Scuba Basics

Updated February 8, 2022

The fascinating undersea world is receiving a lot of coverage in the media in the form of marine life documentaries, wreck exploration, movies, etc.  Has this piqued your interest to consider learning how to dive?  With a scuba diving certification, you can join the community of adventurers, exploring exotic places around the world, developing new skills in an exciting sport, and acquiring knowledge of marine life and the undersea environment.  Here are some reasons to get started now.

Reasons to Become a Certified Scuba Diver

Exploration

More than two-thirds of the world is covered in water providing abundant exploration opportunities.  Every location has its own peculiarities, endemic life, or historical significance.  From sharks, rays, and whales to giant sea fans, caves, shipwrecks, and tiny shrimps and nudibranchs that are the delight of macro photographers, there are endless intriguing things to focus on.

The Dive Community

When you become a diver you join a community, a fellowship of people that share the experience of the underwater world that bonds you.  In this group, you can discuss your escapades, tall tales, photos, and information about the latest gear.  These are people to get together with for drinks after the dive or continue communication with by email or Facebook back at home.  They are spirited and innovative and make for lively companions.

Travel Worldwide

Diving is possible all over the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic and everywhere in between.  You can plan trips specifically with diving as the goal on a liveaboard dive safari, at a tropical resort, or anyplace you fancy a dive.  Diving can also be a secondary activity for you in your spare time at home or during your travels for vacation or business.  What great fun to do some underwater exploration and then take in all the culture and scenery in whatever location you find yourself in.

The Experience

Scuba diving offers an avenue of escape from the modern hectic life of text messages, car horns, and deadlines into a peaceful setting of neutral buoyancy weightlessness, and a completely different way of living and moving around.  You get out of the comfort zone of your daily routine and practice some new skills like equalization and non-verbal communication.  It can be relaxing and calming while at the same time invigorating to observe the way of life of marine creatures and the topography they inhabit like caverns, walls, and seamounts.  There are opportunities to imagine historical circumstances while exploring shipwrecks and underwater ruins.

Diving is Easy

Almost anyone with basic watermanship skills can become a scuba diver certified by a training agency like PADI, SSI, CMAS, or NAUI.  You just need a few days to study, receive instruction from a well-trained and patient teacher, learn diving skills in a pool or shallow water and go on four open water dives to practice the skills you learned, and get an introduction to the real-life underwater scene.  It’s really not difficult and is a tremendous amount of fun.  You’ll learn some physics and physiology intrinsic to scuba diving and experience your first underwater breaths for a starter.

Just the Beginning

Once you become a certified scuba diver, that’s only the start.  You never stop learning.  There is something on every dive to enhance your skills and knowledge.  As you develop there are also many additional courses available to expand your capabilities like advanced open water, rescue diver, nitrox, or specialties like wreck, cave, or underwater naturalist.  The courses are only a gateway to the thousands of dive sites around the world where you can use your knowledge.  There is enough to keep you busy and enthused for the rest of your life.

For information about becoming a certified scuba diver, please click here:

• Learning to Dive – Level 1: The Open Water Diver Course

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Updated February 11, 2022

Upon completing the Open Water Diver course you have achieved a good foundation of knowledge and diving skills and executed 4 open water dives to a maximum of 18 meters (60 feet).  You’re ready to do some more diving under conditions approximately the same as you experienced in the course.  You could get some experience from there on your own with a buddy or if you so choose you could go directly to the Advanced Open Water Diver certification.  In that course, you have a chance to improve your skills, learn some new skills, and experience some different types of dives beyond the scope of the Open Water course.

In this article, you can find out the key details of what the course involves, some of the options, and the outcomes to be achieved.

Level II: Advanced Open Water Dive Course

Dive Agencies

Here in this article, the course described is the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification.  NAUI and SDI both have advanced courses that are very similar.  SSI offers a way to get a similar experience, but without a specific advanced rating.  The certification levels for CMAS and BSAC are organized substantially differently.  PADI is the largest diver training agency in the world by far for which I am an instructor, so their course is what will be presented.

