Scuba diving has attracted the attention of many enthusiasts all over the globe. It seems to be a very fulfilling and enjoyable activity. Some people have made careers out of their passion for scuba diving. The world has sensationalized scuba diving in such a way that it has helped preserve the environment and greatly contributed to the awareness regarding the environmental issues that are associated with our aquatic resources.

One of the major and popular issues that is continuously being discussed in the scuba diving arena is the conservation of air under water. An emerging scuba apparatus design is called a re-breather, which can help people address the concern about rapid air consumption. The apparatus functions in such a way that the exhaled air by the diver is stripped of carbon dioxide and is re-circulated to the air chamber. This way, one can enjoy the deep seas much longer. However, in most cases, divers don’t have such an apparatus.

Having insufficient air under water poses grave risks for the diver. One of the major causes of brain damage from scuba diving activities is the prolonged lack of oxygen that flows into the brain. Our brains rely on oxygen to deliver the necessary nutrients for it to function and if a diver doesn’t know how to properly manage his air, he is exposing himself to the risk of running out of breathable air.

So, what are some of the ways by which a scuba diver can conserve air while diving? One of the most controversial suggestions regarding the issue is to hold one’s breath during dives to be able to conserve air. In real life, one shouldn’t make breathe holding a diving habit. A simple analogy for holding one’s breath is it is like killing the chicken to be able to get the eggs. It’s really a matter of priority. Do you want to conserve air from your tank while risking yourself to the negative effects of carbon dioxide saturation? The build up of carbon in the brain is dangerous because it pollutes the blood stream and deprives all the parts of the body from the much-needed gas that is oxygen.

However, holding one’s breath has some useful applications. It can be used to control buoyancy under water. Professionals to ascend a maximum of one foot, but nothing more than that usually use it. One should also remember that it is a “no-no” to hold one’s breath while ascending rapidly.

A more accepted way of conserving one’s air under water is to practice slow breathing. When you inhale and exhale, you should do it in a way that you fully go through the process. Breathing completely and slowly is the way to go if you really want to conserve water under water. It makes the whole process of respiration more efficient and effective as compared to taking short inhales and making short exhales.

Another tip (which is related to the one given above) is that it is more advisable to make big kicks as compared to making tiny ones. The concept behind this is that it is a more efficient way to move under water, therefore, you conserve your energy and your body needs less oxygen.

Sometimes, divers usually do all the things that are mentioned above and they still find themselves consuming too much air. For all the air hogs out there, the problem might not be under water. Being physically fit is very important in scuba diving. A diver who smokes would most definitely consume much more air more rapidly than a diver who is in good physical condition. Looking at the issue of air conservation under water from a more holistic point of view is perhaps the best tip that one can imbibe.

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If you’re adventurous and unconventional, a career in scuba diving may be right for you. Usually, those who pursue scuba diving careers were scuba diving enthusiasts who wish to take their hobby to a different level. Scuba diving is impossible to compare to other career choices.

Instead of causing stress, it is a rejuvenating activity and doing something you like that pays you is a real serendipity. You get to use your knowledge of the sport with other people who share your interest. In scuba diving, there’s no unappreciative boss and annoying colleagues.

Starting a scuba diving career is a bit like other careers, though. You need to have an extreme interest in diving, then develop your abilities. Though it seems so easy since scuba diving sounds like it’s all about fun, there’s more to learn to become a scuba diving instructor. You have to master not only the craft of teaching but also develop an expertise in diving.

Like other professionals, scuba diving instructors also used to be students. They began with easier courses on scuba diving and then slowly moved on to more advanced courses. Of course, through the process, they were able to see more to scuba diving than just having fun while diving. They were able to see a different side of scuba diving that encourages them to share the sport with others.

If you ask any scuba diver instructor, he’ll probably tell you much about what scuba diving has to offer. For the love of the sport and the desire to let others experience the beauty of scuba diving, they ended up becoming a scuba diver instructor.

Although you might think that scuba diver instructors know everything there is to learn, the truth is there is still so much to learn about scuba diving. Scuba diving is an evolving activity. The military and scientists use it as well. Nobody can possibly learn everything about scuba diving.

It offers a whole new world and constantly opens more doors to exploring the mysteries of the underwater life. If you are up to this challenge, then you should seriously consider a career in scuba diving.

To be a scuba diving instructor, you first need to be a dive master. There are numerous scuba diving schools or agencies where you can earn a dive master certification.

