Aquaviews - SCUBA Blog » rules of scuba diving

5 Tips To Becoming A Better Diver

Noreen — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:15:41 +0000

1. Be a Solo Diver: This rule doesn’t entail ditching your dive buddy and diving alone. By all means stay close to your buddy and be ready to help him. But as far as your own safety is concerned, pretend he’s not there or won’t be when you need him, in other words be self reliant. In any emergency your most dependable rescuer is yourself. Think solo, plan smarter and rehearse beforehand how you could deal with a situation so that if one arises you know how to react without wasting time looking for a rescuer.

Keep at hand all the dive gear and equipment you may need as if you were diving solo. For example: Have your own completely redundant air source, like a pony bottle, instead of relying on your buddy’s octopus. You may want several cutting tools instead of just one, mounted so you can reach at least one with either hand. Be prepared for yourself and carry your own backups.

2. Be Lazy: Mimic a sloth. Doing everything in slow motion will stretch your air supply. Move like you’re too exhausted to move. Every fin stroke, arm movement or even a head turn requires a lot more energy under water as it’s almost 800 times more dense than air. Energy in diving equals oxygen, so the faster you burn energy the faster you empty your dive tank. It’s that simple.

It takes a conscious effort to move at slow motion speeds, but practice will make it second nature. The payoff is bragging rights over your air-hog buddy at the end of the dive. Be lazy out of the water before and after a dive too. Sit down as much as possible and relax to conserve energy and you won’t feel fatigued. Most importantly stay lazy with your body in order to stay alert with your mind.

3. Breathe Efficiently: One of the first diving no-no’s you learn is to never hold your breath. And certainly don’t. To significantly improve your breathing efficiency, reverse your normal breathing pattern from inhale-exhale-pause to inhale-pause- exhale, the pattern many experienced divers adopt naturally over time. What you have to keep in mind is the pause you take when your lungs are filled is not held with your throat closed and most definitely not forced.

The few seconds pause while your lungs are full of air allows more time for gas exchange, so you take in more oxygen and dump more carbon dioxide with each breath. Therefore, your need to breathe will lessen and you will get more cycles out of your cylinder. This breathing technique is not taught because a pause can be confused as holding your breath with a closed-throat. So, if you aren’t sure of the difference or of not inadvertently closing your throat to pause, don’t try it.

4. Avoid Using Your BCD: Using the BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) throughout a dive for control is a mistake made by many divers, especially rookies. Since water is denser, momentum gathered takes a little more time to slow or stop. While you’re squirting a little more air in you BCD thinking you’re a little negative, before you realize it you’re actually a little positive. But you won’t feel positive because you come to a stop and pause there for a moment or two before that little squirt of air in your BC begins gathering its strength before raising you slowly.

Naturally, you need to use some judgment and assess the need to use those buttons when you’re dropping like a rock or rising like a cork. But, as you zero in on neutral buoyancy you don’t want to mess it up by touching the buttons again. You can make depth changes of four or five feet by using your lungs alone, without messing with your buoyancy compensator and losing that hard-to-find neutral buoyancy.

5. Don’t Overdo the Gear: By don’t overdo the dive gear we don’t mean offload your weights, ditch spare regulators or don’t wear a dive computer, it simply means don’t let your equipment get the better of you. Diving with an all new kit of diving equipment with a fancy new dive computer on one hand, an underwater camera in another and a squeaky new BCD you’re unfamiliar can be overwhelming. The use of your dive gear should be intuitive and not take up your attention. Another reason to avoid carrying extra gear apart from unnecessary fidgeting is the temptation to seek security in equipment rather than in technique. As a general rule, get more experience before more gear.

That said, we like to encourage divers to own their own gear and not rent, because owners know their gear better and take care of it better. We also think divers should buy their gear new and of top quality. There’s no such thing as too much performance and you definitely can’t put a price on safety.

*Image credits: photos by aa7ae, riandreu and pjf@cpan on flickr

Make Diving Safe A New Year’s Resolution

Noreen — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:30:48 +0000

Scuba diving just like any other sport, comes with it’s risks and dangers. You often hear or read about incidents diving accidents that even result in fatalities, but what we aren’t hearing enough on is why and how it can be prevented.

In most cases scuba diving accidents are a result of poor judgment, that can be easily avoided. Here are a few tips and considerations to make for diving safer when diving in the new year, particularly for those who dive infrequently and don’t have very much experience.

1. Poor diver health: Diving is a sport that requires a certain level of health requirements and fitness. Almost any pre-existing medical condition or health factor like obesity, poor heart condition, high-blood pressure, respiratory problems can affect a diver’s safety underwater. If you haven’t been diving for a while, don’t kid yourself about how fit you are to dive. You put your own life at risk if you dive with any medical conditions. For diving it is important that you have your health regularly monitored and be aware of any health conditions that could impedes your ability to be alert as well as withstand the conditions and pressures of the environmental conditions. Even simply being unfit can be problematic when diving. Being in poor physical condition reduces one’s stamina and energy levels which can cause fatigue, another major concern that comes with diving which can put a diver in risk of cutting down his/her air supply, causing undue stress or panic and increasing the chances of decompression illness.

