Scuba Diving Training
For snorkeling, training and preparation are minimal. All you need are basic swimming skills and the know how to breath out of a snorkel.
Diving is a bit more complicated. The basic operational skills for dive equipment is necessary to begin diving, therefore, certification is a must. The first day of the course you will be taught how to breathe with your equipment, how to connect it, how to change depths, to get adjusted to swimming with the equipment, and you will take brief lesson in the water and a basic dive with an instructor. The remaining days are all spent in the water.
Physical conditioning is only somewhat important when diving. You’ll need basic swimming skills the same you would when snorkeling, however, there’s no need to be a marathon runner. A lack of stress and relaxation is more important. Maintaining your normal breath
The best training for a diver is practice in the water. The more hours and dives spent underwater the better you will get. In the beginning many divers tend to use their hands more frequently than usual, thus getting tired more quickly. Eventually you will rarely use you hands and just your feet and fins to swim about.
Scuba Diving Gear
To snorkel you just need a mask, fins, snorkel, and bathing suit. That’s it. Dive equipment is much more varied. Diving is usually done with an air tank, a suit, mask, fins, snorkel, breathing apparatus, shoes, belt, and a slew of optional accessories.
Your mask, fins, and snorkel are your most basic accessories. They are, for the most part, the same ones you will use while snorkeling. Your scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) set has four main parts: a high-pressure tank, a pressure regulator, a mouthpiece, and a belt that connects everything together.
The wet suit, or dry suit, is one of the most important features that will keep you both warm and comfortable. What you wear completely depends on the water temperatures and the length of a dive. A wet suit is a neoprene body suit that provides thermal insulation, but does not keep the diver from getting wet. A dry suit, which is often used when diving in dirty or contaminated water, keeps the diver completely dry and insulates the diver via air trapped in the suit or the suit’s material. A hot water suit is similar to a basic wet suit but made for long, deep, dives in cold water. The suit stays warm from warm water that is dripped inside the suit from a cord at the surface.
Dive watches are another popular item. They can withstand extreme depths, tell you when you should swim to the surface, time your dive, and tell you just how deep you are.
Every dive shop has rentals and most beginner divers stick to renting. Advanced divers will often own all of their gear, with the exception of their tanks, which are supplied by every dive shop.
Your dive equipment is extremely important. It should be tested and retested often. Serious injuries and deaths do occur simply because of faulty equipment.