Safety Culture - diving in the zone
Images
“Thank [beep] for that! How lucky were we? We better not do that again.
Don’t tell anyone though, we don’t want to look like amateurs...”
Opinions & comments
Outside comments, debates, chronics
Outside comments, debates, chronics
Ten Commandments of Tech Diving Ops, Part I
Images
Andrey Bizyukin
An excellent strategy to guard against complacency and protect you and your dive team from becoming too casual about your diving is to establish set operational procedures for all your technical dives.
Today, technical diving is well into its fourth decade. We now have better tools, technology and systems than we did in the past and we know far more about which methods, decompression strategies and gear configurations work well and which do not.
Look After Your People
Images
Simon Pridmore
In the book Into Thin Air, journalist Jon Krakauer tells the story of five people who died near the summit of Mount Everest in 1996. Two were expedition leaders, one was a professional guide and two were their clients.
Going Pro, Part II: The Road from Instructor to Dive Professional
Images
Andrey Bizyukin
Photo by Andrey Bizyukin
“Wait, wait,” you may say when you read the title of this column, “What are you talking about? Aren’t those two things the same? Isn’t a dive instructor by definition a scuba professional? And what do you mean by ‘Road’?”
Out of Air with Plenty to Breathe
Take responsibility for opening your own cylinder valve before a dive. If someone else wants to do it for you or touches it to check it is open, politely refuse.
It was a beautiful day in Indonesia’s Banda Sea. Richard rolled back into the warm waters and swam over to join his wife, Florence. After exchanging signals, they descended together, heading for a patch of bright yellow sea fans on the reef wall at 30m, where their guide had promised to show them pygmy seahorses. The guide was already there below, searching for the elusive little creatures.
Front Row Seats for the Third Wave
In his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, historian Yuval Noah Harari traces the path left by Homo sapiens as our species spread over the world, causing the extinction of other human species and sub-species, and half of the planet’s big beasts. He describes the extinctions as happening in three waves.
New Ideas on Narcosis
What causes nitrogen narcosis?
Researchers have raised some eye-opening thoughts on nitrogen narcosis, showing that it is something that most divers THINK they understand but few actually do.
Exposure Suit Myths: Magic Seaweed, Nano Colors & Other Titanium Wetsuit Fabrications
Do manufacturers hype junk science to sell exposure protection? The short answer is yes!
Choosing a BCD: Solutions for the Slight
Images
Simon Pridmore
A boy in a harness-and-wing system, which is adjustable, so it fits him perfectly. The system allows the head to be held higher on the surface of the water than a conventional jacket-style BCD does. It is easier to control and does not squeeze the diver’s ribcage and inhibit breathing when the air cell is fully inflated. Photo by Simon Pridmore.
In 2014, off the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand, a diver on a discover scuba experience died when she became separated from her group and ran out of air. She was discovered on the surface, floating face down. The inquest found that the dive operation involved was to blame because they had failed to supervise her properly.
Selling Yourself Short: Your Skills Are Worth Nothing and You Work for Free
Images
Simon Pridmore
Salaries and benefits for new scuba instructors vary widely but, generally speaking, diving jobs are not well paid, and this is another reason why you really need to have a vocation for teaching in order to survive in this line of work.
At some point, many keen divers entertain the notion of giving up their 9-to-5 job and following the dream of becoming a professional scuba diver, making a living from their hobby and combining work with passion. After all, the advertisements for instructor courses in the dive magazines make it sound easy. All you have to do is sign up, fork out the dough and take the plunge. What could possibly go wrong?
Innovations: Things to Thank Technical Divers For
Technical divers with rebreathers in Lake Baikal, Russia. Photo by Andrey Bizyukin.
We are all involved in the same great sport. Whether you are a recently qualified open water diver or an experienced diver who has travelled to the farthest oceans of the world, there is a bond that connects us. We are all divers.