2. Abiding safety procedures: You are taught, what you’re taught in your scuba diving training for a reason. Never hold your breath, watch your buoyancy, ascend slowly, equalize properly, do your safety stops, regulate your air consumption, dive with a good buddy, pre-dive gear checks….all of these are not just theory meant for the textbooks, you HAVE to practice them. Three critical words will help any diver be better prepared for dealing with a demanding diving situation and avoid accidents: practice, practice, practice! Most times you’ve already been taught the skills you’d need to rescue yourself in almost any situation, but you’ve forgotten how or don’t have practice. Don’t let anything you’re taught remain just theory. Put it to practice.

3. Dive within your comfort zone: A rookie mistake a lot of divers make is not being ready for a dive. Your experience, training, practice and dive buddy are all important factors to consider if your up for a dive, particularly if it’s considered an advanced dive or there are environmental conditions you’re never faced before. Fighting an unexpected current while exploring a wreck is not fun, especially if you lack good buoyancy control, the ability to swim in a streamlined and efficient manner or lack the physical endurance to fight that current. Diving should be fun and not competitive or done under pressure, if you’re not sure about a dive for whatever the reason, your breathing didn’t feel right, the currents were too strong, you were getting tired….you can always end it. A simple “It did not feel right to me,” is more than sufficient reason to abort a dive. Don’t let anyone talk you into doing dives you may have doubts about. This is a biggie, some dive operations have a reputation for taking open water divers deeper than they should go, into areas they are not trained for, and on dives that are beyond the skills and abilities of their divers. Don’t let peer pressure put you in a situation that you are not ready for. It’s your life and your responsibility at the end of the day.

4. Gear up for emergencies: Keep at hand all the dive gear and equipment you may need if you were diving solo. For example: Have your own completely redundant air source, like a pony bottle, instead of relying on your buddy’s octopus. You may want several cutting tools instead of just one, mounted so you can reach at least one with either hand in case of entanglement. A surface signaling device is important when boat diving, in case you surface out of sight of the dive boat, you should also have a whistle to draw attention. Be prepared for yourself and carry your own backups. (Read: Must-Have Scuba Diving Safety Gear)

5. Rescue Course: Lastly, we recommend that all divers get their rescue and emergency response certification as there’s nothing better to develop your own self-rescue ability than learning how to rescue someone else.The focus on emergency situations and practical training for the same will not only teach you a lot but it’ll also boost your confidence and increase your comfort levels underwater.

*Photo Credits: photos by xstevex1, ianmyles, gjs on flickr

A Guide to Decompression Stops – II

Nevin — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:32:05 +0000

There are a few different kinds of decompression stops/ pauses in ascent, which a scuba diver needs to make to allow for the expelling of inert gasses to minimize the possibility of the gasses forming micro-bubbles which in turn can cause Decompression Sickness or DCS. In this article we take a closer look at the Safety Stop, Deco Stops and Deep Stops.

Decompression Stop/Deco Stop

A decompression stop is a pause in a diver’s ascent made to allow the body to expel dissolved gases primarily nitrogen in the blood. Without decompression stops, these gases would expand, turning into bubbles and causing decompression sickness.

While a safety stop is in essence a kind of ‘decompression stop’, if the diver has remained within the NDL (no-decompression Limits) throughout the dive, the safety stop is more of a precautionary measure rather than a mandatory stop unlike a decompression dive stop. Omitting a decompression stop puts the diver at great risk of nitrogen bubbling and DCS. While a safety stop is always carried out at 15-20 feet for 3 to 5 minutes a decompression stop varies based on the depth and time the diver spent at a particular depth, and that diver would perform a Deco Stop and a Safety Stop at 5m (15ft).

Decompression stops are a critical part of deep water diving, with the length and depth of such stops varying depending on the depth and length of the dive. Typically, more than one decompression stop is needed and many divers use dive computers to calculate their decompression stops and to alert them of when and how long to perform the stop.

Most recreational diving discourages divers from intentionally doing decompression dives (i.e. dives beyond the NDLs of dive tables) this is because on a single tank dive, the chances of a diver running out of air while having to perform long decompression stops is highly likely, putting the diver at risk of either running out of air, or skipping the deco stop and possibly ending up with DCS.

Deep Stop

A relatively new concept introduced into the world of scuba diving, A deep stop is a pause or a series of pauses on the ascent, prior to any mandatory stops (either safety or deco). According to DAN (Divers Alert Network) an additional deep safety stops adds a significant margin of safety versus only making the normal 20 -15ft safety stop. A deep stop is said to help prevent the formation of micro-bubbles in a diver’s bloodstream and also slows down their ascent.

Usually newer dive computers incorporate Deep Stops into their algorithms, and alerts divers when to take a Deep stop. However for those recreational divers wanting to manually calculate when to take one, simply divide your max depth by two and do a 30 second to a minute stop there. A deep stop is a 30-60 second stop at 50% of the maximum depth for the dive and should be taken by anyone doing decompression dives, or diving near the NDL’s.

