Too Old to Learn Scuba Diving?

by: Rona Limsy

(http://www.articlecity.com/articles/self_improvement_and_motivation/article_5106.shtml)

We are always told we should learn sports when we are young, when our bodies are more resilient to the bruises and bumps which can be afflicted on us when we learn a new sport. This is true to a certain extent.

Take for example, my experience learning wind surfing. I learnt the sport when I was 26. If I were to learn this sport now at age 42, chances are I would not go far and would probably give up after 1 or 2 tries. Learning wind surfing was like battling with all the forces at the same time! We're talking about trying to balance on choppy waves on a slippery wet board, at the same time maneuvering a sail which weighs more than you in the correct direction that you want to go.In the process, I contributed blood and flesh from cuts on barnacles and bruises from hitting the surf board more than once before falling into the waters.

But there is a huge difference with scuba diving. YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN SCUBA DIVING. I can never say this enough. I learnt scuba diving when I was 38. Now I'm not saying that 38 is a ripe old age but still, the body does feel somewhat less strong and less resilient. Added to that, as we get older, we also seem to have more fears. Perhaps we feel we have more to lose if something should happen to us.

I say middle age and beyond should never be a factor in learning scuba diving BUT you do need to have these:

- an intense love for the sea
- a willingness to learn from someone younger than you
- relatively good health

and last but very important ... time and money.

Now I'm assuming that you are thinking of learning scuba diving because you want to make this a sport that you can enjoy every other weekend if time and money permits and not just learning for education's sake.

An Intense Love For The Sea

To enjoy a scuba diving trip, you will have to love the sea and I mean really really love it with all its wonderful creatures large and small. You will know what I mean on your first ever scuba diving trip after you have cleared your Open Water tests.

It is unlikely that your scuba diving buddies on your first dive trip will be the same classmates in your scuba diving course. Because of time and money constraints, you will find that you may be the only one keen enough to join a scuba diving trip soon after your certification.

More often than not, your dive buddies will be a dive-crazy bunch who will do at least 4 dives a day plus another at night. This means that on a scuba diving trip, most times you will not do anything but dive, talk about the sea creatures and encounters of each dive, before suiting up for the next dive. For someone who only wants to do one dive a day and then go shopping, he/she may be disappointed as many great scuba diving spots have few of these shopping and entertainment facilities.

In case you are already getting stressed just thinking about this, don't be. Every scuba diving newbie goes through this. Just have an attitude of a newbie, be humble and you will find that the seasoned divers are more than willing to share tips and may even help you to gear up before a dive.

A Willingness To Learn From Someone Younger Than You

Your scuba diving instructor is likely to be someone much younger than you. Some dive instructors have an attitude and are cocky so you may have to live with it for at least 3 weekends before you become certified - 1st weekend for classroom and theory, 2nd weekend for pool sessions and a 3rd weekend for the actual open water tests. Put aside your ego and just bear with it, it'll be worth it in the end.

Having said that, that's not to say that there are no good and kind scuba diving instructors around. I was fortunate to receive dive instruction from PC, a very kind and patient man, without whom my dive learning experience would not be as smooth and enjoyable.

Relatively Good Health

It's not necessary to be in peak fitness before you can take up scuba diving. However, you would need some strength to be able to walk with full scuba diving gear strapped on you. Once you enter the waters with all your gear, you are almost weightless. But it's the few steps you have to make to get into the boat or to cross the beach into the water that may be a challenge for a person who is not used to carrying heavy loads on them.

Having said that, some scuba diving resorts have fantastic dive staff who can help to overcome this by carrying the tanks and gear to the boat for you to suit up inside the boat. And of course if you are on a live-a-board (live, eat, dive, sleep, on board a boat throughout the dive trip), then this may not be relevant.

Time and Money. This is probably the 2 most deciding factors of whether someone continues to enjoy scuba diving after passing the Open Water tests. Getting certified through a scuba diving course is very fast, just 3 weekends basically. And not too expensive, probably about $300 to $400, including an out-of-the country dive trip for the open water tests. But unless you live near a scuba diving area, you are most likely going to have to travel a distance or even out of the country to do a good dive.

Now just think how much each trip is going to cost you and multiply that by how many times you would love to do scuba diving in a year. When you do the sums, it can be staggering. So you cut down the number of dives you want to do in a year, and then calculate and cut down some more.

In our scuba diving class, my husband and I were the only ones who continued to dive after the class was over. Even then, we did not manage to do the number of dives we would really have loved to do in a year. That's how it finally ends up that we are doing an average of 1 dive a year. This more or less ensures that we will always be diving as a "scuba diving newbie" (hence the blog's name). A scuba diver gets "rusty" when the interval is too long between each dive trip. Ideally, we should dive at least once each quarter.

I have not even gone on to calculate the other "investments" to personalise your gear such as your own BC (buoyancy control), your own octopus (breathing appartus) and your wet suit.