By the end of an instructor development course, you are expected to learn more than just the basics of diving. You’ll be taught about diving standards, safety and regulations and the scuba diving system as it relates to the law. Of course, you’ll learn techniques that you can employ to effectively teach your future students.

This extensive course definitely prepares you to wear the certification of a master of scuba diving. You learn everything you need to know to kick-start your career in scuba diving. Of course, the rest of the learning process will follow once you have started your craft. Like many other careers, you only get about 20% of the knowledge from training, and you derive the rest in the real world.

As a scuba diving instructor, students expect a lot from you. You need to be able to teach scuba divers how to dive safely and have fun at the same time. That is quite a responsibility. Your students have placed their lives in your hands, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to teach them how to stay safe and remain alive while underwater.

There are other factors to consider when pursuing a career as a scuba diver instructor. Like other careers, there’s marketing involved. You may have to learn a little how to prepare sales literature as well as product marketing. You don’t have to buy everything they advertise but you need to understand the scuba diving business industry. The market in scuba diving largely affects your job and your students as well.

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However, before you excitedly jump in bear in mind that scuba diving poses some hazards. We have briefly covered these but let’s dig in and explore them further.

The most common of these are pressure related injuries, such as decompression sickness or air embolism. To avoid these injuries, you must be able to calculate how long you can safely stay underwater. You also need to know the proper descent and ascent rates, or else you might find yourself fatally inflicted with these pressure related illnesses.

Most aquatic animals don’t pose any risks to divers. In fact, a diver may be a threat to them. For example, coral could be killed by just one touch.

However, there are also a few marine life forms that may injure a diver. The most common include jellyfishes, stinging corals, fire corals, and sea urchins. Sharks and poisonous sea animals can also injure divers, but very rarely. Generally, animals attack humans only when they are provoked.

Although, there have been recorded unprovoked shark attacks, the number is still few. Statistics show that your odds of being attacked by one of these dangerous aquatic animals are 1 in 12 million. You’re more likely to be attacked by a dog or a snake when you’re above water.

Scuba diving, being a visual underwater experience, doesn’t include altering the underwater habitat. Divers shouldn’t touch anything, be it a plant, animal or an object underwater.

Usually, the best scuba diving location is where there is plentiful marine life. Of course, it is an added advantage for divers if the water is clear and the temperature warm. That reveals the aquatic beauty clearly and is a better adjustment to the underwater temperature.

We will look at specific diving locations in an upcoming chapter, but briefly the most popular diving destination is the Caribbean. The Caribbean coral reefs are incredibly colorful and abound with marine life. Different types of fish find shelter among these coral reefs. Most parts of the Caribbean region have been designated to be marine sanctuaries thus fishing and other human activities that could damage the marine life are prohibited.

Shipwreck sites are usually considered off limits as well. Aside from providing valuable treasure and clues to our rich history, these sunken ships also provide aquatic animals an ideal nesting or breeding area. These ships not only add beauty to the ocean floors, they also have some utilitarian purposes for aquatic animals that live in deep places where resources are very scarce.

It’s been said that there are about 75,000 sunken ships in the North America area alone. These locations also attract thousands of divers from around the world. Some hoped to find buried treasures while others seek fame for having discovered some important historical links. Still, several dive for recreation purposes just to enjoy what the underwater environment has to offer.

Other protected areas that are also famous dive destinations are the South Pacific, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The government and environment organizations try to conserve the beauty of the habitat of these aquatic animals and plants. Although these destinations are open for viewing and recreational diving, enough marine police are assigned to ensure that the divers abide by the conservation rules and regulations.

It is appropriate to raise these marine conservation issues, especially now with our advanced technology. Technology advancements mean a lesser concern for the environment. Just take a look at what’s above sea level. There are high-rise buildings and large factories that contribute to pollution.

Currently, mankind is slowly able to invade the depths of the ocean, as well. In fact, submersibles now allow humans to go into the deepest parts of the oceans. Marine biologists, geologists, archaeologists and scientists are using such technology to enable them to stay in the ocean for long periods of time so they can learn more in their fields of study.

Who knows what the near future has in store for deep water exploration?

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In order to stay safe while underwater and make scuba diving a wonderful experience, you should ensure that you are able to get proper training before you dive in. Scuba diving isn’t a sport that you can learn on your own. You have to consult the expertise of scuba diving instructors and undergo specialized training to learn the ins and outs of scuba diving.

