Great Places To Dive - The Maldives

Scattered like rings across the Indian Ocean, the 26 atolls that comprise the Maldives are a diver's mecca. Diving in the Maldives is colourful and varied, encompassing channels, pinnacles and walls, the sites here have lyrical names that match their beauty. Reefs thrive with vibrant soft corals, hard corals, sponges and anemones.

Prolific fish life ranges from funny little blennies, gentle turtles, graceful manta rays, lean looking sharks to massive, friendly Napoleon fish.

The Maldives are particularly renowned for the large pelagics that visit the area, particularly sharks and rays. Always keep an eye out into the blue, away from the reef into the thermoclines below you - you never know what action you may drift pass!

Some of the marine life you may encounter could include Hammerheads, grey reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, eagle rays, manta rays, turtles, frogfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish, jacks, trevallies, snappers, napoleon wrasse, barracudas... the list is almost endless!

Diving may be in shallow reef gardens filled with fish, or round thilas (submerged reefs) in strong currents. The channels between reefs also make good drift dives. On drifts you will need to pay attention to your depth.

There are a few wrecks to break up the reef diving, although these are dived more for the fish life found on them rather than for the wrecks themselves.

Water temperatures in the Maldives do not fluctuate much, and range from 25°C in the winter months to 28°C in the summer.

It is the monsoon period that has the greatest effect on diving conditions. June and July are considered the rainy season. As a general rule, the best time for diving runs from January to May and again from August to November although at this time visibility is typically reduced due to more plankton in the water, but gives a greater chance to encounter large plankton feeders such as manta rays and whale sharks.

All divers are required to have a computer or automatic dive watch these are available to hire locally from dive centres if you do not own one.

The Maldives is not a destination for lots of nightlife - some resorts organize entertainment during the week for their guests, but what you can expect is stunning beaches, great weather, friendly people, relaxation and superb diving.

Resort Islands in Maldives are self sufficient and have their own power, water, telecommunication, restaurants and transportation.

The Maldives provide an ideal location to refresh, unwind and totally relax.Enjoy the shallow lagoons formed by encircling coral reefs that hold back the turquoise water of the Indian Ocean.

You can find more information on places to dive and general diving articles by Clicking Here

Timing A Dive Using An Automatic Dive Watch

Timing A Dive Using An Automatic Dive Watch

An automatic dive watch will often feature a rotating bezel, that allows for an easier reading of elapsed time of under one hour from a specific point. This is used to compute the length of a dive. When the zero on the bezel is aligned with the watch's seconds or minutes hand on the water entry moment a diver can read off the elapsed time from the bezel. This saves the diver having to remember the exact water entry moment and having to perform arithmetic’s that would be necessary if the watch's regular dial was used. On an automatic dive watch the bezel is "unidirectional", i.e., it contains a ratchet so it can only be turned anti-clockwise to increase the apparent elapsed time. This is an important fail safe feature. If the bezel could be turned clockwise this could suggest to a diver that the elapsed time was shorter than reality, thus indicating a falsely short elapsed time reading and therefore falsely low air consumption assumptions which are highly dangerous. Some diving watch models feature a lockable bezel to minimize the chance of unintentional bezel operation under water.

The exclusive use of a rotating bezel is considered a rudimentary diving technique in the 21^th century, suitable for basic shallow single gas (air) diving only. Non-basic diving profiles and depths past 30 m (98 ft) require other more advanced timing and measuring methods to establish suitable decompression profiles to avoid decompression sickness. Besides for basic diving and as a backup for more complex diving, the one-way bezel can also be used for other situations in which a measurement of elapsed time of under one hour might be useful.

Digital dive watches usually perform the elapsed timer function by use of a standard stop watch function. Digital dive watches may also feature a depth gauge and logging features, but are not usually regarded as a substitute for a dedicated dive computer.

The Bezel Markings And General Maintenance Of An Automatic Dive Watch

The design of a contemporary automatic dive watch with a highlighted 15 or 20 minute marking on its bezel is the result of copying a Rolex bezel design of the 1950s. Back then divers typically planned a dive to a certain maximum depth based on now obsolete US Navy dive tables, and dived according to the planned dive profile. If the dive profile allowed a bottom time of 35 minutes the diver, upon entering the water, would set the marker on the bezel, 35 minutes ahead of the minute hand. The diver calculated this with the 60 - bottom time formulae  which looks like 60 - 35 = 25, for 35 minutes bottom time the diver would align the 25 minute bezel-mark with the minute hand. Once the minute hand reached the main marker on the bezel the diver would begin his ascent to the surface. The 15 or 20 minute scale helped with timing the ascent and whatever safety stop the diver deemed necessary. For contemporary diving methods the 15 or 20 minute count-down bezel is now quite antiquated.

