Scuba diving 101: How to become certified

Scuba certification is easier and less costly than one would think. For only $415.00 a prospective scuba diver can become certified at the Chicago Scuba and Dive Shop. Shop owner, Scott Culver, believes this financial commitment is on par with other adventure sports in regards to costs for getting started. He also mentioned that this price is the lowest in the Chicago land area.

The first step to become open water certified is to reach out to a school that offers the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certification. Scott Culver’s shop is one of these and it can be found on 6321 N. Central and the phone number is 312-771-8647. The certification consists of completing the PADI manual, which is five chapters in length, taking a class in a pool, and two dives at the Haigh quarry in Kankakee. A student can realistically become certified within a week if they have availability to complete the dives right away, or they can spread it out longer if they need more time to complete the manual and schedule the dives...[Link]

Divers Alert Network encourages SCUBA divers to become Emergency Specialists

SCUBA divers who have achieved a higher level of dive training and emergency preparedness have long sought Diver Alert Network's Diving Emergency Specialist (DES) recognition. Beginning Aug. 1, 2009, there’s another reason to complete the DES requirements.

Become a Diving Emergency Specialist between Aug. 1 and Nov. 30, 2009, and receive a Prepared Diver pouch, compliments of DAN®. The pouch is big enough to hold a DAN resuscitation mask and all DAN first aid provider slates, and it features a zipper closure to ensure everything stays put. Contents include trauma shears, latex-free gloves and a DAN Training carabineer to keep your first aid slates together...[Link]

PADI Nitrox SCUBA course now available to divers online

The most popular PADI Specialty SCUBA course - Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) – is now available online. This latest offering in the highly respected menu of PADI eLearning® course options allows divers to complete the knowledge development portion of the course on their own time and at their own pace.

The PADI Enriched Air Diver Course Online incorporates changes to the recently revised PADI Enriched Air Diver program, including a dive-computer only option which simplifies the learning process.

How does the online course work?...[Link]

Shipwreck Camp hosts young explorers at Case Western Reserve University

Teams of young explorers plumbed the depths of the world's oceans Tuesday -- all from the shallow end of a Cleveland swimming pool.

They were attending a two-week Shipwreck Camp at Case Western Reserve University. The idea was to present a scientific smorgasbord to 11 aspiring Cousteaus, immersing them in everything from field work, historical research, land and marine navigation to actual underwater exploration.

They spent the morning poolside, guiding video-equipped remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, around the pool. And after lunch, they pulled on wetsuits, masks and scuba tanks to explore on their own.

The ROVs came from kits. A cube of PVC pipe about 1 foot on each side was weighted with iron bars, made somewhat buoyant with foam, and propelled by little props attached to motors from submersible pumps...[Link]

Dive Pirates group teaches physically-challenged to SCUBA dive in Cayman Islands

The Houston-based Dive Pirates Foundation returned from Cayman Brac earlier this month after successfully completing its mission of certifying 12 adaptive dive students during their open water adventure.

Once a year the non-profit organization of scuba diving enthusiasts sponsors those with disabilities with training, gear, and a paid trip to Cayman Brac to complete their certification.

This year’s trip featured 63 travelers including the recipients, their support teams and Dive Pirates enthusiasts.The event this year was especially unique because it was among the first dive groups to return to Cayman Brac following Hurricane Paloma that devastated the island last Fall...[Link]

Firefighters train for underwater rescue

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, firefighters are training in underwater rescue.

"We can't ask for a better area to train for our dive rescue team," said Jamin Jenkins, district supervisor for the Gulfport Fire Department.

In a pool, 12 feet deep, firefighters are training for underwater rescue using a technique called line-tending. It's a technique where one person holds one end of a rope on shore while divers hold on to the other. The movement of the rope helps the person on-shore communicate with divers.

"Most of the time we're in zero visibility water; you can't really see what you're doing and you can't train in that environment cause you can't keep an eye on the divers," said Jenkins...[Link]

Scuba diving refresher course helps to scratch the itch to go deep again

I grew up in Florida. After years of snorkeling as a kid, I took the plunge in 1988 and took a scuba class. I was instantly hooked and spent many fun weekends in the Keys diving reefs and wrecks. But a new job took me across the country to the Puget Sound area near Seattle. It's an area of extensive waterways and extremely dark, cold water. Friends tried to get me to dive, but the thought of dry suits and visibility that dropped off near your hand kept me on shore.

After moving to the Northeast, the same scenario presented itself. Diving became one of those things you used to do when you were young.