If you’re planning to scuba dive over the weekend, the first thing you should check is if you’re physically fit for the challenge. Aside from being a decent swimmer, you have to pass a certain fitness level. Scuba diving could be fatal to those who aren’t physically strong enough. If you’re not sure about your level of fitness, you can try talking about your scuba diving plans with your doctor.

Even if you’re just planning to make scuba diving a one-time experience during your vacation in the tropics, you have to go through a basic scuba diving course. Most resorts have dive shops and scuba diving courses. You may want to check on these. Knowing the basics of scuba diving will enable you to go scuba diving, but you will need proper supervision from scuba diving professionals to ensure that your scuba diving experience will be as safe as possible.

When you’re about a hundred feet below the surface, pressure builds up and your body starts reacting to too much nitrogen in your bloodstream. When this unexpected difficulty happens, you might not be able to think clearly. In fact, you could panic, which isn’t advisable when you’re underwater. That’s why, it is important to have proper training.

With proper training, you’ll be able to plan your dive. So when you’re feeling a bit nervous while underwater, you don’t have to think about what you need to do, you just have to follow your dive plan.

To help you achieve your dive plan, you will need scuba diving equipment, such as a dive computer. A dive computer calculates and displays your dive depth, ascent rate, time, etc. These details are very helpful to prevent any decompression or pressure related injuries. These injuries such as Nitrogen Narcosis, could be fatal to divers.

Once you’ve tried scuba diving and you’ve enjoyed it so much that you want to make it your lifetime sport, you will have to go a little further with your scuba diving training. There are many recognized scuba diving training agencies where you can get your certification.

A Basic Certification in scuba diving involves both theoretical and practical aspects of the course. You can work in a swimming pool or diving school and pass written exams on diving to become certified. Once of the toughest challenges a diving student may face during his certification process is learning to use a dive table. Usually, a student will undergo a dive operation using a giant dive table that will hopefully, aid him or her in mastering the subject.

An Open Water Certification on the other hand, will require you to go somewhere, maybe in the tropical areas, where scuba diving is in season. Children who are 14 years old or younger won’t be able to get fully certified, but if they plan to obtain a full certification soon, they can enroll themselves in some scuba diving classes to prepare for them.

A good diving course will also teach you how to properly select, care and use scuba diving gear. Of course, you will learn how to scuba dive safely, even without any supervision. By taking up a scuba diving course, you can improve on your breathing techniques and other scuba diving skills to make your diving experience more enjoyable.

So if you’re up to the exciting scuba diving challenges, then get started, breathe deeply, and dive just right in. Scuba diving could be your ticket to an extreme underwater adventure.

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Bouyancy Compensator

Who wouldn’t want to explore the world under the sea? Mankind has always been fascinated with life underwater. Because of this great fascination, extensive research and amazing inventions have given us the chance to breathe underwater so we can observe or simply have fun in dealing with aquatic animals.

However, breathing underwater isn’t just simply bringing a tank full of air with you when you dive. There are many things that you need to consider. Staying underwater is totally different from living on land.

For one, humans don’t have the gills that can extract oxygen from the water. Air pressure is also significantly different from water pressure. The human body isn’t adapted to high-pressure changes. Controlling your buoyancy and avoiding losing body heat when underwater are also major considerations.

Fortunately, probably everything that a scuba diver needs to safely explore the depths of the ocean is available. There’s the mask, snorkel, fins, regulators and diving suits to name just a few. These equipments allow the diver to breathe, control their position and stay warm underwater.

To breathe underwater, a scuba diver wears a metal tank full of compressed air. A regulator is attached to this tank, which adjusts the air pressure to match that of the surroundings so the diver can breathe comfortably. The regulator delivers air through a mouthpiece, which the diver uses to inhale and exhale. Breathing through your mouth comes naturally, so you don’t need to add that to your worries.

Another hose is attached to a regulator to control the diver’s buoyancy. It is attached to an air bladder that is adjustable. Since the diver wears this as a vest, adding air into it would make him more buoyant, and thus, he rises. When he releases the air, the opposite happens.

These buoyancy compensators also help a scuba diver achieve neutral buoyancy. When you are in neutral buoyancy, you can stay at a constant depth without much effort. This minimizes gas consumption due to swimming.

