Diving In Caves Requires Training

It really seems that just about everyday there is another tragic story about a fatal diving accident. In this recent one a man drowns when diving in a small tight cave. Personally I would find it far too claustrophobic to be in those tight situations. But for those who are more daring please read on and learn something . . .

Diving in caves requires training St. Petersburg Times,?FL?- 22 hours ago ... "The caves are really too small to go scuba diving in," Heinerth said. The tightness of the cave might have been Boyette's biggest problem. ...

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Great Scuba Diving Near The Great Barrier Reef - Coral Sea

Here's a video from my home country of Australia.

Scuba diving in the Coral Sea by the Great Barrier Reef to 140 feet to see the biggest known gorgonian sea fan in the world!

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

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Tips For Safe Scuba Diving

With some tragic diving fatalities around the world during the last few weeks, safe scuba diving is a topic very close to my heart.

Tragedy can strike a careless scuba diver and turn an adventure vacation into a nightmare for loved ones and collegues.

I recently came across some safety tips for scuba divers and wanted to share them with you. In the hope that it may just save another divers life one day.

This sites covers some important safety measures like air consumption (the cause for a recent  death of a young mother diver), safety procedures and diving where boats are present.

Take time to read these Tips For Safe Scuba Diving.

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How To Get Certified In Scuba Diving

The first two steps in getting certified in scuba diving is to make sure that you are a reasonably proficient swimmer and you get medical clearance from your doctor to take up the sport. As for the swimming, you don’t have to master every type of stroke. Scuba certification only requires that you are able to swim about 200 yards using any stroke you want and to be able to float or tread on water for about 10 minutes. If you are in good general health and are comfortable in the water, then you should be able to scuba dive without any problems.

There are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers in North America alone and your local ones should definitely be checked out. Most will run basic certification programs on a regular basis. These centers or shops should be listed in the yellow pages and you can also check with websites of some of the major scuba diving certification agencies such as PADI or NAUI as they will also have listings. Sometimes scuba diving courses are offered at universities too.

Make sure that the course you are interested in taking as well as its instructor are certified with one of the major scuba diving training agencies. This will ensure that you get proper, safe training for both the technical background knowledge and practical skills required for certification as a scuba diver. You also want to end up with an internationally recognized certification card if you want to go scuba diving at various locations around the world.

Some vacation resorts offer ‘resort’ courses lasting a day or two which offer beginners some very basic training in order to try out scuba diving. These are not certification programs. Full certification programs involve classroom work, exams, practical skills sessions at a pool and usually about four open water dives in the sea (lake or ocean). The duration of the classroom work and pool sessions vary from a very intensive weekend (with advance reading) to once a week over several weeks. The open water dives will usually take two more days. Dive centers located in the tropics also offer basic certification programs that last several days to a week. Although the intensive weekend programs are quite feasible, many feel that basic scuba diving courses spread out over a few weeks will help beginners learn the skills better. Scuba diving does involve new skills and to learn them all during one full weekend may be too much for some people.

As for which scuba diving certification training agency is the best, there isn’t any one recognized organization that is better than another. PADI is the most popular in the world but not necessarily better than NAUI or SSI. NAUI course are often more technical in the classroom than those offered by PADI but both will adequately train you to be a scuba diver. The more important factor would be the individual instructor and your own effort during training/studying. In fact, many scuba diving instructors have certifications from several training agencies.

For people living in the more northern regions, there are a few possible routes to take in order to obtain certification. One can travel down south to the tropics and do the entire basic certification course down there in warm weather. However, this will take up a good portion of a vacation since reading, classroom, pool sessions and open water dives all must be done during that time period. A second option is to take the entire course including the open water dives back in home territory. This usually offers beginners the most time since courses can be spread out over a few weeks. However, the water up north is not as warm as in the tropics and the scuba diving could be seasonal. A third option is to take all the classroom and pool sessions back home and then go down south to do the open water dives in warm waters. Many people have taken this route. Your instructor back home will give you a referral letter to bring down to an instructor located down south who will oversee your open water dives. This is a good combination of taking ample time back home to practice the skills in the pool plus getting the classroom work out of the way followed by having nice warm water to dive in for the open water dives. One thing to be aware of if considering this option is to make sure that your travel to the tropics for your open water dives is not too delayed after finishing up with your pool sessions at home. If too much time has elapsed, one could easily forget the skills learned in the pool by the time a vacation comes along.

The underwater world has so much to offer and only a small percentage of the world’s population will ever have the privilege to see it in person rather than on television. Become one of these individuals who will have the honor of exploring the oceans by getting certified in scuba diving.v

Clint Leung is a NAUI certified Master and Rescue Scuba Diver. He is also owner of Free Spirit Activewear (http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com), an online retailer and designer specializing in premium quality activewear with specialty sports themes including scuba diving.

