Dive Pacific 175 Dec2020 Jan 2021

Photo: Shades of Colour ddvanced category photographer David Haintz
Visit SeaTech.co.nz to view more stunning photography
Photo by Laurent Miroult
TUBEWORM
BOOK REVIEW
Close Calls
A collection of life changing stories from the
industry’s greatest:
If they made mistakes you will too!
RRP $39.99 Full colour photos throughout, paperback.
Published by Bateman Books www.batemanpublishing.co.nz
Greek cave diving instructor and
adventure filmmaker Stratis Kas
has released his much-anticipated
book Close Calls, a collection of 68
gripping, personal close call stories by
high profile technical divers including
Jill Heinerth, Edd Sorrenson, Leigh
Bishop, Steve Davis, Richie Kohler,
and Becky Kagan Schott, about diving
incidents that nearly cost them their
lives. Incidents include entanglement,
getting lost in caves, running out of
gas, equipment failures, hypoxia,
hypercapnia, caustic cocktails and
more.
“My intent was simple,” Kas
explained. “If high profile divers and
dive industry leaders were willing to
share their own mistakes and lapses
of judgement, many of which nearly
cost them everything, it would help
rank-and-file divers realize
that they are fallible and
subject to similar errors,
and hopefully make them
safer divers.”
Kas says, “As anesthesiologist
Dr. Simon
Mitchell noted at the sixth
International Rebreather
Meeting held in Ponza, Italy,
last year, ‘Human factors
are the most important,
but also the most difficult,
path to improving rebreather diving
safety.’ The point applies equally to
open circuit diving…”
A cave diving instructor and
filmmaker, Stratis Kas, says he was
inspired to organize Close Calls while
attending a diving conference where
one of his friends and heroes was
willing to share his mistakes and
be vulnerable, which helped Kas
acknowledge his own early mistakes
learning to cave dive and provided
the idea for the book. The photos
throughout are spectacular.
Close Calls is a print-on-demand book
available through Kas’ website www.
stratiskas.com for 40€.
50% of profits from the book will be
donated to DAN Europe’s Claudius
Obermaier Fund, a charitable fund
which helps divers and their families
who find themselves in need.
Photo by Mariona Y. Daviu
Wild and temperate seas
For those nostalgic for the UK (how is that possible?) comes
two recent dive guides: Wild and temperate seas: 50 dive sites,
and Diving the Thistlegorm.
Wild and temperate seas is a new-style guide with 50 personal
favourites at some of the UK’s most popular underwater
destinations. Author Will Appleyard and his collaborators
showcase both popular as well as sites seldom seen.
A wise man once said ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather,
Diving the Thistlegorm
Diving the Thistlegorm is an in-depth look at one of the world’s
best-loved shipwrecks, the World War II British Merchant
Navy steamship wrecked in the Red Sea.
The guide is highly visual guide with cutting edge photographic
methods to show off the famous wreck and its
fascinating cargo. It sits upright in 30m of clear, Red Sea
waters packed with the materials of war: lorries, motorbikes,
aircraft spares and airfield equipment are crammed into the
forward holds and the remains of other vehicles lie amongst
boxes of ammunition in the exploded aft holds.
The Thistlegorm is often referred to as an underwater
museum, and the wreck a place of fascination. The book is
good for bucket list browsing for when Covid is over, as it
just the wrong thermal protection’.
Donning a drysuit is a must for most.
Author Will Appleyard wrote Discover
UK Diving and many articles for
magazines, adventure-based platforms,
adventure outfitting and travel brands –
www.willappleyard.com.
identifies individual items and illustrates
where they can be found.
The authors: Simon Brown is a photogrammetry/3D
reconstruction expert
who has documented many underwater
subjects including for National
Geographic Channel and Discovery
Canada. Jon Henderson is Reader in Archaeology at the
University of Edinburgh and Director of their Underwater
Archaeology Research Centre. Alex Mustard, a marine biologist
is an award-winning underwater photographer. Mike
Postons pioneered the use of digital 3D modelling to visualise
shipwrecks, and processes for reconstructing original ships
from historic plans.
www.dive-pacific.com 73