Structure of the Course

There are 5 types of diving that you focus on in the AOW (Advanced Open Water) course.  For each you will go on an adventure dive which can be included as part of a specialty course later on, should you decide to pursue it.  2 of the dives are required and 3 to be selected from a list of options.

The 2 required are the deep dive where you will receive training and execute a dive to 30 meters (100 feet) and probably have the opportunity to experience nitrogen narcosis, and the second is underwater navigation which involves compass use and other navigation techniques that can be handy to know on every dive.  Other optional dives are:

• Search and Recovery
• Enriched Air Nitrox
• Night
• Wreck
• Drift
• Fish Identification
• Multi-level
• Peak Performance Buoyancy
• Dry Suit
• DPV (diving propulsion vehicle)
• Boat
• Underwater Photography
• Underwater Videography
• Underwater Naturalist
• Coral Reef Conservation
• Ice
• Altitude
• Project AWARE Specialist
• Adaptive Support
• Advanced Rebreather
• Emergency Oxygen Provider
• Equipment Specialist

Which optional dives are available will depend on the location, environment, facilities, and equipment on site.

There is a textbook that comes in hard copy and online, and e-learning materials.  You should study and prepare using these but there are no exams or quizzes!

Which of the Optional Dives Should I Choose?

What are your needs and interests?

Buoyancy control is such an important skill that if you feel it needs bolstering with some additional instruction, peak performance buoyancy would be a good choice.

Night diving is a unique experience requiring special precautions and the use of lighting, plus marine life that comes out that you don’t often see during the day.  I recommend that adventure dive as a real eye-opening experience.

Otherwise, what interests you?  Are you keen on wrecks?  Is photography or videography your thing?  Are you a budding underwater naturalist?  Are you planning on doing some cold water diving best served with a drysuit?  If the equipment and dive sites are available and within depth guidelines, they can all be good.

You may not feel that drift, boat, or multi-level adventure dives are necessary at the moment to specifically focus on during the AOW course as you can get opportunities to practice them without devoting dives from the course.  In any case, the list of options is long offering many opportunities to do a great variety of diving.

Which optional adventure dives you can choose will be impacted by the location.  If you want to do wreck diving, there will need to be one available.  For altitude diving, you will have to go to a mountain lake.  An area with rich marine life is necessary if you want to do the fish ID or underwater naturalist dives.  Good visibility is ideal for underwater videography or photography.  If you have your heart set on certain dives, a little research is in order prior to selecting the location.

Time and Cost

To accomplish the 5 dives you need at least 2 days of diving with no more than 3 dives per day allowed.  It is possible to spread the dives out over a much longer period of time, though.  You can get credit for each of the component adventure dives and finalize your AOW certification with the instructor who supervises your last dive, as long as you have the proper documentation and complete the 5 within a year.

The cost is variable depending on the location, competition, and cost of living.  In many places, the AOW certification price is $300-$400.  Many shops in Southeast Asia and Central America will offer it cheaper.  You might be able to negotiate it down further as part of a group or combined with lodging.  It doesn’t hurt to bargain and do a little research.

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Updated February 12, 2022

You’ve completed the PADI Open Water Diver and Advanced Open Water Diver certifications.  In the course of them and afterward you have learned and practiced the basic skills of diving in a variety of situations and environments over a number of dives.  There is a certain level of confidence that comes with the competence you have attained.  Now you are ready to take it to the next level where you can learn to avoid risks and develop a skill set strong enough to deal effectively with emergencies.  This article describes how you can do this through the PADI Rescue Diver course.

Level 3: PADI Rescue Diver Requirements & Course Description

Prerequisites

To get started in the PADI Rescue Diver course you need to have completed the PADI Advanced Open Water certification.  PADI also requires that the applicant has completed coursework in first aid and CPR within the last 24 months.  Emergency First Response is a course that can accomplish this that most PADI instructors are also certified to teach.