Now I'm 48 and back in Florida. I've been snorkeling again in the Keys, but nothing compares to diving. Once you've spent time down deep, you want to go back. Floating on the surface just doesn't cut it. Since I hadn't gone diving since 1993, I needed to make sure I could still do it...[Link]

Children take cameras underwater in program that teaches ocean science

Boca Raton - Choppy waters were a challenge Sunday, but Mallory Weber, 13, was no less determined to get a photo underwater.

The Pompano Beach Middle School seventh-grader and six other children snorkeled around a reef off the beach at Red Reef Park. Their mission: a still photo of something moving, preferably a fish or other sea creature.

"I think it's cool to see all the wild animals," Weber said.

The group of children ages 10-15 came as part of a Children's Science Explorium program to capture life underwater on 35 mm film.

The science center at Boca Raton's Sugar Sand Park is displaying underwater stills by photographer Christopher Guglielmo, of Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? - Click Here., prompting Sunday's program. Gugliel- mo came to offer tips and to snorkel with the kids. The group of seven children will meet with Guglielmo on May 10 to review their photos.

"We want to get them involved with photography because it leads to more excitement about the ocean," he said before getting into the water...[Sun-Sentinel]

Calif. diving program helps anchor ex-inmates

Kenyatta Kalisana completed his training here this month, departing with a choice of three jobs and a possible six-figure annual salary.

Kalisana's career options would be impressive simply because of the troubled national and California economies. More extraordinary is that the 40-year-old Los Angeles man, a twice-convicted drug dealer, left the California Institution for Men after three years with an international certification as a deep-sea diver, underwater welder and heavy construction rigger...[USAToday]

Group trains disabled in diving

Those who gathered Saturday in Albuquerque for the "Davy Jones' Locker Challenge" believe that disabled people can enjoy activities like scuba diving.

The goal was to provide free training to disabled folks who would like to become scuba divers, and to smash some stereotypes along the way.

Veronica Padilla said she had never thought about becoming a scuba diver. Her legs were taken when a drunk driver crashed into her.

It looked like life in a wheel chair might limit her options.

"Because you know we get that a lot. We go places and they're like, no, you can't do that. Do you need help with this," Padilla said.

But thanks to a scuba group named Dive Pirates, Padilla is now a certified diver, participating in the Davy Jones' Locker Challenge.

"We can do everything anyone else can. I mean, we have to modify things, but we can do it, and I think that's the stigma that we get is that we're not like you and we can't do the things you can do, and we can," Padilla said.

The event raises money to train other disabled or adaptive divers...[KRQE.com]

The ocean’s your oyster

Web-based tour operator, Tropical Sky is launching a brand-new scuba diving brand, Tropical Sky Scuba Diving, which specialises in luxury diving holidays to tropical places.

The website holidays4scubadiving.co.uk, offers a tailor-made service and operators have a wealth of experience in diving holidays around the world.

Suitable for novices and experienced divers, ABTA and ATOL bonded Tropical Sky Scuba Diving includes a wide range of packages, ideas and helpful hints to ensure customers pick their perfect holiday. Destinations in their portfolio include the Maldives, Mauritius, Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia, the Red Sea and Oman.

Stephen Cooper, commercial manager says, “My favourite diving experiences have been in the Maldives, Red Sea, Mauritius and Thailand and I am passionate about finding the right holiday for customers whether it’s their first time underwater or their next diving adventure.”

Packages include:...[Easier.com]

Inland Water Divers offer the world of SCUBA in the desert

SCUBA diving is one of those sports that has a pretty particular requirement: water. And so one might find themselves wondering how they can participate in anything like SCUBA diving in the Valley of the Sun: AKA, the desert.
Inland Water Divers helps breaks through the water issue and provides divers with not only the gear, but the place.

Anywhere from Lake Pleasant, in the northern part of the valley, to the international trips they put together, Inland Water Divers can help a SCUBA enthusiast get to the wet stuff. Just take a look at some of the exciting dives on their list: Los Coronados islands, San Diego and San Carlos.

This is a NAUI shop, offering a range of classes for those wishing to get their SCUBA card, but also for those wishing to further their skills. The range of classes varies as does pricing, but a check of their website will give you a list of upcoming classes. Equipment requirements also range based on class level, so contact them to find out what they provide and what you need to have...[Examiner.com]

Scuba diving in Texas

For the travel-hungry, scuba diving can be the perfect hobby. Scuba diving makes one of the best excuses for needing to get out of town.

Scuba classes in DFW are offered either in month long courses that meet once a week to intensive weekend classes offered by diving shops. There are many in Dallas. Or you can take a more formal course without being rushed at Eastfield College through the Continuing Education department in Mesquite. During this course you train in the pool with one instructor and many assistants. The final for the course is a trip to Lake Travis to do a few dives in a natural setting and test your diving skills.

