Scuba Diving Guide

What's first?
Okay, absolutely the first thing is that you need to get certified before you consider scuba diving. While recreational scuba diving has and incredibly safe record, this is only because those divers have taken the proper training and follow set procedures.

There are various agencies that can get you certified, some of the largest are:

1) PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors)

2) BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club)

3) SSI Scuba Schools International)

4) NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors)

5) SEI (Scuba Educators International)

6) CMAS (Confederation Mondiale des Activites Subaquatiques)

While all of these agencies give respectable and good training, PADI is probably the most recognised around the world. A basic recreational course, with both theory and practise elements should take you between 3-5 days to complete.

Once you have this qualification, you'll be able to dive with a buddy, usually following a more experienced group-leader or instructor around the dive site, to a maximum depth of around 18 metres.

Scuba Equipment
There are hundreds of pieces of scuba gear and different configurations you can use, depending on what type of diving you are diving. A basic scuba equipment guide will show you the basic pieces of kit you're going to be using, which include:

1) Mask, Snorkel and Fins

2) Exposure Protection (e.g. Wetsuit/Drysuit)

3) Weight Systems

4) High Pressure Compressed Gas Cylinder

5) Regulator

6) BCD (Buoyancy Control Device)

7) Instrumentation (SPG, Compass etc)

8) Knife / Cutting Tool

9) Signaling Devices

10) Dive Tables / Planners / Logs

These pieces of kit are really, "the basic 10" that all divers need to master. After you have qualified and move onto more advanced courses, such as deep diving or cave diving, you will require different types of equipment to deal with these situations.

The above kit is considered mandatory for all dives.

Underwater Communications
With a standard regulator (mouth piece) in, it is not possible to talk underwater. While you can get "full face" masks with build in radios, it is unlikely that you will have access to this calibre of equipment when you start diving, or even as a recreational diver.

For this reason, a universal set of diving hand signals have been developed to allow divers to communicate easily underwater.

You will need to communicate with your buddy and group on every single dive you do, even when everything is going well. It is absolutely imperative that you commit these diving signals to memory. It is not uncommon for different people, from either different countries or diving agencies to sometimes use different signals, so it is also important that you review your signals with your buddy pre-dive to make sure you can obth understand what you are saying!

Depending where you are diving in the world, the amount of air left in your tank is sometimes signalled in PSI or in BAR, so check before you dive again. Not to fret though, these signals have been designed to be easy to remember and come quite naturally with a little bit of practise!

Diving Safety & Medical Considerations
As we mentioned at the start of this article, diving is a sport that enjoys a very good safety record. When you start your training, you will learn how to prevent, identify and treat the most common problems to afflict divers such as nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness. While these conditions both present a risk, they are both preventable and most scuba diving accidents happen due to underlying medical issues, rather than human error.

For this reason, it is always a good idea to make sure you are in good health before diving. Your local dive instructor should go through the medical requirements before you begin your course.

Qualifying and Diving
The best place to start is by finding your local scuba diving centre and going there for a chat. if you are diving in the UK you'll or other cold water places, it is likely you will need to start with more exposure protection, such as a drysuit. A lot of people learn to dive abroad, in warmer water, allowing them to just wear a wetsuit. Warmer water is normally easier when you start diving, as it is physically less stressful and generally provides better visibility. Popular locations to start diving abroad are Egypt, Mexico, Thailand and Australia.

If you'd like to ask existing divers questions about scuba diving, stop by the Scuba Diving Forum on TheScubaSite.com and join our friendly scuba diving community!