Showing posts with label Diving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diving. Show all posts

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Hard Earned Scuba Diving Tips for New Divers

Learning to scuba dive was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Even these days, every time I go diving, the thrill is just like the first dive.

Along the way, many experienced divers have shared their own diving tips with me. Some other tips are gained from my own experiences - usually after a bad one. Here are some of the tips to share with you.

When choosing a mask, it is best for you to try on the mask before buying. Put on the mask, and inhale through your nose. Make sure you don't have any hair stuck at the skirt of the mask. Hold your breath and see if the mask stays on and not fall off. Check to see if air is leaking into the mask. If the mask falls off, it usually means the shape of the mask skirt isn't suitable for your face shape. Try as many brands and models as possible.

Most new masks have a protective film on the window. This can cause fogging problems during your dives if the protective film isn't cleaned away. Before diving with a new mask, clean the window with a recommended cleaner liquid or defogging liquid. If you can't get hold of one, try rubbing some clothing powder detergent onto the window and soaking your mask in water mixed with clothing powder detergent and leave it overnight. I've had great experiences using this method. Cleaning your mask before the first dive is very important. I should know. I've dived at great dive sites but was so busy doing the "flood and clear the mask" manoeuvre to clear the fog that I didn't see very much, or just saw lots of blurry things at best.

On my dive trips, I've also found it useful to bring along some clothing powder detergent packed in a small pill container. I just clean my mask with detergent at the end of the day ready for the next day's diving. Great way to keep my mask crystal clear all throughout my dive vacation.

Have you ever felt the regulator in your mouth seeming to be pushing your mouth to the left during your dives? You know, the feeling that if you don't bite hard enough on the mouthpiece, the regulator might just get pushed out of your mouth? If you don't own an octopus with built in swivel at the regulator, or don't have a first stage swivel, you might experience this discomfort. One way to fix this is to buy and fit in a regulator 2nd stage ball swivel. Another way I found quite useful to me, is to turn the air tank slightly in the clockwise direction. As you assemble the Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) to the compressed air tank, with the BCD facing away from you, instead of having the K-valve face directly away from you, turn the tank clockwise by about 30° so that the K-valve is pointing slightly to the right before securing the BCD to the tank. You should be able to feel the difference.

If you regularly do boat and shore dives, I recommend that you get a pair of booties and open heel diving fins. Having booties on as you enter the sea from the shore will protect your feet from sharp corals and stones from cutting your feet. You can walk comfortably to a certain depth before putting your fins and begin your dive. On the boat, you will at least minimize your chances of slipping on the wet floor.

For open heel fins with those removable buckles, the best way to put on your fins is to slip the strap over your heels. While to take them off, by slipping the strap under your heels and removing the fins. I know this advise seems to make the buckle useless, but from my experiences and many other diver's experiences, the time we most often lose a fin strap or buckle is at the end of a boat dive when we take off our fins by unbuckling while in the water before getting on the boat. And finding a replacement strap or buckle while on an island dive trip can be somewhat frustratingly difficult.

At the end of your boat dive, when you take off your gear before climbing on to the boat, always take off your weight belt first, then your BCD and lastly, your fins.

I hope you find some of these tips as useful to you as it has been for me. Here's to wishing you a great diving experience on your next diving vacation.

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Scuba Diving Equipment - Essentials You Cannot Leave Out

Are you are a scuba diving enthusiast and looking for some help deciding what to buy to complete your scuba diving equipment? Well, fret not. We will outline the four major things you must have for a safe and enjoyable scuba diving expedition.

Mask

The mask is a very essential tool to complete your scuba diving equipment. The mask helps you in more ways than one. First and foremost, it takes the pressure off you while breathing. Another benefit of the mask is that it guards your face against any pressure or element underwater. Moreover, it also helps enhance your field of view.

One must take care of a lot of things before zooming in on a particular mask. You must check to see whether the mask is of a size that fits you, whether it is too tight or too lose or just about comfortable. To check that, simply wear the mask before buying. More importantly, if you wear prescription glasses, then you may have to get a mask with prescription lens so you can traverse under water comfortably.

Fins

Any scuba diving equipment is incomplete without the fins. The fins compliment your swimming so that you are able to swim under the water quicker, better and easily. Again, you need to check that the size fits you before you buy.

Wetsuit

The above mentioned tools complement particular parts of your body; however the wetsuit complements your entire body. It not just makes you feel comfortable and warm, it also ensures that your motion underwater is super efficient and smooth like a snake.

Regulator

The word regulator may make you wonder, what's it got to do with the must-haves list of scuba diving equipment? Whilst you may not be wearing it on any parts of your body, it plays an equally important role as the other tools. The role of the regulator is to manage the pressure and flow of the oxygen. This way you can relax and breathe nice and easy underwater. So don't even think of venturing underwater, without a regulator.

So go ahead and complete your essential equipment with the above four important pieces. However, there are several other tools that are available and depending upon what you fancy you may want to buy those as well. You can also consider buying discount scuba diving equipment, and all you need to do is some research by spending some time.

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Monday, June 21, 2010

Scuba Diving and How to Get Started

Whether you are interested in scuba diving as merely a one time adventure for your next tropical vacation, or you want to make it a serious hobby or occupation, you have to begin somewhere. Scuba diving is something that you cannot teach to yourself, nor should you try. In order to have a safe and enjoyable scuba diving experience you should make sure that you have the proper training and possibly even certification before you jump in.

The first thing that you can do to prepare yourself is to make sure that you are physically up to the challenge. Although people of all ages and abilities can participate in scuba diving, you need to be at a certain level of fitness and you should also be a decent swimmer. If you are unsure of your fitness level you may want to talk to your doctor before participating in scuba diving.