Regardless of where you choose to get your PADI certification (yes, it is necessary, most places will not let you dive without it-however, it is valid for life and so worth it), a better Texas locale for diving would be San Marcosor take a scuba diving class (available at Eastfield College) before making a trip to San Marcos to dive in the San Marcos River (http://www.sanmarcosriver.org/RiverInfo.htm). The San Marcos River is exceptionally beautiful and clear most days of the year because the water comes from the natural underground springs that provides most of the Hill Country with its water, the Edwards Aquifer. Here you can see wildlife not seen anywhere else in the world, wildlife local to only this area of Texas such as the Texas Blind Salamander. Visit the Dive Shop in San Marcos for equipment, rentals, or even training...[Examiner.com]

The Use of Trimix in Deep Sea Diving

People who are inexperienced with scuba diving tend to assume that such divers carry oxygen in the cylinder on their back to breathe it through a regulator when diving underwater. Nothing can be further from the truth as scuba divers never use pure oxygen

The reason for not using oxygen is that under the increasing pressure as you dive deeper, oxygen gives rise to "oxygen toxicity" that harms the cell lining of the lungs and the central nervous system.

In fact, what the recreational divers use is ordinary air that is a mixture of 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. But under the pressure of water at increased depth, the high level of nitrogen in air creates another problem which is called decompression sickness or "bends" in divers' terminology. Further, elevated nitrogen levels can cause nitrogen narcosis.

The deep sea divers who dive to much greater depths than the recreational scuba divers use a gas mixture called Nitrox that contains 32% or 36% of oxygen, the rest (68% or 64%) being nitrogen. The lower content of nitrogen reduces the risk of nitrogen sickness but now the increased oxygen introduces the problems with pure oxygen, though to a much lesser degree. Even so, the effect of increased percentage of oxygen starts having its effect as the diver goes deeper, so there is a limit to the depth to which the diver can descend when Nitrox is used...[BlueFlipperDiving]

Wounded soldiers get chance to become scuba divers

Dennis Cline and Sam Floberg have several things in common. Both are 30-something American soldiers who got ambushed in 2006 while fighting the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

Cline lost his left arm; Floberg lost his right leg. Both spent considerable rehabilitation time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. And now both are certified open-water scuba divers.

Cline, of Colorado Springs, and Floberg, of Fargo, N.D., traveled to Fort Lauderdale a couple of weeks ago to complete their scuba training with four staffers from the nonprofit organization SUDS, or Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba. The military men had finished their pool training at Walter Reed and completed their course work online.

They just had to display their skills in four open-water dives to receive their certification cards from SDI, a scuba training agency. South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach provided boat transportation to local reefs and wrecks aboard the Aquaview...[MiamiHerald.com]

The Girls Next Door: "Scuba, Scuba Do!" Review

I got some great news this week. Bridget Marquardt will be hosting a series on The Travel Channel where she'll be visiting the world's most amazing beaches. I don't hide the fact that she's my favorite of The Girls Next Door. Not only do I think she's the prettiest and the funniest, I also think she's got the best personality. Imagining her hosting a travel show is an easy thing to do and I look forward to tuning in -- especially now that I know scuba diving will be involved.

"Scuba, Scuba Do!" was all about the girls becoming scuba certified. It was Bridget that really needed this certification, but as the ladies often do, she asked the other two to come along for the ride. Holly was into it, but Kendra came at the experience a bit half-assed. She confessed that becoming scuba certified was something she had always wanted to do, but when given the opportunity, Kendra was less than enthusiastic...[IGN.com]

Health Tip: Scuba Diving Safety

Scuba diving may allow you to see some amazing underwater places. But it's important to become scuba-certified before you hit the water.

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, certification may help prevent these possible pitfalls of the sport:

* Failure to relieve pressure in your ears by "popping them" can lead to inner ear barotrauma, which can cause you to lose hearing and feel very dizzy.
* If you don't breathe correctly as you float to the surface after your dive, pulmonary barotrauma can occur. This can trigger symptoms including pain in the chest, difficulty breathing and a hoarse voice.
* "The bends," also called decompression sickness, also can occur as you float to the surface. This serious condition can cause nitrogen bubbles to form in the blood, and can affect the lungs, brain and spinal cord.
* An arterial gas embolism (AGE) causes bubbles in the blood, which could reach the brain. This very serious diving injury can lead to symptoms including unconsciousness, numbness, paralysis, general weakness or tingling skin...[USNews&WorldReport]

Hyperventilating while underwater is dangerous

Question: A few weeks ago, a Greenwood High School swimmer saved her coach after he passed out and stopped breathing while trying to swim distance underwater. What can you tell me about shallow water blackout?
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Answer: Passing out is probably not very common, but it's something that's preventable. The thing that alarms me is that when this begins, you have only 21/2 minutes to rescue someone. So this coach was just really lucky that somebody was alert and knew CPR.