Most manufacturers recommend to divers that they have the pressure on their automatic dive watch tested by an authorized service and repair facility annually or every two to three years and have the seals replaced. Besides that, simple maintenance by the owner is also important. Most manufacturers recommend rinsing the watch in fresh water after use in seawater, but leaving a diver's watch in fresh water overnight is a good method to protect the watch from corrosion and to keep the crown, buttons and pressure sensors on digital ones working.

Scuba Diving

Scuba Diving

 

Scuba diving may be performed for a number of reasons, both personal and professional. Most people begin through recreational diving which is performed purely for enjoyment and has a number of distinct technical disciplines to increase interest underwater, such as cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving and deep diving.

Divers may be employed professionally to perform tasks underwater. Most of these commercial divers are employed to perform tasks related to the running of a business involving deep water, including civil engineering tasks such as in oil exploration, underwater welding or offshore construction. Commercial divers may also be employed to perform tasks specifically related to marine activities, such as naval diving, including the repair and inspection of boats and ships, salvage of wrecks or underwater fishing, like spear fishing.

Other specialist areas of diving include military diving, with a long history of military frogmen in various roles. They can perform roles including direct combat, infiltration behind enemy lines, placing mines or using a manned torpedo, bomb disposal or engineering operations. In civilian operations, many police forces operate police diving teams to perform search and recovery or search and rescue operations and to assist with the detection of crime which may involve bodies of water. In some cases diver rescue teams may also be part of a fire department or lifeguard unit.

Lastly, there are professional divers involved with the water itself, such as underwater photography or underwater filming divers, who set out to document the underwater world, or scientific diving, including marine biology and underwater archaeology.

 

Whichever reason or discipline you are diving for it is important to make sure you have all the correct safety equipment to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience when diving . The items of equipment include breathing apparatus , a diving mask , flippers , an automatic dive watch and a wetsuit.

About The Casing Of An Automatic Dive Watch

The watch case of an automatic dive watch must be adequately water pressure resistant and be able to endure the corrosiveness of seawater, so the cases are generally made out of materials like stainless steel, titanium, ceramics and synthetic resins or plastics. The case must also provide an adequate degree of protection against external magnetic influences and shocks, though diver's watches do not have to be able to endure strong magnetic fields and shocks. To make mechanical watch movements themselves shock resistant various shock protection systems can be used.

The casing of an automatic dive watch has to be constructed more stoutly than typical dress watches, because of the requirements necessary to withstand a seawater environment at depth. As a consequence diving watches are relatively heavy and large compared to dress watches made out of similar materials. Under water sheer weight is of less consequence than buoyancy, which a diver can address by a buoyancy compensator vest. Before the introduction of other case materials diving watch cases were made out of stainless steel. Stainless steel is however still often used as case material in contemporary diving watches.

The Automatic Dive Watch

The Automatic Dive Watch is unique for its tremendous water resistance and durability. Although commonplace now, when they were first introduced, with the bezel encircling the face they were also considered quite unique in appearance, and many of today's moderns sports watches are indebted to them for their design and styling.

An Automatic Dive Watch is made for underwater divers, usually scuba divers and also sometimes saturation dives. These days they typically have a water resistance of 200-300 meters, a unidirectional bezel ,except those with electronic displays for measuring elapsed time, and a case made from material resistant to the corrosive nature of seawater, such as Titanium, Stainless Steel, and Ceramic.

A genuine Dive watch will need to conform to the ISO 6425 standard. A watch that conforms to this will be clearly marked "Dive" .

The main ISO 6425 standard requirements are:

1.Be water resistant to a minimum of 100m 

2. Have a unidirectional Bezel with 5 minute markings 

3. Be readable in total darkness at 25cm 

4.Show that its running -usually through an illuminous second hand.

5.Be Shock, Magnet and chemical resistant. 

6.Have a strap capable of withstanding 200N of force.