- Quote: "The name 'scuba', an acronym for 'Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus', was coined by Christian J. Lambertsen in a patent submitted in 1952."
Underwater diving with a breathing apparatus, requires knowledge of equipment, safety procedures, and underwater navigation.
Basic scuba diving equipment: This covers the major pieces of equipment required for scuba diving, such as wetsuits, fins, masks, dive computers, and regulators.
Safety procedures: This includes basic safety rules, the importance of buddy checks, dive signals, and emergency procedures.
Dive planning: This covers how to plan a dive, including depths, air consumption, dive time and decompression stops.
Underwater communication: This includes non-verbal communication techniques used underwater, such as hand signals, light signals, and communication boards.
Physics and diving: This covers the basic principles of scuba diving from a physics perspective, such as buoyancy, water pressure, and gas consumption.
Physiology and diving: This covers the physiological effects of diving, including the impact on the human body, decompression sickness, and the importance of proper hydration.
Marine life identification: This includes the identification of common marine life found while diving, including fish, coral and other creatures.
Dive site selection: This covers how to select a dive site, including factors to consider such as water temperature, visibility, currents, and marine life diversity.
Navigation: This covers how to navigate underwater, including using compasses and natural landmarks to navigate while diving.
Dive log keeping: This covers the importance of keeping a dive log, including dive details and personal observations.
Environmental issues: This covers the impact of scuba diving on the environment and the role divers play in preserving marine ecosystems.
Technical diving: This includes more advanced diving techniques such as deep diving, wreck diving, and cave diving.
Open Water Diving: This is the most popular and basic type of scuba diving. A diver can go up to 18 meters (60ft) underwater depth in open water diving.
Deep Diving: Deep diving allows divers to go beyond the limits of open water diving and descend deeper into the ocean. This can go up to 40 meters (130 ft) depending on certification level.
Night diving: Night diving is done after the sun goes down. This is particularly exciting and a thrilling experience to explore the underwater world after dark.
Cave Diving: Cave diving is a type of technical diving where divers use specialized equipment to explore underwater caves through small, tight passages.
Ice Diving: Ice diving is diving beneath the surface of frozen lakes, rivers, and oceans. It requires specialized equipment and training.
Wreck Diving: Wreck diving is exploring shipwrecks underwater. These dive sites often hold divers in awe, as they can explore the history and its remains underwater.
Sidemount Diving: In sidemount diving, the diver wears tanks on either side of the body rather than on the back.
Drift Diving: In drift diving, the divers will follow the current and allow it to carry them along.
Rebreather Diving: Rebreather diving is a type of technical diving that uses a rebreather rather than an open circuit scuba system.
Dry Suit Diving: Dry suit diving allows a diver to stay warm in cold water by using a special suit that keeps them dry.
Free Diving: Free diving is a form of diving, as it requires holding your breath during the dive. It can go up to depths around 30 to 40 meters (100 to 130 ft).
Underwater Photography: Underwater photography is a type of diving that allows capturing the beauty of the underwater world.
Underwater videography: Underwater videography involves capturing the underwater world with a video camera.
Technical Diving: Technical diving is a term used to describe types of diving beyond the limits of conventional scuba diving. It includes cave diving, deep diving, gas mix diving.
Scooter Diving: Scooter diving means utilizing underwater scooters, which help divers to move rapidly underwater without expending too much energy.
Underwater hunting/fishing: Underwater hunting or fishing is a form of diving that involves capturing fish or other aquatic animals using specialized tools, including harpoons, spearguns, and nets.
Underwater archeology: Underwater archaeology includes scuba diving to explore and research historical or archaeological sites, including shipwrecks, monuments, or sunken cities.
Underwater Clean-Up: Underwater clean-up is a type of diving that aims to collect the rubbish and waste products under the water to keep the ocean and its inhabitants healthy.
Shark Diving: Shark diving includes a variety of different diving types that involve interacting with sharks. This can either be a natural encounter or a cage dive.
Scientific Diving: Scientific diving is diving that supports scientific research, where divers take measurements and collect samples.
- Quote: "Scuba divers carry their own source of breathing gas, usually compressed air, affording them greater independence and movement than surface-supplied divers."
- Quote: "Although the use of compressed air is common, a gas blend with a higher oxygen content, known as enriched air or nitrox, has become popular."
- Quote: "Enriched air or nitrox has become popular due to the reduced nitrogen intake during long or repetitive dives."
- Quote: "Breathing gas diluted with helium may be used to reduce the likelihood and effects of nitrogen narcosis during deeper dives."
- Quote: "Open circuit scuba systems" and "Closed-circuit or semi-closed circuit rebreather scuba systems".
- Quote: "Rebreathers extend the time spent underwater compared to open circuit for the same gas consumption."
- Quote: "They produce fewer bubbles and less noise than open circuit scuba."
- Quote: "Scuba diving may be done professionally in a number of applications, including scientific, military, and public safety roles."
- Quote: "Scuba divers engaged in armed forces covert operations may be referred to as frogmen, combat divers, or attack swimmers."
- Quote: "A scuba diver primarily moves underwater by using fins attached to the feet."
- Quote: "Other equipment needed for scuba diving includes a mask, exposure protection, ballast weights, equipment to control buoyancy, etc."
- Quote: "Scuba divers are trained by diving instructors affiliated with the diver certification organizations."
- Quote: "These include standard operating procedures for using the equipment and dealing with the general hazards of the underwater environment, and emergency procedures for self-help and assistance of a similarly equipped diver experiencing problems."
- Quote: "A minimum level of fitness and health is required by most training organizations."
- Quote: "Divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance."
- Quote: "Closed-circuit or semi-closed circuit rebreather scuba systems allow recycling of exhaled gases."
- Quote: "Equipment related to the specific circumstances and purpose of the dive, which may include a snorkel when swimming on the surface."
- Quote: "A dive computer to monitor decompression status."
- Quote: "Standard operating procedures for using the equipment and dealing with the general hazards of the underwater environment."