SCUBA DIVING- 5 Rookie Errors not just made by Newbies

Scuba Diving is something that, if you are reading this blog, I have to assume you are qualified to do or, at least, are interested in learning someday. From our first day of training, there are a number of things that we are told we must do if we want to stay safe while we are in the water doing what we love. 

Hopefully, we take this all in and we become great scuba divers but there are certain mistakes that are easy to make when we are Rookie Divers that can also affect those of us with lots of experience from doing this for years.

So, here are just 5 Rookie Errors that are not only made by beginners in Scuba.

1. Watching your Air Gauge

As a new diver, there is so much to think about while you get your buoyancy sorted, used to the regulator in your mouth and the mask on your face, finning correctly etc, that it can often be, just the gentle reminder of your instructor, Dive Guide or buddy asking what air you have left that causes you to  check that little life-safer, the SPG (Submersible Pressure Gauge).

The SPG is very very important because, like the fuel gauge in your car, it lets you know how much longer you can keep swimming underwater without running out of air.

Ok, so Newbies have an excuse, so what about the more experienced divers.

It can get to the point, especially if you are diving the same sites regularly that you have an idea of how much air you are using at any given point. In fact, if someone asked me my air at any given point on a dive, I could probably tell them to within 10 bar based on the dive time and dive profile. I wouldn't need to check the gauge... but I do!!

I could have a leak somewhere in my equipment that is causing me to lose air faster than I think I am using it!

Maybe, I am feeling a little tired or the under the weather and my consumption has gone up. Don't mock, it can be a considerable difference, especially if you pair it with a current or a buddy that you are trying to assist.

Bottom line is, you have the gauge for a reason. Don't guess your air, you should know what you have at all times to ensure you can ascend safely from every dive and don't get caught short.

2. Not making Buddy Checks

As a new diver, you are taught to make buddy checks before every dive you do. There are usually 3-5 steps depending on which agency you learn to dive with and you learn them by doing the checks over and over. Then, the training finishes and you start to dive and the guide no longer makes you do the checks while watching over you and your buddy just doesn't seem interested.

For the experienced Divers, I get it! You have done this enough and can check your own gear before you get in the water. You know how your own equipment works and those rental ones are always the same controls! 

I know I switched my air on before I got into my rig and I am ready to go, if you aren't?  Tough!!!

Buddy Checks are a great way to make sure you know exactly where everything is on your system and your buddy does too. In the event of an emergency, this could be the difference between life and death.

Alternate Air Sources and Weight Releases can vary quite drastically from one rig to another and if the stuff really hits the fan, do you want something so basic like not finding the weight release to be the reason an incident becomes an accident?

If nothing else, buddy checks have often helped to catch those times when cylinder valves haven't been opened, opened fully or re-closed by a well-meaning "checker" who didn't know which way to turn the valve.

3. Not Dropping Weights in an Emergency

This one gets me, as I have heard Dive Professionals say to their students that weights should only be dropped as a last resort since they are so expensive. This is certainly not a mantra that divers should die by.

If there is any kind of problem and you cannot get yourself buoyant, release the weights. If your diving buddy is having problems and you need to help get them buoyant, drop the weights.

6 kilos of lead (average diver) here in Cyprus costs around €30. You cannot be replaced so easily! So, if you need to drop the weights, even if you just aren't sure, let them go. Better safe than sorry!

4. Rushing

I see this from all level of divers at all points in diving.

Completing skill circuits with beginners and Dive Masters alike, rushing through a skill often means you miss a step and mistakes happen. Take a bit of time, it gives you the opportunity to think through what is coming next and likelihood is, you will nail it sooner.

The other way to ruin your diving by rushing is when preparing for the dive. 

I myself, have spent so much time rushing around helping other divers that I have driven all the way to Limassol to dive the wrecks and then realised I have left all my equipment here in Protaras. Thankfully, I was able to rent kit, otherwise that could have been very embarrassing and a total wash out for my divers.

Moral of the story is, when getting ready for a dive, no matter what level you are at, you need to take a bit of time (sometimes just 10 minutes is enough, sometimes it is just better to get as much as possible organised the night before) and concentrate on you. When you are certain that you are prepared and ready for the dive to come, you can help others and be more productive.

5. Task Overloading

Many Diving incidents are caused, not by equipment malfunction or bad planning but by creating stress underwater by doing too much all at once.

