COVER STORY Picks and Nixes of '98 A Preview of the 1999 Chapbook The 1999 Chapbook has gone to bed - bigger and better than ever, of course. Check out the cream of the crop - from Curaçao and Honduras to Palm Beach and Key Largo - as well as pans from Cayman to Belize. Learn how to dive Fiji on a budget and where to get new low Pacific airfares, and hear how our readers fared on some live-aboards, including one who was a passenger on a Panamanian boat's maiden voyage.   Mike Ball's New Paradise Sport While the waters of Papua New Guinea offer the proverbial "once-in-a-lifetime" experience and yield the strangest collection of tropical ocean animals most divers have ever seen, dream trips are a major investment, and many non-photographers wonder whether PNG diving is worth the cost of the trip. Our reviewer, a non-photographer himself, decided to check out PNG diving from muck to reefs to wrecks aboard Mike Ball's new PNG catamaran, the Paradise Sport. Find out whether the Paradise Sport lives up to the reputation of Mike Ball's Spoil Sport and Super Sport in the Great Barrier Reef as well as what our reviewer thought of the dive program, the boat, the food ... and the "creeping euphoria" of PNG diving itself. PNG Choices There are several excellent choices for diving PNG, but all come with a hefty price tag. Live-aboard itineraries vary by region and season, alternating between muck diving, big fish diving, reef diving, and wreck diving, and booking the wrong itinerary can set the stage for diver disappointment. Check out some of the live-aboard choices and learn what questions to ask to make sure you get what you're paying for: the trip of a lifetime. While in PNG, Forget Port Moresby While Papua New Guinea has the world-class diving we all dream about, many people fear having to overnight in Port Moresby, a wild and woolly town. Now an established resort a few minutes from the airport has become a diver's alternative that's safe and serene - and replete with characteristic PNG diving. See the full article. Seeking Revenge on Tiger Sharks When someone gets killed by a shark in Hawaii, the response has usually been to seek revenge. But current research tracking tiger sharks in the islands has raised questions about the likelihood of a shark returning to the site of its kill, making some researchers question whether shark culling programs are an effective response to the problem. Left on The Outer Edge An inquest held in Cairns last month shed new light on the disappearance of divers Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, who were left at sea by the dive boat Outer Edge in January, 1998. Testimony at the hearing revealed new evidence in the case as well as numerous ignored clues that passengers had been left behind - plus experts' grisly speculations about the couple's probable fate. See the full article. A Cautionary Note on Ascent Rates For several years, DAN has studied the effect rapid ascents have on decompression illness, aided by animal studies and data on Navy ascent rates. Recently several divers contributed depth-time profiles to the study, and a surprising number failed to ascend at the proper rate. Find out how dive computers may contribute to the problem - and what DAN believes should be done about it. Why Divers Die Part VI: Pushing the Limits While you can become a better diver by testing yourself against currents, depths, and emergency situations whenever you have the opportunity, too many divers succumb to their desire to push their skills, turning the caves into graves and the depths into disasters. It's important to acknowledge the well-known risks of narcosis, solo diving, and false bravado if you're going to dive safely. A Look at Dacor's Bandit Mask Dacor's new Bandit mask is arguably the lowest volume scuba mask on the market, and it distinctly makes the wearer look like a bandit. But is it a genuine improvement? Our reviewer takes a practical look at visibility with the Bandit, evaluates its water-tightness and anti-fog properties - and discovers the perfect mask defogger in the process. The Gear Gray Market Dive magazines are full of ads from mail-order discounters like Leisure Pro advertising name-brand gear from Scubapro, U.S. Divers, Dacor, and other major manufacturers. Yet these same manufacturers deny they sell their goods to mail-order discounters and refuse to honor warranties on equipment purchased from them. So how do the discounters obtain the name-brand gear they sell? Undercurrent goes behind the scenes of the gear gray market to uncover the inner workings of the dive-gear discount firms and the role retail shops play in supplying them with the gear they sell. Readers Write One of our readers gets the chance to assist in a dive emergency - and to test his new Divers Equipment Protection Plan insurance for dive gear lost in the process. And Maui's Ed Robinson responds to our column on marine life harassment, weighing in with his vote in the debate on whether divers get the short end of the stick when it comes to "marine life rights." Checking Out the Buzz: Testing the Ideations SubAlert Some divers love to signal each other underwater, but others of us hate the distracting quality of the banging, shaking, and snapping. Now Ideations, the company that brought us the excellent emergency surface signal DiveAlert, has just introduced the SubAlert, a signaling device that emits an intense buzzing sound whenever its button is depressed. Our reviewer decided to test the SubAlert's effectiveness underwater to see whether it merits inclusion in low-visibility dive plans. Alert - Nikonos SB-103 Recall Nikon announced it is voluntarily recalling all Nikonos Speedlight Model SB 103 electronic flashes because of a problem with gas buildup in the unit that could result in the front lens and flash tube unit projecting off the front of the speedlight. See Current Upwellings for information on how to return the units for free replacement with the SB-105, which poses no similar risk. Shallow Water Bends When Australian physicians noticed several shallow dives leading to bends, they decided to study thirty-five 1996-7 shallow-water cases. Their study sheds new light on some dangers of shallow-water dives, which may not be as risk-free as was once thought. Hear what the new study has to say about shallow water risk factors, and find out who got bent and why. Flotsam & Jetsam Discover Diving has a new owner, and malaria has a new prophylaxis that you can purchase at your vitamin counter. And wreck hunters recently turned up an unlikely treasure trove: over 2000 bottles of eminently-drinkable turn-of-the-century champagnes and cognacs that may fetch in the range of $3000 - $8000 a bottle.