Masks: Windows Into Another (damp) World!

Divers dive for different reasons, but ultimately everybody from the lay snorkeler through to the hardcore tec diver is in the water for one thing: to experience the aquatic environment. Some people want to explore the wrecks of great vessels from our past, whereas others enjoy looking at shallow coral reefs but in both cases they are enjoying new sensations. These sensation cannot be experienced naturally being as we are land animals, so we rely on equipment to mitigate our underwater adventures. The most basic piece of equipment a water enthusiast can own is a pair of goggles or a mask to allow them to see what is going on under the surface. Indeed a lucky individual with a mask and no other equipment might spot a whale shark off the bow of the boat and jump in, leaving the divers scrambling about changing tanks and grabbing weight belts – sometimes a mask is all you need, everything else is just there to make the experience last longer, or to get you there quicker.

The only Way We Can Really Appreciate The Sea's Beauty Is Through The Lens Of A Mask...

What I Look For In a Mask

This is one of those situations where the only way you can really tell what mask is right for you is by borrowing a friend’s mask and trying it out. So this is just about what features make my diving experience more pleasurable, either when I’ve got two thousand pounds worth of gear on my body, or when I’m just in shorts and fins – both situations need the same thing: to see!

My perfect mask has a few specific features that I find are either pleasantly surprising or absolutely necessary:

• Single Lens – This is a real opinion splitter in the dive community but I have solidly sided with the single lens camp despite the fact that a single lens mask tends to have a larger internal volume which requires extra nasal expulsions to clear. I chose a single lens design, rather than a mask with two independent lenses is because I find the extra glass in a single lets in more light which reduces the feeling of being detached from the environment – I find the less I can see the mask frame, the more natural the experience feels.
• Soft Skirt – This might sound like I’m being wimpy and choosing something that feels soft against my sensitive skin…but I assure you it’s not (not entirely anyway!). The softer the silicone skirt the more it will mould to the contours of your face, and thus becomes more watertight. The negative aspect of choosing an easy to mould silicone is that it will be much less resistant to tearing and loosing chunks when a piece of gear bashes against it. It’s a price I’m willing to pay to ensure all my air isn’t wasted on clearing my mask!
• Transparent Skirt – This is another one that may call my manliness into question…why should I care about the colour or design of my mask? Well, I find that a clear and transparent side skirt lets in a considerable amount of extra light which I find helps to fend off the tunnel vision that I often get with opaque black silicone masks. It can also allow your peripheral vision to function to an extent – you can sometimes make out the shape of your dive buddy out the corner of your eye which can be helpful if you’ve got students to look after!
• Wide and Deep Viewing Angle – This is an obvious choice, some might argue that it’s not really a preference when all masks strive for the same thing. The reason I included it on the list is because a large proportion of mask manufacturers concentrate on providing a wide field of vision, but not nearly enough of them go wide andlow. It’s obvious you need to see what’s next to you, but it’s also very useful to have an open vista of what’s below you. Without adequate bottom view it makes it a strain to properly look at your gauges, to look into your BCD pockets and to ensure that when you sit on your knees with a student you don’t drop them, or yourself, onto a stonefish or stingray!
  

  Some Mask Are Wide, But Not Tall - I Want Both!

• Frameless – This is a new one for me, up until my most recent mask I always used framed masks because I didn’t know any different. Now I’ve gone frameless, I’m unlikely to return to framed units. The mask is so much lighter on your face without the frame, and it packs up much more compactly being as everything except the glass is flexible. Whether it’s as durable as a framed mask, time will tell – but it’s had some serious abuse at my hands for around six months and it’s still in good shape.
• Neoprene Strap – This isn’t so much a feature of a mask, as an add-on that I wouldn’t ever give up. All it is is an oval of neoprene that has (usually) two Velcro straps that fit into your existing buckles. This replacement strap is much easier to adjust and is much more comfortable once you’ve adjusted it. The neoprene is stretchy, but won’t pull out your hair.

My Personal Choice: The Sherwood Scuba Rona

The two items of dive gear that split opinion the most are masks and fins. This is because they directly interact with our bodies, and being as everyone’s body is distinct and unique – it makes the design of universal gear tricky. That’s why the Sherwood Rona has everything I want in a mask and it fits me perfectly, yet several of my good friends have tried it and had constant leaks. It is a personal choice that, as I said before, can only be validated by trying gear on. If I wasn’t in a dive school I’d even consider joining a diving club purely so I could check out the other divers’ gear! But then, I’m a gear junkie…

Sherwood Scuba Rona - Close to, But Not Quite, My Perfect Mask...

Pros:

• Light Weight – The Rona is really comfortable to wear, primarily because it is very lightweight. It doesn’t pull down on your face, nor does it wobble when you turn your head rapidly. Because it’s lightweight, you don’t need your strap to be tight, which makes it even more pleasant to wear.
• Soft Skirt – This mask has the softest, most featherlike skirt material I’ve ever felt. It feels almost like a cloth, but is obviously much more water resistant.
• Large View Angle – The lens on this face mask is enormous! It gives a very wide and tall  viewing angle with extra dips on the bottom of the lens to help you look at your waist area. It’s not the widest lens ever made, but it’s wider than I’m used to.
• Low Volume Airspace – This is the magic part – not only is the mask a single lens and  offers a very wide view angle, but it has a tiny air volume. They manage this by positioning the lens close to the face, which also helps the feeling of immersion into the environment.
• Frameless – As I said above, this changed my mind about masks forever. It makes the mask look much less bulky, it reduces the weight dramatically and it squashes into a pocket with ease (which would make it ideal for tec divers who normally carry a spare mask). It also seems to make it less likely to crack, because the glass is protected by shock-absorbent silicone rather than rigid plastic, which means when you drop it just bounces – no cracked frames.
• Price – This was a real surprise to me, because I used the mask before I saw a price tag and initially thought it was an expensive, high-end affair. It turns out that it’s really very reasonably priced and so it’s excellent value for your hard earned dollar!

Cons

• Ugly – Alas, the Rona doesn’t fit my perfect mask description in its entirety – it has some flaws. One of my main concerns is that it’s really ugly! It’s quite a handsome and trendy looking piece of gear when it’s sitting on the shelf, but once you put it on it looks ridiculous – I’m yet to meet a man or woman who doesn’t look like an alien with it on! Luckily this isn’t really an issue for me being as I think scuba chic is a bit girly, I like my gear functional, safe and reliable – pretty comes in way down the list!
• Semi-Opaque Skirt – This is only a slight problem with the mask as it does offer a translucent skirt which does let some light in, but it has a frosted effect which makes it impossible to see through. There is also a black version which looks better but is completely opaque.
• Strap Is Silicone – Another minor concern, and something I had to remediate before use. The default strap is a standard issue silicone band which is fine for irregular use, but I much prefer my Velcro-neoprene solution for day-to-day diving.
• Possible Durability Issues – Although I said above that the mask was surprisingly robust, I do have issues with the integrity of the skirt after say six months in a wardrobe or shed. I do have a couple of little nicks in the material, but nothing that affects its performance. So this is a watch-and-see issue.

Final Thoughts

Masks are a personal item, just like glasses are on land. They both help you to see, they are both made in many shapes and colours and they both suit people differently. One pair of glasses may look sexy on one girl and dull on another, the same goes for masks (without the sexy part). All I can say is that I love my mask and hope, for your sake, that it fits you so you can enjoy it as much as I do!

Do you own a Rona, and if so what are your thoughts on it’s design and function? Do you prefer frameless masks? Single lens or double? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Happy (visible) bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell.

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What Is Freediving?

Freediving is the act of diving down under the surface of water with no air source, ie holding you breath. Freediving is at once the logical evolution of snorkelling, the predecessor of scuba and its own separate entity. It’s not correct to see freediving as just another term for snorkelling because, as we’ll discuss later, freediving is a different way to enjoy water, with its own goals, techniques and community. Freediving is a sport, hobby, competition, keep fit regime and cheap way to enjoy the coral – it can be all of these things and more but it does tend towards the sport side of things because freedivers are, for lack of a better term, competitive. A freediver will compare and brag about the depths that they have achieved, along with their breath hold times and the booty they’ve collected. They are going down deep with nothing more than a mask, a pair of fins and a lung full of air, yet they achieve some awesome depths and shocking bottom times. It would be wrong to say that freediving is just a breath-holding competition (though it sometimes works like that) because many freedivers are simply after the same things as a scuba diver, they just want to enjoy it their way.

Freedivers Are Often Down There For The Same Reasons As The SCUBA Guys, They Just Don't Want To Do It With A Tank.

Why Freedive?

The question we must next ask is” “what is their way”? Freediving is a rapidly expanding and evolving sport that has captured the imaginations of the extreme sport crowd. This has meant that a very large body of young, healthy men and, to a slightly lesser extent, women are grabbing masks and going deep. This new influx of thrill-seekers has brought with it a new set of priorities and techniques to help these sportsmen and women achieve their personal goals. Some of those goals are listed below:

• Challenging – This is the main reason why freediving is considered a sport rather than a pastime. Freedivers are constantly striving to beat others on a whole new set of measurable objectives. On top of this battle with others they aim to beat their own personal bests – freedivers are their own toughest competition! They prepare themselves to push their bodies to the limit so that they can take on and surmount a challenge which gives them a rush and rewards them with great satisfaction.
• Risk – This follows on from the point above because the only thing that can make a challenge really exciting is if there is some risk that you will fail. If the act of failing is dangerous then it adds yet another element of thrill to the pursuit. A large portion of freedivers are adrenaline junkies which propels them on to take more risk so they can get a more intense buzz. This can be a dangerous cycle to be stuck in, but we’ll look at the dangers later.
• Requires Little Training – This is a double edged sword in that freediving is amazingly easy to pick up – just hold your breath and swim down…viola, you’re a freediver! However, this is only safe when you are just playing at shallow depths, if you plan on getting into the sport properly then it would be wise to look into the procedures to freedive effectively and safely – it’s not as simple as you might think.
• Free – I’m not sure how many people have complained to me that they’d love to learn to dive but their budgets don’t stretch to the expensive courses and the prohibitive price of dive gear. For those people who desperately want to explore the sea then freediving offers a different (inexpensive) path to the aquatic adventures they desire.
• Hunting/Foraging – This is an interesting development in the sport; clearly the freedivers were not content to simply pit their bodies against the sea, they had to also challenge the fauna that resides there too. Freedivers have made an entire subdivision of their activity devoted to either catching game fish or collecting molluscs. This added challenge and skill to learn (not to mention the machismo involved in using spear guns and knifes to hunt things) has made the sport even more attractive to the young male group.

• 

  Everybody Knows That The Key Way To Make A Pastime Even Better Is To Introduce Guns!

• Adventure – This is probably a universal aspect of underwater based pursuits, from snorkelling to tec diving – everyone wants to experience an environment they aren’t familiar with. This is no different with freedivers, they want to immerse themselves in the surroundings and appreciate what the sea has to offer.

Freediving Vs Snorkelling

You might be sitting there thinking: “yes, ok so it’s not scuba diving, but it looks a lot like snorkelling to me!”. And you’d be right but for a couple of minor differences. First off, snorkelling is usually a passive engagement with the underwater domain which means that a snorkeler simply peers into the world of coral and fish from the surface (almost like a voyeur). Whereas a freediver will actively seek out the things he wishes to see, hunt or challenge. The freediver will feel a tangible sense of pride in his activities of the day (beating his best depth, hauling up a big fish or spotting a big ray) but a snorkeler simply enjoys the view – they will certainly enjoy it but they probably won’t feel proud of their achievements.

Freediving Equipment

Freediving, at first glance, would appear like the kind of sport that shunned equipment. The very essence of freediving is the challenge of using what you were born with to beat the trials of the sea. Yet, there is a very quickly growing market of equipment to fill the gear bags of freedivers (so much for being cheap!):

• Freedive Fins – As with any young specialised sport the first freedivers used normal dive fins to get them where they wanted to go, but fin manufacturers saw that there was a market developing and created fins that were specially designed for freediving. These fins are usually full-foot pocket fins (wear them like slippers over a bare foot) with very long flexible blades. These comically long blades give fantastic speed and acceleration but would be almost useless to a scuba diver because they’d constantly bang them off coral and wrecks etc. The other avenue to go down when selecting freedive fins is to pick a mono-fin, which is basically a short wide blade with two foot pockets. It turns the wearer into something of a mermaid!
  

  There Are Many Types Of Freedive Fin, Some Are Long Fins, Others Are Wide Mono-Fins, They Are Great For Speed, Terrible For Walking!

