Scuba Diving: A Chance for Underwater Life
All year round, scuba diving is a popular activity. It is basically defined as the act of entering the water and remaining below its surface to explore, work, of simply just have fun. There are several famous scuba diving spots all over the world. Scuba diving isn’t limited to the oceans, however. Many divers dive into other forms of water, such as lakes, ponds and rivers.
Scuba refers to the tank containing air that divers carry with them to enable them to breathe underwater. The word scuba stands for “self-contained underwater-breathing apparatus.
For centuries, people have been fascinated by the life found underwater. In fact, there is an estimated six million active divers around the world. Commercial, cave, wreck and military diving are just a few purposes for diving. The most popular of which is sport or recreational diving.
However, before you go diving, there are several issues to be considered. Scuba diving is a potentially hazardous sport. Thus, you need to look at a few of its physiological concepts to help familiarize yourself. Diving requires special training, especially when you plan to go more than 130 feet below the surface. Due to the water pressure, you would find yourself experiencing decompression sickness and air embolisms.
Also, it would be helpful to know that a person tends to consume more air the deeper he goes underwater. It follows that with the same amount of air, divers at a shallower depth last longer. Also, air consumption varies per person, depending on their diving experience, general relaxation and physical fitness. Also, those who have a healthier lifestyle, which means less alcohol and tobacco intake, expect to last longer underwater.
The dangers in scuba diving stem primarily from its physiological hazards. Unlike aquatic animals that have gills to extract oxygen from the water, humans need external devices to breathe underwater. Thus, it is important to strictly follow the procedures learned during scuba diving certification process. You should never attempt to dive beyond your abilities and experience.
To breathe comfortably underwater, it takes more than good supply of air. You need to consider the pressure exerted by water onto your chest and lungs. That means, you should be able to exert enough pressure when inhaling to counter the surrounding temperature, or else, you might not be able to safely inflate your lungs.
Fortunately, there are modern devices such as valve regulators to ensure that the diver can breathe naturally and almost effortlessly underwater, regardless of depth. You won’t be using your nose in inhalation since it is usually encapsulated in a diving mask. However, you don’t need to worry since inhaling from the regulator’s mouthpiece will come out spontaneously.
It is also important to ascend or descend slowly, to give your body enough time to equalize the pressure. Sudden changes in water pressure can be very harmful. A significant difference from the pressure outside and inside the diver can cause severe injuries, referred to as barotraumas.
Bends or decompression sickness is caused by staying too long in great depths then ascending very quickly. The deeper you dive underwater, the denser the air you breathe, which allows you to breathe nitrogen more than safe amount. Nitrogen forms tiny bubbles on your tissues and bloodstream. If these bubbles stay trapped inside your body, they could burst and cause extreme pain.
Another fatal pressure related injury is air embolism. When you ascend too quickly, the gases in your bloodstream will form a large bubble which can impede the flow of blood to your brain. To allow excess air to escape from the body, a diver should ascend slowly enough.
To avoid these risks, you must be able to calculate how long you can safely stay at a certain depth and how long you should dive again. Of course, there is also the risk of running out of air and breathing contaminated air when underwater. Scuba diving certification courses should teach you how to avoid these and what to do should a fellow diver experience such problems.
So before you explore the underwater world, make sure you have passed a scuba diving certification. This will allow you to do unsupervised dives, refill your air tanks and buy scuba diving gadgets. Of course, when you go scuba diving, make sure that you have somebody with you who can assist you if something goes wrong.
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