Tips For Beginner Scuba Divers: How To Control Panic or Anxiety Attacks Underwater

Although under water anxiety attacks are common events in scuba diving, most beginner scuba divers may not know how common they are until they start taking their training classes. So, instructors who want to keep their classes safe from harm usually advise their students of the frequency and how to handle them if they occur while they are under water.

Divers who have had these experiences may describe the attacks as a sudden panicky feeling when they realize that they are under the water and a great distance away from dry land. In many cases, these fears are often unprovoked since there are no real threats surrounding them. Therefore, it is important for each diver to know how to handle the anxiety attacks if or when it happens to them. According to Dr. Richard D. Telford, author of Take Care of Yourself, one of the most important skills an individual may have in life is controlling the anxiety instead of letting it control the individual. By taking control of the anxiety, it will prevent the stressful situation from progressing into a full-blown panic attack. Listed below are some invaluable tips that people can use to remain safe.

Confront the Anxiety Before The Dive

Beginner divers should start by controlling their fears before leaving home. This can be accomplished by asking numerous questions that relate to the individual's capabilities and desires. For instance, is the person mentally and physically prepared to make the dive? Or, is this really the individual's idea of having fun? If the person finds that they are having problems with responding appropriately to these practical questions, they should not make the dive. Specifically, in cases where the person may feel that the dive is beyond their physical capabilities.

Express Feelings to Divemaster

If the beginner diver decides to take the dive but they are still feeling a little anxious, the individual should let the divemaster know what they are feeling. Since the divemaster's role is to keep the divers safe, they can pair these divers with a buddy so that they can assist. One of the buddy's primary functions is to help with carefully walking the person through the dive. For instance, the buddy may start their dive off by checking the reliability and safety of the scuba diving equipment. While this strategy may appear to be insignificant, the purpose is to help allay the fears of the individual because these are normally some of the actual thoughts that race through their mind.

Preventing Anxiety Underwater

The real test, however, begins when the individual is under the water since this is where the actual panic attack normally happens. Therefore, one of the best ways the buddy can help to keep the anxiety at bay is to focus the individual's mind on enjoying the diving experiences. One of which is looking at all of the beautiful scenery that surrounds them when they are swimming around. Also, to make the experience completely trouble-free, the buddy diver should not take the beginner in caves or other places that can provoke normal fears to occur. Instead, buddy divers may want to leave the cave experience until the diver becomes more comfortable under the water. In fact, future dives will always allow time for branching out into the deep.

While underwater anxiety attacks are common among many beginner scuba divers, there are ways to minimize the impact and keep the beginner safe from harm. One of the most common methods used is pairing the diver up with a buddy so that they can walk the person through these experiences.

Kathy Dowsett
www.kirkscubagear.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8020916

4 Beginner Tips for Good Scuba Diving Etiquette

No matter what type of hobby you may have and what extracurricular activities you participate in on your free time, every activity has a certain set of rules that must be followed in order to maintain good relations with those you are participating with during the activity. In that regard, scuba diving is no different. There are certain rules for practicing good etiquette as a scuba diver that you need to know before you get into the boat and strap on your oxygen tank.

These unspoken rules of behavior are followed not only to help you get along with your fellow divers, but to also make it easier on your instructors and guides as well. So if you are planning on taking a trip into tropical territory to try out scuba diving, here are four rules to follow when it comes to scuba diving etiquette.

Avoid complaining

The number one rule of scuba diving etiquette for first timers is to try and avoid complaining. Complaining not only bothers other divers, it also makes it seem like you are giving the instructors a hard time as well. If you are going to try scuba diving, you should know that it's a pretty difficult activity to master and that it's not a walk in the park. If you want to simply look at fish swimming in comfort, then you can always go to an aquarium. There is a chance that the water might be cold, your wetsuit will probably be damp and cold, the weather might not be ideal, you might not have enough room on the boat. However, these are all things that you need to overcome. Most scuba divers will tell you the rewards of diving are so plentiful that they easily outweigh all of the discomforts and potential things that one could complain about.

