learning to scuba dive:
a beginner’s guide
Scuba diving is a skilled activity that involves highly specialised scuba diving equipment. There are plenty of great organised and instructor-led sessions for new divers, but it’s also an activity that continues to reward you as your experience and confidence grows.
To take things to a more advanced stage, you’ll need to complete a course to earn the certificate that lets you discover the fascinating sights of the world’s watery depths. There are many courses in learning how to scuba dive, but before enrolling, discover some of the exciting challenges you’ll be facing.
Why Scuba Diving is a Popular Water Sport
More than 15,000 people in England alone enjoyed scuba diving during 2021. Once you’ve learned, you can explore coral reefs, swim with dolphins and look for sunken ships. You can even visit underwater caves. Scuba diving has a feeling of weightlessness that’s similar to being beyond the gravitational pull of the earth.
Choosing a Scuba Dive Course
It’s important that you undertake your course with an accredited dive school. Scuba diving is one of the oldest extreme sports, so it is imperative to get expert tuition. Two of the best known worldwide are the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) and Scuba Schools International (SSI). There are many more including the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC). The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) is responsible for regulating the activity.
What is a Scuba Dive Course?
There are a number of scuba courses available, from those aimed at beginners through to courses for more experienced divers who want to develop their knowledge and skills in specialist areas. For beginners, courses such as the PADI or SSI Open Water Diver certification or BASC Ocean Diver are great places to start, equipping you with the skills to start diving in open water.
An SSI Open Water Diver course lasts 3 days. This certifies you to plan your own dives, with a buddy, to a depth of 18m. Once you have completed your Open Water Course there are many other speciality courses to choose from to expand your knowledge and training.
Courses include classroom lessons, practical lessons and e-learning. SSI uses a phone app which includes all the information on your course and also your log book. There is even a written test at the end, although this is often a set of multiple choice questions. Your first practical lessons take place in a swimming pool, while later stages are conducted in open water such as a lake or the sea.
How Healthy Should You Be to Scuba Dive?
A high amount of stamina is needed to scuba dive. Being unfit quickly leads to exhaustion once you’re in the water. Most Dive Schools require a Medical Statement from a GP stating that you are fit to dive. For over 40’s this is normally required to be done annually, for under 40’s every 2 years.
Unsuitable Health Conditions For Scuba Diving
The density of water compared to air greatly intensifies the pressures within your body. Before learning to scuba dive, you should seek medical advice and have your blood pressure tested. If it’s high, a scuba dive could be extremely dangerous.
Health problems preventing you from learning to scuba dive include epilepsy, diabetes, multiplesclerosis and anaemia. Wearing a pacemaker, being bipolar, suffering panic attacks, claustrophobia or agoraphobia will also prevent you from joining a course. It is possible to learn with mild asthma but a letter from your doctor stating that you are fit to dive would be required.
What is the Age Limit for Learning to Scuba Dive?
Children aged eight years can learn, but they are restricted to a swimming pool. Children aged ten and eleven can scuba dive in open water to a depth of forty feet (twelve metres), but they must be accompanied by a diving certified parent or professional PADI instructor. Children up to fourteen years must also be accompanied, but they can dive to sixty feet (eighteen metres).
Maximum Depth for Recreational Scuba Divers
The maximum recommended depth adult divers varies from between 98 – 160 feet (30 – 50 metres) depending on your qualifications and the professional body you are registered under. However, newly certified Open Water Divers are usually certified to reach a depth of 18m (PADI & SSI). It’s recommended to use a good dive computer to help you keep track of the depth of your dive, as well as other vital information.
What Scuba Diving Equipment is Required?
If you are only trying a scuba dive course to discover how well you might adapt, you can usually hire scuba diving clothing including a wetsuit and fins. Alternatively, you can purchase your own scuba diving wetsuit, which is recommended if you’ll be diving more frequently. Diving wetsuits are different to wetsuits made for surfing and surface watersports. The neoprene is already compressed in diving wetsuits. A 3mm surf suit worn for diving might soon become only 1mm thick at a depth of 18m and won’t provide much warmth at all.
Other essential diving equipment includes a dive BCD to help control your buoyancy, and a dive regulator that enables you to breathe underwater.
What You Learn as a Trainee Scuba Diver
Your course usually begins in a swimming pool. Your course usually begins in a swimming pool. Your instructor will help you master essential techniques such as removing, replacing and getting water out of your mask, removing and replacing your regulator. Use of the BCD to regulate your buoyancy. The use of weights. You’ll also learn how to use the breathing apparatus correctly. All this scuba diving equipment are usually supplied by the diving school.
Incidentally, the breathing tanks are filled with compressed air.
Learning how to Equalise
One of the most important techniques you’ll learn on your course is how to equalise. When you scuba dive, it causes a build up of pressure in the ears. It can be particularly painful if the pressure isn’t released properly and can cause an injury known as barotrauma. There are several methods such as pinching the nose and swallowing, or tensing the throat while moving the jaw forward. Equalising should be carried out every time you descend, you will feel the pressure building up in your ears and it needs to be equalised regularly to prevent it becoming painful. Usually this is around three feet (one metre). A descent of sixty feet would require you to equalise around twenty times.
Training in Open Water
Some elements of your course are sure to be conducted in the open water. You’ll learn how to be aware your orientation by noting distinctive landmarks, and studying maps marked with underwater features such as coral reefs. An important part of learning to scuba dive is becoming familiar with the set of hand signals divers have to rely on for communication. Emergencies may occur beneath the waves at any time. You are taught not to panic and to follow safety routines that could save your life.
How Long Does a Scuba Dive Last?
The time you spend underwater is dependent on the depth you’re diving to and the amount of air your tank contains. An average air tank is filled with around 200 bars or eighty cubic feet of compressed air. Diving to approximately forty feet (twelve metres) with this type of tank could provide you with between forty-five and sixty minutes of air.
If your dive reaches sixty feet (eighteen metres), your air tank could keep you diving for thirty to forty-five minutes. Monitoring how much air you have used is a way of measuring your diving time. Once the predetermined midway point has been reached, you have to turn back. A small reserve of air, 50 bar, is always allowed for emergencies and isn’t included in the half-way calculation.
Can I Scuba Dive Alone?
No one should ever scuba dive on their own, not even experienced divers. For safety, inexperienced divers should always be teamed with a more experienced diving partner. One of the main hazards divers face is the strong, swirling currents of deep water.
Some currents are specifically localised and constantly present even when the surface water appears calm. It takes many hours of diving practice to fully appreciate how to deal with such conditions. You should never dive if the water is obviously rough or if poor weather is forecast.
How to Prepare for a Scuba Dive
You need at least a day to prepare for a scuba dive. The dry air stored in the cylinder causes you to lose more moisture than usual. To prevent dehydration you should avoid alcohol the night before. Never dive if you are unwell, hungover, or are still bunged up following a cold.
Increase your water intake, drinking little and often throughout the day. East foods which will give you energy for the dive and try to allow an hour or two from eating till diving.
What To Do After a Scuba Dive
After your dive you’ll likely be feeling excited, and perhaps eager for your next experience. While most recreational diving doesn’t require a strict recovery process, it’s still important to look after yourself. Drink a steady flow of water to rehydrate your body.