Magazines usually work about 4 months out from pulished/delivery date. Just understand that what you are looking at now, they put to bed four months ago. At this point they are likely finishing up the Feb-March '05 issue.
Dive magazines -- "What Hurricane?"
- Thread starter Trisha
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SeanQ
Contributor
rpayne:
I picked up a copy of SCUBA Press. It's a new Canadian magazine with 4 issues a year. I like it a lot more than the advertisement drenched SCUBA Diving.
rpayne:
SeanQ:
So far Dive Training seems to have the most informative articles, but lately (past couple of issues) they've gotten a little too basic. The other rags just seem to write about dive destinations. That's fine, but it gets old after a while. They're good references to review when we're heading out to a new destination.
There's another Canadian mag called Diver that we just started getting. It's not too bad, but they just changed editors so probably still too early to judge them.
Immersed just came back into publication. Digital version already out, paper version out in a couple of weeks. Just looked over the digital version and it looks good. Don't recall seeing full page adds for the Caymans there!
OP
Trisha
Contributor
One source for information, both USA and overseas:
http://refdesk.com/
About halfway down on the right column, click on "USA/World Newspapers." I check out the local news, classifieds, police reports for areas I intend to visit (it worked well this summer for our Missouri/Arkansas trips.) It also gave me current information about what was happening in the Caribbean during the recent hurricane season.
There is no such thing as objective reporting (writers are human, too) but at least there is some attempt at presenting facts, not just advertising disguised as news.
http://refdesk.com/
About halfway down on the right column, click on "USA/World Newspapers." I check out the local news, classifieds, police reports for areas I intend to visit (it worked well this summer for our Missouri/Arkansas trips.) It also gave me current information about what was happening in the Caribbean during the recent hurricane season.
There is no such thing as objective reporting (writers are human, too) but at least there is some attempt at presenting facts, not just advertising disguised as news.
detroit diver
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I stopped paying for Scuba Diving mag about 1 1/2 years ago-and they keep sending it to me! That rag is a joke-from their ad inspired "testing" to the worthless articles that they print. What a waste of trees....
CaptSaaz
Contributor
I only get Scuba Diving mag because it was a free subscription. Out of all the ones I recieve, Dive Training is head and shoulders above the others. Even if thay have been a bit ob the bsic side, thats fine since I'm still a bit of a basic diver still.
mikedarmody
Guest
rpayne:
I like Sport Diver (PADI) and Dive Training. Good pictures too.
Just wanted to throw in the fact that we got back from a cruise today and we dove Cayman on Wednesday 
. We were told by the dive boat operator during our surface interval that cruise ships have been coming in for three weeks now. The dive shop we used was still repairing but is up and running. The reefs were AWESOME. The second dive I could notice a light covering of "snow" on a lot of the reef but I figured this was because of the shallow depth of the second dive. He also mentioned that it will be another couple of weeks before other travelers are let back on the island. Of the normally 40,000 island inhabitants only about 20,000 have returned. On the short trip to the dive shop the damage was amazing. A whole lot of roof and tree damage.
Just wanted to throw in the fact that the shops are up and running, however getting there could be challenging.
. We were told by the dive boat operator during our surface interval that cruise ships have been coming in for three weeks now. The dive shop we used was still repairing but is up and running. The reefs were AWESOME. The second dive I could notice a light covering of "snow" on a lot of the reef but I figured this was because of the shallow depth of the second dive. He also mentioned that it will be another couple of weeks before other travelers are let back on the island. Of the normally 40,000 island inhabitants only about 20,000 have returned. On the short trip to the dive shop the damage was amazing. A whole lot of roof and tree damage.Just wanted to throw in the fact that the shops are up and running, however getting there could be challenging.
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You can still get useful information from Scubadiving, just not from their reviews. I'm never surprised when the first fullpage ad after a review is for one of the products given a tester's choice award in the review. Maybe it's just smart marketing.rpayne:
I also read SportDiver although it's (understandably) Padi oriented.
Fathoms is the best mag for high quality dive photos. Not a lot of useful content if you're not a photographer though. Their last issue has some spectacular shots though, worth the price just for the pictures.
There's another one I've looked at a couple of times, Diver's Ocean Planet, good pics and reviews although some of the filler material is marginal.
Bring back Skindiver...
StSomewhere
Contributor
I have read comments like this a lot.sjspeck:
Is it necessarily that the ad "bought" the good review? Or that the ad might be bought after the manufacturer got word that one of their products was a "tester's choice" to take advantage of the award? Like you say, "smart marketing"? Or maybe even that its coincidence?
Or is this just a case that one the idea is out there, that "the ads bought the awards", is it repeated without anyone ever questioning whether or not it's true?
I just pulled out my July 2004 Scuba Diving mag with the new regulator reviews.
"Tester's Choice" for the <$500 went to the AquaLung Calypso II, the Mares MR12/Axis Pro, and the Mares R2/Axis Pro.
"Tester's Choice" for the >$500 went to the ScubaPro MK25/X650 (which was bought retail, not provided by ScubaPro), the Zeagle Flathead VI/ZX and the Apex Black Pearl.
But a check in the advertiser's directory shows that NONE of these manufacturers bought ads in that issues. None, not even their affiliate/sister companies (i.e. AquaLung).
At least the info I get from Scuba Diving shows how there scoring system is tallied/weighted, in case someone might weight their own criiteria differently than Rodale. IMO, its at least more useful to me than the rest of the stock "its not DIR so it must be crap" arguments.
If anything, the criticism should be that they only review the new stuff, though the reg and fins reviews did reference last years winner's scores.
And, no, I don't work for Rodale, or anyone else in the diving industry.
BTW, I totally agree that Dive Training is probably the best overall magazine as far as getting useful info about diving and equipment in general. Definitely the one that I don't want to miss any issues.
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