Keep your wetsuit clean

There really is no nicer way to say it, so it's best to get right to the point. Please, do not urinate in your wetsuit if you want to respect your diving instructors and diving colleagues. The wetsuits are thick and they are meant to preserve warmth. That means that they will also preserve the smell of your urine. Even if you are not going to the bathroom in your suit, it will get smelly in a couple of days. If you want to be courteous to everyone, yourself included, clean your wetsuit every two or three days. You can simply put it into your shower or bath and give it a quick once-over with some soap and warm water.

Be courteous under water

It's easy to get overly excited when you are under water, because it can be a very exhilarating experience. However, remember to be courteous to the people who are diving with you and respect their space. You should know where you are at all times and try to avoid bumping into others who are trying to enjoy the sights just as much as you are enjoying them. Also, don't go too fast. Moving quickly under water scares away fish and it can lead to accidents. Go slow, and be aware of your surroundings to avoid injury and disrupting others. If you are diving with people who like to take pictures underwater, respect their passion and try not to scare away fish while they are trying to get a nice shot.

Respect your instructors

These people who are teaching you to dive are not your servants. Just because you are paying them does not mean that they are obligated to bend over backwards in order to please you. Even if the instructor is younger than you are, they have probably had hundreds of more dives than you have and are very qualified. Respect them and remember that they are there to keep you safe and teach you how to have the best diving experience possible, not to grant your every wish.


Thanks to Joshua Teh @ Ezine Articles

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

SCUBA Gas Laws

Earth's atmosphere is composed of a mixture of gasses that obey the famous chemistry "Gas Laws." Some of these laws become matters of life and death when using a Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) device. Understanding just four of these laws will help you stay alive and out of trouble while SCUBA diving.

Boyle's Law

For SCUBA divers, the most important of the gas laws--and the most deadly one to ignore--is Boyle's law. Boyle's law says that as long as temperature is constant, pressure and volume are inversely proportional--when one goes up the other goes down and vice versa. If you have an inflatable container--such as your lungs-- decreasing the pressure increases the volume. So if you take a deep breath and then move toward the surface while holding your breath, your lungs expand. If you hold it too long your lungs will explode. This is why you should never hold your breath while SCUBA diving--not even briefly. If you breathe consistently the volume of air in your lungs will constantly adjust to the changing pressure.

Amonton's Law

Amonton's law says that if the volume of a gas is constant--as it is in a SCUBA tank--the pressure and temperature are directly proportional. If one increases so does the other, and vice versa. If you fill up your tank on a summer day and then jump in water that's 40 degrees cooler, you are going to have less pressure than you might think. Therefore, the tank will not last as long. If you fill up a tank and then put it in the trunk of the car where it is 60 degrees hotter, the pressure might rise to dangerous levels and damage your equipment.

Henry's Law

Henry's law describes how pressure determines a liquid's ability to absorb gasses. As pressure increases, more of a gas will dissolve in a liquid. When a diver dives, the pressure increases and more gasses dissolve in the diver's tissues. Most of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, which is relatively inert so it does no real harm. If the diver ascends slowly the nitrogen comes out of the tissues as the pressure decreases. If the diver with nitrogen-saturated tissues (too deep, too long) ascends too quickly, the nitrogen comes out too fast--in bubbles. This causes a very dangerous condition known as the "bends," which can cause permanent damage or even death.

Dalton's Law

Dalton's law says that if a gas is a mixture, the pressure of each component depends on the percentage of that component in the mixture. Earth's atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one or two percent other gasses--depending on where you live. If your tank is filled using faulty equipment, you might be getting a lethal dose of something that is relatively safe at low pressures. Even oxygen can be toxic at high pressures. Nitrogen at high pressures can have a narcotic effect (known as "rapture of the deep") that can cause a deadly loss of judgement.

By Carlos Mano, eHow Contributor

Kathy Dowsett
www.kirkscubagear.com

The PADI Story

Reprinted from PADI

The PADI story: How frustration and scotch helped create the world’s biggest scuba organization

Frustration over the state of the diving industry in the 60s paired with long conversations over a bottle of Johnny Walker served as the springboard for what is today the Professional Association of Dive Instructors – or PADI as most of us call it.

