“One aspect of scuba diving safety is the training of your basic diving skills: mask clearing, regulator recovery, out-of-air drills and buoyancy control. There are more skills that are considered to be basic diving skills; buddy checks and compass navigation to name a few, but let’s look at these four for the moment.
Most holiday-divers, and even some divers who dive almost every week, hardly practice the basic diving skills. This is downright naive. If you study martial arts, how often do you practice a certain kick? One, two, or hundreds of times? When you play tennis, how often do you repeat your backhand drills, before you are satisfied with the results? Five times, ten times, or hundreds of times? Every year several divers die because they have a regulator or mask problem, and they do not have the necessary routine to solve the problem, and then panic. They thought that practicing a couple of times would be enough, and they where proven wrong. Do not end like one of these statistics. It does not take much time to practice the basic drills, and it will build your skill and confidence. A good way to practice your basic diving skills is to take a couple of minutes during every dive, after the safety stop, to work on improving your skills. Mask clearing, mask removal and replacement, regulator recoveries (both ways) and an out-of air drill, all while remaining neutrally buoyant, to practice your buoyancy control at the same time.”
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Cameron
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When it comes to vacationing, nothing equals the ability to customize a trip to your very personal ideas of fun and relaxation. For scuba enthusiasts, visiting a scuba diving resort can be the epitome of a vacation, where they can relax, enjoy themselves, and participate in as many scuba related activities as they want. A scuba diving resort offers a chance for divers to focus exclusively on what they love to do and there’s no greater vacation than that.
Scuba diving is popular worldwide; the experiences differ depending on the region you visit. Choosing a scuba diving resort begins with your regional preference. If it’s winter where you live and you’re craving the warmth of the sun, then head to any of the multitude of places that are conducive to scuba year round; the Florida Keys, South America, and the Caribbean.
Posted on July 19th, 2008 by Carpenter
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Scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving and its various equipment have gone a long way. It began in 360 B.C. when divers first used the air underneath a crude diving bell as their source of air when submerged in the water. Guglielmo de Lorena then developed this “technology” into a real diving bell that was fastened by slings on top of the shoulders. In the past, it took hundreds of years to develop the equipment that enabled man to explore the wonders of the underwater world.
In purchasing equipment, the most important advice to remember is to ask experts on what to buy and why. Diving gears can be expensive, so, a few tips from other licensed divers and instructors would make the task of choosing less of a burden. But, on the other hand, the risks of the sport are often fatal and would depend on the quality of one’s equipment. Take the breathing regulator for example. The machine is attached to the scuba tank. It decreases the pressure of the oxygen stored in the tank, making safe for the divers to breathe in the air. Another example is the wet suit. The durability and the strength of material ensure the body’s protection from intense temperatures, specifically the coldness under the depths of the ocean.
Posted on June 17th, 2008 by Thomson
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Scuba (‘Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus’) diving is becoming more and more popular as a holiday activity, with the number of holiday-makers giving it a go increasing year on year. There are many specialist diving holiday companies offering deals to both novice and confident divers, and even amateur divers can book specific scuba diving holidays, usually in order to gain qualifications.
It is now commonplace for a holiday resort to offer some sort of scuba training course, sometimes in the hotel pool, to give guests a taster of scuba diving, and it’s more than likely that destinations suitable for scuba will have local companies that offer the chance to sample it. If you do decide to give it a go, make sure the company is reputable and that they are authorised to take you diving, with all the correct safety equipment and expertise, and not just a local person who may not be qualified and could prove unsafe to trust your dive with. It is not worth risking your safety, and indeed any insurance cover you have, no matter how cheap a local (and probably unqualified) guide is.
Posted on May 17th, 2008 by Alex Smith
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Thailand is sandwiched between The Gulf of Thailand on its eastern coastline and the vast expanse of the Andaman Sea on its western coast. It is in these body of waters that scuba divers can explore the marine life of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean without having to cross continents.
Thailand’s Andaman Sea stretches 870km (541 miles) from Tarutao National Park on the border of Malaysia to the Surin Islands on the border of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). It is part of the Indian Ocean and is separated from the Bay of Bengal by the Andaman-Nicobar Ridge. Quaint formations of granite outcrops can be senn in the Surin and Similan Islands.
Posted on March 1st, 2008 by Philip Richard
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