10 Tips To Help You Become a Better Scuba Diver
1. Take responsibility for yourself
Always thought that the Dive Guide would look after you, it was their responsibility, not yours? Well if you’re ready or not once you are a certified diver you are certifiably responsible for yourself. Interestingly enough, its not until you complete your Rescue Diver course that your view will change and you will learn the reality of being a certified diver. You are responsible for yourself, your buddy and, in fact sometimes anyone else that you come in contact with in a diving environment (i.e. those who come to you in an out of air situation). If anything went wrong, would you be able to deal with it?
The Rescue course is one of the best courses available and we recommend that everyone should at least complete their Rescue course as a minimum. Not only does the Rescue course provide you with invaluable in-water skills and rescue techniques, it also arms the participant with a sound knowledge base of diving related incidents and medical treatments. Arguably, the most important skill it teaches you is the ability to anticipate and prevent problems before they occur, whether for yourself, your buddy or another diver.
2. Know how to dive your environment
You are excited to dive new locations and that is what the scuba divers’ life is about; exploring the underwater world around you. The most exciting part of exploring new places is being comfortable enough to enjoy the experience. So it is important to know where you are about to jump in and if your skills are developed enough to feel comfortable in this new diving environment.
Listen carefully to the dive briefing and ask questions! No question is a stupid question when it comes to being safe and protecting yourself from injury, getting lost, and not enjoying your diving experience.
Is there a current? What are the procedures if you get lost from your buddy? What are entry and exit procedures? Are there any hazards? Are you fit enough for the rigors of this environment? Are you qualified and certified for the depths?
All of these questions you need to ask before attempting a dive in a new environment and it is ok if you are not ready. If you are planning a dive trip check all the questions above to assure you are not making an expensive trip to somewhere you are not prepared to dive. That way you can get the proper practice and certification to make your trip an enjoyable one.
3. Know how much weight to use
With proper weighting, you need to breathe out to sink, if you are over weighted, you do not ever learn this proper breathing technique, gravity just pulls you down! It is worth checking your buoyancy on a regular basis to see if you can adjust your weighting.
Rather than take the word of the Divemaster or Instructor that you may be diving with, check for yourself to avoid overweighting.
To check your weight at the surface simply:
- Place your regulator in your mouth and take a normal breath in
- Hold your breath (you can safely do this at the surface) and at the same time dump ALL the air from your BCD;
- The idea is that if you are correctly weighted, you should float at eye level with an empty BCD whilst holding that normal breath;
- Then, breathe out slowly and you should sink slowly In order to do this you need to keep your arms and legs completely still as you’ll never sink while kicking.
If you are perfectly weighted at the start of your dive, chances are you’ll be a little light towards the end of your dive. Tanks become more positively buoyant as you consume the air from them. Being light at the end of the dive may make completing your safety stop a challenge. It is worth adding a little extra weight at the start to compensate for this.
The first few feet of a descent is tricky if you are correctly weighted for diving and many divers make the mistake of over weighting themselves so that they can easily get down. To descend you need to stay completely still, relax and breathe all of the air completely out of your lungs.
Once you are down, changes to your buoyancy via your BCD should be minimal if you are correctly weighted. You should not need to constantly be adjusting the amount of air in your jacket, if you do need to do this, you are over weighted. If you need to constantly kick to stay at the same level, again, this is a sign that you are over weighted.
4. Learn Buoyancy control
- You should be neutrally buoyant at the surface with a full tank and no air in your BC and your lungs half-full. (This is represented by your eyes being right at water level)
Your goal is to be neutrally buoyant at your 15 foot safety stop as well. This method is also cited in articles on DAN’s website (Divers Alert Network, a non-profit organization that provides emergency medical advice and assistance for underwater diving injuries. To do so you might need to add extra weight.
This does not mean to put 5 extra lbs. on your weight belt. A safe bet is to put 1-2 lbs. extra on and go from there.
