SCUBA DIVING
TIP #1
GO SLOW!
Scuba diving is not a performance sport. Every one of your actions have a reaction, inside you and around you. It’s extremely true with diving.
If you breathe fast, your heartrate rise, your heart pump blood faster to your brain, and you become stressed. Breathe slowly.
Move as little as possible to go where you want to go. Do not kick your legs continuously. Kick and Glide! Do not use you arms! A good diver barely moves. Moving without moving.
The more stressed out and hyperactive you are underwater, the less you will see, as marine animals are very sensitive to vibrations. If you move fast you see less. That goes for macro life as well as bigger lifeforms. Take your time. Take a breath. And you will see much more.
TIP #2
LOOK CLOSER!
It’s incredible to see many divers underwater, even some with a good amount of experience, that are still waiting/looking only for the big stuff.
Granted, it’s always nice to see big animals like sharks and turtles and the likes. But if you are only waiting looking in blue water for those, you are missing out, “big time”.
After hundreds of dives on a same reef it’s still possible to discover lifeforms that you never really saw or looked at properly. That is because the life on a reef is so dense and varied that we tend to overlook some smaller things that could be seen as “boring” at first but are all part of those ecosystems.
Yes, look out for the large marine life, but don’t forget all the other life forms, that are also interesting in their own ways. Get closer to get a better look. If you dive too close to the reef, you can damage it or yourself – but on the other hand if you stay too far away you cannot see all the small details and extraordinary beauty of it. And you will also enjoy your dives a lot more!
TIP #3
Take a BREATHER!
If you struggle with air consumption, there’s a way to change your breathing pattern when you are diving. It will require you to think about how you breathe in the beginning as it’s different than how you would normally breathe underwater (or on the surface). After you practice enough, your breathing rhythm will change when underwater,
- Breathe with a different ratio. Take 2-3 seconds to fill your lungs, then 5-6 seconds to breathe out. Breathing-out twice longer than breathing-in – it’s simple math – you take twice less from your air supply. It will also allow you to purge a larger amount of carbon dioxide that would remain in your lungs if you breathe-out too fast, and will also make your next breath more satisfying for you lungs, heart and brain.
- After you breathe-out for 5-6 seconds, make a short pause of 2 seconds. This is not holding your breath as you just emptied your lungs. By now you have a ratio of 2-3 seconds in, and 6-8 seconds out.
- Breathe with your abs (belly), not with your upper-chest. Babies breathe from their belly, but as we grow older our breathing is driven more by our upper chest – which is more shallow and less deep. Abdominal breathing is more full and more satisfying.
Do not do this if you have a strenuous dive! If you exert a lot of effort in a diving situation, breathe normally – your lungs heart and brain need the oxygen. Also do not go overboard with breathing-out, 5-6 seconds is fine, 15 seconds will give you a headache!
