Anyone do scuba diving?

jsmoke · 16 May 2021 at 11:41

I fancy a go. Can you just buy the gear and go for it, there are obvious dangers involved I know but you have to die one day?

Jimbeam3678 · 16 May 2021 at 14:13

https://www.reefersdiving.com/diving-news/so-whats-the-difference-between-ssi-and-padi/ Do it properly, perfectly safe and enjoyable if you go about the right way.

I’ve done upwards of 100 dives mainly around SE Asia.

ChroniC · 16 May 2021 at 19:58

jsmoke said:
I fancy a go. Can you just buy the gear and go for it, there are obvious dangers involved I know but you have to die one day?

You could just buy it, but you would die. 2 simple things that would kill you, that you just wouldn't realise are for instance.
The longer your underwater the slower you have to return to the surface, otherwise the accumulation of nitrogen in your blood will kill you.
You also have to breath out as you rise, you might not have know that if you took your last breath at the bottom and then swam up holding your breath, your lungs would expand pretty quickly and do you some damage.

Best to get some training, plus scuba gear costs a fortune. You'd wanner join a club and use theirs.

jsmoke · 16 May 2021 at 20:50

ChroniC said:
You could just buy it, but you would die. 2 simple things that would kill you, that you just wouldn't realise are for instance.
The longer your underwater the slower you have to return to the surface, otherwise the accumulation of nitrogen in your blood will kill you.
You also have to breath out as you rise, you might not have know that if you took your last breath at the bottom and then swam up holding your breath, your lungs would expand pretty quickly and do you some damage.

Best to get some training, plus scuba gear costs a fortune. You'd wanner join a club and use theirs.

Actually I watched a video earlier today about breathing out when ascending and how the air expands. Quite scary really as that's a genuine thing I wouldn't have known.

I knew about the bends but do you not have to be at a certain depth before you need decompression stops?

The deeper and longer your dive the more chance you need decompression stops. Shallow dives of 6-10 metres (20-30 feet) you can spend over 200 minutes without a decompression stop. Dives to over 30 metres (100 feet) limit your dive time to around 20 minutes before a decompression stop is required.

Vandle · 17 May 2021 at 00:25

jsmoke said:
Actually I watched a video earlier today about breathing out when ascending and how the air expands. Quite scary really as that's a genuine thing I wouldn't have known.

I knew about the bends but do you not have to be at a certain depth before you need decompression stops?

During an ascent you feel like you can breathe out forever as the air expands in your lungs, it's an odd but satisfying feeling regardless of how many times you do it.

In theory you can mess around in a couple of metres of water for hours and be ok. Definitely not advisable though. As others have said - join a proper club, get proper training and accreditation and use their gear until you make your mind up its for you. The gear and the correct maintenance of it gets expensive. It's not a investment you want to do without advice or on the cheap. Buy your own properly fitted mask plus snorkel (good to have imo for holidays and stuff anyway) then wait until your training is finished before deciding to buy more. I did my PADI classroom and pool stuff many years ago in Newcastle followed by a weekend in Oban to do the dives for accreditation, great place to spend the weekend with a surprising amount of diversity including a drift dive which was amazing.

watercooledman · 17 May 2021 at 00:29

Absolutely get the gear dive in the sea and make sure you go down to a depth of at least 1000m first go.

Vandle · 17 May 2021 at 01:00

watercooledman said:
Absolutely get the gear dive in the sea and make sure you go down to a depth of at least 1000m first go.

Crazy advice. The face would pop straight off his watch on the way back up. Go 600m, max, and don't forget to take your iphone for selfies while you're down there.

jsmoke · 17 May 2021 at 02:46

I've seen the video on YT of Yuri Lipski, he goes down to 115m, gets into problems and dies. Very harrowing.

Vandle · 17 May 2021 at 03:01

jsmoke said:
I've seen the video on YT of Yuri Lipski, he goes down to 115m, gets into problems and dies. Very harrowing.

Deeper you go the bigger the risks. Grim way to die. I have about 30 dives and 20m to 25m is ample imo. Much more than that and you start to lose a bit of the colour spectrum. I cut my thumb in Thailand at 35m, the blood coming out was green

Beer_MonsterUK · 17 May 2021 at 06:19

I was on a Scapa flow week-long live aboard a few years ago. 2 Egyptians had unused spots our club didn't fill. After a 3 hour dive on the kronprinz at around 45 metre, not long after surfacing, they collapsed on the deck, started fitting and got medivaced to spend a week in Aberdeen's deco pot.

That might be an extreme example but It's very easy to die in any depth of water without proper training.

Skiprat · 17 May 2021 at 06:49

jsmoke said:
I fancy a go. Can you just buy the gear and go for it, there are obvious dangers involved I know but you have to die one day?

Either join a local bsac club or look for a PADI. Most will do a try dive in a pool or sheltered area for free or a small charge. DO NOT GET IN THE WATER WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING. I dived for years, don’t f$ck about cos you will either kill yourself or someone else. Now having said that, it’s great. Uk diving is definitely harder due to the cold but it still very good and rewarding.

SPG · 17 May 2021 at 07:53

I did my PADI many years ago, the mrs at the time loved it, I found it dull yet horrifically scary, I have jumped out of planes, track days on motorbikes and the fear from dying was ever present from diving. Plus you think everything you want to touch will kill you on the sea floor.

Jimbeam3678 · 17 May 2021 at 08:02

SPG said:
I did my PADI many years ago, the mrs at the time loved it, I found it dull yet horrifically scary, I have jumped out of planes, track days on motorbikes and the fear from dying was ever present from diving. Plus you think everything you want to touch will kill you on the sea floor.

In total contrast I found it incredibly relaxing and fascinating. Seeing a common ring Octopus on a night dive was one of the most incredible things I have ever done.

Such a shame I lost the urge after I stopped travelling

SPG · 17 May 2021 at 08:29

True I was lucky enough to dive in some great places and see some amazing nature but was all in support of the Mrs it never really grabbed me as a hobby.