Undercurrent Magazine questions

[reubencahn]

I just got in the mail an invitation to undercurrent magazine and I was wondering if any one has subscribed to this magazine and if the magazine has good infomation or does it bash scuba diving ?

It does not bash scuba diving. Undercurrent reviews various scuba diving destinations. They are like consumer reports in that they do not accept advertising etc, pay for all trips themselves and do not reveal their identity as reviewers. The information Undercurrent contains is good but necessarily subjective and necessarily less than comprehensive. They generally have one major review/article per month. Many months the articles will be about places in which you have no interest. Probably the best part of the magazine is the yearly chapbook, a large collection of trip reports submitted by the readers of Undercurrent.

All the information in Undercurrent, you can get online for free by searching sites such as this. However, the magazine puts it in convenient format in the Chapbook. And it's nice to get that once a month delivery to spur you in thinking about your next trip.

 

[matt_unique]

I received the same invitation recently. The consensus from the threads on this board indicate the publication is pretty good but they rarely update their information and as a result it's not worth the money. I think you (we) would get the best information by posting on this and other boards to get the latest information from those who have traveled to the location of interest.

--Matt

 

[docmartin]

i highly recommend it. i plan all my trips using undercurrent and have not gone wrong. reviews are obviously subjective but there are so many that you get the idea of which accomodations and dive ops shine. i am not sure what this complaint about it being outdated is about. the chapbook which you receive in december gives you all reader reviews from september of the prior year to september of the current year. i don't find that outdated. major changes or developments at popular destinations are usually reported in a timely manner via e-mail and the newsletter (e.g. bankruptcies, changes in dive op ownership...). their website is also a great resource.

 

[rcohn]

I have an online subscription and like Undercurrent, it's very useful when planning trips. With an online subscription, costs are around $25 per year (not sure of exact amount), and you have access to all the old chapbooks and archives. The only drawback is you must wait several months for the newsletter to become available.

Ralph

 

[Saturation]

Undercurrent.org is an excellent magazine. The only question is cost per issue, whether its worth it, even the online chapbook. It was certainly invaluable before the Internet but now, the commentaries published are about as valid as asking the 10,000 users of scubaboard or the 15,000 users of scubadiving.com, the latter contain reports that rival UC.

Of major value is the editorial panel, they rapidly silence noise from the signal. In the chapbook, the introductory remarks are as valuable as the content of the reviews.

Before embarking on a mega $ trip, I would still consult UC and now the Internet, as there are only so many trips one can make in one's lifetime.

 

[ScubaTexan]

I got the invitation the other day as well. I may not subscribe to it, but I do like the scuba diving address labels that came with the invitation. Much obliged.

 

[5615mike]

I subscribed for one month last year and didn't think it was worth it. A lot of the info particularily with gear I found to be dated info and not that great. I think you can get way more info "free" here on ScubaBoard. Just my opinion of course.

Completely agree. I subscibed for an annual term and wished I had not. I mean it's ok but as soon as I read it, in about 15 minutes, I throw it away. I have found SB and several other boards to be easily more informative and certainly much more current........LOL

 

[DocVikingo]

No, it does not bash scuba diving.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[-hh]

It does not bash scuba diving. Undercurrent reviews various scuba diving destinations.

They are useful in getting "less filtered" information, although the same also applies today to many Internet sources.

They are like consumer reports in that they do not accept advertising etc, pay for all trips themselves and do not reveal their identity as reviewers.

They don't accept advertising for their hardcopy version, but ~2 years ago, they did get caught "soliciting" for advertisers to support their electronic newsletter. In any event, _everyone_ always has an agenda, even if they were to altruistically provide a free service.

They generally have one major review/article per month. Many months the articles will be about places in which you have no interest.

Reviews have often been of relatively new and far-off exotic destinations, which is what IMO makes the subscription both expensive and not particularly applicable for most people. They're probably smart in a way to stay away from places like Bonaire, Cayman & Cozumel where there's tons of Internet information and regular travellers who can tell you minutia.

And it's nice to get that once a month delivery to spur you in thinking about your next trip.

Fair enough. They also generally do a pretty good recurring series on "Why Divers Die" that's worth reading, although after you've been a subscriber for years, its obvious that its a 'boilerplate' template that gets updated with this year's examples (this month's WDD installment was on overweighting...nothing profoundly new/different to report for 2003 vs prior years).


-hh