Aquaviews Tip: A Deep Stop is not a substitute for your Deco Stop or Safety Stop. A diver should always adhere to the originally calculated or dive computer prompted decompression stops in addition to the deep stop.

photos from flickr by: Nemo’s great uncle, ClifB

A Guide to Decompression Stops – I

Nevin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:55:27 +0000

Safety Stop
Every recreational scuba diver has been taught to perform safety stops while learning how to dive. A safety stop which is a 3 to 5 minute halt on ascent at 5m (15ft), assists the body in rapidly eliminating nitrogen. Even a diver that has remained within Decompression Limits is susceptible to bubbling on ascent and the safety stop helps mitigate the chances of this happening by speeding up the off-gassing process.

A diver that performs a 3 minute safety stop after a dive will have less nitrogen in their body immediately upon surfacing as compared to a diver that did not perform a safety stop, but has been on the surface “off-gassing” for 3 minutes. Therefore, no matter whether the dive is within NDL’s or not a safety stop is highly beneficial on any dive.

All dive computers prompt divers either with an audible alarm or through the display the when they should perform the stop, and provide a count-down of 3-5 minutes. If you dive without a computer, make sure you have a wrist watch or timer with you to ensure you spend the correct amount of time at this stop.

There are still a few divers that choose to ignore the safety stop when they have not gone in deco, claiming that the safety stop is not mandatory but only precautionary. One should still always observe the safety stop if they have sufficient air, as this is highly beneficial in helping the body “off-gas” and minimize the risk of DCS.

Aquaviews Top Tip: Even if the other divers in your group are ignoring the safety stop, you should always perform one no matter what your dive profile or depth was. Why take a chance of getting “bent” when a short safety stop could’ve prevented it?

Decompression Stops & Deep stops Continued tomorrow.

photos from flickr by:Nemo’s great uncle, stuandgravy

5 Rules to Better Diving

Noreen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:29:49 +0000

Rule#1 -Be a Solo Diver: This rule doesn’t entail ditching your dive buddy and diving alone. By all means stay close to your buddy and be ready to help him. But, as far as your own safety is concerned, pretend he’s not there or… won’t be when you need him, in other words be self reliant. In any emergency your most dependable rescuer is you. Think solo, plan smarter and rehearse before-head how you could deal with a situation so that if one arises you know how to react without wasting time looking for a rescuer.

RULE #2- Be Lazy: Mimic a sloth. Doing everything in slow motion will stretch your air supply. Move like you’re too exhausted too. Every fin stroke, arm movement or even a head turn requires a lot more energy under water as it’s 800, yes that’s 800 times more dense than air. Energy in diving equals oxygen, so the faster you burn energy the faster you empty your dive tank. It’s that simple.

RULE #3- Breathe Efficiently: One of the first diving No-no you learn is to never hold your breath. And certainly don’t. To significantly improve your breathing efficiency, reverse your normal breathing pattern from inhale-exhale-pause to inhale-pause- exhale- -the pattern many experienced divers adopt naturally over time. What you have to keep in mind is the pause you take when your lungs are filled is not held with your throat closed and most definitely not forced.

The few seconds pause while your lungs are full of air allows more time for gas exchange, so you take in more oxygen and dump more carbon dioxide with each breath. Therefore, your need to breathe will lessen and you will get more cycles out of your cylinder. This breathing technique is not taught cause a pause can be confused as holding your breath with a closed-throat. So, if you aren’t sure of the difference or of not inadvertently closing your throat to pause, don’t try it.

RULE #4 – Avoid Using Your BCD: Using the BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) throughout a dive for control is a mistake made by many divers, especially rookies. Since water is denser momentum gathered takes a little more time to slow or stop. While you’re squirting a little more air in you BCD thinking you’re a little negative even before you realize it you’re actually a little positive then. But you won’t feel positive because you come to a stop and pause there for a moment or two before that little squirt of air in your BC begins gathering its strength before raising you slowly.

Naturally, you need to use some judgment and assess the need to use those buttons when you’re dropping like a rock or rising like a cork. But, as you zero in on neutral buoyancy you don’t want to mess it up by touching the buttons again. You can make depth changes of four or five feet by using your lungs alone, without messing with your Buoyancy Compensator and losing that hard-to-find neutral buoyancy.

Rule #5 – Don’t Overdo the Gear: By don’t overdo the dive gear we don’t mean off load your weights, ditch spare regulators or don’t wear a dive computer, it simply means don’t let your equipment get the better of you. Diving with an all new kit of diving equipment with a fancy new dive computer on one hand, an underwater camera in another and a squeaky new BCD you’re unfamiliar can be overwhelming. The use of your dive gear should be intuitive and not take up your attention. Another reason to avoid carrying extra gear apart from unnecessary fidgeting is the temptation to seek security in equipment rather than in technique. As a general rule, get more experience before more gear.