John Bantin

Well, many of you are familiar with the characters from Tiger Beach and some will have stories of cameras being grabbed and swum off with. My story is slightly different in that my tank was grabbed by a tiger and swum off with, with me attached! Not only that, but it happened twice on the same dive.

What do you do when a big tiger shark grabs you and swims off with you? You hope you're not bleeding too badly!!!

Today I helped lay out my six-page feature on the southern Maldives for the July issue of UK's Diver Mag. Nothing unusual about that except that there no longer is an art editor. This could be good or it could be bad. It gives me more control over the pictures selected - or more possibilities to get it wrong! (...and of course I'm away a lot.) Time will tell.

For those who might be interested, I found a slight problem with the vacuum system leak test on my (Hugyfot) housing.

I was in the Maldives (on a boat) and assembled my housing during one particularly hot and humid afternoon. Others experienced condensation on their compact camera housings when they got into the water but I was confident that I would have no problem after pumping out the housing and getting the green light.

During the dive, all hell broke loose with both red and green lights flashing and a siren sounding. The camera continued to work and I did an hour serenaded by the siren. Despite the green light confirming there was no leak, there was water in the housing when I opened it. Where had it come from?

It transpired that when I vacuumed out the housing the water in the air must have precipitated at the pressure drop to form a tiny droplet that made its way to the moisture sensor in the bottom of the housing electronics (that I didn't know I had)!

I solved the problem by inserting a tampon in next to the camera when I re-assembled it next. This took care of any further precipitation.

We simply cannot do without ladies!

Ear clearing!

Saw the Nauticam vacuum test set-up (with Vacuvin pump and LED indicator almost identical to the Hugycheck system) at the London International Dive Show today. It looks good but it's not got an official name yet. I bet all top-end housing manufacturers will go this way soon.