Scuba Diving

I’m based in London and have just got my PADI Openwater Diver Cert. I’m keen for me and a buddy to go on a diving break – but don’t know the best way to go about it. Are there any London clubs that organise such trips (either in or outside the UK) or any holiday companies that specialise in diving jaunts? Or is it better to get a standard hoilday to a scuba resort (i.e. Sharm El Sheikh) and organise the dive trip when I’m there?

You can get some really good bargains in Egypt on the Red Sea coast at this time of year. There are several diving holiday organisations which arrange trips. I have used Tony Backhurst Scuba (web site at www.scuba.co.uk) many times. They cater for both experienced & inexperienced divers. You could even go for your Advanced Open Water cert whilst you are there as this consists mainly of experience dives with only a tiny bit of additional bookwork- practical stuff rather than theory. Personally, I would arrange my diving before going to be sure you can get booked in. You can also chat to them here about the sort of diving you want to do etc etc before you go. There are many many other places you can go around the world but Egypt is pretty jacked up for divers with some very good prices too. The groups going there are mainly divers so the airlines etc are very familiar with diving equipment luggage etc. If you want to go as part of a bigger group then best to contact your local dive centres- or the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) has clubs just about everywhere-their web site is www.bsac.com & you will be able to get details of all the clubs in your area.

I’m planning to do a science fair project on scuba diving but I need some ideas to help me get more focused on a really good science fair project related to scuba diving.

Sure, make a cartesian scuba diver!

You’ll need;
one large plastic coke bottle
one large pen top
one paper clip
one fishing weight
water

o Fill the bottle with water
o Place the paperclip on the pen top, so that the air inside the pentop
makes it float.
o Put the weight on the paperclip, to keep the pentop right-side up
o Float the pentop assembly in the bottle of water
o Put the bottle top back on the bottle

Now, when you squeeze the bottle, you are increasing pressure inside.
The air in the pentop (try to find a clear one) will be compressed.
When the air is compressed, the pentop assy (your diver) will sink!

what age can you qualify to become a certified SCUBA diver????
please help

Through PADI (world’s largest diver training organisation) the minimum age is 10 years — though they do let younger children (from 8 years old) do a fun taster "Bubblemaker" session in a swimming pool.
If you’re under 15, you can qualify as a PADI Junior Open Water Diver, which you can upgrade to the full PADI Open Water Diver certification upon reaching 15.

The BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club) sets its minimum age higher — 12 years. But that’s because its training is designed to produce a more independent diver, and is also geared to diving in more demanding environments.

PADI general diving course requirements:

http://www.padi.com/padi/en/sd/whatsrequired.aspx

PADI Bubblemaker courses:

http://www.padi.com/padi/en/kd/bubblemaker.aspx

BSAC general course info:

http://www.bsac.org/page/498/bsac-qualifications.htm#top

Happy diving, anyway!

i live in cyprus and i am planning to go scuba diving in the summer. i wanted to know how much scuba diving costs, where can i do it from and do we need some sort of training before we can go with our friends.
i have tried to look in some websites but couldn’t find much help.

Costs can vary from dive shop to dive shop. Your best bet is to contact all your local shops to get a handle on their pricing. The average appears to be about 240 Euros. There are a few training agencies. PADI is the most popular, followed by NAUI and BSAC.You can find all the PADI shops in Cyprus by going to http://www.padi.com/scuba/locate-a-padi-dive-shop/default.aspx
For NAUI you can use their shop locator here:http://www.naui.org/
I believe BSAC is also active in Cyprus. You can use their shop locator here: http://www.bsac.com/findit.asp?section=1420

Where can you do it from? Anywhere there’s water deep enough to dive in and within your certification qualifications. Yes…you do need training before diving. When you’ve completed it, you’ll receive a card with your picture on it. You’ll need that card to rent certain types of gear ( regs, tanks) or to have your own tanks filled. No card…no air.
Your first certification level is called an Open Water. It will allow you to dive to 60 feet on normal air with a certified buddy and in an environment that has no overhead preventing you from making a direct ascent to the surface. No caves and no penetration of wrecks. You can use this certification anywhere in the world.
There are further levels of certification you can go on to, when you’ve got enough dives under your belt, but the OW is your first one.

If you’re not sure about if you’d enjoy diving or not, some shops with PADI offer what’s called Discover Scuba. It’s a mini course designed to get you in a pool with an Instructor supervising you. You’ll get to try scuba for an hour or so in a nice safe place. The cost is usually minimal and sometimes (depending on the dive shop) free. You won’t become certified, but it’s a cheap way to find out if you’d like to spend the money to get properly certified.

I might do a scuba diving course in the summer, but im not sure if its pointless and im just waisting my money. What does it benefit?