- Be Patient and Add air in Small Increments
If you add or release air from your BC, give it time to take effect. It will not be instantaneous. If you don’t give it a bit of time, you will have the tendency to overinflate (or deflate). A few cycles of breathing should be enough time. Also, just give the BC short releases of air each time you have to add air.
- Empty Your BC
If you feel you are underweighted, first make sure your BC is empty of all air before adding more weight. Sometimes air bubbles can get trapped inside, the effect of which will be magnified as you ascend.
Some tips to get the last of the air out of your BC:
- If you are upright (head towards the surface) hold the inflator hose straight up and back behind you while pressing the release button.
- Twist side to side, back and forth, and see if any air escapes
- Hold the right side of your BC against your body and tilt a little to the right.
- Go upside down and pull the dump valve on the bottom of your BC. Roll back a little and give your BCD a little shake.
- Stay Horizontal
You should be horizontal in the water as you are diving so your kicks propel you forward and not upward. Proper weighting plays a role in accomplishing this. It is also learned through experience, so be patient.
- Breath Control
When exhaling, let all of the air out of your lungs. Do not hold your breath – which you know already. Besides being dangerous, it will give you extra buoyancy.
Eventually you will get to the point where you can ascend or descend a few feet solely by breathing in or out.
- Get trained
The PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course refines the basic skills you learned as a PADI Open Water Diver and elevates them to the next level. You learn How to trim your scuba gear so you’re perfectly balanced in the water, how to streamline to save air and move smoothly through the water, and how to hover effortlessly in both a vertical position and a horizontal position.
5. Further Your Diving Education
Furthering your certifications in specific courses can further your confidence as a diver which makes you a better diver and dive buddy. Going from Open Water diver to Advanced Open Water certification is the first step. This transition gives you more dive time and allows you to qualify for deeper dives.
After your Advanced Certification you can take advantage of many specialty certifications to hone your skills in different aspects of diving such as Deep Diving, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck Diving, PROJECT AWARE, and many other specialties that will add to your ability to be a competent diver.
As discussed earlier, becoming Rescue Diver certified is a key diving classification to learn your responsibilities as a diver.
6. Learn how to deploy a Safety Sausage (SMB) safely
Surface Marker Buoy is a must have piece of dive safety equipment, which, in many cases, is required by local law. Safety sausages are invaluable for marking your location in instances where you may have been “navigationally challenged” and surfaced a distance away from the boat, allowing you to be spotted from a much greater distance.
They are also essential when you are Drift diving and require a boat pick up at the end of your dive. In this instance, a Delayed SMB is even better.
A Delayed SMB is a safety sausage that is deployed at depth rather than on the surface. DSMBs are essential in areas of high boat traffic. Delayed SMBs are also useful when completing a safety stop in a current, allowing the dive boat to track you
DEPLOYING YOUR SMB
- Step 1: Avoid Entanglement
A key part of helping to avoid entanglement is to be extremely diligent in winding the reel up after use. This is one area that it is well worth being very methodical about. So, after use, reel the line out, attaching the end to a fixed point and lay the line out flat, then, slowly reel the line back in to ensure the line is neat and tight.
- Step 2: Detach the SMB from your gear prior to use
If you have the reel attached to you, always ensure that it is detached prior to the deployment of the SMB.
An SMB that jams on deployment and is still attached you will shoot to the surface in an uncontrolled dangerous ascent.
Another tip to avoid an uncontrolled ascent is you want to ensure you are ready to quickly dump your own air in your BCD as you fill the SMB. For this reason, it is worthwhile being slightly negatively buoyant to minimize issues with being dragged up during inflation.
- Step 3: Inflating the SMB
Inflation may be performed by gently purging the alternate air source into the SMB opening or a valve inflation using an inflator hose or oral inflation technique.
Where oral inflation is required it is worth considering the risk associated with removing your regulator to inflate. With this in mind, it may be worth considering an SMB which does not require oral inflation. If you are a competent diver, the risk associated with regulator removal would be minimal.