Founders John Cronin and Ralph Erickson – a scuba equipment salesman and swimming instructor, respectively – both had major concerns about the industry. Basically, they thought it was unprofessional and made it unnecessarily difficult for new people to join the sport.

Over shared libations, a partnership formed and with $30 the pair started PADI. The goal was simple: provide people the chance to learn important scuba skills and enjoy the underwater world through modern scuba diving training. They wanted to reach people around the world, helping to create confident scuba divers who dive regularly and support the growth of the sport.

For how big PADI is today, it’s hard to imagine the days when the organization was a small community of passionate divers. In fact, the first couple years the organization struggled. By the late 1960s, PADI only had 400 members.

It was soon after that a few key milestones took place. First, Cronin went to a huge tradeshow in New York City and met with Paul Tzimoulis, who later became the editor of Skin Diver Magazine. Tzimoulis suggested divers’ pictures be placed on all PADI certification cards. The change was implemented and helped propel PADI’s global reach.

Starting in the late 1970s, PADI created its own multi-media student and instructor educational materials for each course, positioning themselves as the industry experts. This change parlayed significant growth, and differentiated it from other scuba organizations.

By the late 1980s, PADI was the industry leader, offering scuba diving training around the world. With the realization that so many new people were embracing the sport, the organization was compelled to embrace additional activities to promote protection of the underwater environments. Today there are numerous PADI initiatives to help protect endangered species, reduce pollution and increase understanding of humanity’s impact on our oceans and waterways.

Today there are more than 6,000 PADI Dive Shops and Resorts, and 400 employees in PADI corporate offices around the globe. The vision in the 60s remains the vision for the organization today: “PADI intends to be the world leader in the educational development of scuba diving professionals and enthusiasts.”

Kathy Dowsett
www.kirkscubagear.com

Key Largo dive spawned young girl’s passion for scuba

It was during a cruise on the family boat from Hamilton, Ontario, to the Bahamas that Tess Miller came to appreciate her parents’ passion for scuba diving.

Just eight years old at the time, Tess, from London, Ontario, had taken some scuba lessons before the journey began. But she first experienced the beauty and serenity of diving in Key Largo. They were waiting there to rendezvous with two other families who also had their own boats, before going on together to their Bahamas destination.

“We dove every other day. It was amazing. I found it so peaceful,” says Tess. “It is my favourite thing to do. Any problem you have is wiped away under water. Everything is so quiet and beautiful. The water is crystal clear and the fish are stunning. I was very comfortable.”

Charlie Miller, Tess’s father, says Pennykamp, a protected coral reef off the Florida Keys, was their prime diving site in that area. It has great coral and aquatic life. “We were two months in that area.”
One of the things Tess saw underwater near Key Largo was the Christ statue, 30 or 40 feet down. “It is life size or bigger. I couldn’t really tell.”

Later, near Staniel Cay in the Exumas, a district of the Bahamas with almost 400 islands, she dove with her family in the Thunderball Grotto, a rock formation with a huge opening. Popular with both scuba divers and snorkelers, it was featured in two James Bond Movies, Thunderball and Never Say Never Again.

“That is my most vivid dive,” says Tess. “There is a hole in the ceiling and the light that shines through made it surreal. The whole cave was filled with fish. It was amazing.”

Her other favourite dive is the shark dive off Paradise Island in the Bahamas. “It’s a planned event. You sit in a circle called a ring and there is a person feeding the sharks. They don’t bite the hand that feeds them.”

The boat trip itself was an experience. Originating in Hamilton, Ontario in mid-August of 2004, the first part of the trip involved navigating the Erie Barge Canal, which connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean at New York. When they got to Baltimore they left their 53-foot vessel there for repairs, before continuing on. There were several other repair stops along the way. The southbound trip was made in segments of a week at a time. They arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida a few days after Christmas in 2004, before moving on to Key Largo.

From there they headed to the Bahamas, with their first stop there being Cat Cay to clear customs. Then it was on to Chubb Cay, 35 miles west of Nassau. Some good diving followed.

“We started to anchor out and felt we were remote. We were out for days just living on the boat,” says Charlie.
Nassau was the next stop to get provisions before heading south for the Exumas islands. “It (the Exumas) was magnificent. The beaches are unbelievable. They are like the postcards,” says Charlie.

