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Book Review: Diving Gozo & Comino – The essential guide to an underwater playground

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The Author

Richard Salter

Review by Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown

First impressions of this book are good. It has lovely inviting front and back covers and is the right size to take on a trip with you. It is a paperback book, keeping the weight down for travel, but still uses high quality paper. Now, we have never dived Gozo or Comino, so are not going to be able to argue the accuracy of the dive site descriptions, but Richard is an instructor and guide on the island with masses of experience. The book had just gone to press when the famous Azure Window collapsed, and so some edits had to be made to correct this information, but it now has up to date information about diving this area.

The book covers 57 dive sites on Gozo and a further 14 on Comino, featuring both shore and boat dives that include caves, caverns, ship wrecks, reefs and sheltered bays. The first few pages cover some essential information about diving these islands, some history, useful phrases and where to visit when you are not underwater. Then the book gets into the nitty gritty of the dive sites themselves.

Most of the dive site descriptions include a detailed map, with a suggested route drawn on to assist those that will be diving without a guide. There is a written description of the dive and a useful details box to give depth, duration, visibility and difficulty level, as well as including tips like taking a torch on dives that have overhead environments, or to use an SMB in heavy boat traffic areas. There is usually a photo or two taken above water to show the topography and entry points for the dive site, and there are underwater photographs too. I would have liked to see more quality underwater photographs to show off the diving here and to whet my appetite.

Richard Salter

I was very pleased to see a section at the back about seahorse photography and their strict protection on these islands and there are additional pages on invasive species and seagrasses too. There is also a handy list of dive centres, emergency contact details and a wealth of other useful titbits that raise this publication above the standard dive guide. I was surprised to see the odd advert in the book though, but I guess a book like this might need a little extra funding to help publishing costs.

All in all, this is a well put together and good-looking guide book that will be a useful tool for anyone planning on diving Gozo and Comino. It is the sort of book that first timers, as well as those experienced in diving here, will want to have on their shelves… I would certainly love to put it to the test and dive some of the sites using the book as a guide.

Available now in paperback (ebook forthcoming) from Divedup.com, online and from retailers.

£16.95 / €19.95 / US $24.95 | ISBN 978-1-909455-16-0 | 176 pages | 234 x 156 mm

Scubaverse.com is currently running a competition where you can win a copy of ‘Diving Gozo & Comino – The essential guide to an underwater playground’. The competition ends at midnight next Tuesday 6th June. You can enter the competition to win a copy of Richard’s book here.

Nick and Caroline (Frogfish Photography) are a married couple of conservation driven underwater photo-journalists and authors. Both have honours degrees from Manchester University, in Environmental Biology and Biology respectively, with Nick being a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, a former high school science teacher with a DipEd in Teaching Studies. Caroline has an MSc in Animal Behaviour specializing in Caribbean Ecology. They are multiple award-winning photographers and along with 4 published books, feature regularly in the diving, wildlife and international press They are the Underwater Photography and Deputy Editors at Scubaverse and Dive Travel Adventures. Winners of the Caribbean Tourism Organization Photo-journalist of the Year for a feature on Shark Diving in The Bahamas, and they have been placed in every year they have entered. Nick and Caroline regularly use their free time to visit schools, both in the UK and on their travels, to discuss the important issues of marine conservation, sharks and plastic pollution. They are ambassadors for Sharks4Kids and founders of SeaStraw. They are Dive Ambassadors for The Islands of The Bahamas and are supported by Mares, Paralenz, Nauticam and Olympus. To find out more visit www.frogfishphotography.com

Blogs

The BiG Scuba Podcast Episode 173: DEEP – Making Humans Aquatic

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Gemma and Ian visited DEEP and were hosted by Phil Short, Research Diving, Training Lead, and were given a tour of the facility at Avonmouth and then over to the Campus at Tidenham.

DEEP is evolving how humans access, explore and inhabit underwater environments. Through flexible, modular and mobile subsea habitats that allow humans to live undersea up to 200m for up to 28 days, work-class submarines, and advanced human performance research, DEEP completely transforms what we are capable of underwater and how we conduct undersea science and research.

www.deep.com

You can listen to Episode 173 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.

We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast.  Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference.   Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone    +44 7810 005924   or use our social media platforms.   To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:

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Blogs

The BiG Scuba Podcast Episode 172: Dr. Joseph Dituri

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Joseph Dituri

Gemma and Ian chat to Dr. Joseph Dituri. Dr. Jospeh Dituri lived undersea for 100 Days in a mission combining education, ocean conservation research, and the study of the physiological and psychological effects of compression on the human body.  

Dituri enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1985. He served continuously on active service upon various ships and shore stations where he was involved in every aspect of diving and special operations work from saturation diving and deep submergence to submersible design and clearance diving. Now that he is retired from 28 years of active service to the United States, he is the president of the International Board of Undersea Medicine. He also volunteers his time as the CEO of the Association for Marine Exploration. He is an invited speaker on motivational, sea and space related topics.

Fuelled by his passion for exploration, discovery, adventure, and making the greatest possible positive contribution to the world, he is fighting for change in a big way and with great enthusiasm.

You can listen to Episode 172 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.

www.drdeepsea.com

We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast.  Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference.   Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone    +44 7810 005924   or use our social media platforms.   To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:

We are on Instagram                     @thebigscuba  

We are on Facebook                      @thebigscuba  

We are in LinkedIn                          https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian%F0%9F%A6%88-last-325b101b7/

The BiG Scuba Website                  www.thebigscuba.com

Amazon Store :                                https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/thebigscuba

Visit   https://www.patreon.com/thebigscubapodcast and subscribe – Super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you.

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