCUBA!

2009-05-04T16:02:00.016-05:00

¡Hi! If you are the kind of people who dream of staying at the beach the whole day, and get into the sea and dive, and then maybe have a few drinks after the journey under a tropical moon, enjoy life the most..., well, we have a lot in common. My name is Thilo Hanisch. I'm a medical physician of the Universidad El Bosque, and I'm also an Open Water Scuba Instructor from PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors).

I created this blog with the idea of promoting diving in Colombia, and having the opportunity of knowing other SCUBA fans of our planet. Planet which -by the way- is covered by three quarters of water, although it's sure that the majority of us spend 99,9% of our lifes in the remaining one quarter we use to call "firm land". I will also modestly try to raise the awareness over the necessity of conserving our natural environment, writing about the submarine world and posting a few videos, whenever possible.

Diving is a fascinating activity, no doubt. It has a lot to do with nature, with ecology, with our most remote biological origins, with technology, with medicine and so many other scientifical branches of knowledge, that may even include the space exploration sciences and exobiology..., anyway. Furthermore it's about having fun but als secure adventures, following the highest diving standards available.

That's why I decided to become an instructor in many diving specialties, as for example Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) , Altitude Diver, Dry Suit Diver, Multilevel Diver, Digital Underwater Photography, and Equipment Specialist, and many more to come. I am also trained as an EFRI (Emergency First Response Instructor), which means that I'm an instructor for First Aid and CPR (Cardiopulmonary reanimation).

That's why I would like to ask you to write directly to my e-mail for any issue related to diving, trips, or any related stuff, if you wish to have more information. To comment the articles portrayed here, you may do so at the end of every post, of course, and if you wish to do so. Finally, after diving, please remember this important rule: ¡only bubbles should be left behind! Sincerely, Thilo.