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Monday, November 29, 2010

Why scuba diving is necessary

US Navy Clearance Divers defusing a MK17 Buoya...Image via Wikipedia

Scuba diving is a form of diving both for personal reasons and professionals. This reckless diving has risk and every year there are a number of news of injuries and fatalities. But to do certain tasks underwater Scuba diving is necessary and is a inseparable part in underwater world. From the very ancient time, Scuba diving was performed for very different reasons. But today there are a lot of variations in tasks performed underwater and so Scuba diving is proving its necessity in various regard.

Source of recreation:

Scuba diving is sometime taken as a recreational diving for many tourist and vacationists. Cave diving, ice diving , wreck diving are very popular sort of fun. The personal interest and curiosity are the two important things for this kind of Scuba diving. Some sort of short term training is must be taken before performing Scuba diving for a beginner .

Professionals diving :

This form of Scuba diving involves business purpose under water. Various types of tasks are done by these professional divers. Though the divers must take some prerequisite courses from a well-known diving shop which offers Scuba certification courses. The professional divers are performing so many tasks like:

Natural forces exploration:

The seas are vast source of natural forces like gas, oil, petroleum and others types of mines. Scuba divers are employed to find the existence of such things and if it is found more advanced technology is used here to explore and extract the mines and gases. So under water welding and running such a project involves Scuba diving.

Ship maintenance and in naval engineering:

All the boats and ships need to be maintained very carefully. Scuba diving has great importance in naval activities. Cleaning and repairmen of ships and boats are done by these Scuba divers.

Military activities:

Scuba divers are inseparable part in military activities. All the marine navy organization has Scuba divers of their own. In war they perform a great job like mine finding under sea. They also participate in direct combat and placing mines for the enemy or in bomb disposal.


Rescuing Scuba divers:

Some divers are always ready to save life. They work in a team to rescue others.Some police agencies and fire department have this kind of lifeguard unit.

In movies and cinemas:

Underwater photography and underwater shots of cinemas require professional divers. They make sets underwater very effectively.

There are so many other necessity of Scuba diving and it is very hard to present all of this in one page. So Scuba diving is making its importance all the way in our day to day life.

Thanks to Dive Site Network

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com











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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Common scuba diving blunders

A scuba diver in usual sport diving gearImage via Wikipedia

Way back in 892 A.D. before the wonders of electricity and the wretchedness of Rob Schneider films, was a man named Sigurd. I left out his last name, because Expedition Fleet does not promote tongue twisters. Anyway, Sigurd was a leader in a Viking conquest.

He was a very successful leader as he dominated foreign lands. He knew all that is to know in what he does.

In a typical day of land-domination, he beheaded a native ruler and strapped his head to his saddle as he rode home in victory. It was a bumpy ride, and the head, with its mouth open, kept bouncing off of Sigurd’s leg. One of the exposed teeth caused a small cut, which later caused an infection, which later caused a very sad thing called death. It is carelessness (and a little bit of tooth decay) that killed the confident and intelligent leader.

Scuba divers may not be prone to death by dead heads, but they are prone to carelessness, which may cause self-irritation, unwanted regrets, mild injuries, major injuries, or, if you’re unlucky enough, all of the above. Scuba divers need not suffer from carelessness. Below is a short list of mistakes- mistakes that are a product of willful ignorance or ignorant ignorance. Either way, they are mistakes that should not be.

Putting on too much weight- We love them weight belts. We put ‘em on correctly and with the right amount, and we sink to the ocean fast enough without any internal injuries. Put too much though, and we sink to the bottom faster than Chris Brown’s descent to infamy.

Forgetting to put on any weight- Unless you’re Justin Bieber who has an ego heavy enough to pull him down to the deepest corners of the Mariana Trench, you’re gonna need weight belts. You’ll need this if you want to explore the ocean depths. You ain’t no diver if you ain’t physically capable of diving.

Uncontrolled buoyancy- Buoyancy should be mastered by the scuba diver during his lessons beforehand. A diver who fails at this and dives anyway will, once in the ocean, become an assault on the corals, the fellow scuba divers, the marine life, and the common sense.

Straying away from the group or dive buddy- In a herd of sheep, when one separates itself from its fellow sheep due to bountiful distractions that are found at every turn, it becomes lost and terrified. Eventually, that sheep takes anxious breaths, and if it breathes from a scuba tank, things will get really bad. And if that sheep strays even farther, it may become prey to vicious animals. In this metaphor, the sheep is the diver, and the rest is handed to your imagination.

Aside from the possible pain and regrets that all these mistakes can cause, there is also a great chance of embarrassment.