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A Look At Scuba Wetsuits

Scuba wet suits were not taken seriously until World War II and the advent of Navy Frogmen (SEALs) who became one of America’s most effective weapons of the war. On any kind of measurable basis, costs of operations versus costs of effectiveness, man-to-man, or overall kill ratios, the SEALs exceeded expectations on any level. Once recognized, the military put a much time and money into improving the effectiveness of its frogmen. That meant improving the design, effectiveness and durability of wet suits.

There is a controversy that developed at the time over whether or not wet suits had to remain dry. Sounds like a set up for a joke but it’s not. All underwater, rubberized protective outfits are called wetsuits. The controversy was over whether heat loss from the diver’s body could be controlled better if the wetsuit kept his skin dry or not. It was Hugh Bradner who is credited with the first wet suit in 1952. Mr. Bradner was actually working as a physicist at UC Berkeley’s radiation laboratory where he was testing the reflections of shock waves on unicellular material and was invited to attend a Swimmer’s Symposium. His concept was that the diver’s skin does not have to stay dry to prevent heat loss if the thermal insulation used in the wet suit was obtained by air entrapped in the material of the suit.

With the French invention of the Aqua-Lung, Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) was used in the war and afterwards spawned investigative teams exploring the ocean’s many mysteries. As soon as this began, the pressing need for wetsuits was made painfully obvious by the divers suffering from hypothermia after only a few dives. The divers tried everything from greased long johns to leftover Air Force survival suits, and the Bradner wet suit. Bradner was the first to use a unicellular material similar to the type he was working with in the radiation laboratory in his wet suit. The material came from a company called Rubatex and was called Neoprene and the original model for today’s high-tech, three-level wet suit was born.

Wet Suits Info provides detailed information about triathlon, scuba, and surfing wet suits, as well as wet suits for kids and infants.

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How To Start Scuba Diving

SCUBA stands for Self-Contained-Underwater-Breathing-Apparatus and has become popular the last few years because it's exciting, a sport for everyone and because the technology has made it easier and easier.

You probably remember Jacques Cousteau who has done very well for the SCUBA industry with his wonderful underwater videos. Since his videos and underwater explorations, SCUBA diving has become more and more popular. At the moment of writing (06/2006), PADI, the world's largest diving organisation has more than 130,000 dive professionals and around 5300 PADI Dive Centers and Resorts operating in 180 countries and territories.

Where do I find a dive center?
The best place for you to find a dive center is probably on the website of PADI (www.padi.com). You can find PADI dive centers in more than 180 countries. This means that you will probably locate one close to your home. You can contact the dive center with your requests and they will be more than happy to provide you with any information you need.

On holiday or rather at home?
That totally depends on what you want to do. You can even combine it! It is possible to do the theory and swimming pool lessons at your dive center at home, and to do your open water dives during your favourite diving holiday. It is called a referral, just ask your dive center to arrange it for you; most of the time they have special deals for you. Referrals are usually valid for 12 months so you can take your time for it.

Some popular destinations for SCUBA diving are the Red Sea and the Caribbean. Both destinations offer clear and relaxed conditions and have hundreds of dive centers to choose from.

You can find diving courses on Diving Answers, we collect diving courses from all over the world and put them on one page... simple! It is an easy way to find your first diving course and we would be more than happy to give you any advice in our forum or per email. Independent advice, because we do not sell holidays or courses our selves.

What to look for?
Don't only look at the price, look at the contact and response you get from the dive center as well, talk with your future instructor and staff, and ask many questions regarding the course, accommodation, study materials, exams, performance requirements etc. Diving instructors should have more than plenty of patience and most instructors are really friendly people who would love to help you out.

Don't be afraid because they train people everyday. Look for quality and not quantity. It is not important how long an instructor has been training or how many students he or she has trained so far. It is about how much effort, devotion and love he or she puts in their work. Do you rather certify with a diving instructor that makes sure that you know what you are doing or are you just looking for a certification? Remember: you pay for the course, not for a certification.

I promise you a fun and unforgettable adventure while breathing for the first time underwater. Have fun!

Youri Vlag (from the Netherlands and living in the United Kingdom) is an experienced PADI instructor and EFR instructor and has worked as a dive guide and dive instructor in Thailand and Egypt. Youri writes articles about SCUBA diving for several sites and is the owner of http://www.divinganswers.com.

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Young Mother Runs Out Of AIr While Scuba Diving

Not a great topic but I want to highlight the dangers of scuba diving when you don't pay attention to the amount of air left in your scuba tank. And when it runs out and your down deep you may not reach the surface alive. S0 take note of this tragic incident and take this lesson to heart. Here's the news article about what happened to this young mother:

Young mother dies scuba diving in Malta CDNN, New Zealand - Jul 3, 2006 DWEJRA, Gozo, Malta (2 July 2006) -- An experienced female diver from Glasgow died while scuba diving in Malta on a family holiday. ...

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Scuba Diver Following Tropical Fish At St. Lucia

I just found this beautiful video of a scuba diver following tropical fish around the waters of St. Lucia. I hope you like it. Here is the video link:

St. Lucia Video

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