Q: Why is this so dangerous?

A: What happens is when a person hyperventilates like that, it doesn't increase the oxygen level much, but it decreases the carbon dioxide, and carbon dioxide is what causes us to breathe. So . . . as you're swimming underwater, your oxygen level goes down and carbon dioxide level goes up.

If you hyperventilate, you drive the carbon dioxide level down so far that it's climbing but not enough to make you want to breathe. And it may cause a potassium imbalance -- because something causes a heart arrhythmia. If you couple that with a high potassium or dropping potassium, particularly dropping potassium, if someone has some propensity to have a heart arrhythmia, that's what kills them.

Usually these people are written off as drowning (victims), but they don't really drown. They don't have much water in their lungs because they don't inhale.

Conceivably, this could happen anywhere that people hyperventilate...[IndyStar.com]

Making waves for diver safety

Attending the Blue Wild Ocean Adventure Seminar & Expo will not only make you a better diver, it'll make you a safer diver.

The event, which is Feb. 6-8 at the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in Dania Beach, features a who's who of diving experts such as freediving instructor Kirk Krack, freediving world record holder Pipin Ferreras, spearfishing legend Art Pinder and shark wrangler Manny Puig.

In addition, Tom Greene, Capt. Bouncer Smith and Capt. Skip Smith will share their fishing secrets and there will be workshops on tying knots, catching lobsters, filleting fish, cooking seafood and underwater photography and videography. Steve Callahan, the author of Adrift, the best-selling book that detailed his 76 days lost at sea after his sailboat sank in the Atlantic Ocean, will discuss survival at sea.

Perhaps the most notable personalities at the Blue Wild are two divers who have survived the worst experience imaginable..[SunSentinel.com]

Conservation officers conduct ice dive training

After reaching the bottom, about 10 feet down, Indiana Conservation Officer Matt Landis began making sweeps in a circle search pattern as part of his training for his first ice dive Thursday in Fowler Park in southern Vigo County.

The water temperature was 39 degrees, according to a small monitor attached to his special orange-colored dry suit, designed to keep cold water from touching his body.

After about 10 minutes, his training dive was over, but he still faced a unique challenge from the depths — finding a hole cut out of the 41⁄2-inch-thick ice above him.

“You could actually see a couple of feet, which makes it a little easier to orientate yourself once you get down to the bottom. Coming up, you can see the sunlight and it just looks like a roof of glass,” Landis said of the frozen lake above him.

“You think you are coming up in the hole, but once you start coming up, you bump against the ice and you know you are still under,” he said.

That’s where the safety line comes in, which directs the diver back to the opening in the ice. Such conditions require the use of a harness on each diver, said Conservation Officer Max Winchell, a dive master, who said the training helps officers experience the cold and learn to take extra precautions with equipment...[TribStar.com]

Dive Into Scuba

Calgary has three well-established scuba-diving schools that offer a full range of courses: - AquaSport Scuba Center Inc. (403-686-6166; aquasportscuba.com); - Adventures in Scuba (403-299-7751; adventuresinscuba.com); - The Dive Shop (403-243-4616; diveshopscuba.com).

Coming next Thursday in Outside: Get your muscles and mind in shape for surfing --a six-week exercise program perfect for those spring break getaways.
Scuba instructor Ken Pon does a giant stride entry into the pool, as Herald reporter Trent Edwards looks on.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Scuba instructor Ken Pon does a giant stride entry into the pool, as Herald reporter Trent Edwards looks on. Heaving my breakfast over the boat's side in spurts, I tried to at least keep my fears down.

I knew the concept of "the bends," a horribly painful expansion of nitrogen bubbles in a person's blood caused by surfacing too quickly after a deep dive. This decompression sickness can kill you if you aren't put on pure oxygen and rushed to a hyperbaric chamber where your body can slowly depressurize.

I struggled to remember: how deep can you dive with-out having to worry about the bends? Is vomiting one of the first signs? And if so, how long do I have to get to a hyperbaric chamber on shore?

Cursing myself for my stupidity, I realized I had put my-self in a possibly deadly situation. Here I was, a decade after my last dive, sitting on a boat rocked by 1.5-to two-metre swells near a reef in Belize. Beside me was a boat driver who didn't dive and a tourist who didn't want to dive in rough conditions.

