Scuba diving is one of those things that feels almost like an experience completely out of this world. The best part is, you don't have to be the best swimmer in the world to go scuba diving, you just need to be familiar with how to do it, and you're all set to make your first dive! Let's get into the basics of the activity and all you'll need in order to get started.
Buoyancy control
Buoyancy control is basically the act of balancing your depth in the water; you'll be ascending and descending as required, and you'll need to be a master at it. In theory, it sounds simple enough; you add air to your buoyancy control device (BCD) to rise and dump air from it to go down. However, the difficult part is controlling the ascent and descent in a way that doesn't make you rise or sink further than you planned to.
To avoid the issue of overshooting your buoyancy target, make sure to add or dump air in small increments and amounts at a time. This will slow down the rate at which you move up or down and allow you to have finer control of your buoyancy.
Breathing underwater
Breathing underwater is not the easiest thing to learn; it's a completely foreign environment, and it's natural for us to feel panicked and scared. Having only a finite amount of air for the dive, it makes sense that we feel at least a bit anxious about the act of breathing underwater. However, the skill can be mastered, and we believe you can do it! Here are some tips to follow so you can get a head start:
- Try not to dive when you’re panicking; you’ll be consuming air at a much faster rate than normal and run out of your tank sooner than you’d like.
- Wastefulness is really harmful to your dive. Whether it’s conserving your physical energy to dive for longer or making sure you’re prudent with your buoyancy control (which consumes your air), both must be done in the most efficient way possible.
- Master your finning technique; doing this incorrectly will lead to a lot of energy expenditure that is being wasted and shortening the length of time you can dive. It will also lead to faster depletion of your air supply.
Dive with the correct weight
Figuring this out is a bit of a process; you want your weight to be such that you float stationary at a safety depth (5-6 meters) within the water when your tank has emptied (having only the reserve air left in it). If you find that you sink to the bottom or rise to the surface at the end of your dive with your tank empty, you are over or underweight, respectively. To adjust for either situation, you'll need to remove or add more weight until you can hover in the water within the safety depth range. Remember to adjust for any new equipment you might add or remove later on too!