Scuba diving is about a lot more than looking at fish. It can also involve treasure hunting and fossil finding, for example. Wreck diving is a specialized type of scuba diving that involves diving on shipwrecks and (sometimes) looking for sunken treasure.
New scuba divers often find it gross that spitting into your mask is the accepted way of stopping it fogging up at depth. You can buy expensive de-fogging sprays which professionals often refer to as spit-in-a-can (it stopped me buying it!).
Objects appear significantly larger underwater – so yes, you do look fat in that wetsuit.
There’s something called the 60 foot club, which is the scuba diving equivalent of the mile high club. (This is more of a rumor than a fact, if I’m honest, but it sounds fun to me!)
If you hear about full penetration diving, it’s nothing to do with the 60 foot club! Full penetration is a wreck diving term that involves diving deep into the wreck, beyond the ‘light zone’. Most recreational wreck diving is non-penetration, or light penetration. You need advanced training and special equipment for full penetration wreck diving.
Sharks don’t like the taste of rubber, so always wear a wetsuit.
Most sharks are more scared of you than you are of them, so don’t panic if you see one.
Sharks don’t fill out questionnaires on their tastes and fears so both of the above facts could be wrong – proceed with caution!
It’s possible to get married underwater, but don’t expect all those embarrassing great-aunts on your Dad’s side of the family to come to the wedding (actually, that could be a big advantage).
Whale sharks have a scary name and are the biggest fish in the ocean, but apparently they’re scared of scuba bubbles (at least that’s the explanation that locals in Exmouth, Western Australia offered as to why they seem happy to swim with snorkelers but are wary of scuba divers).
You can use your scuba diving qualifications as college credit for some courses. Who says college has to be hard work? (You’ll need an official transcript from the organisation that trained you – contact them to find out more.)
There are some 5,300 PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) Dive centres operating in 180 countries, and NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) claims to have tens of thousands of affiliated members, stores and service centres around the world. So don’t restrict diving to your local area. Check out the scuba opportunities every time you go on vacation.
PADI offers specialised qualifications in different types of diving, such as wreck diving, underwater photography, and courses in ice diving that include “hole cutting procedures”. Some people evidently consider ice diving a fun sport. I like my scuba diving experiences in temperate to tropical waters and consider ice diving pretty crazy.
When you scuba dive you usually find the water is a similar temperature or slightly colder at depth than it is on the surface. I guess ice diving is the exception to this as the water, by definition, has to be warmer than the ice – but I still think it would be too cold for me.
Coral is a living organism which means that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is arguably the largest living thing on earth.
If you dive with a cold or sinus problems it may be painful. More importantly, if you sneeze into your mask at depth the gross factor of having to spit in it will pale into insignificance.
You will never look graceful walking on land wearing a pair of fins – especially if you’re also wearing full scuba gear.
Scuba diving is about a lot more than looking at fish. It can also involve treasure hunting and fossil finding, for example. Wreck diving is a specialized type of scuba diving that involves diving on shipwrecks and (sometimes) looking for sunken treasure.
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