Maximize Your Scuba Dive

Are you a new scuba diver? Or have you been around the world diving? Here are some steps you can take to maximize your dive.

Steps

  1. Learn to breathe. This is a bit of a tricky tip, as one of the major rules of scuba diving is to never hold your breath.
    • Breathe naturally. It may sound counterintuitive, but the more you focus on how you're breathing, the faster you'll run through your air. The best way to avoid focusing on breathing is focus on what you're doing and seeing instead. You're SCUBA diving, enjoy the experience!
    • Since you're keeping neutrally buoyant (if you're not, remember what you learned about adding and dumping air from your BCD), your breathing will also control whether you rise or fall in the water. It's okay to pay attention to your breathing occasionally for this purpose.
      • Under no circumstances should you hold your breath for more than a second or two. This risks both lung overexpansion injuries (i.e. popping like a balloon), and messing with your blood CO2 levels.
    • Staying calm helps your body require less oxygen. A new diver will have a hard time keeping enough air in the tank to stay down with an experienced diver. This is mainly because the experienced diver is more comfortable under the water, although fitness plays a large role there as well. If you find yourself breathing shallowly or rapidly, take a moment to make your breaths slower and deeper.
  2. Use dive computers. Most certified scuba divers are trained using dive tables to monitor blood-nitrogen levels. This allows you get a value to determine how deep you can take your dives and for how long.
    • The problem with the dive tables is that they are based on your maximum depth (or a few depths depending on the table). This is not very accurate because while you may take 90% of your dive at {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}. if you go for a couple minutes at 70ft., you will use the tables as if you were at {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}. for the whole dive.
    • Dive computers keep track of your depth many times every minute (if not every second) and calculate your blood-nitrogen levels much more accurately. Dive computers also incorporate your safety stop and your surface time to allow the maximum amount of "bottom time".
  3. Swim using only your *Choose Swim Fins. Scuba divers wear fins not only to compensate for the added drag of all the equipment worn, but also to allow swimming to be done more efficiently.
    • Efficiency is the key to get the most bottom time; exerting less energy means you breathe less air. Seasoned divers will usually tuck or fold their arms in a streamline fashion and only use their arms for stabilization or when reaching to touch or grab something.
    • Swim with relatively straight and stiff legs to maximize thrust. Steer with your legs and fins, and use your lung volume to help ease ascending or descending.
    • Avoid rapid kicks with your knees bent, or "doggie paddling." This technique is inefficient, using up more of your air for less movement, and you have much less control of your fins. I've been on many dives in which a doggie paddler kicked and killed a beautiful piece of coral or stirred up the sand so visibility became terrible for everyone.
    • Try to avoid using your hands while swimming. This is tricky, especially for beginner divers. But as you improve your buoyancy control and learn to do most of your moving around with your fins, you will come to rely less on your hands for stability and fine angle control. Observe your dive master next time; he's likely swimming with his arms crossed, laid out horizontally on his belly, stretched out to full length. Aim to emulate that.
  4. Stay in shape. Scuba diving is a very forgiving sport; it is low impact and does not require extreme exertion, but body fat hinders you in more way than one.
    • Body fat increases buoyancy, thus more weight on the dive belt is needed. Larger bodies require larger wetsuits which are harder to get a good fit, and also adds buoyancy.
    • Being in shape also allows you to swim with less drag and less effort (for all the reasons mentioned in the swim with your fins section. Additionally, body fat, while mostly inert, uses oxygen to survive, and wastes the oxygen your muscles could be using.
    • A strong diver will also exert less energy than a weak diver, thus requiring less oxygen.
  5. Keep well hydrated and not fatigued. Dehydration is a dangerous state to be in while scuba diving. The filtered air your breathe from the tank is very dry (it must be, to prevent the tank from rusting), and your are exerting a good deal of energy while swimming, in turn, you are sweating.
    • Dehydration will increase the amount of air required to swim because your red blood cells are not working to their fullest. Scuba diving while dehydrated has also been shown to increase blood-nitrogen levels.
    • Diving while fatigued is also not a good idea. This can lead to even greater fatigue or exhaustion and can cause cramps or other serious problems underwater. Don't push yourself too hard, you want your mind and body to be top notch before you get into the water.
    • Diving with a cold can be risky if your ears and sinuses are involved. If you decide to do this, go very slowly and return to the surface if you're unable to equalize. No dive is worth burst eardrums!
  6. Be the first ones in the water. When diving off a public boat with other divers, make sure you and your diving buddy are suited up and ready to get wet as soon as you are allowed to get in the water, try to be in the water first.
    • Getting in the water first will keep you from sweltering in your wetsuit topside any longer than you have to. You'll also get to be one of the first down, which means you won't miss a thing.
  7. Remain as shallow as possible without missing anything. The shallower you are, the less amount of compressed nitrogen is entering your blood stream and each breath uses a lower percentage of the air from your tank. This allows you to stay down longer on this tank, and the reduced nitrogen allows you to stay down longer on subsequent dives.
    • Don't miss anything important or amazing though. Being able to stay underwater for a long time without seeing anything isn't much fun, so be sure you stay deep enough to enjoy the beauty and wonder of the sea!
  8. Use a snorkel on the surface instead of the regulator. With a snorkel you can already take a look to the bottom from the surface, while waiting for your buddies. Sometimes it's necessary to make a surface swim before you descend. Most people without a snorkel swim backwards in that case, as long as you don't use your regulator while you're still at the surface.

Tips

  • Always check the condition and functionality of your equipment before diving and be sure to maintain it properly.
  • If you get seasick, getting in the water will quell your nausea (as you will be below the waves instead of riding on them). This is yet another reason to be the first ones in the water. If the nausea does not subside once below the surface (it may take a few minutes), it may be more than seasickness. Regulators are safe to vomit through, so do not worry about ruining equipment.
  • Use a rebreather if you really want to maximize your dive time. No need to say you need additional training before doing so.

Warnings

  • After your last dive, do not fly or go to elevations greater than a couple thousand feet above sea level for at least 24 hours.
  • No matter what your dive computer says about remaining bottom time, etc., do not exceed the recreational dive limit! (40 m / 130 ft)
  • Never run your rig completely out of air. Not only is it unsafe for you, but it can also damage the regulator and octopus lines.
  • Scuba diving can be a dangerous sport if you are not properly trained or properly prepared to dive.

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