Rick the Pirate needs to be seriously bribed. The next diver to Georgetown, Grand Cayman, owes it to the scuba community to slip a C-note to the official Carrribean island greeter and ask him not to tell people just how good the diving is on the Island's remote East End.

Think of something that can be done underwater and someone will set a record doing it … or die trying. Diver Magazine notes some new scuba records.

Some dubious, others for charity: Underwater World Records set in the Summer of '07

The ongoing chronicles of underwater feats ranging from the impressive to the dubious. The rush to establish new underwater records has subsided, at least temporarily, as winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere. However, there were a number of subsurface records set in the fall of 2007.

Ho Hum. Another month, another underwater world record.

Wrapping up the old year and looking forward to new records in 2008 for underwater firsts!

Hundreds of Lake Erie charter boats are making room for a new passenger this season — Big Brother. Americans who cross into Canadian waters to fish or scuba dive will face a boatload of new security requirements when charter season begins in several weeks. Among them: interviews with unseen customs officers on videophones operated by the government.

Equipment manufacturers have been busy all winter preparing for the new dive season.  New female-friendly BCs, go-fast swim suits and new comfortable mask straps have already started turning up in dive shops across the continent.



American Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps,
holder of six World records, models the new
Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit.

Has Diver Magazine Hatched a Trend?
Swimming our way back to November 2007, Diver Magazine featured Malena Sharkey on the cover wearing nothing but her mermaid costume.  The Florida-based diver has a unique moonlighting career as a mermaid model. The issue turned out to be extremely popular. Check out the latest Compari calendar and you will see that Diver has jumped onto the mermaid popularity wave long before it is even close to cresting.

Turkey knows how to bring the house down on dive shows! In May, the Seventh International Underwater Days Exhibition ended with the sinking of a mothballed Coast Guard ship!