While being an Olympic swimmer or decathlete isn’t necessary, you would be well advised to have a fair degree of fitness.  There are physical demands in the training exercises and rescue scenario where you will execute compass-guided searches, assist divers in situations of panic and distress, and surface, assess, and transport a diver while performing rescue breaths.  All of this will require sustained exertion that is best performed by someone who is not overly stressed physically.  As indicated, it is not commando boot camp but does require a degree of toughness and endurance.

What You’ll Learn in the Rescue Diver Course

From the academic study and in-water practice and scenarios, you will learn to assess major and minor stressful and panic situations.  You will develop confidence in your skills by performing in simulated emergencies to a criterion level with your instructor and fellow students.

Structure of the Course

The course starts with an academic portion focusing on theory.  It includes a range of matters from the psychology of rescue to the management of accidents.  There are a student manual and knowledge development exercises that are also available online in an eLearning program.  The knowledge development online is interactive and can be accomplished at your own pace.  The online manual is available for use during study and after the course.  You can get started with that anytime by going here so that you could complete it all prior to arriving at the site of the class.

The second portion of the course consists of rescue exercises in simulated realistic emergencies in a swimming pool or shallow water.  These include self-rescue and a total of 10 exercises such as assisting a panicked diver on the surface, techniques to assist a diver from shore or a boat, searching for a missing diver, bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface, and helping the unresponsive diver on the surface.

The final section of the course places you in simulated rescue scenarios in which you get a chance to improvise using the skills you’ve learned and practiced.  This is a chance to test yourself and is the most fun part of the course for many students.

Time Required

A minimum of 2 to 3 days is normally required to complete the Rescue Diver Course.  If you are planning to be on-site for longer, many shops will be happy to have a more relaxed schedule.  The Emergency First Response course for the required first aid/CPR component is a 1-day time commitment.  So in all, you can complete the certification on site in 3-4 days.

Cost of the Rescue Diver and Emergency First Response Courses

The cost is variable depending on the location, competition, and cost of living.  In many places, the PADI Rescue Diver course price tag is $350-$400.  The PADI Emergency First Response course runs from $150-$225.  Many shops in Southeast Asia and Central America will offer them both cheaper.  You might be able to negotiate it down as part of a group or combined with lodging.  It doesn’t hurt to bargain and do a little research.

Location of the Course

When you go for some adventure diving or the Advanced Open Water course, where you do it is significant.  If you are doing a wreck dive, you need wrecks.  If you are studying the underwater naturalist component, you need a reef rich in marine life.  For the PADI Rescue Diver course, you don’t really need more than some relatively nondescript body of water and acceptable weather.  Spending the big bucks to fly to a world-class destination isn’t necessary.  Save a few bucks and time and do it close to home if it suits you.

The Course Instructor

There is a certain amount of leeway an instructor has in the way the skills practice and rescue scenarios are executed.  Creativity and enthusiasm go a long way toward making the course fun and interesting.  If you have a chance to correspond with or interview your proposed instructor ask a few questions to determine his motivation and experience levels.  If the levels seem low, find another instructor.  Most of them are dying to teach a Rescue Diver course.

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Updated February 10, 2022

Learning to Dive – Level 1:  The Open Water Diver Course

Once you’ve made the decision you would like to learn how to dive and get a certification, the Open Water Diver Course is the starting point.  You’ll learn the basics of scuba diving and how to do it safely.

Training Agencies

There are a number of scuba diving training organizations available, depending on the location, which offer open water diver training.  At this entry-level, the courses for each group teach the same diving skills and theory following the standards set by the World Recreational SCUBA Diving Council.  I am a PADI instructor and most familiar with their training.  Other reputable agencies following these standards are NAUI, SSI, BSAC, RAID, and several others.  When you complete the course, you will receive a certification that is recognized around the world and by other agencies should you want to continue training at the next level.

What You Can Do With This Level of Certification

The open water diver training prepares you for dives to 18 meters (60 feet).  Until you get some experience or more training you are well-advised not to dive deeper, although you will have some discretion.  You are also trained to always dive with a buddy, never alone.  With your certification dive operations will be willing to rent equipment and fill tanks for you.

