Scuba Diving Blog & Forum
The most important rule in scuba diving is to never hold your breath. If you were to hold your breath, and in particular if you ascend whilst holding your breath, you will rupture your lungs. The worst case scenario for scuba divers to ignore this rule is death! Never hold your breath and you’ll be okay.
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS: Passport, Visa, Flight Tickets, Scuba Certification Card, Travel/Diving Insurance, Currency, Debit and Credit Card, Mobile or Cell Phone. If you have the items on this first short list, and should you forget anything else, you can always buy it or rent it when you get there!
SCUBA EQUIPMENT: Light Weight Travel BCD, Regulator, Octopus (Alternative Air Source), Pressure Gauge, Depth Gauge, Mask, Fins, Snorkel, Booties, Dive Computer, Wetsuit or Dry Suit, Gloves, Swimwear Or Dry Suit Under-suit, Surface Marker Buoy, Underwater Torch or Flash Light, Light Weight Dive Bag, Spare Mask and Fins Straps.
CLOTHING: Clothing of your choice and other travel items. These are all explained in this article below.
To answer the question ‘do you wear anything under a wetsuit‘ depends on your personal preference. You can choose to go commando and wear absolutely nothing under your wetsuit. Or if you are a male diver you can wear either board-shorts or speedos. But if you are a female diver you can choose to wear a bikini or a one-piece swimsuit. The choice is yours.
The best way to describe what is it like scuba diving for the first time is to say it’s exciting. Breathing underwater on your first scuba diving experience is something you’ll probably always remember, as I do nearly 30 years later after my first dive. And for me that’s not just because my first diving experience was on The Great Barrier Reef.
Can you die from the bends or can decompression sickness kill you? Yes in extreme cases of the bends or decompression sickness it can kill you. As explained below when a National Geographic diver lost his life diving to a depth of 122 metres (400 feet), whilst filming the wreck HMHS Britannic in Greece.
The jury is out as to whether or not vaping as a scuba diver is good or bad. But when you read that one of the ingredients of e-liquid, which is propylene glycol, can cause central nervous depression, seizures, laboured deep breathing, coma and suppressed brain activity, I wonder whether vaping and scuba diving perhaps is a bad thing.
Your question ‘can you scuba dive if you smoke cigarettes,’ I would argue no you shouldn’t. But if you choose to mix scuba diving and smoking, then you ought to be aware of the added risks of being a ‘scuba diver that smokes.’ If you’re finding it hard to quit smoking. Is your urge to experience ‘being underwater and breathing’ outweighing your need for nicotine, but you’re still struggling to make that step. Or if you’re thinking about curbing your habit down or switching to vaping and scuba diving, please read on.
Boyle’s Law scuba diving in simple terms means the volume of gases in a diver’s body cavities and flexible spaces in their diving equipment decrease in size as they descend and water pressure increases. But in reverse these same air spaces increase in size as the scuba diver returns to the surface.
‘Is it dangerous to scuba dive‘ is a question asked by many looking to try scuba diving out. The answer to this question is yes, but only if you don’t get properly trained and then by not follow the training you receive. The biggest dangers divers face and number one reason why scuba divers die is because they run out of air. This is due to carelessness on behalf of the diver and in most cases can be avoided.
14 decompression sickness risk factors in scuba diving include: Number and depth of previous dives, age, fitness, exertion, obesity, smoking and other drugs, alcohol consumption, fatigue, dehydration, injuries or birth defects, flying too soon being female and the menstrual cycle. When planning your next scuba dive, be aware of your own personal circumstances before simply relying on decompression tables or your dive computer.
Socorro Island’s giant pacific manta rays can grow to have wingspans up to 7 metres (23f). Scuba diving with Socorro Island mantas can only be achieved by Socorro Island liveaboard as the islands are 390 kilometres (240m) off the main land, making it a 24 hour boat ride from Cabo San Lucas.
Scuba diving with a disability has been transformed by Sue Austin with the world’s first self-propelled underwater wheelchair. Whilst there may be additional considerations for diving for the disabled, this doesn’t mean scuba diving can’t be done. Because it can – see video below. There are organisations and charities to help. The main diving organisations have courses to learn how to dive with people with disabilities too.
