What should you not do when diving? (2023)

What should you not do when diving?

Never hold your breath while ascending. Your ascent should be slow and your breathing should be normal. Never panic under water. If you become confused or afraid during a dive, stop, try to relax, and think through the problem.

Basic scuba diving safety is that your respiratory and circulatory systems must be in good working order. A person with heart trouble, a current cold or congestion, epilepsy, asthma, a severe medical problem should not dive. Another time not to dive is if your ears or nose are not clear.

"If you can reach an exercise intensity of 13 METS (the exertion equivalent of running a 7.5-minute mile), your heart is strong enough for most any exertion," he says. You also need to be symptom-free. If you have chest pain, lightheadedness or breathlessness during exertion, you should not be diving.

Always scuba dive with a buddy and stay in visual contact with each other. Have a third person in your group that stays on the surface. Breathe continuously. Always make a safety stop.

If another diver isn't present, the solo diver could potentially get stuck and run out of air while under water. If another diver was with him, he would have been able to help dislodge his partner's equipment, arms, or legs from whatever he was caught on so that the dive could be safely continued.

1. Never hold your breath. This is undoubtedly by far the most crucial of all safety rules for diving because failure to adhere could result in fatality. If you hold your breath underwater at the depths at which scuba divers reach then the fluctuating pressure of air in your lungs can rupture the lung walls.

If a diver ascends too quickly, the nitrogen gas in his body will expand at such a rate that he is unable to eliminate it efficiently, and the nitrogen will form small bubbles in his tissues. This is known as decompression sickness, and can be very painful, lead to tissue death, and even be life threatening.

Divers aged 10 and 11 must dive with a PADI Professional or a certified parent or guardian, and dives cannot exceed 12 meters (40 feet). Divers aged 12 years to 14 years old must dive with a certified adult and dives cannot exceed 18 meters (60 feet) in depth.

The "no-decompression limit" (NDL) or "no-stop limit" , is the time interval that a diver may theoretically spend at a given depth without having to perform any decompression stops while surfacing.

If you are new to diving and wear contacts, it is important to note that you must keep your eyes closed during any skills that require you to flood or remove your mask.

Why are people afraid of diving?

The feeling of being “trapped” underwater, perhaps exacerbated by the pressure of the water, can make some people feel claustrophobic. This can cause anything from discomfort to all-out panic, which can lead a diver to ascend too fast from depth.

Dives must be executed either head-first or feet-first into the water. In all cases the body must be straight with the feet together and the toes pointed. In head-first entries the arms need to be extended beyond the head, and in feet-first dives the arms must be at the sides.

Drowning is not the only danger associated with swimming. Diving into water that is too shallow can result in a catastrophic spinal cord injury that can leave the victim with devastating injuries that will have an impact on the rest of their lives.

Solo Diving is a Safe Practice

Learning to be self-reliant is what the solo-diver course teaches. It makes you a better buddy too, and the prerequisite is more than 100 logged dives (and then taught only at the instructor's discretion). No newbie open-water divers should ever dive alone,” Michael says.

If you had but 30 seconds to teach someone to scuba dive, what would you tell them? The same thing Mike did — the Golden Rule of scuba diving. Breathe normally; never hold your breath. The rest, in most cases, is pretty much secondary.

The nervous inputs and outputs for the response are coordinated in the brain stem by the respiratory, vasomotor and cardioinhibitory "centers." The diving response in human beings can be modified by many factors but the most important are water temperature, oxygen tension in the arterial blood and emotional factors.

As you descend, water pressure increases, and the volume of air in your body decreases. This can cause problems such as sinus pain or a ruptured eardrum. As you ascend, water pressure decreases, and the air in your lungs expands. This can make the air sacs in your lungs rupture and make it hard for you to breathe.

The most difficult dive to perform, for the record, is the reverse 1½ somersault with 4½ twists off the 3-meter board.

Decompression sickness. Often called "the bends," decompression sickness happens when a scuba diver ascends too quickly. Divers breathe compressed air that contains nitrogen. At higher pressure under water, the nitrogen gas goes into the body's tissues.

Can a 5 year old dive?

If a child shows maturity, physical ability and desire - yes. If a child under the age of 12 is physically, mentally and emotionally able to handle the skills and understand the knowledge needed to scuba dive and wants to learn, he or she should be able to get certified.

The minimum age is 10 years old (in most areas). Student divers who are younger than 15 earn the PADI Junior Open Water Diver certification, which they may upgrade to PADI Open Water Diver certification upon reaching 15. Children under the age of 13 require parent or guardian permission to register for PADI eLearning.

Divers must be 10 years old before starting the course. What gear is required? A good fitting mask with snorkel, fins, booties, and gloves are required. Personal gear can be purchased at a 15% discount and is encouraged for comfort and fit.

A balk is declared by the referee and causes a deduction of two points per judge. If the diver balks again or falls into the water, the referee declares a failed dive.

Most people without any training can hold their breath for about 30 seconds without gasping for air. But free divers who swim without the aids of snorkels or scuba gear can actually hold their breath for more than 10 minutes.

The air in your lungs becomes unsafe when you ascend. If you hold your breath while ascending to the surface, your lungs and the air within them expand as the water pressure weakens. Since that air has nowhere to escape, it keeps swelling against the walls of your lungs, regardless of the organ's finite capacity.

Always remember to fully deflate your BCD before starting your ascent and never, ever use your inflator button to get to the surface. Use the acronym taught to new divers to explain a five-point ascent: Signal, Time, Elevate, Look, Ascend (STELA).

It's perfectly alright to cough into your regulator until your airway is clear. If you feel that telltale tickle in the back of your throat, try to move into an open area where you won't bump into anything. Also, be aware of your buoyancy when coughing while scuba diving, as you may unknowingly hold your breath.

Don't hold your breath

This is probably the #1 cardinal rule of diving. Remember to always breathe slowly and in a relaxed manner and to exhale fully. Don't take short, shallow breathes and never hold your breath. Holding your breath underwater can lead to lung injuries and death.

The best food to have before any dive is something light, easy to digest. Avoid big heavy meals that can cause cramps, or heartburn, and even reflux that might make you vomit. Just eat food with lots of carbohydrates, and drink lots of water before any dive and after.

What law of motion is diving?

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's what makes it possible for divers to project themselves from the diving board or platform.

Good divers are always aware of the impact they can have on the marine environment,and act to minimise the adverse effects of their presence there. They do this by maintaining good buoyancy and control skills to ensure that they don't come into contact with marine growth or habitats.

Divers, especially new divers, sometimes report nosebleeds after diving primarily because they are unaware of the importance of equalizing the sinuses and middle ears. The barotrauma that results when the sinuses are not equalized can cause blood vessels in the lining of the nose to burst.

“Very few people know they can break their neck or get a spinal cord injury from diving into water five feet or less.” Estimates show the speed of a dive is about 15 feet per second. If the water is only 5' deep you could be paralyzed in 1/3 of a second.

Sneezing is possible underwater - though not likely. This is rather like the duck's echo – just because you have never heard one, doesn't mean it's impossible. Sneezing underwater isn't very likely because dust, allergens and bright sunlight – the three things that normally provoke a sneeze – are all absent.