• Watertight Mask – The inclusion of the word “watertight” might seem a little odd here being as all masks are meant to be watertight. The reason I mention it here is because a freediver doesn’t have an air source which means that when they exhale they don’t have very long before they require a breath. This prohibits the clearing of masks underwater, which is unlike a scuba diver because he can clear his mask as much as necessary. A freediver must find the perfect mask to ensure they don’t end up blind halfway through a descent.
• Snorkel – This is not a vital piece of gear but it makes the experience more fun in two ways; it lets the diver keep him head in the water constantly which is useful for tracking a buddy’s progress, swimming to and from the shore or boat, scoping out new dive sites and hunting fish from the surface. The second use for a snorkel is when the sea gets choppy, sometimes it’s tough to keep your mouth from being sprayed with salt water – a snorkel with a splash guard will help in this situation enormously.
• Torch – A torch is really useful to a freediver who is hunting shelled creatures as they often hide in holes and other inconvenient places. Especially when there might be a Moray eel in that hole, you can check before you start putting your hand in! A torch can also help in poor viz, though I strongly recommend you don’t freedive in water that you can’t see the bottom and surface at the same time (if you want to go ten meters deep – make sure the viz is ten meters plus).
• Knife – I have always been a promoter of dive knifes as safety tools – I’m doubly passionate about freedivers wearing easy to access knives. If you get caught in kelp in scuba, you can take your time and free yourself. If you get stuck in kelp or rope on the ascent of a deep freedive then you my only have seconds to free yourself. A large portion of freedivers have a knife anyway to use as a prying tool for shelled prey.
• Spear Gun – This is obviously only for our testosterone-filled hunters but it’s an interesting piece of gear. A spear gun can be spring-loaded or gas propelled, and usually has a tether from the spear to the gun (lightweight line on a free-spinning spool). This makes finding a wayward spear much more likely and allows you to reel in your catch. They are real killing weapons and so should be given the same reverence as a gun on the surface. Never joke around with it, and be absolutely sure that there’s not a diver/snorkeler/coral reef behind what you’re shooting at. If the viz is not great, then don’t go shooting – you wouldn’t shoot a shotgun in a park in the fog!
• Buoy Float – As a freediver you probably won’t have any form of buoyancy compensator like a scuba diver has. Often you will be neutrally weighted with a weight belt. This means that if you have just been on a scarily deep dive in which you almost didn’t make it to the surface, when you reach the surface you will have to tread water to stay afloat. If you compound this with a long swim from the shore, an hour of freediving and fighting a current then you will realise that you will need something to collapse on after the dive. Ideally you’d have a boat to get onto, but freedivers usually stray from the beaten path where no dive tours operate. In which case a prudent freediver tows a surface buoy with him, he can use the buoy to warn boats that he is in the area (he surfaces a lot more than a scuba diver – making him at more risk of getting the hull of a boat in the face). It also gives him a rest between dives, gives him a place to store gear and his catch. He can also anchor it and use the line as a reference.
• Weights – If you are like me and are very positively buoyant on the surface, or wear a thick exposure suit, then you will require either loads of effort to swim down or you will use a weight belt to get yourself neutrally buoyant. Remembering that you might wish to perform an intricate task on the bottom means that you have no option but to ensure neutral buoyancy prior to the dive as it gives you much more control over your position in the water. Don’t overweight yourself either because this could lead to a difficulty in staying afloat on the surface.
  

  This Clever Belt Has Both Weights And A Built In Buoyancy Compensator Which Is Fed From A Small Bottle Of Compressed Gas.

Tips and Tricks

These are a few of the freediving techniques and dangers that you may not be aware of, or are only partially informed about. This list is not exhaustive and if you wish to undertake freediving as a serious sport then I suggest that you do further research and seek out professional tuition.

Hyperventilation

Hyperventilation is the act of “over breathing” (rapidly breathing three or four very deep breaths before descending) in order to purge the body of carbon dioxide. This process works to extend a diver’s breath hold time because the body stimulates the breathing process when it detects that there is too much carbon dioxide in the blood. It is not because the body thinks there is not enough oxygen, this is a misconception.

This process must be used in moderation, a diver must not take more than four breaths before the dive because if he exceeds this number then he runs the risk of “shallow water blackout” (SWB). SWB occurs when a diver has hyperventilated excessively and then descended deep. Once the diver is down at his maximum depth his body is able to access plentiful oxygen (because the oxygen gets pressurised) from the lung of air. The diver’s body, because of the extra hyperventilation, doesn’t stimulate the breathing reflex, so the diver thinks he’s got plenty of time left. The problem arises as he ascends because the oxygen becomes harder to access (it reduces in pressure) which means there is a shortage in oxygen. The diver is not aware of this (because the body monitors carbon dioxide, not oxygen) and so he is prone to spontaneous and immediate blackouts as he reaches shallow water. This is obviously very dangerous because he is underwater and will quickly drown. It is even worse when he is weighted because he may not float to the surface.

The way to avoid this is by limiting yourself to only three to four breaths before the dive, don’t overdo it in the pursuit of the motherload of abalone!

Look Where You’re Going!

This is might seem a little patronising at first, but it is with good cause that I implore every freediver to pay good attention to where they are going. The reason for this is that a freediver is on a running clock when he dives. This time limit causes some careless freedivers to bolt down to the bottom, with their massive fins and weight belt, in poor viz and crack their skull on a rock or piece of coral. The same is true for the guys who cut their dive a little close and have to rush to the surface for air, they rarely think about boats, or swimmers that might be above them – and head butting a boat is not enjoyable. A scuba diver can take their time when they move underwater, which means they are less likely to bump into a jellyfish’s tentacles, piece of coral or rock but a freediver needs to be more focused because of the speed of their movements.

Pressure Related Injuries

Despite freediving not requiring any formal training to enjoy, there are a few very important risks that apply equally for a scuba diver and a freediver:

• Ear Barotrauma – Despite a freediver having less worries than a scuba diver with regards the possible ailments that could affect him – he still has the physics of nature to deal with. Namely the way in which an airspace underwater is forced to compress and to expand as it is taken from the surface down, and then up to the surface again. This pressure can be felt in the ears and sinus of a freediver when he is changing depth. This pressure build-up can, if left unchecked, lead to ruptured ear drums and other nasty injures. The way we avoid this is by equalising our ears (usually by swallowing, moving your jaw or your tongue) which ensures the pressure on one side of the flexible drum is the same as on the other side. Some divers require time to equalise which can make freediving difficult, and others will have problems if they make many ascents and descents in quick succession (the ear drum begins to swell).
• Decompression Sickness – Before those of you in the know rush to write an email to complain that I’m talking nonsense – “freedivers don’t breathe compressed air so they don’t load up on any significant nitrogen levels, therefor won’t suffer DCS…” I agree with you! If you’d let me finish…jeez, a guy can’t get a word in edgeways with these imaginary readers complaining all the time! Anyway, if you imagine the situation where a scuba diver has been on a dive trip and gets back to the boat early after his second dive of the day and he decides to go for a snorkel while he waits for the other dive groups to surface. Then, when he’s out snorkelling, he sees a big turtle at twenty meters and decides to freedive after it. In this situation the diver still has all the nitrogen in his body from the last two dives, which when added to the extra nitrogen he picks up on his freedive, can lead to a problem when our diver bolts to the surface when he realises he’s not the young, healthy lad he was and that a twenty meter freedive was a bit ambitious at his age!

Dive With A Buddy

There are very few scuba divers out there who would ever think it smart to dive without a buddy. Especially when you consider that if you have a problem underwater, nobody will know unless they are within visual range. Shouting for help isn’t much use at fifteen meters deep.

So why should it be any different with freediving? The difference is that a freediving buddy team will work in a different manner to that of a scuba team. Whereas a scuba buddy will ensure they are close by their partner and try to maintain the same depth as them, a freediving buddy will stay on the surface, next to the float with a snorkel in their mouth and watch their counterpart make their dive. This way he is fully rested and has a full lung of air if he sees his friend get into trouble. If they dived together they might find that they are both at the edge of their limits and would be unable to assist their amigo. This can work in bigger groups than two, you could have a group of four with a two up, two down alternation which would provide double the cover should an issue arise.

The Only Way You Will Survive A Blackout Underwater Is If You Have A Buddy Watching Out For You From The Surface.

Don’t Try To Break Records!

This is general advice that you can apply to almost any pursuit, but it is particularly relevant to freediving because of the element of competition involved. If you are new to the sport then it is obvious that you should take your time and gain experience in the techniques involved before you attempt any wild maneuverers.

It is also true for those for those who are comfortable with the practices of freediving, they should plan and prepare at least as much a scuba diver. This means preparing a first aid kit for the float or boat, having emergency oxygen available, suspending one or more tanks with regulators at various points of the freedive attempt. If the attempt you are doing is at the edge of your abilities (in training for instance) then it would be wise if you could get an experienced scuba diver or two to support you underwater so if a problem arrises they can provide you with their alternate air source. Freediving doesn’t have to be dangerous if you take the appropriate precautions.

The Amount Of Planning And Preparation That Potential Record Breakers Put Into Their Attempts Is Enormous, Make Sure You Follow Their Lead And Prepare Yourself Before Going Under.

Final Thoughts

I hope this article has gone someway to unveiling this exciting and flourishing sport for those who were curious but uninformed. There is still a whole lot more to learn about freediving than was covered in this article, and most importantly you need to get into the sea and start experimenting – just take it slow at first! Get a friend, fins, mask and float and enjoy a Saturday exploring Earth’s final frontier.

Are you a freediver? Is it a sport you want to get into? Why do you freedive; do you hunt, take pictures, compete or just explore? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment in the section below.

Happy breath-holding!

By Jamie Campbell

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Computer Vs. Tables

I tap my air gauge to indicate that I’d like to know my buddy’s air situation, he signals back that he’s still got over a hundred Bar, I look at my gauge and see that I’m also over a hundred, so I signal that we could head a little deeper to investigate the ship’s lower decks if he wanted to – they didn’t look that interesting on the dive map so we didn’t plan for them, but from down here they look very inviting – my buddy agrees with me and gives the “ok”, so we descend…

The situation described above is a fairly normal situation when diving a site you don’t know. You may have looked at maps of the site, but ultimately you won’t know where you want to go until you’re down there. The problem with this is that if you don’t know where and, more to the point, how deep you wish to go then your planning on the RDP (Recreational Dive Planner) counts for very little because it will constrict you to an inflexible dive profile that might not meet the type of dive you want to do. For the guys described in the passage above they would be diving beyond their scheduled dive plan which could cause them real problems once they surface.

The modern diver doesn’t interact much with the RDP these days. The closest most divers get to using the tables is during their open water course, or their nitrox course, and even this will come to an end soon (PADI will be phasing in the computer-only open water course in the next couple of years). And yet, for all that a novice diver will think he is not using the RDP, he will be using it every time he dives, because all dive computers use the tables for their basic model. In essence, the computer is just an electronic RDP calculator with a depth gauge, stopwatch and memory all combined into one unit. There is no ground breaking technology in it, yet it is the most researched and refined piece of gear you will find in your equipment bag.

Still Used In All Dives, The RDP Lives On In Computers Rather Than Slabs Of Plastic...

So Jamie, How Does It Work?

Em… ahem…you see…there’s a gauge right, and a…a…and it’s very complicated, you wouldn’t understand it!

Although it is very complicated (for the designers), it is also very simple (for us, the users). As the diver begins his descent the computer starts the stopwatch, this is the actual bottom time. It also begins to take readings of depth at frequent intervals (usually around twenty a second, though you can normally set it to be more or less often). For each reading it takes, it gets its tiny RDP out and does the calculation just as we do in our open water course. It then jots down the current nitrogen level in our body and also states how much more bottom time we have left at this depth. If we stay at this depth the computer will keep doing its RDP sums and count down our bottom time, if we descend further it will see that we are deeper and start doing maths to find out how much less time we have. So basically you have a little man inside your computer who is crazy fast on the ol’ RDP and he does constant and corrective calculations that give you an accurate statement of your current levels of nitrogen and how much longer you can stay at that depth…. Does that sound plausible?

You Feed The Little Man Through The Tube On The Left...

Which Computer’s Best?

Obviously everyone wants to know which model is best, to save them buying a duff product. The odd thing about dive computers is that, even though there are certainly “better” products, the actual dive computers are mostly all the same or similar. The real differences between them are how they display the information, how easy they are to use, how it looks, and what additional features the designers have managed to squeeze in. The computer’s ability to calculate remaining bottom time is generally fairly standard nowadays (with mild variations in accuracy, the mathematical model used and how conservative they are).

The answer then, is that none of the computers are better than the others, but there are plenty of reasons that you’d choose one computer over another. I’ll look into what those reasons might be throughout the rest of this article.

Take Your Pick...All Computers Ultimately Aim To Do The Same Thing!

What Does It Mean If My Computer Is Conservative?

It means your computer believes in marrying before having sex, and thinks knee length skirts are too short! Well, not really, most computers are actually very liberal and into free love and support progressive government propositions!

But in a diving sense (which is why we’re here after all), a conservative computer is one that will either give more warnings, give warnings earlier or read as though you have been deeper or have less bottom time. To put it simply, a conservative computer is a very nervous, safety conscious computer that would like to err on the safe side rather than take risks. This might sound like exactly the kind of computer you’d want, who wouldn’t like to be more safe on their dive? The answer here is that an overly conservative computer will likely drive you to insanity before you’re more than ten minutes into the dive. A twitchy computer will beep if you move your arm up too fast, it will make you do double the safety stops your fellow divers will do and you’ll end up loosing a big chunk out of your bottom time.

