3 Things that make diving easier….and more dangerous!
When you first start out diving, you will always be pushing to get more bottom time or deeper drops. Maybe you are out with your buddy who is a more experienced diver and your competitive nature just wants to keep up. Maybe you are trying to figure all this out on your own and some of these come by mistake, or you think that pushing your luck might not be that big of a deal. As someone who loves to see people in the water and learning, I must warn you against doing anything on the list. The last thing we want in the community is dead divers.
Diving over-weighted.
This is a common mistake and is seen among many new (and even experienced) divers and spearos. It usually happens because over-weighting makes it easier for new divers to reach the bottom and stay there. The weight that many people recommend is to be neutrally buoyant at 5 meters (approx. 15’), and a lot of newbies feel like they are wasting energy fighting against the pull of positive buoyancy, so they add more weight to get down—some to the point of having to fight to keep their head above water. The reason this is an absolute no-no is due to shallow water black out. If you have to fight your way to the surface, let alone fight to keep yourself at the surface, what do you think will happen if you black out or have an LMC ( loss of motor control)? The reason people suggest to weight positive at 5 meters is because 99% of blackouts happen between there and the surface. Even if your buddy is there to save you, do they really want to fight a sinking body on the surface, or would you rather have them guide a buoyant body to the life saving air you desperately need?
Diving Alone.
I know it is tempting. None of your dive buddies want to go out and you know a spot that is close to shore, well within your comfortable hunting depth. Why not just take a swim and grab some fish? The idea of “I will keep it shallow and nothing will happen” is a myth. As I mentioned above, most blackouts happen at above 15’, and it is not always the depth of your dive that puts you in danger. For example a large number of spearos experience black outs because they get preoccupied with a shoot line wrapped around a obstruction, or they’ve spent a long time on the ocean floor, only to see the fish of a lifetime swim by right when they need to return to the surface. These things can happen anytime you dive, but if you have a buddy with you to practice a 1 up - 1 down method and proper recovery skills, you are much more likely to come home alive instead of becoming the target of an ocean floor search party.
Hyperventilating
Hyperventilating may be #3 on this list, but in no way is it any less important or less deadly then the previous behaviors. This is a huge mistake that newbies make when diving before being properly trained. They get done with a surface swim or come up from a dive and are eager to catch their breath. They take a deep breathe and then proceed to do the typical and quickly paced in-out-in-out-in-out. This might feel good, because hyperventilation can actually delay your contractions, which can make it seem like you are getting a better breathe up. In reality, this is not the case. Hyperventilating is actually delaying the bodies natural reaction to increased CO2, which can give you a false sense of confidence and put you closer to blacking out during your ascent,
If you are taking up freediving or spearfishing, I highly suggest you take a class like the one at Mbay with Rebekah at our Get Certified Link to learn proper breathe up technique. You can also check out Ted Hardy’s course at Immersion Freediving which has free classes on breathe ups and diving safety.
The main goal of this article is not to shame you into not doing one thing or the other, but to hopefully make you more aware of risks that we see divers make over and over. Will following these guide lines keep you 100% safe, No. Will not following these guide lines insure your impending doom? No. But, anything we can do to try and get you out and back to shore in a safe and fun manner, we are are going to try. Not only will learning the right ways to do things make you a safe diver, it will make you a better diver.
If you have any questions about your diving habits and ways to make sure your are being safe, please feel free to ask. Also, subscribe to our newsletter and keep an eye on our youtube for upcoming articles and how to videos.