Lion Fish

This fine specimen was seen out in the mid day sun by FOTW divers whilst his mates snoozed away tuck up under the coral head behind.

FOTW Top Tip No.1 Deploying Delayed Surface Marker Buoys

While diving off a liveaboard in Thailand it was a boat rule that every buddy pair carry a delayed surface marker buoy (SMB), I was handed a basic model with a five metre string wrapped around the rolled up marker buoy. On the end of the string was a small weight. Nothing fancy, no reel to get stuck and drag you unexpectedly to the surface. When you get to five metres unwind it, give it a two second blast of air from your octopus and let it go, catching the weight. What could be simpler. Well I learn the hard way what the buoyancy force of a fully inflated SMB is, as the thin cord inadvertently looped itself around my little finger as I inflated it and proceeded to drag me up to the surface by my pinky. So much for safety. Fortunately there was nothing over head and the dive had not been particularly long or deep but it was a painful way to end a dive and one that I am not particularly keen to experience again. I suggest you don't either.

Unicorn fish

Usually timid and camera shy, thesethree unicorn were spotted by FOTW divers gliding along a reef wall near Hurghada.

FOTW Top Tips - New feature

As we all know that Scuba diving is a very safety conscious sport. After all if you get it wrong there are a number of rather nasty outcomes such as drowning, drifting off into a shipping lanes and getting mown down by a tanker or getting shredded by a twit on a jet ski to name but a few.

To contribute to safe diving we at FOTW thoguht it would be good idea to pass on our top tips to safe diving. Practical tips based on under water experiences of the FOTW team. Watch this space........