Thanks to Sean Si, Editor-in-chief of Expeditionfleet Blog

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com




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Monday, November 22, 2010

Fun Facts About Scuba

SCUBA divingImage via Wikipedia

SCUBA diving is a fast-growing, recreational sport that can generally be enjoyed by anyone over 12. Thanks to the world-famous explorer, oceanographer and inventor, Jacques Cousteau, we can easily explore the incredible undersea world. Scuba diving is now a multi-billion dollar recreational family activity, and is continuing to increase in popularity at an exponential rate.

About 70% of the Earth is covered with water, and 97% of that water is salt water – the oceans and seas.

In the early 1700’s, diving bells and large, bulky, sealed suits were developed which used air pumped from the surface to allow divers to spend a limited amount of time under the surface at a limited depth. In the 1940’s, Jacques Cousteau developed the Aqua Lung which allowed for a controlled flow of air under the water from pressurized air tanks.


New scuba divers often find it gross that spitting into your mask is the accepted way of stopping it fogging up at depth. You can buy inexpensive de-fogging solutions which professionals often refer to as spit-in-a-bottle.

Objects appear significantly larger underwater – so yes, you do look fat in that wetsuit.

Sharks don't like the taste of rubber, so always wear a wetsuit. Most sharks are more scared of you than you are of them, so don't panic if you see one. Sharks don't fill out questionnaires on their tastes and fears so both of the above facts could be wrong – proceed with caution!

Scuba diver Michael Proudfoot was diving in a wreck in Baja California, Mexico in 1991, when he accidentally smashed his regulator and lost all his air. He survived for two days in a bubble of air trapped in the ship's galley. There was even a tea urn full of fresh water for him to drink (but no tea). He snacked on sea urchins while waiting to be rescued.

A dance class of 74 scuba divers created a world record on October 27, 2006 at Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in Sydney Australia by dancing simultaneously for ten minutes. No one is yet sure why.

You can use your scuba diving qualifications as college credit for some courses. Who says college has to be hard work? (You'll need an official transcript from the organization that trained you – contact them to find out more.)

Ron Taylor invented a chain mail suit of armour to protect from shark bites and then tried to find out if it worked by letting a shark bite him. It worked, but was too heavy. Perhaps he should have worked out the heavy part first!

Whale sharks have a scary name and are the biggest fish in the ocean, but apparently they're scared of scuba bubbles (at least that's the explanation that locals in Exmouth, Western Australia offered as to why they seem happy to swim
with snorkelers but are wary of scuba divers).

Coral is a living organism which means that Australia's Great Barrier Reef
is arguably the largest living thing on earth.

Australian divers Ron and Valerie Taylor love to swim with Great White sharks, and were the first people to swim with the sharks without a cage and not be eaten.

Underwater weddings are offered by many companies around the world. The couples and guests can wear traditional wedding attire or wet suits. Vows are written on a dive slate, and the vows are 'said' by pointing at the words on the slate.

There are some 5,300 PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) Dive centres operating in 180 countries, and NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) claims to have tens of thousands of affiliated members, stores and service centres around the world.


If you dive with a cold or sinus problems it may be painful. More importantly, if you sneeze into your mask at depth the gross factor of having to spit in it will pale into insignificance.

Richard Presley spent 69 days and 19 minutes in an underwater module in a lagoon off Key Largo, Florida, in 1992, setting the record for the longest deep dive. His endurance test was carried out as part of Project Atlantis, which aimed to explore human tolerance to life in an underwater environment.

Have you ever seen those beetles that skate around in circles on top of the water in ponds and lakes? If you watch them long enough, you may see them dive under the water. When they do this, they take a bubble of air with them that gets trapped between their body and wing covers. They breathe this air while underwater, then come to the surface again when they need more.

The deepest dive using scuba gear is held by Jim Bowden of the United States. In 1994 he dived to a depth of 1,000 feet in the freshwater Zacatoa Cave in Mexico.

The most valuable shipwreck was discovered by the late Mel Fisher, a famous 20th-century treasure hunter. In 1985, Mel found the Nuestra Senora de Atocha off the Key West coast of Florida. The ship carried 36 tons of gold and silver, and 70 lbs. of emeralds when it went down in a hurricane in September of 1622.

Freedivers (those holding their breath) in Japan and Korea today still dive for oysters, edible shellfish and seaweed. Except for the lead weights carried on their belts and their glass face masks, these divers work in the same manner as did their ancestors thousands of years ago. Most of these modern divers are women. They can stay underwater longer and are better able to withstand the cold than can men. Divers of the Japanese Ama culture can spend four or five minutes underwater, and have been known to reach depths of 150 feet.

And last but not least-----You will never look graceful walking on land wearing a pair of fins – especially if you're also wearing full scuba gear!!!!

Kathy Dowset
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www.kirkscubagear.com


The last of the Sea Nomads








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