Course Description

There are 4 important areas of focus:

1. Knowledge Development – There are text and/or digital materials to be used independently or in a classroom to develop an understanding of the basic principles of scuba diving and the equipment.  It is divided into 5 sections.
2. Confined Water Training – Shallow water in a pool or protected area is used to learn basic scuba skills.  There are also 5 components to this training.
3. Open Water Dives – In order to practice the skills you’ve learned, and explore the natural underwater world, there are at minimum 4 dives in open water (not a pool).
4. Watermanship – It is also necessary to demonstrate the ability to swim 200 meters and tread water for 10 minutes without using your hands.  Different agencies may have some variation on this requirement.

How Much Time to Plan For

Generally, when time is allotted specifically for doing the course on-site, it takes 3-5 days.  One limitation is that no more than two of the open water dives can be done on the same day.  Some of the training agencies, like PADI, offer e-learning opportunities that allow academic portions to be completed on your own time at home, just leaving the water work to be done accompanied by the instructor.  This might only require two days at the dive operation to complete the confined and open water sessions.

The Price for the Course

Some countries and locations are known for low pricing at least partly due to a lower cost of living.  In some Southeast Asian and Central American locations you might find the price of a course below $300 with all the materials and equipment included.  It is also possible that discounts are available when class sizes are larger.  When you are quoted a price you should definitely find out what is included like the student manual, RDP (Recreational Dive Planner), and the use of the scuba gear.  It is also possible to get a package deal along with the accommodation or additional dives after the course at a discount or free.  It is worth looking into carefully.  Many times negotiation can get you a better deal, particularly in the offseason.

For a related post on dive certification, please click here:

• Reasons to Become a Certified Scuba Diver

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Updated February 5, 2022

Decompression Sickness Signs, Symptoms & Prevention

With proper training and a responsible approach, you have a pretty strong probability of diving safely.  That is not to say, though, that there are not inherent dangers to prepare for.  If you are an inexperienced diver or have been away from it for a while and are thinking about jumping back in there for a liveaboard to the Galapagos or the Red Sea, it would be well worth your while to get a little refresher on how to dive safely in order to avoid one of the biggest hazards in scuba diving, decompression sickness.  Here we will take a close look at it and its implications, and present some tips to prevent it from happening to you.

What is Decompression Sickness?

Air is made up of approximately 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.  On descent under increasing pressure nitrogen is taken into the body’s tissues.  The deeper and longer the dive the more nitrogen is taken up by the body.  While maintaining a position at depth the nitrogen poses no threat.  Then on the ascent, the pressure decreases, and nitrogen is released through the lungs by breathing out.  If the ascent is faster than the rate of nitrogen release through breathing, bubbles will form in the tissues and blood like the classic example of opening a soft drink too quickly.

In order to avoid this dangerous situation, dive tables and dive computers with algorithms based on the tables were created to provide guidelines to show divers how long to stay at various depths to decrease the risk of these bubbles forming when pressure is decreased on an ascent.  If the no-decompression limits from tables and dive computers are followed, divers use a safe ascent rate (revised by many training agencies to no faster than 10 meters (33 feet) per minute), and also include a safety stop of 3 minutes at 5 meters (15 feet) for additional outgassing, the risk of decompression sickness is greatly reduced.

Signs and Symptoms of Decompression Sickness

The is a great variety of signs and symptoms of decompression sickness with a range of severity depending on where the nitrogen bubbles have migrated to.  The range goes from relatively minor joint pain, numbness, or tingling to death.

This list contains the most common signs and symptoms of decompression sickness:

• pain in joints, arm and leg muscles, and/or torso
• itch, rash, mottling of the skin
• headache, lightheadedness, fatigue, malaise, nausea/vomiting
• numbness, tingling, paralysis
• dizziness, vertigo, ringing in the ears
• motor weakness
• confusion, personality changes, memory loss, bizarre behavior
• impaired coordination
• hearing problems
• lymphatic swelling
• bladder and bowel dysfunction
• the “chokes,” breathing problems, pain in the chest, coughing, shortness of breath
• coughing up blood, frothy sputum
• uncontrollable shaking

These signs and symptoms of decompression sickness often appear between 15 minutes to 12 hours after surfacing.  In extreme cases, they may appear even before reaching the surface or immediately thereafter. The onset of signs and symptoms after 12 hours does happen on rare occasions, especially if diving is followed by air travel.