The key is to get a computer that has variable levels of conservatism so you can set it to a level that suits your circumstances (if you are very overweight, for instance, it might be prudent to put the computer on a more cautious setting).

Wrist Vs. Console

This is a less pressing debate now than it was ten or even five years ago because computers of today are much more compact, so there is less of an issue putting it on your wrist as it was before.  It is less a piece of gear, as a very functional piece of jewellery.

The question is, do you want the convenience of having your computer built into your regulator (usually in place of a SPG) so that you can’t forget or loose it, and you get the added benefit of having air readouts and calculations displayed on the same screen. Or, do you take the lighter, more easily read and more fashionable watch-style computer that now has the ability to take air readings too (in some cases)?

The question isn’t as pressing as it once was, but the customisation of gear is the mark of an experienced diver, and this is a personal choice that will make a tangible difference to the way you interact with your computer.

Which One? Doesn't Matter As Much As It Once Did...

Essential Features

This is a short list of the features that most modern dive computers come with as standard, you can use this as a glossary of terms so you know what you’re looking at when staring at the back of the box in the dive store.

• Clear Display – This is pretty much priority number one for me, if the screen is jumbled, illogical or too small then I will not be able to fully interact with the computer on a natural level. The computer must be able to plainly display all the information you need throughout the dive in a basic and concise format. Avoid busy screens, choose a large, simple display.
  

  As Screen Technology Gets Better, The Displays Can Show More - Colour Screens Are The Next Trend

• Intuitive Menu System – For similar reasons as I require a logical screen setup, I need to be able to select functions, view different data and adjust settings in a coherent and rational manner. Again, simple menu systems work better for this than ten button, IQ test, Rubix Cube puzzle systems.
• Alarms – When you’re diving you’re down there to experience the underwater world and see as much as you can, you certainly don’t want to be diving with your face attached to your computer screen. This is why alarms are useful, they will tell you if you are reaching maximum bottom time, your predefined time limit or ascending too fast. Alarms let you dive, not watch a screen underwater.
• Backlight – Simple, you want to see your computer on night dives and in bad viz? Get a good back light that will operate for long enough to let you fully read the display.
• Comfortable – You will be wearing this wrist-top computer for at least two hours on the day you dive, and if you’re like me you’ll leave it on between dives. Make sure you test how comfortable it is (some are really bulky and very uncomfortable).
• Thermometer – It might seem like a frivolous feature that is only for curiosity’s sake, but a thermometer is useful for lots more than just telling your friends how cold it was on your ice dive! A thermometer can help you work out your temperature tolerance (look in the log book, see that last time you dived in twenty degrees you wore a five millimetre and you were cold, now you know to take a seven millimetre suit) or it can give you an idea of what wildlife will be around, or not.
• Ascent Rate Indicator – One of the most used features on a computer, this monitors how fast you go up. If you go too fast it will warn you so you can slow down. This is great for letting you relax as you ascend, if the computer is reading green then you can just enjoy the last of your dive, not stress about the ascent.
• Safety Stop – Another important feature of a computer is to alert you to mandatory and non-mandatory stops, at what depth and for how long. It will give a countdown and an ideal depth for you to rest at. There will be another alarm if you ignore the safety stop and it will send you to bed with no dinner (a computer can be a real nag!)

Desirable Features

This is a list of things that you might be interested in looking out for when choosing your next computer. Some are more useful than others, there is a fine line between throwaway gimmick and essential tool.

• Air Integration – I briefly mentioned this earlier, essentially it allows your computer to monitor your air supply and not only display how much you have, but how much more time you have left breathing at the rate you are presently and the current depth. The accuracy of this is a little dubious and for most divers it is unnecessary because they can calculate their own air supply. If you are looking at using air integration with your wrist computer then you will need to buy a separate wireless transmitter that attaches onto your regulator first stage. These little devices can cost a fortune! The value of such an item is very subjective.
  

  Air Integration Can Add A Lot To Your Dive, And A Lot To Your Credit Card Bill...

• Compass – Compasses in dive computers are both potentially useful and generally pointless. The fact that you can house a digital compass in the computer is very exciting, and as a backup it’s great. But, the format that it is displayed in is so unnatural that I always end up reverting to my Suunto and working old-school. Once they manage to get the display of the digital compass to equal that of an analogue compass then this will be an excellent feature.
  

  The Digital Compass Is Currently Just a Backup, Hopefully They Can Make It A Replacement...

• Large and Useful Logbook – This isn’t so much a feature as a general requirement. All computers have a logbook but some are hard to use, hard to read and are too small. A logbook should be something you briefly look at, recall the data and put away, not spend an hour mining the information out piece by piece. It should also be big enough to store a two week dive holiday’s dives (at least forty hours worth in my opinion)
• Gas Switching and Nitrox Support – This feature is becoming more essential as time and the dive industry progresses. It is also becoming more prevalent in the average computer, it is almost a standard feature now. Because divers now dive breathing gas blends and more than one mix of gas there is a need for the computer to work using different parameters. If this gas switching and mix entering is easy then it makes a complicated thing very simple, which is a good thing when divers are concerned.
• Computer-to-PC Connectivity – This is another trend on the marketplace that will only become more common, not less. People are used to uploading and downloading their personal information onto the computer and internet (look at what we do with our personal digital pictures and what we write about ourselves online). This goes for dive logs too. A dive log program will display graphs of dive profiles and maps of dive destinations, and it will also allow you to post your dives online, for all the community to see!
  

  Plug It In And Post It To The Internet! That's The Modern Diver's Motto!

Final Thoughts

The dive computer has now been around for so long that it is no longer a luxury item that only wealthy and experienced divers used. Even divers on a budget can now buy high quality, feature-packed computers from well known brands – they’ve become that mainstream. This isn’t a random act of capitalism at work here, it’s a simple case of supply and demand – divers like having the freedom to adjust their dive profiles on the fly without having to worry about DCS creeping up on them. They also like having control over their data, and the computers that are coming onto the market are offering them new ways to manipulate, record and view their dive information. It’s the electronic age and diving is no exception!

Do you have a favourite dive computer? What features do you look for when choosing a new computer? Have you ever had one fail on you? Do you shun computers in favour of old fashioned tables? Please share your thoughts and experiences with us using the comment section below.

Happy (logged) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell

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Function Over Beauty

I like a dive knife that looks great, we all do! However,  a sexy looking knife is not much use to you if it doesn’t cut through that mono-filament line that’s wrapped around your leg! I tried three modern knives out on an assortment of materials that commonly cause diver’s trouble, from fishing monofilament to three-strand anchor line to high-tech cable-strength braids. I also subjected them to a “corrosion test,” an extended period of aquatic abuse in a saline solution to see how well they resisted rust and corrosion. Each knife was dunked in saltwater three times a day for a week. Between soaks I set the knives out to dry while still in their sheaths. At the end of the cycle, knives and sheaths were inspected. In general, the titanium and higher  calibre stainless blades were the most resistant to corrosion, while the softer 304-grade stainless knives showed less signs of rust than the harder 420-grade stainless knives. No rust spots were so imbedded that they couldn’t be buffed out with a cloth. The important thing to note here is that a decent maintenance routine will keep a modern dive knife looking new for as long as you can bear to not buy a newer, sexier knife!

Riffe Silencer

Full knife length: 9 in.

Blade length: 4.5 in.

Blade: Plain edge and serrated edge combination.

Metal: 420 stainless steel.

There Is Something About A Stiletto Blade That Just Means Business, And This Blade Means All Sorts of Business! Mostly Cutting Business Though...

The Silencer is made of hardened (heat-treated) 420 stainless steel and has cutting edges sharp enough to cut virtually anything. The 4.5-inch stiletto blade, which is Teflon-coated to prevent rusting, offers a plain edge on one side and a wavy serrated edge on the other, giving you a choice of cutting surfaces. The over-moulded handle has an ample blade guard for a safe and secure grip. It also offers a tool built into the end-cap to remove spear shafts that get wedged in rocks. The sheath comes with a pair of rubber leg straps and offers a locking push-button release. An elastic lanyard attaches to the end-cap for extra security.

The Silencer’s blade, with three inches of serrated edge and four inches of plain edge, proved to be the best all-around cutter in this review. It was the only knife able to slice through every type of test line–even the Amsteel–with a single pull, and it did it with both edges. For spear fishermen who can get wrapped in their own line during a hunt, this is the Silencer’s strongest selling point. But the sharp stiletto point is a winner too, designed to quickly dispatch a struggling fish. While the blade is Teflon-coated to prevent rusting, the cutting edges aren’t, so by the end of our corrosion test, the Silencer was showing a couple spots of rust; however, they all rubbed out with a towel. The Silencer’s sheath is one of the best we’ve seen. A sliding safety mechanism prevents an accidental push of the push-button release. The safety and release button are both easy to operate one-handed, and the elastic lanyard can be stretched over the sheath for added security. Standard rubber leg straps have quick-release buckles and can be replaced with optional forearm stretch-straps for a closer reach.

Scubapro White Tip

Full knife length: 6 in.

Blade length: 2.5 in.

Blade: Plain edge and serrated edge.

Metal: 304 stainless steel.

Back Ups Are Important, So It Needs To Be Almost As Effective As Your Primary, The Guys At Scubapro Agree With Me!

A backup cutter should be compact, and the White Tip is certainly that. Only six inches long overall, it comes with a 2.5-inch blade offering an inch of serrated edge, an inch of plain edge, and an angled tanto tip that’s nicely blunted right at the end. The blade and handle are made from a single length of 304-grade hard-tempered stainless-steel–the handle portion is over-moulded to provide an easy grip. The sheath offers a push-button release that keeps the knife secure until needed. The White Tip comes in a kit complete with hardware to mount on a console hose or BC pocket (this requires punching holes in the material). The sheath also has slots for threading a pair of rubber straps for mounting on an arm or leg. For added security, there’s a hole in the handle for a lanyard.

The White Tip offers more mounting options than any other knife in this review, making life easy when deciding where to strap it. Removing the knife from its sheath is also easy–the push-button release can be activated with one hand. The partially blunted tanto tip takes some of the apprehension out of returning the knife to its sheath, and a solid-sounding click lets you know the knife is locked in place. Because of its 304 stainless blade, which doesn’t hold an edge as well as harder metals, and its short blade length that offers less cut per pull, the White Tip was not the most efficient cutter of the group. However, it was able to eventually cut through our entire inventory of test lines, taking only a couple pulls to get through the lighter lines, 10 to 18 pulls on the heavier lines, and 25 pulls on the Amsteel. It did a good job of resisting rust; after a week of repeated saltwater dunks it showed no signs of tarnishing.

It always makes sense to carry a backup cutting tool, especially one that’s compact and doesn’t clutter up a dive rig. We like the White Tip’s ability to bolt to a hose, a strap or a BC. But if none of these options suits you, the White Tip is so small it will probably fit into your BC pocket.

Spyderco Aqua Salt

Full knife length: 9.25 in.

Blade length: 4.5 in.

Blade: All plain edge or all serrated edge.

Metal: H-1 stainless steel.

A Mean Looking Knife, A Really Hard Worker And A Solid Bit Of Kit.

This knife is not to be trifled with. Its blade has a lethal point and comes with either a scalpel-sharp plain edge or a seriously serrated SpyderEdge (a pattern of one large and two small serrations) backed by a full-curve “belly” that produces very effective slicing-type cuts. The blade is made of rust-free H-1 stainless, a special composite exclusive to Spyderco that uses nitrogen in place of carbon in its steel matrix. This maximises corrosion resistance while still enabling the blade to hold a sharp edge. The handle is made of textured, fibreglass-reinforced nylon. The heavy-duty Kydex sheath is riveted for strength. It secures the knife with a friction lock and features a G-Clip belt fastener that can be configured in five positions to suit your diving style. The Aqua Salt is available with either a yellow or black handle with a hole for a lanyard.

Both plain edge and SpyderEdge versions of the Aqua Salt were able to cut through our inventory of line, though the serrated version had an easier time doing it. The full-sized handle let us grip and rip; while there’s not much of a blade guard, the textured handle and finger grooves keep hands from slipping forward. We cut all test line with a single pull except for the Amsteel, which took five pulls. The H-1 blade excelled in the rust test, showing no signs of corrosion on the blade and only a slight bit of tarnish on the engraved “H1″ logo, which rubbed right off. The G-Clip belt fastener fits securely on a standard two-inch harness strap, and the sheath’s grommet holes offer cable-tie attachment points for added security. One-handed removal is accomplished by pressing your thumb against the top of the sheath. The large mouth makes an easy target when returning the blade home, which clicks when the friction lock activates.

If you’ve always had a hankering to take your sharpest chef’s knife diving with you, leave it in the drawer and take this one instead. Of the two styles, we prefer the serrated version for its better cutting efficiency. But neither style disappoints. A bit of advice: Mount the sheath where you can see it; a near-miss when returning the blade home can get bloody.