Divers also wear lead weights as a belt to allow them to descend and stay underwater. The weights are evenly spaced to achieve proper balance. During emergency situations, a diver can quickly release these belts to rise to the surface.

A diver’s suit is really incredible. It is made of a compressible substance, thus when you descend, it reduces the volume, and when you ascend, it expands. They are very helpful in conveniently controlling one’s buoyancy.

A suit can also provide thermal insulation. A wetsuit, for example, is usually made of neoprene that has poor thermal conductivity, which minimizes body heat loss to the surrounding water.

Another way that a driver’s suit can reduce loss of body heat is by trapping a layer of water between the suit and human skin. The wetsuit is very well sealed at the neck, wrist and legs thus water flow rate is reduced. This technique in reducing heat loss is known as convection, which is the same principle used in the concept of semi-dry.

A dry suit on the other hand keeps the diver dry, as opposed to a wetsuit. Frigid water can’t penetrate a dry suit. Preferably, dry suit undergarments are also worn for better insulation. A dry suit keeps a thin air layer inside that helps keep a diver warm.

Of course, to be able to familiarize yourself better with scuba diving gear, it is best if you get yourself a certification by passing a scuba diving course. In the course, you’ll not only learn about the equipment, you’ll also be taught how to adapt to diving.

During the course, student divers learn how to achieve neutral buoyancy. Through various swimming exercises, they learn how to control their breathing rate. A diver should know how to breathe in a slow but continuous manner.

At the end of the course, you are expected to know some safety procedures in diving, such as how to clear your mask in case water leaks in, how to avoid any mishaps while underwater, and of course, how to help a fellow diver in need.
Conventional hand signals are used underwater to communicate.

As a certified diver, you can refill your own air tanks, buy scuba diving gear and scuba dive anywhere in the world. Scuba diving businesses require this certification as proof that you can well manage yourself underwater.

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Scuba refers to the tank containing air that divers carry with them to enable them to breathe underwater. As we discussed earlier, the word scuba stands for “self-contained underwater-breathing apparatus.”

For centuries, people have been fascinated by the life found underwater. In fact, there is an estimated six million active divers around the world. Commercial, cave, wreck and military diving are just a few purposes for diving. The most popular of which is sport or recreational diving.

However, before you go diving, there are several issues to be considered. Scuba diving is a potentially hazardous sport. Thus, you need to look at a few of its physiological concepts to help familiarize yourself.

Diving requires special training, especially when you plan to go more than 130 feet below the surface. Due to the water pressure, you would find yourself experiencing decompression sickness and air embolisms.

Also, it would be helpful to know that a person tends to consume more air the deeper he goes underwater. It follows that with the same amount of air, divers at a shallower depth last longer. Also, air consumption varies per person, depending on their diving experience, general relaxation and physical fitness. Also, those who have a healthier lifestyle, which means less alcohol and tobacco intake, expect to last longer underwater.

Scuba diving dangers primarily stem from the physiological hazards encountered. Unlike aquatic animals that have gills to extract oxygen from the water, humans need external devices to breathe underwater. Thus, it is important to strictly follow the procedures learned during scuba diving certification process. You should never attempt to dive beyond your abilities and experience.

To breathe comfortably underwater, it takes more than good supply of air. You need to consider the pressure exerted by water onto your chest and lungs. That means, you should be able to exert enough pressure when inhaling to counter the surrounding temperature, or else, you might not be able to safely inflate your lungs.

Fortunately, there are modern devices such as valve regulators to ensure that the diver can breathe naturally and almost effortlessly underwater, regardless of depth. You won’t be using your nose in inhalation since it is usually encapsulated in a diving mask. However, you don’t need to worry since inhaling from the regulator’s mouthpiece will come out spontaneously.

It is also important to ascend or descend slowly, to give your body enough time to equalize the pressure. Sudden changes in water pressure can be very harmful. A significant difference from the pressure outside and inside the diver can cause severe injuries, referred to as barotraumas.

Staying too long in great depths then ascending very quickly causes bends or decompression sickness. The deeper you dive underwater, the denser the air you breathe, which allows you to breathe nitrogen more than safe amount. Nitrogen forms tiny bubbles on your tissues and bloodstream. If these bubbles stay trapped inside your body, they could burst and cause extreme pain.

Another fatal pressure related injury is air embolism. When you ascend too quickly, the gases in your bloodstream will form a large bubble, which can impede the flow of blood to your brain. To allow excess air to escape from the body, a diver should ascend slowly enough.

