Guidance

Scuba diving is open to anyone who is physically fit and in general good health. In order to make sure of this, a routine questionnaire must be first completed. Any answers that indicate a risky condition need to be followed up with a medical check up with a specialist doctor, in order to ascertain whether it would be safe to dive.

Beginner scuba divers are not expected to be especially strong swimmers but they will need to demonstrate a reasonable proficiency and ease in the water. At a standard scuba class students will be expected to be able to swim 200 metres non-stop, duck dive and tread water for 10 minutes.

Scuba diving is about exploring the part of the planet where humans were not designed to go. However scuba diving is not simply a way of breathing air underwater; nature has thrown up some more difficulties to contend with.

A diver has to contend with the problem of ambient pressure, which compresses the lungs and chest making it difficult to breathe, and which increases the greater the water depth. Fortunately there are demand valve regulators that can measure the ambient pressure and supply the diver with oxygen at the same pressure, enabling them to breathe easily.

Diving below 40 metres may require different air mixtures in the diver’s cylinder, because the increase in pressure causes a build up of nitrogen in the blood stream and can lead to nitrogen narcosis or the bends.