Basic Scuba Diving Gear – What You Need and Why You Need It

Anyone who has spent time underwater with less than perfect scuba diving gear knows the importance of finding the right scuba diving equipment. If you are a novice scuba diver, enthralled with the underwater world, planning to buy your own scuba diving kit, you have to know what gear you need to buy and why you need to buy it. Fortunately, there are just 5-6 scuba diving products that you need to buy before you can start exploring the luminous depths on your own.

Once you get the right equipment – dive masks, diving cylinders, scuba fins, snorkels, buoyancy compensator and diving wetsuits – you are ready to go. But in order to get it right, you need to know the part all this equipment plays in your underwater adventure. Let's take a look at how all this scuba gear works:

Dive Masks: No matter how clear the water is, you cannot see anything clearly unless you put on a snugly-fitting diving mask. A dive mask creates air space between your eyes and the mask lens, allowing you to enjoy the splendid sights of the underwater world. Needless to say, they also save your eyes and part of your face from the stings of the salty sea water.

Diving Suits (for cold water): This is a piece of equipment you can do without if you are diving in warm waters. But scuba diving in cold water without a wetsuit (or a drysuit) is not only extremely uncomfortable, but also quite dangerous. A diving suit insulates your body from the cold waters and also provides some degree of protection from jellyfish stings and coral abrasion.

Scuba Fins: Strapping on a pair a fins allows you to explore a larger area, expend less energy and use less oxygen. Unless you are diving in warm tropical waters, it is best to choose open heel adjustable fins. Usually a majority of amateurs tend to choose fins that are too small. Compare the size of your fins to your boots and your diving suits to ensure that you've got the right size.

Snorkel: Snorkels let you breathe while your face is in the water. If the route to your special diving site requires swimming close to the surface, you can save a lot of gas in your cylinder. In case you do not like the feel of snorkel hanging about your face, you can opt for quick release snorkels.

Buoyancy Compensator Device: For newbies, attaining neutral buoyancy is a pain. Proper utilization of weights and breathing techniques will help you achieve the state of neutral buoyancy. Most scuba divers find the perfect BCDs after a lengthy process of trial and error. For beginners, it is best to go with easy to operate vest-style buoyancy compensator devices.

Diving Cylinder: You won't need this one if you are just going snorkeling, but if you plan to dive deep, this is the most important scuba diving equipment you will buy. For newbies, a standard compressed air cylinder with commonly used scuba diving breathing gas is good enough. But you can also go for Enriched Nitrox mixes if you want to stay deeper for longer periods.

All above mentioned equipment form a basic scuba diving kit. A scuba diving enthusiast needs most of them to plumb the depths of the sea. But once your confidence increases and you want to dive deeper and stay down longer, you need to buy many other scuba diving gear and accessories to take things to the next level.