For me it opened a whole new world to explore. If you enjoy watching fish and other aquatic animals, it’s the best way to get "up close and personal" with them. If you’re interested in underwater photography, it’s the only way to get really good closeup pictures of sea life. Snorkeling isn’t the same because you have to either photograph everything from above or risk scaring all of the fish away by diving down to them. Scuba diving allows you to be more of a part of the environment so the fish aren’t as easily frightened.

I’ll add one caveat, though. Unless you live within driving distance of a good dive site, it’s probably better to rent scuba gear than to buy it. You should definitely buy your own mask, snorkel, and fins, and maybe a wetsuit if you need one, but with the new fees airlines are charging for extra bags it can be more expensive to carry a regulator and BC with you than it is to rent them at your destination.

I just finished my scuba certification, and they told us the number one rule of scuba diving is to *never* to hold your breath. Even when you’ve lost your regulator, you’re supposed to breath out a small stream of bubbles.

Is this only because of the overcompression injuries you can get if you hold your breath and rise (which allows the air to expand/decompress, potentially rupturing a lung, etc.) or are there other reasons?
Okay people, enough with the grouchy "you should know this".

First, if it’s just a matter of not holding your breath when you *rise* I totally get the whole "expanding air" / "ruptured lung" thing (reread my original question… I state it right there).

My questions is why you should not hold your breath when you’re stationary (not rising or sinking), such as during the exercises where do you regulator recovery (sweep and reach methods). It feels more natural to hold my breath during that, but the course instructions say never hold your breath; hence my question.

It’s just a bad habit to get into that you might do on ascent is all and it’s the primary reason why they tell you never to do it. If you’re conditioned to never hold your breath, chances are, you won’t be doing it when it’s really important, like an emergency swimming ascent. Don’t get me wrong, tons of divers do do it, it’s called skip breathing. It’s a way to wrangle a little more TBT out of your tank by reducing your gas consumption a bit. PADI and the rest don’t want you skipping because that could lead you to believe it was ok to do it. It’s not really and for the reason I mentioned above. Mental conditioning.

I wanna know all the jobs that have scuba diving. I want to do something with scuba diving.
Thanks

Underwater Videography for the movie and television industry
Scuba Instructor at a dive resort or on a cruise ship
Underwater Welder
Commercial search and underwater salvage
Scuba instructor working at a dive training facility/dive store (that’s me), I work at Visibility Unlimited just south of Chicago
http://www.visibilityunlimited.com if you wanted to take a look
Group leader for specialty group travel
Marine Biology
Fire Department water rescue
Police Department specialized underwater evidence technician
Large Aquariums sometimes employ people to clean the larger underwater habitats and exhibits
Underwater Archeology
Underwater demolitions
Underwater photographer for magazines
NASA also uses professional scuba divers to help train astronauts
Working for a scuba manufacturer or distributor.
Underwater modeling

****The best job of all was posted by the Australian Department of Tourism very recently for an island caretaker. A 6 month position that pays 150,000 AUS (sweet)***

Here’s a link to that one

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/workforce/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=CBBD2724-7EEC-48A8-A386-F507FD34C1D2&copyid=42817FE9-5F7E-4A62-B619-AF890A432C8D

I was recently in Florida and I went snorkeling. The boat that I was on had about 5 people out of the 20 scuba diving. While snorkeling, I could hold my breath long enough to get down until the pressure got to me. It was beautiful. I live in New York and I am very interested in scuba diving. Can I have some information on Scuba Diving (certifications, equipment, places to go, etc.) please?

I’ve only done this once before, but if you want to try it before you get certified, most scuba/snorkel companies will offer some sort of a beginner dive once they teach you the basics. You don’t need a license for this. If fact, you need to do this in order to get certified anyway. They provide the equipment if your doing this.

I went scuba diving in St. Barths, and what a view that was. Anywhere in the Carribian is great. If you have the money, go for it.

They teach you to breath in a consistent pattern (basically to not stop breathing), what some basic hand signals mean, how to fill and release air in your air vest (don’t know the exact name), and how to make yourself pressurized to the depth you go to. They also tell you what everything is for and such.

I know i’m missing some little stuff but this is what you would expect to start scuba diving.

Have Fun

I just got a tattoo on August 17th. Im going to Mexico and Im scheduled to go scuba diving for 2 hrs on September 8th. Is this bad for the tattoo?

3 weeks should be ok, provided there’s absolutely no scabbing left. The last thing you want to do is get a still-scabbing tattoo wet; ever get a scab wet and notice how it turns into mush?

I would, however, advise that you put on plenty of sunblock. The sun can destroy a great tattoo.

I am going to get my scuba diving license sometime soon (hopefully) and I really don’t know anywhere to go yet.

The Florida keys are very nice, but ask your local dive shop for local sites. They should be able to hook you up with a bunch of great local dives.