To avoid these risks, you must be able to calculate how long you can safely stay at a certain depth and how long you should dive again. Of course, there is also the risk of running out of air and breathing contaminated air when underwater. Scuba diving certification courses should teach you how to avoid these and what to do should a fellow diver experience such problems.

So before you explore the underwater world, make sure you have passed a scuba diving certification. This will allow you to do unsupervised dives, refill your air tanks and buy scuba diving gadgets. Of course, when you go scuba diving, make sure that you have somebody with you who can assist you if something goes wrong.

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Plan Contingencies for Every Emergency – there’s that law good old Murphy made, that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. While a seemingly pessimistic and cynical statement, it actually helps sometimes to take this approach, especially when planning for emergencies. Take enough gear to handle all the potential problems that you’ll encounter, and have back up means of getting external help on hand in case something arises that you weren’t prepared for.

Decompression Injuries: DCS – know how to recognize the symptoms of these two maladies. They will require treatment in an emergency decompression chamber. They are: Decompression sickness, or DCS, and Cerebral arterial gas embolism, or CAGE. DCS occurs because the body forms air pockets in it when utilizing compressed air, as well as because it is subject to increased external pressure from the water. DCS occurs because the nitrogen in a person’s air supply, unlike oxygen, is NOT used up and absorbed by the body, and the increased levels of nitrogen, unless controlled by a device on the breathing apparatus called a regulator, collects air pockets in the body. These create a cramping sensation, nausea, and lightheadedness, and a physical sensation referred to by divers as The Bends. DCS usually occurs on an overly fast descent, as the body and the regulator can’t compensate fast enough for the increased water pressure.

Decompression Injuries CAGE – Cerebral arterial gas embolism occurs more often as a result of an uncontrolled rapid ascent, as opposed to the bends that hit divers due to a fast descent. This manifests as sharp pains in the body, especially in the sinuses, head, and in the lung area. This is a very serious condition that can be potentially fatal. CAGE is caused when the rapid ascent of the diver causes air bubbles similar to those formed during DCS, only this time the air pressure changes that trigger the bubbles in the body are due to a sudden lessening of the water pressure surrounding the body. This causes the trapped air to have a higher pressure volume than the surrounding atmosphere. In effect, the diver is an unopened can of soda that got shaken real good underwater, and once he leaves the water, it’s the same effect as opening the can…

Injuries – the injuries that can occur from decompression range from the merely bothersome, like nausea, sharp pains, and cramps, to more serious matters. One of the most potentially damaging is trapped air bubbles reaching the heart or the cerebral system. As some of you may have seen on television, there are episodes where a villain kills a sleeping victim in a hospital by injecting air into their dextrose. The air bubbles formed in the veins cause cardiac arrest when they hit the heart, or a stroke when they hit the brain. This is a true fact, and the air bubbles causes by decompression may have this effect, if large enough. This is one of the major reasons why controlled ascents and descent rates are so vital to safe diving.

Other Potential Maladies – aside from decompression sickness, which is the most common and severe type of injury incurred by divers, other maladies are mostly atmospheric in cause. Hypothermia is caused by dives in extremely cold water, or by diving with a wetsuit that doesn’t provide enough heat insulation. Dehydration also occurs on a dive, surprisingly. Be sure to drink lots of water before you go. Asphyxiation occurs, on the other hand, if the air supply used is flawed and doesn’t give the body adequate oxygen to function.

Scuba Lifesaving – Take up a first aid class that will allow you to recognize the signs of the conditions given above, and also teaches you emergency measures to be used in those events. Don’t rely on text based or verbal descriptions make sure that the first aid course gives you full, hands on training in dealing with these injuries. Also keep your first aid kit handy and well stocked on your dives, and always have a means to call for help from others, including a radio transmitter, cellular telephone, and even signal flares. While seemingly bulky and unnecessary, these items can mean the difference between life and death.

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Certification and Training – take up a course that actually gives you certification to scuba dive. If you’re just doing scuba for kicks however, like maybe just renting gear out at a beach resort while on vacation, then make sure you are accompanied by one a professional instructor when you do your dive. Also, keep in mind that scuba divers must have skills in swimming and snorkeling as prerequisites for scuba diving. If you’re not proficient in both of these areas, it’s best to try them out first before doing something as serious and complex as scuba.