Final Thoughts

Knives have come a long way since the huge swords of yesteryear, they were a little impractical but were most likely a psychological crutch to distract them from the fact that their gear was far from fool-proof and the site they were diving on was unexplored. Today’s divers value efficiency and lightness and the three knives I reviewed above provide exactly that. The new, corrosion resistant and hard blades, combined with easily gripped handles and secure, convenient sheaths have revolutionised dive safety knives and have made choosing your next blade even more enjoyable!

Do you agree that a dive knife is a vital piece of kit? What is your preferred blade of choice? Are you a serrated lover or do you find solace in sharp, flat blades? Please share your thoughts in the comment section bellow.

Happy (sliced) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell.

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A Guide to…Going Pro

Let’s face it, every job has it own significant drawbacks…nobody really likes working in an office, nobody likes dealing with colleagues who are just as miserable as you are and I’ve never met anyone who thinks that wearing a shirt and tie is more comfortable than wearing shorts and T-shirt. Well, what if your job didn’t have any of those drawbacks? What if your office was the sea, your colleagues were all young, happy and energetic and your normal dress code was shorts and T-shirt or a wetsuit?

It's Safe To Say That Shorts And T-Shirts Are Better Than Shirts And Ties...

I am, of course, referring to working as a recreational diving professional. A job heralded by many as a “dream job”. I wanted to write this article to ensure that the reader fully understands what is entailed in the job description, so that if you decide to “Go Pro” then you will be much more informed than if you take all your information from a PADI poster.

What's It Really Like To Turn The Passion Into A Career?

For the purposes of this article I will be referring to the PADI system of professional progression because it is the largest organisation in sport diving tuition and thus the one you are most likely to encounter. The PADI system is also copied by a few of the other major recreational dive companies, so much of this will sound familiar if you’re in their system.

The PADI Ladder

At each level I will aim to give you a thorough breakdown of what you require to get there, what the duties are when your there and what the perks of the job are. Obviously diving is massively global and so most of my experience might not directly relate to your situation (especially pay and specific responsibilities) but it will hopefully enlighten you to the full realities of turning your passion into your job.

Divemaster (DM)

I have split the DM into two distinct parts for two reasons: 1) the DMT is very different from the actual job of being a DM and 2) there is a large portion of people who go for the DM certification but have no intention of ever working as a DM (kids going for college credit, people looking for prestige, etc).

Divemaster Trainee (DMT)

So, you’ve decided you want to become a professional recreational diver – I am being specific here because it is possible to be a professional diver in other fields which have little or nothing to do with recreational diving – commercial, military, police etc.

First off, what do you require to start your professional career:

• 20 dives logged by the time you start your DMT.
• 80 dives logged by the time you end your DMT.
• PADI Open water, Advanced Open Water and Rescue (or equivalent) before you start.
• Emergency First Responder course (plus Secondary Care) before you start.
• Fitness Medical for diving (required for all levels hereafter).
• Be at least 18 years old.

If you have all the above, then you are ready to start what should be one of the hardest endeavours of your life. That is not to say it won’t be fun, nor is it necessarily sadistic but it is likely that you will find it very demanding mentally, physically and possibly emotionally.

The DM training is a fully inclusive course that is designed to be practically led, with the theory following. In my opinion a good DMT will last around six to eight weeks, though it can be successfully completed in as little as three weeks with the proper preparation. The reason that I suggest that a DMT last at least six weeks is because the training process is not just about achieving training goals, it is about absorbing as much as you can from the instructors as possible. Although you are not yet training to become an instructor, a DM has all the foundations to teach, they are simply not given the responsibility or the tools to do so. It is for this reason that you should use your DMT period to keep you head down and your eyes and ears wide open.

A DMT will probably feel like they are slaves, they will be bossed around by every person in the dive school and will probably do all the dirty, sweaty and boring jobs. I won’t sugar coat this part, it does get a little tiring running around like a headless chicken for little reward, but this is where you learn your craft. A good DM will have learnt, from their time as a DMT, which instructors are helpful and who to avoid, what equipment gets the best attention and what pieces you want to avoid giving to your divers when your the DM, and other little bits of information that will be priceless to you when you’re the one responsible for other divers. If you’ve done your DMT well then you will be well prepared to make your life easier as a DM.

A DMT will probably do a little (or a lot) of the following during their training period:

• Assist instructors in the pool and the ocean with students doing courses.
• Assist DM/instructors in guiding dive groups round dive sites.
• Set up equipment for yourself, your instructor and your students.
• Set up the dive boat or site with all the appropriate equipment (CESA lines, spare weight, O2 etc)
• Prepare the dive boat in the morning, often early starts.
• The course is ran by OWSI so you will have a briefing with them, probably at the end of each day, to assess your performance. You will also get a final debriefing at the end of the course when they sign you off.
• Get the customers fitted for gear in the morning and wash it all in the evening.
• Possibly work in the dive shop, learning about gear and how to sell it.
• Possibly service some low level gear.
• Possibly fill tanks, though some operations hire their tanks from other companies.
• Complete lots of exams, and do the appropriate study for them.
• Draw a map of a dive site, with appropriate features marked.
• Design an emergency evacuation plan for your dive operation.
• Do a number of fitness tests and stress tests (please take these seriously and train for them – strive for a 5)
• Anything else the dive shop owner requires – you’re their lackey until they sign you off!
• On your qualifying eve you may be required to complete the snorkel test, this is a diving school specific test and is not sanctioned by PADI, though this doesn’t make it any less necessary for your training. In essence, you will be sat on a stool and you will put on a standard snorkel and mask. On top of the snorkel will be a funnel – into this funnel your peers will pour some kind of alcoholic beverage and you have no choice but to drink it (you cannot breathe until the snorkel is clear). The drink can be anything from a tame vodka and coke right through to a bucket of the worst cocktail imaginable (mine was a bucket of Thai rum and coke if you were wondering…it hits like a steam train!)

• 

  You'll Get Used To Setting Up Gear...

Divemaster (DM)

Once you’ve qualified as a Divemaster (and survived the DMT party), the work load shifts from being really labour intensive to a little less headless chicken but with more responsibilities. A DMs primary role is customer care, they are there solely to ensure the customer has a great set of dives and is safe throughout the day. The way the DM does this is up to the person and the way they were trained. I have always believed that a DM should be a good listener, this is the key to achieving all that is asked of a DM. If you listen to your boss you will understand what she wants from you and how to do it, if you listen to the instructors (because you are always learning) you will pick up tips on how to deal with novice divers, if you listen to your customers you will detect their fears and be able to abate them, you will also hear what interests them and be able to tailor your dive plan to incorporate what they want to see.

A DM is also an organiser, he or she is there to make sure that there isn’t a logistical angle that they haven’t already thought of and prepared for. They should be planning for events that have never happened and events that you ensure will never happen. In some diving organisations the DM doesn’t actually dive with the clients, they simply offer assistance in planning the dive and then keep track of who is in the water and who has surfaced. This is not a particularly fun job, but it is vital (especially when the boat or shore is busy) that you know precisely where each buddy team in going and when they expect to surface – even though you’re not in the water with them they are still your responsibility.  DMs have an obligation to think about people other than themselves, that is what makes them professional – this is a character attribute more than something that can be trained into a person. Bare this is mind if you are considering becoming professional – selfish people simply do not make good DMs.

Remember that being a DM is often a thankless job. You might have put in 100% throughout the day and went out of your way to make sure the dives went smoothly but it is quite possible that this will be lost on the customer and your boss – a DM is expected to go further than the bare minimum. Make sure you are not a proud person because you might go weeks without a compliment for the work you do. You will also notice that you wallet will not swell with cash, a DM is very poorly paid wherever you are. It is not a job you take to become rich, even with tips it is a lousy salary. You must also remember that diving is often seasonal, so from your merge earnings you need to save some to get you through the low season.

Assistant Instructor (AI)

For those of you that managed to make it through the DMT and found that being a DM was exactly the sort of life you then you may consider moving on from just supervising certified divers to assisting non-certified divers become fully qualified. Being an assistant instructor normally isn’t considered a goal in itself, usually people go for this qualification purely to gain access to full instructor level. This doesn’t mean that assistant instructor is a useless qualification though, it does give you a few more privileges, a little more responsibility and quite a bit more training in the art of diving tuition.

An AI is a much more valuable asset to an instructor than a DM because they have been given a grounding in the educational system they use, and so they are more capable of preempting the needs of the instructor. They are also useful in the classroom and the pool because they are qualified to present the theory lessons and demonstrate skills under the indirect supervision of a qualified instructor. This means that heavy workloads can be divided up among instructors and AIs as long as they remain under supervision.

An AI Is More Useful To An Instructor In The Pool Than A DM

Another aspect of the AI that makes it a little more valuable in certain situations is the ability to conduct DSDs in confined water (you can do this as a DM but it requires extra training – DSD Leader) which can prove very profitable if your dive school uses DSDs as a marketing tool.

There are not many requirements to become an AI other than to be an existing DM and have been diving for six months. The course is organised and ran by Staff Instructors which means that it can be operated at anytime, usually it is launched in conjunction with the Instructor Development Course (IDC) because many people do the two courses together and jump straight from DM to OWSI.

Open Water SCUBA Instructor (OWSI)

Once you’ve got your AI in the bag you are already well qualified in the PADI ranks and should feel well versed in the teaching system PADI employs. The IDC is a two week program that elaborates on all the topics you learnt in your AI. There isn’t a huge jump between the theory from the AI and the IDC, it’s just that there’s loads more of it.

When you train to become an OWSI you will first complete the IDC which is where you will learn all the standards for each course, you will have time practicing your theory presentation skills, you will train in the pool and the sea to refine your teaching techniques and you will hone certain special skills (rescue skills, search and recovery knots etc). Once you have studied your brains out (the IDC is absolutely exhausting and you will surely suffer from sleep depravation plus abnormal stress levels – make sure there is nothing else in your life that will add big distractions as you will simply not manage the anxiety levels otherwise) you will probably have a few days for a break before it’s time to go to the Instructor Exam (IE) which is a two day package of tests which fully assesses your abilities in every field from skills to in-water teaching to classroom presentations. If you worked hard in your IDC then this will be surprisingly easy, a good Course Director is much more of a hard ass than a good Examiner.

OK, so you’ve passed your IE and you’re now a fully fledged OWSI, what do you do now? Well, an instructor’s workload is very different from a DMs, though no less challenging, please remember that you’re paid to do this – which makes it a job, and like any job you’ve got some serious responsibilities:

• An instructor’s primary role is to teach (duh!)
• As a PADI OWSI you have the authority to teach all the PADI courses from Discover Scuba Diving right the way through to signing off on Divemaster courses.
• You will be held completely responsible for the wellbeing of all of your students.
• If a student you have been training gets hurt and you are found to have not followed the PADI standards then you will not be protected by PADI and you will be legally liable for the damages (this can go to criminal court and lead to real life criminal consequences).
• There are moral and ethical decisions to make that will affect you regularly, you will be pushed to bend and even break the PADI rules by many different people (bosses want you to take too many divers, clients want to skip parts of the lesson and your partner wants you to cut corners and come home early – always remember that it’s YOUR PADI license and it’s YOU that will loose it).
• It can sometimes be a difficult decision to make when presented with a DMT who simply isn’t ready to be signed off, yet he’s paid his money and worked hard and his time has ran out on his holiday – the decision can sometimes be very vexing.

On the plus side, an instructor’s life is a little more varied than a DMs or AIs. You are able to meet a huge variety of people, often from all over the world. You will learn a huge amount about diving that you never would have had access to (teaching is often the best way to learn). Your pay will go up significantly, though please ensure you understand that a dive instructor will never be “rich”, but you might be able to save some money now which makes your quality of life much better than a DM’s. The job itself is more demanding mentally than being a DM, and obviously you have a much higher level of responsibility than if you were taking out certified divers. Being an OWSI conforms to the old rule that with greater wealth comes greater responsibility, but also great fun!

Lot's More Responsibility, But This Is Matched With Greater Rewards

The requirements to become an OWSI are fairly simple:

• You must be an Assistant Instructor.
• Have 100 dives logged by the start of your IE.
• Been trained to Emergency First Response Trainer level.

Master SCUBA Dive Trainer (MSDT)

A MSDT is a strange qualification because it doesn’t really mean anything concerning your authority within PADI. Technically it is simply a milestone to denote those instructors who have attained a certain level of expertise. An MSDT is an instructor who as been qualified in five specialties and has certified twenty-five divers.

The specialties in question are like mini courses that an instructor can take under the supervision of a Course Director (or by applying to PADi directly, but that’s a pain) which authorise the instructor to teach specialty courses to their students. These courses range from digital underwater photography to deep diving to equipment specialties. They are not particularly intense but they are informative and allow you to give a good introduction to a certain specialty area.

One plus point for applying for your MSDT is that it is often synonymous with “experienced” when a dive school is posting a job in a classified. To put it simply, if you have five specialties and have certified at least twenty-five divers, you are more employable. It is also necessary to become a MSDT before you can progress to Staff Instructor, so for that reason alone it is worth applying for it.

