Diving wrecks | Scuba Diving | Wreck Diving

This paragraph is for newbies ie someone who has never dived before and wants to learn about diving, so all those experienced divers please skip this section, we don't want to reinvent the wheel for you.

The very first step to take if you want to learn to dive is to go along to a Dive School and enrol on a Diving Course.

You will be taught that diving is fun and that diving is a thinking person's sport. There are dangers but only if you ignore the training you receive otherwise it is safe. Diving is not for everyone although anyone can learn to dive.

The basic equipment consists of a mask, a snorkel and a good set of fins. Depending on the water temperature you will need a lycra suit or a 3mm or 5mm wetsuit which could be a one-piece or a two-piece. Once you have done a few "pool sessions" you will graduate to using your scuba equipment. A "BC or buoyancy converter" which is essentially a waist-coat which when inflated allows you to rise to the surface. It also allows you to float under the water to keep you from sinking onto the seabed.

Your "tank" which is strapped to your back and attached to which is your "DV or demand valve" which is placed in your mouth and allows you to breathe under the water. And finally your weight belt which helps you to descend in the water.

The other parts of your equipment are your pressure gauge which tells you how much air you have left in your tank, your depth gauge which tells you how deep your are and also records the deepest point you have achieved on your dive and often a compass to enable you to set a direction or return to the start point of your dive or more importantly to find your dive boat if it is an offshore dive.

There are essentially two types of wreck diving, those that are charted or listed and those that are still to be discovered. Most sport divers look for the former and there is an enormous amount of pleasure to be achieved. Sport diving is acknowledged to have a depth limitation of up to 42 m which gives one a very short bottom time with several decompression stops on the way up to the surface. There is a risk of nitrogen narcosis or "the narcs" which results in or causes disorientation.

Many well known wrecks are between 12m and 26m which allow a longer bottom time ie a longer time to explore a wreck. It will also result in more dives in a day. This is diving for fun at it's best. Often such a dive will have better visibility than a deep dive.