Other Factors Influencing the Onset of Decompression Sickness

General physical fitness, amount of exertion, environmental factors, and consumption behavior are all factors that can influence susceptibility to decompression sickness.

More specifically here are some of those factors:

• Dehydration reduces blood circulation slowing nitrogen elimination.
• Injuries or illness can reduce circulation leading to the affected parts of the body decreasing the speed of nitrogen elimination.
• Being overweight – Nitrogen elimination is slower from fat than muscle.
• Age – Circulation slows down as you get older making gas exchange slower as well.
• Cold water reduces circulation to the extremities as a diver gets colder during a dive slowing nitrogen elimination there.
• Alcohol – Consuming alcoholic beverages affects nitrogen elimination by changing circulation patterns, encouraging dehydration, and dilating capillaries.
• Excess carbon dioxide in the system alters circulation and gas exchange.  This is achieved by skip breathing which should not be done under any circumstances.
• Heavy exercise before, during, and after diving speeds up circulation so that more nitrogen than normal dissolves in the body and alters nitrogen elimination.

Treatment For Decompression Sickness

If you observe any of the signs or symptoms and suspect it may be decompression sickness, emergency medical services should be contacted immediately.  If additional help or advice is needed, you can contact the DAN (Divers Alert Network) hotline 24 hours a day at +1-919-684-9111.  Even minor symptoms should be treated seriously and first aid administered.  First aid for any case of suspected decompression sickness regardless of the severity of symptoms is the same.  The affected diver should lie down on the left side with head and neck supported by some sort of cushion and kept warm.  The victim should be administered 100% O2 and rest in position until emergency services arrive.

Hopefully, a hyperbaric chamber is available nearby where the patient can be put back under pressure while continuing to breathe 100% O2.  Back under increased pressure again the excess nitrogen can be reabsorbed into the tissue and slowly released.  For severe cases recompressing in a chamber is the only effective means of treatment.  It can take many hours to complete.  In cases of minor symptoms, emergency medical personnel and doctors may decide the chamber is not necessary.

Do not under any circumstances take the victim back into the water to recompress.  It could exacerbate the situation and put the victim at greater risk.

To increase your skills and confidence in emergency situations you could consider taking a rescue diver course where you learn about and get practice in simulated emergency conditions.  A part of the process includes diving first aid and O2 usage.

Prevention Measures

• Plan your dive and dive your plan within the recreational no-decompression limits.
• Make your ascents at a rate of 10 meters (33 feet) per minute or less.  Remember the air in your BCD will expand so make sure to maintain neutral buoyancy by releasing air before and as you ascend.
• Do a safety stop of at least 3 minutes at 5 meters (15 feet) to provide an extra margin of time to safely off-gas nitrogen.  Release more air from your BCD if necessary to maintain neutral buoyancy.
• Plan your dive so that you will have enough air in your tank to accomplish your ascent and your safety stop without any worries of running out.
• An ascent line, if available, can provide an extra measure of security to help maintain the prescribed ascent rate as you move toward your safety stop.  If you have become positively buoyant, you can grab the line on the ascent and at the safety stop depth.
• If you have done a deep dive or been in cold water or unusually rigorous conditions, adding extra time to the safety stop provides an extra margin of safety.
• Do not fly or drive to a higher elevation within 12 hours if you have done a single dive.  For multiple dives, PADI recommends waiting for 18 hours minimum and 24 hours ideally.

Dive Safely and Confidently Enjoy Your Diving

Please keep in mind the dangers of decompression sickness, follow these guidelines, and you can help assure a safe and satisfying experience diving.

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