Diving in Aqaba, Jordan
I posted this text originally in 2012, so it is an older post. This was very first blog post I ever wrote! While it is a few years old, the facts still remain the same, and I suppose recent events in the Middle East make Jordan perhaps an even more exotic dive destination than it was a few years ago. I have altered the text slightly for this re-post. So here goes: I visited Jordan with my family last November. What an incredibly beautiful country, what friendly people! Jordan was really worth th...
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Diving the Way Captain Nemo Used to do It
Diving is a great sport, no question about it. A way to exercise as well as relax. Sometimes though, the sport of it can get a bit too… sporty. Exhausting. Sometimes you might want the beauty and the relaxation of underwater without of the carrying of gear, getting the wet suit on and then off again, ear squeeze. All the hassle that comes with this great activity of diving that we all love so much. Without even getting your hair wet. Or maybe I’m just getting old. On Lanzarote, one of the Canary...
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Diving in Thailand: King Cruiser wreck
Juha - 12/01/2013 12:05 PM
Thailand, 12thNovember, 2013I just recently got back from a marveillous dive trip to Ao Nang in Thailand. This is the first account of the dives that I did on that trip. It is about an awsome wreck dive at what may be the most famous wreck in Thailand. King cruiser was a catamaran ferry that sank in 1997 near the Phi Phi islands after she hit rocks at Anemone Reef, another great dive site. There were more than 500 passengers on board the 85 meter ferry. Luckily, all of them survived and there we...
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Vertical Underwater Current
Juha - 10/28/2013 11:13 AM
Sometimes unpredictable forces of nature can turn a pleasant day of diving with a friend into a scary, even dangerous experience. This blog post is an account of a dive that I did quite a few years ago, a dive that did not go as well as it should have. It was a beautiful sunny day in early August, and my dive buddy and I were planning an easy dive from a rocky shore in Porkkala in Southern Finland, not too far from where I live. It is a popular dive spot because it is usually an easy site to div...
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Pike, the Great Freshwater Predator
Pike (Esox Lucius) The pike is a relatively large carnivorous fish found in fresh waters all over the World in the northern hemisphere. Itlives in fresh water, but can also be found in brackish water of the Baltic Sea. Photo:WikipediaPike are olive green or brownish in colour, with a white belly. The flank is marked with yellow spots contrasted by dark spots on the fins. The pike can grow to well over twenty kilograms in weight and 150 centimetres in length. They can live for more then twenty ye...
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Beginner’s Guide to Diving, part 3: Dealing With Problems Underwater
Juha - 7/05/2013 11:56 AM
I started writing this Beginner’s Guide to Diving series to those who are interested in scuba diving, but are not divers yet. It has been some time since I wrote the first and second parts of this ”guide”, but here, at long last, is the third part. In part one I wrote about how to get started with scuba diving, and in part two, some thougths about what it takes to be a diver, as well as some information about basic equipment needed. In this third part, I’ll try to give some ideas about dealing w...
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Drift Diving - a Rollercoaster Ride Underwater
Speed. It has to be one of the most typical ways adrenaline junkies get their thrills, and really get their juices pumping. It could be motor racing on a track, flying a plane, or driving a speed boat, or it could be base jumping or hang gliding. What speed is not usually associated with, is scuba diving. Scuba diving is a slow-paced, relaxing activity where you have plenty of time to take in the underwater scenery and enjoy the weightlessness of your body as you calmly glide along, mentally lis...
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Big Fish at the Abandoned Quarry
p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } Just the other day, being that it was particularly warm and sunny that morning, some friends and I got together to go for a swim at an abandoned quarry nearby. The quarry had filled up with ground water ages ago, when digging for stone ended there. The place is perfect for swimming because the water is clear and warm, and hardly anyone ever goes there, so we have the pond all to ourselves most of the time. When we got to the quarry, we spotted the silhouettes of a sh...
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Angel shark (Squatina squatina)
Juha - 5/30/2013 12:35 PM
p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } Spotting a Mediterranean angel shark was, for me, a case of seeing something spectacular and not even realizing it. It was only later that I found out that the thing is actually quite rare, critically endangered in fact. And I thought it was just kind-of-a-shark! Well, the latin name of the species, squatina, does actually mean "a kind of shark", so I guess I was half right. To be honest I wasn’t all that excited about it when I spotted it. I had been hoping to see s...
