Outstanding Scuba diving with Cairns Scuba Dive
If you are new to scuba diving or are one of the unfortunate ones that only have the opportunity to scuba dive a few times a year, there are some things you can do to improve your diving.
Basic Fitness
Scuba diving is a sport and like all other sports it involves a certain level of fitness.
We may think that it not a strenuous sport, and mostly it is not, however, it does use muscles constantly.
The surrounding water is exerting pressure against our every movement.
If you go to any community pool you will likely see a class doing pool aerobics.
A fifteen minute pool aerobics session gives them a work out that their muscles and joints could not withstand in the gym. You are doing the same thing when you scuba dive, but longer and more resistance.
While they are exercising at one atm you are working out at a number of times that.
Remember how tired you were the morning after your first training dive? The water resistance and using muscles in a manner they are not normally exercised was the caused.
When we are fit we use less air for the physical activities we do.
If you get winded walking up a flight of stairs, you will get winded while diving. Which means deeper faster breathing and less bottom time.
Keep your body fit by a routine of exercises and fine tune it before dive season.
Skiers often have a program they use to insure they are ski fit by the time the first snow flake falls.
If you are planning a dive vacation, you should consider doing the same.
If you are near a large swimming pool, do some laps with your snorkel and fins. Swim below the water at times coming up to breath at snorkel depth before continuing.
Breathing Control
One thing that people who practice Yoga are good at, is proper breathing.
The human body was designed to breath in a certain manner.
Unfortunately poor posture and other bad habits cause most people to breath in a manner that is not as efficient as we could be.
This lost of efficiency can also mean an increase in the amount of air we use.
While on the surface it is not really a big concern, however, since divers have a limited amount of air it can beneficial to practice good breathing.
Take a yoga class or at least learn a little about the breathing process and identify where you may be improperly breathing.
A person using their full diaphragm muscles will bring air deeper into the lungs then someone who uses mostly chest muscles.
While more air may be taken in, the lower levels of carbon dioxide left in the lungs will cause the person to have to breath less often.
This will result in better consumption.
Scuba Refresher
If you have not been diving in a while, then you should consider taking a Refresher course.
This is basically a check out dive with a dive guide where you will practice the skills and proceed on to a dive.
The scuba guide will give you some guidance on what you can improve upon and will help you reestablish your skills set.
If you feel that a refresher is not necessary, then do your own refresher with your dive buddy.
Many divers who dive with the same buddy frequently start out each days diving with a short practice drill of the basic skills.
New scuba divers should rotate the skills and do at least one per each dive.
If you are at a resort or a Liveaboard that offers a DVD of your diving get a copy.
Study it and look at your form, review it before going on a dive trip. Look at the other divers and see how they look.
What can you do differently to improve your form. You might notice that your not keeping your body straight causing wasted motion and more muscle power to overcome it.
Watch your air bubbles to check on your exhales, are they slow or a fast burst. It could affect your air consumption.
Keep Diving
The best way to improve your diving is of course dive more often.
If you do not live at a location that diving is available year round consider an off season vacation to go diving.
Cairns is a great place to dive year round. Also consider joining a local dive club.
Often clubs will put together week end trips to go diving.
Business trip diving is a good one to consider. If you have a business trip planned to a location that has diving, consider going a day early to get in a few dives.
Or see if there is a night dive going on. Golfers have been doing it for decades, there no reason a diver can not follow the same path if diving is available.
Day Tours / Liveaboard Diving / Dive Expeditions / Contact Us / Site Map