IDC Staff Instructor (SI)

By this point in the game you are a fairly experienced and wise old instructor and you might be looking for the next level of challenges. The next level comes in the shape of Staff Instructor which puts you in the position to start training the trainers. A SI is given the training necessary to fully sign off an AI and to assist a Course Director in training instructors during the IDC. This new level of instruction provides you with two benefits; first, you will reap much more fruitful financial rewards at this level – if you can assist in regular IDCs then you can make quite a decent salary, the first real money you make in diving. Second, in the process of becoming a SI you will vastly improve your diving technique and your instructing technique even more so.

To be eligible to train for Staff Instructor you must be nothing more than a Master Scuba Dive Trainer which means the only thing that really decides when you make your move from MSDT to SI is your own self confidence…and your wallet, because these courses aren’t free!

Master Instructor (MI)

A Master Instructor is another odd qualification in that, like the MSDT, there is little to be gained from it other than the prestige of being a very senior instructor. It is a very shiny embellishment for your CV but it counts for very little other than the certificate. The only thing that makes it valuable to you is that it is a prerequisite for becoming a Course Director.

To be classed as a Master Instructor you must (this is the abridged version, for the full technical details you should see the PADI site):

• Be a Staff Instructor.
• Have been an OWSI for two years minimum.
• Have certified one-hundred-and-fifty divers (though those one-hundred-and-fifty certifications must be split into a specific group, i.e. So many Open waters, so many DMs etc).
• Been to three PADI seminars.
• Know everything about the PADI system.
• Have no Quality Assurance violations in the past six months.

Course Director (CD)

It is possibly a little early to be looking at Course Director but it’s important to have a goal to aim for when undergoing a challenge. The CD is the head honcho, he is the guy who fully trains the teachers. There is almost nothing he doesn’t know about diving and there is absolutely nothing he doesn’t know about PADI. He will eat, sleep and breathe PADI and he will encourage his IDC candidates to do so too. He is the person who signs off whether a diver is ready to go for his IE and so he heavily influences the destiny of all of his students.

A good CD, as I said in the OWSI section, will put his students through such a rigorous training and testing schedule during the IDC that the candidates on the other end of the IDC will be over-prepared for the IE and will walk through it with their eyes closed, and will leave them asking “was that it?”. His job is to firmly instil the PADI way of teaching and of thinking into normal dive professionals. If he does his job right then they will go on to be the best dive instructors in the business.

To become a CD you need to have:

• Been a Master Instructor for six months.
• No Quality Assurance violations for twelve months.
• Staffed two full IDCs as a SI.
• Have two-hundred-and-fifty logged dives.

Closing Thoughts

Joining the PADI machine and going professional in recreational diving is seen by outsiders as an automatic key to paradise on earth where you are well paid, well respected and blissfully happy all the time. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, the average professional diver will probably feel fairly poor, fairly under appreciated and will have hard days that make him question his career choice. There will be days when very hard choices are required to be made that will make a difference to people’s lives, and possibly their wellbeing.

However, as a career path it beats the hell out of sitting in an office or working in a factory, and the feel-good hit you get when you sign off a proud diver is quite a rush. There is also a tangible sense of accomplishment from scaling the PADI ladder and overcoming each challenge as it is presented to you. I love being a PADI dive instructor and don’t regret it for a minute (even though I’d love a pay rise!)

When The Day Comes Together, It's All Worth It... Maybe It's Not Such A Bad Job After All?

Have you thought about taking the “Go Pro” challenge? Are you already on the PADI ladder? If so, give us your thoughts and stories in the comments section below.

By Jamie Campbell

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Everybody Is An Expert…

There is a rule on every dive boat that is neither written nor spoken, yet every diver abides by it: if you perceive yourself to be a more experienced diver then you must thrust your advice onto the novice diver, whether it is sought or not. Usually this makes for either an enlightening discussion or, at least, a nice ice breaker…but sometimes you meet “that guy” who traps you at the coffee station on the boat and doesn’t let you go until he has imparted every single ounce of his hard earned wisdom onto you. The worst thing that can possibly happen to a fresh and eager Open Water student on his last day of the course is to get trapped into a lecture from two old divers who “have been in it since the beginning”. These guys will undermine instructors, give twisted advice and, worst of all, “teach” the kid how to breathe on SCUBA.

Many Of The "Old Guard" Would Have You Believe They Were Good Buddies With Cousteau Himself!

This is a problem because breathing is as personal and unique as a fingerprint. It is directly controlled by the most primitive section of the brain and it is one of the first things to respond when the body or mind get excited in any way. Regaining conscious control of this most primal of functions is a personal challenge that cannot be taught. The tricks and tips that most old salty divers give is often counterproductive because it is forcing an unnatural rhythm onto the body and mind.

What I’d like to do here is try to give advice that you can modify to meet your own personal needs. These are not gospel truths, but handy tips that can help you maximise your bottom time and relieve the some of the stress of worrying about being the diver that cuts the dive short for everyone else. Don’t worry about your air consumption, it can be improved – my air was a constant concern for me throughout my Divemaster Trainee course because I knew that I was expected to come up with more air than my divers, and I’d come up with the same as them. By the end of my DMT my air consumption was much better, purely by practicing and exploiting these tips.

This list is in reverse order, though you may find anyone of them is the key to vastly improving your air consumption.

10. Avoid Currents/Cold/Bad Viz

This is a difficult tip for some to follow, especially if you dive in Northern Europe regularly! Bad conditions are a part of diving, and they make diving in clear, warm water feel extra special. The problem is that for almost all divers it’s hard to stay calm and control their breathing if they can’t see their hand in front of their face or have to swim hard to get to where they are going against heavy current. Air consumption is always affected by the cold, and by that I mean how cold you are, not the sea. You could be diving an ice dive in near freezing water and be nice and toasty in your dry suit and three layers of thermal clothing, alternatively you could be diving in thirty degree Celsius water and get chilled to the bone in twenty minutes because you’ve had to sit still waiting for your student to finish his skills. If your body gets cold then your air consumption will suffer.

The moral here is to ensure you are prepared for bad conditions (and good ones) by being well versed in the techniques required to dive safely, and by having the appropriate equipment for the job. If you do this then your air is sure to improve.

9. Stay Shallow

Another tough trick to follow when you’re a deep freak. Many divers are scuba jockeys purely so they can get ridiculously deep and feel the buzz. The problem for some of these guys (especially the big ones) is they suck air down at a crazy rate. When you go deep the air compresses and you end up sucking much more air out of the tank than at the surface. The answer here is to ensure the diver stays shallow right? Wrong. If the diver wants to go deep but his air consumption is useless then the best thing he can do is ensure that on the travel dive (to and from the deep spot) he stays very shallow and then descends straight to the deep site (near vertical descent and steep ascent). This will allow him to maximise his deep bottom time and stop him from wasting it on a lengthy descent. Acquired cake and consumed it!

8.Maintain Your Gear

Dive equipment is a strange set of tools because it is extremely important that they all function seamlessly with one another and are in perfect condition, yet many people abuse their gear as though it were a pair of work boots i.e. little or no maintenance. If your gear is left to sit in a shed, garage or dive shop for a long time, or you use it regularly but don’t clean and service it often then you will eventually come across serious leaks. These leaks are often ignored because the diver has dived with them for a while, but they can have a grave impact on your rate of air depletion (especially if you go deep – leaks get bigger as you go down). It takes very little time to rinse your gear after a dive, ensure the O-rings are all fresh and to put your gear into a shop every six months or so for a full service.

Regular, Light Maintenance Of Seals And O-rings Will Save Air And Prevent Complications On A Dive.

7. Watertight Mask

This tip is close to my heart because it took me a full ten dives to realise that my air was going down so fast because I was constantly clearing my mask. My problem was that I had a short beard which was letting in a fair rate of water (about half a mask full every minute) and I was taking regular deep breaths and exhaling through my nose which meant I was loosing loads of breathing time. The solution was simple when I realised my problem and I shaved myself back to my boyish look. I could have used Vaseline to create a seal between my beard and mask, but I’m simply not that vain to worry about my looks – the designer stubble was sacrificed for the greater diving good. Novice divers also often don’t realise that there are many masks out there that are better or worse than their current mask because they’ve only ever owned one, these guys would be rewarded with more air for doing a little research and checking to see if they can find a better seal with another unit.

6. Refine Your Fin Technique

Most instructors are excellent at fully breaking down the various pieces of equipment in a scuba setup, yet they often forget that most people have never used a pair of fins. These newbies tend to get the hang of the fins quickly, but their techniques are usually fairly stilted and inefficient. For those divers that have got a bit of experience and are looking to get into diving as a serious pursuit then I urge you to begin practicing with new finning styles. The style that works for you depends on the diver’s body shape, their fitness, the type of fins they are using and the circumstances. In my case I was floundering with my new fins (Jetfins) until I forced myself to learn how to frog kick with fins. Now I am very efficient, fast, controlled and strong with my fins which has had a great effect on my air consumption. Try other fins and new finning techniques to find what works for you. The key is to be smooth with whatever style you choose, water moves well when it flows, but is like concrete when you try to jerk against it.

5. Good Buoyancy

Like refining your swimming style it is also important that you optimise your buoyancy control. The better you are able to manage your position in the water, the less effort you will require to compensate by swimming up or down. Most new divers swim at a forty-five degree angle with their head up or their feet up, this means that half of their swimming power is being used to keep them at their chosen depth (which means that a large quantity of their air is being wasted). If a diver can stay horizontal at the depth they require then they will use less energy and less air.

It is also important to think about weighting. If a diver is poorly weighted then they may float in a strange orientation (and waste their swim power again as above) or if they are too heavy then they will need to inflate their BCD to compensate for the added lead. This inflated BCD restricts your movements and creates excess drag. Perfect weighting means an almost empty BCD at the bottom and a streamlined profile, which means less effort, more air in the tank and longer dives…

Perfect Buoyancy Helps To Point Your Fins In The Right Direction, Which Is More Efficient And Thus Saves Air...

4. Fitness

Here’s a shocker: big, unhealthy guys and gals use more air than slim and healthy dudes (quick! Alert the press!) It’s no surprise, and I doubt many of you are unaware of the reasons – just watch a very overweight man run next to a fit man, they will be breathing at very different speeds. This is not to say that all heavy guys are big breathers and that all fitness freaks are fish, but it is fair to say that there is a strong correlation between fitness and air usage in diving. The solution: swim for an hour continuously (like you would on a dive) three times a week, this will vastly improve your breathing. It’s not easy, but it’s the only way an unfit but serious diver with bad air consumption is going to vastly improve.

3. Deep Breaths And Slow Steady Rhythm

Ok, so now we’re into the top three methods to ensure you don’t need to surface until at least sixty minutes have elapsed. These are also likely to be the ones you will hear bandied about on a boat’s deck. Often they are misguided or poorly formed versions of this next tip, and they can be productive or destructive advice. One of these terrible tips is to use skip breathing or other rapid breathing techniques, as you will read in the next paragraph, this is absolutely the worst thing to do if your air consumption is poor.

The key to healthy breathing is to ensure you get into a consistent rhythm of deep, slow breaths. The reason for this is that regulators have spaces in them, as do our bodies (lungs and windpipe). These air spaces, upon an exhalation of breath, will still have some of the air from the previous breath still in them, because we don’t completely collapse our lungs or windpipe when we breathe out. This “dead” air is the first thing we breathe as we inhale. This is not a problem as long as we also breathe in a large ratio of good air as well as the bad. If we breathe rapid short breaths then we constantly breathe in the bad air and don’t top it up with good air. This can lead to a shortness of breath, headaches and poor air consumption (because you need to breathe more to get the same benefit).

A good, steady rhythm will ensure that you keep a deep and slow breathing rate which will pay dividends in air consumption.

2. Relax

The best way to maintain a gentle, continous breathing rate is to relax your mind and body. In turn, breathing deeply and slowly will make you relax, which provides you with a positive cycle of calm. Relaxing might seem like the last thing you will be able to do to a rookie diver, they are always so tense, but with time the fears go and leave you with a sense of wonder at the environment you’re in and with a great feeling while you glide effortlessly through the water. Embrace the scenery, relax into a rhythmic trance, meditate on the sound of your breathing, enjoy the exercise and your air consumption will improve greatly.

There's No Need To Get All "New-Age Hippy", But A Bit Of Meditation Before And During A Dive Can Help Slow Your Breathing And Assist Your Buoyancy Control.

1. Air: It’s There To Be Used!

This is a peculiar tip to place in my number one spot, because it might seem to counter everything I’ve written so far. What I want you to realise, more than anything, is that the air in the tank is your air. You’ve paid for it and it’s there in that bottle for you to breathe – it has no other purpose. There are no benefits to handing back a tank with half the air still inside it. It’s there to be used. Make use of the air, breathe it and don’t ever try to starve yourself of air. This doesn’t mean you should waste it, but make sure that if you need to inhale, that you do so, deeply. It is fun to come back to the boat with a hundred bar or more for bragging rights, but if you then step onto the boat and suffer a headache for the rest of the day because of oxygen deprivation then you’ve only got yourself to blame. Aim to arrive at the boat with a little over the minimum air supply set by your DM or instructor. Pace your breathing, but enjoy it!