When we start teaching Technical Diving, one of the main points of the Dive Plan is to set an Objective or a Mission. This is so each member of the team knows what the point of this particular dive is. To do everything you want to achieve may take several dives but you have the time on each dive to do this properly and safely.

For beginners and experienced divers alike, one of the biggest causes of stress we see comes from diving with things like underwater Cameras. Even something as minimal as a GoPro can be too much for divers that aren't used to using them and may be diving with new kit in new environments that could also be challenging for them.

The best tip we can offer anyone who is Scuba Diving is the KISS principle.

Keep It Simple Stupid. 

If you are making changes to your rig, make them gradually or, if you have new equipment or have gone for the complete overhaul of your kit, start off shallow at a dive site with gentle conditions to minimise stress and task loading and panic.

Finding your Path underwater- Navigation by view

So, at the end of last year (2014), we started a blog series with regards to underwater navigation. Essentially, the concern is that instructors are training Scuba Divers to go Scuba Diving with a similarly qualified diver but, with the very limited Navigational Skills training on the initial training courses, can we really say we have given them the tools they need to dive without a guide!

We began discussing Navigation techniques that divers (of all level) can employ to find their way around a dive site and previously talked about the use of an Underwater Compass. This week we will look at using Natural Navigation to find your way around a Dive Site.

Using Natural Navigation involves looking around to get markers that can be used to find your way out to the main attraction of a dive and then back to the starting point.

Sometimes, when scuba divers use tools such as the compass, they spend a lot of time focused on the tool and miss portions of the dive. The fact that divers are required to look around when using natural navigation, means it doesn't get in the way of enjoying your dive and you still get to enjoy your surroundings fully.

To illustrate this tool, let me use a local dive site in Cyprus, The Blue Hole, where the main attraction
is a small cave at 18m.

If I were giving divers a verbal map to navigate this dive site using natural navigation, it would begin on the surface where you can see 2 big rocks that stand up out of the water and you can see that they overlap underwater, creating a little pathway.

Once in the water, divers swim along this path, coming to a shallow rocky shelf that they would swim over to find a channel that runs parallel to the diver's direction of travel that is approximately 5 metres deep.

Follow this channel to the right and you will find a big rock that looks like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, behind which, is a little arch in the rock wall that we swim under.

Continue in the same direction of the arch, over a rocky bottom until you come to another channel with a sandy bottom and a bridge of rock crossing over it. Keep going over this and eventually you arrive at a precipice, where the depth drops.

You will also have seen a gradual increase in the depth of the bottom you have followed in the first part of this dive from around 5m to 10m.

At the precipice, it looks like a basin ahead of you full of sea grass. Drop down here and you will be at around 16 metres but to the left there is a large, flat rocky bottom that forms the side of the basin and rises up to about 13 metres and has 2 large cracks in the top.

The second crack is actually the entrance to a cave and you can drop down into this to 18m and swim through the cave to the sandy bottom.

So, as you can see, the markers that we use are fixed. There is no point using markers that can move such as; "10 minutes in you will see a big grouper"... that fish can swim away! We use big immovable rocks, tunnels, the bottom composition, depths etc. Things that remain constant day to day.

Equally, you can make use of natural phenomena, such as contours on a sandy bottom, which run parallel to shore, sun and shadows, prevailing current but your instructor or local Divers should be able to give you more information about what you can use in your area.

Don't be afraid to ask others what methods and markers they use to navigate local dive sites, we are a pretty friendly and helpful group for the most part and most divers will gladly help out.

Give it a try! Assuming you can see past the end of your nose, Natural Navigation is a great tool to use to find your way around on a dive.

Diver Training? 5 tips to get the most out of it

Well, we have had a bit of a break from blogging over the past couple weeks, as things have been hectic over here in Cyprus with dive training courses and safari diving,  Now, however, the winter season is upon us and things are starting to settle down a bit.

Conducting all these dive courses over the past weeks has brought, once again, to the forefront of our minds the problems that divers often have with training courses, regardless of level. From a Try Dive, PADI Open Water to TDI Advanced Nitrox and even Trimix courses, how can you get the most out of your Dive Training?

1. BE INTERESTED!

To get the most out of any kind of training, you simply have to be interested in the subject matter.

Before beginning any Open Water Course, we advise the student to take part in a try dive session to make sure they enjoy Scuba Diving before investing in the manuals and possibly equipment. There is nothing worse than spending a whole lot of money to realise that this isn't the sport for you, even if those people are few and far between.