Equipment Checks – make sure that your equipment is in proper working order. As stated earlier, get proper training before doing a dive. Part of any good scuba instructional course includes the care and maintenance of equipment, as well as spotting potential weaknesses in equipment that can lead to it’s failure underwater. Many divers have suffered accidents during dives due to faulty airlines, but aside from that be sure to check the rest of your equipment just as thoroughly, down to your compass and first aid kit.

First Aid – you’ll need special training in treating underwater injuries, as well as the ability to recognize the signs and symptoms of common maladies incurred by divers, which include hypothermia, decompression sickness, and in hot weather, heat stoke and dehydration. Make sure your first aid kit is well stocked before the dive.

Know Ascents and Descents – part of diving successfully is to keep a pressure gauge and depth gauge that monitors water pressure around you and the depth you’re at. Water pressure increases drastically the deeper you go, and divers can sometimes suffer dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, and muscle cramps from descending too quickly. On the opposite note, even with a good, controlled descent, a rapid ascent can also lead to system shock and trauma if the diver just suddenly dumps his diving weights and rockets to the surface. The body won’t be able to adjust to the sudden lack of pressure, especially once the diver leaves the water.

Buddy Diving – never dive alone if you’re a novice. Always have a more experienced and trained diver with you. Keep your buddy in sight at all times, and be sure to follow his or her lead once the dive begins. Do NOT go off on your own, no matter how safe the surrounding waters seem to you. Tempting as it may sound for the adventurous, even if you and a friend take the same scuba course at the same time, remember that he or she does NOT count as a diving buddy if you’re both novices. There’s nothing more dangerous in any outdoor exploratory sport than a pair of people blundering around in a dangerous environment.

Communication – learn the hand signals used underwater by divers to communicate. Even with a high tech open face scuba mask that has an integral communication radio, these hand signals are a must for any diver. For one, your radio may break down and run out of batteries. For another, you might run into a cute girl on your dive that is not wearing a communication system.

Navigation – know how to navigate underwater. The training course that you take should include the recognition and use of simple tools like an underwater compass, as well as more advanced things like using underwater floater buoys and line markers that will allow you to backtrack to your starting point once you’re done with your dive. Losing sight of your buddy and getting lost underwater is scary, take my word for it, and having the capability to backtrack and meet up at a predetermined rendezvous point takes a load off your mind if this happens.

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Scuba Rebreather

Tank or Re-breather – this is, obviously, the single most important piece of gear you need on a dive. A tank provides you with a good supply of compressed air so you can breathe. Unless you suddenly evolve gills, you need a good air supply for scuba. Re-breathers are small electronic devices that are more expensive then tanks, but they have the advantage of lightness and compactness over a regular tank. Re-breathers actually recycle the air used by a diver, reintroducing oxygen into it.

Masks – there are several different types of masks, and you can pretty much pick and choose from which type you want. Goggles are the smallest and simplest mask type to use, while others have integral snorkels for breathing in shallow water. Aside from these simple eye gear affairs, there are also full face masks with integral communication gear that allows you to talk to other people while diving via a built in radio communication unit. These are the preferred types of masks to use for deep extended dives, as some models of full-face masks also include low light vision lenses, and these are essential for traversing depths that aren’t penetrated by sunlight.

Thermal Suit – diving gets COLD. A full body suit is necessary for serious diving endeavors. These rubberized suits are full body wrapping outfits that not only help with thermal insulation they also help to avoid abrasions if the diver’s skin encounters rough surfaces, especially coral. Getting mugged by a jellyfish is also not a pleasant experience if all you’re wearing underwater is your skin. Another note, the pressure applied by a wetsuit can also prevent bleeding from small wounds incurred underwater. This is essential for those who like swimming where sharks hang out, unless you enjoy being a snack for Jaws and his buddies.

Weighted Plates – contrary to the popular belief of those people who can’t swim, people do NOT sink like rocks when thrown into the water. The human body is naturally buoyant, and will float in water, especially salt water. To this end, divers need to carry different sorts of weights to adjust their depth when they’re diving.

Fins and Diving Motors – for propulsion underwater, you’ll need either fins or, for those who want to conserve their energy, you can buy a Diver Propulsion Device, which is an electric motor driven device that you hold onto. It is roughly the size of a large vacuum cleaner, and basically does the swimming for you.