There is an island there inhabited by pigs that swim out to meet boaters, who have been feeding them for years. “The pigs will come up to the boat and you can feed them,” adds Charlie.

The Exumas has a “land and sea protected park.” Fishing is not allowed.

Underwater, the Millers found an old shipwreck that was “crawling with lobsters.”

The family started to work their way home in May, beginning with restocking in Nassau. “Then we went out to Eleuthera, a really exclusive series of islands northeast of Nassau, where we dove some wrecks, Charlie says.

They reached Freeport by mid-May of 2005 before heading on to Fort Lauderdale. From there it took them just 21 days to get back to Port Stanley, Ontario, on Lake Erie’s northern shore. They accomplished that by running 10 to 12 hours a day, as well as some “all nighters.”

It was the end of June by the time they got home, but on July 15 they decided to take the boat north to Killarney, Ontario, in the North Channel.

“When we got back to London we were still prepared to go for another trip.”

Diving has been a long-time passion for the Miller family, beginning with Charlie’s diving certification about 30 years ago in the British Virgin Islands. He was the first to dive the 250-foot, steel-hulled freighter SS Wexford, which sank in a storm in November of 1913 eight miles off the Lake Huron shoreline from Grand Bend, Ontario. That discovery was made on Aug. 25, 2000.

Tess, now 17 and on schedule to finish high school soon, has now logged about 75 dives, of which 40 to 50 were on the boat trip to the Bahamas.

There will be many more dives for Tess. As well as easy access to summer diving in Lake Huron, she has passage to warmer waters much farther south.

“I have a 55-foot Sea Ray, full of dive gear in Nassau,” says Charlie. “It’s a great dive boat. We go down once a month from October to March. We have 10 special dive sites around Nassau.”

Access to great diving with her family has whetted Tess’s appetite for diving much farther away: “I would like to do some of the big dives, like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, things that most people that dive would love to see.”

Kathy Dowsett
www.kirkscubagear.com

Cookie Cutter Sharks

Thanks to e-How

The cookie cutter shark is a relatively small deepwater shark known for its rather unusual feeding habits and the round wounds it leaves on its prey items. There is still relatively little known about this elusive species, but better deep sea exploration and improved dissection techniques in recovered specimens have helped shed light on it. While the species is not considered threatened, they are difficult to find and observe due to their deep water habitat.

Appearance

The cookie cutter shark was once called the cigar shark due to the fish's dark brown color and long, rounded shape. Most cookie cutters average 12 to 15 inches long, though specimens as large as 20 inches have been recorded. The shark has a distinctive, rounded jaw opening with somewhat fleshy lips and protruding lower teeth.

Habits

Cookie cutters have been observed at depths of over 11,000 feet, though it is highly possible that they travel deeper still. Like many deep sea species, cookie cutters generally rise to much shallower depths in search of prey during the night, and return to deeper water by daylight. Their range is vast, and specimens have been recovered in virtually every sea in the world. Like many other deep sea fish, they do not do well in captivity. Little is known about their reprodiction habits, except that females give birth to live young. Litters may average five to seven sharks, but that data was insufficient as of 2010.

Feeding

Considered a parasitic species, the shark attaches itself to large prey items such as squid, whales, and even other sharks by suctioning on with its fleshy lips. The shark then sinks its lower teeth into the flesh of its victim, and through a combination of swiveling its teeth and thrashing its body, removes an almost perfect circle of flesh from the prey animal---just like a cookie cutter. This process is normally over in a few quick movements, and most prey animals will recover with just a scar as evidence of the attack.

Other Adaptations

Large eyes help the cookie cutter see at extremely low light levels, which makes it very much at home in dark waters. The cookie cutter's enlarged liver is filled with low-density oils that help the shark remain floating in its high-pressure deep sea environment. It also has a small bioluminescent patch on its abdomen, which glows to attract prey.

Interesting Facts

Cookie cutters shed their entire lower row of teeth all at once, rather than singularly like other sharks. This ensures that the shark has a razor sharp cutting edge at all times, and acts to prevent individual teeth from becoming dull and snagging in the flesh of prey items. Another point of interest is that the bioluminescent patch on the shark's abdomen may continue to glow for up to three hours after its death.

