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Bantin's Dive Equipment Blog for Mike's Dive Store London

Don't Hold Your Breath

One of the first rules you learn when training to scuba dive is to always continue to breathe normally and to never hold your breath. There's a very good reason...

Steve Brown |

  • Buddy Love!

    It is always best to dive with a completely redundant set of equipment. It’s a spare set in the unlikely event anything should fail. Where is it? Your buddy is...

    Steve Brown |

  • The Wonderful Whaleshark

    The whaleshark is the largest fish in the sea and is so-called because it filter-feeds on plankton and shoals of tiny fish just like the great baleen whales. It s...

    Steve Brown |

  • What a Palaver!

    Few people realise that the little boy of Hans Christian Anderson's story, who declared that the Emperor had no clothes, was hung, drawn and quartered. Sometimes there's a conspiracy of...

    Steve Brown |

  • Leading Experts?

    I've never marketed myself as an expert. I have always asserted that I am a witness even though in my lengthy career as a diving journalist I witnessed quite a...

    Steve Brown |

  • Minature Cameras

    Looking for a last-minute Christmas present? Treat yourself to a GoPro or something similar! Miniature cameras like the GoPro and similar products are so tiny they have revolutionised much of...

    Steve Brown |

  • Adding Weight

    Most people are naturally neutrally buoyant. With a normal relaxed lung volume, they neither float nor sink. Take a deep breath and you will float. Empty your lungs and you...

    Steve Brown |

  • Drift Diving

    Strong currents can be a delight if you know that your boat will come to pick you up after you surface. You bowl along effortlessly and the scenery rolls on...

    Steve Brown |

  • Hazardous Marine Life?

    So what about the sharks? Everything eats everything else in the ocean and yet, because the marine life has evolved over millions of years, the last-minute arrival of man on...

    Steve Brown |

  • Wreck Diving

    There is always something special about diving on the remains of a mighty ship that now lies on the seabed in its watery grave. Some shipwrecks got there because of...

    Steve Brown |

  • Which Fins For You?

    For years I was noted for my side-by-side equipment comparison tests in Diver Magazine. In fact I can claim to be the first to do this type of test for...

    Steve Brown |

  • Do You Need A Drysuit?

      My wife has gone for a short holiday to Iceland. While she is there, she plans to make a dive or two in a famous lake. Sounds chilly, doesn’t...

    Steve Brown |

  • The Most Dangerous Dive?

    Non-divers always ask me what was the most dangerous dive I ever did. They are unimpressed with stories of diving CCR on the wrong set-point or surfacing on a strong...

    Steve Brown |

  • Risk Management

    It's the latest buzz-word in the workplace but how can risk management affect your diving? It's down to you. You've been told what the expected conditions are. You know what...

    Steve Brown |

  • The Red Sea

    The Red Sea The Red Sea is a flooded continuation of the African Rift and is bordered on all sides by arid desert. The countries of Djibouti and the Yemen...

    John Bantin |

  • Why Go Diving?

    Why Go Diving? Ours is a blue planet. Although we live on the parts of it that protrude above the waves, most of the planet is under water. The topography...

    Steve Brown |

  • What if You get Sick?

    What if you become ill just before setting off on an expensive dive trip or while you are away? You can’t stop people coughing their cold germs on you especially...

    Steve Brown |

  • Small is Beautiful

    The Far East, mainly formed by Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, is famous for its vast catalogue of marine life, with more species identified than in any other area...

    Steve Brown |

  • Practise Makes Perfect

    Some of you will have learned to dive but maybe only paid lip-service to some of the skills you were taught. If you want those techniques to become second-nature, you'll...

    Steve Brown |

  • Downloading Dives

    Reg Valentine was an original founder of the British Sub-Aqua Club and for many years operated a dive centre on the Italian island of Giglio, nowadays more famous for its...

    Steve Brown |

  • Hoods & Gloves

    Your brain is your most important organ and demands a plentiful supply of blood yet few of us have much naturally provided thermal insulation in that area. We lose a...

    Steve Brown |

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