Gauges – you’ll need a compass for navigation underwater, along with underwater pressure gauges and an electronic depth measurer to make sure you don’t go too deep and encounter pressures that may cause you decompression sickness.

Dive Markers – these are floating buoys that you need to set to let people on the surface know where you’re diving. This is essential for safety in case you run into problems underwater, as well as providing a means for passing boats to know there’s a diver in the area, which lessens the chances of bonking your head on a passing ship’s hull when you surface.

Handheld sonar and Light – for navigation in extremely dark areas, as well as for diving at depths where sunlight from the surface no longer penetrates, having an underwater sonar and a portable electric light source is a must.

Underwater Buoys and Line Markers – aside from surface buoys for marking where you are for passing ships and boats, underwater dive buoys also help you to navigate underwater, marking territories which you may want to come back to later so you don’t get lost, as well as letting other divers in the vicinity know that you’re around.

First Aid Kit – diving equipment shops will offer specialized first aid kits for treating injuries that may happen underwater. Having this kit with you is a must, as well as taking lessons in their use.

Miscellaneous Tools – having a knife, waterproof camera, lines of wire with electronic reels, a dry box for your wallet, phone, etc, and a gunny sack for holding things you nab from underwater is also something to remember. These little knick knacks aren’t really necessary for a successful dive, but they come in handy.

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Scuba Diving Regulator

Why should you learn a different way to breathe for diving? Well, the technique that will be given here isn’t just for diving, it’s meant to increase the efficiency at which your body processes oxygen in general, and will benefit every aspect of your life that requires physical activity.

First off, proper breathing helps you to control your buoyancy. If your scuba instructor tells you to hold your breath while adjusting your regulator to control your dive depth, you’ll quickly wind up blue in the face. This is definitely not a pleasant experience. Instead of holding your breath and relying on the weights and regulator to adjust buoyancy, breathing properly can cause subtle shifts in your floatation.

Secondly, proper breathing on a dive extends your airtime. The breathing technique given here helps the body process more oxygen, sending it to the body with greater efficiency and maximizing the amount of oxygen that gets introduced into the blood stream. You won’t use your air up as quickly, and can extend your time underwater.

Lastly, proper breathing combined with good control over your descent and ascent rate helps to minimize decompression sickness, which is a problem that hits divers when the sudden changes in external pressure on the body trigger collections of air pockets in the blood stream, heart, and sinuses. Those little air pockets cause a condition that divers refer to as The Bends, which can be anything from merely painful and annoying, to outright fatal by leading to a stroke or brain damage.

That said and done, let’s get into the actual breathing method to use.

The breathing techniques that should be employed in diving are related to that used by martial artists, singers, yoga practitioners, and gymnasts. This is a method called diaphragm breathing, and goes by many different fancy names depending on which discipline is using it, like in martial arts where it is referred to as Ki or Chi Breathing.

To practice diaphragm breathing, either stand or sit up straight (your choice), and just breathe in. Don’t slouch. Observe how you take the air in. Most people will have their chests expand when they take a breath. This is normal, regular lung breathing. In diaphragm breathing, the lower stomach expands instead of the chest.

To do this properly, the biggest key is to relax. Your abdominal muscles will actually instinctively tighten up when you take a breath and try to focus on your gut. Don’t focus on your gut, just relax and breath in, but make a point of actually relaxing your navel area when you inhale. Most people get diaphragm breathing wrong because they tense up the muscles in their gut in an effort to send their breath there. Tensing up these muscles actually causes them to contract, which keeps air from going that deeply. That’s all there is to this form of breathing, really. It’s simple, once you get the hang of it.

It’s also important to keep your breathing rhythm deep, slow, and even when you’re practicing this method, inhaling as far as you can go, holding the air in your lungs for just a few seconds, then exhaling the air slowly and evenly. Shallow, rapid breathing, as most medical practitioners know, is a very, very bad thing, which leads to asphyxiation, a state where not enough oxygen gets cycled through the body.

By the way, the air, of course, isn’t really going into your stomach. It just expands because the diaphragm is positioned right above it in the body. Basic anatomy lesson here: the diaphragm is a membrane which controls the expansion of the lungs, which causes the inhalation and exhalation of air. Basically, what this form of breathing achieves is to strengthen your diaphragm itself, as well as increasing the capacity of your lungs. Keep practicing this method until it becomes automatic and natural, and you’ll be surprised at the results. Not just in your scuba diving, but in your overall physical condition.

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