Anyone who could answer my questions was still under water...[CalgaryHerald]

Into the Deep

It's every pool kid's dream - a 40-foot by 75-foot heated swimming pool. All it's missing is a diving board. However the 40-foot depth, the fitting for an aquatic crane and the plans for an airlock at the bottom reveal a purpose more utilitarian than recreational.

But that doesn't mean it's not fun.

On Jan. 15, the first class from the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center splashed into the breathless work of training. For the instructors, the new facility was a welcome addition. With the floors adjustable to different depths, airlock chambers and machinery attachments the the pool has smashed open new avenues for training.

Equally important, the new facility should break up the training logjam. The dive school has nearly tripled in size, recently. Previously, only one 12-foot-deep pool was available for the dive school, the Navy Experimental Dive Unit, special warfare developers and any of the various Army, Air Force and Marine Corps dive classes going through.

"I want to stress this is the Joint Diver Aquatic Training Facility," said Cdr. Timothy Richardt, NDSTC commander.

"We put through Army divers. We train Air Force pararescue combat divers, we train Marine Corps combat divers. We train Coast Guard divers," Richardt said. "We train all different facets of Navy diver: the Navy deep sea diver, Navy explosive ordinance diver, the Navy Seabee underwater construction diver, we put through both the basic divers and the advanced, first class divers. We also train the Navy scuba divers."...[NewsHerald.com]

Dunkin' Under To Save Lives

It could happen while ice skating, playing hockey or even sledding...People falling into frozen water bodies. Today, an area team of divers took on the challenge of making a cold water rescue. News 25's Michelle Mantel shows us the life saving skills it takes. It may look like a fun splash into water, but for 8 Underwater Rescue Divers it's a chance to work on life saving skills.

"It's pretty good training for our divers to actually go through the scenarios that way if something were to happen it'd be a faster response", said Peoria County EMA Training Officer Jeremy Galloway.

Peoria County's Underwater Rescue team dives under the ice at least once a year. "Just to keep us acclimated with doing it and you know it's fun for the team", said Ed Feldshau Rescue Scene Team Safety Coordinator. While officials say taking a mock dive into the water is a fun part of their job, they're warning viewers not to take after them: it's only for professionals.

"Some people see us ice diving and they'll have scuba divers try to do what we do and they don't know the precautions that we take and we actually have had people lose their lives trying to do what we do", said Feldshau...[Week.com]

Eiffel Tower Offers Free Scuba Lessons

The weather was nippy and overcast and the water just chest-high, but a new scuba-diving pool in Paris has something Bali, Belize and other diving hotspots don't: a terrific view of the Eiffel Tower. To promote the sport, scuba instructors began offering free lessons Friday — with wet-suits, scuba gear and even a biodegradable towel — at the foot of the French capital's famed landmark.

"Through the water you can see the monument. It's magnificent," said New Zealand tourist Adrian Carter, one of the first to try it. He and a group of friends had planned to go up the 1,063-foot high Eiffel Tower, but opted for a dip instead. "This is better than the Eiffel Tower," said Carter, a 28-year-old computer programmer, his hair dripping from the 30-minute dive — his first ever.

The lessons include a safety lecture and a how-to demonstration in which instructors share tips. One first-time diver did a double-take when his guide told him to spit into his goggles to help keep them from fogging up.

The above-ground pool is under the Tower, between its four legs. It's small, at 50 feet by 50 feet, about half the size of a basketball court. Just 4-feet deep, it's safe for beginners and children aged 8 and older, said the event's organizers, an umbrella group of scuba associations. To add a touch of realism, the bottom of the pool is studded with waterproof photos of fluorescent fish...[SanFranciscoChronicle.com]

Pensioners are going scuba loopy at centre

Thrill-seeking pensioners are shunning mundane fitness classes and swimming sessions for a more thrilling, adrenaline-pumping sport.
Plunging into dark, murky waters to explore the dingy depths is a buzz revered by thousands of daring scuba divers, and now an increasing number of older people aged up to 80 want in on the action.

Annually, about 15,000 adventurous people, many aged 60 to 80, visit Gildenburgh Water, a diving centre in Whittlesey, and their abilities range from beginner to instructor level.

Owners Ian and Pauline Forster have run the renowned diving centre for more than 25 years. Ian (59) said: “Older people are often established in life and have that little bit more money available to be able to pursue something they’ve always wanted to do.

“Scuba diving is relaxing and very stress-relieving. It’s very quiet down there, and people can leave their humdrum lives and relax when they go underwater. It’s very therapeutic.”

The diving centre attracts more than 50,000 people each year from across the country, and it is the first UK centre of excellence for diving...[PeterboroughToday]