Equally, although it is nice to have a common sport in families and partnerships, if your husband, daughter, friend etc. really isn't interested in Scuba Diving, they won't get out of the courses what you want them to. 

Everyone should try it! Most people love it! But don't force it.

Technical Diving and Sidemount Diving are another aspect of the same thing. We have seen a number of divers coming to Cyprus who just want to scuba dive but because Tech diving and Sidemounting have taken off in such a big way, they are worried about being left behind.

This Diving is NOT for every Diver and if it isn't something that really interests you, then leave it alone. There are plenty of dive sites for recreational diving, and plenty of training courses you can take to maintain your interest and keep learning, so stick with what you enjoy.

2. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR INSTRUCTOR

When we teach Scuba Diving, an instructor will usually brief the dives and the skills on land before getting in the water. Once in the water, we will demonstrate the skills for you so you see how they should be done before you try them yourself.

Listen to the briefings and try to visualise yourself doing what the instructor says. Even mimic the action on land before getting in the water to start building that muscle memory from the beginning. The instructor will also be able to give you tips drawing on his experience of where other students go wrong and paying attention to this will hopefully, prevent you from doing the same thing.

3. RELAX

Dive Students, of all levels, often try and race through new skills in an attempt to get them over and done with.

The problem is that when you rush through a new skill, you do not give yourself enough time to consider what the next action should be and it tends to go a  bit wrong.

When you relax and take your time over completing a new skill, you give your brain time to process what comes next and you are more likely to get it right. And, if the skill is an emergency drill that needs to be completed as fast as possible, such as shut-downs on a twinset, don't worry. As you practice the drill and it becomes muscle memory for you, the speed will come but get the steps correct to begin with.

4. DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP

If you are learning something new and just don't feel like you are "getting it", it can be very frustrating and it is very easy to start to feel like you cannot do it!

The reason we take a course is to learn. If we could already do it, why would we need to pay someone to train us and of course, learning something new will inevitably mean doing something until you can do it right.

People also learn at different paces and in different ways, so a good diving instructor will be able to help you grasp those diving concepts regardless of the kind of learner you are and how long it takes you.

5. ASK QUESTIONS

Again, this comes down to learning something new and the old adage that "there are no stupid questions".

You are paying your instructor to teach you something and so if there is something that you don't understand or you do not know, ask them and they will happily answer any questions you have.

We extend that for our student divers and everyone who leaves Scuba Tech knows that if they ever need information about equipment, training or scuba diving in general, we are always at the end of an email or the telephone.

3m Microdive Certifications- Good Idea or not?

In reading a recent copy of one of our Diving magazines, I came across a "Have your Say" article based around the Microdive Basic Diver Course. Readers of the magazine basically gave their opinion on this training course and whether they believe it to be a good idea or not.

So, I thought I had best find out more about it!!

The Microdive Basic Diver Course was originally written for the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) back in 2012 but has more recently been made available for anyone.

Initial thinking was to help powerboat handlers handle any potential problems below the waterline that may arise while they are out at sea. For example; freeing a fouled propellor, inspecting the keel for any damage etc.

This is a one day training course comprising the same skillsets as the more complex Scuba Diving Courses but with scaled down content, that is consistent with the depth limitations. Academic Knowledge, Surface and Underwater Skills and a couple supervised Dives are all included in the training but with no exams.

There is also an upgrade to a 9m certification with an extra day of training.

The programme is HSE approved and even has built in insurance from Lloyds of London.

To be honest, I think this sounds like a really good idea. The main objections I read to this training course was controlling how deep these "divers" would go, once they are certified but surely that is a problem with all divers regardless of the training they take.

Arguing the point, you could say that a Diver with a BSAC, PADI or GUE certification would at least have the basic knowledge of decompression needed to make deeper dives without specific training for such.

However, let me remind you that a person does not need to present a scuba certification when buying

equipment. If it is their mindset, these people could just walk into a Dive Shop and buy everything they need for a dive and go without training? Which is the greater of the 2 evils? At least this minimalist training allows us the opportunity to re-inforce the depth limits and dangers of exceeding them.


All in all, for the purposes for which it was written, I think the Microdive Basic Diver Course is a very sensible means of helping boat handlers be more independent and safer out at sea, as long as they respect the boundaries of the training.

For Scuba Divers in their own right? I still think it would be difficult to beat the time proven established Diver Training Courses.