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Diving in Alanya
Planning a family holiday to Alanya in Southern Turkey, I was not entirely sure I would get to dive at all on this trip. While being a popular tourist destination, Alanya is not exactly on the "top ten places to dive"-list. Anyway, that’s where we had decided we were going, so I’d have to make the most of it. I’d dive there no matter what!View from Cleopatra Beach. If you look closely, you can see a dive boat parked in front of Phosphorus Cave. As it turns out, there are plenty of dive centres i...
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Changing the battery on my dive computer
p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } Battery change, Suunto Vyper I was packing my dive gear, getting ready for the next dive trip. As always, I checked my Suunto Vyper dive computer. Only this time it signaled that the battery was low. It would have to be changed before diving. I was in a bit of a hurry to get the battery changed; I was leaving for my dive destination the next day. So I called my local dive centre to get the job done. Unfortunately, they were already closed for the day. I searched the ...
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Beginners Guide to Diving, Part 2
Juha - 4/15/2013 10:25 AM
Learning to Dive So you decide to learn how to dive. Are there any reasons that could prevent you from diving? Your age is not likely to be an issue. It is possible to start as young as eight years of age and dive for as long as your health allows. Most disabilities won’t prevent you from diving. In fact, moving in the weightlessness underwater may even be less of an effort to some. Nor is where you live likely to be a problem. 80 percent of the world’s surface is covered by water. You can dive ...
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A beginner’s guide to diving, part 1
Introduction This article is to those of you who are not divers yet. Don’t worry: since you’re reading this, you probably want to be, and you’ll see there’s no reason you couldn’t be. Reading this article could well be your first step to a whole new exhilarating life of adventures underwater. There’s no getting round the fact that diving is cool. Mention to your mates that you are a diver, and you immediately get their attention and admiration. Many people consider diving an extreme sport that i...
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DIVING IN RHODES
Juha - 3/20/2013 10:12 AM
GREEK ISLAND OF RHODES I visited Rhodes in September 2011. It was already a little bit off season, so I got Anna, the dive guide, all to myself on the first day. We dove at Kallithea on the first day. Kallithea is a beach that is a short distance from the city of Rhodes, where I stayed. http://www.rhodesguide.com/travelguide/rhodes_beach_guide.php?ssp=17We set off underwater straight from the beach. The dives were nice and shallow, easy dives. Weather was nice and sunny and the water was warm. T...
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PANIC UNDERWATER! This post is a bit more personal, I’m writing about a panic situation that I mysel
PANIC UNDERWATER! This post is a bit more personal, I’m writing about a panic situation that I myself experienced. As all divers propably know, panic underwater is one of the most dangerous problems a diver is likely to come across. Last June (2012) I did my PADI Rescue Diver certification. We were working on the open water rescue scenarios in relatively shallow water. As we were doing an underwater search scenario with two other divers, I noticed I had a slight buoancy problem. I was getting un...
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Diving in Tenerife 2012
Diving in Tenerife 2012 I have to admit that the beauty of the underwater world around the island of Tenerife came as a bit of a surprise to me. The volcanic rock bottom of the Atlantic ocean around the island is in itself a sight worth seeing. There are some exellent dive sites just off the beaches of the popular Playa de las Americas, only a short boat-trip away. It is possible to see masses of different species of fish and other marine life, from octopusses and tortoises to dolphins and even ...
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My dive-trip to Aqaba, Jordan 2012 I visited Jordan with my family last November. What a beautiful c
My dive-trip to Aqaba, Jordan 2012 I visited Jordan with my family last November. What a beautiful country, what friendly people! Jordan was really worth the visit. Great diving too, warm clear waters and colourful reefs right at the northern end of the Red Sea. There’s a sunken tank near the Seven Sisters site. Nice easy dive from the shore, not too deep, so we had plenty of bottom time, and there’s lots of marine life to see! One of the most famous sites in Jordan is ancient Petra, the amazing...
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