Final Thoughts

Breathing underwater is one of the main reasons that scuba diving exists, it is both a novelty and a great pleasure to do it. Make sure you make the most of this excellent feeling and don’t try to hold your breath the whole dive, if you could do that then you wouldn’t need scuba!

Do you have any tips or tricks that vastly help your breathing? Did you have bad habits that you’ve overcome (or are trying to)? Do you suck air like a vacuum cleaner or are you one of my arch-nemesis fish-people mutants? Please let us know your thoughts on the issue by using the comment section below!

Happy (plentiful) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell

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What is DCS?

Decompression Sickness is a term that you, as a diver, will hear mentioned many times throughout your diving career. It is a term used by professionals to describe the two main pressure related sicknesses that commonly afflict divers in an emergency situation: decompression sickness and lung over-expansion injuries.

DCI Can Turn A Beautiful Dive Like This Into A Serious Medical Emergency

Decompression Sickness

Decompression sickness, or DCS as it’s more commonly known, is a condition brought on by rapid reductions of pressure exerted on the body. The “pressure” we are talking about here relates to the weight of the water pressing down on a diver when he is submerged. This weight of water subjects him to higher pressures than he would normally have on the surface. When there is a reduction of pressure (the diver ascends towards the surface), it  allows the nitrogen that has dissolved into the body’s tissues to come out of solution and return to gas. This is a perfectly healthy and safe process for the body if it the pressure is dropped slowly (i.e. The diver comes up from a dive at a slow and safe ascension rate of less than eighteen meters per minute), however, if the pressure is decreased rapidly (the diver bolts for the surface) then the nitrogen will come out of solution too fast for the body to handle and it will form bubbles in the tissues and blood. This is extremely dangerous and can lead to a range of medical complications, ranging from sore to fatal. Here’s a brief list of some of the symptoms of DCS, these can arise anywhere from immediately to forty-eight hours from the dive:

• Joint Pain (The Bends) – ranging from mild tingles to excruciating pain, usually in the large joints such as the knees, elbows, ankles, shoulders and neck. This is why they call it the bends – it makes the diver hobble and makes his body look bent.
• Skin Bends – Itchy rash, feeling of crawling insects, swelling and mottling of the skin. Usually affects the upper torso and neck area.
• Brain – confusion, amnesia, dizziness, black outs, headache, vision problems, fatigue or strange behaviour.
• Spine/Nervous System – Strange sensations, paralysis, chest pain, incontinence, numbness and muscle weakness/twitching.
• Inner Ear (“The Staggers”) - Hearing loss, extreme vertigo and loss of balance.
• Lungs (“The Chokes”) – Deep burning chest pain, shortness of breath, pain when breathing and a dry cough.

The Rash of "Skin Bends"... Belly Button Piercing Not Included!

Safe to say that any of these symptoms would ruin your day!

Lung Over-Expansion Injury

A lung over-expansion injury is a much more simple condition to explain than DCS though its effects are no less serious. In essence you can think of the human lungs as balloons in the sense that they are flexible containers that expand and contract as air is pumped in and out. Just like a balloon, lungs have a maximum size that they can stretch to without breaking. What happens in a lung over-expansion injury is the diver’s lungs are, for some reason, unable to release air as the diver ascends to the surface which causes the air to expand and over-stretch the lungs. The usual cause for air being trapped in the lungs is simply breath-holding upon ascent. This is problematic because the lungs don’t have any nerves so the diver will feel no pain as the lung is being damaged. This damage will usually result in air being forced into a tissue it’s not meant to go such as the blood, the chest cavity or some other organ. This can be dangerous on a number of levels. Here’s a few of the symptoms that can occur (usually the effects of lung over-expansion injuries are seen and felt immediately – a diver may even reach the surface unconscious):

• Gas Embolism – Unfortunately this is both the most common of symptoms in lung over-expansion injuries, and the most dangerous. A gas embolism is simply when a bubble of gas from the lung is forced into the bloodstream. This can cause many problems, but the biggest problem occurs if the bubble is able to cross over from the ventricle side of the heart to the arterial side as this may lead to bubbles in the brain which can cause stroke and other serious conditions.
• Pulmonary Barotrauma – This is simply the medical term for a burst lung caused by breath holding on ascent from a dive. This is the initial cause of all the problems on this list, and is a problem in its self because it heavily reduces the effectiveness of the lung.
• Pneumothorax – This is the condition which arrises when air is forced into the pleural cavity (the space between the lungs and the chest) and presses on the outside of the lung, this can cause the lung to collapse which makes it very dangerous and potentially life threatening.
• Interstitial Emphysema – This condition is similar to pneumothorax in that air is forced to escape the lung but in this condition it gets trapped in the other tissues in and around the lung. It is both uncomfortable and dangerous, it requires urgent recompression.
• Subcutaneous Emphysema – If the gas that leaks from the lung is able to make its way to the skin then it will collect there and crate a puffy and crackly sensation under the skin of the neck and shoulders. This is not normally a serious problem though it certainly is uncomfortable and still requires immediate treatment at a hospital.

Lung over-expansion accidents are one of the main causes of serious injuries amongst recreational divers. This is because a submerged unconscious diver is very likely to suffer a lung over-expansion injury if they float to the surface without assistance (or with untrained assistance). This is why it’s important that if you find a diver that is unconscious under the surface then it’s vital that you hold their regulator in their mouth (to stop water from entering their mouth) and tilt their chin upwards to open their airway which lets trapped air escape their lungs.

Common Causes Of DCI

In the famous words of G.I. Joe: “knowing is half the battle!”…well what about the other half? We know what DCI is, we now need to know what causes it in a diving setting. DCI, as I stated before, is caused by rapid reductions in pressure that are the result of uncontrolled ascents. The question then arrises, why does anyone perform a rapid vertical climb when it is so clearly dangerous? There are many causes, I’ve listed a few of them here with tips on how to prevent these incidents from happening:

• Panic – This is an obvious candidate, but not one we should overlook. It is bashed into any rescue diver’s head that they must turn all fears and panics into productive problem solving rather than let it spiral out of control into unremitting hysteria. This is drilled into their heads so much because if the diver encounters a problem (or a perceived one) then the last thing he ought to do is compound his woes by adding a DCI to his list of problems. The simple fact is that if a diver begins to freak out then he must do his level best to follow his training and ascend at the appropriate rate.
• Out Of Air Situation – This is a problem that can easily lead to a panicked diver situation and, in turn, lead to a possible DCI case. When a diver is caught out of air, and is not well experienced then it is quite possible they will attempt a buoyant ascent rather than using a buddy’s alternate air source or performing a CESA (controlled emergency swimming ascent). If they are lucky and don’t hold their breath (which they might if they are in a fear-induced trance) they may only suffer from DCS (in varying degrees of severity depending on depth and speed of ascent). The moral of this story is simple: remember your training and, perhaps more importantly, practice manoeuvres like the CESA periodically to keep them fresh for that one-in-a-million chance that you have a blowout and loose your air.
• Ignorance – I’ve been banging on about “remembering your training” which is great advice for those that were thoroughly taught about basic emergency practices (as you should have been in your Open Water Course), but the issue arrises when you talk to some students that have been trained at less reputable schools – some people simply don’t know what the safe ascent rate is! Others have never tried a CESA and some have’t even practiced alternate air source ascents! For those people I can only recommend you find a better quality school and get them to do a scuba review with you with special attention paid to the basic life saving techniques that we employ as recreation divers. This advice is also applicable to those older divers who have forgotten these skills or divers that simply don’t spend enough time in the sea – keep your skills fresh!
• Helping Another Diver – This is a peculiar entry on this list but it is applicable in two different manners. First, as I mentioned above, it is possible to further complicate an unresponsive diver’s predicament by not following proper surfacing protocols (to further re-enforce this: Hold regulator in mouth, tilt chin up to surface, control both diver’s buoyancy, ascend slow). Secondly, it is also very easy for a diver (especially a spooked, novice diver) to bolt into a rescue situation charged on adrenaline and begin the ascent with the injured diver but completely forget their basic training (or ignore it) and drag them up too quick. This is made even more likely by the fact that not all new divers dive with a computer, usually rely on a senior member of the dive group to control ascent rate or simply haven’t made many ascents solo. To combat these possible factors you must ensure than all divers in your group have a dive computer, know how to use it and are capable of ascending on their own using the ascent rate indicator on the computer.
• Faulty Equipment – To finish off this list I thought I’d put the creeps into all my readers, from novice holiday diver to hardened Tec specialist. You might follow all the procedures and have trained well for the usual emergency scenarios but if your BCD begins to inflate itself, you can’t exhaust air, or you drop your weights then what do you do? In some cases like a stuck auto inflator then it is easy to disconnect the hose and orally modulate your buoyancy but if you aren’t aware of what to do then it could lead to a very stressful and uncontrolled ascent. In the case of a BCD that wont vent air then you must remember your fail-safe dump valves that are so simple that they almost can’t stick (they also dump air much faster which will halt a rapid ascent very quickly). Finally, if you drop your weights and cannot retrieve them (if you are above a deep drop-off for instance) then even with a completely empty BCD you will probably begin to ascend (especially if you normally dive with eight kilos or more). There are a number of things you can do in this situation; exhale your breath from your lungs to reduce your buoyancy and to avoid lung over-expansion injuries, flare your legs and arms out to cause drag and, in serious cases, point your fins to the surface and swim downwards to slow your ascent.

Other Ways To Avoid DCS

Though lung over-expansion injuries are caused solely by rapid ascents and trapped air in the lungs, it is not enough to simply follow good dive practices to avoid DCS being as there are other factors at play which can make a diver more susceptible to this nasty condition:

• Alcohol/Drugs – It must be said that it’s fairly stupid to go diving when intoxicated in any form, especially when we’ve just finished discussing how important it is to keep your head clear in a stressful situation. On top of this obvious fact, substances like alcohol and other drugs affect your body and brain in a number of different ways. The most important is the way they alter your circulatory system as this is the mechanism that is most instrumental in avoiding DCS. Remember, I’m not just talking about diving ten minutes after having three tequila slammers, this applies to the hangover you suffer the next day – diving with a hangover is a rubbish idea, especially if the sea is choppy!
• Hydration – The main reason that alcohol and drugs make you so susceptible to getting decompression sickness is that they dehydrate your body which thickens the blood making it less able to cope with the slight over-saturation of nitrogen that must occur as we surface. You can also become dehydrated even if you’ve been saintly for the last two evenings and have stayed at home playing sudoko. This is because simple things like not drinking enough water and getting sunburnt can also affect your blood consistency. Try to stick to water rather than coke or coffee and ensure you take a large drink before the dive because breathing compressed air will dry you out, you’ll just have to deal with needing to pee for the last ten minutes of the dive!
• Illness – Most people are sensible enough to avoid diving when they are seriously ill, but if the diver has spent a whole lot of money on a dive trip then they might not be willing to let it go to waste, especially if they are beginning to recover. Depending on the illness this can complicate things in all manner of ways: anything with a fever or that causes lethargy will likely also dehydrate you and affect your circulatory system. If your illness causes coughs, blocked nose, wheezing or any other chest/air passage congestion then you may be putting yourself at risk of getting a lung over-expansion injury or other barotrauma like sinus pain or ear problems.
• Body Fat/Fitness – Your personal health has a number of different parts to play in making you more or less likely to get DCS. The first aspect is your fitness, if you are very fit then your heart and blood will be free-flowing and will deal with micro-bubbles of gas much better than someone in poor fitness. On top of this, a diver with high body fat runs the added risk of getting DCS because fat is a very slow tissue to release nitrogen, this means that if the diver does a long dive he will take additional time to decompress all the nitrogen in his body. If this same diver were to make a fast ascent he is more likely to suffer DCS than his lithe and healthy counterpart.
• Exercise During and After Diving – As I said above, anything that changes the way your circulatory system operates also changes your likelihood of contracting a pressure related injury. Exercise makes your whole metabolism speed up, but it also changes where your blood is directed and how fast it flows. If you do extreme exercise during or straight after a dive then you run the risk of accelerating the formation and distribution of bubbles throughout the body. Obviously exercise is part of diving, just don’t go hauling in an anchor single-handedly straight after a row of deep dives!
• Coffee/Caffeine – This is probably just me being picky as this won’t make much of an impact on most divers, but it might mean the difference between treatable DCS and life-threatening DCS in an emergency. The way caffeine works is it stimulates the body’s production of adrenaline which motivates the brain and body to work harder. One of the main things that gets artificially kick-started is the heart which leads us to the same problems as you encounter when exercising straight after or during a dive. I’d avoid the caffeine hit until you’re on your way home, just to give your heart a rest.

