Scuba Diving Tips for Scuba Virgins
Scuba diving is a captivating experience that everyone should be able to experience. Not only is it fun; it’s a fantastic skill to know. Scuba divers can enable you to explore underwater worlds that you would otherwise never see on your own. While diving is fun and perfectly attainable, learning how to do it can sometimes be a source of anxiety for certain people.
Diving isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally to humans as we’re land animals. For this reason, it goes against our nature and our bodies often react strongly to the process. As a result, it requires a lot of instruction and patience, While it may take some time to adapt to, once you do you’re guaranteed to fall in love with diving down to beautiful and exciting depths.
Tips for Beginners:
When new to the world of scuba diving, getting started can feel like a bit of a challenge. Below are easy tips that can help you begin your underwater journey.
Find a Certified Instructor/Scuba Diving Course:
In order to be allowed to scuba dive, you have to be certified. In order to obtain your certification, you must first take a course that teaches you the basics. Certified diving instructors and or courses should be certified through PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors), WOSD (World Organization of Scuba Diving), or SSI (Scuba Schools International). A diving course will either be taught in a classroom with a pool or in an open water scenario. If taking a course in the classroom, it could take up to nine weeks. When in open waters, the course often doesn’t take as long to complete.
Be Familiar with The Equipment:
While a class will familiarize you with all of the necessary equipment, it’s important that you take the time to ensure that you really do know the equipment well.
Remain Calm:
Due to the fact that scuba diving isn’t natural and can sometimes cause feelings of anxiety and panic, it’s important to remain calm at all times. Losing your calm and wasting energy uses up more oxygen, which is a limited resource when you’re diving. Furthermore, although it rarely happens, if something goes wrong, staying calm is imperative when in order to get out of sticky situations.
Breathe:
Breathing techniques are something that will be taught in your diving course, but you may still be tempted to hold your breath when diving. Holding your breath can make you extremely uncomfortable, stir up feelings of panic, and worst of all, can ruin your dive! Breathing goes hand in hand with remaining calm; both techniques will make your dives more enjoyable.
Be a Competent Swimmer:
While you don’t have to be a competitive swimmer in order to scuba dive, you should at least be a competent swimmer. In reality, you’ll be swimming for lengthy periods of time when diving and should feel comfortable doing so.
Never Dive Alone:
Especially when starting out, make sure that you dive with a buddy, preferably one who is an experienced scuba diver.
While the process of learning to scuba dive takes a bit of time, it’s an investment that can provide you with a lifetime of enjoyment.
