Exploring life beneath water sounds like one of the great adventures but it comes with great responsibilities. Depending upon the type of course and instructor you are referring you can elevate your scuba diving skills to the next level. When it comes to a specialized skill set a specialized specific course is a great way to kick start your learning and point you in the right direction.
But even for a start a diving course is just a starting point, to enhance your fundamental skills at diving you need to do it again and again and become perfect just like the phrase practice makes a man perfect. You won’t learn Wreck diving or deep diving or perfect buoyancy in a two or three-day course.
Once you learn the basics you can then develop an advanced skill set accordingly by yourself. Contrary to a popular belief a lot of diving skills should be and are developed by the diver on their own. When things are done out of passion nothing is too difficult for you. Presumably, diving is something you do because you like it.
Even professional divers continue to work on improving their skills. Improvement is something that happens with each dive you do so here are some tips that will help make your diving a great experience.
1. Engage your brain
Always prefer taking a dice master as he or she knows the local read a lot better than you and can show you the good stuff. But you should also keep in mind that your safety is your responsibility and not his or her. Being aware is one thing you can do for sure. This means asking your master about what the site looks like and what route he’ll be taking.
Ensure that you keep your mind engaged by checking out where the boat is, how much NDL you have left, how much air you have left, and whether you have enough air to make it back to the exit point or not.
2. Test Your Weighting
There are so many cases where people type over weighted. When you carry a weight beyond the limit you are less likely to float up on the surface also it’s an improper way of learning buoyancy. Most people will not pay attention to this thought. Idli after a dive Run your tank down to 30-40 bar. Also, ensure that you have emptied your BCD.
After this lock your ankles together and hold your arms near your chest so you don’t kick or scull. Relax and exhale -you should sink. Inhale and you should come up with the same pressure as you went down. Remember this technique while diving. Do this a few times and you would be pretty much at/near the surface.
When you go up and down by the same amount that’s your correct weight for the gear combo. Sometimes it also depends on the saltiness of the sea but mostly this trick will work.
3. Keep your eyes and ears open
Keeping your eyes and ears open follows in every field. When you observe your surroundings well you do well. Check and see how local dive masters and other divers perform things. Always be curious to ask what they do and why they do it. This opens the opportunity to learn useful tricks. Just because you are taught diving one way doesn’t mean it is the only way.
4. Dive with a partner
Scuba Diving is one of the safest sports with the lowest rate of incidents where the divers get hurt or die. But even at the lowest percentage of possibility data suggest that the fatalities occur because the victim was separated from their buddy. So no matter how great a diver you are a safe sport becomes safer when you keep the precautions in mind.
People do dive solo most of the time but even if you are doing it Solo knowing what the risks are involved and willingly choosing to take those risks is up to you. Be prepared with a backup plan to deal with those risks and prepare a roadmap to be on track.
5. Be aware of your abilities
Being realistic about your abilities is the best thing to do. Even if you are an experienced diver who has dived in multiple locations and done courses beyond open water still do not let the overconfidence take over you. We all have some flaws and nobody is perfect so you should know your strengths and weaknesses as well.
Once you are able to analyze this part things seem to be smooth and you can avoid life-threatening situations. Play it safe and don’t put yourself in a situation where you have to test your problem-solving skills in order to be safe.
6. Avoid peer pressure
Knowing when to say no is something you must learn as early as you can. If the dive conditions or the dive site are making you nervous or you are not in a healthy state to go diving stop right there. Do not push your comfort limit when you are not willing to.
Yes, I firmly believe that you must get out of your comfort zone and if you don’t push yourself you don’t improve. But this decision depends on you and no one else. No single dive is worth risking your health and that of the others around you. So be two hundred percent sure.