Treatment For DCI

This is a surprisingly short and simple section being as the initial emergency treatment for all cases of suspected DCI is the same. We do three main things when we are dealing with a patient with pressure related injuries;

1. Get the diver back to the boat of shore immediately. While you are towing the victim back you will call out for the oxygen kit to be prepared because it is vital that the diver begins to breath one hundred percent oxygen as soon as possible for as long as possible. If the diver is not breathing then you will perform CPR on the boat with the O2  mask in place. It will be necessary to call any other divers back to the boat by signalling them so that you can get moving quickly (usually by banging the boat’s metal ladder or using another underwater audible signalling device). If you are within electronic communication distance of land then you will alert the emergency medical services and possibly contact DAN (Diver’s Alert Network) who can guide your actions and support effort.
2. Once the diver is awake and breathing oxygen then you should put them in the recovery position with their right side down to reduce the likelihood that gas bubbles will cross over from one side of the heart to the other. You should treat for shock at this point.
3. Get the diver to a hospital that deals with pressure related injuries and has a hyperbarric chamber. This chamber will re-compress the bubbles and then allow the body to “surface” very slowly, while the diver is assisted with medicine.

This Is The Only Safe Place For A Diver With DCI - A Hyperbaric Chamber

Do not try to fix DCS by doing a “re-compression dive”, it simply doesn’t work because of the time necessary to safely decompress – it can take days!

Final Thoughts

DCI is a real risk that every diver should be fully aware of when they don their equipment, and if you do not fully understand the implications of what I’ve said here then I implore you to do some research and get to know the realities of DCI. Otherwise, I hope you follow my advice and remember your training because if you ensure you dive smart then you never need to worry about this terrible condition.

Have you had a case of “the bends”? Do you know someone that has? What do you do to make sure you stay safe? Please feel free to put your comments in the section below, and if you have any questions then I’d be happy to answer them.

Happy bubbles (the safe kind)!

By Jamie Campbell

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Maldives – a heaven for divers, whether you are a beginner or a dive master, you will love diving there and remember it all your life all you need is to find flight deals . At the resorts operate special courses both for those who are preparing to dive for the first time and for experienced divers too. There are special places with soft corals, gentle slopes and plenty of tropical fish for novice divers, so even newbie will fully enjoy his diving experience.

Click on images to enlarge

Experienced divers have opportunity to conduct night and drift diving, also steep walls, caves and cliffs are there to amaze you. Wreck diving is not a problem here, all you have to do is to choose which sunken vessel you’re planning to see. But the most exciting is to discover something new, for group of divers countless number of yet unexplored reefs are waiting for their time.

Swimming underwater in the Maldives can be everywhere – both in the lagoon at your resort, and at the furthest from Malé atoll. In many resorts there are special schools for divers.

Almost all islands have reefs located nearby, to which you can swim straight from the beach. Best of the reefs is located in the resort of Ellaidhoo, a bit worse – on resort Bandos, Wade, Embudo Village, Giraavaru, Helengeli, Baros, Baros Ra and Twin Island (Maafushivaru). But of course here are not all reefs worthy of attention. In general most resorts are surrounded by small reefs and if you want to reach a reef straight from the beach resort, make sure that reef is available nearby. Those who want to enjoy not only the coastal waters, dhoni will you to an underwater safari.

Ari Atoll – Ellaidhoo

Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru > Aerial view

If you’re new and healthy, you can take a short course at your local resort (there are 3 types of diving courses: for beginners, special, high complexity).

Those who already can be called Scuba Divers need to take with them the certificate and diving log. If you have not engaged in diving for a while, you will be asked to make a test dive, so the instructor can observe how you feel in the water. These precautions are made because of lack of sophisticated medical equipment in Maldives, and such small inconvenience may be brought to you.

Maldives reefs

Maldives – dual band atolls over 90 thousand square km – part of a volcanic ridge stretching from Laccadives Islands to Chagos. The largest atoll in the world – Huvadu is Among 26 atolls of the Maldives.

Laccadives Islands

The atoll consists of numerous small islands surrounding a large lagoon. Lagoon depth is from 40 to 90 m bristling with reefs, corals and Tilly – reef deep bedding, lying on the sandy bottom. Calm waters in the lagoon create favorable conditions for the formation of branching and reef-building corals with about 900 species of tropical fish. If you want to get acquainted with the fish to be found here, buy a book of local marine biologist RK Anderson.

In the Maldives, there are many faros – concentric reefs inside the atoll. Faro is not a true atoll, but instead forms part of the rim of a barrier reef or a larger atoll. Faro is located near the outer sides of the atolls, longer, and some are broken, like a horseshoe, but they rise from the bottom of the atoll, and it seems they are forming a lagoon within the lagoon. The depth of this lagoon is usually up to 6 m, and only sometimes reaching 40 m.

Each island is surrounded by the so-called local reef, due to which in almost all resorts tourists have excellent opportunities for scuba diving. Visibility in the lagoons is usually good.

Ocean on the outside of atolls reaches 1-3 km in depth. There are several vertical reef walls In the Maldives, and though many slopes are gentle, in some places very steep cliffs exist. Outside of atolls water is very clean, and marine life is extremely diverse and full with colors. Some reefs on the western side of the atoll of Male and South Male are inhabited with starfishes, and unfortunately they are causing significant damage to corals.

Best time for diving in Maldives

The best time for scuba diving is from January to April, when the sea is calm, the sun is shining, the weather conditions are great and the visibility in the water can reach 30 meters. It’s possible to meet whales in the strait at the southern tip of Ari Atoll from late August to October. But if you want to see giant rays and whale sharks, the best to visit Malé and South Male is from August to November and from February to April for Ari atoll, as waters are rich with plankton during this period.

Diving is possible throughout the year, but rain, wind and waves are most common during the season of the southwest monsoon (June-August). During this period, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to get to some interesting places for diving. In a bad season the visibility in the water sometimes falls to 10 m. It is said that the weather in Maldives has a two-week cycle, but there is no clear pattern of change. North-easterly winds in December and January made it difficult to get to the best dive sites on outer and eastern sides of the atoll, but diving can be conducted in lagoons and streams.

Visibility in the water often exceeds 30 m, the temperature of the water is suitable – 27-30C, which allows you to swim with light and comfortable suit.

Maldives rules for divers

In order to make diving safer Maldivian Government has developed a number of rules. Immersions after which ascending requires decompression is prohibited, and diving below 30 m is not allowed. Also it’s a must to have buoyancy compensators (BCs).

Instructors arrange a test dive and if they see that the person feels confident in the water, they allow him to dive alone without joining the group of divers. Some resorts require that diver should not be submerged more than one hour if dive has been conducted from a dive boat or the pressure is at least 50 atmospheres in the BC. Theses rule varies depending on the type of diving and skills of the diver.

Recently shark feeding has ceased to be popular and not conducted regularly. Consult with the instructor about the possibility of meeting with predators. Read also … Protect Sharks

Diving resorts

Dive centers have possibility to arrange diving from a boat in the morning and afternoon , if dive site is located less than an hour away.

Night diving is usually arranged at the request of holidaymakers in most resorts. At the resort with the nearby reefs, where diving is possible directly from the shore, the number of dives is not limited. At Bandos and Ellaidhoo diving can be done all day round. The immersion is carried out with dhoni, large enough to accommodate themselves – divers and their equipment. On boats there is a canopy that protects from direct sunlight. At dhoni usually placed from 4 to 20 divers. Tours are conducted regularly on a daily basis to distant places, which include two dives from a boat included either a lunch (dry rations) or a barbecue on an uninhabited island. Sometimes tours include a visit to another resort.

Packages for scuba diving.

If you are going to dive for several days it is best to purchase a package of services. Prices are moderate and several options are offered. One of them includes two boat dives and unlimited shore dives. This option is more suitable for those who rest in the resort, which has a reef nearby and is planning to make more than two dives per day. The fee for the boat is usually charged separately but many resorts will make discounts if package is ordered. The price for scuba diving is included in the price at Club Med resorts and Club Vacances. On average a package that includes one dive worth $35, 6 dives – $180, 10dives – $250, and six days of unlimited diving – $250-300 dollars. The price for boat an average is $9 per person for per trip and $15 for two. These prices include the cost of rent only for cylinders with air and cargo, all the rest of the equipment can be rented in the resort shop. Average prices for rental equipment are $10 per day for the full set and $2 per day and above for each item.

Test dive.

If you have never dived before, you should conduct a test dive or take appropriate courses. Test dive consists of a short briefing and demonstration, followed by swimming in the lagoon or reef on the island. The introductory part is very short and usually takes about half of the day and helps you to decide whether you want to continue with diving or not. At most resorts you can make a test dive, a cost of which is about $32, this price equipment is included. If you decide to attend courses to get a certificate, then in some resorts the price of the test dive will be included in the cost of training.

Diving Courses at the resorts

Dive courses are not available on all resorts. Theoretical trainings are combined with practical diving and include three to six dives accompanied by an instructor. The first three are usually held in the lagoon and in the nearby reef of the island, and then by boat. Prices range from $150 for a three-day course with three dives to $300 for a six-day course with six dives.

Some schools give out their cards and submarine dive logs, but they are only valid for that resort and will be ignored by many other dive sites. Diving courses at the resorts are focused to introduce you with scuba diving, and if you enjoy this sport, you can move to the next step and get a certificate (C-card).

Certificate. The main certification agencies in the Maldives are PADI, NAUI and CMAS. You can get other certificates too, but not everywhere. Teaching courses are conducted in all major European languages. Before the start of training course, you will be asked to fill out a medical questionnaire. Price for standard certification is $430 (included equipment rental), and $320 for increased complexity, the last includes training courses for night diving, orienteering and navigation. But always make sure if boat fee is included in the price.

Scuba Safaris

One and two week underwater safaris are designed for those who do not want to be tied with resort. They usually start in Male and include a visit to one of the atolls. Baa or Ari, a week-long trips or both atolls in two weeks (in some cases, these atolls are replaced by the South Male and Felida). During peak season, from January to April, all places are occupied so it’s best to book a boat in advance.

Boats for safaris are fully equipped yacht-dhoni length of 12-20 meters and with width of 4-6 m. They can take on from 2 to 14 passengers. Each is accompanied by a dhoni boat: it gets divers to the dive site and carries all equipment.

Usually two dives per day are being performed, and in during intervals tourists visit the fishing villages. You can order a larger number of dives. Scuba Safaris cost 70-90 dollars per day per person (full board), or U.S. $300-500 for 12 dives. These prices also include the price for diving boat, air tanks, weights and instructor.

Drift Diving

Strong currents represent an excellent opportunity for drift diving in the straits and channels of atolls and between them. Going down the reef you can see doorsteps of sea pike swimming against the tide. A quick glance at the reef during the drift will show you how fast is the flow. Be careful with the stingrays, which are looking for food among currents. Look down at the coral trees, crowned with stars, and wave to fishes floating beneath you. When your journey comes to the end, ascent to surface and give a signal to dhoni, it would be in the same direction and they will pick you up. Read also … Drift Diving

Night diving

Night diving is a worthwhile experience: you have an opportunity to see new and more diverse marine life. Photographing fishes at night is simpler, since they can be approached closer than in the daytime. Please also read Night Diving Guide

During the sunset reef is changing, as you may already know fishes change their color. Wrasses bury themselves in sand, fish-butterflies darken and settle in corals, small fish are hiding in crevices and burrows, and the parrot-fish surround themselves with protective mucus. When the day’s fish finish preparations for the night and go to the asylum, night inhabitants appear. Point the flashlight beam on the reef and you’ll see the darted dark-red soldier-fish. In soft coral bushes usually are found small crabs that hide among the corals and sponges.

To see the amazing firefly-fish, find a place near the cave or some other niche, turn off the lights and wait. A few minutes later draped green lights: first one, two, few, and then – a whole sea.

Underwater dangers

It is easy to forget about dangers hiding behind the enchanting beauty of the underwater world, so be always cautious. Always listen to your instructor, he knows local underwater world much better than you. In some areas with very strong currents it’s so easy to lose the diving group. If you are being taken by strong flows, try to swim sideways, and not against it to reach calm waters. Some resorts provide buoys (long tubes filled with air, which are connected to the vest of divers), visible from the boat when ascending. In many shops for divers these cheap means of security are being offered, so they should be stocked up in advance.

If you happen to see a sea urchin or starfish, avoid touching them. These animal contain poison in needles, which is not dangerous to your life, however it may cause you great inconvenience. You’ll not be able to remove the needles from your body, and it will be done by your body automatically. Please also read , dangerous animals of the Red Sea

You may encounter a scorpion fish or stonefish. Do not touch them, and they will not touch you. You may meet a lionfish too, in this case stay away from its sharp fins, because they are poisonous. If you still get stung, treat the wound and surrounding tissue with very hot water, as hot as you can bear. The heat will neutralize the poison, but you still need to consult with doctor.

Suit for diving is optional as the waters are warm, but it can protect you from scratches from corals and bites from undetected water creatures. Spray “Stingose” available from local stores will neutralize the bite. You can use vinegar and wet tea bags, but they are less effective.

The combination of sea and sun increases the risk of burns. Before and after immersion using a good barrier cream is advisable.

One last thing: bring your instrument for measuring the depth of immersion – the water is very transparent, so you cannot calculate and exceed the planned limit of depth.

Instructors at the dhoni usually have oxygen supply for emergency cases. In the centers of diving oxygen supply is sufficient to bring the victim in decompression chamber.

