Basic Training For Scuba Diving Equipment

Between the nineteen fifties and nineteen seventies when diving began to become more and more popular scuba diving equipment was basically hand crafted out of materials by the enthusiasts that loved to dive. As the love has grown it is now considered a sport and equipment is made for the scuba diver. The pioneers set the pace and current divers are reaping the benefits.

You will need some basic equipment when you dive. Most people rent this equipment when first beginning. It is an investment so try out the sport before you spend a lot of money. You can rent equipment from most places you take lessons from or on a holiday. The following are the basic items you can expect to use.

You can expect to receive in your rental a regulator, a console and a depth gauge. All three of these items will be explained to you and how to use them. You will be a novice expert as you learn how important these items are to you when you are under the water.

Next you will need a dive tank cylinder. The instructor will teach you how to hook it up to the other items you have been trained to use and how they work together. The monitoring equipment is the key components in your experience in the water so make sure you understand how to use them from your instructor. If you do not ask questions until you do.

Another essential piece of equipment will be your dive mask. It is your visual aid as you are diving and you would be blind without it. It is fit securely with bands around your head to avoid water from entering the mask. They are adjustable to have your teacher show you exactly the best way to get the best fit for your mask.

Finally a piece of basic equipment will be a wet suit. You will need one of these as the water you dive in takes heat away from your body. The wetsuits maintain you body core temperature so you can protect not only your health but enjoy your diving. Suit come is variety of sizes based on thickness. The thickness is for warmth so the thinnest would be for tropical diving.

With these basics and having a little knowledge on scuba diving equipment you can be ready in no time to have a great time under the sea. Have a certified instructor training you to make sure are fully ready to dive with safety to get the ultimate experience. You can ensure you are asking the right questions when you know about the equipment you are using.

Will Kerfoot is a PADI qualified scuba diver and carries with him the latest in scuba diving equipment including the new dive flag which you can find out more about at http://www.thediveflag.com . Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

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There is Danger Involved in the Mild Drift

Drift diving can be an exhilarating experience and in many cases it may be the only way to explore certain dive sites. It requires rigorous planning, specialist equipment (such as emergency dive flags) and strict adherence to the dive plan if it is to be conducted safely. Though many divers are aware of this there is a tendency amongst divers and dive operators to downgrade the mild drift dive and forgo much of the planning and safety aspects that are required. In many cases it is during the mild drift that, when things go wrong they do so spectacularly and result in newspaper headlines such as Five divers missing in Komodo National Park near Bali, No hope for 3 missing divers ” Red Sea. Almost without exception those involved have not been carrying signal flags and were lost on the surface after a successful dive.

As the name would suggest a mild drift is an underwater current that can easily lure divers into areas unknown. The reason they are so dangerous is due to the fact that they require very little effort on the part of the diver to move a fair distance from where they should be. Mostly caused by surface wind the mild current can be the main cause for a diver to require a form of signaling device to get seen by the dive boat.

The Red Sea has been the location for some of the most stunning dives I have done where more than once I have been involved in incidents with fast flowing surface currents and the mild drift below. Ensuring that my customers were safe by using a scuba flag which made sure that we were all picked up safe. A few minutes in a drift heading away from a small RIB can be a worrying experience for even the most experienced divers.

A change in the weather conditions or a careless boat operator can be the cause of the problem. Having a device which is lightweight, easy to carry and highly visible in all conditions is one of the best ways that a diver can ensure that they make it back to the RIB safely and quickly. In a moment of an emergency a dive flag is one of the better ways of getting the attention you need when you need it.

Many more experienced divers have made their own versions of a dive flag but it has always been the fact that they only last a certain length of time and they become a rather cumbersome addition to the divers kit. They were not always the easiest of devices to expand quickly either. There are now devices available on the market that fill this void and are extremely lightweight and highly visible in all conditions.

Diving from a Boat Safely

Diving boats are becoming more popular every year and are seen as a reasonably safe activity there are of course a number of safeguards a scuba diver can take. A growing number of divers are being reported as missing by the international diving community. Divers should always carry emergency signaling devices, like a dive flag, when diving in any situation.

Another part of keeping safe is to make sure that the dive boat you go out on is in good order. Making sure that the operator has qualifications in good standing and a reputation that is unblemished, this can all be done with a little research. Using online websites and tools to check out the experiences of others before you use a dive school or operator.

