5 Diving Myths Dispelled

People who don't scuba dive may form preconceptions about what it is that we do and how easy or difficult it is to learn to scuba dive. Well, here are 5 commonly heard around the hotel pool myths that we can cancel out right now

1.  I'm too Old/Young to learn Scuba Diving

Quite often people are put off learning to dive because they think they have passed the age where they are fit enough to take part and young enough to "learn new tricks".

You can in fact learn to scuba dive at any age. Children as young as 8 can try scuba and we have a member of our diving club in the UK that continued to scuba dive into his 80s. A recent article online has told us of the oldest diver who only started diving at the age of 53 and is now in his 90s.

2.  Its a man's sport

Over the years, scuba diving has very much been marketed at men, as they were the adventurous ones who would partake but things are changing and although, scuba is still very male dominated, there are more and more female divers coming on the scene.

To the point now, where dive equipment manufacturers have started producing dive kit specifically designed and marketed towards the female diver. Female instructors are becoming more and more commonplace too.

3.   Diving is Expensive

Like anything you do, diving can be expensive or it can be cheap. It all depends on how far you want to take your new hobby and how much you want to invest in it.

Learning to dive costs around 400 euros (including all manuals and certification fees) which is quite cheap when you consider what you get. A diving certification can take you anywhere in the world and you will see sights that most people in the world will never get to see. 70% of our planet is water... do you really want to be confined to just 30% of it!!!

Diving equipment varies in price from absurdly cheap to out and out wallet squeezing but if you don't want to invest in your own kit because you only dive on holiday, you can always rent kit when you dive. Second hand equipment can often be found on auction sites and/or social media pages at very reasonable prices too but be aware that, while bits such as wetsuits might be ok, always get life preserving equipment checked out by a diving technician before using it to make sure they are safe to use.

Diving can be cheap... life is not!

4.  I live too far from the sea

Diving can be a full time hobby or something you just do occasionally on holiday but it doesn't matter how far
you are away from the sea. Anywhere you can find a body of water, you can go scuba diving!

In the Uk, many people dive in old quarry sites, many of which have "attractions" put in for divers. Other countries make use of inland lakes and for the hard core divers, the puddle in your back yard from all the rain this winter ;)

5.   It takes too Long

You can learn to dive with just 2 spare days. This will allow you to achieve the PADI Scuba Diver course. It is half of the open water training (1st full certification) and you will only be certified to dive with another qualified PADI professional but it is a step on the qualification ladder and can be upgraded at any time.

During this course you are shown how to control your buoyancy and breathing and other basic skills needed to go scuba diving, and these will be built upon as you progress in your diving career.

Hopefully then, I have dispelled any reasons you have for not learning to Scuba Dive. It really is an inclusive sport where different kinds of people from all different backgrounds can get together and have a great time. It doesn't matter who you are, where you live or what you do... at heart, we are all just Scuba Divers!