I received an email from Nuno Gomes' friends informing me of a new world record he set in Egypt last month. A portion of the email: "The shot line was measured under controlled conditions using impartial observers. The official measurement is 318.25 metres sea water. This is a new world record." You may remember Nuno from a previous post of mine. His last record was 282m set in Boesmansgat.

318.25 meters? That's 1043ft. Talk about deep. Nuno and team, if you are out there, congratulations. Click on for a more detailed account.

Yahoo has launched another fare search engine that scours other websites (expedia and orbitz do not appear to be on the list unfortunetly) for the lowest fares. So far, I haven't found anything thats been "wow I better book this right now" low prices, but some people are saying the site has found them signficantly cheaper fares. On average, I'm only seeing about $5 less for most routes, but hey, every penny counts right? If you see a signficantly lower fare, I'd be curious to know the route - drop a comment.

I started putting some information together for my wedding guests on our wedding in Italy and then suddently realized I could share with all! So if you want to visit a truly amazing small town in Italy but never knew where to start... this is the guide for you. Thanks to picapic, I was able to post up some of my videos and pictures for you readers without hosing my DSL connection, so enjoy.

I came across another video of Palau's underwater world - specifically the mantas. Not much to say bout it other than, if you like underwater videos, it's a pretty cool video. I've never had the chance to dive with mantas so I'm in particular awe. The music on this video is a little more relaxed than the blue corner video I posted yesterday.

I was researching my next destination and came across a video someone made of Blue Corner, a particularly fast-paced current-ridden clip-yourself-in or be swept-away shark infested dive. I have no idea what the soundtrack is, but it fits perfectly and I can't stop watching it again and again. Now if only I could come up with the million or so bucks it seems like you need to get to Palau…. Anyway, check it out on picapic.

It took me a long time to get around to it, but I finally put all the photos from my Cayman Brac Trip online. You can read my trip report on our sister site Divester, here. (If you haven't yet checked Divester out, have a look!)... As you will see, a lot of the underwater photos didn't turn out so hot, but there are a handful of decent ones in the mix.

Over on our sister site, Divester, I've posted a scuba divign report from my trip to Cayman Brac. The Cayman's are generally considered excellent diving - particularly for their visibility and healthy marine life. Did they live up to all the hype? Read on to find out…

I came across this article which effectively says that the PADI Scuba Diver certification is completely unsafe and they should do away with it.  The author essentially argues that the certification is a waste because it completely fails to prepare divers. As part of the reasoning, the author suggests that scuba limits are not enforced and divers rarely continue their education. I'd really be interested in hearing people's opinions on this, so please please comment. My own view follows.

I came across this regulator failure story which I thought was pretty interesting. Maybe I have a morbid curiousity with accidents, but I always enjoy reading a story about how someone managed to live against the odds. Read on for an interesting (and scary) tale. Photos of the silo are here.

For those of you that have become skeptical of the traditional trade magazines telling you that Cozumel is still a one of a kind destination, here's something different for you. It's called Undercurrent and they accept absolutely no advertising whatsoever. What that means is that they don't hold back in their reviews of locations, dive shops, etc. While expensive (they have to make up the lack of advertising somehow) and very small monthly issues (think 10-20 pages total), the real gem comes once a year in their Chapbook. It's a huge collection (several hundred pages) of trip reports on every imaginable destination on earth - with little to no censoring of people's trips. Want the real truth on that dive shop in Honduras? The one that let me dive with corroded steel tanks and later admitted they hadn't been checked in five years? You will find it in the chapbook. Needless to say, I'm renewing my subscription this week.