Making sure that you get yourself seen by others on board can also be important. Quiet and unassuming buddy pairs are the likeliest to be left behind. In many cases these divers may be the most experienced and, being self sufficient, staying down longer etc, are often forgotten about. It has even happened to other scuba journalists when they were supposed to be researching an article for a live-aboard (you can imagine what a great review that got!). The best thing seems to be to get chatting with other divers and leave your belongings in such a way that others will know if you have not returned to the boat. Ask what method the crew use to ensure that they have the correct number on board before upping anchor.

Tell the crew about the type of signaling device that you will be using and which type of situation you would use the device to let them know of your location.

Listen and assess: Listen carefully to the dive briefing. Regardless of how experienced you may be the briefing should include relevant information that can advise of tides, currents, depths and other essential details of local knowledge. Use this information to formulate your dive plan with your buddy.

Making sure that you know where you are going to be surfacing from your dive will help you make sure you have a plan for the eventuality of you being separated from the boat. Having a safety device such as a scuba sausage or an emergency dive flag you will be better positioned to signal the boat should you get carried by the current or the left behind by your boat.

Diving in temperate waters it is very often the case that D.S.M.B.’s are used to signal location at the start of a divers ascent to the surface. It is however not unusual for them to get tangled and divers to get in trouble. A dive flag that can be extended has the advantage as it can be seen from a distance and is much easier to use as it does not require any activity under the water. Having a dive flag will make the diver much more visible to the search party or boat, this means that less time is spent on the surface floating around which is extremely important when weather conditions are getting worse or the swell is increasing in size.

There are so many other factors that need to be considered and a great number of them will be covered in the dive brief. A focus on getting seen when you rise to the surface, particularly at the end of a dive should ensure that you are not left stranded and left drifting. Take a dive flag with you on your dive and ensure that you are safe and not forgotten.

Surface Signaling Device and Red Sea Drifting

Even if you are diving on the clearest of days and the calmest of sea it is possible to rise to the surface and discover that you can not see your boat. Even though this would be a situation that could have been avoided it happens and actually a lot more often than people think that it happens. During these situations it is advisable to have an surface signaling device with you or you may not be in a good position to be seen.

Whilst working as a diving instructor in the Egyptian Red Sea I would often take groups of divers in a RIB to gain easy access to some spectacular dive sites. Since surface currents could be a bit of a problem at times our usual, well practiced, technique was to load a RIB with fully kitted divers, get an experienced crew member from the hard-boat to drive us to a pre-arranged spot and, on my signal, we would all roll backwards off the RIB like a well trained military unit. I always took my emergency signaling device with me as I knew what to expect.

Once below the surface it was easy to forget about the world above. Our attention was on the sharks and rays that cruised up from the blue depths and swept along the coral wall as we hung motionless in awe. Of course, on such dives, time flies and all too soon we had to begin our ascent to meet the RIB that would shuttle us back to the hard-boat.

One dive sticks out in my mind where we came to the surface behind the RIB and it was obvious very quickly that the driver was not looking in our direction. There was a fairly strong surface current which was faster then normal and the November winds were along with the weather starting to create some cresting waves, even though all of this did not exactly go in our favor I was certain that Ahmo would eventually spot us. Even though he looked in our direction more than once he still couldn’t see us as we would have expected that he would.

It was at this point I realized that my three French, two Swedish divers and myself could all be in serious trouble and it was of course my responsibility to ensure their safety. IT was by good fortune and forward thinking on my part that I had started to get into the habit of carrying an emergency signaling device. The telescopic flag was deployed and hoisted up above the surface in moments. I was starting to think that we would lose sight of the RIB completely but in no time at all the sound of the engine being engaged and getting louder was music to our ears. The driver told me that he could not see our heads on the surface but the flag was instantly visible.

This happened many years ago and the dive flag that I used was one I had made myself from sections of plastic tubing and bungee cord. These bungee dive flags were cumbersome (I strapped mine to my tank) but there was no alternative.

Making sure that you have the right safety equipment can ensure that you are not only rescued quickly but also save your life. Divers are actually being reported missing all the time and in some very rare cases they are never found. Having a dive flag is an essential piece of equipment for divers using the Red Sea Maine Reserve.

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