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Around 17:30 on July 23, 2010 a young male sperm whale surfaced at latitude N38.39.052; long W28.26.437, about seven nautical miles north east of Ribeininha Point, on the island of Faial in the Azores, with a large squid firmly clamped in its jaws.(fig 1. and 2.) It is rare to see sperm whales with squid near the surface*.

Fig1 and Fig2 – click to enlarge

Sea conditions were calm. Whales in the area were generally moving to the north east via the Sao Jorge Channel. Water depths in the vicinity range from 500 metres to 1200 metres, with all whales seen during the afternoon outside the 1000m isobath.

From observation of the squid in the jaws of the whale it appeared to have been taken head on, with its swimming fins hanging symmetrically down each side of the whale’s jaws. The width of the body, fin tip to fin tip was estimated to 1.5 to two metres. The whale itself was around six to seven meters long, and carried extensive scarring and marking on its skin, some circular lesions presumably caused by the suckers of large squid. After swimming on or near the surface for about ten minutes with the squid held in its jaws, the whale sank slowly on its side, and then on its back convulsively chewing and snatching at the squid’s carcase.

As is visible in the photograph (fig 3), this method of consumption resulted in considerable wastage of the whale’s food. In contrast to the floating, dismembered head of a giant octopus found shortly afterwards in the same vicinity (presumably also the remnants of sperm whale prey), the fragments of squid all slowly sank into deeper water, followed by small groups of opportunistically feeding sardines.

From a review of the photographs, a number of scientists **  consider that the squid is most likely Taningia danae ***, a species that grow to substantial size and weight. (pers comms).

The whale shown is unusual for another reason. Both its swimming paws show signs of mutilation, presumably by predators such as sharks or orca. This is commonly observed in sperm whales. However, the right paw displays a clean circular perforation near the trailing edge. (fig 4). The cause of this is unknown. Torn notches on the same paw perhaps suggest injury from a peg-like tooth, although there could be other causes.

Special Thanks for contribution to
Wade and Robyn Hughes; Wayne and Pam Osborn; Tania Windsor Blunden
wayneosborn@mac.com   aussiesabroad@aol.com

* See: Bullen, T. Frank (1857-­‐1915) ; Cruise of the Cachalot (Ch X11) http://fulltextarchive.com/pages/The-Cruise-of-the-Cachalot3.php#p33
Tony Wu  -  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/photogalleries/giant-­‐squid-­‐sperm-­‐whale-­‐pictures/photo2.html

**      Steve O’Shea; Michael Vecchione, Tsunemi Kubodera, and Richard E. Young:
***   See: Michael Vecchione, Tsunemi Kubodera, and Richard E. Young

See: Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young

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Currents – Aquatic Conveyor Belts

The sea is a powerful force. It’s a huge energy storage and dispersal mechanism that absorbs forces like the Earth’s rotation, the Moon’s orbit and the wind and then releases them in various ways. Sometimes it dumps a huge amount of energy in one go (like a tsunami) but most of the time the power of the sea can be observed in the continuous movement of the currents and tides. These two forces are interrelated because a current can be formed from a tidal flow.

The Ocean Is A Biiiiiig Engine, And When It's Really Roaring, It's An Awesome Force!

Some currents are very mild and can be negotiated with ease. Other currents can make swimming against them very difficult because they flow too fast (or for too long). Once a current goes beyond around five knots it becomes too hard for us to swim against. In this instance you have a few choices; you can either swim for shore at a perpendicular angle to the current, which means an end to the dive. It is also possible to take advantage of the differences in speed of currents at different depths; a current is usually slower at the bottom because the ground creates resistance to the flow, so what some divers do if they end up caught in a current is they head down to the bottom and pull themselves along the sand or rocks because it is easier than swimming. The final option is the most fun though, if you suspect that the current is going to be much too strong to fight then you can simply request that the boat or car picks you up after you’ve finished drifting, this is called a “drift dive” (gosh those divers are a creative bunch!).

Drifting – The Benefits

Diving, for most of us, is a recreational pursuit. Most folks don’t dive because they have to, it’s usually because they enjoy some aspect of the hobby. The only reason someone would choose to modify their dive then, would be to make it more fun or easier. The drift dive is the epitome of fun and easy, though it favours ideal conditions and plenty of planning (more on that later).

Lazy Diving

Divers come in all shapes and sizes, they also come in all ages, fitness and abilities. Some divers relish going hard at it in a current for a sense of challenge and achievement. Others (myself included) are not insane, and enjoy easy dives where you are still capable of walking after getting out of the water. Drift diving is the absolute grand master of lazy diving because apart from the odd trajectory modifying kick or two, there is little to no swimming involved at all. This means that once a diver has jumped off the boat he is chauffeured from entry to exit at the sea’s own pace (and mercy). Many divers love the fact that they simply have to breathe to control their buoyancy, and kick to turn around or get closer to a buddy, and that is all there is to it. A great dive to do if your last dive was like being trapped on a treadmill!

"OK"...Of Course It Is! You're Drifting In An Underwater River, How Cool Is That?!

Air Conservation

An added upside to doing very little is that you tend to breathe much less. This won’t make much difference to those people that appear to breathe half from the sea and half from their bottle (you know who you are…fish-people-mutants! Your secret mermaid fellowship will be uncovered soon!), but for the normal mammals among us it can add a considerable amount of time to your dive. This becomes especially useful when your drift dive is also a deep dive because on a deep dive most divers struggle to make their air last as long as they’d like.

Reach Inaccessible Sites

Most large currents are prevailing currents, which means that they flow in one direction with very little deviation. They are constant streams of water, like underwater rivers. These never ending flows make it almost impossible to dive certain sites using conventional methods because they are simply much too strong to be swam against. The only option a diver has if he wishes to see the site is to allow the current to carry him along it. In some places (with overhead environments) this can require serious training, in other instances it will be like floating down a river.

Wall Sites Often Have Serious Currents, Making Them Off-Limits To Conventional Divers...Good Thing I'm Not Conventional!

See Large Area

In some sites you have masses of flora and fauna densely packed and easy to spot. I’ve been on some sites where I’ve barely had enough time to clear my mask after laughing at an octopus, before I see a turtle. In other sites I’ve went an hour without seeing anything out of the ordinary. It is on sites like these that a drift dive can make a huge difference because you are able to cover large spaces in short periods of time, and you are able to stay longer because you don’t get as tired and your air supply lasts longer. This means you will have a higher chance of seeing those widely dispersed animals that require patience to find.

Fun

This is the real reason that I would organise a drift dive, because frankly it is an awesome experience to be free-falling sideways with almost no effort required to keep it going. The sensation of being carried along is at once exciting and, at the same time, very freeing. There is little you can do to change your course, so you must simply relax and enjoy it!

Equipment Considerations

Like any subsection of diving, drifting has it’s own gear requirements to assist in making it fun, easy and safe. Some of the gear you will use and carry anyway, other items are a little more specialised.

• A Boat Or Shore Crew – There is no doubt that drift diving is great fun, however, what isn’t fun is drifting three miles from your entry point off the shore, and then realising once you exit the water that your car is three miles away…nobody wants to be dripping wet, in a wet suit, carrying heavy gear for three miles. The answer to this problem is to have a boat follow your progress on the surface, alternatively you can have a shore team follow your progress (assuming they can drive along the shoreline).
  

  Any Boat Will Suffice For Drift Diving, Just As Long As It's Captained By An Experienced Boatman.

• Float or Buoy – The idea of simply moving your exit point to wherever you surface is very desirable (not to mention convenient!), however it is almost impossible for a boat to track you underwater using your bubble trail if the surface is choppy or the dive is at night (and even harder for the shore team). The way most divers overcome this is by using a surface float which marks the diver’s position and allows the surface team to follow the divers and meet them when they surface. The float must be very buoyant, highly visible, have lights on it for night dives and may be required to have a flag on it. These floats should be specially designed dive floats, don’t improvise one out of a few juice bottles taped together, this float must be able to remain floating even when a strong current pulls down on it.
• Line – It is obvious that the float will not remain above the diver without some sort of tether, but it is not advisable that you improvise this either. A strong one centimetre nylon line on a free-moving reel is the best choice. It should be at least double your planned depth to allow sufficient slack for if the float moves ahead of you (surface currents are usually faster than deep ones). You may also attach a grapple to the end of the line to allow you to anchor the float when you choose to stop. This doesn’t mean that you can ram a hook into a finger coral, it means you can use it to grip to a rock, or anchor into the sand.
• Signal Devices – Not all dives go exactly to plan and sometimes a diver will loose his float or the boat might loose track of a diver. In this case it is important for the diver to have an audible and visual means of attracting the boats attention. Usually a whistle is carried, but an air horn attached to the low pressure inflator hose works well too. For visual signals a torch is the obvious choice at night, and a large SMB works well for day dives.
  

  During The Day You Are Much More Likely To Be Seen If You Use A SMB To Signal The Boat.

• Knife or Pointer – Here comes reason two-hundred and fifty-three for carrying a knife with you at all times: during a drift you may spot something that you wish to inspect further, but the nature of a drift dive is that you can’t (always) swim against it – so you may need to anchor yourself to something. The best bet is to use a (strong) knife or metal pointer stick and stab it into the sand. Obviously if you are on a reef then this might prove tricky, but it is always better to touch sand than coral. A knife can also help free a line-handler who’s been tangled up in the float-line.

Risks

With great fun comes mild risk…

• DCS – Currents are strange phenomena that, although they may appear constant can change slightly with tides or different temperatures of water combining (as may happen after a heavy rainfall, or when you pass a river mouth when in the sea). This change might affect the direction of the current but it is more likely to affect the vertical properties of the water stream. What could happen if you’re drifting along the shore is you hit a freshwater pocket (from the river) which will suddenly make you negatively buoyant, in this case it would be easy for a diver to be unaware of the situation or simply be overweighted for fresh water and they might descend too fast or too deep. Another risk is that the current drags you down too far which, if it happens at the end of a dive, might push you into decompression diving which could be an issue when drifting in a fast current and low on air. Currents can also surface you too quickly, which is another DCS risk. Pay extra attention to your buoyancy when drift diving because things change fast when you travel quickly.
• Getting Lost – It’s not a hidden secret that you may get lost when drift diving. It’s more of a problem than conventional diving because the search is heavily hampered by the current. It means that if one diver gets lost then all the divers in the group must surface because drift divers stay as a group – this is their first priority, otherwise the boat is unable to keep track of who is where in the drift. It is also possible for the boat to loose the whole group, in this instance the important thing is to fully brief all the divers on the emergency procedures and ensure that everyone has their own signalling devices. Extra spotters on the boat or shore are an advantage too.
• Collisions – To fly a plane takes great skill and training, this is because they are moving fast in three dimensions which takes practice. When you are drifting you will also be in a three-dimensional space, and you will be moving (relatively) fast. There are also many more obstacles under the sea than in the air (last time I checked) which means you must be super-observant when cruising the currents. You should have your eyes open for not just coral and rocks, but for creatures, such as jellies, stonefish or a spooked triggerfish.
  

  Drift Diving Is The Closest You'll Ever Get To Flying Without Wings...Just Don't Crash!

• Exhaustion – Despite me promoting drift diving as a lazy way to see the underwater world, it can sometimes require great amounts of effort from the diver. This is especially the case when you are required to swim on the same spot in order to see something or let the group catch up. Sometimes there are no viable things to anchor onto so you just have to swim against the current which can be a nightmare. Beware of exhausting yourself, especially if you go deep.

Special Techniques

Stern Line

When divers are leaving or embarking the boat there is always the risk that they simply keep on drifting at a rate faster than the boat. To prevent this issue most boats will trail a stern line which is just a buoy on the end of a long rope. This gives the divers a much better chance of “catching” the boat as they come alongside it. It also allows the group of divers to collect before or after a dive while waiting for the stragglers to jump in or climb onto the boat. These lines are notorious for tangling up divers though, so be careful when clinging onto one.

Buoyant or Negative Entries

There are two ways to descend onto a drift site, the first is to gather all the divers on the surface and ensure full positive buoyancy. This method is good for ensuring there are no problems before descending but it can be a problem if the dive site is small as you may drift past it on the surface before you have descended. The other option is to have the whole group jump into the water with their bcd empty so they hit the water negatively buoyant. This ensures the group gets down to the site rapidly, but it means the divers must find the float line as they descend to ensure everyone ends up in the same spot. Negative entries are only for experienced divers because novice divers often have ear troubles and other concerns, an experienced diver will sink like a stone and get going.

When Making A Negative Descent, It Is Important To Ensure All The Divers Stay Well Within Visual Range Of The Line-Holder.

Final Thoughts

I really hope this article has inspired some of you to go research drift diving further because it’s one of the most fun and rewarding types of dive on offer. Please don’t use this article as a handbook, it is only intended to highlight a few of the opportunities and risks involved with this crazy sub-sport. If you want to drift dive then make sure your first attempt is with a fully qualified dive outfit who have procedures in place to ensure it goes smoothly.

Are you an avid drifter? Is it a sport you’d like to try? Have you got any interesting or sobering stories from drift diving? We’d love to hear your thoughts, please use the comment section below.

Happy (drifting) Bubbles!

By Jamie Campbell

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