Like most people. the end of the year and into the start of a new year has me looking at the highlights of last year and setting goals for the new year. A few days before Christmas, I received a pair of Aqwary Smart consoles to evaluate. The consoles remind me of a tablet in that you can download apps to customize the device for your needs. A buddy finder app allows you to find your buddy if they are also using a smart console. It will show you the direction they are from you as well as their depth and remaining air. The first dive was on a small WWII wreck and visibility was poor. As this was the first time I used it, the dive leader had the second unit attached to a pony bottle. The entire dive, I knew exactly where he was even if I could not see him. The dive computer app, gave me the NDL times I needed. After the dive, I used the WIFI function to upload my dive info to my Aqwary cloud account.
When I got home, I signed into my account and reviewed my log. The information was really great, showing a great profile of my dive. The smart console is air integrated, so a chart also showed a graph of my breathing patterns.
My state-of-the-art Genesis Nitrox Resource dive computer, well it was state-of-the-art 18 years ago when I bought it, will now become my backup. The mood of the season had me thinking how things have changed for scuba diving since I bought my dive computer. Like many other aspects of life, I see that the internet has made a huge impact on diving in general and more so for dive travel.
About 15 years ago, I took a liveaboard in the Whitsundays portion of the Great Barrier Reef. Then the internet was not like it is today. I found the liveaboard on the internet and after a number of emails I booked it. When I got there it was not what I expected nor even the company I expected. With the way the internet has expanded since then, there is a much smaller chance that, that situation will happen to me again. Peer review sites such as tripadvisor can let us know of the feeling and experiences of other divers who have used a dive center or liveaboard. While they can not be relied on entirely, we should be able to see trends.
In addition to tripadvisor, we also have websites that are geared towards just diving. If you are looking for answers to a dive destination, such as the Great Barrier Reef, sites like Divezone will have articles about the location and a place to post questions and to answer other diver’s questions. Divezone is a great site to exchange information and your experiences about diving in general and specific dive vacations.
I dive mostly at Subic Bay in the Philippines and I frequent a few of the dive centers. I can see clearly that in this location the internet is the main source of business for these dive centers. In fact, you seldom see a diver who has not used a few sources on the internet to refine their search for their next dive vacation.
Years before becoming a scuba diver, I had subscriptions to a couple of dive magazines. Now we have websites that have articles, such as this one, that makes it easier to keep current in the industry. New equipment reviews are easy to find from many sources and individual blogs often contains great insight to different aspects of diving.
Later this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the publishing of my first book. The “Subic Bay Travel and Dive Guide” was published by a traditional publisher a leader in travel guides. A few years ago, my publisher told me they would not be accepting any new books nor will they update any existing book. Their travel and map imprints were being phased out as sales were 90% less than 5 years ago. The internet and digital editions made maps and hard copy books obsolete. I have to agree, I average reading two books a week and in the last three years the only physical book I have purchase was an out of print cookbook.
I had not intended that first book to mark the beginning of a humble writing career, however it has. I have a number of website I have written for over the last few years and last year wrote for others five digital books. I am looking forward to a 2016 filled with more diving and writing about it.