For open ended SMBs that are inflated using an alternate air source, the principles of inflation are the same as that of operating a lift bag. Roll out the SMB and then hold the open ended part above your alternate air source. You need to ensure the opening is fully open by prying it open with your fingers. Place your alternate air source (mouthpiece facing up towards the surface) at the opening and purge small quick bursts of air into the sausage.
Remember you do not have to fully inflate the SMB at depth before you release it, as whatever air is inside will expand with the decrease in pressure on ascent.
7. Use Passive interaction techniques with Marine Life
Don’t be that diver that kicks the coral and harasses the marine life around you. Other divers look at you like your some tourist that has no respect for the world outside of their own.
- Keep your hands close to your body
- Slowly approach the marine life (not like a child to an ice cream truck)
- Hover and slow your fin movement when observing
- Wait your turn to observe something if you are with a larger group of divers
- Be respectful to not interfere with the marine life’s normal behavior, that is what you are there to observe, how they behave in their environment.
- OBSERVE and do not TAKE!
8. S.A.F.E (Slowly Ascend From Every dive)
This is a great acronym to remind yourself before every dive and share it with the diver around you! The majority of diving incidents can be avoided by always controlling your ascent to the surface in any situation from a normal dive to an emergency ascent.
9. Dive Boat Etiquette
Arrive on time- Sometimes the boat doesn’t get off exactly on time, but don’t make it your fault everyone is getting in the water late.
Don’t load onto the boat until the Captain or Divemasters ask you to- many dive centers have a method to the madness of who goes where and why. An example of this is a beginner diver and course instructional area or having advanced divers closer to the dive platform to get off the boat first with a chance of having longer bottom times.
Listen to the boat safety briefing- The briefing will cover important safety information regarding emergency procedures and helpful tips such as the location and use of the marine head (toilet) and the location of drinking water and rinse buckets. Be sure to take note of underwater diver recall signals. Keep in mind that ignoring the briefing is disrespectful. While you may have already heard the briefing, others on the boat may have not, and your chatting or distraction can keep them from hearing important information that can save their lives or yours.
Keep your heavy objects on the floor of the boat- don’t put weights, cameras, or gadgets on higher platforms that they might fall and injure yourself, other divers, and/or crew.
Assemble gear before reaching the dive location- No one wants to sit on a rocking boat for long so make sure you are geared up and ready to take your turn on the dive platform.
Be ready to go when on the Dive Platform- Again make sure no one is waiting for you. Do all of your pre-dive safety checks before standing on the platform.
Follow guidelines on boarding the boat after the dive- There is a reason there are exit strategies for getting out of the water onto the boat. Listen to your pre dive briefing and remember the required exit strategy for that dive boat. Not all dive boats are the same and some require different things such as removing all of your gear and handing it to the crew on board, or climbing the stairs with all of your gear still on. Conditions and boat design can change this method so be aware of what you were instructed and follow all safety guidelines.
Wait to use the Head until after everyone is on board- some divers might just be completing their safety stop and would get a nasty surprise when you flush the toilet, so remember it is customary to wait til everyone is on board before using the facilities.
Don’t Compete with other Divers on the boat- One of the most annoying between dive situation is divers bragging about how much air they have left after a dive, and comparing it with other divers’ tank pressures. No one cares. Try to keep the posturing and bragging to a minimum, and be polite and respectful to other divers.
Tip the Crew and Captain- They work hard for the love of the sport not for the monetary value they receive. There is a lot safety responsibility they take upon themselves, and training they maintain to make the trip as safe as possible. Remember that and try not to tip based on what you didn’t see but on the service you received.
10. Dive Dive Dive!
Most important rule is to get some dives in. The more you dive, the better your air consumption will be, you will have better buoyancy, more experience with a variety of diving situations and other divers, and most of all you will have great stories to share when interacting with other divers on your boat.