For those who are simply going to try scuba diving as a one-time thing on a vacation, you can get a very basic course at many resorts and dive shops. This will enable you to dive with proper supervision in a safe environment. But, if you plan on making scuba diving a lifetime hobby, you will want to go at least a few steps further and get certified by one of the recognized certification training agencies such as SSI, PADI, and NAUI, among many others.

Basic Certification for scuba diving involves not only work in a swimming pool it also involves written class work and exams to test your knowledge. You can usually do this classroom work at a local community college or even a diving school. However, for your Open Water certification you will need to be somewhere that diving is in season or in a tropical area. Some people actually travel to the tropics for this portion of their certification.

In order to obtain full certification you must be at least 15 and you can get limited certification for those who are 10 through 14 years old. There are also classes for younger children which will get them ready for certification when they are older.

Diving courses will help you to learn about how to select, care for, and use the scuba equipment. You will also learn safe diving practices, breathing techniques, and other skills which will make your diving experience much more enjoyable.

If taking a scuba dive sounds like the adventure for you, take a deep breath and dive right in.

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Fantastic Grand Cayman Diving Sites and Easy Lessons

Need to Get Away?

Thinking of a great get-away with your fins? How about going to those great Grand Cayman diving sites with your friends? The waters are always warm and the scuba diving instructors are certified; plus you enjoy a completely new encounter with exotic underwater species. No other experience can parallel this adventure, so get your gear and take a dive into the great blue.

If this is your first outing, check out the different diving outfits in the Grand Cayman. That is, if you need a patient scuba instructor, or a diving tour. Perhaps you want to avoid the crowds and the traffic. They can pick you up if you are staying in one of those hotels along the 7-mile strip. Seek out those who provide extra service like sanitizing your gear. This will spare you the trouble after a tiring day.

Savor the relaxed setting in the Caribbean. In the evenings, enjoy the rum, the fun, and the pulsating island music along the strip in Grand Cayman. Diving sites are awesome in their sheer beauty, and there are no exact words to describe these. The whole vacation package gives you pound for pound value for your money.

Prepare for the Grand Cayman Diving Sites

Before you can jump into the sea, you will undergo training in the pool. When you are ready, you will be introduced to the ocean dives. The scuba instructor will take you along to the open sea on a custom built dive vessel. For the pool training, you will be charged $85. You will get your certificate after completing four ocean open dives. That is after you master and pass the exams defining your comprehension of scuba diving principles.

For your first dive, an instructor will lead you along. This is called the two-tank dive. The 20 minute wall dive will plunge you to 100 or 70 feet below. For first timers this can be scary and exciting, but as the first dive leads to another, again and again. For a single two-tank dive, you will cough up $79 to $95.

A three to five two tank drive package will cost $109. If you want to experience the depths with friends, get a 3 tank safari for $149 per person. There are also night dives between six to seven, but this depends on the season. If you want to steer clear of the diving peak hours, get a dive at three in the afternoon. Sheer heaven!

Water Edens

There is an endless list of great Grand Cayman diving sites. Snorkeling is great in Eden Rock; here you can swim through the Devil's Grotto, a massive underwater coral structure. At the wreck of the Gamma, which lies in the depths of the Cali, you can investigate the sunken freighter; or flirt with the stingrays in Stingray City. For shallow snorkeling, go to sunset reef. Do not forget the Coral Gardens for a startling view of undersea corals.

Also, visit the Turtle Reefs and other Grand Cayman diving sites. This will be an unforgettable experience in your life. Get online information for Great Cayman diving sites and lessons now. So what are you waiting for?

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Buying Diving Equipment - Looking at the More Essential Diving Gear That Might Interest You

Assuming that as a new diver you have already purchased your own mask and snorkel, then it is time to start looking at the rest of the gear available to purchase and see what you might want to buy. My first stop at this point would be to purchase a diving torch.

Why a torch next? Well, there are many dives when a little illumination can be a great benefit. Night dives are an obvious use of a diving torch, but also on many daylight dives the faithful diving torch can come in useful. Looking into a cave or illuminating a piece of coral to see the best possible colour are just a couple of uses. But if you are trying to point something out to a fellow diver underwater, then a diving torch can be used as a suitable pointing aid.

My next recommendation is the first of the larger price tag items. Thankfully, choose carefully and this one will not need a load of maintenance to keep it on the right track. But you have to do your research as my next piece of equipment on the to-have list is the diving computer. It sounds so easy, but some models do not have changeable batteries. Bad enough if you are on a diving holiday and the battery dies on your, but even at home you then have to post it off to the repair centre and pay for new batteries to be installed. My own diving computer simply has an unscrew panel, then a battery is replaced simply and quickly.

But why a diving computer next? Well it is part of your personal safety equipment. Used properly, alongside another timing device, it will log your time and depth and indicate whether your have completed sufficient stops. It will also calculate the cumulative effect of diving to keep you safe over many dives in several days.

At some point you will probably also want to look at buying your own fins. Again, these are quite personal but the size of them can make them a little difficult to take on holiday with you. Make sure that your suitcase is large enough to accommodate your fins before you start packing! Depending on where you are visiting for your diving trips, you might choose open or closed foot fins. If you go for the open foot variety, which is what you will require if you are ever likely to use a dry suit or any kind of footwear in colder water, then it is also probably worth buying your own diving boots. Why? Well it means that if you ever want to jump into the sea and go for a snorkelling session, you can use your fins. Also, if the dive centre you are using provides only closed foot fins because they are used to warmer weather, then they might not have any boots to hand.

There is loads more diving equipment to be buying once you are established as a diver, but before you take the plunge and start to buy anything make sure that you carry out your research and read some diving equipment reviews. You might just discover a pearl of a piece of equipment, or learn not to buy a dud.

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