Water Sports: A Beginner's Guide to Scuba Diving
If you’ve ever dreamed of swimming in the ocean and watching colorful fish pass by, scuba diving might be the perfect activity for you. Once you learn to scuba dive, you’ll be able to explore the wonders of the ocean up close and see aquatic animals and plants in their native habitat. But before you dive in, you’ll need to learn a few things and make sure that you’re prepared for a safe underwater journey.
How to Prepare for Scuba Diving
While you don’t need to be Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky to scuba dive, you will need to be good enough to swim around underwater comfortably. The best way to make sure that you have the skills you need is to sign up for a scuba certification course: It’s not required by law, but it’s a really smart idea. To pass a scuba certification course, you’ll have to be able to keep yourself afloat without a life jacket for ten minutes, and you’ll need to be able to swim a set distance, typically 200 or 300 meters, without stopping. If you have a disability that prevents you from meeting these requirements, you should speak to a certified instructor, who can help you learn adaptive swimming techniques. And if you have any kind of medical condition, you should speak to your doctor before taking up scuba diving to make sure that it’s safe.
Basic Scuba Diving Equipment
When you start your scuba diving journey, you’ll likely rent or borrow most of your gear from a dive shop. This typically includes:
- Wetsuit or Dry Suit: A protective garment worn to maintain body temperature
- Scuba Tank: A cylinder filled with compressed air for breathing underwater
- Buoyancy Control Device (BCD): A jacket-like device worn to control buoyancy through air inflation and deflation
- Regulator: A system of hoses and a mouthpiece that delivers air from the tank to the diver
- Dive Computer: A device that monitors your dive time, depth, and other important information
You’ll usually need to provide your own mask, snorkel, and fins. A well-fitted mask is crucial for clear vision underwater. Fins provide propulsion, while the snorkel is used for breathing at the surface. For cold-water diving, gloves and a hood are also a good idea to help you stay warm.
Steps to Getting Your Scuba Certification
Step 1: Find the Right Class
Decide whether you want to participate in group classes or private instruction, and choose the location where you want to train. You can either train near your home, start your training there and finish in your dive destination, or do all of the training in your destination. It usually takes about a week to complete scuba training, though you can stretch it out longer if that better suits your schedule; you’ll usually be given up to a year from the date you start a course to finish it.
Step 2: Learning on Dry Land
The first stage of your scuba training takes place in a classroom or online. You’ll read materials and watch videos to learn about the equipment you’ll be using, the terminology that scuba divers use, and the skills you’ll need once you get into the water.
Step 3: Pool Time
Underwater scuba training starts in a swimming pool, a controlled environment where you can get hands-on instruction and practice with your instructor. They’ll walk you through each skill and watch to make sure you know how to do it. Key skills include how to put together your gear, how to clear water out of your mask, and how to control your buoyancy.
Step 4: Open-Water Dives
The final stage of scuba training takes place in open water, like a lake or the ocean. You’ll usually complete four dives, increasing the depth each time, with the final dive reaching 18 meters (60 feet) below the surface. With the help of your instructor, you’ll go through your pre-dive safety check on the boat, practice all of the skills you’ve learned, and have some time to explore in your dive location.
Once you’ve completed your training, you’ll get your scuba certification, which is good for the rest of your life. However, just because you don’t have to renew your certification doesn’t mean that more training won’t be needed: If you go a long time without scuba diving, you might need to take a refresher course to make sure that you still remember what to do.
Additional Resources
- Scuba Diving Safety
- Learning Scuba Diving on Vacation
- Essential Scuba Diving Safety Tips
- How To Become a Scuba Diving Pro
- Six Easy Tips to Improve Your Buoyancy Control
- What You Need to Know to Get Scuba Certification
- Diving Fitness and Medical Examinations
- How Scuba Skills Can Restore Oceans
- Diving in National Marine Sanctuaries