Kathy Dowsett
www.kirkscubagear.com

Compressed Gas Tears Skin, Penetrates Body

Reprinted From Divers Alert Network for the Diving Community

A scuba diving high-pressure hose ruptures, causing air under pressure to inject into arm.

Reported Story

The boat driver was helping one of the divers. He held the first-stage regulator with his left hand and opened the tank valve with right hand. At that moment the high-pressure hose ruptured, and a jet of gas under pressure made a hole in the boat driver's left hand.

His hand started to bleed and appeared to be full of air. We stopped the bleeding by applying pressure, and we stopped the air from spreading further by applying a bandage at armpit area. We massaged his arm, pushing the trapped air to his hand. This helped a bit; we saw some bubbles coming out of his hand.

We called for an ambulance and administered oxygen during the time it took us to return to the harbor, approximately 20 minutes. The ambulance were there when we arrived.

I recommended that his boss to take him to the recompression chamber, but he told me the doctors would take care of him. I later asked about his state of health, and his boss told me he is OK and ready to go back to work.

Expert Comments

The injury described above is rare, especially outside of an industrial setting. Certain terms do need to be clarified for discussion purposes. In the diving vernacular any reference to high pressure (HP) is related to the compressed gas in the cylinder at 3,000 psi. Any reference to low pressure (LP) relates to the intermediate pressure that results from reduction of high pressure in the first stage. Typically this can range from 120 psi to 140 psi. Clinical references designate any pressure at and above 100 psi as HP. It has been established that pressure at a minimum of 100 psi can penetrate unbroken skin.1 These wounds require immediate medical treatment no matter how benign they might appear.

In the industrial setting the possible materials that can be injected at HP include but are not limited to compressed gas, oil, grease, solvents, paints and diesel fuel. There are, of course, greater concerns with the petroleum products and other chemicals due to their toxicity and potential tissue damage. The risk of an inflammatory reaction from surrounding tissues and infection is quite high.

In the diving environment compressed gas is obviously the most likely injectible. Industrial workers who sustain these injuries are generally inexperienced or unfamiliar with the devices they are using or servicing. With divers, familiarity may lead to a certain level of complacency. Despite fewer potential complications there is still a risk of secondary injuries that can result from any HP injection injury.

Common injection injury sites are the palm or fingers of the nondominant hand. Injection into a finger(s) can be particularly problematic. The fingers cannot accommodate a large volume of any material due to limited tissue compartment space. The immediate insufflation and swelling can cause vascular compression, which can severely compromise circulation. The palm of the hand or other similar sites can accommodate the same volume with less risk of circulatory issues. However, a larger volume can produce the same risk of vascular compromise.

While compressed gas poses less risk from toxicity or surrounding tissue damage compared with other possible injected substances, it is not benign. Along with the compressed gas, fragments of hose, brass fittings and bacteria from the skin or environment will be injected into the wound simultaneously. This is part of the mechanism for a high infection risk.

It is unknown if there was any previous problems or concerns with the HP hose on this regulator. It is also unknown if a visual inspection would have offered any suggestion of hose failure. It is still worthwhile to remember to inspect all hoses and consider periodic replacement. Please discuss these issues with a local certified repair technician.

Proper first aid should include bleeding control and urgent transport to the nearest medical facility. For a compressed-gas injection, surface oxygen is of little benefit as it would not expedite the absorption or elimination of the injected gas. Treatment in a hyperbaric chamber is not an appropriate first choice for treatment for this type of injury. The bystanders made an effort to express the gas through the injection site by massaging the arm. This is not recommended. They may have inadvertently forced the gas into other areas or into the fingers. Forcing the gas into the fingers could further complicate the injury, as explained previously. Some HP injection injuries may require surgical intervention to reduce pressure and to clean the wound. Thorough cleaning and disinfection is best left to the medical professionals.

This is a very rare injury, but diligence and forethought will likely reduce the occurrence. Do not underestimate the energy released with the rapid expansion of compressed gas. Cases like the above should not increase fear but rather remind us to be respectful of the potential consequences of inattention.

Thanks again to Divers Alert Network

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com