Open Water

Now that we have seen how circumstances can multiply and become an incident that leads to an accident, let’s look at ways to address these issues even before beginning the dive. You can recognize the beginnings of elevated stress in your buddy when that buddy brings his or her hands from a relaxed position toward […]

If you are planning on making more than one dive, you will be spending some time on the surface (your surface interval time) between dives. As you will discover, during dive planning, a minimum surface interval may be needed to reduce your residual nitrogen. If no surface interval is required it is suggested to spend

Heart Rate IncreaseWhen something happens to surprise us in everyday life, one of the immediate responses is an increased heart rate. This is also the case underwater as the human body prepares for disaster – or at least a perceived disaster. This heart rate increase in itself is of little concern. However, it can cause

This is an equipment-intensive activity. In our daily lives we walk using gravity, breathe air, and live topside where we take these things for granted. Entering the water world, we must first have something to breathe provided by the scuba unit. To avoid losing body heat we use thermal protection just like topside when we