Water Sports Safety - Underwater Diving

Before considering skin diving as a sport, you must be healthy. Persons with disorders such as epilepsy, diabetes, claustrophobia, and respiratory and cardiac disorders must never skindive. It is sensible to have regular medical checkups if you intend to take up the sport seriously.

Skin diving is not a sport you can learn casually. Even an experienced diver should not attempt to teach you if he or she is not a qualified instructor. You must have lessons before you buy the equipment or attempt to go underwater. The best training can be obtained at a reputable diving club or school.

Always dive with a companion. Even the most experienced divers can get into trouble underwater.

Plan your trip carefully before you set out. Diving tables are available that tell you how much time you can spend at specific depths and how much time you need to resurface. You must wear an accurate timer and depth gauge.

Check the weather forecast for the area in which you are diving before going out. Always tell a responsible person where you are going to dive and how long you expect to be away. Report back to that person when you return.

Do not dive near buoys or fishing spots. If possible, check with the local fishermen to determine which areas are safe and convenient for diving. Avoid fishing nets, buoys, and rocks that are covered with kelp.

Always fly a diving flag when diving, and always use a surface marker buoy as well.

As you go down, your ears begin to hurt. This is because the pressure outside the eardrums increases with the depth. The moment you feel the pressure, you must pinch your nose and gently blow. This opens your Eustachian tubes and equalizes the pressure on each side of the eardrums. If you do not equalize the pressure, your eardrums will burst at about 30 feet. For this reason, never dive after a heavy cold or flu, as it may not be possible to clear the Eustachian tubes.

Compressed tanks contain the constituents of air, that is, 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen. Breathing pressurized nitrogen sometimes produces a feeling of intoxication known as nitrogen narcosis. This becomes a problem when diving at depths of 75 feet (22.5m) or deeper. A diver's companion must be alert for the signs. A diver may suddenly start behaving strangely, attempt to remove the face mask, or make indistinct and fumbling communication signs. The other diver must get the person to the surface as quickly as possible without producing decompression sickness (the "bends"). Once the person has surfaced, the narcosis wears off, leaving no aftereffects.

Decompression sickness depends on the amount of time a diver is at a certain depth as well as the depth itself. The diver experiences acute muscle cramps and breathing difficulties. He or she must be treated immediately. The only safe way of doing this is to get the diver to the nearest decompression chamber.

If you miscalculate the amount of air that you have left in your tank and consequently run out, it is extremely dangerous to hold your breath and rise to the surface. As you rise, the air in the lungs expands as it decompresses, and the lung may rupture. You must blow air out as you rise. Skilled divers sometimes share the air from one tank with their companion as they surface.