Hi SD fans, and welcome back. Today, I thought I would go back to basics
and offer up 11 handy hints and tips for new divers, and those just getting into the sport. Now
if you are an experienced diver, these may seem second-nature, but remember, we all
started somewhere – and you never know, there might be the odd one that resonates with you.
For those here for the first time, my name is Mark, I am the editor-in-chief of the
Scuba Diver media brand, and welcome to the Scuba Diver YouTube Channel.
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1 – learn to dive
Let’s start right at the beginning. You want to learn to dive – how do you get started? Well,
first off, you need to decide how you are going to qualify – are you wanting to do your course at
home, or when you are off on a trip somewhere? If you are planning to learn to dive at home,
or do a referral – where you do the classroom sessions and pool work at home, and then your
qualifying open water dives in some other location - see what dive centres or clubs are close to you,
and then decide which training agency you want to learn with.
PADI is the most well known, but you have many options, including SSI, BSAC, RAID and SAA.
Let’s focus on right here in the UK. Regardless of which agency you choose, your next decision
is where you are going to be diving predominantly. I always say, if you are planning on diving in UK
waters, then do your full course right here in this country. The cold water, the variable
visibility and other unique challenges of diving in the UK mean you will benefit
extensively from learning the basics here. If you are planning on only ever diving
in warmer waters, then I’d suggest going the referral route with your local centre
and then finishing up abroad. You can do your entire course on holiday, but why waste two
days of your valuable vacation time in a classroom and pool? Get the referral completed before you go
and then once you get to your holiday destination, you will be a qualified diver in a couple of days,
meaning you can dive as a certified diver for the rest of your well-earned holiday time.
2 – Buy the essentials
Regardless of where you are going to learn to dive, it is a good idea to stock up on some of
the core essentials, and then use the centre or club’s rental stock for the remainder.
A well-fitting mask is one of the most-important parts of a diver’s gear arsenal, and you will be a
much more relaxed and calmer diver if you can see clearly and are not having to contend with a mask
that keeps flooding or allowing a steady trickle of water in. Check out our video on
dive essentials to see what else is worth buying as you start on your diving path.
3 – Leave your camera at home
While we are on the subject of learning to dive, do yourself – and the marine environment – a
favour and leave the underwater camera or video at home. Underwater digital still cameras and action
video cameras have never been more affordable, but don’t be tempted to try and record your first
underwater exploits. I know we are living in ‘generation selfie’, but believe me,
you will have your hands full just learning to master your buoyancy and all the other diving
techniques without the added stress of a camera. Get to grips with your diving before you take
a camera with you on a dive – your dive buddies and the marine life will thank you.
4 – Watch your buoyancy
Buoyancy is one of the trickiest things to master when you are learning to dive, even if you don’t
have a camera with you. But there are things you can do to lessen the impact of your flailings
while you get to grips with attaining neutral buoyancy. When you are swimming along, be aware
of your surroundings – particularly where the bottom is below you – and stay well clear of it.
Experienced divers may be gliding effortlessly along half a metre from the bottom, but if you
give yourself two or three metres as a buffer, if you do have buoyancy issues, you have enough
space to correct it before hitting the bottom and destroying the visibility, kill the coral, etc. As
your skills advance, you can drop lower, but don’t try to run before
you can walk… with fins on… swimming… never mind… It is not just beginners who need to watch their
buoyancy, I have seen many more-experienced divers kicking the living daylights out of the seabed,
and this has usually been through either just not being aware of what their fins were doing,
or not giving a damn and continuing on regardless. Just this week, I finally got back in the water at
my local inland dive site after an enforced hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions, and as you can
imagine, the visibility was absolutely stupendous after having virtually no diving activity in it
for months. It literally took a couple of hours for the vis to implode once the horde of divers
arrived. Don’t get me wrong, you are always going to get some disturbance of the bottom
when you have beginners in the water on their first dives, that is to be expected, but many of
those we saw ploughing along destroying the vis were not new divers, they just seemed oblivious
to the cloud of debris that was following in their wake as a result of their finning.
5 – Get your weight sorted There is nothing worse than being
overweighted when you are diving. Your positioning in the water will be all wrong, your BCD will be
inflated to compensate for the additional weight you are carrying, and your air consumption will
therefore suffer as a result, not to mention your buoyancy will be all over the place.
It is worth doing a proper weight check each time you go diving, at least for the first few trips,
and any time you are using a new suit or BCD. You will be taught how to do a weight check on
your entry-level course, but it is amazing how many people don’t do it once they are
qualified and off diving as a buddy team and just guestimate how much weight they will require.
6 – Stay hydrated Whether you are diving in
colder waters or in the tropics, you will get dehydrated. Breathing dry compressed gas will
leech the moisture out of your body, so it is essential that you drink plenty of water.
When you are abroad, the sun and warm temperatures will accelerate this process, so get that water
down your neck. In my experience, getting divers to drink plenty of water in warmer destinations
is much easier than in colder locations, but it is essential you keep your fluid levels up whatever
conditions you are diving in as dehydration is one of the main factors of decompression illness.
7 – Avoid seasickness Heading off for a dive on a dayboat,
or about to spend a week or more on a liveaboard, and know you suffer from seasickness? Ensure that
whatever medication you are planning to take doesn’t have any side-effects that would exclude
diving, and make sure you take it in good time – chucking down a couple of pills as you step on
board is not going to help now, is it? As well as making you feel downright miserable, seasickness
can also contribute towards dehydration, so two good reasons to want to avoid it.
8 – Monitor your SPG
When you are a new diver, you will undoubtedly use more gas than your instructor, and possibly
your fellow divers. Each and every one of us has a different breathing rate, and it is up to you to
monitor your own gas supply. On your course, your instructor will be checking in with you
routinely, but it is a good habit to get into glancing at your SPG every couple of minutes
right from the get-go, as this will stand you in good stead when you start diving in a buddy team.
And don’t be afraid to indicate when you reach half a tank, and then your reserve,
even if no one else in the group has – some people don’t want to be the first to call a dive,
but if you are running low on gas and don’t tell anyone, if you do encounter a problem, what might
have been a small issue could suddenly become a much larger – and potentially dangerous – one.
Check out our previous video on not succumbing to peer pressure.
9 – Stay close to your buddy
Divers generally dive in a buddy pair, even if they are in a group. Make sure you stick close
to your buddy – if one of you has an issue, you don’t want to be several metres away.
Equally, you don’t need to be shoulder-to-shoulder – unless the vis is absolutely atrocious – just
try and remain within a couple of metres or so of one another,
so you can get to one another within a few fin strokes in the event one of you has a problem.
10 - Maintain your equipment
As your hoard of diving kit grows, so will the investment you have made in your gear,
so it pays to look after it. Make sure you rinse and dry your equipment after you have been diving,
particularly if you have been in salt water. This applies to all gear, from masks,
snorkels and fins to BCDs, regulators and suits. Check out our series of videos
offering tips on basic cleaning and routine maintenance on regs, BCDs, drysuits and wetsuits.
11 - Never hold your breath
Last but not least, never, ever hold your breath. This will be instilled into you
on your entry-level training course regardless of training agency. You risk overexpansion of your
lungs if you hold your breath while ascending, as the gas in your system expands as you get
shallower, so never holding your breath will be drilled into you throughout your beginner course.
So that’s 11 handy hints for new divers, but there are many more. What are some of your top tips?
Leave your comments below, and if you have a question, fire away – if we can’t answer,
maybe someone in our community will be able to. Remember, if you enjoyed this video,
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and don’t forget you can grab a free digital magazine subscription in the description below.
As always, stay safe – and if you are going diving, enjoy!