Having said all this, I still believe it's never too old to learn and enjoy scuba diving. Even with our limited dives since we were certified and diving as scuba diving newbies, we enjoy each and every one of our dive trips. Find the right people to dive with, find a fantastic dive spot that suits your preferences (whether macro, to check out small sea creatures, or see bigger fish) and nearby spa facilities to sooth your body aches after a dive - it's a wonderful combination that will almost always ensure a great scuba diving experience!

A scuba diving newbie can still enjoy happy diving!

What You Need To Know Prior To Scuba Diving

by: Clive Jenkins

Scuba diving can be a great pastime for you if you love the water. In the summer it's a great water sport where you can cool off while keeping physically fit! However there are aspects that you will want to consider first. These will indeed help you better decide if it's for you, and make it very enjoyable as well.

Diver Requirements

Before beginning any new physical activity, you should always be sure you can handle what it requires. If you have any conditions that preclude you from other activities such as heart conditions, diabetes, high blood pressure, breathing problems and definitely anything that would make you more susceptible to drowning, you will need to consult a physician to be sure you are able to dive! This is recommended for anyone else as well.

You are also required to complete a form to guarantee you are fit to dive. To find out what is required on the form in preparation, you can find it online at Divers Alert Network. Like any sport, you need to be in a condition to endure times of physical exertion. These include carrying a heavy oxygen tank above water, as well as times when you might need to swim faster. The diving gear adds extra strength demand to some degree as well.

You will need to be at least 15 years old for adult Scuba diving, or at least 10 for junior diving instructions and limited privilege. Certification will involve a Scuba Diving Test which will prove you know what is needed to dive safely.

The Right Equipment

As with nearly any sport, there is some gear required. Though when it comes to scuba diving, having the right equipment, and knowing well how to use it can turn out to be a matter of life and death under extreme circumstances.

Of course the most important scuba diving equipment is your breathing apparatus. It can be heavy, and there are important aspects of it that you need to be sure of each time you use different equipment.

Beyond these, you also need a wetsuit, fins, and other items that will help protect you from the underwater environment where you might need to keep warmer, as well as protected from sharp objects and certain water life.

For the sake of good experienced maintenance, as well as the price, many opt to rent their gear. Often this will be from a sport shop where you scuba dive. You can also buy your own gear, though that will leave much of the burden of keeping it fit on you, as it is yours.

Why Many Scuba Dive

While the majority of scuba diving is recreation, there are those that do it for a living as well. Scientific exploration and research is another area with a lot of scuba diving demand. They spend a lot of time in the water watching sea life cycles, and how microorganisms/coral fit the whole underwater environment. There are also others that work in constructing underwater platforms that are often used for research as well as offshore oil.

Scuba diving can be a usually relaxing form of exercise that still keeps you fit. If you love the water, are interested what happens under it, and looking for a change of scenery, scuba diving is probably for you.

With that, you will need to find a course for certification in scuba diving. This is required to teach you what you know to enjoy, and stay safe while enjoying this inspiring sport. It teaches you how to avoid accidents and other mistakes when you dive that can have dangerous impact on the rest of your life. Then when you dive you will be able to enjoy this potentially addicting experience.

Scuba Diving

Scuba Diving

www.seagrant.wisc.edu

Twenty-Five Years of Enhancing Diving Safety

Three decades ago, the popular Undersea

World of Jacques Cousteau made scuba

diving seem as natural as a walk in the

park. But for human beings, it’s an alien

world beneath the waves, and scientists

are still learning how the body and the

brain react to being there.

Sea Grant has been advancing this

knowledge for a quarter century. In the

early 1980s, UW Sea Grant-supported

researchers assessed the risks to fetuses

posed by pregnant women who dive and

helped design some of the first dive computers,

now widely used by divers to

monitor how long they can safely remain

at depth. Today, UW Sea Grant-supported

scientists are increasing our understanding

of the body’s susceptibility to

decompression illness and the brain’s

penchant to panic while diving.

The program began in the late 1970s,

when prominent diving scientist Edward

Lanphier moved to Madison. Shortly

afterward, Wisconsin Sea Grant helped

UW-Madison purchase a chamber that

achieves pressures equivalent to 1,000

feet underwater or 16,000 feet in the

atmosphere.

Lanphier first focused on finding an

animal model that closely reflected the

human response to pressurized environments,

determined in part by body weight

and rates of gas exchange in tissues. After

finding sheep suitable, Lanphier and

others conducted some of the first controlled,

experimental assessments of the

causes and effects of the bends and other

forms of decompression sickness.

The “bends” refers to tingling, numbness

or pain divers may feel if they dive

too deep, stay down too long or surface

too quickly. The sensations are mostly

caused by bubbles of nitrogen forming in

bone, muscle or other tissues. In the pressurized

underwater environment, more

nitrogen than usual is dissolved in these

tissues. When divers ascend too quickly,

pressure on their bodies decreases rapidly

and allows dissolved nitrogen to form

into bubbles.

Formal diving instruction teaches recreational

divers to minimize the risk of the

bends by adhering to prescribed dive

tables, which indicate how long a diver

can safely remain at depth. However,

commercial, military, scientific and some

recreational divers sometimes exceed

those recommendations, and the risks of

doing so have been poorly understood.